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When the ASTP program expired I was one of the lucky ones who was sent back to the Air Force. Following are highlights of my remaining military career:
Truax Field, Madison, Wisconsin: Radio Mechanics school.
Chanute field, Champaign, Ill: Electronics School.
Boca Raton, Florida: Radar School, where I specialized on the "Ground Control Approach" Radar unit.
Fort Dix Air Base: Operational training on our GCA Radar.
Mitchell Field, Long Island, NY for more training.
Our Radar team was then flown to Hawaii to catch a convoy. Thirty days later we were on a ship headinpg for
the South Pacific. We landed on a 3 by 5 island called IE-SHIMA, located about 5 miles off the west coast of Okinawa.
After the island was secured and built up, it contained 3 airstrips, about 1,000 fighter planes and 50,000 men.
The fighters were escorting B-29 bombers flying to Japan. We landed in April, 1945, set up our Radar unit, and
operated it there until the war was over. Our team was then flown to Guam where we operated until I had enough
points to go home in Feb. 1946.
I returned to my Banking career when the war was over and retired from the Bank of America in March, 1984 after
43 years of service.
My wife, Rosie and I were married in Nov. 1949. We have 3 children, 2 girls and a boy. All three have attended
college and one of our girls graduated. We have 4 grandchildren, 2 boys and 2 girls. We celebrated our 50th wedding
anniversary last November.
Our retirement years have been spent traveling throughout Europe, three cruises, exploring the U. S., fishing,
gardening, bicycling, playing bridge, playing tennis and building and flying radio controlled model airplanes and
gliders.
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I'm 78 years old and my memory is a little warped. I remember Iowa University but I can't seem to remember the
names I went to school with. I was a roommate to Wm. Busocker who I see is no longer with us. I believe our commanding
officer was a Capt. Carmichael.
I took basic training at Camp Crowder MO, followed by a course in telephone pole line construction. After that
I was sent to SUI in late spring 1943 into the ASTP program. I remember the Air Corps students in meteorology that
were stationed at SUI. As we were marching along sometimes we would see some Air Force weathermen and we would
sing the following song:
"Into the air, junior bird men,
Into the air, upside down,
Into the air, junior bird men,
Keep your nose up in the brown,
Up in the brown.
And when you hear the great announcement
That they're giving out wings of tin,
You can bet the junior bird men
Will send their boxtops in."
I guess today you could call that harassment. Maybe you remember that song.
After the first basic course in early 1944 I was sent back to Camp Crowder and put into the Installer-Repairman
Course which involved telephone and switchboard repair. Upon completion of that course we were sent to Camp Reynolds
PA, which was the POE (Port of Embarkation) for Signal Corps, Medics, & Engineers being sent to Europe. Other
servicemen came in and left in several days. We were there about two weeks and instead of going to Europe as replacements
we were sent to a Signal Corps training battalion in Camp Shelby MS. Several months later we went to a Signal Repair
Company in Fort Jackson SC.
After several more months a group of us was sent back to Camp Crowder to take a course in Repeaters & Carriers
this was about the most technical of Signal Repair equipment.
The course lasted during the spring and summer of 1945. When we returned to the 125th Signal Repair Company they
had moved to Fort Bragg NC. I was there till Feb. 1946 when I was sent to Fort Meade to be discharged.
After all that telephone training I tried to get a job with our local telephone company but they said they didn't
need any help at that time. For a while I worked on construction jobs until Sep. 1947 when I entered Lebanon Valley
College in pursuit of a degree to teach secondary education in high school. The ASTP credits from SUI amounted
to about a year of college credits.
In July 1949 a job opened up at our local Post Office for a Rural Letter Carrier. I took the test and got the job.
I took evening classes at Lebanon Valley and did some practice teaching at Hershey High School, enough to get my
B.Sc. degree in Math and Science. I continued on the Rural Mail Route and retired in 1977. Since then I had a part
time job as a salesman for a seed company in New York.
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Robert R. Brown
Bud; Thanks for the update on your records. One thing; I stayed in the Sigma Chi house along the river and not in the Sigma Nu and I don't recall a Lloyd L Smith. Can't remember who my roommate was. I do remember Bob Conlon who went on with me overseas until we shipped home. I see he is one of the people still unaccounted for.
Anyway, after we shipped out of Iowa city many of us wound up in Camp Crowder Mo. and were put into a newly formed
signal depot outfit designated as the 583 rd. All of the non coms were from a
cadre sent there fro Camp Hahn, Ca. After our formation in Crowder, we went Ft. Dix and then on to England to get
ready for the invasion. We were responsible for the repair and supply of all signal equip. and followed the action
thru France and into Germany until wars end.
