Most people think that the name of our American Legion Post (Melvin Roads) refers to a location when in fact we are named after and dedicated to the memory of Private Melvin Roads who served and was killed in WWI. Here is a story from our post adjutant (Ed Pratt) that was in the Troy Record Melvin E. Roads, son of Orange and Jessie Roads, was raised on Electric Avenue and graduated from Rensselaer High School. (During World War I) he tried to enlist in the Army but was turned down several times given a defect in the sight of one eye. Finally, he reached his goal of military service by being drafted.... He was offered the opportunity to enter the officers training course. At the same time, an opportunity was afforded him to go overseas for special service in the motor vehicle department. He chose the latter and, shortly after his arrival in France, was assigned the duty of a front line dispatch bearer attached to the Fifth Corps, Headquarters Staff. It was in the role of driving a motorcycle/side car that he met his untimely death. Private Roads, along with Major Alfred K. King (who occupied the side car), were killed near Laneuville, France, on November 10, 1918, only a few hours before the armistice was signed. A letter sent to Melvins parents by Colonel A.W. Foreman [expressed] words of the deepest sympathy: I can assure you of the bravery displayed by your son on numerous occasions while [I visited] the front line trenches....I recall on one particular occasion when Private Roads passed over the fire-swept road...carrying dispatches to me....I shall always remember him as a brave American soldier, willing and anxious to do his duty. I cannot pay too high a tribute to his loyalty and devotion to duty. Private Roads lay buried in France until 1921....[His parents] wished to have the body of their son returned to the States, indeed, to East Greenbush. A letter dated March 17, 1921, and signed by 1st Lieutenant J. F. Butler, Jr. of the Quartermaster Corps, Graves Registration Office, Hoboken, New Jersey, states: Your wishes will be complied with. We will ship the body of Pvt. Melvin Roads to you at the earliest practicable date.... The mortal remains of Private Melvin E. Roads were reinterred in the family plot in the cemetery behind the Greenbush Reformed Church, just across the road from Melvins home on Electric Avenue.
Posted on: Thu, 28 Nov 2013 01:23:30 +0000
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