One Lad Is “Somewhere,” the Other at San Diego
Two Mason City Youths Joined Marines Year Ago
Just one year ago Tuesday Raymond Beith, son of Mr. and Mrs. F. J. Beith, 623 Sixth street southeast, left Mason City for San Diego, Cal., to join the U. S. marines – fighting force of the navy. With him went William C. Cross, son of Mr. and Mrs. William T. Cross, 233 Sixth street southeast.
Today Raymond – or “Bud” as he is better known – is a corporal and in charge of the base telephone exchange at San Diego.
William is somewhere – just where is a moot question. His parents haven’t heard from him in more than a month. At that time he was off the coast of South Carolina, aboard a destroyer under sealed orders and William himself didn’t know where he was headed. He couldn’t even divulge the name of the destroyer.
It’s the guess of some that he’s now in Iceland with United States troops garrisoning that distant base. Wherever he is, two other Mason City boys who joined the marines at a later date are also with him. They are Tommy Rye and Joe Hearity.
“William is crazy about his work,” Mrs. Cross, his mother says. “He was a first class private the last we knew, and likes the marines just as well as the first day he enlisted.”
Source: The Globe-Gazette, Mason City, Iowa, Tuesday, July 22, 1941, Page 7 (photo included)
Raymond Francis “Bud” Beith was born May 24, 1924 to Ernest E. and Mae Scallard Beith. He died July 22, 2003 and is buried in Mountain View Cemetery, Reno, NV.
Cpl. Beith served in World War II with the U.S. Marine Corps.
Source: ancestry.com
