War Bonds : Homecoming for UCLA Classes of ‘41-’43 Brings Remembrances of Hardships and Friendships

They missed out on much of the homecoming hoopla the first time around when World War II swept up college men--and swept away much of the fun of being a student.

So members of UCLA’s classes of 1941, ’42 and ’43 are making up for it this weekend during an unusual 50th-anniversary, three-class reunion in Westwood.

More than 500 wartime alumni will be honored at the UCLA-Oregon State homecoming football game today and at a special reception Sunday. Friday night, they were guests at the campus homecoming parade.

It is a bittersweet return for many. They remember the war years as a difficult, chaotic time that bonded them together in unexpected ways.

“So many didn’t come back from the war,” said Barbara Fitzpatrick, a member of the class of ’42 who still recalls studying for exams in a blacked-out sorority house that was braced for possible enemy attack.

“It was not very much fun for anybody. The men were gone. . . . Nobody knew what was going to happen.”

Author and journalist Bob Thomas, a member of the class of ‘43, recalls walking in the hills above the campus the day Pearl Harbor was bombed.

“I was with a good friend named Jim Taylor. We talked about how we would be writing partners after the war. But he didn’t make it back,” Thomas said.

Those marching off to fight vowed to stay in touch, said Hollywood columnist Army Archerd, a 1941 graduate who later served on a Navy destroyer.

“We’d keep up correspondence with classmates and friends,” Archerd said. “The terrible thing would be when you didn’t get a reply.”

University records indicate that more than 100 members of the three classes were killed in the war. Alumni recalled Friday that one-time Student Body President Don Brown was one of them. Another was Moe Yonemura, a popular cheerleader.

Although many Japanese-American students such as Yonemura enlisted and fought for the United States in Europe, 175 others were uprooted and sent into American internment camps. “We’d get letters from friends in camp saying, ‘For God’s sake, send us some decent food,’ ” 1942 graduate Barbara Cable of Lakewood recalled Friday. “They were Americans, but they were being treated like foreigners, being fed rice and fish.”

Liquor wasn’t sold then in tiny Westwood Village. So weekly farewell parties for those leaving to fight or to work in defense plants were held at a nightspot named Pico Pete’s on Pico Boulevard or at a roadhouse called The Glen, halfway up Beverly Glen canyon.

“I guess they didn’t serve liquor because of our proximity to the Veteran’s Hospital,” recalled Tim Leimert, a member of the class of ’43 who now is a Los Angeles real estate developer. “Everybody was trying to enlist. Pretty soon, the campus was decimated.”

Although the student body totaled 8,041 in 1941, it dropped to 6,300 in 1942. By 1943, attendance shriveled to 4,400, according to UCLA records. By contrast, enrollment today is 35,000.

Students scrambled to complete their graduation requirements as classes were scrapped. Activities that attracted large crowds were reduced. So were events that required large amounts of electricity.

Those returning Friday discovered that UCLA has changed greatly since their day. The ravine that split the campus in 1942 is covered over. Instead of the 11 buildings on campus then, there are 220 today.

On Sunday, however, they’ll feel at home, thanks to classmates Farlan Myers and Ernie Martin. More than 50 years ago, the pair teamed up to produce a memorable junior prom weekend featuring a student revue and dancing to the Glen Miller Band.

Myers, an advertising executive, is teaming up once more with Martin, co-producer of such Broadway shows as “Guys and Dolls” and “Silk Stockings.”

This time, the pair promise a champagne brunch. And plenty more Big Band music.