Calmar Courier Community News. Community Service. Address: PO Box 507, Calmar, IA 52132 Email: calmarcourier@hotmail.com Phone: (563) 562-3488 Web: www.calmarcourier.com USPS: 335-690
Official Paper of Calmar, Fort Atkinson, Spillville, Ridgeway, Waucoma, Winneshiek County, South Winneshiek & Turkey Valley Community Schools
November 12, 2013
By Joyce Meyer With Veterans Day upon us, it is time for us to reflect on what our freedom has cost our American veterans who answered the call to military duty when their country needed them. Like other things of great value, our security did not come cheaply. Many have died for our freedom, and it is so important that we take the time to be reminded of what the veterans went through for us and the generations
Vol. 35, Issue 46
to come. For many the memory is still vivid. John Dale Meyer of Calmar answered the call when he enlisted in the Navy soon after high school and remembers boot camp was in San Diego. After boot camp he went to the University of California as an aviation cadet. After the Navy dropped the program in June of 1946, he was then assigned to the famous USS Doyle, DD494/ DMS 34 in San Francisco and
back to radio school in San Diego. He served on the Doyle 34 months as a radio operator and doing radio maintenance and repair. Some may remember the 1954 movie, “The Caine Mutiny” which was filmed on the Doyle with actors Humphrey Bogart and was based on the 1951 Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Herman Wouk “The Caine Mutiny.” The reason USS Doyle was so famous says a history website is
because, “On 5 June, 1944 she sortied with the 31st Minesweeping Flotilla to clear the assault area. She gave fire support to the landing forces on D-Day, 6 June, received on board 37 survivors of LCIs 93 and 487, and served on patrol. Sailing 1 August, 1944 for Oran, Doyle departed from that port ten days later for the invasion of southern France, escorting a convoy to the assault area and patrolling to cover the landings. She
continued to support the invasion by escorting convoys from Naples and patrolling off Marseilles. Doyle made three more voyages to escort convoys to North Africa between 3 January and 10 June, 1945. She arrived at Norfolk on 20 June for conversion to a high speed minesweeper, and was reclassified DMS-34, 23 June, 1945. After conversion, she sailed from Norfolk 27 August for the Pacific, calling at San Diego, Pearl Harbor, MEYER to page 3
inside this issue: Santa’s Helpers..................2 Election Results.................2 Christmas Child.................3 West Union Fire.................4
$0.50 per copy Veteran’s Day Program Information is on page 4.