Trojans recall victory

Richard Sprinkel walked into a banquet room at Big Canyon Country

Club on Thursday wearing two watches on one wrist.

One showed the time in Newport Beach, where dozens of World War II

veterans were gathered to celebrate the 60th anniversary of V-J Day

-- Sept. 2, 1945 -- the day of victory for Allied forces over Japan.

The other watch kept the time in Tokyo Bay, the place where the

formal Japanese surrender took place aboard the U.S. battleship

Missouri.

Sprinkel wasn’t suffering from time-zone paranoia. He was showing

his support for war veterans like himself, who played a role in the

momentous United States victory.

“This is so dear to my heart,” said Sprinkel, a former Naval

navigator who lives in Newport Beach. “We all went through this

together, and it’s the friendships that keep us coming back.”

The members of this group had one thing in common. They are all

part of the USC Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps Alumni League,

an organization comprising Trojan graduates, many of whom were in the

Navy ROTC program during wartime.

On Friday, about 20 group members were scheduled for a cruise

aboard William B., a tugboat named for a deceased USC classmate and

World War II veteran named William Barker.

Sprinkel, who helped organize Thursday and Friday’s activities,

said he planned to dress the boat with a row of American flags.

William B. was slated to cruise Newport Bay and be escorted about a

half-mile outside the bay by the U.S. Coast Guard.

Once stationary, Sprinkel said he planned to cast a red, white and

blue wreath overboard to honor the troops who gave their lives in

World War II.

“I want to record this moment in history,” Sprinkel said.

At Thursday’s luncheon, the members of the group saw war footage

and reminisced about their time in the service. Clad in an assortment

of USC paraphernalia, the veterans thought back even further, to the

time in the early 1940s when many lived together in college dorms.

Some were part of the first Navy ROTC class at USC that began

their service in 1940. Many of the attendees received their Naval

commissions from USC in 1945, a few months before V-J Day.

“Some of us met 63 years ago at a drill field at USC,” said

Brownlee “Hub” Hubble, a Newport Beach resident, who graduated from

USC in 1945. “We joked that this was really our fraternity.... It’s

an emotional thing we went through.”

Black-and-white pictures brought by alumni league members to

Thursday’s event showed photos of the Pearl Harbor attack, President

Harry Truman’s victory announcement and Sprinkel leading Navy ROTC

midshipmen through a marching ceremony on campus.

Sprinkel was battalion commander in charge of overseeing about 250

NROTC members in the early 1940s.

He said about 2,200 people have graduated from the USC Navy ROTC

program. About 1,150 of the graduates are on the league’s mailing

list.

The group’s main role is to support the current Midshipmen at USC

through scholarship funds, computer donations and a Navy sword gift

presented to the battalion commander, Sprinkel said.

The group has a history of celebrating important dates in war

history. They have congregated for Pearl Harbor memorials and, in

1995, some gathered at the USC campus to celebrate the 50th

anniversary of V-J Day.

Many members, like Sprinkel and Hubble, were motivated by Pearl

Harbor to join the USC NROTC program. After receiving their

commissions, the graduates dispersed throughout the Pacific.

On V-J Day, Oceanside resident Al Theal was aboard USS Schuylkill,

a ship anchored in Tokyo Bay that provided fuel to the Allied fleets.

Bob Brockmeier, the league’s current president, has heard stories

from Theal and other World War II veterans. He was only 4 years old

on V-J Day and comes to these events to learn more about the early

days of the USC Naval ROTC program.

“This group is unique,” Brockmeier said. “They participated in one

of the most interesting times in our history. Their episodes

shouldn’t fade into oblivion.”