NEWS: Blair County Soldiers, June 1, 1918, Blair County, PA Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Jessica Orr Copyright 2004. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/blair/ _______________________________________________ ALTOONA BOYS LEAVE TONIGHT FOR SERVICE Twenty-Four Will Depart at 11:20 O'clock for Columbus For Assignment Altoona at 11:20 o'clock tonight will send twenty-four boys away on their journey to join Uncle Sam's fighting force. They will go to the Columbus barracks for assignment. Local board No. 1, comprising the west side of the city, will send nine registrants, while No. 2, of the east side of the city, will send away fifteen. In addition, several other young men, transferred to this city for induction, will be sent away with the Altoonans. The new soldiers will report to their boards at 10 o'clock and will receive their final instructions regarding their journey to the barracks at Columbus. George A. Pennabaker will be captain of the west side squad. Two of the selected men will be entrained from other cities. Nathan Kohler will be sent from Knoxville, Tenn., while Alvin Steele Wambaugh will travel from Morgantown, W. Va., with the men that are entrained there. Local board will send Alexander Kisielenski, of 2123 Nineteenth street, and Peter Regis, also of the city, to Fort Myer, Va., to be assigned to an engineering regiment as boilermakers. Kenna Stewart, of 2230 Tenth avenue, goes to Fort Wayne, Mich., as a bricklayer and is one of the board's twenty colored men who await the call to the colors. Altoona Tribune, Saturday June 1, 1918, page 5 EIGHTY-ONE RECRUITS IS MAY ARMY RECORD Shift in Personnel of Soldier-Getting Party Is Made Temporarily Eighty-one volunteers for the army is the May record for the Altoona recruiting party, with headquarters in the Goldschund building, one lone man, Joseph Cornely, of Madera, being accepted yesterday. Cornely was forwarded to Harrisburg and will be assigned to the cavalry. The rush of youths affected by the next registration day and the psychological effect of the German drive on the west front brought up an unusual interest and spurred on recruiting. Corporal John Greiner, of this city, is now in charge of the local office succeeding Sergeant Casteen, sent to Bedford. Corporal Potter, also of this city, will spend several days at Tyrone station, helping to enlist more men. Raymond M. Faber and Clyde P. Chirdon, both Altoonans, were accepted for the marine corps yesterday by Sergeant Nale, of the Mateer building office, and were sent to Pittsburg, en route to a training station. A large number of prospective recruits has been signed up by the officer and many will leave next week. Altoona Tribune, Saturday June 1, 1918, pages 5-6 NEWS OF SOLDIERS AND SAILORS Thirteen Altoonans Join Navy at Johnstown, Soldiers Visiting Here With Friends. Wilbur A. Morgan, son of Mr. and Mrs. Roger Morgan, of 1211 Third avenue, is spending a short furlough with his parents. He is in the naval service and is stationed at Washington at the present time on special duty. He is better known to his many friends as "Dick," and was formerly employed as a stenographer at the Juniata shops. He will return to duty Sunday evening. Lee H. Riling, formerly of this city and an employe of the Pennsy as a car inspector, for the last two years engaged in the traveling motion picture business, will leave today from his draft board headquarters at Huntingdon for army duty as an air brake inspector at Camp Meade. Luther K. and Paul R. Lotz, sons of Mr. and Mrs. George L. Lotz, of 2826 Maple avenue, have arrived safely in France. They are connected with different commands. Paul is a member of Battery C of the Sixtieth coast artillery. Luther is a member of Company C, Fifty-eighth infantry. Sergeant Clarence B. Mock, of Company G. 110th infantry, has written to his mother, Mrs. Florence Mock, of 1006 Green avenue, saying he has arrived safely in France. Another son, Arthur, of Company H. Twenty-eighth infantry, has been in France nearly a year. Earl George Rhoades, of 430 Fourth avenue, was inducted into federal service by the No. 2 East Side city draft board and left last evening for Camp Greenleaf, Ga., where he will enter training in the army medical corps. During the month just passed thirteen Altoona lads have enlisted in the United States naval service at the Johnstown naval recruiting station. The new recruits are as follows: Reserve corps, Frank John Cowan, Carl Victor Hoffman, of Tyrone; Robert Hughes Lindsay, Leo Michael Hoolard, J. Richard Fagan, Lester Lloyd Remanley and Jesse James Behe; regular naval service, Adie B. Gibson, Thomas Nathan Layman, Daniel Callien Borger of Duncansville, William Henry Proudfoot, George Edgar Furry and James Ernest McKnight. Altoona Tribune, Saturday June 1, 1918, pages 5-6 TYRONE TOPICS Remember to Register Young men who have attained the age of 21 years since June 5, 1917, are reminded of the fact that they will be required to register for military service on June 5. For the Second district of Blair county, those residing in Tyrone and Bellwood boroughs and Snyder township will register in the Municipal building at Tyrone; those living in Juniata borough and Antis township, at the office of William H. Baird, Juniata, and those living kin Logan township will register at the Chamber of Commerce rooms in Altoona. If in doubt as to what to do, consult the local draft board, but remember that it is compulsory that all young men having reached 21 years of age within the time stated should register. Altoona Tribune, Saturday June 1, 1918, page 9 BRINGS DOWN GERMAN PLANE Lieutenant Alexander McLanahan, of Philadelphia, who is