Meldon J. McIntosh Meldon J. Mcintosh served in the Navy Air Corps. He flew patrols over China and the Philippines. He was shot down over China and the Japanese were looking for him. Glenn A. McKay USS Dalhart Glenn A. McKay was a student at Weber College in the fall of 1941 when Pearl Harbor was bombed. Little did he know the consequences of that news in shaping his life over the next four years. He enlisted in the Navy in 1942, because it was the patriotic thing to do, and completed boot camp at the Navy base at Farragut, Idaho. In April of 1943, he was assigned to the 301st Navy Construction Battalion (Navy Seabees) and departed for the South Pacific where he was assigned to the crew of the USS City of Dalhart. The next two years were spent 'island hopping' according to the strategic war plans in the South Pacific Theater. The mission of the USS Dalhart was to participate in the island invasions by entering whatever harbors the island had to offer, as soon as minimal security was provided to prepare the harbor for the arrival of troops and equipment necessary to establish a beach head and support the invasion. They cleared mines and other anti-invasion obstacles with demolitions, dredged water channels for larger ships and replaced, repaired, or constructed docking facilities. On two occasions, their work preceded the invasion by clearing mines and other obstacles preparatory to the Landing Craft Tanks (LCTs) arrival with the troops. Glenn served in connection with the invasions of Guam, Tinian, Saipan, Peleliu, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. At Okinawa, Glenn witnessed the mass suicide of Japanese women and children as they leaped off cliffs onto rocks below rather then be 'captured' by the Americans whom their propaganda had depicted as monsters who would commit unspeakable atrocities. After almost four years in the Navy, Glenn was separated from the service as a seaman third class returned to his home in Huntsville and took up life where he had left it almost four years earlier. Art Mortensen In the early part of 1940, Weber College initiated the Civilian Pilot Training Program, under the direction of President Henry Aldous Dixon. Weber College provided the ground school and local pilot. Art Mortensen of the Utah Pacific Airways was the flight instructor. The government sponsored the program, and the students were trained in single engine Piper Cubs. When World War II started, Art was given a direct commission by the United States Navy as a lieutenant commander. In fifteen months, Weber College, Civil Aeronautics Administration, and pilot instructor Art Mortensen trained approximately five hundred Navy cadets to fly. They averaged about seventy hours of flying time each. Upon completion of training in this program, the cadets went to Livermore, California, for their secondary training in larger airplanes, monoplanes, and biplanes. When they graduated from there, they transferred to Corpus Christi, Texas, where they trained to be fighter pilots. One morning, when the program was in full operation, Art reported stepping out of his office at the airport, looking up and counting 35 planes, all in the air at the same time. They were circling the field, going through training maneuvers, and were landing and taking off four abreastall day long. Herein lies a remarkable story of how activity on the home front made major contributions to the war effort. Pilots were in great demand, and the 500 that received their initial training in the Weber College/Civilian Pilot Training Program will live in the Weber legacy as a powerful factor in the war effort. Verdun Leslie Nicholas Verdun was a chief petty officer in the Navy. He served on the USS Navajo in 1941 and was present at Pearl Harbor. He saw action in the South Pacific and was aboard the USS Navajo when it sunk. There were about 82 aboard the ship and only 17 survived. After the sinking of the Navajo, he was transferred to the USS Vestal. He also served on two destroyers in the Asiatic 170 - the USS Edsall and the USS Peary and they both sank. The USS Edsall sank in Darwin, Australia, and the USS Peary sank in the Philippines. He served in Asiatic duty for three years from 1934-1937 were he was on the 'Yangtze River Patrol' and saw war in Shanghai with Japan and China in 1937. USS Navajo He was honored with the following medals: Commendation Medal, seven Gold Conducts Medals, Rank gold hash marks on the sleeve of Chief Uniform, three China Service Medals. He also saw service in Korea. Robert E. Parney Robert entered Weber College, where he was in the officer's training program. He was also on the basketball team. At that time, there were about five or six girls, for each boy at Weber. He stayed at Weber until June of 1943 and then went into the Navy in July 1943. The Navy sent him to the southern branch of Idaho State University along with about 400 other sailors in the dorms there. He took 20 semester hours and graduated with an associate degree in July 1944. The Navy then sent him to Columbia University in New York. When Robert was an ensign, they made him captain of his patrol craft. He was only 21 years old. He was with a complement of 65 men headed for Japan when they received word that the two bombs had been dropped, and the war was over. His company went ahead to Nagasaki and saw the terrible devastation. He said that was very hard. It was only five days since the atomic bomb had been dropped. Robert came back to Weber College in 1946. He was a quarterback on the football team, a member of the men's club (Sigma), and he earned another associate degree in 1947. Louis Kent Payne Louis Payne claims to be the first to leave Weber College to enter the service after the December 7 attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Utah's U.S. Senator Thomas granted Payne an appointment to the Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, New York. He entered the academy in January of 1942 and graduated in June 1943. He was commissioned an Ensign in the Navy in July 1943, returned to Ogden on leave, and married the Weber College vice president of the student body, Beth Rhees. Payne was in Okinawa when WWII ended in 1945. When he was separated from the Navy in 1946, he came home to reenter Weber and completed his associate's degree in 1947. Wallac Boyle Pingree Wallace attended Weber College from 1940-1942. He was the sports editor for the Signpost in 1941. In October of 1942, he entered the Navy, where he served throughout the South Pacific and in the Philippines. He served on a wooden mine sweeper, and spent part of his time as a cook. Wallace was discharged from the Navy in March of 1946. John M. Purdy - KIA_ John M. Purdy was a chief quartermaster in the Navy and was in Hawaii when Pearl Harbor was bombed. His service was cut short when he lost his life as his ship went down near the Solomon Islands. An article in the Ogden Standard-Examiner of that time stated: 'Chief Quartermaster John M. Purdy, U.S.N., son of Mr. and Mrs. Milton E. Purdy, was missing in the Pacific, February 5, 1942.' 171