We were fortunate. The only excitement we experienced was during the Bulge. This isn't much but that's what happened.
I loked for the pictures I mentioned earlier but they are old color slide and nothing can be done to resurrect
them.
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I graduated from The University of Kansas Medical Center in 1950. 1 was called back into service in 1952 as
medical officer. I served in the base hospital at Sandia Base, outside of Albuquerque, New Mexico. After discharge,
I returned to Kansas to conclude my residency in infernal medicine. Subsequent to that I accepted a position at
the newly opened Kaiser Permanente Hospital in San Francisco, in July, 1954. 1 spent the next thirty years there
and enjoyed it hugely. I liked its philosophy and I was able to grow as a physician. On July 1, 1984 1 took a full
early retirement. Since then I have returned to school (at the Fromm Institute for Lifelong Learning) where I took
all the courses in creative writing that I could.
Since I retired I have had a mild stroke, a heart attack, a pulmonary emboli, and a TURP (transurethral prostatic
resection). All this notwithstanding, I have enjoyed good health
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I was drafted in '42 & sent to Camp Perry OH, then to Camp Phillips KA and took Infantry Basic with the
94th Division there. Suddenly about 30 of us were shipped to University of Nebraska, Lincoln, and underwent intensive
testing, then off to Iowa. You know the story there.
Leaving Iowa, I went to Truax Field WI for electronics training, then to Chanute Field IL for more of the same,
then to Boca Raton FL for more of the same. When I finished at Boca they asked me to be an instructor. After teaching
for several months some of us were sent to Ft. Monmouth NJ for Radar training. Suddenly one day they said "pack
up, you're going to the West Coast". Next day they loaded us into a couple of C-47s & off we went thinking
we were headed for a B-29 unit.
A few days later we were transferred to the Transportation Corps in groups of three & assigned to troop transport
and cargo ships to operate & maintain radar. We sailed all over the Pacific & managed to stay out of trouble,
always returning to Pearl for fuel, water, and other supplies.
In March 1945 we went to the West Coast and loaded troops (96 Inf.), joined a huge convoy, and headed west. After
long time at sea the Captain told us we were invading Okinawa. In the morning the entire U.S. Navy was shelling
the beaches, but no resistance. We unloaded the troops and it looked like a piece of cake, so we headed back to
Pearl.
Many months later we found out that it was the biggest and most costly battle of the Pacific war. I lucked out,
being on ship duty.Shortly the war was over and I went to the Indian Town Gap PA separation center.
After returning to Toledo OH and going back to school in Detroit, I worked around the auto business until I joined
the Ford Motor Co. As a senior body engineer in 1953. I stayed for 43 years. Retiring in 1987, I moved to Payson
AZ, elevation 5200 feet, so it don't get too hot.
Have a great time in Iowa City!
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After SUI quite a few of us were sent back to Camp Crowder. I spent a few months as a student and the rest of the war as an instructor. my three-and-a-half year army careerwas spent entirely at SUI and Camp Crowder.
After being discharged at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas in February 1946, I went back to work for the Western Electric
company in Chicago. In 1950 I decided there was no future for me in the telephone business so I went into the insurance
business.
My wife and I lived in the Chicago area from 1946 until 1990 when we moved to Florida. We have six children and
sixteen grandchildren. At the moment we are in good health. I get a lot of exercise playing racquetball, running,
and bike riding, which probably contributes to maintaining my wartime weight.
It's really interesting to see so many familiar ASTP names. Merle Kuhlman and I have corresponded via email which
has been a very pleasant experience.
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William C. Fagan
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From ASTP at State University of Iowa at Iowa City I was assigned to the US Army Signal Corps at Camp Crowder,
Missouri. There I went through a course to be a Powerman, which was to generate and distribute electricity.
After that I was shipped to India to vicinity of Calcutta in the Bengal area. This was a marshaling camp for troops
going to China, After about a three-month stay we flew over the Hump to Kunming, China. We were stationed at a
radio and communications center where I was in charge of the power plant.
On August 6, 1945, we were ordered to pack and report to the airfield. We loaded onto airplanes and then told to
wait. We waited and we waited. We were supposedly to be flown to an airfield in Indo-China where were to board
gliders to be dropped into Hainan Island off the coast of China as part of the operation CARBONADO. Eventually
we were told to go back to our camp. Later we found out that the atom bomb had been dropped and the operation was
canceled. So the atom bomb saved my life.
From Kunming I went to Shanghai and then to Peiping as part of General Marshall's Executive Council.
The college credits earned at ASTP came in handy when admitted to the University of California at Berkeley where
I received a BS in electrical engineering. Went to work for the Southern California Edison Company and then the
Department of Water And Powder of the City of Los Angeles. At DWP I had the opportunity to design and build extra
high voltage transmission lines including two EHV direct current transmission lines and systems.
