This Military Service Page was created/owned by
Brent Lundgren, MM2
to remember
Kierstead, Edgar (Eddie), SN2C.
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Contact Info
Home Town Mapleton, Maine
Last Address Originally from Caribou, later from Mapleton
Date of Passing Jan 28, 1955
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
Inspector for the Maine Department of Agriculture (retired)
Other Comments:
Edgar Kierstead was my grandfather, he died of a brain hemmorage when I was 1.
Before the war my grandfather was a farmer. My great grandfather, Frederick, was injured on the farm in May of 1918 and requested an early discharge from the Navy for Edgar. Commanding officers had final release authority. Since the war was still in progress, a discharge was unlikely. His enlistment end date was Dec. 14, 1921.
They tried for an early discharge again in January 1919 after the war ended.
The Navy priority for early release were:
1. Men with dependents
2. Men seeking release to complete their education
Zeppelin - a steamer constructed in 1914 by Bremer Vulkan at Vegesack, Germany, for the North German Lloyd Line and was planned to be used on the Germany to Baltimore route. Her launching was attended by Count Zeppelin who had sailed to the U.S. in 1861 when the Civil War began, had met President Lincoln, and did studies on dirigible balloons.
On January 21, 1915 she was laid up because of WWI. When war was declared on Germany she was seized by United States officials at New York soon after the countries entry into World War I and turned over to the Emergency Fleet Corp. The Navy did not acquire her until the spring of 1919, well after the end of the war. She was placed in commission at New York on 5 March 1919, Comdr. William W. Galbraith in command. On March 28, 1919 she was delivered to the Shipping Controller, London, operated by White Star Line, taking some 1,850 troops and nurses from Brest to New York. Assigned to the New York division of the Transport Force (not to be confused with the Naval Overseas Transportation Service), Zeppelin made two round-trip voyages between the United States and Europe, returning 15,800 Americans soldiers back home. Among these passengers returning back to the United States was a future United States President, Captain Harry S. Truman. Her third voyage took her back to Europe, however, she did not return to the United States. Instead, she was decommissioned on 25 November 1919 and returned to the United States Shipping Board, which, in turn, transferred her to the British on December 27, 1919.
