Bill writes about: UCLA

Ucla Royce Quad 1940s Lrg
Ucla Royce Quad 1940s Lrg
Ucla Royce Quad 1940s Lrg
Ucla Royce Quad 1940s Lrg
Ucla Royce Quad 1940s Lrg
Ucla Royce Quad 1940s Lrg
Ucla Royce Quad 1940s Lrg
Ucla Royce Quad 1940s Lrg

The World War II Dead of University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA)

More than 260 UCLA students, faculty  and alumni were killed in World War II; only Harvard University suffered more casualties.  As a two-time graduate of UCLA, I was honored to research every one of their stories in order to memorialize their sacrifices, their humanity, and their often heroic last acts. A summary of how and where they died provides a snapshot of the American military experience in World War II. My files consist of many hundreds of pages of military service records,...
Uss Grampus

Lieutenant Edward P. Haupt and the USS Grampus

The submarine USS Grampus (named for a species of dolphin) was commissioned by the Electric Boat Yard at New London, CT, on May 23. 1941. Few there that day would have guessed that its service in the United States Navy would be of less than two years' duration and that its crew of 71 men would be lost forever.           A line officer on the Grampus was Lieutenant Edwin Paul Haupt.  Although he was born in Los Angeles, he spent much of his boyhood in Tulare, California. As a young...
Albert Leonidas Peterson
Albert Leonidas Peterson
Albert Leonidas Peterson
Albert Leonidas Peterson

Beloved son shot down one week after his 24th birthday

LT Junior Grade Albert Leonidas Peterson LTJG Peterson was born March 17, 1920, in Jacksonville, FL. On March 24, 1944, while serving with Naval Bombing Squadron (VB) 305, he was killed in a crash on Bougainville in the Solomon Islands. His aircraft was observed to be streaming fuel as he approached his target. He attempted to land at the Torokina fighter strip, but when he saw it was  impossible, he bailed out of his plane at 100 feet. His parachute did not open. He was survived by his...