April 1, 2016

More from the scrapbook given to me by Pat Russell

Oroville Mercury Register 1943-45
Pvt. Kister Anxious To Come Home On Furlough
Pvt. S. O. Kister of the Army Tank Division at Camp Hood Texas is anticipating a visit with relatives and friends in Oroville according to his letters to friends here. Like all of the boys he writes that he gets homesick but he likes the army life. Kister has been in the service since last October. He is in the Panther Division of his Company. He is the son of the late Charles Kister and of Mrs. Alta Lindville of Doris, and, the nephew of the late Alvin Kister, former Butte county sheriff. Sister attended grammar and high schools here and prior to his entry into the Army, was employed at the Western Pacific Railroad roundhouse.

Former WP Employee Railroads For Army
Pvt. Lewis Norman Hill, husband of Mrs. LaVerna Hill of D Street formerly a machinist’s helper at the Wester Pacific roundhouse here, is in the army’s railroad operating battalion at Camp Claiborne, La. Hill was here recently to spend a few days with his wife and her parents, Mr. and Mrs. A.M. Hengy of Oroville. He is a brother of Mrs. Harold Mason of Oroville. Pvt. Hill obtained his basic training at New Orleans. He left Oroville, Nov. 30, 1942, to enter the service. He has been made an expert rifleman.

Allan Mace Named As Mess Sergeant
Allan Mace, former Oroville butcher and baseball player, has been appointed a sergeant in charge of a mess hall and kitchen at Camp Haan, near Riverside, where he is stationed with an army unit. Mace began his army service last January. He was employed by Johnson and Openshaw before starting Military training. In a letter to his parents, Mr. and Mrs. L A. Mace, of Gray Street, he asked to be remembered to his Oroville friends. Mrs. Mace is working in the soil conservation office in Riverside near Camp Haan.

Former Local Teacher Skipper On PT Boat
One of those lighting-fast torpedo boats operating in South Pacific is directed by Lt. (J.G.) King Roberts, N.S.N.R., former Oroville high school teacher. Lt. Roberts turned down an opportunity to teach navigation at the navy’s training school at Northwestern University at Chicago and asked for duty on a patrol torpedo craft. “It’s still my choice,” he wrote his parents, Mr. and Mrs. C. W. Roberts of Yuba City, formerly of Thermalito. Lt. Roberts, a graduate of Butte county schools and the University of California taught at the Eastside school in 1939. Besides being skipper on a PT boat, Lt. Roberts is ordnance and gunnery executive for a PT squadron.

Charles E. Vance At Farragut, Ida - Farragut, Ida- Charles E. Vance, son of Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Vance, High Street, Oroville, arrived here recently to begin his recruit training. C.L. Thomas Advanced to Rank Of Corporal C.L. Thomas of Oroville has been promoted from private to corporal in the armored force replacement training center at Ft. Knox, Ky., according to information received here. Thomas, a former Mercury carrier, is the son of Mrs. Ethel Thomas of Vetch Street. He is a member of Co. A of the 9th battalion. Stu’s Notes; I am doing fine I has a new hip and not much to say tonight. I am trying to do what I should be doing to heal properly.