Father and Son War Repeaters—
Veterans of World War No. 1 Have Sons in Service Now
Reporter Finds Nine Such Combinations—May Be More.
By Don Pinkston.
Like father, like son, even unto war and the defense of democracy.
Uniforms are somewhat different—smarter looking these days, the legionnaires of ’17 and ’18 admit—the army rides more, the air arm is more important and a few others things have changed. But there’s many an American father today can look at his son and know his thoughts.
Dad went through it, back in another day when the United States went to war against an aggressor in the world.
Since world war No. 1 and world war No. 2 came only a generation apart, never before in American history have so many soldiers and sailors had veteran-fathers back home.
Sioux City has its quota of those father and son patriots and undoubtedly will have more.
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Tom Roan, 1215 River drive, operates a garage in Riverside. During the war, he was in the Seventh engineers corps and spent 18 months overseas, being at the front of five months without relief at one period. His son, Robert, 19, went into the air corps signal branch and last wrote his parents that he was located at a west coast airport.
2. Thomas D. Roan, veteran of the front lines in world war No. 1, and his son, Robert Roan, now serving at a west coast army airport.
Source: The Sioux City Journal, January 11, 1942 (photos included)
MEN IN SERVICE.
Robert E. Roan, son of Mr. and Mrs. T. D. Roan, 1215 River drive, has been graduated from the primary flying training course of the flying academy at Ontario, Cal., and has been recommended to the Polaris flight academy at Lancaster, Cal., for basic training.
Source: The Sioux City Journal, April 19, 1943
Lieut. Robert Ellis Roan, son of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas D. Roan, 1215 River Drive, has completed the pilot transition four-engine course at Hobbs, N.M., army field. Lieut. Roan was commissioned and received his pilot’s wings at Williams field, Arizona, in August.
Source: The Sioux City Journal, November 26, 1943
