RJ is my grandfather, Rita is my grandmother. His father, Addie L. Combest, is buried around McKinney/Anna – northwest of Dallas where he also called home. RJ, or “Papa” as I knew him, was born in Anna and attended school there. After high school he went to Business School in Dallas before the War. After Pearl Harbor he enlisted in the Naval Forces and served in the coastal defense. Following the war, he matriculated to Texas A&M, graduating with degree in Industrial Engineering/Education in 1950. He made his home with Rita and three children in Fort Worth where he lived the rest of his life, retiring in 1983 from General Dynamics – now Lockheed Martin.

RJ’s father, Addie, served in WWI with the 36th Infantry Division during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive as a private. He then resumed farming, as best as I know it to be true. RJ had two sons, the younger my father, who both served in the US Navy during Vietnam.

I am not 100% sure, but from enlistment records I have found from Addie, it seems his family was from North Texas and Oklahoma.