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The Golden Book honors IU alumni who have served their country in times of war.

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ETTERS ON A PAGE. THAT’S THE EASY WAY TO LOOK AT IT. It’s a book of names, a few bits of details and dates, written in script. Dee Rockwood, MS’79, a Bloomington, Ind., elementary school teacher by profes-sion, a calligrapher by passion, worked in whatever spare time she had, so that days became weeks and then months to memorialize what had been unorganized lists scrawled onto index cards and stuffed into shoe boxes.

It’s called the Golden Book, and its hundreds of pages — totaling about 10,000 names — list all the “sons and daughters” of Indiana University who served in battles ranging from the War of 1812 to World War II.

But names are meaningless without the stories behind them. These were people who lived, loved, sacrificed, and often died. “Killed in action” is the way it’s described, but that just touches the surface.

BY PETE DIPRIMIO

The Golden Book in the Indiana Memorial Union is

enclosed in a glass case.

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and Newton are wounded and captured. Newton has burns on his hands and face. He is taken to a hospital in Bari, Italy, that was once a convent. Eventually he is transported by train to Camp 59, a prison in the small Italian town of Servigliano.

While a prisoner, Newton learns German and Italian. He has no intention of waiting out the war as a POW. Camp 59 is not Alcatraz. Escape is possible for those who are willing and brave. Newton is both. There is an enemy to defeat and a career to start.

Newton escapes with fellow POW Raymond Cox. They are among the 2,000 prisoners who flee Camp 59 during the war. Many move throughout the Italian countryside to avoid detection while seeking a way back to Allied territory. Newton and another prisoner, Martin Majeski, meet Pietro Viozzi, who offers them haven at his farm near the small town of Santa Vittoria. Loneli-ness is not a problem. Four families live there. Newton and Majeski make it an even 30 people in the house.

Newton and Majeski become so much a part of the family (Newton gets an Italian name — Roberto Newtoni) that they de-cide to stay. They help work the farm. They make toys and teach the children English. Pietro grows to love them as sons. They become visible, a dangerous reality in a deadly world.

Nazis and Italian fascists are targets for raids and attacks behind the lines, and somebody has to pay. An order goes out in early 1944 to execute escaped prisoners and any Italians helping the Allies.

And then ….

Dennis Hill is the administrator and main researcher for a website called Survivors of Camp 59 — Experiences of the Allied servicemen who were Prisoners of War at Servigliano, Italy. He talked with Newton’s nephew, also named Robert Newton, for details about the war experience. The nephew visited Italy in 1999, talked to surviving family members and wrote about his uncle.

Additional insight was provided from Italian historian Filippo Ierano, who interviewed Cesare Viozzi for a story that appeared

For the truth you have to dig deeper, past the locked glass case that protects the nearly 60-year-old book from time and touch. You have to go beyond the Memorial Room that houses it in IU’s Memorial Union, beyond the pair of black iron gates that guard it, past the old European stained glass windows and an imposing statue of a former commander of a Union prisoner of war camp, a Cream and Crimson geology professor who was so honorable when so many others were not that, after the Civil War ended, the Confederate prisoners who had been in his charge commis-sioned a bust in his image.

There’s more, of course, but we won’t start there.Flash back to 1944. Former IU student Robert Alvey Newton,

a U.S. Army tank gunner and escaped POW, has found sanctuary in the Italian town of Santa Vittoria. After six months, German SS troops find him and another escaped American and order them to go to the nearby Osso River to gather firewood.

It is the next-to-last order they will ever hear.

Cpl. Robert Newton looms basketball tall in the black-and-white photo. The Logansport native towers over his fellow tank crew members of the U.S. Army’s 1st Armored Division: California’s Everett Gregg, Detroit’s Lee Kaser, and Tennessee’s Philip Caldwell. They are posed in full uniform at an undisclosed location, ready for a battle not all will survive.

Newton, who attended IU from 1938 to 1940, plans to return to school and become a family doctor when the war is over. He’s a pinochle enthusiast who loves children. He is kind and strong and if he smokes too much, well, that is what many soldiers do in an era before the dangers are known.

On Feb. 15, 1943, Newton and his crew are involved in the Battle of Sidi Bou Zid in the North African country of Tunisia. The poorly led Allied forces are routed by the Germans.

During the battle, Newton, Kaser, and Gregg are in the same tank. Caldwell is behind them in a tank destroyer. The forward tank is hit by an artillery shell. Kaser is killed instantly. Gregg

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in a July 2001 Italian publication. Cesare was just a young boy when his parents took in the Americans.

Accounts vary on exactly what happened next.According to Cesare, the Americans slept in the stables on a

couch hidden by hay and animals, but were with the family dur-ing the day. Newton, in particular, liked to help with the animals.

