June 27, 2014

Oroville Mercury Register
July 26, 2002
Looking Back on Oroville Heroes
December 13, 1944 Pfc. Boyet Wins Purple Heart
Pfc. William E. Boyet, 20, has received the Purple Heart medal for wounds received in action at Saipan Marianas Islands, June 28, 1944. Boyet sent the medal to his mother, Mrs. Hassie Dobson on Lincoln Blvd., and also the notification of the award made in the name of the President by the commanding General of the Second Marine Division. In an accompanying letter Boyet said that he had recovered and told his mother not to worry. He has been in service 14 months. He is a graduate of Oroville High School, ’42. He worked at Feather Falls and later as a machinist, in shipyards at Portland and San Francisco prior to his military service. (Stu- The Class of ’42 is having its 60th reunion Sept. 21, 2002.) Oroville Mercury Register October 3, 2003 March 22, 1945 Sgt. Art Allison is now in India with a heavy artillery unit. He graduated from the local high school in1935 and has been over seas for three years. His brother Sgt. Vernon Allison, is on Saipan with the Air Corps. He was wounded during the invasion of that island and was in the Saipan hospital for a while. Fifty awards ranging from the Distinguished Service Cross to the Bronze Star have been awarded to members of this battalion, most of them for action in Italy. Over 200 such awards are pending. Four division citations have also been awarded.

Oroville Mercury Register
May 2, 2003
Oroville Mercury Register
March 6, 1945
In The Fight Cpl. Countryman May Be Fighting on Iwo Jima Friends of Cpl. H. L. Countryman 34, are wondering whether he has seen fighting on Iwo Jima. His most recent letter to his mother, Mrs. Mamie Countryman, of Myers St., stated that he was “expecting to see combat duty any time now.” It was written about Feb. 11, just before the invasion at Iwo. He has been in Saipan. Mrs. Countryman said that her son liked the service wholeheartedly. Countryman worked for Safeway here three years ago. He is married. He and his wife worked in a airplane plant in Los Angeles prior to his marine experience. He was a foreman there. Mrs. Countryman has another son, Raymond Jr., 21, who is an army air corps cook and baker. He is in the Netherland East Indies. He has written that the climate there is hot and sultry. He spent a recent furlough in New Guinea. Mrs. Countryman writes to her sons twice a week.

Stu’s Notes:
All of the above stories were in previous Looking Back on Oroville and Butte County Heroes. The July 26,2002 article was #6 or 7, now I’ve done about 624 counting this one. In last weeks article I wrote about how the Battles in the Pacific Theater of War that encompasses Guadalcanal to Okinawa and almost the invasion of Japan, which didn’t happen of course thanks to the Atomic Bomb. These battles are never in the news as much as their 70th anniversaries of Battles in the European Theater. Last week I mentioned 70 years since the Battle for the Island of Saipan was already passed, actually the Battle of Saipan’s 70th Anniversary was the day I wrote that article, June 15, 2014. I’m pretty sure more Americans died on Saipan than on the Beaches of Normandy. Did you hear about Saipan on that day? I didn’t except what I wrote. So I typed in Saipan on our website, WWW.OrovilleVeteransMemorialPark.org , thanks so much to Daryl Autrey, our Web Master. I found I used the name Saipan over 25 different articles. That is 25 Fridays I mentioned the name of a Butte County man fighting on Saipan. It was very vicious fighting as occurred in all of the many Pacific Islands, the army fought but many of the Island Invasions were by the Marines and Navy, remember the Marines had Navy Corpsmen with them. Over 23,000 Japanese died there. They mostly fought to the death. It was brain washed into them; death was better than being captured by the evil Americans. Sadly hundreds of Japanese civilians committed suicide, men, women and babies. The Marines suffered 13,000 wounded and over 3,000 deaths. I was honored to go to the Class of 1942’s reunions for years and sit with those WWII Guys, The reunions were put on by Faye Anglen.