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Webster County
IAGenWeb
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DEAR JOE: Shoo, Shoo, baby—shoo, shoo, baby. Its in the air, it’s
in your hair, it’s everywhere. Shoo, shoo, baby. My little juke box lady. Hush a
bye and don't you cry. You get the nickles. My, oh, my... They've even got us doing
it... Joe, we've got two new sponsors. The Elks Club and Larry Geer. Yep. Take a
look at all those good guys up at the top who are missive it possible for us to
send this little missive to all the guys and gals from Webster County . . . Seems
like everyone is pitching in to make this leiter click. Last night ten of your mothers
were in the studio addressing envelopes from 7:00 until 10:00—members of the Army
Mothers Club... And Joe, on March 4th at 5:50 C. W. T., a station in Honolulu will
broadeast over the Mutual Network 2 program on which a number of fellows from Fort
Dodze and Webster County will get 2 chance to at least say “hello.” Give it a listen
om most any Mutual Station. Might hear Dave or Jim.
HAPPY LANDING. In North Africa, Pfc. Verne Cloud
. . . Somewhere in Africa, Pfc. Eldon J. Hanna . . . In England,
Lt. Howard Erricson, bombardier with a Fort . . . In England,
Pfc. Carl Will and 1st Sgt. Archie Luhmann, both of
Dayton... Somewhere in England, Pvt. Amzie Yoder. He’s with an
engineering outfit . . . In Italy, Pfc. Lawrence R. Bunda, of Moorland,
now with the 84th Supply Squadron . . . In Italy, Lt. Frank Sims,
pilot on a Fort . . . Somewhere in England, Cpl. Bob Bonnell. He's
in an anti-aircraft unit . . . Somewhere overseas, Lt. Milo Hayes
of Harcourt . . . In England, Delbert Hoover of Duncombe . . .
In England, Pfc. Frank Weiss. He's with an anti-aircraft unit .
. . In Italy, S/5gt. Harry Sandholm of Dayton.
HERE AND THERE. Sgt. Jim Constantine is now ai
Ft. Bliss, Texas in anti-aircraft . . . S/Sgt. Richard Bartlett
is with the vet service at the Station Hospital, in Clovis, N. M. . . . He's on
maneuvers now, out of Shreveport, La., Cpl. Chester F. Smith .
. . He's made several missions over Italy, Lt. B. J. Gillespie
. . . S/Sht. August Struhar is a prisoner in Germany. Gunner and
radio man on a flying Fort, his plane was reported missing on a raid over France,
on December 31st . . . He’s back in Ireland for the second time, 1st Lt. Willard
James. He was there for the first time as a member of Company B for
ten months in 1942 . . . Lt. Don Evans will soon be flying one
of the army’s new and powerful “Black Widow” P-61’s... Former Fort Dodger, Lt.
Julian Critz, is back home with his folks in Emmeisburg after having
completed forty missions flying a Martin Marauder in the Mediterranean area. He
has the air medal and seven oak leaf clusters . . . He’s an ensign in the coast
guard, Charles A. Davis, at New London, Conn. . . . In the hospital
is Cpl. Bob Rule, at the air base hospital at Birmingham, Ala.
. . . He's in the hospital somewhere in the South Pacific, Leonard Fuller,
Machinist's mate 2/c. He has an injured back . S/Sgt. J. F. “Doe” Fulton,
now a radio gunner on a Martin Marauder based in Sardinia, writes to his father
that he was “lucky enough to be in on the raid that made the new landing on Italy
a final completed preparation.” “Doc” who used to pitch to his father in a famous
father-son battery, says, “I have been on several raids over Italy, some of which
were so-called milk runs— no fighters and no flak—while others were pretty hot and
not at all what you'd call a pleasant pastime.” . . . Lt. Richard Johnson
is now stationed at San Diego in charge of communications of group of fighter planes.
The Christmas package that S/Sgt. Bill Burnquist mailed his mother
from somewhere in Italy shortly after Thanksgiving, arrived the other day, a little
late but all im one piece, Bill’s a Staff Sgt. now.
