exercises of Brigham Young University. During these commencement exercises, Adam S. Benion stated, 'There is a job to do; there is a flag to be unfurled.' For many, these years were not only a time of conflict and fear, but a time of love and of finding love. Evans Ray married my grandma, June Harbertson, on April 28, 1943, in the Salt Lake LDS Temple. My grandpa would spend a few years at Hill Field and then be transferred to Oakland where he would train soldiers who had been assigned to Europe. He became a master sergeant in the United States Air Force. Years later, he retired from Hill Air Force Base in management analysis. Ever the visionary dreamer, he set out to build a golf course. This dream would be realized. Evans Ray built, owned, and operated Royal Greens Golf Course until his death in May of 2001. His grandchildren had the opportunity to learn the importance of work by working at Royal Greens. And, in keeping with tradition, six of his grandchildren have received degrees from Weber State University, while two more are currently attending Weber State. This was my grandpa's rendezvous with destiny. And although it was a bit unorthodox, his journey involved a willingness to show up, dream, and be willing to serve where he was needed. When I attend commencement exercises, in my mind's eye, I can't help but picture a handsome young man in uniform standing up to receive his diploma and walking across the stage to a standing ovation. And I still see evidence of this patriotism and willingness to serve around me today. And so, to 'The Greatest Generation' I say: 'Thank you for passing us this torch". In the words of Viktor Frankel: 'In the past, nothing is irretrievably lost, but rather on the contrary, everything is irrevocably stored and treasured. To be sure, people tend to forget the full granaries of the past into which they have brought the harvest of their lives: the deeds done, the loves loved, and last, but not least, the sufferings they have gone through with courage and dignity.' 'From this, one may see that there is no reason to pity old people. Instead, young people should envy them. It is true that the old have no opportunities, no possibilities in the future. But they have more than that. Instead of possibilities in the future, they have realities in the pastthe potentialities they have actualized, the meanings they have fulfilled, the values they have realizedand nothing and nobody can ever remove these assets from the past.' Submitted by Nicole Checketts, granddaughter George Q. Rich Known as 'Q' by his friends and colleagues, George Quayle Rich (Weber 42-43) had a full four-year career in the Air Force and 86th Division 343 Infantry from April of 1942 through August 1946. After being commissioned at Fort Benning, Georgia, he was sent to the Philippines to train the troops for a possible Japanese invasion. He remained in the Air Force Reserve for another five years following the war. (An interesting note on his form states during the war years the football team was so short of players and hampered by injuries that during the last football game of the season against Utah Southern, one of the Weber football linemen broke his arm, but since there were no replacements - he stayed in the game! 'Q' reported playing 60 minutes of every game.) Charles Albert Robinson Charles attended Weber from 1939 to 1940 with an emphasis in engineering and with his out-of-class activity focused on the engineering club. He entered the service in February 1943 and was separated in 1945. He was sent to technical schools in Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Utah State in Logan; and the Philco Training School in Philadelphia. Charles rose to the rank of sergeant in the United States Army Air Corps. He taught radio and gunnery to flight crews anticipating missions over Germany and Japan. After graduation from Weber, he received degrees from the University of Utah and Utah State University and spent a career in the public schools in the state of Utah. Vern Samuel Ross 56 Vern Samuel Ross, an Army Air Corps sergeant, served in the South Pacific in the Northern Solomon Islands, Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea, Southern Philippines and Tokyo, Japan. He was overseas in battles and campaigns for 26 months. He was a radio operator. He attended radio school at Drew Field, Tampa, Florida, to learn Morse code and became a VHF Radio Operator. He specialized in ground to plane guidance and was skilled in guiding lost planes back to the base. His skill also enabled him to get a bearing on planes that had been shot down. This was especially helpful because the islands were small. He was able to attend two radio courses on Leyte, Philippines, for the invasion of Japan; but the war ended before the invasion. He received four battle stars, a good conduct medal and was honorably discharged. Frank Albert Sandberg Frank Albert Sandberg served in the Army Air Corps. He traveled through Europe, Africa and the South Pacific. He witnessed what happened inside the concentration camps and had a chance to visit some of the native tribes in Africa. He received medals and a letter of recognition from President Clinton. Hyrum John Sandberg - POW An estimated 600-650 American soldiers died during the Bataan Death March, but Hyrum Sandberg was fortunate to survive it. As a 21-year-old machinist from Grantsville, Sandberg enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1940 and was assigned to a machine shop in the Philippines. Soon after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, he fired on Japanese planes, but the dive-bombers were too fast and his group was unprepared for that type of warfare. Bataan's forces held against Japanese attacks from December 1941 until April 1942 when General Edward P. King surrendered to the allied forces. After Bataan's surrender, the soldiers were ordered to stack their arms while Japanese officers watched them lay down their weapons. The GIs were marched five abreast to a prison camp 60 miles away. After a guard Sandberg's helmet and threw it away, he found shelter from the searing sun by wrapping his shirt around his head or using his plate to create shade. Those who tried to escape or break rank were shot or killed with a bayonet, and so the soldiers tried to carry those who collapsed. After arriving at Camp O'Donnell, they were joined by hundreds more captives every day and many were in real bad shape. In the first 40 days at Camp O'Donnell, an estimated 1,500 Americans died. Plagued by heat and insects, Sandberg and others would lay under the barracks' split bamboo flooring to try to keep cool. At another prison camp he became ill with dysentery and lost a lot of weight, eventually discarding his deteriorated pants, and wrapped burlap around his sick, weak body for covering. At a camp where the guards' barracks were close to the prisoners, the guards would throw sowbellies over the fence after they killed and skinned pigs. The fighting and crawling for the sowbelly made Sandberg uncomfortable, but a greasy meal cooked with rice was vital to the starving prisoners. Unnamed American POWs Sandberg and other POWs were shipped in boxcars to Manchuria, China, where they worked in factories. When they began to see contrails of American B-29 bombers flying over enemy territory on raids, it brought great hope that the years of captivity in Japanese prisoner-of-war camps were about to end. Eventually three B-52 bombers dropped Red Cross packages and doctors arrived in parachutes. The Americans provided care and medicine after years of hardship. When the guards realized that Japan had surrendered, the gates were thrown open. After an honorable discharge as Army staff sergeant, Hyrum Sandberg worked as a machinist and toolmaker at HAFB, retiring in 1983. 57