PFC Mahlon Russell Yeates

courtesy of Margaret Gagliardi

PFC Mahlon Russell Yeates was born 26 Dec 1917 in Halifax County, Virginia. He was the 3rd of 5 known children of Ballard Armistead and Addie Pearl (Toone) Yeates. Their first born had died in 1914 when he was just over a year old. His father farmed in Halifax County and then moved to Charlotte County where he again rented a farm to support his family. Some time after 1935 the family to Chase City, Virginia where both Ballard and Mahlon worked in a sawmill/mill shop owned by William E. Butler. The family was then living on Lawton Street in Chase City. 

Mahlon enlisted in E Company 116th Infantry, a Virginia National Guard unit, prior to 1940. He was serving in the unit when it was federalized on 3 Feb 1941. PVT Yeates then trained with the unit at Fort George Meade, Maryland, near Fort Bragg, North Carolina and at Camp Blanding, Florida before boarding the Queen Mary to go to England in September 1942. Once in England he underwent intense training in preparation for the planned amphibious landing that was to be part of the effort to liberate Nazi occupied France. PVT Yeates was hospitalized in December 1942 with a severe cold and wasn't released until January 1943 when he resumed training. PFC Yeates was with his unit on D-Day, 6 Jun 1944 when he was killed in action.

PFC Yeates was repatriated in 1948 and re-interred in Woodland Cemetery in Chase City, Virginia.

Older brother, Ballard Armistead Yeates Jr, served as an F1c in the U.S. Navy in WW2. Younger brother, Bailey Warren Yeates also served in E Company 116th Infantry but was hospitalized at least twice while in the United States and discharged for a disability which existed prior to mobilization.

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