Iowa Old Press
Cedar Rapids Tribune
Cedar Rapids, Linn co., Iowa
May 24, 1945
Sgt. David C. Blodgett, son of Mr. and Mrs. J. C. Blodgett, 370
Sixteenth street SE, has been returned to Allied military
control, according to a War Department telegram received by his
parents Saturday afternoon. Sgt. Blodgett, top turret gunner and
engineer, was shot down over Hamm, Germany, April 22, 1944. He
was subsequently interned as a prisoner of war of the German
government at Krems, Austria. He enlisted in the U.S. air forces,
Oct. 27, 1942.
Four Cedar Rapids Navy men served aboard one of the battleships
that laid a bombardment on the Okinawa beaches clearing the way
for the greatest amphibious landing of the Pacific war.
The men are Albert A. Kara, S 1/c, son of Mrs. Stella M. Smith,
627 Sixth street SE; Frederick E. McLaud, F 2/c, son of Edward D.
McLaud, 611 B avenue NE; William H. Poole, jr., S 1/c, son of
Mrs. Ferdinand Poole, route 1; Russell F. Ross, S 1/c, whose wife
lives at 836 Eleventh street NE.
Their ship, which saw service in World War II, has blasted the
enemy through five previous campaigns of this war and had two
torpedoes launched against her, numerous Jap air attacks and
three different Jap suicide planes railed against her during the
Okinawa action.
[transcribed by L.Z., November 2014]