Out of the Past~World War II in Texas

We finally got a little rain Sunday night and yesterday...but in Celina, just a little, we remain dry for the most part, with the drought still in place. The humidity was pretty intense as I headed off to do a Freshman Football game between Celina and it's arch rival, St. Marys. Good game, with the visiting Roughriders coming out on top of the local Bulldogs 14-12....the Celina Freshman team is pretty good, but once again, St. Marys finds a way to win...such is football in the rivalry, it's been one sided for the past decade. No games for me until Saturday, a welcome break of sorts, for the first time since the season, now entering the half way point, began.

Sam called from Columbus, yesterday marked his first game, a Junior Varsity contest, in the Columbus City League....said it was different, just like city folks are different from us "country bumpkins"....classes begin at Ohio State tomorrow, and his life in Columbus, at age 27, begins anew. For the next month he will be coming home on weekends to do games around here...this in addition to his Columbus games, and his work for the Big Ten Network and the OSU Athletic Department. Hopefully he will have time for his class study, because it appears he will be busy, to say the least.

Uncle Harry Anspach, a look back at WW2____

I don't really remember much about Harry, he was my Uncle, but by marriage to my dad's sister, Eva...Harry was not a blood relative, but according to mom he was a decent guy....Harry was divorced from Aunt Eva in the 1950s and passed away in the 1960s if my memory serves me correctly.

I know Harry was a Veteran of World War 2, and was into sending postcards by the hundreds from the places he was stationed stateside{I don't believe Harry was overseas during the war}...Some of them ended up being quite valuable, the old "real photo postcards", those featuring real photographs of places he visited or was stationed. I still have some, others I sold on Ebay for pretty good money. Anyway this is about Harry and his attachment at San Antonio, Texas. I have mountains of paper and postcards to go through, but if I remember correctly Harry was stationed at Fort Sam Houston during the 1941-43 period of the war.

Names and Places from Fort Sam Houston 1943____

The Squadron name remains in my stacks of paper and memories in the basement....but I do have the names and locations of the men in the photograph from 1943( or maybe 41 or 42) located at the top of the story...I have "Googled" the names and have found some, like Otis H. Hall, from Shamrock, Texas, still alive....last information on Otis is that he's in his early 90s and residing in Amarillo, the pearl of the Texas Panhandle...not far from his hometown of Shamrock. I was stationed in Basic Training at Amarillo, and have been through Shamrock, located on I-40 many a time while delivering RVs west.

I have the names, but not in the exact order or location, on the photo...but wanted to put the names on this blog, just in case some of my meager, 75-125 visitors on average per day, might accidentally come on a name they recognize.

The Names_______

Here are the names{some no doubt spelled incorrectly} and hometowns of the men on the photograph...Fort Sam Houston 1943(?)

Clyde Beeler

1321 West First Street

OK City, Oklahoma

----------

Jerry Lyon

Box 2394

Little Rock, Arkansas

----------

Otis H. Hall

Box 524

Shamrock, Texas

------------

Bill Nicholl

84th and 27th St.

Salt Lake City, Utah

--------------------

Don Lembeke(sp?)

Newcastle, Nebraska

----------

Harold D. Nichols

Pullman, Washington

------------

Paul Boman (Roman?)

Snoqualmie, Washington

-----------------

Jay Allen

General Delivery

Newark, Arkansas

------------

Sam Duro

Akron, Michigan

--------------

Captain C. Guinn

E1514 9th

Spokane, Washington

------------

William W. Reco(Rico, Riceo, Reeco? not really sure, but don't believe it's Reco)

Jackson, Michigan

---------------

Robert Greeco(? another one that I doubt I have right)

Newark, NJ

---------------

Jim McVey

Philadelphia, PA

-------------

Hugo Lindgren

416 5th St.

Coronado, California

---------------

Harry Anspach

Scott, Ohio

--------------

Carl Smith

Stearns, Kentucky

---------------

Fred Reo

2965 Northwestern

Detroit, Michigan

------------------

Frank Corso

67 St. James Place

Brooklyn, NY

---------------

Charles J. Jase

New Britain , CT

There you have them, the men, who long ago served their country and were stationed at a Army Base in south Texas...most, like Uncle Harry, I am sure have passed on, others, like Otis Hall may still be alive...as a Veteran of an unpopular war called Vietnam, I salute these men.

Back Later>>>>

Photos-The men at San Antonio whose names appear above and "Uncle" Harry Anspach at the family cottage near Coldwater, Michigan, in the later 1940s, after his service was up. And the portrait photo shot of him and my dad's older sister Aunt Eva when the were married in San Antonio. {Double photos Click to Supersize}