Mr. Ralph Homer Wells, Sr., his wife Anna, and their two children were long time residents of the state of Nebraska. For short periods of time, they also resided in Colorado and Wyoming. Both Mr. Wells and his son enlisted in the U.S. Army during World War Two. Ralph, Sr. came home. Ralph, Jr. did not.

Ralph Wells, Sr. was born on August 14, 1891, in Saline County, Kansas. Mr. Wells moved to Hastings, NE in 1915, where he married Anna Louise Smith in 1917. Mrs. Wells was born in 1899 in Texas, and moved with her family to Hastings in 1910. Mr. and Mrs. Wells had two children, a son – Ralph Homer Wells, Jr., and a daughter - Anna Louise Wells. In 1933, the Wells family moved to Sterling, CO, and from there to Cheyenne, WY in 1941. At the end of World War Two the family returned to Nebraska, making their home in Bushnell in 1946.

As the build-up for World War One began in the United States, Mr. Wells, Sr. participated in the Mexican Expedition’s search for Poncho Villa led by General John J. Pershing [1916-1917]. In 1918, Mr. Wells earned his Mess Sergeant certificate at Camp Cody, Deming, New Mexico. During World War Two, Wells, now a Staff Sergeant, served as a Mess Officer for the 34th US Army Military Police Escort Guard Company [MPEG] in Alaska, France and Belgium.

Army Private First Class Ralph Wells, Jr. was assigned to Company A, First Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment which served on Corregidor and Bataan. Pfc Wells was captured by the Japanese at the surrender of Bataan, April 1942, and imprisoned at the O’Donnell POW Camp in Manila, Philippines where, it was reported, he later died of malaria.

Mrs. Wells passed away in 1969, and was buried in Kimball, Nebraska. Mr. Wells died two years later in August 1971, at the Veterans Hospital in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and was also buried in Kimball.