With The Men In Service: February 18, 1943

With The Men In Service

Soldier Recovering From Battle Wounds

Julius Aschenbrenner, jr., private, first class, from Pinckney, is making "normal improvement" in an Army hispital somewhere in Australia from wounds received in New Guinea action last Nov. 8, according to a War department telegram received by his parents.

The Pinckney serviceman was a member of a commando unit of the Red Arrow Division, serving as a machine gunner. He saw action in several battles on the South Pacific island before being wounded.

At Christmas time, Pvt. Aschenbrenner’s mother received her first direct word from her son in five months. He wrote at that time, "I got all the Japs I promised you. Only wish I could have stayed longer to get more of them."

"It all seems like a strange nightmare now," he wrote. "Since coming to this hospital I have lost my big beard which I wore more than three months; it was very good camouflage, though pretty tough, painted green like the rest of my body. I'm getting the best care in the world here, don't worry about me. After a long stay in the hospital, I'll be as good as new and I'll never regret having been a machine gunner and a commando."

Pvt. Aschenbrenner is 24 years old and a native of Detroit. Before being selected for Army service on Dec. 4, 1941, he had managed his father’s farm west of Pinckney. He also was known as an amateur wrestler.

Aschenbrenner

In Aircraft Warning

Harry Denton (Bud) Kelly, jr., 20, of Ann Arbor, who was inducted into the Army Oct. 26, is now in training at Drew Field, near Tampa, Fla., in a communications company, plotting battalion, of a signal aircraft warning regiment.

Pvt. Kelly is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Kelly, 511 Soule Blvd., and graduated in 1939 from the Ann Arbor High school, where he was staff photographer for the Optimist and the Omega. Before entering the Army he was a commercial photographer for the McCord Studio at Corinth, Miss.

After beginning his Army life on Nov. 9 at Fort Custer, Bud went on the 15th to Miami Beach, Fla., assigned to an Army Air Corps training unit. On Dec. 27 he was transferred to Drew Field.

Bud Kelly

Gets Commission

Charles L. Way of Clinton is sporting a shiny set of second lieutenant's bars and the silver wings of an Army Air Forces pilot these days following graduation Tuesday from the advanced flying school at Napier Field, Dothan, Ala.

Lt. Way is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Clyde W. Way of Clinton. A graduate of the Clinton High school, he attended Michigan State Normal College for a year before being called to armed service as a National Guardsman on Oct. 15, 1940.

He began his aviation cadet training last March 28. His commission testifies that he successfully completed flight training which carried him through primary, basic and advanced schools and that he is ready to take his place in the ranks of young men who are flying throughout the Army Air Forces.

Lt. Way

Prepares For Battle Under Two Flags

Roland John Ingerson, 24, of Ann Arbor, holds flying wings in both the Canadian and American air forces, but it is as U. S. bomber pilot that he is awaiting an assignment to a combat area—preferably against the Japs In the South Pacific.

Rollie, a first lieutenant In the U. S. Army Air Forces, has returned to his base at Topeka, Kas., after a furlough at home.

Son of Mr. and Mrs. John L. Ingerson, 708 Arch St., Lt. Ingerson graduated in 1938 from Ann Arbor High school, where he was captain of the swimming team in 1937-38 and was on the track team.

He attended Michigan State Normal College at Ypsilanti for a year and then, on July 15, 1941, enlisted at Windsor in the Royal Canadian Air Force. On July 20 he reported at Montreal, receiving his basic pre-flight training there. He took his primary training at Windsor Mills, Que., and his advanced training back in Montreal.

On June 23, 1942, six days before he was scheduled to receive his commission and wings as a pilot officer, he obtained a transfer to the U.S. Army Air Forces. Because he was leaving the RCAF advanced its schedule and gave him both the wings and commission.

With the American Air Force, he reported at Columbus, Miss., for twin-engine training and, receiving credit for his Canadian training, was commissioned as a second lieutenant on July 26 of 1942. He since has taken four-engine training at Tucson, Ariz., Pueblo, Colo., Alemogordo, N. Mex., and at Topeka.

Last October he married Alice Jeanne Evans of Ann Arbor and on Dec. 23 he was promoted to first lieutenant.

Lt. Ingerson

Brother Is Missing

Petty Officer Alfred Morris, a Navy man with 16 years service who has visited Ann Arbor frequently, is officially reported to be missing in action, according to word received here by his brother, Harry Morris of 524 Cherry St. When and where the action occurred was not given.

The Ann Arbor resident's brother called Council Bluff, Mo., his home, even though he was at sea most of the time since 1927, serving on a variety of warships. On that fateful Dec. 7 he was at Pearl Harbor. He is 35 years old.

Alfred Morris

In North Africa

Among the Ann Arbor soldiers in North Africa is Earl Thomas Bondie, 26, of 701 S. Main St.

Bondie, who was raised to first class private at Christmas time, following his arrival in French Morocco, is the of Mr. and Mrs. George E. Bondie of Wayne. When he entered the Army last June 28 he was a stock checker at Willow Run.

After four days at Fort Custer, where he reported July 7, he was sent to Camp Robinson, Ark., for eight weeks of basic training. From there he was transferred to Camp Livingston, La., where he was placed in a refrigerator company of the quartermaster corps.

