Southwest High School - Roundup Yearbook (St Louis, MO)

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SAMMY SOUTHWEST SAYS HELLO In recent months faculty members have received many letters from their former students who are now serving in the armed forces. Included below are excerpts from some of these letters which we believe will be of general interest to Southwesterners, who may remember many of these boys: . . . I've enjoyed the Navy every single day I have been here at Great Lakes. To me, it gets better every day. Things here are so clean it's almost unbelievable. We steel-Wool our decks twice a day. Our clothes must be clean always-even our work clothes .... I've run into a few of the fellows from school up here and had a nice talk on the wonderful times we had at our Alma Mater .... Give my regards to the faculty and the new Eights and wish them good luck for me. Bob Nischwitz . . . I'm undergoing pre-flight training here at Santa Ana, California, and have been classified as a pilot .... In the afternoon we have classes: aircraft and naval identification, code, physics, mathematics, maps and charts, and other courses. I have had two years of collegeg so I have little trouble, but for the fellows who have not had much background for these subjects, it is pretty tough. For instance, we covered six weeks of high school physics in three days this week! . . .The food here is good and we get plenty of it. Gene Sommerich . . . I'm out in Camp Farragut, Idaho. We get plenty of food and it surely is good .... Tell the fellows back home that the little training they get isn't anything-we get that much before breakfast! We have about eight or ten boys from Southwest here. Bill Muench . . . I have been out of boot camp for the past five months. When I finished my boot training, they stopped all leaves. Well, I asked for a. leave anyway, and the lieutenant said, No. I then asked him if I could have any time off to die, and he told me to die on my own time after the war, because it is against regulations to die on government time .... Last month ten men from our Coast Guard station went to Alaska. One of these days my number will come up, and I'll be across-l'm expecting' it any day, but I'm not worrying about it till the time comes. Vincent Monaco ...The first three weeks here at Great Lakes is a quarantine period' when no one is allowed to visit anybody. During this period we receive seven different shots: single, double, and triple typhoid, smallpox, dip- theria, etc. Some of my fellow shipmates got sick, but it didn't bother- me at all, except that my arm got sore from being stuck so much .... There is something to do every night even if it is just going to see a movie which is a couple of years old. Between military training and domestic life we are busy all the time. Elmer Michel . . . Here at Naval Air Navigation School in Hollywood, Florida, we are being given specialized pilot-navigation training .... After we finish our training here we will get our commissions, and after navigating patrol Twenty-eight

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Ray L. McKiever Thomas Henry McKiever Elmer Michel Fred B. Miller Robert M. Miller Francis Miller Herman Minor Dan Mirrelli Marion Moehrle Vincent Monaco W. F. Morgan James Moore Robert R. Mort John A. Mort Elmer Mory George E. Mueller Robert Mueller Wm. D. Muench Maurice Myers James Nazzoli Walter Naughton Emil Neighbors Charles Nelson Richard Neubert Robert T. Nischwitz Ray O'Bryant Robert E. Olde Eugene J. O'Rourke, Jr. Holward J. Parmenter Joseph Payer Melville P. Pence Howard Reese Penfield Donald Pepple D. J. Pepple Edgar Petty William J. Porter Ralph H. Potts Fred W. Praechter John Pulos William Recentin Robert Reese Thomas A. Risch Joseph J. Roberts J. R. Robinson Dale W. Robbins Roy W. Romine Sam Rosenkranz Ralph Rotty Frank Ruma Paul C. Santhuff Charles A. Savens John H. Schaefer E. A. Schlereth Herbert C. Schmitz James R. Schultz Alex R. Schultz Jack H. Scott Jack R. Seeler Albert C. Seratti George H. Setzekorn William M. Sherman, Jr. Don Short Guy Sickels Chas. A. Smith Robert M. Smith E. M. Sommereich Eugene Sonnleitner Jos. B. Sparrow Richard Spathelf James Spencer Jim Staley Nicholas G. Stamulis Clair E. Stevens Edward B. Stevens Robert L. Steward Roy Stock Robert E. Stocker Lewis J. Stibal Walter Swarthout Robert Taveggia Jack C. Therina Ben J. Therina Sam Tomlinson Victor Trejbal Caeser Torretti Robert E. Treptow William F. Treptow Walter H. Udell Kenneth Van Leer Robert Vass Wayne G. Wadsack Herbert Waeckerle A. J. Wahoif Emerson Walter Buford Walter Ray Wiegert Irwin Weigle Eugene Westerholt Albert Westwood C. E. Wiethuechter Andrew White Dale Williams George Wolfslau James Wortman Twenty-seven

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l '-'U uuuuuunnunq' bombers for a year and undergoing more training, we will become fleet squadron leaders or head navigators aboard aircraft carriers .... Ten per cent of the men down here are just high school graduates, so we have to study more to keep up with the college boys. One of my room-mates and I study until midnight almost every other night, and so far we are doing O. K. Vic D'Harlingue . . .I too, when a civilian, wondered where all our fine steaks, chops, and other foodstuffs were disappearing to, but now I know-the armed forces get them, there is no rationing here! Melvin Tielkemeier . . . I am in the U. S. Navy Air Force and at present am attending U. S. N. Preparatory School at Murray State Teachers' College, Murray, Kentucky. I am reviewing some of my former school work, but I'm also learning a lot of new things .... We get up at 5:30 frather early, don't you think?J and hit the sack at 21:30 19.30 p. m.D. They believe in giving us plenty of sleep. We also do a lot of studying, from 19:30 to 21:15 in our rooms. The only time we get out is on Saturday from 17:30 to 24:00 fmidnightj and on Sunday from 9:30 to 21:00 .... Tell all the teachers who remember me hello , Milton Hempen . . . I'm in a tent city which is about twenty-five miles outside the city limits of St. Petersburg. It's really rough here, but I like it. We eat from our mess kits as we sit on the ground. Since the ground is sandy, if one is not careful, he may eat about as much sand as food! . . . In the daytime down here you can easily get a sun-tang however-if you don't dress warmly and cover up well at night, you almost freeze to death. John Schaefer ...I am now in Camp Hood, Texas. We've only been here five days and there's been lots of work to do, but after we get settled it should be really nice. Out here we live in tents and it's really swell-just like living in a Boy Scout camp .... I've gained eleven pounds since I've been in the army. You guessed itg they don't call me Chow Hound for nothing! Charles Wiethuechter . . . I've been here at Navy Pier about two months now but have been going to school only half that time. They had our whole company on K. P. for a month first .... I really like it here, and I'm doing fine in the class and shop .... Our company gets liberty three times a week-Thurs- day, Saturday, and Sunday-but we always have to be in by twelve. Chicago is probably the best liberty town in the country, everyone is so friendly. Bob Mueller ...I'm stationed here at Fort Knox, Kentucky, as a stenographer in the Armored Force Headquarters .... I completed my basic training a couple months ago, and I managed to make a satisfactory mark on my typing and shorthand test, so I landed this job, which I find both enjoyable and interesting. We have wonderful sleeping quarters, regular working hours, and lots of work to keep us busy .... I hope to get a rating in the near future, but regardless, I still find army life to my liking. Yours for Victory, Fred Tornatore Twenty - nine