Draft Board
Name Previous New
Classification
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Gerrit De Bondt 2A 2C
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Source: Sioux County Capital Mar. 16, 1944 p 1
Draft Board Busy As Army Increases Call For Men
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The following men left Monday, March 12, for their pre-induction examination:
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Gerrit De Bondt, Sioux Center
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Source: Sioux County Capital Mar. 15, 1945 p 1
File Appeal
Gerrit De Bondt of Sioux Center and Gerald Kroese of Orange City have appealed from local board action to the Board of Appeals.
Source: Sioux County Capital May 3, 1945 p 1
Inducted
The following men left Tuesday, June 5, for Fort Snelling, Minnesota to be inducted into the Armed Forces:
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Gerrit De Bondt, Sioux Center
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Source: Sioux County Capital June 14, 1945 p 1
Draft Board
Minutes of June 19, 1945
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Gerrit De Bondt 1A 1C Ind
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Source Sioux County Capital June 21, 1945 p 2
Officers Catch Gun Toting G. I.
SIOUX CENTER SOLDIER TELLS ABOUT ESCAPE OF PRISONER
Kansas City – An escaped army prisoner flourishing two pistols terrified passengers aboard a train, leaped to freedom and forced a farmer to drive him from rural Jackson county to Kansas City Tuesday before police ended his flight.
Two patrolmen captured the man, who they identified as Pvt. John S. O’Brien of Rome, N. Y., as he waited for a streetcar in the downtown section. O’Brien surrendered without resistance although police said two 45 caliber pistols were found in his pockets.
Cpl. Gerrit De Bondt of Sioux Center, Iowa, one of the guards returning O’Brien from Indiana to Fort Leavenworth where he had escaped three months ago, told this story:
O’Brien seized De Bondt’s revolver early Tuesday morning as the train neared Sibley, Mo., and forced the guard to unlock the handcuffs. He took the pistol of the second guard, Cpl. Robert F. Stowers of Seth, W. Va. Gun in hand, O’Brien paraded through the train admonishing passengers to “keep still and you won’t get hurt”. Taking an overcoat from a passenger, he leaped from the train.
While 16 cars of police officers searched the area, Mark Stoner, a farmer, said O’Brien forced him to drive to Kansas City where the escaped prisoner got out, taking Stoner’s shoes with him.
Louis A. Johnson, a construction company employee, told police that O’Brien tried to force him to drive to St. Joseph, Mo.
“I told him I was on a job and couldn’t leave town”, Johnson said. O’Brien got out of the car.
“I told him to use his head instead of his gun and showed him where he could catch a streetcar.”
Johnson called police when he read a newspaper story relating to O’Brien’s escape.
Sioux Center News Dec. 19, 1946 p 1