After working in high voltage systems for over forty years I retired in June 1990.
In 1955 I married Bernice Mattes from Rochester, New York. We had four sons; the oldest is a Doctor of Pharmacy,
two others engineers and the fourth is in security. After 44 years of marriage, Bernice died in March 1999.
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Richard W. Headstrom
I doubt if I would know anyone on the list, since I never attended any classes at Iowa City. I was sick when
I arrived in Iowa City, and it was a couple of days later they finally figured how I should report on sick call.
It didn't take long to diagnose scarlet fever after I got to the hospital. After 3 weeks in the hospital and two
3 week convalescent furloughs, there was no way to catch up to the class, and I ended up at Camp Grant IL, and
then to Ft Lewis WA, and then to the Pacific Threater where I was on board ship for the invasion of Japan at VJ
Day.
After my discharge, I went to Yale and received a Bachelor of Architecture degree in 1950. We located in Denver
where I practiced architecture until retirement about a dozen years ago. For most of my career I designed newspaper
plants, which meant I did a good amount of travel with my projects spread out from New York to Hawaii and from
Florida to Alaska. Since retiring, we have been enjoying our travels even more. We spent the month of October in
Thailand, Bhutan, Nepal, and India.
Our three children all live west, with Dean in Mt Vernon WA, Ward in Arcata CA, and Gail in Penn Valley CA. So
we go west on a regular basis, and planto spend Christmas at Arcata.
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After ASTP I was a part of the Camp Crowder contingent along with such carousers as my old buddy Quentin Conley and others. From there I rather suddenly found myself on a boat to the ETO with the 310th Sig Opns Bn. Came back to Camp Shelby in 45 where we were supposed to get organized to go to the Pacific but VJ day came while I was on a 3day pass to New Orleans.When I got back to Shelby we were given 45 day furloughs after which we were discharged on points or most of us were.
Conley wound up in the CBI theatre. Had a letter from him after he had been on a weeks visit to a tea plantation in some outlandish place but he said he had quite a toot. I guess we could have expected as much. We had several wild times during our second Crowder tour.
Worked for a year for Western Electric waiting to get in Ga Tech where I finished in 1950. Worked for three different
companies before spending 30 great years with Philips Electronics.
Retired in 1987. Retirement was rough. Must have taken me 12 hours to adjust. Now I play golf,enjoy grandchildren and play on the lake nearby.
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Merle Kuhlman
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I am sure that Merle Kuhlman's mother's dreams never included the hope that her son would end up being an infantry
machine gunner, but that is what happened.
I, too, was at the Camp Shelby Water Moccasin Camp For Army Misfits--for 9 months-- where they trained me to go
bang-bang. (Sid Feinberg was with me). After 9 months of wading through the swamps, we were sent to Europe where
we horsed around chasing the dregs of Hitler's military establishment. Our 69th Infantry Division unit was the
first to make contact with the Russian troops (at Torgau).
At the University of Michigan, (GO BLUE!), I met the future Mrs. K. After graduation (MBA), I went into the field
of investments--because that is where I was offered a job. It proved to be providence in action since I thoroughly
enjoyed a career in that field, ending up with a bank in Indianapolis for the last 25 years. During that period,
I had energy enough to father 4 children who have presented us with 8 grandchildren. The whole kit and caboodle
of them live in Indianapolis, so family gets lots of time and attention.
In retirement, my favorite activity has been the mentoring of underpriviliged high school kids--very challenging
and also very rewarding.
The best part of ASTP for me was meeting a number of men I really enjoyed knowing. I didn't belong there--the idea
that MFK might be an engineer was absurd--the limit of my engineering skills is changing light bulbs.
I, too, am grateful to the efforts of Corbin and Wright for opening up the ASTP door again and to be reminded of
some very fine men who, in my memory, have not aged a bit in 55 years.
Leonard Lewis
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After leaving Iowa City I went back to Camp Crowder. I followed the same path as Fred Ellerbusch (I looked him
up on the website). After completing Truax Field, Chanute Field and Boca Raton A.F.B. I was a full-fledged Radar
Mechanic (Ground Control Approach). While Fred went east, I went west, eventually getting to Okinawa. I served
there until March 1946.
Upon returning home I went to work for a paint manufacturer while going to school at night. I became a lab technician,
then a full-fledged chemist.
In November '47 I married Fran, lived and worked in the New York area for about three years, than went to work
for a larger company in New Jersey. Before I left New Jersey in 1955 we had a son and two daughters.
