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**bigschuss** · 02-03-2006, 01:42 PM

Marc, I share your amazement at a service record such as the one you posted. There is a guy in my VFW unit here in Adams, MA who served as an enlisted man fighting the Germans in WWII. After the war he went to college and then fought in Korea as an officer, and finally ended up in the Army SF during Vietnam. I was talking to him the other day and just kind of sat in awe of his service to our country in three wars fighting three different foes.

**blinky** · 02-03-2006, 01:55 PM

General Charles King......

General Charles King (1844-1933) was a soldier, novelist and historian. His military career began during the Civil War when, as a teenager, he served as a mounted orderly for the Iron Brigade under his father, Brigadier General Rufus King of the Wisconsin Volunteers. Appointed by President Abraham Lincoln to West Point, he graduated to receive his U.S. Army commission in 1866, just after the end of the Civil War. By 1871, he was a lieutenant in the 5th Cavalry, serving under General George Crook, with whom he saw active duty in Arizona and the Northern Plains states. It was while King was with the 5th Cavalry that he became friends with William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody -- the unit's scout. In 1874, in Arizona Territory, King was shot in the arm during a skirmish with Apache Indians. Despite an initial recovery the shattered bone in his arm never fully healed. Yet King persisted in pursuing his military career. In 1876, he was again with Crook and Cody on the Northern Plains and witnessed Cody's famous duel with the Cheyenne warrior Yellow Hand. King's wound eventually forced him out of active cavalry service in 1879, when he retired, at the rank of captain, at age 35. King then taught military science and tactics at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, for a short time. In 1882, he was appointed colonel in the newly formed Wisconsin National Guard, marking the beginning of his second military career.

In 1898, during the Spanish American War, King was re-commissioned as Brigadier General of Volunteers. In 1899, he was in Manila to assist in the Spanish surrender of the Philippines and the Insurrection that followed. King commanded volunteer regiments and battalions of the First Wyoming, First California, First Washington, and First Idaho infantry during the Battle of Santa Ana of the Philippines Insurrection of 1899. There he proved a cool-headed and courageous field commander. He then returned to his work with the Wisconsin National Guard, and actively trained troops for battle during the Great War. As such he served in five separate Army campaigns over a seventy-year period -- the first and only American soldier to do so.

from the website: http://www.bbhc.org/charlesKing/KingBiography.html

**Kozlov** · 02-04-2006, 04:32 AM

Its not that uncommon given the series of low intensity wars either side of the two "big ones".

Particularly if you start looking at officers of the proffessional armies of the colonial powers.

In many "empires" a whole gaggle of wars were fought from the late 19th to mid 20th century, which can easily cover the entire life of a soldier.

One of my friends flew with the RAF on the NorthWest Frontier (pacifiying tribesmen!), in WW2, left the RAF, got bored as a civy joined the army, did several years in Germany with the RTR, joined the Icorps and worked for them until the late 70's.

We tend to only think of the conscripts from WW1 and WW2, not a true career soldier.

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