The grave marker for William B. ‘Buckwheat’ Thomas notes that he is a WWII veteran… unless I’m reading it wrong. He didn’t enlist until 1954, nearly a decade after WWII ended. So why does his marker say WWII?
Where are you getting the 1954 from?
If he was born in 1931 as shown, it would be odd he managed to enlist at 14 but probably not completely out of the question if he was tall.
where did you get the ‘Buckwheat’ from? It seems like you left some information out of the OP.
He’s an actor, and Wikipedia says he enlisted in 1954
So the Buckwheat of the Little Rascals?
I assume so
A quick search shows the marker is in error.
From here: William B “Buckwheat” Thomas (1931-1980) - Find a Grave Memorial
After serving in the Army during the Korean War (and obviously not World War II, as noted on his grave marker), he worked for many years as a lab technician at Technicolor and made few attempts to cash in on his fame.
Strange mistake, just to cover one other option, it doesn’t appear he did any USO work during WWII. Though that would still be odd to put WWII on the marker.
Yes, Buckwheat from The Little Rascals was born on March 12th, 1931 and died on October 10th, 1980. As @Babale notes, Wikipedia says he enlisted in the Army in 1954 at the age of 23.
FWIW, Allen Hoskins, who played ‘Farina’ in the Our Gang films, was born in 1920, and enlisted in the Army in 1940.
Is this a marker in a military cemetery*? If not, it seems likely that the contents of the marker were dictated by the family, who may have been mistaken about his history, or done it for other reasons.
*My grandfather is buried in a large military cemetery in LA, and his marker was very simple, as were all the others I saw there: stone or concrete with first initial, last name, and the dates, which I think showed only the years. He served in WWI but that was not noted on the marker. I took a photo, but I’m blessed if I can find it now.
Given all known facts, the easiest conclusion is that the grave marker is in error. As I believe that’s a version of a standard VA grave marker, the error could have started with a bureaucratic error in the VA records or ordering process.
My drunken uncle ( married to my maternal aunt) was born in 1931 and served in Korea, but would often claim to have served in WWII as a teenager by lying about his age.
Of course my other uncles and aunts would kindly remind him not to lie about his service to people who actually served. Lie to the kids but not to us he was firmly told. My one uncle was a drill Sargent and landed on Omaha beach on made it clear, there was no way 1944 and beyond to get in the service by lying about your age. That and they knew he was still in school.
The relative giving info to funeral services is only human and often distracted by their grief.
My dad tried to enlist right after the attack on Pearl Harbor. They found out how old he was and sent him home. He did join the Army before he started his 20-year stretch in the Navy, and he did have a WWII ribbon; but it seems like close timing.
Yeah, there’s a VA form you fill out when your loved one was a veteran, and it gives you quite a few options, one of which is the “Periods of War”, which has WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Persian Gulf, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Other listed. There’s also a section for service dates, presumably to crosscheck the war that you choose, but I’m guessing that didn’t happen here.
Just to re-emphasize the point: The stone company is at the mercy of the information submitted to it, and would not likely double check. Just for example, my older sister’s grandmother has both an erroneous maiden name (initial) and an incorrect birth year.
I thought that Mr. Wheat was shoot in 1983.
Always the first thing I think of when I hear “buckwheat,” even if it’s a discussion about pancakes.
Bureaucrats often make mistakes, and are often loathe to correct those mistakes.
My father earned two Air Medals in WW2. When we filled out paperwork for him, we had to emphasize that we did NOT mean Airman’s Medals, and we did NOT mean Air Force Crosses.
I was wondering about this. I served in two branches of service (Army and Air Force) and have a compound last name so that would take up a lot of the space on my future gravestone especially with my spouse’s info on there too.
A few months ago, I made a trip to Vegas and stopped by the Southern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery to visit my husband’s gravesite. When going back to my car, I notice a lady going up and down the rows looking for a grave. The office was closed at that time so she could’ve spent hours looking. I told her to use findagrave.com but she couldn’t figure it out on her phone. I used my phone to look up her WWll brother and told her what section he was buried at. I’m glad I could help her. You can look up your grandfather’s burial site too. Good luck.
I could easily imagine a bereaved relative saying “He served in the War, you know”, and the marker-maker interpreting that as the wrong war.
My grandfather is listed on the local war memorial as having been killed in action during WWI and WWII. He actually died in 1986. WWI it was his brother with the same initial who died. WWII he was missing and presumed dead after his ship sank, but he was actually in hiding with the Italian Resistance, who then took a while to smuggle him back home.
We’ve tried to get his name removed from the monument as it doesn’t seem fair on the others listed. But the authorities really don’t want to.
He lied about his age to enlist at the outbreak of WWI. He was only 14 and the legal minimum at the time was 15!