Port Byron High School - Echo Yearbook (Port Byron, IL)

Page 47 text:

'-'-'ww'v'I'vU -Ty-f ---f- -!'-- f- vxfv -1- ef--.f-.- V.. .....,, ...e ,,.v.......,..--,-...,,--. .-- .T ,,.,, ,.,,b ,,,, ,, n,n, lm, ,, ,gnnwvgrg destruction. They saw long lines of tanks leave the Arsenal daily for shipment over-seas, heard the constant boom of guns as they were tested on its ground. The Port Byron Honor Roll in the Globe window grew longer and longer, blue service stars appeared in windows in increasing numbers. Nany of the blue ones turned to gold. Then the real tragedy of war was brought closer to the class of '45 when the news reached the village that Duane Irwin, their life-long friend and classmate through the grades and high school, who would have been one of the graduates, had lost his life on the air-craft carrier, the ill-fated Franklin when it was sunk by an enemy bomb, when Arthur Hughes, a 1937 graduate, was killed on the battlefield at Eiak Islandg when Fred Hanny, 1940 graduate, died from wounds received on the Jap-held Island of Iwo Jima, and Robert VcCune's plane fell victim to enemy attack while flying over German territory. To Duane, the Seniors dedicated this issue of the Echo-and printed a page in memorium to Charles Lamb, Arthur Hughes, and Fred Hanny. Another page cited awards A given to other graduates for meritorious service to their I country. I I Such was the heritage of the class of '45-the awful carnage of war from December 7, 1941, to August 12, 1945. But on the twelfth the joyful news of the cessation of war was flashed ' by radio and press around the world. Guns were silenced, and p the four years' war with all its death and destruction, its. I worry and heartache was at an end. Peace once more reigned I upon the earth and this class, unlike the class of '45 who saw a nation converted into a vast arsenal, saw the country turn from a schedule of war-time production to one of peace, saw it blueprint itself, not for the out-put of weapons of destruction, but for peace-tire products needed by a war-torn nation. In a spirit of gratitude they-as graduates of the class of for this new Era upon which '46-were about to embark, the Staff dedicated this fifth issue of the Echo to Peace. The fall of '46 saw service men returning to their homes and loved ones and endeavoring to pick up the threads of life again as they once knew it. Charles L. Hoff after a period T of navy service resumed his former position as head of the Q Athletic program in the high school. Under his capable and i inspiring leadership, our football team covered themselves with glory, becoming Two-Rivers Conference champs, winning for the school the first athletic warded by the Conference. To the leader the Senior Class dedicated pages were written for Coach Hoff whose prowess on the floor earned tion Trophies in one year. trophy in football ever a- team and to its efficient the '47 Echo. Complimentary and for his basketball team for the school two Consola-