Army, Navy Tennis meet today for Patriot League Championship

What can be better? Army and Navy meet today for the  Patriot League Championship tennis title. The title will be played on Navy's home courts in Annapolis.

Army stands 16-12 and was No. 3 in the Patriot League, advancing to the title match after sweeping Lehigh. Navy, the league's No. 1 seed at 17-8, is 15-5 at home and was a perfect 5-0 in Patriot League matches.

Asika Isoh leads the Black Knights with s 21-13 record; Navy has three 20-match winners: Blake Daniel (20-9), Calvin Mark (27-7) and Peter McDonald (20-8).

Click here to follow results on the Patriot League's official site.

Army Lacross ready for Patriot League semifinals

The Army Black Knights Lacrosse team (7-6, 4-2) travels to Lehigh April 27 in the first Patriot League semifinal. Army is 3-0 in their last three contests.

Garrett Thul leads the team with 37 goals; John Glesener is tops with 16 assists.

Zach Palmieri is 7-6 with a 8.64 goals against average.

Click here for the team's official website.

Army Baseball stands tall at 31-9

The Army Black Knights baseball team is standing tall with a record of 31-9 going into weekend at home against Bucknell. Army played Navy (13-22) earlier in the season, sweeping the 4-game series at Annapolis.

Head Coach Joe Sottolano and coaching staff including Lt. Col. Dave Borowicz, Matt Reid and Anthony DeCicco have seen solid play across the board from the Black Knights.

Kevin McKague leads Army batters with a .374 average, four home runs and 35 RBI. Chris Rowley is a perfect 9-0 with a 0.95 ERA in 10 starts.

Click here for the Back Knights official baseball site.

Celebration of Life: early family life: Joseph N. Ermer

America was and remains a shining beacon for those young and old who seek a fresh start in life. So was true for Joseph Ermer, Sr. and  his wife, Christine (Karstens) Ermer. The two would making a loving family for their two children, Joseph "Joe" N. Ermer and Robert "Bob" Ermer.


"My mother was quite proud of her family. Her father apparently started off quite well-to-do I guess he didn't inherit too much business ability and gradually lost most of what he inherited.

Her mother conducted a school for streamstresses in their home. It was a fairly large house. I think it backed onto the Elbe river.

My mother had four brothers: Heinrich, Johannes, Karl (Kalli) and Max; there was another sister,

Marga. Marge came to America first. She got a job as a governess with a family in Bloomfield, New Jersey. After a while, she sent for my mother, who became a governess for the Horn's in Glen Ridge.

By one of those unbelievable coincidences, the job I got after discharge from the Navy was with Horn, Ogilvie & Co. Inc. H. Schuyler Horn, owner of this insurance agency and brokerage was the same Horn my mother worked for. I didn't find out until a year later, when I came across three pictures he had of his three children -- they were the same pictures my mother had of the children she took care of. It's a small world.

My father was orphaned at the age of nine. He was brought up in an orphanage. His stories, while not like the stuff in the news today, explained why he left.  As a small child, he lived on a farm and did such tasks as bringing in bread, beer and cheese out to farm workers for their lunch. He also brought prepared loaves to the village baker, once a week, to be backed in the big oven. My father used a wooden wheelbarrow for both jobs.

It was a large family and the children were separate when their parents died. My father emigrated to America several years before WWI. Before he left Germany, he looked up all his brothers and sisters.

My father had a friend in America, Henry Daut, who preceded him and got Dad his first jobs: one of them was installing metal roofing. It was done differently in those days -- all the seams were hand-soldered.

My Dad's training in Germany was as a machinist and eventually that is what he worked as. Dad lived in Brooklyn with various families as a boarder. He met my mother when a friend of his, Frank Neckerman, took him to Glen Ridge. Frank was going with Horn's cook, Viola. She was a transplanted southerner, from Virginia. The Neckerman's remained friends for many years after both they and my parents were married."


