SF3/c Frederick Harry Ayers / United States Navy

Prior to the First World War, Frederick Ayers enlisted in the 1st Company Coast Artillery Corps, Massachusetts National Guard, and served as a corporal from June 3, 1912, to June 3, 1915. The next year he enlisted in the 1st Vermont Infantry Band, as Assistant Band Leader. Ayers went to the Mexican Border and returned to Fort Ethan Allen, Vermont, where he was transferred to the U. S. Army Mechanical Repair Shop Unit No. 301 at Camp Meigs, Washington, D.C. In December, 1917, Corporal Ayers went overseas with his unit and returned to be discharged at Fort Dix in June, 1919. He enlisted with the 101st Engineers Band at Cambridge, Massachusetts, in September, 1920, and remained with them until September, 1928. On March 27, 1943, Corporal Ayers enlisted in a Naval Construction Battalion as a petty officer. He joined the 5th Amphibious Maintenance Crew and went to Guam and helped build the base and assembled many of the pontoons which were used at Eniwetok. Ayers was also based at Saipan and then went to the Russell Islands to dismantle pontoons. He returned to the United States in October, and was discharged November 28, 1945, at Sampson, New York. Ayers was born on April 3, 1894, in Troy, the son of Frederick I. and Marie (Harnois) Ayers. He attended Avery School in East Dedham, Massachusetts, and Hyde Park High School. In 1942-43 he attended Brooklyn Tech in Brooklyn, New York. He married Hilda Hopwood of Montreal, Canada, in April 1934.

This profile courtesy of the Milford NH Historical Society, from a book published in cooperation with the Milford Press in 1949 entitled Milford in WWII. Submitted by Gary Ledoux