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Kentucky National Guard Memorial

Honoring Their Sacrifice

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Jamison, Ralph Steven (P2, C2, L37)

Staff Sergeant Ralph Steven Jamison, 29, of Maysville, Mason County, died of wounds received in action on Luzon Island, Philippines on February 12, 1945 while serving with his unit Company E, 2nd Battalion 149th Infantry Regiment, 38th Infantry Division on federal active duty.

Jamison was born 5 September 1915, at Portsmouth, Ohio.  He enlisted in Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 149th Infantry at Maysville, Mason County, Kentucky on 22 August 1935.  He was honorably discharged from the Kentucky National Guard to enlist in the Regular Army on 13 January 1936.

He re-enlisted into the Kentucky National Guard on 27 June 1939, with Headquarters Detachment, 2nd Battalion, 149th Infantry, at Maysville.  He was inducted in federal service on 17 January 1941.  On his induction papers he lists his birthplace as Lewis County, Kentucky, 5 September 1915. Jamison is buried in the Manila American Cemetery, Manila, Philippine Islands Plot N, Row 14, Grave 40.

NOTE: His military records and headstone information from the Manila American Cemetery show his middle initial as S. However the Maysville newspaper article below lists his middle initial as I.

According to an article in the Maysville Public Ledger dated March 19, 1945 Page one of the evening edition:

    Ralph Jamison Dies of Wounds on Luzon Island
    Fallen Staff Sergeant, Father of 8-year-Old Boy, Entered Service with National Guards

    Staff Sergeant Ralph I. Jamison, 29, an employee of the Browning Manufacturing Company when he entered service with the Kentucky National Guards in January, 1941, died of wounds on Luzon Island, in the Philippines, on February 12. This was the word that came yesterday morning to the soldier's widow, Mrs. Lillie Mae Jamison, who with her eight year old son, Jimmy Dell; resides with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Mark Insko, at 310 Wood Street. She had not previously heard of his being wounded.

    The fallen soldier, from whom no word had come in three months, was the stepson of Edgar Helphenstine, 318 East Front Street, an employee of the Gilbert Grocery Company. Mr. Helphenstine, father of two sons overseas reared Sgt. Jamison from the age of eighteen months.

    When the National Guards were called into service Sgt. Jamison reported to Camp Shelby, Miss., and was there until his transfer to Camp Livingston, La., for shipment overseas last August. He was home for the last time shortly before leaving the States. His captain at the time was Percy Lynwood Austin, a Maysvillian, now on Bataan.

    Born in Fleming County on August 10, 1915, the war victim had lived in Maysville since he was six years old. He was a young man of worthy qualities, enjoying the good will and esteem of his associates, and all who knew him will sorrow at the news that he has made the supreme sacrifice.

    Besides his widow, to whom he was married on February 25, 1936, his stepfather and little boy, a second grade student at the Sixth Ward School, Sgt. Jamison is survived by two half-brothers, Staff Sergeant R. E. Helphenstine, with the Army Air Force in France, and Wayne Irvin Helphenstine, with the Merchant Marines in Hawaii. His mother, Mrs. Catherine Stamper Jamison Helphenstine, died January 10, 1932.

 

The Kentucky National Guard Memorial Fund, Inc., is a recognized 501(c)(3). EIN 26-3705273
 

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