Very early one morning on March 9, 1944, German troops ap-peared in town. One account suggested they were actually Italian fascists dressed as German soldiers.

The Americans hid in a ditch. Eventually, Cesare said, the Viozzis were told the Germans had left, so the Americans joined the family for breakfast.

Two German soldiers returned on motorbikes and went straight for the Viozzi house, even though other families were hiding escaped prisoners. The soldiers raised their guns and ordered everybody out, instantly recognizing the Americans. Cesare said a spy in the town must have told the Germans about the Americans.

The Germans took the Americans to a small wooded area near the river and ordered them to stand near the water. Family mem-bers heard gunshots. One account said the men were shot in the back and kicked into the river. Another said they were ordered to dig their own graves and then shot.

Whatever the version, Robert Newton and Martin Majeski were dead.

The Germans returned to the Viozzi house and ordered ev-eryone out, even an old aunt who had been bedridden for years. They set fire to the house, took money, food, and a horse and burned down the hay barn as an example to those who would help POWs.

The next day a man brought the bodies of the Americans into town on a horse and cart for burial. Cesare said the man, a poor farmer, demanded that the Viozzis pay for the expense. The Americans were buried in a Santa Vittoria cemetery. A few months later, the bodies were moved to an American cemetery in southern Italy. Several years later, their families arrived to take the bodies back home.

“Our family suffered,” Cesare said, “but no one ever regretted having given hospitality to those poor boys.”

In December of 2010, the Newton family — including a 93-year-old aunt — visited Indiana’s Memorial Union to see the Golden Book. Hill had asked Thom Simmons, the associate director for the Memorial Union, to have the book turned to the page that listed Robert Newton. Here is what the family saw:

Newton, Robert AlveyEx 1944LogansportU.S.A. Tank CorpsKilled in action in Italy, March 9, 1944.Just letters on a page?Not even close.There are other stories, of course. For those we must turn

the page …

Russell Church’s last fiery seconds on earth left him with a

choice — obey his orders and, perhaps, jeopardize the lives of his fellow soldiers; or disobey, complete his mission, and buy his decimated unit some desperately needed time.

He had seconds to decide …Church had been a varsity swimmer at

IU, graduating in 1939. He was athletic and charming and popu-lar. He also was tough and fiercely competitive. He cared about the men he served with.

In September of 1941, he was a lieutenant stationed in the Philippines as a pilot in the Army Air Corps. One day members of his unit, the 17th Pursuit Squadron, went swimming. A soldier got caught in the undertow and was pulled out to sea. Church swam out and kept him afloat until other soldiers could get a boat from a nearby village and rescue them. He was honored for his actions.

By December of 1941, United States officials knew there was a strong likelihood the Japanese would attack, but did little to prepare. Many believed the Japanese would hit the Philippines first because it was closer to Japan. Instead, on Dec. 7, 1941, they attacked Pearl Harbor. Nine hours later, they invaded the Philip-pines.

Most of the American planes were destroyed in the initial attack. The ones that survived (mostly P-40 fighter planes with shark mouths painted on the noses) were just used for scouting the area. The Americans couldn’t afford to lose any more planes in battle.

By Dec. 10, the Japanese had landed near the Philippine town of Vigan, where Church and his unit were stationed. Five days later, Japanese troops and 25 planes had settled onto a nearby field. Americans decided to attack. The mission was led by Lt. Boyd “Buzz” Wagner, who had already shot down four enemy planes. He needed a wingman and picked Church, one of the squadron’s most experienced pilots.

According to an AirForce-Magazine.com story by John L. Fris-bee, Wagner went first and dropped six 30-pound fragmentation bombs on Japanese planes neatly positioned on the field. Church was next, but by then the Japanese had started shooting. Church’s plane was hit and burst into flames. Wagner ordered Church to turn back and bail out. Church did not. He knew the Americans couldn’t afford to waste this opportunity. It might help the squad-ron hold on until reinforcements arrived. It might save lives. So he dropped all his bombs, destroying as many Japanese planes as he could before his P-40 crashed, killing him.

“I know that Church knew he was facing certain death when he decided to remain with his mission,” Wagner told Frisbee. “What Russell Church did at Vigan was the most courageous thing I have ever seen in this Pacific war.”

Church was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his bravery. It was reported the Japanese saw his self-sacrifice and buried him with full military honors.

And then …

John Summerlot can’t help himself. Every time the McNutt Robert Alvey Newton, left, with his fellow tank crew members of the U.S. Army’s 1st Armored Division. Newton was captured in 1943.

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Center manager is in the Memorial Union, which is several times a semester while teaching a Veterans Experience class, he stops by to check out the Golden Book.