HOME TOWN BOYS MAKE GOOD. To Storekeeper 3/c Leon “Bonnie”
Laurent at Farragut, Idaho . . . To Pharmacist’s mate 3/c, Lavern Sinclair.
He’s in the naval hospital at Treasure Island, San Francisco, Calif. Man with wings,
Ensign Richard Schwendemann. He got them this week at Pensacola...
From Lt. to Captain, Neville Slagter, somewhere in the South Pacific.
From Sgt. to S/Sgt., Jack B. Weaver in England with the 8th airforce
bomber command, Formerly with Tobin's, he’s now doing his stuff as waist gunner
on a Fort . . . To petty officer 3/c, Paul Halligan on an aircraft
carrier off the west coast . . . Men with wings, Lt. Glenn Rohrer.
He got them at Brooks Field, San Antonio, Texas . . . To Seaman 2/c, R. J. Nichels,
somewhere in the southwest Pacific.
GLAD TO SEE YOU HOME. From Camp Livingstone, La. Pfc. Darwin
Hottman . . . From the Aleutians, Pfc. Shirley “Bud” Patton,
of Gowrie. He's wearing the soldier's medal for heroism, given to him for rescuing
a pilot from drowning. “Bud” is home now to become a pilot himself . From Camp Gordon,
Georgia, M/Sgt. Herbert Smith. When he returns, he is taking his
wife, the former Vivian Tomlinson, with him . . . From Ft. Crrockett,
Texas, Pvt. Fred Porter . . . From Camp Jackson, S.C. Pfc.
Arthur Gross . . . It’s open house at Tierney’s Restaurant. They are
all home,
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Moe and Don and John. And none
of them expected to see the other. Coincidence we calls it. Moe is now 1st Lt.
Maurice Tierney, stationed at Camp Polk, La. Lt. Don
is at Flora, Miss., and John is a Q/M 2/c on destroyer duty . .
. From Wright Field, Pvt. Robt. Yan Gundy . . . From Beaufort,
S. C., Carl Russell, petty officer 3/c . . . From Camp Butler,
N. C., Pvt. Robt. DeSmidt . . . From Berkeley Calf, Lt. Ben
Schwendemann, of Duncombe. He's on his way to Raleigh, N.C., where
he will instruct in diesel engines . . . From Camp Jesse Turner, Ark., Cpl.
Paul Fitzgerald, of Duncombe. He is in a railroad operating battalion
. . . Floyd Nichols, of Duncombe, CM 2/c with the Seabees, from
Camp Peary, Va. . . . From Camp Haan, Calif., Cpl. Kenneth Sternitzke
. . . Cpl. Vernon Morganson, from Fort Dix, N. J. . . . From Robbing
Field, Ga., Sgt. Homer Davidson. He’s a radar mechanic . . . From
Camp White, Ore., 1st Sgt. Max Burd . . . From Camp Pickett, Va.
Cpl. Omar Burkgren, of Lanyon . . . From Italy after forty missions,
Capt. Bob Mitchell. He flew a Marauder over there in more than
200 hours of combat. He's got an air medal, is home for days and would like to see
some snow. Doggone, so would! . . . From Camp Phillips, Kan., Pfc. Melvin Yetmar
. . . From Ponscola, Fla. Mike Harold, AMM l/c . . . From San Francisco
Lt. Fohn BIaire, Jr. , on his way to Jacksonville, Fla. From Camp
Butner, Pfc. Robert Dobmeier, He's been on menuevers in Tenn...
From Ft. Dix, N. J., Sgt. Stanley Pingle. He got a chance to see
Jimmie, his six-month old son for the first time . . . From Camp Barkeley, Tex.,
Pvt. Jack Poisnick. He is in the medical corps . . From Norfolk,
Va, George Chambers, S 1/x . . . From Quantico, Va., Lt. James
C. Dickerson. He is on his way to San Diego. His wife, the former Kathleen
Newman, is with him... From Pearl Harbor, James Messersmith,
coxswain, He’s enroute to Washington, D. C., for instruction in the diver’s school...
