Military Legacy – what is it?  According to Webster, military refers to or relates to soldiers, arms, armed forces or war.  Legacy is something transmitted by or received from an ancestor or predecessor or from the past – a history if you will.  So, when we are talking preservation of Military Legacy, we are really talking about how to preserve the military events and history of loved ones or family members that preceded you.  So what are the steps you need to take to begin capturing and preserving someone’s military legacy? In this article, I will cover the first step, understanding the importance of the team.

Step 1: There’s no “I” in TEAM

In the opening moments of the movie “Patton,” George C. Scott, recounts Patton’s famous speech given to his Third Army in February 1944.  In the speech, Scott says, “Now, an army is a team. It lives, eats, sleeps, fights as a team. This individuality stuff is a bunch of crap. The bilious b******** who wrote that stuff about individuality for the Saturday Evening Post don’t know anything more about real battle than they do about fornicating.”

That statement pretty well sums up the importance of the “team” to the military.  As a matter of fact, you could call combat, the ultimate team sport, and the military is designed to capture the actions of those teams, and not necessarily the individuals that made them up. The best way to see what your great-grandfather Frederick was doing, is to pinpoint the team he was on.  So my advice to you is, if you want to begin building a military legacy of a loved one, your first step is to figure out what team (or ship for you nautical types) he or she was a member of.  Some places to begin your research are:

• Family and Friends- Ask older family members or friends if they can recall what unit (or ship) your family member may have served with.
• National Archives- The National Archives has a lot of information for family members of veterans, to request records please click here.
• Contact us! Pixologie Digital Solutions is here

Obviously when it comes to identifying the team (or unit) you want to get as much information and as much detail as possible, but once you are armed with this information, you will now be able to go forth, and research the actions of the team your love one was associated with in the official military record.  From that you can begin to build the legacy, preserving the past, and bring the history to life.  So that’s enough for now…next month in the newsletter will begin to examine how you can begin to research the history of your loved ones “team.”  Until next month, keep your musket clean and your powder dry!

Signed,

The Colonel…or if you would prefer, you can just call me SIR!