(WDVM) — Five members of a Martinsburg, West Virginia woman’s family, including herself, have served in the U.S. military.

Ellen-Kennard Madison is most proud of a dog tag that her grandfather wore around his neck during World War One.

  • Ellen Madison wears her grandfather’s dog tag around her neck.

Madison’s family tree casts a large shadow over the American landscape. Her grandfather served as a messenger during World War I; the “War to end all Wars.”

Private George Kennard fought in France against the Germans.

Ellen says her grandfather carried hand-written messages from the front lines to superiors in the rear.

Being a messenger was risky business. Anytime an allied soldier, be they British, Canadian, Australian or American left the relative safety of trenches and headed out across “No Man’s Land,” a stretch of shell-pocked landscape between opposing forces, they ran the risk of being killed or captured.

Australian troops going over the top

Germans wanted nothing more than to intercept messages between allied commanders about attacks they were planning.

Allied and German trench lines from the air on the Western Front in France.

Madison’s father, John Kennard, didn’t fight during World War II. By the time he joined the Navy there was a greater need for personnel to build airfields, ports and other military facilities in the Pacific Theater.

John Kinnard trained Navy Seabees in San Diego.

So Ellen’s father, a Seabee, trained other Seabees who did see action in the South Pacific on Japanese-held islands that were captured by U.S Marines and soldiers. But her son, Marine Sergeant Anthony Kennard, saw action in Iraq.

Sgt. Anthony Kennard served as a radio operator in Iraq.

Madison learned recently that her great-great uncle, Herbert Kennard, served on USS Yosemite during the Spanish-American War.

Yosemite crew pose for a picture on deck.

“My great uncle was a mechanic on ship,” said Madison, but she doesn’t have a personal picture of him.

The ship was photographed on its maiden voyage off the coast of Virginia.

USS Yosemite was a 6,100 ton auxillary cruiser that was built in Newport News in 1892 and intercepted Spanish ships trying to run a naval blockade.

Ellen Madison enlisted in the U.S. Army after graduating from high school in Michigan where the Kinnard family lived.

“After graduation, I went to college for a year, but that wasn’t my bag, so I went to trade school and became a manicurist for a year, and I just wanted to do something different. I wanted to travel, perhaps be an airline stewardess, but my father was afraid of flying so he suggested I join the army. So I signed up and two weeks later I was gone,” said Ellen who believes that was the best decision she ever made.

Army Specialist Ellen Kennard on the job.

“I was a personnel records clerk, a 75 Delta,” said Madison who recalled this was before computers. “Everything was type-written, orders etc.”

But Madison used her experience in the U.S. Army to land a job at the VA Medical Center in Martinsburg, West Virginia. When a job was posted for a utility system operator in the water treatment plant, she applied and got the job.

Ellen Madison outside Bldg 504 where she works.

“There was upward mobility and at the same time affirmative action when I got the job,” said Madison, the only woman in a 15 person department.

“I’ve been her for 25 years and I’m not read to retire yet,” laughed Madison as one of her male colleagues passed by. “I enjoy my job here,” said Madison as she took me on a tour of the water treatment plant.

Checking gauges to make sure water is flowing correctly through the system.

Among her many duties is making sure the plant filters 250,000 gallons of fresh water daily for use at the VA Medical Center.

One of many activities for veterans at the medical center.

Since 1944, the VA Medical Center in Berkeley County has been serving the physical and mental needs of thousands of veterans who live in 22 neighboring counties in the Four-State Area of West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Maryland.