Thomas Parker

I was a member of Section 4, Company B. When the program ended, I, along with Ed Kamrath and Keith McCullough were sent to Yuma, Arizona where we joined the 80th Infantry Division. Ed was assigned to the 80th Recon troop and Keith to the 80th Signal Company. Ed was killed just before V.E. Day. The Division went first to England and then to France where it became one of the five original divisions of the Third Army under George Patton.

I was assigned to the 319th Infantry Regiment as a rifle man. I was wounded on November 10, 1944 and again on December 26th in the Battle of the Bulge.

In January, 1945 1 was sent home on a rotation Furlough. During that furlough (72 days) my wife and I were married. I was sent back to the E.T.O. but the war had ended at that time. I was discharged at Camp McCoy, Wis. on Dec. 15th, 1945.

After my discharge I became an apprentice electrician. I worked as a construction electrician until 1973 when my wife and I started a contracting business. We continued in that until selling out to three of our sons who carry on with the business.

My wife and I have six children, one girl and five boys. Our daughter is a lawyer in Boston, Mass. Three of our sons are electricians. Our son Tom is a civil engineer, and our youngest son, Bill is confined to a nursing home. He was injured in an automobile accident 17 years ago.

My wife and I have been married for 55 years and have lived in the same house for 49 years.

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Frederick M. Pittman

After nine months in ASTP at the University of Iowa I was sent back to Camp Crowder, Missouri where I had taken my basic training. Prior to being drafted into the Army I worked for the Signal Corps in Washington, D. C. so they thought I should re-main in the Signal Corps. During my second stay at Camp Crowder I went to Radio Repair School. Upon completion I was sent to California to be shipped to a unit in Guam. For some reason they decided I should be shipped out of Seattle, Washington. The Swedish freighter I was on pulled in to Honolulu, Hawai to refuel. I was pulled off the ship and spent the rest of my time in the service working in the Office of the Commanding General, Central Pacific.
After my discharge from the Army I did not want to go back to my civil service job in Washington so I accepted a job with the Veterans Administration in Kansas City, Missouri.
While in the ASTP at University of Iowa I met Betty Synhorst. We were married in November of 1946 and lived in Kansas City where our first child was born. In 1947 I had the opportunity to join in a partnership with Betty's father. It was the International Harvester dealership in Newton, Iowa. Betty's brother John and I were together in the business until 1983 when we sold it. I remained with the new owners for two years and then retired.
Betty and I have four children (two girls and two boys) and eight grandchildren.Our oldest grandchild graduated from West Point and is now a captain and stationed in Fort Campbell, Kentucky. He has just (January 20, 2000) returned from a peace keeping mission in the Sinai. Another grandson is in the Marines and has been stationed on Okinawa but will be returning to US the first of February.
If you are interested in a little military history here goes. My father was a career soldier. My oldest brother was born in Fort Sheridan, Illinois; my next two brothers were born at Camp Dodge, Iowa; I and my sister was born at Fort D.A. Russell, Wyoming and the youngest girl was born at Schofield Barracks, Hawaai. My father saw service in the Phillipines, Mexico etc. During World War II all four of the boys were in the service. My oldest brother was in the African campaign and then came up thru Italy into Germany. The next one was in the Battle of the Bulge. The third was in the Signal Corps and strung telephone lines along the Burma Road. I was in ASTP and saw my overseas time on the beaches of Waikiki.
I have been secretary of the local Rotary Club for the past thirty three years. Since retiring I do a lot of volunteer work such as driving cancer patients to Des Moines for radiation treatments, Salvation Army and other community projects.

Soon after the service, I went into the leasing and rental business, called U.S. Capital Leasing Co. In 1975 sold the truck and trailer part, continued with auto leasing until 1989 when I retired. Have been married nearly fifty years to Sally. Have three married sons...Stuart, Michael and Mark. Eight lovely grandchildren. Between them and a lot of volunteer work, keep pretty busy.

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James Riggs

James Riggs married Alice Clark of Laurens, Iowa and had three children, James F., Thomas H., And Ruth E. Riggs. His wife passed away in 1962 and he was Married several times. He now resides the NLC Care Center in Norwalk, Iowa. He has had several minor strokes and is living comfortable with assistance.

He graduated the University of Iowa with a degree in Civil Engineering. He worked on several large dam in North and South Dakota in the 1950s. After that he work for the Iowa Highway Commission, was county Engineer in Warren and Davis counties, and worked as an engineer for the city of Des Moines for 26 years. I'm sure he would like to hear from some his friends from Iowa if some would like to write. You may send it to my home address or email.
Thanks for taking the time to make the connections.

