They Aimed to Serve

By Arc of Hanover Board Member, Sue Jeantheau

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It is Memorial Day in the United States. I will always struggle with the phrasing “Happy Memorial Day” since the intent and purpose of the holiday is to honor and remember people who have served and died in the line of military service to this country. I do not have a story of a family member who has served in the Armed Forces much less died through active duty. Every year, I read accounts from friends who do have such stories and remembrances and those from whom I don’t even know.

As a communications person for The Arc of Hanover, today also had me pondering how people with disabilities fit into the picture of Memorial Day. Are there people with disabilities who have a story to share? My Internet research could not be exhaustive in the moment, but most of the mentions of disability come after war is over. But, there were some interesting finds nonetheless.

I read about research done in England “conclusively show[ing] that during WWI numbers of people with learning disabilities signed up, fought and suffered injury, alongside others of their class, in the fields of France in the 1914-18 war.” (1) This was during a time in which people with disabilities were called by atrocious characterizations – 'mental deficient,' 'moron,' 'idiot' – and institutionalized.

There are records of individuals with deafness who fought in World War I, defying regulations not to be on the battlefield. “Private Gomer Jones was profoundly deaf since early infancy and had no sight in his right eye. According to press reports of the time, Jones was the best marksman in his company and a skilled soldier, indistinguishable from his fellow fighters.” (2) Another deaf individual, Frederick Morffew, got through his physical to join the British army in May 1915 but was discharged six weeks later due to his being deaf. “Undeterred, he joined the labour corps and was posted to France.” (3)

A deaf filmmaker, Julian Peedle-Calloo, created the drama Battle Lines to help explain what deaf individuals faced in trying to be a part of the war effort: "Deaf men wanted to be able to serve their King and country and do their duty as part of the war effort and they were denied this opportunity. They were rejected by the army and rejected from their communities for their perceived cowardice - a double punishment….” (4)

Here in the U.S., during the Civil War, we had something known as the Invalid Corps. Men with physical disabilities received as a result of prior wars were allowed to enlist and be placed in this unit according to their level of disability. But the association of the assignment with convalescent camps and hospitals provoked regular Army personnel to consider those locations as "asylums for shirks and cowards" while the military insignia of 'I.C.' meant “inspected, condemned.” (5) Even among those who had served, disability brought stigma.

In my looking, I found more than I thought. But I was also reminded that our past is covered with ill in regard for those with disabilities. The effects of war would bring home, quite literally, what disability was, and the need to care for our country’s newly disabled affected changes in laws and attitude. By the time we entered WWII, more and more people with disabilities were being hired to help – at home – with the war effort, filling unique positions with skill and excellence. (6) Short-lived, however, as when the troops returned home, the jobs reverted back to people who did not have disabilities – as if their realized potentials were somehow dimmed due to the changing environment of peacetime.

Jarrett Sullivan, who has albinism, wrote a guest column a few years ago for The Red & Black, a publication serving Athens and the University of Georgia. In “Letting Disabled People into the U.S. Military Makes Social and Fiscal Sense,” he said, “We cannot control what affects [sic] the physical conditions we are born with have on our body, but we can control the effect upon our spirit. We can still serve, we can still utilize our potential to help our nation, and we can still be Americans.”

I may not have a story about Memorial Day, but I believe a story about people with disabilities serving in the military is one that is still being written. Not that war should be an arrival point, but who is considering – as we did in the WWII years – the potential for people with disabilities in serving their country through the military? To ignore the full makeup of a person, to miss the passion for service and love of country, to denigrate the willing spirit of those willing to take up the cause for freedom: What are we actually saying in our attitudes and actions?

What would those who did pay the ultimate sacrifice say?

Footnotes:

(1) “The learning disabled heroes of World War I,” Community Living, Lee Humber, 19 March 2021 — Winter 2021

(2) “The untold stories of deaf people in WW1,” William Mager, series producer, See Hear, 4 November 2014

(3) “The untold stories of deaf people in WW1,” William Mager, series producer, See Hear, 4 November 2014

(4) “The untold stories of deaf people in WW1,” William Mager, series producer, See Hear, 4 November 2014

(5) Quote from Union Soldiers and the Northern Home Front, edited by Paul A. Cimbala and Randall M. Miller, used in the blog post, “‘'Invalid Corps’ to full active duty: America's disabled soldiers return to war,” Kayla M. Pittman, graduate student, Public History Program, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, July 14, 2015

(6) “How People with Disabilities Helped Win World War II,” American Experience, WGBH Educational Foundation, 1996–2025

(7) “GUEST COLUMN: Letting disabled people into the U.S. military makes social and fiscal sense,” The Red & Black, Jarrett Sullivan | Guest Columnist, Nov 19, 2018 (Updated Nov 11, 2019)