After a month at Livingston he and his outfit were sent to New Jersey and they embarked in November for the new theater of operations in Africa.

Earl Bondie

'M' Track Star Home From South Pacific

John (Jaxk) McMaster, jr., 24, former University of Michigan varsity track star, has returned to the United States after six months of service with a Navy mobile hospital unit in New Zealand. He is to report Monday at the V-7 naval training school at Columbia University in New York.

Jack arrived in San Francisco in January after a trip across the high seas in a ship carrying hospital patients. He is the only one in his division to be sent back to the United States for the purpose of attending midshipmen's school.

Rated a pharmacist's mate, third class, as well as a technician in physical therapy, Jack had five months' training at the Great Lakes naval training station and one month in New York before being shipped to the New Zealand land base in the Pacific zone with a hospital construction unit last July.

"The people over there swell,” Jack said, "and are really extremely fond of U. S. soldiers and sailors." Many of the resfdents of a city just seven miles from his hospital station invited the men to their homes for tea, he said and when they got there, they found that tea is really dinner.

According to Jack, New Zealand Is a lot like the United States, not only in climate but in food, people, recreation and customs. Because they were not located in a battle zone, they saw no action, worked only during the day and spent the rest pf the time loafing and walking through the hills.

Jack married the former Josephine Alexander of Ann Arbor, Nov. 23, 1941. While in the University he was a member of Phi Kappa Sigma fraternity, and M-Club, and left campus during his senior year to enlist on Jan. 26, 1942.

He is the son of Lt. Comm. and Mrs. John McMaster of Philadelphia, Pa. Hid father is stationed in Houston, Tex., in the division supervising shipbuilding.

Jack and his wife left Ann Arbor early this week to visit his parents in Philadelphia, where Mrs. McMaster will reside until he has completed V-7 training.

Jack McMaster

Military Policeman

Corp. Donald Hazen Cooley, of Clinton, spends his Army duty time seeing to it that his buddies obey military regulations and maintain Army decorum.

He is a member of the military police force stationed with troops at Fort Custer.

A selectee last Oct. 2, Corp. Cooley, who is 39 years old, stepped from one police job into another when he joined the Army. Before his induction, Corp. Cooley was a member of the plant protection force at Willow Run.

The Clinton serviceman Is a graduate of Clinton High school with the class of 1922. He also attended Michigan State Normal College at Ypsllantl for two years. During his school days, he won athletic recognition as a competitor in baseball and football.

Corp. Cooley received his basic training at Fort Riley, Kas. Last month he was given his corporal's stripes.

Corp. Cooley

Brothers In Service

The Girbach brothers, Harold and John Stanley, are training for active service In the nation's armed forces but their training camps are many miles apart.

Harold, or Harry as he Is known lo his friends, the elder of the two brothers at 23, is at Indiantown Gap, Pa., with an Army quartermaster’s unit. John, who is 21, is with a medical outfit stationed Fort Pierce, Fla.

Harold was selected for service last March 4, reported at Fort Warren, Wyo., and also spent time at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo, and at Camp Pine, N.Y. Before he was called to service, he was a weaver at the Clinton Woolen Manufacturing Co. Harold graduated from Clinton High school with the class of 1938.

The younger Girbach brother,Johnny, was called for armed service last Aug. 28, reported at Fort Custer, received his basic training at Camp Crowder, Mo., and then went on maneuvers in Tennessee and California before being transferred to Fort Pierce. He Is 21 years old.

Johnny was graduated from Clinton High school a year later than his brother and had also been employed, as a wool sorter, at the Clinton mills before being called up.

The brothers are sons of Mr. and Mrs. John Girback, 9650 Willow Rd.

H. Girbach

J. S. Girbach

In Sanitary Corps

William R. Carroll, 26, whose wife is the former Harriet Dana of Ann Arbor, is a first lieutenant in the Army's sanitary corps, serving as food and nutrition officer Camp Young, Calif.

Lt. Carroll, whose civilian home is at Urbana, Ill., holds degrees from Swarthmore College and Harvard University. Since he enlisted July 2, 1942, he has served in Washington. D. C., Camp Crowder, Mo., Fort Douglas, Utah, and at the Presidio of San Francisco.

His wife, to whom he was married June 28, 1941, is living with him at Palm Springs, Calif.

Army Engineer

Training lo do duty as an Army engineer is Pvt. Venanches (Van) Perry, Whitmore lake soldier who has been stationed for his first long hitch at Camp Claiborne, La.

The son of Mr. and Mrs. James Perry of Whitmore Lake, Van was selected for service on Jan. 7, was indoctrinated at Camp Grant ad then was sent to Camp Claiborne, where he is serving with an engineer corps.

Van, a former pupil of the Whltmore Lake public school, is 20 years old and a native of Sydney, Canada, where he was born Aug. 10, 1920. He and his parents have lived at Whitmore Lake for seven years.

Before being called to service, Van was a truck driver for Chris Frey, Ann Arbor trucker.

Pvt. Perry

The U. S. Navy ration in 1812 provided most of the vitamins and minerals now recognized as necessary, but it was totally lacking in vitamin C.