area by train to Landshut, Bavaria. He said they were to be handled as displaced persons. On 13 Oct 1945, we loaded these so called DPs into 12, 40 x 8 boxcars at Hanau, Germany, and started our journey to Landshut, Bavaria. We encountered many delays as a train carrying DPs had very low priority on the U.S. Army operated railroad. My brief journal shows we arrived there late on the 14 October 1945. Upon our arrival, we turned them over to Military Government Officials and started our journey back to Frankfurt. I was totally confused as to the identity of those individuals. Over the next 53 years, I often thought about them and wondered why the U.S. Army would single out 40 German men and their families for special treatment when there were literally millions of DPs trying to get back to their homes in Europe. Mike Mastrangelo and I have kept in touch with each other over these many years. In 1998, in a Christmas card, Mike said, 'I often think about our trip with Dr. von Braun and the other scientists.' I immediately wrote to Mike and told him I didn't understand what he was saying. He sent me a number of documents verifying that those 40 men were indeed German scientists, who had designed and built the V1 and V2 rockets that rained destruction on England during the war. These scientists came to the United States as illegal immigrants through Mexico and became the nucleus for all our missile and space exploration at Fort Bliss, Texas. A total of 132 rocket scientists eventually came to America. The story of Dr. Wernher von Braun and his fellow scientists goes back many years prior to my encounter with them. Adolph Hitler kept telling the German people and his enemies that he was developing secret weapons that would eventually win the war. British intelligence personnel took these threats very seriously and through spies and aerial reconnaissance, discovered a facility call Peenemunde. During Aug. 1943, the British RAF bombed this facility and forced the scientists to move to underground facilities in Southern Germany. In May of 1945, they surrendered themselves to U. S. troops. The Russians and other allied nations were clamoring to capture these scientists and the tons of documents from the rocket development projects. They much preferred going with the Americans but many were captured by the Russians and other nations. When the Russians launched their Sputnik satellite in 1957, we in the U.S. realized just how valuable Dr. von Braun and his associates really were in our space program. Dr. von Braun was a great visionary on space travel and got our astronauts to the moon before the Soviet Union. The Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) he developed was instrumental in defeating the Russians during the long 'Cold War.' As I look back on this experience, it is a bit frightening to think that the Army placed the safety and well being of these German scientists in the hands of three GIs and jeopardized the whole future of the U. S. missile and space programs. I'm not sure we could have protected them from former Nazi SS, Russians, or other nations who desired their knowledge and documents, especially when two of us did not know how important they were to our country's future. However, the guise of shipping them to Landshut as displaced persons obviously worked. I am very grateful that I was able to play a small part in protecting 40 of these original rocket scientists prior to their coming to the United States. Jay Herbert Rhees Jay Herbert Rhees was in the Third Portable Surgical Hospital. He wrote, 'We were always the first to work on the boys after they had been picked up from the line where they were wounded.' He served in New Guinea; the Dutch East Indies; Luzon ,Legaspi, and Albay, in the Philippines. Harold E. Richardson Harold Richardson was a technical specialist five in the Army. He was awarded two Battle Stars for his service in Northern France and Germany and a Combat Infantry Badge. He served in the Charlie Company, 422nd Regiment, 106th Infantry. He was in Germany on VE Day. Connell B. Roberts Connell Roberts was a private first class in the Army Infantry. He served in the 309th Infantry Regiment in Germany from 1945-1946. Glenn Milford Roberts Glenn Milford Roberts spent three and a half years in the Army. He trained at Ft. Carson, Colorado, and was a cadre instructor at Hunter-Liggett, California, and Ft. Benning, Georgia. He was shipped overseas to the European Theater of Operation and served in combat for one year in France, Germany, and Austria. He was discharged from the Army in 1946 with the rank of staff 112 sergeant, after having been awarded the Bronze Star for his combat service. Lawrence J. Roe, Sr._ I attended Ogden High School and then Weber College in 1938-1939, studying business. I was drafted into the U.S. Army on February 17, 1941, and was sent to San Diego, California. After basic training, I was transferred to Hill Field, Utah. I was assigned there with the rank of private. I worked for the quarter master, Dan B. Floyd, who suggested that I go to OCS (Officer Candidates School), which I did on his recommendation. I was at my parents' home on Sunday, the day Pearl Harbor was bombed, after which I immediately reported to Hill Field for active duty. I attended OCS for training at Ft. Frances E. Warren, Cheyenne, Wyoming, and graduated as a second lieutenant on September 21, 1941. I then returned to Ogden and was married on September 28, 1941. After this I was sent to San Diego, California, and was soon transferred to San Antonio, Texas. I returned to Ogden for a one-week furlough, and received orders to go overseas, which took me to England. From there I landed in France at Normandy (Omaha beach) on July 9, 1942. I participated in that battle as a quarter master, keeping the supplies of food, and gasoline, etc., moving (by truck) back and forth from the supply source to the forward units at the beach. Sometimes I was gone for two or three days and slept in the truck in a sleeping bag. Later on during this stint, I was promoted to captain. My European tour of duty included Luxembourg, Holland, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, and, last of all, Germany. My younger brother was at Saipan. During a furlough in Ogden he borrowed my car and was in an accident, which injured our mother. I was in Germany at the time and a friend from Ogden, Mr. Lee Cain (who was working for the Red Cross in Europe), informed me of the accident. My mother was not expected to live. I flew home at his request on a Green Project Flight aboard a C54 out of Regensburg, Germany, arriving in Wilmington, Delaware. I traveled home by train. My mother recovered from the accident, but my car was wrecked. I was mustered out of the service at Fort Douglas and immediately joined the Army Reserve in a unit that Met at the DDO in Ogden. I stayed in the reserve and was promoted to major and later lieutenant colonel. I worked for the railroad in Ogden until retirement. The time I spent in the Army taught me discipline, honesty, and respect for people of leadership and position. Robert Lester Rowland I was assigned to the United States Army Medical Department from April 1941 to February 1946. I entered the Army as a volunteer in the grade of private. At first I did x-ray work, shifting to administrative work (which I have preferred since). At the end of two-year service as an enlisted man, I attended OSC (Officer Candidates School), graduating as a second lieutenant. On induction I was assigned to the 7th Surgical Hospital at Fort Ord, California. This was a mobile field hospital, but I didn't stay there long. I served as chief x-ray technologist and was supervisor to two assistants. From June to August, 1941, I was an x-ray technique instructor at Letterman General Hospital Special Services School. In this position I taught the history and physical principles of x-ray technique, including practical applications on different types of x-ray equipment. Classes contained approximately thirty students. This was a detached service assignment and was curtailed by Washington State Maneuvers. From January to June of 1942, I was chief x-ray technologist at the Induction Center Presidio of Monterey, California. I was assigned here quickly because they were in a bind. They had almost two thousand inductees that they couldn't swear in because they required an x-ray to clear them of tuberculosis. I organized a crew from scratch and taught them how to develop film and assist me in organizing the Induction Center x-ray department. The job was to get the equipment operating; train the men to staff it; clean up the backlog and then, with the department operating satisfactorily, return to my own organization. 113