After the 9 months of ASTP I was sent to Truax Field, Madison, Wisconsin for 18 weeks training as a Radio Mechanic, then on to Chanute Field, Illinois for 6 weeks of Basic Electronics and on to Boca Raton , Florida, for a 12 week Radar Mechanic, Navigation, course. I got scratched from my groups overseas shipment and was sent to Great Bend, Kansas, a B29 base. I was there until my discharge in the Spring of 1946. I met a young lady there and after some weeks of dating we were married. It was a wonderful union.
I returned to my native Cleveland and returned to work at ALCOA as a Spectrographic Technician analyzing aluminum alloys. I also joined the 433rd Troupe Carrier Wing (Reserve) at Cleveland Hopkins Airport. The 433rd was called to active duty for Korea in October 1950, we were assigned C-119 aircraft which we took to Germany as the first aircraft assigned to NATO under General Dwight Eisenhower. My family and I had a great four year tour.
On return to the States I was assigned to SAC at Mountain Home AFB, Idaho, did a normal 3 year tour and was given directed retraining into Ballistic Missiles. Trained in the SNARK at Amarillo, Texas, and assigned to Presque Isle, Maine for the two years the SNARK lasted in the inventory. Then to Plattsburg, New York, for three and a half years with the Atlas E after retraining at Wichita Falls, Texas. Then on to Shilling AFB Kansas. But on the way they announced the end of the Atlas. I stayed there for about a year closing Shilling and then on to Spokane, Washington, where I had training again, for the Houndog Missile. I stayed in Spokane for 7 years and retired as a Chief Master Sergeant, Maintenance Superintendant of an Airborne Missile Electronics Maintenance Squadron. Retirement on 31 July 1972 took me to Salina, Kansas, again where my wife's family was.
Pattye gave me 42 wonderful years until I lost her to cancer. She also gave me four great children all married and strung across the country. Chuck is in Salina, Bob is in Omaha and still is employed at Offutt, Cheryl Ratzlaff is in Medical Lake, Washington, and Patty Bokish is in Quincy, Illinois. Add to that 12 grandchildren and three great grandchildren.
While in Germany Pattye and I got involved with the great sport of bowling. I was military manager of the lanes in Munich, Germany, and was involved with operating the lanes at Mountain Home AFB. Then we got involved with junior bowling in Plattsburg, in Spokane and finally in Salina. I got involved with the local bowling association in Spokane and on retirement I became Association Secretary in Salina for 17 years.
After Pattye's loss I learned where a dear friend from my high school days was. She had lost her husband to cancer. After many trips back and forth we decided that a life together was what we wanted so I moved back to my roots in Sandusky, Ohio, and married Mary. We have had over ten wonderful years together so far and are looking for many more. Now my activities involve keeping up this beautiful home and grounds which she has provided me. I have given up bowling but I got involved with a Ruritan Club and I'm headed into my eighth year as secretary.

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Alvin Salle

What can I tell you, I'm now 78 years old and retired in the beautiful The Villages, Fl.
I play golf at least once a week, and many other projects.
I have two sons, one an attorney and my youngest an artist, both are very sucessful.I've been married for 54 years and both of us are in good health for our age.
I had a very sucessful business, that I sold six years ago, in Wichita, Ks.
We were a third-party insurance company(self funding health insurance) for companies like Rent-a-Center and also student health insurance for universities in Kansas. Life has been good to me and my family.
It is very hard for me to remember anyone from ASTP at Iowa, but I'm sure that I may.

Best Regards Tillie and Alvin Salle

I was sent back to Camp Crowder and started all over again thru basic training and radio repair school. I met and married Helena while there. From Crowder I was shipped to Army Communication Service in Philadelphia (my home town). We learned to install air to ground communications for the Air Corps. From there shipped out to Paris. After all that schooling, the CO put me in charge of a signal warehouse. we supplied teams that installed new equipment on captured airfields in Europe. From there I was sent to Naples, Italy and finally got to do what I was trained to do in Foggia and Rome.

I was discharged in January of '46 and came back to live in Philly. I went to work for my Dad who had a floor covering store in Camden, N.J. I stayed in the floor covering business for the rest of my working days. Helena and I have two children, three grandchildren and a bouncing baby great grandchild. We moved to Greenacres, Florida three years ago and are enjoying retirement.

PS. would like to hear from my classmates from SUI

John T. Sullivan

After my time with ASTP at Iowa, I was assigned to the 20th Air Force and spent another year at various U.S. locations. My training was as a ground crew radar technician. Finaly, in the early spring of l945, I was sent to the Island of Guam in the South Pacific. Not much doing since the war was all but over by that time. After being discharged, I went to Evansville, Indiana, where I got a college degree, married my wife, Lee, and ultimately we had four children. I was empoyed by Mead Johnson & Co., a pharmaceutical and nutritional company

. After eleven years, Mead Johnson was acquired by Bristol-Myers & Co., with headquarters in New York City. Sometime later I was transferred to New York City with offices on Park Avenue. I progressed to their international division where I was appointed Senior Vice President, Finance. After l7 years, I retired in l985, and finally ended up in Connecticutt. As far as I know, we will live the rest of our days in Connecticutt.

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John C. Traub

I left Iowa City when ASTP folded and was shipped to Truax Field in Madison Wisconsin to radio mechanics school. When I graduated, they kept me as an instructor. We ran out of students about the time of the Normandy Invasion. Then shipped out to Scott Field Illinois and radio operators school. Next stop was Sheppard Field where we fooled around until the war with Germany was over. Then because I didnt have enough points for discharge, I ended up in Paris, France at Orly Field living in a movie stars villa and operating a Morse Code key to a weather station in Sweden (the assignments were all Air Corp-Signal Corp which I was assigned to before ASTP). Paris was like a 5 month vacation. Was discharged on April 1, 1946.

Never went back to college but back to Postal Service where I was working before I was drafted. Started out carrying mail, then Parcel Post truck, next foreman, supt of mails, Assistant Postmaster and finally Postmaster at Camp Hill. It is a rather large office - home of Book of the Month, PA Blue Shield, and some large insurance companies as well as 2 large malls and a hospital. Retired in 1982 after 40 years service. Been heavily involved in volunteer work since retirement.

Married local girl, Doris Reed. Have 2 boys. Thomas, who owns Acura Tool & Die Company and has 2 children, Erica and Michael. He met his wife, Rebecca, at our Summer home in Poconos. Tod, who is a Management Analyst for PA Dept of Correctional Industries (polite word for state prisons). He met his wife , Joane, while doing mission work in Haiti. They have 2 girls, Laura and Anna. And that about wraps it up.