Along the"Route to Tokyo"

13,147 miles of track serving the Southwest

Santa Fe, as the map belowshows, is an important lap onthe "Route to Tokyo."

That's why, during the pastseveral months, travelers haveseen armies of "Men at Work"all along our lines .

Capacity of our yards has beenincreased.

Curies have been ironed outso trains may get around themfaster.Neu Diesel "beadends"arepull-

ing bigger loads up mountaingrades .Ingenious Centralized Traffic

Control Systems have been in-stalled at important points sothe same rails can carry 50 percent more traffic .A new Santa Fe bridge is now

being built across the ColoradoRiver.Wehave enlarged ourcapacity

to meet the increasing loads ofwar There will be no slackeningof our job until the war is com-pletely won.

Santa Fe System Lines

A' IkSanta re

Riding the Sooner Range

By TED BEAIRD

Ed's Note : Back into the fold is a formerregular department of the magazine han-dled by your Alumni Secretary Ted Beairdwho is now back at his desk in the AlumniOffice after serving more than two yearsin the Air Corps.

Tins pickin' up the trail after 2 1/2 years travel-ing other avenues is a reborn experience in Ridin'the Sooner Range! The Madame Editor, EdithWalker, '41journ, plus the female staff in theAlumni publication division have long since givenup hope that the Range Rider will be reformedand learn to get his material in on schedule be-fore that deadline! Little floes the Madame Edi-tor realize that as we have picked up the Ridingof the Sooner Range again, we have a notebookchuck full and overflowing dealing with a very,very interesting group of Sooners who have"passed in review" in recent weeks. So, heregoes for a gallop!

It was 1430 (2 :30 p. m. Pacific War Time) on6 September, 1914, when the tour of active Armyduty was surrendered to superior officers in theArea Headquarters of the Spokane Air ServiceCommand. In hand were the War Departmentorders sending the Range Rider on a trek to theSeparation Center, Fort Sam Houston-to theCenter for processing, on to Terminal Leave, onto honorable discharge in the immediate futureweeks to come . The application for voluntaryretirement from active duty to return to the oldstomping ground and to cope with Sooner prob-lems on the old home front had been channeledthrough. So between the dates of 1430 6 Sep-tember (upon leaving a very pleasant tour ofduty in the Air Corps of this man's army) andthis present hour 0800 (8 a. m. Central WarTime) 22 October-well, semi-old-time dutieshave come into play, and the pleasure of makingmany Sooner contacts has become a reality .En route from the far, far Pacific Northwest to

the Separation Center at Fort Sam Houston, deepin the heart of Texas, the first "quasi-Sooner"bloomed up! The young returning veteran fromthe European theater standing on the thresholdof Old Faithful Inn at Yellowstone NationalPark as we passed through on that highway, wasnone other than First Lt . Guy Lackey, Jr ., ofStillwater, Oklahoma-typical chip off the oldblock, Guy, Sr., '186a, professor at the A. andM. College, Stillwater, and the 28-years-ago-as-sociate of the Range Rider in janitorial dutiesat the Administration Building on the campusof the University of Oklahoma . Yes, the yearsmake changes!

Physical examination processing, pendingTerminal Leave from the armed forces, wasmade much more pleasant upon arrival at BrooksHospital, Fort Sam Houston, Texas, when it wasfound that Lt. Col. Lee K. Emenhiser, '31med,is now, and has been for the past four years,directing officer of the eye, ear, nose and throatclinic of that institution . His able assistant, Maj .Edward D. McKay, '35med, almost made thetop rounds of this clinic "Soonerized" 100 per-cent . And boy, how these G.I. specs do fit afterthose two Sooners proceeded to work on the"40 odd plus" Range Rider's eyes.

Reporting to duty at the old stomping groundat 0800 1 October after a series of conferenceswith "Prexy" Tom Benedum, '28law, plus moreconferences with Roscoe Cate, '26ba, R. W. "Bep"Hutto, '10ba, Neil Johnson, '17law, Ed Meacham,

'146a, Guy Y. Williams, '066a, '10ma, and num-erous others, makes the beginning of old re-sponsibilities and duties more than realistic. Thehasty meeting with the "feminine staff," SueStarr, '436a, Edith Walker, Mrs. Mary Turnbull,Elaine Larecy, '42journ, Sarah Gephardt, '45,Charles Turnbull, '42bus, Mrs . Lola Lomax, BillOwen, as well as the manager and chief downthrough these many years-"Chief" in the artof "Sweetbreads and French Fries," Mrs. MaryScott of the Union kitchen forces, readily makesone who has toured with G.Ls for months onmonths realize that he is back in the swim ofcivilian preparation .

The steady stream of old cronies and old as-sociates who, over a span of years plus years onthis University campus, coming and going andmeeting, makes the picture complete as old timesand old duties begin to unfold .

Exchange of telephone conversations by andwith Attorney- Hicks Epton, '32law, Wewoka,who, incidentally, was processed out as anotherG.I . Joe from the United States Army seven daysprior to my arrival on the old home stompinggrounds-with Superintendent George Ilann, '36m .ed, the old Ardmore City School Prexy, O. F."Fish" Muldrow, '22, with numerous other Soon-ers via L.D . in the Sooner state, soon put theold grinder in top shape for the rolling of equip-ment on short order!An influx of mail from foreign theaters

of oper-ation-Col . Lee Thompson, '32law, in a most inter-csting V-mail letter, J . F. "Maj" Malone, '37ba,from his new position clown New Guinea way,Capt. Boyd Gunning, '37law, sleep in the Pa-cific Southwest-anti the terse brief note fromCapt. Frank Haxel, '32, that after these 29 monthshe would, in the course of a few hours, be headedback to the States and bid India plus Burma goodbye (at least temporarily)-all

these, plus dozens ofother Sooner notes from graduates and formerstudents either "at sea" headed to their foreignassignments or "at sea" wondering if and whenreplacements would be sent, after their longtours of duty in the various theaters of oper-ation, makes one quite aware that the old trailis different (and will be) until these lads tooarc headed home!

An interesting evening spent with Capt . C. O.Hunt, '40law, en route from the ConvalescentCenter, Denver, Colorado, back to his old out-fit in Virginia caused a rehashing of events cover-ing the period of the last three years of activeArmy duties .

With J . C., '386a, and Mrs. Mayfield plus Mar-garet Ann Gessncr Twyman, the O. U. Place-ment expert now back in the middle of the swimwith her O. U. cronies, the visit to the Borden Gen-eral Army Hospital, Chickasha, was most interest-ing and stimulating . Among the highlights was apleasant visit with Lt . William "Bus" Monroe,'35law, who was recently flown in from theEuropean theater for patchwork which, inci-dentally, will cover a series of months for theArmy medical specialists to complete . It is be-lieved that all of us should endeavor to catchthe spirit of these men "so flown." It is rec-ommended that those of us who may be backon the civilian home front-when the goinggets rough, when it seems that the barriers can-not be removed at a rapidly changing pace, goto some convalescent center or general armedforces hospital and catch the optimism, gatherthe cheer and the hope that the returning vet-erans, being sent in from every theater of war,will soon inoculate into your system . That in-deed is the old Sooner spirit amplified three-fold .

SOONER MAGAZINE