More Soldiers Depart for Military Service.
Clarksville—The following men were inducted into the army Tuesday:
Martin Mike Ruth, Clarksville;
Robert Frank Rieken, Dumont;
Robert Frank Stickley, Parkersburg;
Folkert F. Alberts, Kesley;
Francis Lewis Jones, Janesville, (formerly Shell Rock).
Leonard George Abkes of Denver, Colo., (formerly of Aplington), was transferred to a local board at Denver for delivery to the induction station.
Source: The Globe-Gazette, Mason City, IA – Friday, March 31, 1944
An Aplington man is a member of the First battalion of the 339th “Polar Bear” regiment, which found more than 25 tons of gold in a cave beneath an ancient fortress in the Fifth army sector in Italy. He is Pfc. Leonard G. Abkes, son of Mr. and Mrs. Cornelius Abkes, Iowa Falls, who has served as a rifleman in the battalion. His wife, formerly Gertie Fecht, makes her home here. Taken from the Bank of Italy, in Rome, the gold had been placed in its deep underground resting place by the Germans last October. It required a heavily-armed convoy of 12 trucks to transport the loot back to the Bank of Italy. Before entering the service Abkes was a clerk in the Aplington postoffice.
Source: The Courier, Waterloo, IA – Wednesday, August 1, 1945
