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Show to sail for Tokyo Bay with other units of the task force, where the surrender was formally signed aboard the USS Missouri on September 2, 1945. The Quincy anchored next to the Missouri, and Lou said, 'We could see a table on the greater dock where the papers were signed. We knew that General McArthur among other five star military leaders were aboard to sign the document.' USS Quincy The Navy had a system ready for discharging en listers. It was based on length of service, combat service, age, whether the enlisted was married and if he had children. Lou scored real high in each category and became one of thirty to be released from the Quincy and start for the states and home. He was discharged after 44 months in the Navy. Lou spent nine years at the Ogden Standard-Examiner after the war, and then joined Weber College until his retirement in 1979. Wayne Valentine Graser Wayne attended Weber in 1940 and 1941. He served in the Navy from June 1942 until January 1946 and was a gunner third class. Gerald (Jerry) Grove Jerry Grove was a naval aviator in WWII. He was known to be the youngest aviator in the Navy at that time. He was part of the English department faculty at Weber State for many years. Edward J. 'Ed' Hadley Edward J. Hadley was a full lieutenant in the U.S. Naval Air Corps. He flew multi-engine aircraft - Navy PB4Y and B-24s. Glen W. Hadley Glen served in the Navy and received the rank of third class petty officer from 1944 to 1945. He received the Liberation of Philippines medal, which was given for serving in enemy waters for six or more months. He served in the U.S. Navy as a radar operator aboard a troop transport ship moving troops wherever they were required. He still has his uniform and a log of the ship. Eugene M. Hall Eugene Hall was one of three brothers who served in WWII. He was a student at Weber in 1940-1941. He then joined the Navy in 1941 and served until 1945. He completed boot camp and was assigned as a training officer aboard the USS Sacramento providing gunnery training to young seamen who were then assigned to ships on the line for action in the Pacific Theater of Operations. H. Tracy Hall, Sr. Tracy Hall served in the Navy and was an ensign when he was released. While he was stationed on the coast of Florida, he noticed an announcement concerning a special exam for which three would be selected. He applied and passed the exam, after which he was sent to Beaudoin College and MIT for training in electronics and radar. Upon completion, his ship was scheduled to go to the Orient, but his commanding officer, upon seeing 162 Tracy had a wife and baby that went everywhere with him, told him to go home and take care of his family rather than go into combat. While out on the ship he was able to be of service to the Navy. Once when the ship was returning to port, the radar was malfunctioning and the captain didn't want to return to port with his radar non-operational. Tracy was able to repair it so the ship could return with radar in full function. Denzil W. Hansen In his three years service during WWII, Denzil spent 19 months on a seaplane based in the South Pacific on a small island across the bay from Noumea, New Caledonia, as an aviation ordnance man, first class. He also served at the Alameda Air Station in California as well as PBM School at Tongue Point, Oregon, and on to North Island Air Station near San Diego, returning to Hooper, Utah, at the end of his service. Alan R. Harbertson Alan R. Harbertson served in the Navy and attained the rank of aviation radar technician first class. He graduated from Oklahoma State University's V-6 Radar School and Corpus Christi Radar School 4th in a class of 250. He writes: 'I served in the radar repair and installation for two years at Ford Island Naval Air Station and at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii as a microwave head and testline head then at North Island Naval Air Station, San Diego where I was chief testline for the duration of the war.' Don L. Harbertson Prior to going into the U.S. Navy, I attended Weber College with my two brothers, Nile and Alan, who also served in the U.S. Navy during WWII. I learned enough mathematics at Weber to help me qualify for the electronic technician school in the Navy. My training in the Navy as a radio/radar technician lasted a full year, but was useful at Hill Field later during the Korean War when I helped to rehabilitate B-26s, which were staged in Japan. I spent my second year in the Navy at North Island, San Diego where I flew on test flights on various aircraft to check out radio and radar, coming out of A & E shops during WWII. I returned to Hill Air Force Base as a civilian and worked on B-29s coming back from WWII, which had to be placed in storage there. I hadn't planned on military and civilian careers, but ended up with a combination of service during WWII, Korea, and Vietnam with the Navy and Air Force. During my thirty years at Hill Air Force Base, I worked as directorate of material management on electronic radar simulators and similar equipment. Nile Wiese Harbertson Nile attended Weber from 1936-1938 and was a Professor of Chemistry at Weber from 1947-1948. During WWII, he served in the Navy as a lieutenant commander from 1942-1945. He served in a meteorologist capacity in Kodiak, Alaska, and the Archipelago Islands when the Japanese invaded there. Nile also served on North Island in San Diego when an oddity occurred. It was the rare occurrence that he and his two brothers all ended up stationed in the same area for a period of time in San Diego after 1944. The story is that someone high in the ranks admired my father and had asked if he could help him in any way. Nile asked that he be stationed with his brother, Don, and then was able to get the second brother, Alan, brought there, too. An article was written about the three brothers in the San Diego newspaper. The youngest brother and third to arrive says he never would have been given the San Diego assignment without my father's help and was very grateful for that opportunity. Among honors received by Nile are: a degree in meteorology from Annapolis; graduate School; degree in oceanography at Scripps Institute in San Diego, California; Alaskan Theater medal; Pacific Theater medal. Submitted by Nancy Harbertson Wold, daughter 163 |