U.S. Navy WWI.

Seaman second class assigned to the Ninth Navel District. July 26, 1918- August 11, 1922. Honorable discharge.

- This information from his 1954 veteran's tombstone application.

9th Naval District

The boundaries of the Ninth Naval District, headquartered at the Lake Training Station in Lake Bluff, Illinois, were established on 7 May 1903 in accordance with General Order No. 128, signed by Acting Secretary of the Navy Charles H. Darling. In 1911 the district was activated as part of an administrative unit called the "Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh Naval Districts." In 1920 the district became a separate entity with its own district staff. In 1945 the district, headquartered at what was now known as Great Lakes Naval Training Station in Illinois, consisted of the following geographic areas: Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas. The Ninth Naval District was disestablished on 30 June 1979 and its functions transferred to the Fourth, Eighth, Eleventh and Thirteenth Naval Districts. (wikipedia)

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I asked Uncle Clarence, also a Navy man, if his father ever talked about his time in the service. He never heard a word about it. Perhaps because he joined late in the war and he never left the country. (KG)

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About 1944 he got horrible headaches, so hard he would stand up and clench his teeth and hold his head. He went to the Mayo Clinic and was diagnosed with a blood clot on the brain. His memory was very bad the last decade of his life.

He was going to the pump-house and had just gone through the gate when Grandma, watching through the kitchen window while washing supper dishes, saw him collapse. She yelled for her boys, "Children come quick," in Czech and ran to him. In a short time Uncle Roy got to him and checked his pulse, he was dead. It was concluded he had a massive heart attack.

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The Loyalton community was shocked by the death of Joe Kukrall, Jr. on Thursday morning. Funeral services were at the Roscoe Presbyterian Church Monday at 2:30 with Rev. Leslie Lewis of Lake Andes, SD in charge of services. Interment was in the Ipswich, SD cemetery. Left to mourn him are his widow and eight children; Delano, William, Roy and Clarence at home, Willard of Roscoe, SD, Wilbert of Summit, SD, Rene of California, and Lorraine (Mrs. Dale Gebhard), three grandchildren, his father, sisters and brothers.

Mr. and Mrs. Rene Kukrall of California arrived Sunday evening. They came to be present for his father's funeral on Monday.

SOURCE- Roscoe Independent, November 17, 1954.