“We do a tour of the Union and look at the Golden Book,” he says. “I sometimes take my (Mc-Nutt) RA staff there. They’ll say they’ve glanced in the room before, but never knew what it was. Part of my job is tell-ing the rest of the university this place exists.”

Summerlot, a Mississippi State gradu-ate working on an advanced degree in education at IU, digs to find the Golden Book stories people want to hear. He researches university archives, ROTC archives, library files, and anything else he can find.

“John has spent more time than any-body I know looking at all the various pieces and files,” says Margaret Baech-told of IU’s Veterans Affairs Office.

Adds Summerlot: “Many of the stories come out through digging. A lot of them were put into files and sat there until they were turned over to the archives. You find them while looking through a letter here, a newspaper clipping there.”

Summerlot is a former Marine who served in Kuwait in the 1990s. He’s pas-sionate about military history and IU’s role in it.

“At a university that sometimes struggles with its role involving the military, government, and war,” he says, “the Golden Book is a good reminder that there still is that respect and appreciation for those who have provided the opportu-nities and security that’s necessary for a place like Indiana University to exist.”

One of those to appreciate was Richard Owen, an IU professor of geology who became a Union colonel in the Civil War. In 1862 he was put in charge of Camp Morton, a prisoner of war camp outside of Indianapolis. He treated his 4,000 prisoners with respect and dignity, actions that were not duplicated at other Union prisons.

After the war, when the Confederate soldiers returned home and heard about the mistreatment of other captured soldiers, they decided to honor Owen by commissioning a bronze bust in his honor. Sculpted by Belle Kinney, it depicts Owen in a Union military uniform with his arms folded across his chest, looking to the right, stern but fair.

The original bust was dedicated in 1913, two years after his death, and is in the Indiana State Capitol in Indianapolis. A replica is in a Memorial Union entryway near the Memorial Room.

And then there was the Tommygun. That’s short for the Thompson submachine gun, one of the most popular weapons used by criminals and police during the Prohibition era. It was invented by John T. Thompson in 1919 and was originally

conceived as a weapon for trench warfare. It was known as the Annihilator.

Thompson attended IU for a year before moving on to West Point. His father, James, was a military science professor at

Indiana in the 1870s.“People don’t often think of IU as a

place for engineers and great weapons,” Summerlot says, “but one of the most in-famous weapons of the early 20th century was invented by an IU student.”

History shows that one of the most dramatic early navy battles of the Civil War involved the Union’s Monitor and the Confederates’ Merrimack. It was the first naval confrontation between two ironclad warships, and they basically fought to a draw on March 9, 1862, as part of the Confederates’ attempt to break the naval blockade of Virginia.

The bigger significance was the worldwide impact it had. Great Britain and France immediately stopped build-ing wooden ships and began making iron vessels.

An IU student, W.C.L. Taylor, report-edly was a soldier on the Monitor. He later fought in the battles of Second Bull Run, Chancellorsville, Spotsylvania, and Petersburg.

Don’t forget Paul McNutt, a 1913 IU honors graduate, a member of the Indiana National Guard, a World War I vet-eran, governor of Indiana during the 1930s, and ambassador to the Philippines. McNutt Center is named for him.

And then there were the student volunteers who in the summer of 1916 saw action in the Texas-Mexico border war involving Pancho Villa, the famous Mexican bandit and revo-lutionary leader.

“It was hot and miserable there,” Summerlot says. “A lot of the starting football team was on that unit. They came back in time to start fall semester.”

Their return couldn’t prevent a 2-4-1 record, IU’s sixth straight non-winning season. The Hoosiers did beat Florida (the Gators weren’t the power they are now) and DePauw, and tied Purdue.

That leads to a final story …

Maybe Lucien Greathouse was too young to know he wasn’t bulletproof. The Illinois native was only 16 when he gradu-ated from IU in 1858 to become a lawyer. When the Civil War broke out two years later he enlisted with Illinois’ 48th In-fantry, also known as Pharoah’s Army. In three years he went from private to colonel. He fought with Gen. U.S. Grant at the Battle of Vicksburg and was part of Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman’s march through the South.

During the Battle of Atlanta, the Illinois 48th attacked a

Confederate stronghold. Greathouse led the charge by riding a large horse with a saber in his hand. According to legend, one Rebel soldier yelled, “Surrender, can’t you see you’re beaten?” Greathouse replied, “Beat hell, we’ve just come into the fight.”

Then his fight ended. He was shot in the chest and instantly killed. It was July 22, 1864, and Greathouse was 22 years old.

The Illinois 48th responded by captur-ing the stronghold and, shortly thereafter, Atlanta fell. Sherman burned the city to the ground.

Two days later, Sherman received word that Greathouse had been promoted to brigadier general.