From a destroyer in the Southwest Pacific, Cliff Hollis, fire controlman
l/c. He is on his way to Washington for advanced fire control school . . . From
Olathe, Kans., Wave Neva F. Knickerbocker. She is a parachute repairman
3/c... From ASTP at Monroe, La., Pvt. George Hanrahan . . . From
Morris
Field, Charlotte, N. C., Pfc, William M Roberts and Cpl. Verne
“Bud” ‘Schaffer . . . From Great Lakes, Isabel Knutson
of Callender . . . From Salina, Kans., Pfc. Virgil Dahl of
Dayton.
GOOD FELLOWS GET TOGETHER. Whenever two Ft. Dodgers meet in the
Southwest Pacific, one of them is Dr. Roy Vieg. Latest visitor,
Don Clark. They had a great visit . . . They met in Lendon,
Warren Osmanson, Faber Cripps, and Marvin Nelson
. . . They met in Fresno. Calif. Lt. Howard Johnson and Capt.
C. W. Albertson. Howard is pilot on a liberator and is getting ready
for the South Pacific. C. W. is head of the postal exchange at the base at Fresno
. . . They met at Camp Roberts, Bob Newsum and Bill Gadbury
. . . Edward Cahill, who has been overseas with the Merchant Marine,
had dinner with Charles Isaacson of Gates Dry Goods Store when
Mr. Isaacson was in New York last week on a buying trip... They
met in England, Warren Osmanson and a fox hunt. On Christmas day
he was on an English estate and rode with the hounds while the fox did a bit of
Tally-ho! When he isn’t fox hunting, Warren is an aviation machinist’s mate in the
USN.
AROUND THE TOWN. Whoopee! Callender and Harcourt are over the top.
Ray Allen reports sales in Callender of 815,000. Quota was $8,451.
Harcourt sales, says Al Carlson, are at $8,500. Quota was $6,350.
And the war bond drive has still fifteen days to go . . . Koula Constantine
is off to become a secretary at Katherine Gibbs’ School in Boston . . . A. F,
Hanson of Gowrie sold his implement business to Ken McDonald
of Sac City . Ed Larson has sold the garage building north of the
First National Bank in Dayton to the DeKalb Seed Corn Company. It will be used by
Ralph Gunn as a laboratory for work being done for the company
. . . Dr. Matt Sanders is back in the hospital at Iowa City again
but his condition is said to be much improved . . . Maude Lauderdale
has come upon an Indian-English dictionary that was composed by her uncle, James
Williams. It is in his own hand g and was evidently written as he worked
in his father’s trading store in early Fort Dodge. Maude is going to give the dictionary
to the W. C. Historical Society. If you are captured by any Nazi Sioux, you might
try this on them, ‘“med-a-kin-ki-ta!l’ It means, “I want a drink.” Tom Pray
and Dick Woodard are now roommates at Iowa U. “They have the room
once used by Nile Kinnic . . . Mrs. Edgar Johnson,
of Lehigh, has three rings and three bracelets made from the metal of a Jap Zero.
They were sent to her by her son, Robert, who is in the Southwest
Pacific . . . Jackson township is over the top, the first township in Webster County
io clear the quota. Township's quota, $53,103 . . . C. J. Carlson
of Lanyon died January 27th . . . Yoohoo, Joe, down there in the South Pacific.
Help’s coming. “The Business and Professional Women here are taking up collections
of jewelry and glass beads and stuff so you
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can trade with the Indians. We’re thinking of sending along our second best sarong
. . . The cast of the high school play, “Ever Since Eve,” has been rehearsing for
the past few days in Lutheran Hospital. Reason—leading man, Warren Stump, had his
appendix out. He reads his lines in bed . . . Interviewed on KVFD this last week
were Jack Poisnick, Jack Sieyer, Ron MacKenzie. Ivan Hunter, John Tierney
and Ray Carlson, All home on furloughs... They'll sing at Camp
Dodge and for the naval trainees at Ames— the Men's Glee Club. February 27th. Twenty-one
left, twenty- two are in service. Kenneth Hakes, new musical director
at High School, directs . . . Howard Gilman is now a milk marketing
supervisor for WFA (War Food Administration) . . . After months on convoy duty,
Melford Johnson called his folks long distance from New York the
other night. He’s a fireman 3/c and has been on canvoy duty ever since leaving Farragut...