I went to work for a manufacturer in Baltimore and moved the family to suburban Maryland. During my time in Maryland
I had occasion to help the G.S.A. regional office develop standards for painting and paints.
The Regional Director for quality control asked me to come work for G.S.A., which I did. I spent the next 25 years
as a quality control specialist.
I retired in 1984, worked for a while testing tools for an industrial hardware company. Moved to Florida in 1989
because Fran wanted to be near her mother.
During our time here we have been actively involved in homeless shelter and feeding programs. We also devoted a
lot of our time to theater and concert going(contrary to popular belief, South Florida is not a cultural wasteland).
We spend a lot of time visiting our children and grandchildren:
1 daughter in New Hampshire - 2 grandsons
1 son in San Francisco - 2 granddaughters
1 daughter in San Francisco - 1 grandson, 1 granddaughter
We're both in good health. Currently (Jun '00) we're getting ready to head north for Lenox, Mass., and the Tanglewood
Music Festival.
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Maynard O. Nelsen
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**************** Maynard is the author of many publications ***********
Screenplays with Shooting Scripts
In Search Of Eldorado
Prairie Citizen
Short Stories / Stageplays / Screenplays
The Presidency: American Political Adventures Action America; Odyssey Il; Night Train
Trilogy: Armageddon Adventures Pandora; The Grave Of Genghis Khan; City Drifter
Technical
Biopolitics USA/ Prairie Fire( Pax Americana)
The Central Committee
Science
The Medusa Laser: Decision Of Destiny
War
The Ballad Of Rodger Young
Stageplay
The Box
21 St. Century
The Poetry Of Reality
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When I left Iowa City I was sent back to Camp Crowder in MO for a refresher course in radio repair. From there
to Camp Beal in California; then 15 Signal Corps people went to San Diego and shipped overseas on a Liberty ship
to India. Took a train ride from Calcutta to Tezpur and maintained communications for the 10th Air Force, over
the hump to China.
After the war went back to my old job with a wholesale hardware concern in Omaha as a warehouseman, then to City
Sales, then to Purchasing Agent, where I purchased all the sporting good, paint and sundries. Ended up as a Vice
President.
I met my wife when I was in Camp Beal, California and married her. We celebrated our 55th wedding anniversary. Both in pretty good health; we have two children.
Retired five years ago and am enjoying golf, hunting, fishing.
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I was in the Basic ASTP program at the University of Iowa in 43 and 44. Lived in the Phi Delt fraternity house
on Dubuque St and Guy Metzler was my roommate. I have not heard from him in years and noticed on your website that
he has died.
I returned to Texas after the war and graduated from Tx A&M with BS and MS degrees in Civil Engineering.Been
married to Billie for 60 years and have 3 children, 6 grandchildren, and 6 greatgrandchildren.
Worked as a civil engineer with Freese and Nichols, a very successful firm for 54 years. Am semi-retired but still
come to the office everyday.
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After leaving Iowa City I was sent to Camp Crowder Missouri, thence to Hawaii and on to Saipan. Returned to
Iowa City in the spring of 1946, graduated with a BS in Elec Engr on Aug 6th 1948. Married Anna Vogt on Aug 8th
1948.
Took a job as an instructor at Iowa State University. Earned a MS in 1952 and a PhD in 1958, both in Elec. Engr.
Taught at Iowa State for 39 years. Coauthored a text in Linear Systems Analysis in 1962, authored an introductory
text for non-EE majors in 1968, and authored an introductory circuits book in 1983. This year the sixth edition
of Electric Circuits was published.
After retiring from Iowa State University in the spring of 1987 I accepted visiting professorships at Notre Dame(1987-
88); Cal Poly at San Luis Obispo(1989); and the United States Air Force Academy(1992-94).
Anna and I have raised five children, three boys and two girls. They are all graduates of Iowa State. Elementary
Education, Architecture, Chemical Engineering, Fashion Merchandizing, and Journalism. Hows that for variety?
We are now enjoying five grandchildren(two boys and three girls).We celebrated our 51st wedding anniversary this
past August and feel we have been richly blessed.
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I was one of the first to leave Iowa. I went to Signal Corps at Crowder and painted army vehicles till was olive
drab in the face (literally). I talked the medics into taking me back and was eventually assigned to a Field Hospital
Unit that went to Europe. We patched up kids so they could go back and get shot up again.
After the war, I returned to Arkansas and married the girl I met while at Crowder. I spent a couple years at the
University of Arkansas and then went to work as civilian employee of the U S Army until retirement in 1981. I then
did carpenter work until l989 when I again "retired" to build our own home in Newnan, Georgia.
We have 4 beautiful children who have produced l0 grandchildren and 4 great-grand- children.
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