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Melvin C. "Mel" Schroeder J=
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By Bill Youngkin Miller, who was also training for the Army at Yale, playedfor our
Special to The Eagle dance. I was commissioned on Aug. 19, 1943 but not before my
I citizenship was checked out. I was sent to Boston for radar school at
I .
Melvin C. "Mel" Schroeder has been a professor most of his Harvard and MIT. While at Harvard, we were marched on 0 Harvard
' working life and has tested the knowledge and abilities of his Square where a stage had been erected. It was about 30feet away
students many times. He always wanted them to pass the tests from me when Winston Churchill walked onto the stale. I don't
based on their knowledge, without cheating. But, he had to cheat remel'nber his speech but 1 do remember that I was read, to hit the
on an eye test in order to serve his country during World War 11. front lines that day after his speech.
According to Schroeder, "I was born 92 years ago on July 19, "All of our material at Harvard and MIT was marked - op Secret
i 1917, in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. My family was farming and it was. I was trained by the best and brightest mirds in the
on the prairie near Dewar Lake and living in a sod house. My mother country and I felt very qualified for duty when I left. I hoarded a
always talked about when it rained, the sod roof would leak and plane to England on July 3, 1944, and joined a bomber group with 1
i then drip for a week thereafter. In - 1925 we immigrated to Spokane, the 8th Air Force. I ended up as a radar officer for the 305thBomber
Wash. where I started school. My parents separated a short time Group. A
later, which left my mother with three children to support at the "For every member of a flight crew, there were muhples of i
beginning of the Great Depression. people as part of the ground crew. I had the night duy, which i
1 "Life was tough and we all pitched in to help. One of the meant I was in all of the morning flight preparations. hit was a 4
best things that happened for me is when my mother became particularly long mission, 1 knew I would have plenty of3reakfast
a naturalized citizen in 1933. In those days, the children would because the flight crews seemed to lose theirappetitebebrethose
automatically become citizens also. 1 graduated high school at long missions.
John Rogers High in Spokane in 1936 and worked at various jobs. "I never went on missions but my people did. On was my
My mother began to manage a boarding house for the Kiwanis in best friend, David Flannigan, whose plane was hit by fik in the
Pullman, Wash. and 1 enrolled at Washington State University. 1 bomb bay just as they were about to drop their bombs. Tlere were
also worked for the National Youth Administration in the library at no chutes. I remember going to the '0' club that night and getting
t ' Washington State. The library then hired me full time and my sister drunk for the first and only time in my life.
' , started school and was employed by NYA. 1 also worked in lead and
' silver mines every summer and every holiday. "When the war ended, I was involved in photo mapping of
My major changed from chemistry to mining engineering Europe and North Africa, using our radar to expedite anaperfect
and finally to geology and I graduated in June 1942. I had a the process. The Russians didn't like what we were doing aid sent
deferment because of my eyesight but I wanted to join the Amy up fighters to harass us. We in turn armed our planes andshot at ,
Air Corps. I knew I couldn't fly but I had been told they also needed them the next time. That stopped the harassment.
communication cadets. I filled out an application and soon received 1 headed home in November 1945 on a liberty shp. The
my notice to report. voyage was so bad and I was so seasick that 1 began throving up
"I received a physical exam but flunked the eyesight part. My blood. l was transferred by row boat — strapped to a stretcher —to a
eyesight was 20/200 and I was told I couldn't be admitted unless larger ship with a hospital. If that row boat had capsized ip those
my eyes tested 20/100. The sergeant who administered the test rough seas, there is no way I could have survived, strappedto that
told me to put my glasses on and look at the 20/100 chart. Then stretcher.
he told me to take them off and look at the chart again and tell "After getting out of the hospital, 1 was discharg'd and
him what the letters were. 1, obviously, memorized the letters and returned to Washington State where I completed all my degees to
stated them back to him. He said, "Congratulations, you passed. include a PH. D. In 1954,1 came to A &M as a member of the ieology
Welcome to the Army Air Corps. "We both knew that was cheating, department where I remained until retirement. Betty Jo lied in
but it allowed me to serve my country as an officer. 1984 and I found and married Johanna, who has helped ni enjoy
"I was dating my first wife Betty Jo, and we got married after the last 25 years of my life:'
I was sworn into the cadet program. I completed basic training and When asked what his time of service to his country neant to
was sent to Yale University for communications school. We were him, Schroeder responded, "1 feel that radar was instrunental in
the first group to go through the Yale program. We had one cadet winning the war and 1 was glad that I had a part in that. lam also
who was from the Tuskegee program and was black. He had been thankful to my mother for becoming a naturalized citizen o 1, too,
paired with a fellow from Georgia who complained.1 remember the could be a citizen of this country."
Colonel gathering us up in formation and then in one line. He asked , C. 'Mel" Schroeder's name is found on th, Brazos
the black cadet to take two paces forward and then asked the rest Valley Veterans Memorial. If you want to have a nano added o
of us, "All cadets that will volunteer to room with this cadet, take to the Veterans Memorial, for more information, to nake a .
two paces forward."We all stepped forward except for the guy from contribution, or if you know a World War II veteran whae story
Georgia. He roomed by himself and eventually flunked out of the needs to be told, contact the Brazos Valley Veterans Mmorial
program. Committee at www.veteransmemorial.org or Bill Younrkin at
"The night before we graduated, we had a dance and Glenn (979)776 -1325.
The Eagle
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