the aviation service in France, and is a son of Hawley McLanahan, a prominent architect of Philadelphia, and a grandson of J. King McLanahan, of Hollidaysburg, with four other flyers, recently, brought down a German war plane on a French battlefield. Yesterday's Philadelphia Ledger gives an account of the feat. The encounter occurred last Monday on the Toulsector, where young Mr. McLanahan had been for several weeks. The young man has frequently visited his grandfather and other relatives here and is well known in Hollidaysburg. Altoona Tribune, Saturday June 1, 1918, page 10 THIRTY HONOR MEN LEAVE Thirty honor men from County Draft District No. 1 will leave Hollidaysburg today for army camps at Columbus, O.; Fort Myer, Va.; Camp Dix, N.J., and Ft. Wayne, Mich. The men will assemble for roll call at the office of Secretary Robert W. Smith, of the board, on Allegheny street, at 2.30 o'clock this afternoon. The parting honors will be given in front of the court house at 6 o'clock p.m. President W. Lovell Baldrige, of the draft board, will preside over the gathering and a fitting speech will be made to the departing boys by Hon. J. Lee Plummer. The Liberty band will furnish the music for the occasion, the boys to be escorted to the depot for the 7.10 train, upon which they will take their departure for Altoona. Altoona Tribune, Saturday June 1, 1918, page 10 FLYING CADET KILLED. Montgomery, Ala., May 31 - George H. Lacoske, 24, Cadet aviator, was killed at Taylor field late today when his plane went into a nose dive and fell about 200 feet. Altoona Tribune, Saturday June 1, 1918, page 10 DEANE FINNEY IS SELECTED FOR ENGINEER DUTY FOR UNCLE SAM Deane Finney, grandson of Thomas J. Armstrong, of 1420 Eighth avenue, and a graduate of the Altoona High school in the class of 1914, has won distinction at the University of Pennsylvania. He would have graduated as an engineer on July 19, but instead has been specially selected for government service. He ranked as one of the highest men in his class and when the government made a request for engineers from the graduating class he was among the first to be selected for service and he accepted the offer. He has entered the enlisted reserves, goes to Camp Lee for training for a period of three months and then will be granted a commission. Altoona Tribune, Saturday June 1, 1918, page 16 WORKMAN NABBED AS DRAFT EVADER HERE Man Sought Work Several Times at Labor Bureau, Giving Various Names. Raymond Diehl, alias John Williams, of Cessna, Bedford county, was arrested yesterday afternoon, charged with trying to evade the selective draft law by losing his identity. The arrest was made by Walter S. Greevy, superintendent of the federal-state labor and employment bureau, a major in the Home Defense Police organization. Since February, the time Mr. Greevy took charge of the employment bureau, Diehl has applied for work four separate times, in each case giving his name as John Williams and his address as 37 Brummel street, Johnstown. The last time he applied was yesterday afternoon, the fourth try proving his undoing. Mr. Greevy has given him work at the powder works at Mt. Union, with the Lovett Construction company at Loretto and at the Cambria Steel works in Johnstown. Yesterday he turned up again, saying he was out of a job. Once more he gave the name of John Williams of Johnstown. Then he was given a surprise. He was asked for his registration classification cards. He produced them with alacrity but when the labor superintendent looked them over he found they bore the name of Raymond Diehl, of Cessna, and that he was in class 1-A. The man admitted upon questioning that his real name was Diehl and that he was 28 years of age. Mr. Greevy then placed him under arrest and phoned for Adjutant B. F. Barr to take the man to the police station. Diehl finally admitted to the two men that he was lying about living in Johnstown and that as far as he knew no one lived at 37 Brummel street, the Johnstown address he gave. It is suspected that Diehl has been trying to lose his identity by moving about from job to job and from town to town to confuse his draft board so that he may evade selective military service. He will be kept locked up until it can be learned from the Bedford draft board whether he has been called in any of the past draft quotas and is classed as a deserter. Altoona Tribune, Saturday June 1, 1918, page 16 TWO ALTOONA BOYS SECOND LIEUTENANTS Owen F. McDonnell and John M. Klepser Are Graduated from O. R. C. Two Altoonans, Owen F. McDonnell and John M. Klepser, are among the hundreds of former Pennsylvania National Guardsmen who were graduated recently from the third officers' training course, at Camp Hancock, Augusta, Ga., and will be entitled to the rank of second lieutenant. John Klepser has been transferred to Camp Jackson, Columbia, S. C., appointed as sergeant until he receives his commission. A list of the graduates was issued at Washington by the adjutant general of the army. They will be commissioned and called into service as vacancies occur. Many western Pennsylvania men are included. In addition to the Altoonans, Henry Keller, jr., Bellefonte; James E. Strange, Mount Union; Raymond P. Lingle, DuBois; Alexander M. Russell, Bedford; Russell K. Davis, Charles F. Pinder and John F. McCloskey, all of Johnstown, have successfully passed the tests following the course. All the graduates mentioned, save Klepser, are assigned to infantry units, the other Altoonan being in the field artillery corps. Both Klepser and McDonnell enlisted with Sheridan Troop, Tyrone, last year, and went with that organization to the Georgia camp. Altoona Tribune, Saturday June 1, 1918, page 16