The Lobo Tank Busters, Ol' #9, The Methodist Church and Parsonage, The Memorial in Rennes France
In God We Trust
By: Stan Jordan
Back in 1941-42, I was a senior at AHS. One of my teachers, Mr. Wilbur Carter, taught American History – one of my favorite subjects. The world was in a turmoil at that time. Germany had taken over Sudetenland and Czechoslovakia. They were at war with England and France, and we were sending boat-loads of supplies to England and France. We were not in the war yet.
Mr. Carter’s main focus was the national debt. Every day, he stressed how our government was ruining the country and putting us in debt that will never end. Each and every American, young and old, owes $1,300. Even babies who are not born yet. A terrible scene! A new baby in the hospital with a $1,300 tag on it that she owes the government. He stressed that our grandchildren will never get out of debt.
$1,300 was a lot of money. You could buy a new Buick with that kind of cash, but no one had that much at that time. Just the other day, our leaders in Washington put out the mid-year financial report. And now, each and every American owes $53,000 on the national dept. That is a horrendous amount, and that does not include a personal, every day debts. They call us the richest country in the world, and we are… but not financially.
Mr. Carter quotes Merrill Lynch at that time, but that company actually is Merrill, Lynch, Pierce, Fenner, Smith & Jones. He runs through those names like they would contaminate you.
See ya!
The Lobo Tank Busters
By: Stan Jordan
On our dawn patrol today, we went back to the Ruhr Valley again. That place is a beehive of defense plants. It also was loaded with anti-aircraft units. We knew we would only get one pass through this area, so we planned on using most of our rockets on the first pass. These buildings were bomb proof, so we had to use our rockets on tanks and other targets. There were some flat cars loaded with some big cannons, probably from the Krupp Werks. We hit the train cars and I had one rocket left, and I spotted a water tank.
I aimed right at the bottom of the big tank and that is where my rocket hit. It blew the bottom of the tank out and what a water storm! It must have been full, there was water all over. By now, we were at the end of the rail-yards, so we sped it up to around 350mph to throw the anti-aircraft guns off, and we stayed down close to the ground. There was lots of tracers in the air, but we were moving too fast for them to hit us. We just used our machine guns on some ground troops and then we blew up a farm house and barn that had tank tracks leading up to the main doors.
Well, this is two days later. We got up yesterday morning and it was a very dense fog. We were scheduled for dawn patrol, but that was soon ruled out. We called in to the weather bureau and they said the fog would last until noon and there would be a steady rain for the rest of the day. So, we four pilots put on our dress uniforms and got in our Jeep and drove into Paris. We saw all the sights that Americans look for.
At the big, downtown showplace, we saw the Glenn Miller Band. Glenn is dead. He went down in a plane a few months ago. Anyhow, they had Ray McKinley, Tex Beneke, Hoagy Carmichael and most of the regular band, and they played all their famous hits. The place was packed and the applause was deafening. We really enjoyed ourselves. It was two hours of being back in the states!
See ya!
This actually happened to an Englishman in France who was totally drunk. A French policeman stops the Englishman’s car and asks if he has been drinking.
With great difficulty, the Englishman admits that he has been drinking all day, that his daughter got married that morning, and that he drank champagne and a few bottles of wine at the reception, and many single malt scotches thereafter.
Quite upset, the policeman proceeds to alcohol-test (breath test) the Englishman and verifies that he is indeed totally sloshed.
He asks the Englishman if he knows why, under French Law, he is going to be arrested?
The Englishman answers with a bit of humor, “No sir, I do not! But while we’re asking questions, do you realize that this is a British car and that my wife is driving… on the other side?”
* * *
An 80 year old man went for his annual check up and the doctor said, “Friend, for your age you’re in the best shape I’ve seen.”
The old feller replied, “Yep. It comes from clean living. I know I live a good, clean, spiritual life.”
The doctor asked, “What makes you say that?”
The old man replied, “If I didn’t live a good, clean life the Lord wouldn’t turn the bathroom light on for me every time I get up in the middle of the night.”
The doc was concerned. “You mean when you get up in the night to go to the bathroom, the Lord Himself turns on the light for you?”
“Yep,” the old man said, “Whenever I get up to go to the bathroom, the Lord turn the lights on for me.”
Well, the doctor didn’t say anything else, but when the old man’s wife came in for her check up, he felt he had to let her know what her husband said. “I just wanted you to know” the doctor said, “Your husband’s in fine physical shape, but I’m worried about his mental condition. He told me that every night when he gets up to go to the bathroom, the Lord turns the light on for him.”
“Aha!” she exclaimed. “He’s the one who’s been peein’ in the refrigerator!”
See ya!
The Memorial in Rennes, France
By: Stan Jordan
In the past few issues of this paper, I have brought to you some columns about a memorial in Rennes, France for a German Prisoner of War Train. There were some boys from Paulding County on that train, as well as my brother Jack. He is officially known as, “Garner Earl Jordan.” There is a lady from Indiana named Jo Shipley who was going through an old trunk that belonged to her uncle after he had passed away. She used his name and serial number, and contacted the Vets Admin. in St. Louis, and she was given a lot of government papers that were old and had been de-classified by the government.
She was given the papers about the German Prisoner of War train in Rennes, France, because her uncle was on that train, also. The box cars were loaded to 120 people in each car. 8 American aircrafts strafed the trains twice and killed a number of soldiers and wounded 70 more. M/S Shipley travelled to Rennes, France a few times and talked to some people about this prisoner train and the fact that these townspeople had made a memorial for this train to honor these boys. The Germans did not supply the 1300 people on the train with food or water. There was a bridge out down the line and the train could not be moved, and it was stifling hot outside and almost unbearable inside the box car.
After a few hours, the people of Rennes got permission to bring some relief to the prisoners. They brought water, bread and fruit, and this went on most of the night. The local people of Rennes have made a memorial for the prisoners for that train. It is one of those box cars of that time and it is painted and kept in good repair by the citizens of that area.
M/S Shipley has made a number of trips to France and has talked to those people and visited the hospital where her uncle was a patient, and some of the nurses who were there. Even talked to some old-timers who were present there 70 years ago. M/S Shipley sent pictures and stories to the Jordan family about that area and times. We are so grateful to her for thinking about Jack and his family. He passed away back in 2002.
See ya!
The Methodist Church & Parsonage
By: Stan Jordan
This picture of the Methodist Church and Parsonage was given to me by Jim Hunt, as he lives in that house now. You are looking into the northwest and you see the southeast corner of the church. Over the years, two more houses were built right here where the camera stands. O.D. Fleck lived in one house (Jim Schmunk lives there now), and Walter Ross lived in the next one. Jim Hunt tells me the records say that the church was built in 1900, and the parsonage was built in 1913. The church was torn down in 1973. Jim, I thank you for the photo and the history.
See ya!
