Delos Merle "Spike" Shroyer (1924-2005)

1942 freshman	1942	20-years-old
USS Wake Island (CVE65)	ATO27	Honorable Discharge

The following article from an unnamed newspaper was hand-dated 1944:

5 FOR ARMY, TWO FOR NAVY -- LATEST SCORE

Seven Pass Pre-Induction Text On November 28 Call; Two Transferred In

Army
V-1211 Clyde Hammersly (Tr. to Lake Co. Bd. No. 1)
1424 Wilbert Alburn Long
1472 John Setnor
11024 Lloyd James Lintner
11468 Richard Thomas Mueller

Navy
V-10986 Edward Paul Lonergan, Jr.
V-11218 Delos Merle Shroyer

Transferred In
11053-A Curtis Junior Vanderpool (Tr. from LB No. 114, Margoffin, Ky.)
10434 Hancel Wireman (Tr. from LB No. 114, Margoffin, Ky.)

Previously Inducted
V-11500 Ronald Eugene Mills (Marine Corps)

The following Valparaiso Vidette Messenger article was hand-dated 1945:

Edna Jeffers and Delos Shroyer Are Married

A wedding dinner was served the newlyweds immediately after the ceremony and their honeymoon was spent in San Diego.

The groom is now on active duty in the South Pacific and Mrs. Shroyer has returned to work and is making her home with her parents at Wheatfield while her husband is away.

The following articles were all hand-dated 1945 and marked as having come from the Rensselaer Republican:

Mr. and Mrs. Elmer Shroyer received a telegram from their son, Delos, telling of his marriage to Miss Edna Pearl Jeffers, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Wil Jeffers of Tefft, on August 21st, at San Diego, Calif. They are enjoying a delightful honeymoon.

NOTE -- Mrs. Shroyers fathers first name was spelled as "Wil" in this article, but appeared as "Will" in later articles.

* * * * *

Visits In This City

NOTE -- The name Shroyer was misspelled in this article.

* * * * *

Edna Shroyer, formerly Jeffries, visited her husbands parents, Mr. and Mrs. Elmer Shroyer of Rensselaer over the week-end. Edna's husband is in the Navy and she is employed in factory work at Valparaiso.

NOTE -- Mrs. Shroyer's maiden name was misspelled in this article.

* * * * *

Delos and Harold Shroyer met at San Diego, Calif. Aug 16, and had several hours together. Harold has been shipped out again. They are sons of Mr. and Mrs. Elmer Shroyer of Rensselaer.

* * * * *

Mr. and Mrs. Elmer Shroyer of Kouts have heard from their son, Cpl. Charles D. Shroyer, the first time in almost four months. He reports that he is in Germany and is all right. He had received a box of cookies which he and his buddy sure enjoyed. He is in the 7th army. Their son, Harold, is in New Guinea and their son Delos is in the Great Lakes Training station.

Mr. and Mrs. Merle Shroyer of Arizona included this brief account of his World War II service:

Merle (Spike) Shroyer enlisted in the service (Navy) on November 28, 1944. He left Rensselaer, Indiana, on a bus bound for Indianapolis, Indiana. From there he went to the Great Lakes Naval Training Station in Chicago and then to Fort Pierce, Florida, an amphibious training base. Merle asked to go out to sea and was first sent to Tampa, Florida, and from there to San Diego, California, in August 1945. He was assigned to the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Wake Island CVE 65. Merle was the "Oil King" (the one who keeps the ship on even keel) aboard the first aircraft carrier to train FR 1 jets. They went out in the South Pacific and were there for at least six months and then on to New York City where the ship was decommissioned in April of 1946. He was then sent to Seattle, Washington, where he was on a sea-going tug ATO 27 where he worked as a "Motor Mack" that took the ships up to the mothball fleet in Alaska. Fireman 1st class, Merle Shroyer was honorably discharged from the U.S. Navy in July of 1946 in Bremerton, Washington, and came by train and bus to Valparaiso, Indiana. He arrived home August 6, 1946, to his wife, Edna Jeffers Shroyer, waiting at the bus station for him.

The following information, by Edna Shroyer in 2005, briefly updates their lives since the war years:

After he got home from the Navy, we used to visit different friends of his from Lowell, Indiana. Of course, now the years have flown by. We moved to Phoenix, Arizona, in May of 1964 because our youngest son had allergies to the COLD Indiana weather and humidity. At one time we owned a 10-acre farm just south of Valparaiso, Indiana, on Highway 2. It was out near "GATES CORNERS." Merle ( Spike) worked for General Telephone in Valparaiso for 18 and a half years, until we moved to Arizona. They all called him " Spike" at General Telephone Company. In fact, he was also called "Spike" at the Lowell, Indiana, schools.

Merle never lived in Rensselaer, Indiana. His parents moved there from Kouts, Indiana, after he left for service. His grandparents had died and his parents inherited their farm just on the edge of town (Rensselaer). His sister Margaret Shroyer Ellis lives near Rensselaer now and her children live near Rensselaer, too. Our son visited relatives near Rensselaer and Kouts, Indiana, last summer at a "Cousins Reunion." It was the first time he had been back there in several years. Of course, he went out south of Valparaiso to where our ten-acre farm used to be, and someone had bought it, subdivided it, and put three new houses on it. So, it looks different now, but our son says it looks VERY nice. We still have old neighbors that still live there near our old farm.

Last updated on March 26, 2009.

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Delos Merle “Spike” Shroyer (1924-2005)