Her class mates named her “Queen,” Miss Genevieve Johnson of Gowrie
High. She is also a member of the basketball team, county champions . . . George
T. Peterson, a farmer living near Lanyon, died January 27th.
THE STRANGE CASE OF PFC. HUGH CARLSON. His parents were notified
by the war dept. that he was missing in action in Italy. U. P. over KVFD later reported
that he had been wounded. No word to his parents from the war dept. Red Cross starts
inquiry. War Dept. says he was with his company all the time. Now develops from
a letter from him that he was hospitalized but never had been missing.
WEDDING BELLS. June Clark and Blaine Asher,
Jr. , of Spencer, in Fort Dodge, February 12th. Asher will get his
commission
in officer's candidates school at Ft. Benning, Ga. on the 11th . . . Shirley
Uyde and Pfc. Darwin Hottman at Fort Dodge, January
27th. Hottman will return soon to Camp Livingstone, La.
JUKE BOX FAVORITES. This js what they want for their nickles and
in this order: “Shoo-Shoo Baby.” We told you to put your money on that one last
week. “My Heart Tells Me.” “They're Fither Too Young Gr Too Old,” a great favorite
with the girls but not much of a compliment to us 4-F’s. “Besame Mucho.” And gosh,
look who's still in fifth place. “Paper Doll,” especially the way the Mills Brothers
sing it. “Star Eyes.” And good old “Pistel Packin’ Mama.’ “My Tdeal,” “People Will
Say We're In Love.” as sung by either “4-F” Sinatra or “too old” Crosby. And last
but not least, Bing Crosby and the Andrew Sisters doing the “Victory Polka.”
THE WEATHER. It's still too good to be true. We walked up the street
the other day with an old weather watcher whose been keeping an eye on things for
sixty-nine years and he says he’s never seen the beat. Every ground hog in Iowa
saw his shadow today but it deesn’t mean a thing. “The weather, she is wonderful.”
It was about forty out today and we walked over to eat without a coat.
SCOREEBCARD. Corpus Christi gives Varina the works, 45 to 58
Tommy Ponahoe. C. C. guard, was high point man with 13... The Dodgers
have
been going great guns the last few games. They look like champions. They showed
the Polar Bears of North High, D. M. the other evening. North had taken them earlier
in the season 32 to 30. Last Friday night it was different: at the end of the quarter,
the score stood— Dodgers 29, Nerth 7. McKinstry took the entire
first team out and coasted with the “All Americans” score, Dodgers 25, North 15...
Pocahontas wins over Corpus Christi 87 to 31... Sacred Heart of Boone defeats Sacred
Heart of Fort Dodge. 26 to 18 . . .The Indians of Cherokee invited the Dodgers over
for a little wrestling the other night, lost their scalps. Dodgers 32, Cherokee
6.
THE COUNTY TOURNAMENT IS OVER. This is the way it went. First round:
Burnside beat Lehigh, 40 to 10. Moorland beat Otho 17 to 13. Callender beat Duncombe
34 to 24. Barnum is not playing because of illness in the team. Other teams drew
by’s. Second round. Lanyon beat Callender 54 to 30. Dayton beat Gowrie 28 to 19.
Burnside beat Moorland 40 to 14. Semifinals. Dayton beat Lanyon 31 to 30. The hot
game of the tournament. Harcourt beat Burnside 41 to 34. In the finals. Harcourt
43, Dayton 36, In the consolation play off—Burnside beat Lanyon 41 to 29. The district
sectional will be held at Harcourt March 1st.
DR. ELTON HOOVER was scriously injurcd in a windstorm in the South
Pacific. Hit by a tent floor in a hurricane, his back was broken.
FROM THE FIVE CORNERS OF THE WORLD. Pfc. R. A. Rosenow.
