Providing Wood for Victory
by Geoff Monteith
Division soldiers posing on a spruce stump (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spruce_Production_Division)
Spruce Squadron Veteran Vilas Earl Aaron
November 2, 1889 – November 18, 1962
Born in 1889, Vilas Earl Aaron was the first child of Lorin and Mary Aaron.[1] He would come to know two sisters – Clandies and Theresa – as well as two brothers – Wesley and Conney.[2] All were members of the Stockbridge-Munsee tribe of Red Springs, Wisconsin.[3] In 1904, Vilas’ sister Theresa died at ten years of age. Shortly thereafter, his father Lorin left the family.[4] Mary Aaron then partnered with Halbert Hammer, and changed her and her children’s names to that of Hammer.[5] Vilas Aaron lived as Vilas Hammer until 1910 when he and his siblings began living with their maternal grandparents on the Stockbridge reservation.[6] There they returned to their original family name.[7] By 1916, Vilas lived with his brother Wesley, and had begun working in manual labor – primarily in the lumber industry.[8]
At age 27, during the First World War, Vilas Aaron registered for the draft.[9] Because Native Americans were not considered citizens of the United States as of 1917, only men who held citizenship actually faced conscription.[10] Nevertheless, many Native Americans still voluntarily enlisted to support the war effort – whether it be out of loyalty, pride, a sense of duty, or a desire to receive citizenship after completion of service.[11] Now living and working in Duluth, Minnesota, Private Aaron began his service on May 25, 1918.[12] He served in the Air Corp’s 16th Spruce Squadron. From their barracks in the Pacific Northwest, the so-called “Spruce Squadrons” originally served under the supervision of the Army Signal Corps, then later the Air Corps.[13] These men endeavored to meet the Army’s dire need for wood to develop the then fledgling American airpower.[14] These military lumbermen worked alongside private ones and, together, provided materiel to the war effort and assured American power in sky.
After the war, Vilas moved around the country working for lumber operations, and by 1935, he came to live in Sublette, Wyoming.[15] By 1940, Vilas entered into the care of the Battle Mountain VA Sanitarium in Fall River, South Dakota.[16] The Battle Mountain VA opened in 1907 and quickly became renowned for high-quality care as well as the strong working relationship it developed with the surrounding Indian reservations.[17] It grew from its origins as a sanitarium into a full-fledged hospital known for treatment of PTSD and substance abuse issues.[18] However, by 1942, Vilas had moved to Tabernash, Colorado and continued to work in the lumber industry.[19] In said year, Vilas re-registered as a part of the so-called “Old Man’s Draft,” an assessment meant not for actual conscription, but to determine if a man’s labor skills could be used in the war effort of the Second World War.[20]
After leaving the reservation in 1916, Vilas Aaron never listed a definitive address on any official forms – apart from his time in the Battle Mountain Sanitarium. One can speculate that he traveled the country working manual labor. By age 53, he had never married and had no known children.[21] On November 18, 1962, in Colorado, Vilas Earl Aaron died.[22] Private Aaron now rests in Fort Logan National Cemetery.
Footnotes ↓
[1] “World War I Draft Registration Cards,” database, fold3.com, accessed April 21, 2019,, entry for Vilas Aaron, Minnesota, Record Group 163.
[2] “U.S. Indian Census Rolls, 1885-1940,” database, ancestry.com, accessed April 25, 2019, entry for Vilas Hammer, 1901 Indian Census, Wisconsin.
[3] Ibid.
[4] “U.S. Indian Census Rolls, 1885-1940,” database, ancestry.com, accessed April 25, 2019, entry for Vilas Hammer, 1904 Indian Census and 1905 Indian Census, Wisconsin.
[5] “U.S. Indian Census Rolls, 1885-1940,” database, ancestry.com, accessed April 25, 2019, entry for Vilas Hammer, 1907, 1908, and 1909 Indian Census, Wisconsin.
[6] “U.S. Indian Census Rolls, 1885-1940,” database, ancestry.com, accessed April 25, 2019, entry for Vilas Aaron, 1910 Indian Census, Wisconsin.
[7] Ibid.
[8] “U.S. Indian Census Rolls, 1885-1940,” database, ancestry.com, accessed April 25, 2019, entry for Vilas Aaron, 1916 Indian Census, Wisconsin.
[9] “World War I Draft Registration Cards,” database, fold3.com, accessed April 21, 2019, entry for Vilas Aaron, Minnesota, Record Group 163.
[10] “Native Americans,” United States World War One Centennial Commission, accessed June 10, 2019, https://www.worldwar1centennial.org/index.php/edu-home/edu-topics/588-americans-at-war/4994-native-americans.html.
[11] Ibid.
[12] “Old German Files, 1909-21,” database, fold3.com, accessed April 21, 2019, entry for Vilas Aaron (#215454), Minnesota.
[13] “The Spruce Production Division,” U.S. National Park Service, accessed May 7, 2019, https://www.nps.gov/articles/spruceproductiondivision.htm.
[14] Ibid.
[15] “1940 United States Federal Census,” database, ancestry.com, (accessed April 21, 2019), entry for Vilas earl Aaron, South Dakota.
[16] Ibid.
[17] Ken Olson, “Mystery in Hot Springs: Veterans are Baffled and Furious as VA Prepares to Abandon a Medical Center that Serves Three States,” Veteran’s Voices, January 20, 2015, accessed April 16, 2019, https://veteransvoices.net/2015/01/20/mystery-in-hot-springs-veterans-are-baffled-and-furious-as-va-prepares-to-abandon-a-medical-center-that-serves-three-states/.
[18] Ibid.
[19] “World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942,” database, ancestry.com, accessed April 21, 2019, entry for Vilas Earl Aaron, Minnesota.
[20] Ibid.; “Selective Service Records,” National Archives at St. Louis, accessed June 10, 2019, https://www.archives.gov/st-louis/selective-service.
[21] “World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942,” database, ancestry.com, accessed April 21, 2019, entry for Vilas Earl Aaron, Minnesota.
[22] “U.S. Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014,” database, ancestry.com, accessed April 23, 2019, entry for Vilas Aaron, Colorado.
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