At left: Private D. Virgil Schrock, US Army.Mrs. Anna Schrock of Protection recently enjoyed a visit from both her sons who are in the service, Pvt. D. Virgil Schrock and Electricians Mate John D. Schrock. Also visiting at the home were her daughters, Mrs. Vernon Wagner and children of Wichita and Mrs. Marion Wallace and children of Dodge City. Another daughter, Miss Mae Belle and Mr. Schrock of Buffalo, N. Y., arrived home to make the family group complete. It was the first time in eight years that they had all been together. While the family was home together they had the pleasure of attending a family reunion and picnic of the Schrock and Zimmerman families.
Pvt. Virgil Schrock delayed his furlough until his brother arrived as it had been nearly four years since they had seen each other. Virgil is stationed at Gulfport, Miss. He has been in the service two years, entering the army when he was 20.
Pvt. Schrock went to the Spartan School of Aeronautics at Tulsa, Okla., and was also sent to the University of Oklahoma at Norman for further training. He was recently moved from Sarasota, Fla., to Gulfport. He is with the Army Air Forces and is a mechanic on a P-40 War Hawk fighter, one of the United States' fast fighter planes.
At left: EM2 John D. Schrock, US Navy.His younger brother, John D. joined the Navy as a 17 year old in December, 1940, has been overseas nearly three years and has seen a great deal of service. He was in five major battles in the Pacific, including Pearl Harbor, Coral Sea, Midway, Santa Cruz Islands and the Solomon Islands. His ship, the U. S. S. Cushing (DD 376), was sunk by the Japanese in a battle off Guadalcanal on November 13, 1942, and he was badly wounded in the battle, as is attested to by a long scar on his back. John was rescued after his ship went down and was taken aboard a hospital ship. Later he was placed in a hospital in New Zealand. He was in the hospital there three months and remained in that country until he came home a few weeks ago.
He has been awarded the Purple Heart and wears, along with his long string of service bars, a five star pin, for battles in which he participated. He reported at San Francisco August 26 for further duty. He has well earned his rating as a Second Class Petty Officer Electricians Mate and went through the hardest naval battles of the war at a time when the Japs had a naval strength superior or equal to that of the U. S. in the days following our big losses at Pearl Harbor. Along with the sailors who know what war with the Japs really is, he says that the war with Japan will not be the pushover many people back in the States think it will be.
John was most thankful to get to come home and is grateful just to be alive.
Also see:
USS Cushing (DD-376), 1936-1942
Thanks to Shirley Brier for finding, transcribing and contributing the above news article to this web site!
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