With The Men In Service: December 29, 1942

With The Men In Service

Three More Arrive in North Africa

Three more names of Washtenaw county youth have been added to the list of those who aree now taking part in the North African campaign.

Lt. William McK. Thompson 21, who was called to active Army service late in June after graduating from the University as an ROTC officer, is now in North Africa with a tank ordnance outfit.

LeRoy Nelson Deitz, formerly of 609 W. Washington St., is with the US Army Air Forces in North Africa and has been promoted to sergeant since his arrival according to word received by his sister, Mrs Harold W. Carter of Webster township.

Capt. Richard Gordon Finch, veteran Army and commercial airline pilot, is somewhere in Africa with the U. S. Air Force and is training for combat flying, according to word received by his parents, Prof. and Mrs. Frank R. Finch, 1619 S. University Ave.

Last May, while he was flying for American Airlines, Capt. Finch was recalled to active service with the rank of first lieutenant. He was first stationed at Bolling Field, Washington, D. C., with the Air Transport Command and later transferred to West Palm Beach, Fla. He was promoted to captain in the Command lat August.

Lt. Thompson’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. E. C. Thompson, 1231 Baldwin, received the first word in nine weeks of their son’s whereabouts on Christmas day through a telephone call a fellow Michigan alumnus Bill met aboard the ship taking them to Africa.

Robert Barnes, an Army medical corps sergeant from Detroit, who accompanied some wounded back to this country, told the Thompsons that Bill's ship had arrived off Casablanca while fighting was still in progress there in November, then pulled out of range for several days before landing.

Bill's parents also have received a letter from him, written aboard ship, saying that he expected to land in Africa after a fine trip in air-conditioned stateroom. The food was excellent, he did not become seasick and the convoy made an impressive sight, but Lt. Thompson added that "our days of loafing will soon be over.”

Sgt. Deitz. a former service station attendant and auto salesman in the employ of the Huron Motor Sales, is an April 10 selectee and his Air Corps ground crew training at Jefferson Barracks. One of the men charged with caring for guns on fighting planes, Sgt Deitz has the title of armorer.

The son of Edward Deitz, Webster township, the sergeant is a native of Big Rapids, where he was born Sept. 2, 1909 Before his enlistment he made his home in Ann Arbor with Mr and Mrs. Ted Pfitzenmaier.

A graduate of Ann Arbor High school with the class of 1927, Sgt. Deitz comes of a fighting family. His only brother, Charles Deitz, died in Navy service during the First World war on Oct. 16, 1918. His brother-in-law, Lt.-Comm. Harold W. Carter, was one of the first service men in this area to be recalled to active duly during the present war and is now with the Atlantic fleet.

Sgt. Deitz spent training time in this country at Groton and East Hartford, Conn., after finishing his work at Jefferson Barracks.

Lt. Thompson

Sgt. Deitz

Returns To Camp

One of the lucky few to receive a Christmas pass of five days was Pvt. Andrew (Andy) Heimerdinger, 31, 1500 Dexter Ave., who returned to his duties in the quartermaster corps at Camp Lee, Va., last Sunday.

A life-long resident of Ann Arbor and son of Mr. and Mrs. Carl Heimerdinger, Andy was inducted into the Army July 21, reporting at Fort Custer ten days later. Aug. 17 he was moved on to Camp Lee where he is at present stationed as a baker.

Prior to induction, Pvt. Heimerdinger was a grocery clerk at West Side Market.

Pvt. Heimerdinger

Brothers Change Places

Donald Slocum, a second class seaman in the Navy, has taken the place--temporarily--of his brother, John, now that the latter, too, has left home to begin Navy training.

Don, who enlisted in October, is on leave from the Great Lakes Naval Training station. John, who joined up Dec. 14, is beginning boot training there. The two managed to get together for a hours on Christmas day for the first time.

The younger brother, Don, who became 18 on Dec. 6, already has advanced one notch, from apprentice to second class seaman, and is now attending a gunnery school at Great Lakes. Before enlisting he was employed on the Ford farms.

John, who is 19 years old, was learning the watch repair trade at the Arcade Jewelry shop when he decided to follow Don into the Navy.

They are sons of Mr. and Mrs. James R. Slocum, 1117 S. Forest Ave., and attended Ann Arbor High school. John, who graduated in 1941, was manager of the high school football team for two years.

Second Lieutenant

Louis W. Doll, former assistant in the University General library, who was inducted into the Army on June 5, is home on leave after graduating with a commission as a second lieutenant from the officer candidate division of the anti-aircraft artillery school at Camp Davis, N. C.

Lt. Doll, who also was official historian of the Washtenaw Historical Society and St. Thomas Catholic church, is one of two sons of Mr. and Mrs. William Doll, 411 N. State St., who are in service. His brother, J. Edward Doll, is in Australia—or was at last writing.