Southwest Pacific, “I have run into quite a few guys from Ft. Dodge since I've been
out here. George Loots was up at Augusta Bay with me and Warren
Kelly was at Villa. I'm at the hospital now, resting up a little bit
and having a few things done to me that I’ve needed. Catching up on the sleep I
lost up in Bougainville. . . .
Sgt. Ray Blunk. China, “I have met only two fellows from good old
Fort Dodge. One was Major Apt. He was here where I am. The other
one was the Gross boy. He is in India. We have a very fine place
here. The climate is fine, The chow is fair. The only thing is I have not had much
luck trying to eat with chop sticks. It looks easy but just try them and they sure
make a fool out of you.” . . .
Lt. Col. Bruno G. Marchi, APO New York, “Our men have met world-famous
people here. We furnished the guards, cooks, K. P.’s, etc. for the President’s and
Mr. Churchill’s parties when they came through here to attend conferences. We also
took care of Churchill during his recent illness. Sometimes the advance C. P., which
we also guard, now in Italy, looks like the milky way. Had a total of 38 stars there
in one week. And that’s a lot of Generals, ranging from one star to four stars.
Some of our men were guarding the
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camp in Sicily when the original treaty with Italy was signed. We were all sworn
to secrecy until it became official news. So you see our work is important and damned
interesting. And talking, here is one for your book. 18 men of Co. G, most of them
from Ft. Dodge, bucked three and four foot snow drifts to get back to home base
here last week. Tell the folks back there not to be dircouraged. I have seen our
boys in action and they are good enough for my money. We won the first two rounds
(‘Tunisia and Sicily). We are way ahead on the third and I'm betting that they wont
come up for the fifth. When the fourth will take place I can't say now. We were
all glad to see that Lt. Beisser got back okay. You know he started
with us. Hope that Don Tepfer is well. Many of the old 2nd Battalion
men are in other places now and making good. We watch them with pride and hope they
occasionally think of their “old outfit? men like Beisser. Tepfer, Douglas,
Hari, and the Tierney boys (there’s a pair.) and also
the Fortneys Hardie, Porter, Degner, Hill, Gadd, Glesne, Willard Olson
(who stopped off to see us on his way east), Mills, Erickson and
a lot of others. We think of them often end wonder what and where, but we know they
will conduct themselves well are are looking forward to the day we will see them
all again. There are still 37 men from Ft. Dedge in the 2nd Battalion and many more
from neighboring towns. Many from Webster City as Company E came from there. Incidently.
we had one of the best basrball teams over here. Have one the best basketball teams
now, have won 20 games and lost none. Also have three champion boxers and have the
guard of Honor drill team. They tried others but came to us and made it permanent.”
. . .
Bob Porter. Mus. 1/c, Burmuda Islands, “I met Don Cunningham,
former Tobin employee and Tobin softball star at the opening of our latest U. S.
O. show here on our station last night. Don is a radio man a ship that arrived here
recently on a shake down cruise.” . . .
Lt. Golda I. Van Yasell. Durham, N. C., “This is the home of Duke
University, also Luckies and Chesterfields. The air here smells like a freshly opened
box of cigars. These tar heels don’t seem to notice it, but those of us from the
good old “tall corn” state sure do.” . . .
S/Sgt. Wesley V. Hill, Iran, “Just received my copy of YLFH, of
December 11th. and will say it is very hard to tell you in words how much your little
paper means to me. It’s just like talking with comeone from home.” . . .
Cliff W. Knutson, Cox. FPO, San Francisco, “Sometime ago I met
Timmy Messersmith from Ft. Dodge, and we've been together since then. I
think it was last May or June. We have a swell time talking over old times. I also
met Alfred Thompson of Badger, and Dean Phillips
of Ft. Dodge. Somcone told me that Paul Trusty was in the same
outfit I'm in, but if he is, I've failed to find him. Tell him to take off his mask,
will you?” . . .
Lt. (j. g.) Francis Collins, San Diego, Calif., “Your first letter
caught up with me in the Aleutians. I was in on the occupation of Kiska and spent
three months there. Have run into two Ft. Dodgers here, Herb Soppeland,
who used to work for Swaney Motor, and Roger Nelsen.” . . .
