The Lee MacLellan Family Story
Lee MacLellan Military Service WW I 1916 - 1919
Lee MacLellan in his National Guard uniform in 1917
My grandfather served in the United States Navy, but few in the family knew that he also served in the Army! Lee MacLellan served in the Army from June to October 1916 as a Private in the Minnesota National Guard. He was stationed in Llano Grande Texas, presumably to help stop the incursions of Poncho Villa and his Mexican army into the US
After his National Guard service he faced a real possibility that he would be drafted. He definitely didn't want to commit to 4 years in the US Army, so he looked at the Navy as a better option. One of his options if he enlisted was to be a "landsman", or wireless radio operator. There was just one problem. He needed to know Morse code, and he didn't, as he explained to Irma in a letter dated August 17, 1917:
"I could enlist as an apprentice radio operator (wireless) except for the fact that I can't send or receive messages in the code (Morse code)"
But learn the code he did, and he was able to enlist that fall of 1917, serving in the Great Lakes Training Station at Chicago.
This picture of Lee posing in the shooting position was taken in 1918.
From there he went to the United States Naval Academy from January to June 1918, earning his commission as an Ensign, or a "90 day wonder". He then served on the battleship USS North Dakota and then the USS Aloha, a steam and sail powered vessel. (See picture below). He left active duty in 1919, but stayed in the reserves.
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The USS Aloha (SP 317) was built in 1910 for a rich industrialist as a bark rigged steam yacht. In 1917 the Navy purchased it as a "patrol vessel", and it spent the next two years travelling along the East Coast before being decommissioned in 1919.
Lee Leslie MacLellan as a newly minted Ensign in the US Navy. This picture must have been taken in Minneapolis when he was on leave.