Joseph "Joe" N. Ermer Memoirs (click links below to view/hear):
Celebration of Life: Joseph N. Ermer
Celebration of life: early childhood: Joseph N. Ermer
Celebration of Life: sports in the early years: Joseph N. Ermer
Celebration of Life: early years: Boy Scouts: Joseph N. Ermer
Celebration of Life: WWII part one: Joseph N. Ermer
Celebration of Life: WWII part two: Joseph N. Ermer
Celebration of Life: WWII part three: Joseph N. Ermer
Celebration of Life: WWII part four: Joseph N. Ermer

Military All-Stars set spring 2012 schedule

The Military All-Stars have released their upcoming 2012 spring schedule, including the Celebrity Classic Weekend May 4-6, 2012 in San Diego, California.

Events include:

Saturday, May 5th

8 am Military All-Star Celebrity GOLF Classic
Location: Admiral Baker – 2400 Admiral Baker Road, San Diego, CA 92120

12pm Golf Awards LUNCHEON / AUCTION
Location: Admiral Baker Clubhouse

Sunday, May 6th

4:30 pm Batting Practice
Location: Tony Gwynn Stadium / San Diego State University

6 pm Military All-Star Celebrity SOFTBALL Classic
Location: Tony Gwynn Stadium / San Diego State University

6.50 pm Ground Zero Flag Presentation / Pre-Game Ceremony / Military Fly-Over

7.50 pm Military All-Star Celebrity BASEBALL Classic
Location: Tony Gwynn Stadium / San Diego State University

For Tickets or more information please visit: www.usmilitaryallstars.us

Memories of Mike: United States Army, 304th Regiment, 4th Battalion: part one

During WWII,  S/Sgt. Michael "Mike" Anthony Lacche, was part of the Army's 304th Regiment, 4th Battalion, which helped liberate Europe; the 304th Regiment was later assigned to the 76th Division during post WWII stabilization work in Germany.

Key organization dates (info credit, Wikipedia.org) includes the 304th Regiment ordered to active duty on June 15, 1942; disbanding August 31, 1945 in Germany; and reconstituted and assigned to the 76th division on October 7, 1946.

During the Allied push into Germany, the 304th Regiment, 4th Battalion crossed into Eisenach, Germany, February 24, 1945 and pushed all the way to Penig, Germany when Germany's surrender was completed May 9, 1945.

Click here to see a very thorough web site honoring the 76th division.

Fort Kamehameha: Sports History: 1920s

U.S. Army records show (click here for the National Archives site) Fort Kamehameha, Hawaii had a long history of athletic competitions: from boxing to baseball, basketball to archery.

National Archives Identifier: 533195 records a series of pictures and summary from Field Day 1922 at Fort Kamehameha, twenty years before Mike Lacche won the Welterweight Base Boxing Title, featured was a closely contested baseball championship game between the Fort Ruger and Fort DeRussey baseball teams.

National Archives Identifier:26337 has surviving film footage from the Department of Defense of the semi-finals of the 1953 Hawaiian boxing tournament.

 

Stay tuned as Michael Lacche Boxing and Army Historians continue to research and publish records of Mike Lacche's Title run.             

Celebration of Life: WWII part four: Joseph N. Ermer

In later invasions, Joseph "Joe" N. Ermer, crew mate on the  U.S.S. Elmore, found himself part of a convoy sailing up the East China Sea for the next series of offenses. The U.S.S. Elmore got stuck in a punishing typhoon, which put at risk the team's timeline and mission. (Click here for audio version).

"The Admiral in charge ordered continued sailing at high speed. The wind was so strong that it blew off the tops of the waves and the air was semi-liquid. Our ship came close to the turn-over point. We were somewhat top heavy with all the landing craft on deck. Three destroyers in the group didn't make it; they capsized with large losses of life.

Rescue was almost impossible in those conditions, plus we had strict orders to maintain course. Some survivors were picked by the trailing escort vessels. I later met one of the surviving sailors on the troop train from New York to San Francisco.

We had a great Skipper, Captain Drayton P. Harrison, an Annapolis grad. At first, he was a three striper, Commander; he got his fourth stripe on board years later; I saw him in 90 Church St. with Rear Admiral boards on his shoulders.

