Published April 26, 2025
By Joseph Newkirk
During the Second World War, American families placed a Blue Star in their home windows to show that they had a son in the service, and if he died in the war, they replaced it with a Gold Star. Six Blue Stars filled the front windows Walter and Kathryn Newkirk’s home at 1239 Hampshire in Quincy, the most from any Adams County family. All six brothers eventually returned home alive, but not before fighting in the most monumental war in world history, one that most historians believe saved humanity from totalitarian rule.
The oldest son, William, had married his high school sweetheart, Margaret Selsor, in 1936, five years before the U.S. involvement in the war, and they had three children. The military deferred him from service until the Army drafted him in the summer of 1945, and he served stateside. In WWII, the U.S. deployed about three million of its twelve million servicemen stateside for mobilizing and training forces, planning logistics, and transporting supplies.
After enlisting in the Navy, the next oldest son, George, suffered severe injuries aboard a ship in the Pacific Theater. Rather than accept a medical discharge, he joined the Army Air Corps, which conducted aerial bombardment, reconnaissance, and flights carrying troops and supplies to battlegrounds. In 1947, this military branch became the U.S. Air Force and seven years later opened the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.
While still in high school, Charles, (the author’s father) spent three summers at the Citizens Military Training Corps at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. Established in 1920 by the National Defense Act, this program included as trainees future Presidents Truman and Reagan. In 1939, at the age of 19, Charles joined the United States Marine Corps at its San Diego Base, later known as Camp Pendleton. He served in the Pacific for all four years of the U.S. involvement in the war and engaged in extensive combat, including the Battles of Midway, Guadalcanal, and Iwo Jima.
During the 36 days of fighting on Iwo Jima, over 7,000 Marines died (a third of the war’s Marine fatalities). Charles witnessed the iconic American flag raising on Mount Suribachi and in an interview for the Veterans History Project, reflected “This was a routine operation carried out by Marines on every captured hill or strategic piece of ground, and it was the second flag raised there. We took the first one down and put up a more visible LST (Landing Ship Tank) flag.” Although “routine,” photographer Joe Rosenthal captured this moment on film. This photo galvanized support at home and became a symbol of American resolve. The fighting on Iwo Jima continued long after this flag raising, and three of the six men in the photo died on this volcanic island.
Eugene served mostly in Italy and North Africa with the Army Signal Corps, which specialized in movie and photographic production, mobile communication, and radar technology. Developed in the early 20th century, radars were in place at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The operators had detected Japanese planes flying over the base. They ignored them, though, thinking the planes were American ones on a practice drill. Eugene engaged in some fierce combat and, along with Charles, received a Bronze Star for his bravery, the fourth highest military decoration.
The two youngest Newkirk sons, twins Robert and Richard, both left high school before graduation to enter the war. Richard enlisted in the Navy and completed basic training at California’s San Bruno Base before serving as a hospital apprentice and pharmacy mate. He fought in perhaps the most ferocious campaign in Naval history: the Battle of Tarawa from November 20 to 23, 1943. For the first time in the war, the Allied fleet faced fierce Japanese resistance to an amphibious landing. The Corps suffered a massive defeat with over 1,000 fatalities and 2,400 casualties. In his memoirs, General Holland Smith, Commander of the U.S. Amphibious Corps, called Tarawa a “drama of errors”… “Was Tarawa worth it? My answer is unequivocally: No.” Some U.S. Commanders like Admirals Chester W. Nimitz and Raymond A. Spruance disagreed with Smith and attributed the massive losses to the confusion and uncertainty of combat, what observers call the “fog of war.”
Robert served as a military guard in Germany protecting key infrastructures, maintaining order, and at times engaging in combat. While in that country he fathered a child with a civilian German woman. In her book GIs and Frauleins, Vassar history professor Maria Hohn documents that Allied Forces fathered about 66,000 children in Germany during the war and post-war occupation, with American soldiers fathering over 36,000 of them. Robert married this woman while still stationed in Germany and had plans to return to the U.S. with his war bride and child. But the intense anti-German sentiment in this country dashed his hopes, along with the taboo of “illegitimate” children. Robert never saw his wife or son again.
World War II formally ended on September 2, 1945, with Japan signing the official surrender document aboard the U.S.S. Missouri. The United States welcomed home its servicemen and offered them the G.I. Bill to attend college and trade schools. The Bill also included the 52-20 Clause, which gave returning veterans $20, the equivalent of $353 in today’s currency, a week for a year. Four of the six Newkirk brothers used the G.I. Bill to attend college, and Richard, a high school dropout, eventually earned a Ph.D. in entomology from the University of Maryland. Charles, Eugene, and Robert remained in Quincy, while the other three left for widely differing locales.
All six Newkirk brothers and over 99 percent of all World War II veterans have now died, but their legacy lives on. The World War II Memorial at the Illinois Veterans Home lists the names of over 6,000 Adams County veterans of that war, but beyond mere names emblazoned on plagues are the often-unheralded stories of their noble service and sacrifice.
Joseph Newkirk is a local writer and photographer whose work has been widely published as a contributor to literary magazines, as a correspondent for Catholic Times, and for the past 23 years as a writer for the Library of Congress’ Veterans History Project. He is a member of the reorganized Quincy Bicycle Club and has logged more than 10,000 miles on bicycles in his life.
Sources:
“Charles Newkirk Obituary.” Quincy Herald-Whig. Sept. 7, 2008, 12.
Fourth Marine Division in World War II. Washington, D.C.: Infantry Journal Press, 1945.
Hohn, Maria. GIs and Frauleins: The German-American Encounter in 1950s West Germany. Chapel Hill. N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 2002.
Iwo Jima: 36 Days of Hell. Timeless Media Group, 2013. DVD. www.timelessvideo.com.
Newkirk, Charles. Library of Congress Veterans History Project. Interview by Joseph Newkirk, May 10, 2004.
Newkirk, Joseph. “Story of the Six Newkirk Brothers Serving in World War Two.” The Yellowjacket. Vol. XLII, Sept. No. 2. The Great River Genealogical Society, Pub. Part 1 Sept. 2016; Part 2 Dec. 2016.
A Promise Kept: The Story of the Illinois Veterans Home at Quincy. Lon P. Dawson, ed. Quincy, IL: Illinois Veterans Home Press, 1996, 35-36.
“Richard Newkirk Obituary.” Quincy Herald-Whig, May 7, 2005, 12.
Smith, Gen. Holland M. Coral and Brass. New York: Scribner’s, 1949, 111-12.
