Zeev's Turnips Talk Politics (ZTTP)

[Seminole Red]

my grand father fought in that war....he was 16,tended the horses for gen pershing chaseing 'poncho villa

In January 1914, Pershing was assigned to command the Army 8th Cavalry Regiment[9] in Fort Bliss, Texas, responsible for security along the U.S.-Mexico border. In March 1916, under the command of General Frederick Funston, Pershing led the 8th Regiment on the failed 1916–17 Punitive Expedition into Mexico in search of the revolutionary leader Pancho Villa. He had met him in 1913 when he invited him to Fort Bliss. During this time, George S. Patton served as one of Pershing's aides.

After a year at Fort Bliss, Pershing decided to take his family there. The arrangements were almost complete, when on the morning of August 27, 1915, he received a telegram telling him of a tragic fire in the Presidio of San Francisco, where a lacquered floor blaze had rapidly spread, resulting in the smoke inhalation deaths of his wife, Helen, and three young daughters. Only his six-year-old son Warren was saved. Many who knew Pershing said he never recovered from their deaths. After the funerals at Lakeview Cemetery in Cheyenne, Wyoming, Pershing returned to Fort Bliss with his son, Warren, and his sister Mae, and resumed his duties as commanding officer.