Louis Doll, who is 31 years of age and has a doctor of philosophy degree from the University, stopped briefly at Fort Custer after entering the Army and then received his basic training in anti-aircraft at Fort Eustis, Va., before being selected for the Camp Davis officer candidate school.

He will report back to Fort Eustis on Jan. 3.

Ed Doll, who is 26, has been in Australia since July 23, serving as a first class private in the military police. He previously was on guard duty at Sault Ste. Marie, Baltimore and Pittsburgh. He likes Australia well enough, but admits to being lonesome for home now and then.

Louis Doll

Ed Doll

In Army Ordnance

In Army ordnance department and stationed at Aberdeen proving grounds in Maryland is Capt. William Michael Teeter of Ann Arbor, a University graduate in engineering and formerly holder of the LaVerne Noyes scholarship.

Aug. 25, 1941, Capt. Teeter was sent to Aberdeen for three weeks and then to an Iowa ordnance plant at Des Moines for inspector and production control work. Last April 12, he was transferred with two other officers to Milwaukee to start a new ordnance plant there. Since Dec. 18, he has been back at Aberdeen.

At Pearl Harbor

If Maurice E. (Mike) Witting, 32, could only talk, there no doubt would be plenty of interesting tales coming from his bast experience. Already a veteran Navy man of over 10 years, Ensign Witting seems to have been in some of the hot spots where Naval history has been made so far in this war.

After graduating from high school and taking three years at the University, Ensign Witting joined the Navy. That was in September, 1932. He was stationed at San Pedro, Calif., for two years and at San Diego, Calif., for six years.

In October, 1940, he was at Honolulu until March, 1941 when he went to New York for a six weeks’ stay. Next came Norfolk, Va., and last Dec. 8, he boarded the Yorktown as a petty ward officer. Since last August, after the sinking of the Yorktown, he has been stationed at Pearl Harbor, being commissioned an ensign about Sept. 12.

Ensign Witting is the son of Mr. and Mrs. C. G. Witting, 221 Mosley St. His wife, a former San Diego girl, Lila Tweedy, is now staying on the west coast.

Ensign Witting

Finishes Maneuvers

Carl William (Slim) Jaeger, 25, who entered the Army Aug. 12, has completed maneuver training in the south and is back again at Camp Pickett, Va., in the quartermaster corps.

Pvt. Jaeger, son of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Jaeger, 519 Pauline Blvd., was employed as a shipping clerk at Barnard & Hammond at the time of his induction into the Army.

After 10 days at Fort Custer he received basic training and attended a quartermasters' school at Fort Francis E. Warren, Wyo., before being transferred to Camp Pickett on Nov. 27.

He attended Ann Arbor High school.

Slim Jaeger

Up The Ranks

An Army supplyman who has worked himself up from the ranks to a second lieutenant's rating since enlisting for service at Detroit on Feb. 26, 1936, is Lt. Frederick Guy Heath, a native of Willis.

Lt. Heath, now stationed with an Army ordnance outfit at Camp Sutton, Monroe, N. C., is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Guy W. Heath, Willis. Somewhat of an old-timer in today's wartime-mobilized Army, Lt. Heath began his training at the Fort Wayne post in Detroit back in 1936.

Six years and six months of his Army career were spent in performing medical corps duties, including a year, from Sept. 12, 1938, until Sept. 12, 1939, studying clinical pathology at the Army medical school in Washington. D. C.

He received his sergeant's stripes on Dec. 1, 1939, and became a staff sergeant on Feb. 22, 1940. On Oct. 16, 1941, he was made a technical sergeant and received his second lieutenant's bars last Nov. 21.

The lieutenant was born at Willis Oct. 20, 1917. He attended Lincoln Consolidated school and was a baseball and basketball player in his school days. Married to the former Lillian L. Graham, Ridgetown, Ont., Lt. Heath is the father of a son, Frederick Graham, born Nov. 10, 1942. His wife expects to take the baby and join her husband at Camp Sutton in the near future.

Lt. Heath has a brother, Sgt. Anthony Craig Heath, who at last report, was stationed in New Guinea.

Lt. Heath

Getting Boot Training

Getting his boot training at the Great Lakes Naval training station is Ernest William Keebler, jr., Whitmore Lake youth who has been a Navy man since his enlistment on Nov. 2.

Ernie is listed as a second class seaman on the training station's roster.

Seaman Keebler, the son of Mr. and Mrs. William Brewer, Whitmore Lake, is an Ann Arbor native, having been born here May 27, 1922. Before enlisting, he was employed as cable man for the Michigan Bell Telephone Co.