With The Men In Service: September 4, 1942

With The Men In Service

Friendship Ties Extend To Duty With Uncle Sam

Two Ann Arbor youths who have been friends since childhood and whose interests have paralleled one another's throughout high school, have carried their companionship a little further by enlisting in the Navy together.

Joseph Dobransky, 20, and Delbert (Junior) Packard, jr., 19, enlisted in the Naval Reserve as aviation machinist's mates on Aug. 26, and reported the next day at the Great Lakes naval training station where they are at present.

Joe is a 1940 graduate of Ann Arbor High school and Junior a 1941 graduate. While in high school, both boys were active in athletics, extending their interest in baseball to the city leagues once they were out. Hoe was a pitcher on the King-Seeley team, where he was employed as a machinist at the time of enlistment and Junior was with the Blue Front team. He was working at Willow Run prior to Navy enlistment.

They are the sons of Mr. and Mrs. Anthony Dobransky, 119 Adams Ave., and Mr. and Mrs. Delbert Packard, 422 Packard St.

Not only are Joe and Junior such fast friends but their brothers, Mike Dobransky and Jack Packard, are also spoken of in one breath. Mike and Jack are both sergeants in the National Guard, having left Ann Arbor with Company K, Ann Arbor National Guard unit, back in October, 1940. They're both in California now but not exactly together.

Illness and change of outfit finally separated the two. Sgt. Packard was sent to a hospital at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Ind., last March, where he underwent an operation which laid him up for over three months. He is now completely recovered, though still at Fort Harrison, and has received orders to return to Company K in Hollywood, Calif.

Before that Sgt. Dobransky, too, had been confined to the hospital for two and one-half months with a knee injured while captaining the infantry football team. After recovery he was transferred to the Military Police and later another transfer found him a radio operator and platoon sergeant at Watsonville, Calif.

The third Packard boy, Vernell, is now serving with an Army Air Corps ground crew in Oahu Island, Hawaii.

Joe Dobransky

Junior Packard

Nears Silver Wings

Reaching the final stages in the process of winning the silver wings of the Army Air Corps, James Francis Gordy, son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles B. Gordy, 1929 Lorraine Pl., is now a member of the aviation cadet class at Foster Field, Tex.

Cadet Gordy withdrew from the University at the end of first semester last year to enlist in the Air Corps. Completing training at Kelly Field, Tex., he was assigned to Corsicana, Tex., and then to Perrin Field, Tex., from where he was graduated in July to the upper class of recruit pilots at the base.

Three In Navy

Three more youths claimed by the United States Navy are Royal Hackenberg and Ralph W. Bishop, both of Gregory, and Richard J. Opal, 4501 Jackson Ave.

Royal Hackenberg, 18, who has two brothers, Leo and Ted, both in the war zone with the Coast Guard, enlisted Aug. 3 and reported at the Great Lakes naval training station two weeks later. He is there at present.

A graduate of Addison High school in 1941, Royal was a machinist with the Chelsea Spring Co. in Chelsea at the time of enlistment. He is the son of Rev. T. C. and Rev. Gertrude Hackenberg.

The son of Mr. and Mrs. Glenn Bishop, Ralph (Wally) Bishop, 31, was an electrician in Williamston and Howell at the time of enlistment last Jan. 3. He attended Gregory High school and took an electrical course at Coine Electric school in Chicago, graduating in 1940.

Reporting first at the Great Lakes naval training station, Wally was transferred Feb. 15 to the Detroit armory and again Aug. 1 to Receiving Barracks in Brooklyn, N. Y. He was made a petty officer, third class, July 24.

Richard J. Opal was living with his guardian, Mrs. Katheryn J. Opal, 4501 Jackson Ave., when he enlisted in the Navy June 29. Only 17 years old, Dick was a high school student and pin boy at the Twentieth Century Bowling while in civilian life.

Eleven days after enlisting, he supported at Detroit and from there was sent to the Great Lakes naval training station. He is stationed there now.

Hackenberg

Dick Opal

Also On Last Lap

Another Ann Arbor boy creeping up on the final graduation day, wings and commission is Tarje M. Grimstad, who has been graduated from Minter Field, Calif., an Army basic flying school, and has entered advanced school at Roswell, N. M., which marks the final phase in the rigorous course for flying officers.

Cadet Grimstad enlisted last January and has been trained thus far at Kelly Field, Tex., Ryan Field, Calif., and Minter Field. His wife, who is remaining in Ann Arbor with their one and one-half-months-old son, is the former Elinor Bryant. She is living with her parents at 116 White St.

