That's nuts and cool that you have access to your family history. I can't go back that far. But my pops has a crazy story of how when he was a teenager, he and his brother hid in the jungle, living off the land as the Japanese occupied Guam until 1945 when the United States liberated the island. They then asked all the males who would join the armed forces would become automatic citizens and then he joined the Navy.

tl/dr War is hell, but it got you to see the world.