When we get to this spot in the letter, we always fee! kind of low. There is so darn
much good stuff we’ve had to leave out. And there’s a whole stack of letters we’d
marked with red pencil to quote from and our space is gone. Look at all these letters
we might have quoted. We got news from lots of them and pleasure from all of them.
They came from Pvt. Melvin Inman, Amarillo, Tex. . . . A/C
Don Collins, Kirtland Field, Albuquerque, N. M. . . . Pvt, Joseph E.
Underwood, Camp Roberts, Calif . . . Sgt. G. K. Julander,
India . . . Cpl. Willard A. Balm, Los Angeles, Calif . . .
Pvt. Elmer Sinclair, Ft. Leonard Wood, Mo. . . . Pvt. R. N. Smith,
Ft. Monmouth, N. J. . . . Rob’t. C. Wales, S 1/c, U.S. Naval Gunners
School. Jacksonville, Fla. . . . Pfc. Francis W. Stoddard, Maxton,
N.C. . . . Lt. (j. g.) Donald E. Schwendemann, Raleigh, N. C. .
. . Pvt. Erest C. Welch, Iran . . . Sgt. D. P. Geechee,
Maxton, N.C . . . Capt. Rescoe E. Klinger, Mountain Home, Idaho
. . . Pvt. Keith Zohnson, San Diego, Calif... Capt. W. L. Viergever,
Chicago, Ill. . . . Lt. Rita McCarville, Ft. Leavenworth, Kan.,
Pfc. Lloyd Pohl, Dyersburg, Tenn . . . A/C Ralph A, Ruebel,
Luke Field, Arizona . . . Lt. Frank J. Sims. Italy . . . E.
R. Hinton, S 2c, San Diego, Calif . . . Pfc. Maurice L. Bestick,
APO 507, New York . . . Pvt. Frank Murphy, Augusta, Ga. . . .
Stan. H. Olson S 2c, Somewhere in the Pacific . . . A/S Raymond C.
Regan, Nashville, Tenn. . . . Leo D. Campbell,
S P3/c, Great Lakes . . . Lt. Richard K. Johnson, San Diego, Calif.
. . . Lt. H. M. Tucker, Macon, Georgia . . . Harold Holm,
AMM 3/c, FPO San Francisco . . . Sgt. Rocco Tornabane, Italy ..
. S/Sgt. C. T. Baumunk, Camp Stewart, Ga. . . . Cpl. Jim Skephammer,
Dyersburg, Tenn. . . . Pfc. Mearl L. Armstrong, Ft. Summers, N.
Mex. . . . Pvt. Dwain L. Hart, Oahu Island, Pacific . . . A/C
H. E. Elmore, Iowa City. . . Pvt. R. W. Gamback, Jefferson
Barracks . . . Sgt. Emifrid V. Johnson, APO Minneapolis, Minn.
(Yes sir, we'll take care of that request) . . . Pvt. R. D. Crosby,
Camp Haan, Calif. . . . Lee Crittenden S 1/c, FPO San Francisco,
Calif. . . . Pfc. John A. Peterson, Salt Lake City, Utah . . .
Sgt. Ted R. Rule, San Pedro, Calif. . . . Pvt. Gill Fletcher.
New York (Thanks for Bob’s address. He'll get ’em) . . . Lenore Bappe,
S 1c USNR. Bronx, New York . . . S/Sgt. Alfred Rasmussen, Camp
Blanding, Fla. . . . Pfc. T. E. Keefe, Yuma. Arizona (say “hello”
to the folks at Wickenburg for me) . . . Pvt. Rob’t. J. Henry,
England . . . Cpl. Curtis Sorenson, Hamilton Field, Calif.
Again we are right at the bottom of our only page. Thanks so much for all your letters
and all your good wishes. Keep on writing. When you write, we can tell everyone
else where you are, and what’s happening. Good luck, at least twice as much as you'll
ever need. We'll see you this time next week in this same corner.
Your home town correspondent. Ed Breen.
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