In the Army now………

I’ve never served in the military but my family has a long and storied history in the wars that have framed the great country that we live in.

I’m a descendent of Thomas Lawrence Timothy O’Flynn who was born just outside of County Cork Ireland in 1758. In 1773 he was arrested for stealing a pig and sent to a work camp in England. A year later he was conscripted into the army and sent to America in 1776 to fight off the rebellion.

Thomas got to America and immediately realized he had no beef with the colonist and promptly left the army. Two days later he was arrested for stealing a pig and rode out the rest of the revolution in a prisoner of war camp. After the hostilities ended he was sent back to Ireland.

In 1854, Thomas Lawrence Timothy O’Flynn’s grandson, Timothy Thomas Lawrence O’Flynn left on a boat to America to escape the Great Potato Famine. In 1855 he was arrested for stealing a pig and spent the next 7 years in prison. He was released in 1862 and joined the Irish Brigade to fight for the Union. On September 16, 1862, a day before the battle of Antietam, he was arrested in Sharpsburg Maryland for stealing a pig. He rode out the war in a Northern prison camp.

After being released in 1865, Timothy Thomas Lawrence O’Flynn wanted make a new start and moved to central Illinois and changed his surname to Flynn. He was able to sell a few pigs and that gave him enough money to buy a small farm outside of Jacksonville. Several generations of Flynn’s would live and work that land over the next 50 years.

In 1915, Lawrence Timothy Thomas Flynn left New York Harbor on his way to France to fight in the war to end all wars. He was in France just a few days before being arrested for stealing a pig and spending the rest of the war in a French military prison. He was released in May of 1918 and after a short trip to Spain, returned to America.

After returning, Lawrence started a family and his ninth son was named Fred. Fred would be the next Flynn to show valor in battle. Fred was a landing craft captain and took part in the Normandy Invasion. Like the rest he set sail on June 6, 1944 but he unfortunately got lost on the way and his boat didn’t hit the beach till 1951. The French immediately surrendered. Two days later Fred was arrested for stealing a pig and was extradited back to America.

A love of pork and a love of country.