BEN GELMAN: WWII BOOK DETAILS AIR CORPS VETERANS' POSTWAR LIVES

(EXCERPT) [Wed Oct 29 2003

What happened after the war to the people who served in the military
services during World War II?

Some went back to the farm or the family business in the part of the
country where they grew up. Some stayed in the service and pursued a
military career. Some took advantage of the "GI Bill" to help finance
a college education and start a whole new life.

Robert A. Harper, former professor of geography at Southern Illinois
University Carbondale, has edited a new volume, "Life Stories of Men
of the 486th Bomb Group, Eighth Air Force, and a Lady" (published by
the 486th Bomb Group Association, 482 pages spiralbound).

Harper, a B-17 navigator during the war, was one of those who later
went back to school under the GI Bill, earned four degrees and became
a member of the SIUC geography faculty in 1950. He stayed for 17
years, rising to the position of full professor and department
chairman. Then, after spending 22 years as head of the geography
department at the University of Maryland, College Park, he and his
wife, Sally, returned to Carbondale.

He has written a history of SIUC during its period of greatest growth,
1948-1970, and now heads the Illinois State University Annuitants
Ass...

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Otis Willie
Associate Librarian
The American War Library
http://www.americanwarlibrary.com