“He would have been the youngest brigadier general in American history,” Summerlot says. “After the war, Gen. Sherman was asked who was the bravest man he’d fought with. He said it was tough because everybody was brave, but if he had to identify somebody, it would be Col. Greathouse.”

Greathouse, too, is a name on a page.And so much more. K

Pete DiPrimio is an award-winning writer and author. He has written two books on IU basketball and one on IU baseball. He lives in Bloomington, Ind.

The Golden Book has met the golden computer age. Is that a good thing? You’d better believe it. Indiana University officials have digitized the more than 10,000 names in the 50-year-old-plus book that lists everyone with an IU affiliation who served in military action ranging from the War of 1812 to World War II.

Margaret Baechtold of IU’s Veteran Affairs Office says the goal is to have “a computer display so people can browse through the book. We haven’t been through the whole book because it’s old and fragile. We’ll have more access to the names once it’s all been digitized.”

TRUE GOLD DIGITIZING THE GOLDEN BOOK TO MEET 21ST-CENTURY NEEDS

Harold B. (Pete) Goldsmith, the IUB dean of students, is the driving force behind the project. Every page will be digitally photographed. Completion of the project was celebrated on Nov. 11, Veterans Day.

Baechtold says plans include a new Golden Book that would include the names of those who served in wars after World War II. “It’s a long-term project,” she says. “We have significant funding needs, but we’d love to see the old version and a new volume with (Internet) links to stories and places about the individuals named in there. “Some of the World War II veterans have their stories as part of the Oral History

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The Memorial Room of the Indiana Memorial Union hosts the Golden Book, which lists the names of Indiana University alumni who served their country in the wars of the republic. The book also lists the names of donors whose funds were used to construct three IU buildings: the old Memorial Stadium, the Memorial Union, and Memorial Hall in the Agnes E. Wells Quadrangle.

Col. LucienGreathouse

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The book, which rests on a base made from a hand-carved mantle from an old Roman palace, is displayed in the Memo-rial Room (dedicated in 1969), which is located across from Starbucks in the Memorial Union. The room includes a pair of religious-themed stained glass windows. One, titled “The Flight into Egypt,” shows Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus riding a donkey and is estimated to be more than 700 years old. The other, called “The Epiphany or Adoration of the Kings,” is more than 500 years old. Both came from Indianapolis Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Booth Tarkington, who acquired them from the collection of an

Austrian count and used them in his Meridian Street home. They were donated by Mr. and Mrs. H. Frederick Willkie, who bought Tarkington’s home after he died in 1946. On the floor is a bronze plaque with the inscription, “In memory of the sons and daughters of Indiana University who have served in the wars of the Republic.” Tradition says no one should step on the plaque. There is also a portrait of William Lowe Bryan, IU’s president from 1902 to 1937. It was under his leadership that the drive to build the Memorial Union was proposed and completed in 1932. The digital display of the Golden Book sits beneath the portrait of Bryan, across the room from the printed book. At one time the Golden Book was left open and its pages turned daily. Now it is preserved in a locked glass case. K — P.D.

Project in the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. We’d like to link their stories that are recorded there. There are lots of great ideas, but the first step is to get the book more accessible to individuals who want to see what’s in it.” To understand what they can now see means understanding the impetus behind the book’s creation. At the turn of the 20th century, national interest grew to remember Civil War veterans. Around 1910 IU officials expanded that interest — as part of their overall fundraising drive to build the Memorial Union, Memorial Hall, and Memorial Stadium — to create a list of every IU student and employee who had served in a war. That included David Hervey Maxwell, the first president of IU’s board of trustees and a veteran of the War of 1812. “They started collecting information,” researcher John Summerlot says, “and went back to the founding of the university. Folks who graduated in the 1820s and who served in the Black Hawk War in the 1830s.” School officials eventu-ally developed a list of names that they put on the back of commence-ment programs. But after World War I, when the list grew to more than 30 pages, officials considered putting the names into a permanent book. Nothing happened until the 1950s when IU President Herman Wells, BS’24, MA’27, LLD’62, pushed for it, “so people can read the names of the sons and daughters of Indiana University who have fought in the wars of the republic.” By then the list had reached more than 10,000 names, covering the War of 1812, the Black Hawk War, the Mexican War, the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, the Philippines Insurrection, the Mexican Border Expedition, and both world wars. The list was stored on index cards that filled at least 10 shoeboxes. Bloomington elementary school teacher Dee Rockwood, MS’79, an experienced calligrapher, was hired to write the names in script in what is now called the Golden Book. Rockwood wrote in the Meadowood Anthology (she and her husband, Chuck, live there) that the six-month project was “quite difficult and time consuming.” She wrote that she’d work one or two hours a night “until my hand cramped or my eyes began to see double.” Rockwood earned a thousand dollars for the project, and used the money to buy new carpeting for her living room.

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