PFC William F. Ball was born on Sept 10, 1921 and resided in Spofford.  Before enlisting on Oct 1, 1942, he worked as a construction foreman.  He first trained at Camp Hood, Texas and was assigned to the Reconnaissance Company 806 Tank Destroyer Battalion.  Then, he was reassigned to the 806 Engineering Aviation Battalion at Camp Rucker, Dale County, AL.  There on March 7, 1944, he died in the “Line of Duty” from a non-battle related accident, possibly carbon monoxide poisoning.  His wife, Cloe, had traveled to Alabama in order to be close to him before what was to be his imminent deployment to the Pacific.  He was buried with full military honors on March 12, 1944 in Spofford Cemetery. 

Dennie W. Farr was born in Chesterfield on January 7, 1840, the middle child of 11.  He was employed as a store clerk in Brattleboro when the war broke out.  He married Mary Brown, daughter of his minister, in Brattleboro on July 5, 1862.  At the urging of Mary's brother, Capt. Addison Brown, he enlisted in August 1862 with the 4th VT Volunteers as a 2nd Lt.  Like most soldiers, Farr became ill, resiging on Dec. 25, 1862 before returning to Brattleboro to recover.  However, his stay was brief, and he returned to his regiment making 1st Lt of Co. F in January 1863, then rising to the rank of Captain in August.  Mary was able to visit him in camp on Dec. 24, 1863.  It was the last time she saw her husband alive.  On May 5, 1864, while waving his sword encouraging his troops to advance, he was shot through the head by a minie ball.  He was one of the first 17,500 Union men lost in 48 hours during the Battle of the Wilderness outside of Spotsylvania, VA.  In May 1865, with a military escort, Mary went to the battlefield to retrieve her husband's body using a map provided by Dennie's friends.  The grave was clearly marked by a board from a cracker barrel (now located at the Cheshire County Historical Society).  A ring on the finger confirmed idenification.  The body was placed in a metallic lined coffin and made airtight with cement.  Capt. D.W. Farr, 24, was reinterred with Masonic Honors in the West Chesterfield Cemetery.

Howard W. Kaiser was born March 25, 1941, grew up on Gulf Road, and was a graduate of Keene High School.  He joined the ROTC at UNH, and upon graduating in 1963 was commissioned a 2nd Lt in the Air Force.  He earned his pilot’s wings in September 1965.  In January 1966 he arrived in Song Be, South Vietnam, where he qualified as a FAC, Forward Air Controller on OF-1 planes and as an OE-1, Bird Dog Pilot, someone who flies a small, unarmed aircraft at low altitudes in support of ground combat operations.  From March until his death, he flew forward air control missions daily, flying over 600 missions with as many as 5 flights per day under the code name of Viper 9.   On July 26, 1966 while flying an OE-1 aircraft on reconnaissance, he located a hostile battalion and was able to call in air strikes while repeatedly flying through intense ground fire.   This earned him the Silver Star and the Vietnamese Medal of Valor.  On Sept 13, 1966 he was piloting one of the small reconnaissance planes in search of a downed US helicopter, when he was shot down after radioing in its location.  The wreckage of his plane was located, and his body returned to Brattleboro.  1st Lt Class Kaiser, 25 years old, was buried in Morningside Cemetery, Brattleboro.  He is one of the two Chesterfield servicemen honored in the Living Memorial at Ware's Grove in Spofford. 

Born on February 29, 1924, in Willimantic, CT, George Lee’s family moved to Brattleboro, VT.  He was one of seven children and eventually came to reside in West Chesterfield with several of his brothers.  However, he had close ties to Norwalk, CT where his grandparents and a sister lived.  At age 18, when he registered for the draft, he noted that on July 1, 1942, he would begin defense work in Winchester, NH.  He still was living  in West Chesterfield when drafted, but went to Norwalk for his induction into the Army on January 4, 1943.

Having lived in a state considered near the 45⁰ latitude, he was assigned to the newly reformed 86th Mountain Infantry Regiment, Company I.  He went to Colorado for extensive training in winter and mountain combat.  There he met his wife, Sperine Jenny “Bobbie” Fragassi.  His regiment went on to train in VA and TX before being shipped to Italy in December 1944.

Pfc Cecil Arthur Merrifield was born in Guilford, Vermont on December 21, 1918.  He married Alice Theodora Bailey (1918-1989) on June 11, 1940. They eventually moved to Chesterfield, NH.  Cecil and Alice had a son and a daughter, Shirley (1941 – 2017). 