First Lieutenant Now

Second Lt. Charles L. Brooks, who has been with an engineering division or ground crew of the Army Air Corps in Australia since last March, has been promoted to first lieutenant, according to word received by his mother, Mrs. Laura P. Brooks, 829 Tappan Ave.

Son of Mrs. Brooks and the late Charles L. Brooks, sr., Lt. Brooks enlisted in the Air Corps in March 1941 but was not called to duty until June of that year. After graduating from officers' training school at Chanute Field, Ill., last January, he was commissioned second lieutenant and sent to Daniel Field, Augusta, Ga., and soon was on his way to San Francisco and hence to Australia.

V-5 Enlistments

Six Ann Arbor boys and one Ypsilanti youth have been sworn into the Navy's V-5 program as aviation cadets, after successfully passing mental and physical examinations.

They are Albert H. Loy, 5081 Pratt Ave., Neilon I. Navarre, 413 Longshore Dr., Hal Whittemore, 1920 Norway Rd., William S. Dougall, 317 Chicago House, Samuel P. Sturgis, 609 Stratford Dr., John Price, 912 Monroe St. and David C. Kipp, Ypsilanti.

All high school graduates, they will not be called into service until approximately one to three months from now. They will then go to the University of Iowa for pre-flight training. Upon completion of training, which lasts nine to 12 months, cadets can enter the Navy as ensigns or the Marine Corps as second lieutenants.

Stationed At Seattle

Lorrin G. Jedele, 26, of Saline, who was among the men to be inducted in the first roundup early in the spring of 1941, is a hardened Army man by now but, strangely enough, he has seen service in only four different camps so far.

Corp. Jedele was inducted into the Army in April, 1941. He landed first at Camp Grant, Ill., but his ravels became a little more extensive by the time he finally ended up at his present station in Seattle, Wash.

It was while he was at Camp Davis, N. C., that a promotion to private, first class came to him. Shortly afterwards he was sent to Washington, D. C., for a few weeks before being sent on to Norfolk, Va. He was made corporal at his present station.

Before induction, Corp. Jedele was employed by Pielemeier & Hilbert, Ann Arbor contracting firm. He is the son of George Jedele of Saline.

Corp. Jedele

In Medical Corps

Robert s. Allen, 25, a former member of the University freshman swimming squad, and now a member of the Army medical corps, had earned a B.S. degree from the University and had gone on to complete one year in Law School when he was inducted last May 14. He is the son of Prof. and Mrs. Shirley W. Allen, 1818 Hermitage Rd.

A graduate of University High school, Bob has been a resident of Ann Arbor for 15 years. During the summer he had been employed by the U. S. National Park Service, the University hospital and the Paint Pot.

Sent to Fort Custer first, Bob was hastened off to Camp Grant, Ill., to become a member of a medical training battalion about the first of June. There he attended the camp's clerical school and was successfully graduated the last day in July. At present he is at a field hospital at Camp Young, Calif. where he reported Aug. 8.

Bob Allen

Enlists In Navy's V-7

John Hitchcock McMurray, 21, has been enlisted for officer's training in the U. S. Naval Reserve. He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth McMurray, 336 Orchard Hills Dr.

A graduate of University High school, he is now a student in the University and will be held on inactive duty until he is graduated in 1943. He enlisted under the Navy's V-7 program.

At Engineering Center

Robert H. Stacy, 22, formerly of 1236 Prospect St., is now at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., an engineer replacement training center, where he will be trained in preparation for combat engineer duty. A native of New York, Bob attended the University literary school for three years.

Sent To Daniel Field

Frank E. (Roy) Mercier, who recently was graduated from the Army Air Force's advanced technical school of armament at Lowery Field, Colo., is now at Daniel Field in Augusta, Ga. Mrs. Mercier, the former Alma St. John, has returned to Ann Arbor after spending six weeks with her husband in Colorado.

Home On Furlough

Gale W. Hibbard, 327 Mulholland Ave., is home on a 10-day furlough now awarded him upon graduation from officer's training school at Fort Benning, Ga., where he was commissioned a second lieutenant. Lt. Hibbard will report Sept. 8 to Camp Hood, Tex.

Originally a member of Co. K, the Ann Arbor unit of the National Guard, Lt. Hibbard was released in November, 1941, as over age, after he had trained with the company at Camp Beauregard, La., and at Camp Livingson. Recalled last Feb. 2, he rejoined Co. K in California, before being sent on to Fort Benning. He is no longer a member of Co. K.

Lt. Hibbard