January 23, 2004
Oroville Mercury April 16th, 19th
1945
WRITES MORE ABOUT GAB FEST WITH HARRY BOKMANN
Frank (Cope) Hogan, who recently let the home town folks
know that in Honolulu he had seen Harry Bokmann, former local mail
carrier, has more to say about Bokmann in a letter to Mrs. A. L.
Richter and family of Thermalito. “I saw Harry in his barracks,”
Hogan writes. “As you can probably imagine, we chewed up a sizable
chunk of fat and repainted a lot of memories. Harry is getting along
fine, is well thought of in his outfit and is a staff sergeant and
crew chief bomber. The way Harry talks, he is still going to be
a mail carrier when he gets back. I think travel hits Harry about
the way it does me. The more I see of the world, the more I an convinced
that the U. S. A. is better than anywhere else. Harry saw some pretty
rugged duty south of Honolulu for about 11 months, so he knows all
about the “be-oottiful” stinking rocks, they call the Paradise of
the Pacific. There is one small thing that one might call good,
that will come out of the war. There are going to be a lot of Joes
come back that are going to appreciate the U. S. A. like they never
did before, believe me.”
LT. SCHAUER IS MISSING
1st Lt. William S. Schauer, 23, son of Mr. and
Mrs. William A. Schauer, formerly of Oroville, has been reported
missing in action in the European theatre. Mrs. Eva Noel was informed
today by Lt. Schauer’s mother in Oakland that the young B-17 pilot
failed to return from his third mission over occupied Germany and
was reported missing March 17. Lt. Schauer, a veteran navigator
of the Asiatic, Pacific and European theatres, enlisted in the Army
Air Forces four years ago and served several months overseas as
a navigator for the Ferry Command, before being sent to O. C. S.
He was commissioned last August at Marfa Army Air Field, Texas,
and went overseas in January. His wife Dorothy and five months-old
son, Bill, live in Roswell, N. Mex. He is also survived by two sisters,
Zadell and Lois.
May 29,1945
SCHAUER FREED FROM GERMANS
Lt. William S. Schauer, Known to his friends as Billie, is safe
after having been released from a German prison camp. In a letter
to his mother, Mr. Wm. A. Schauer, he said he had been in a camp
near Munich and hoped to be flying home soon.)
Stu’s notes: It has been so good to have Debbie home. She has
been catching up on things with her family, friends, dogs, and horses.
She has especially enjoyed her best friend, Stacey. Debbie says
I’ve been feeding the horses enough but I fed her dogs too much.
She says they are fat! I guess I give them too many treats. Her
friends have been very good to her, trimming her horses feet, bringing
sacks of feed and sending her care packages. Thanks to everyone.
Debbie leaves for Iraq on Sunday. She should be back in the states
by May for good. Here is a picture of Debbie with her roping steer
head in the grill, in front of her truck in Iraq.
I recently met Harry down town. He has lived in Oroville most of
his life and can remember so much about Oroville years ago. He was
a crew chief for the B-25’s . In the service when the plane was
on the ground it was his; in the Air it was the pilot’s. One of
his planes was shot down. He did go back to the post office after
the war. I think he retired in 1977. I have been trying to get more
of his stories, this one I found in the scrap book of Ona Couris.