Oroville Mercury Register
Jan. 10, 1952
Ralph E. Clark, Storekeeper Airman Apprentice, son of Mr.
And Mrs. P. B. Clark of Second Avenue, Oroville, reported aboard
Alameda Naval Air Station, Calif., for duty from NATTC Jacksonville,
Fla. He has been assigned to the Supply division.
Oroville Mercury Register
December 27, 1950
Phones From Tokyo – Pfc. John Crook Jr., son of the Rev.
Mr. and Mrs. John Crook of Palermo, who telephoned his parents Dec.
19, from a Tokyo hospital where he is recovering from burns received
in Korea Nov. 1, when an enemy mortar shell exploded a gasoline
dump. He said he was “doing very well”. The call was a “Christmas
present.”
Oroville Mercury Register
December 21, 1950
Home Town Remembrances Mailed To Hospitalized Oroville Soldier
Oroville residents took time out in the rush of Christmas
preparations today to remember an Oroville youth who is a casualty
of the Korean war. Mr. and Mrs. W. B. Hengy of Brereton Way sent
a box of Oroville oranges to Pfc. Lawrence Keifer, 17 former Oroville
high school student, who is a patient in Letterman General hospital,
in San Francisco. The Hengys, who don’t know the youth personally,
heard that he might not be able to spend Christmas with relatives
and friends here, and decided to let him know that his townsfolk
had not forgotten him. Keifer, son of Mrs. Charles E. Morris of
Quincy Road and Glen Keifer of Montgomery Street, is being treated
for frozen feet received while he was fighting near the Manchurian
border as an Infantryman. He visited in Oroville last Sunday, but
was not sure that he would get leave to spend Christmas here. He
enlisted last August while a junior at Oroville High School. Mrs.
Hengy said she would suggest to some of her friends that they send
small gifts or cards to Keifer. “I think we are all very selfish
if we can’t do something to show our appreciation for what our boys
are doing for all of us,” she said. Keifer is the only Oroville
service man, so far as she could learn, who is hospitalized in this
part of the country.
Oroville Mercury Register
February 15, 1950
GI Flies from Alaska to Oroville To Comfort His Stricken Wife
The Army Air Force made an Oroville girl happier today.
It released part of its vast machinery of air transport so a husband
could be at his wife’s bedside yesterday when she was wheeled through
the hospital to surgery. Lt. John D. Christopher Jr. was flown to
the United States from Anchorage, Alaska, where he is stationed,
so he could be with his wife the former Rena (Pat) Brower. He arrived
in Oroville late Saturday night after a quick air trip from Anchorage,
and was with her Monday when she entered the hospital. Today, the
family said, Rena is feeling much better. Mrs. Christopher is the
daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Brower of Wilcox Avenue. The Christopher’s
live on First Avenue. The couple have a son John D. Christopher
III, two and one-half.
(Stu – Army Air Force is ceased to be that in 1947 and became the
US Air Force)
Oroville Mercury Register
November 9, 1950
Corporal Joseph C. Jimenez Jr., son of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Jimenez
of Fort Wayne Street, is shown above with his wife, the former Miss
Toni Ramerez. They were married recently in Kansas, where Jimenez
is stationed with the Army Medical Corps at Fort Riley. Jimenez,
who attended Oroville schools, entered the service in 1946. For
the wedding ceremony, the new Mrs. Jimenez chose a black suit with
gray accessories, and wore a pink carnation corsage.
Ground Breaking News Finally after over 9 years we are having
a groundbreaking ceremony at our memorial site at 2400 Montgomery
next to our Veterans Hall Aug 19th
at 9AM and the whole county is invited! Stu’s Notes: The Oroville
Mercury back then rarely printed a story of a wounded soldier, why
I don’t know. I have heard many more were wounded than killed. Brereton
Way is named after committee member Jack Brereton’s Grandfather
(Jack’s extended family has bought 34 tiles for our veterans memorial).
We just had the 65th Anniversary of
the two Atomic Bombs dropped on Japan. It was sad that it had to
happen but many possibly 400,000 of our young men 17-21 and older
would probably have been killed in the up coming invasion of Japan
as they were ready to fight to the last man and never surrender
as was made evident by the mentality of the kamikaze pilots. The
date for invasion was set and plans were made, many who fought in
Europe were headed that way. Many of the young who protest what
we did would not be here as their grandfathers and fathers might
have been killed. Big Jim Townsend was headed that way, but never
went. Now the Japanese I read want us to apologize.