Cecil enlisted in the US army at Fort Devens, MA on June 9, 1944.  He trained in Georgia and South Carolina prior to going overseas in January 1945.  He was a member of the 99th Infantry Division, 395th Infantry Regiment.  It is likely that he participated in the later part of the Battle of the Bulge and the taking of the Ludendorff Bridge on March 7, 1945.  By capturing the last surviving bridge over the Rhine River, the allied forces could advance into central Germany. The Germans continually shelled the bridge finally destroying it on March 17, 1945.  However by then 125,000 troops, with accompanying tanks, artillery pieces and trucks had been able to cross the Rhine River. It is believed by capturing the bridge, it shortened the war with Victory in Europe coming on May 8, 1945.

SP-4 William (Bill) Wayne O’Neil was born on Oct. 11, 1949, and grew up in Chesterfield. He was outgoing and willing to help anyone in need.  He loved to draw the natural world (game birds, landscapes, etc.) and refined his skills in art classes at Keene High School, his favorite courses.   He graduated in 1967.  In February 1969, he enlisted in the army and was deployed to Vietnam with the 1st Air Cavalry Division.  During his 6 months there, he fought both in Cambodia and Vietnam and was involved in many firefights and survived multiple ambushes.  In one such engagement, on Jan. 5, 1970, he distinguished himself with “heroism in sustained combat operations against hostile forces” and was awarded the Army Commendation Medal for Heroism.  He also earned the Bronze Star. On Jan. 21, 1970, his unit was at firebase Song Bei 26 miles north of Saigon when it came under a Viet Cong mortar and rocket attack.  Bill and a good friend were killed instantly by an enemy mortar rocket.  When his body was returned, the originally planned Chesterfield funeral services had to be moved to Keene to accommodate all the mourners.  He was buried in Friedsam Cemetery.  His service is acknowledged in the O’Neil/ Kaiser Memorial at Ware Gove in Spofford. 

Spofford’s Clarence O. Post had already led an adventurous life before his untimely death. Born in 1891, he went to sea in 1914 and traveled to such faraway places as Argentina on both steamers and sailing vessels.  His last known ship was the S/S Rota, a defensively armed British cargo steamer.  He left it on May 29, 1917, only two months before it was sunk by a German U-Boat. His Seaman’s Declaration papers, signed by S/S Rota Capt. James dated June 17, 1917 in Ipswich, England, stated he conducted himself with “Very Good Character and Ability”.  When the US declared War on German in April 1918, the primary reason was the repeated attacks made on the US Merchant fleet.  Already having been in a war zone, Clarence promptly volunteered for military service along with 18 others from Cheshire County.  On July 1, 1918, the group was sent to the newly establish military training camp in Durham, NH.  Unfortunately, Private Post died of pneumonia on Sept 20, 1918, his 27th birthday.  He was Durham’s first victim in what became the notorious 1918 flu epidemic.  By the end of October, the town had recorded 80 deaths.  Private/Seaman Clarence Post is buried in Spofford Cemetery.

Chester D. Underwood was born in Chesterfield on Feb 1, 1919 and graduated from Brattleboro High in 1937.  He was always a jack-of-all-trades doing a variety of jobs and took those skills with him when he joined the Navy in 1939.   As a machinist, he was stationed on the USS Neosho, a fleet oiler which ferried aviation fuel from Seattle to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.    On Dec. 7, 1941, the Neosho was able to escape sinking by moving away from the battleship row, all the while firing at the enemy.  Afterward, it sailed with aircraft carriers or independently as escorts, even for this type of cargo, were few and far between.  As the war moved to the Coral Sea in May 1942, the Neosho followed, refueling the carrier Yorktown and heavy cruiser Astoria. With its destroyer escort Sims, it was attacked by waves of planes on May 8, 1942.  The Sims was sunk, and the Neosho suffered seven direct hits plus a suicide dive by one of the bombers. Ablaze aft and in danger of breaking in two, sound seamanship and skilled damage control allowed it to stay afloat.  However, in the chaos, dozens of men jumped overboard, climbed into life rafts, or boarded motorized lifeboats; most were never seen again.  Others suffered from deadly burns or wounds, almost all were covered in diesel fuel.  In all, 158 men were declared missing including 23-year old Machinist’s Mate Second Class Chester Underwood.  On 11 May, the destroyer USS Henley arrived, rescued the 123 survivors, and using gunfire, sank the ship they had kept afloat for 4 days.  The family was notified that MM2 Underwood was listed as missing around July 8, 1942.  The War Department officially declared him dead on May 8, 1943.   In 2018, his little brother Don, placed a cenotaph to his memory in the family plot of Friedsam Cemetery.