Joe Reese Brabson – Lieuetnant Colonel, United States Army

LIEUTENANT COLONEL BRABSON DIES AT AGE OF 50

Succumbs in Hospital, Which He Entered July 4 After Being Stricken on Duty

WASHINGTON, August 13, 1934 – Lieutenant Colonel Joe Reese Brabson, United States Army, died today at Walter Reed Hospital of a liver ailment.  He was 50 years old.

Stricken while on duty at Fort Bragg, North Caroline, where he had just completed a two-year tour of duty, Colonel Brabson came to Washington and entered the hospital on July 4.

He is survived by his widow, the former Margaret Kimberly of Hampton, Virginia, who had been with him at the hospital, and two sons, Joe, Jr., aged 20, who is a Cadet at West Point, and Kimberly, 17, who arrived from Fort Bragg today.

Services will be held on Wednesday.  Burial will be in the National Cemetery at Arlington with full military honors.

Born in Greeneville, Tennessee, on June 2, 1884, Colonel Brabson was graduated from the University of Tennessee in 1906.

He went to France with the First Division in July 1917 and his battalion of the Fifth Field Artillery was the first heavy artillery of the AEF to be engaged in action.  Soon afterward he was selected as a member of the general staff of Major General Hunter Liggett’s First Corps, where he served with the Twenty-Sixth Division (New England) at Chemin des Dames and with the Second Division in the Belleau Wood operations.

While with the Twenty-Sixth Division he was wounded.  For his service he received the Distinguished Service Medal and the award of the French Legion of Honor.

NOTE: His son, Joe Reese Brabson, Jr., Lieutenant Colonel, United States Army Air Corps, was killed during an air mission in World War II at the age of 31.  He is buried in an adjacent site in Arlington National Cemetery.

BRABSON, JOE R

• Lieuenant Colonel, United States Army
• DATE OF DEATH: 01/13/1934
• BURIED AT: SECTION 3  SITE 1734-C
• ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

BRABSON, MARGARET K

• DATE OF BIRTH: 06/02/1888
• DATE OF DEATH: 10/24/1987
• BURIED AT: SECTION 3  SITE 1734-C
• ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

Michael Robert Patterson

Michael Robert Patterson was born in Arlington and is the son of a former officer of the US Army. So it was no wonder that sooner or later his interests drew him to American history and especially to American military history. Many of his articles can be found on renowned portals like the New York Times, Washingtonpost or Wikipedia.

Reviewed by: Michael Howard