Joe Hanawalt’s WWII memories

By: 
Ethan Stoetzer

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     After reading the stories of other veterans in Memorial day editions of local papers, Miriam Boelman wanted to share the story of her great uncle, Joe Hanawalt.
     “I feel that his [Hanawalt’s] story deserved to be told just as much as anyone else's,” Boelman said.
     Hanawalt told his story to his wife Vivian Hanawalt who typed it and circulated it throguh their family. The following comes from typed accounts of Hanawalt’s adventures.
     On March 29th 1942, Joe Hanawalt, a native of Hampton, was drafted into the United States Army. Hanawalt had a short time to get his affairs in order before he was to travel to Camp Crowder, Missouri with “a hundred” other men.
     While at Camp Crowder Hanawalt described that there are three ways of doing things: “the wrong way, the right way and the army way.” Everyone at Camp Crowder learned quickly to do things the “army way.”
    Read the full article in the June 14 edition of the Hampton Chronicle.

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