U.S.S ELMORE - photo credit - Wikipedia.org

Captain Harrison was well-liked and respected. One time, he was sitting with a bunch of other officers outside the officers' mess (the Captain had his own). One of the Junior Ensigns came up after putting in a hard four hours training in the landing craft and was tired and sweaty. The Ensign announced, "OK! one of you deadbeats get off your lardass and let a working man sit down." Without a word, Captain Harrison got up and walked away.

We stopped once in Noumea, New Caledonia. The population was mostly Vichy French. For some reason I hadn't done any drinking (too busy beach combing); in the boat returning to the ship, most of the sailors started getting violently sick. It turns out that the liquor and beer had been highly adulterated.

That is also the place that we almost went aground on a leper colony. Noumea Harbor is surrounded  by mountains. The wind can funnel through it in almost hurricane velocity. We were anchored in our assignment anchorage just off the leper colony. The wind got so strong that we started to drag our one bow anchor (we lost the other one). The Skipper had us drop the stern anchor, which was much lighter and not much help. He then ordered the Engineering Department to get up steam. They actually had it on the jacking lever, which meant they were producing a small amount of steam. That took care of our generators.

So we were dragging our anchors and heading for the rocks. The cliffs above them were lined with lepers, watching us. Finally, the engineers got up enough steam so that we could make slow headway against the wind. We up-anchored and got the hell out of there.

I mentioned losing an anchor. It happened in the Russell Islands, part of the Solomon chain. These islands were just peaks of mountains stuck up out of the water, with very deep water in between. We probably missed our anchorage by a small distance.

The old man yelled for us to drop the hook. At this time, we still had two bow anchors. I was on the anchor detail and hanging over with sound-powered phones on, calling on the fathom markers on the chain as it paid out. There was always a lot of noise and rust in the air. The chain just kept running and running. Apparently, it never hit bottom!

The brakeman was trying to slow the run out, but those breaks were never meant for anything like that. The brakes were disintegrating and Barrett, the brakeman, was being peppered with break lining. The First Lieutenant, Flaherty, ordered everyone other there. They all started running out when he noticed I was still hanging over calling out markers. He ran up to me, grabbed me around the middle and ran back. The phones popped off my head and almost immediately the anchor chain came to the bitter end.

Each link in that chain was a massive foot long and weighed over 20 pounds. The flailing end of that chain just about obliterated the part of the bow where I had been. We had to make do with just one anchor for the rest of the war.

Although our Ship was never directly hit by a bomb or torpedo, there were quite a few casualties among the crew: officers and men. Most occurred during the various invasions, in the small boats and on the beach. The most casualties on board were the gravely wounded that were brought back to the ship.

I don't like to think about some of the grossly mangled, poor souls who spent their last hours on our Ship and wounded up being buried at sea.

Kind of makes one a Pacifist.

I really would like to see all the war-mongering politicians out in the front of the rest of humanity where they would be the first to go.

I apologize for the length of this memoir. It actually felt good to get it out of my system. It is part of our family's background and history and deserves to be remembered. Love you all."

-- Joseph "Joe" N. Ermer

Joseph "Joe" N. Ermer Memoirs (click links below to view/hear):
Celebration of Life: Joseph N. Ermer
Celebration of life: early childhood: Joseph N. Ermer
Celebration of Life: sports in the early years: Joseph N. Ermer
Celebration of Life: early years: Boy Scouts: Joseph N. Ermer
Celebration of Life: WWII part one: Joseph N. Ermer
Celebration of Life: WWII part two: Joseph N. Ermer
Celebration of Life: WWII part three: Joseph N. Ermer
Celebration of Life: WWII part four: Joseph N. Ermer

Memories of Mike: Enlistment Day: September 21, 1939

S/Sgt. Michael "Mike" Anthony Lacche, United States Army Welterweight Base Boxing Champion, Fort Kamehameha, Hawaii, 1942 begain his military career September 21, 1939. Click here to hear radio broadcasts from WJSV from that day. This day, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was before Congress asking to repeal the Neutrality Acts and thus allow military aid to be sent to Europe to aid stopping German aggression (click here). This came hours after Poland's conquest and control by both Germany and the Soviet Union (click here).

Click here for audio version.

Army records show Mike Lacche was issued Army Serial Number 06893773, recorded his home county and state as Columbia, Pennsylvania of which his home city of Berwick is a part of. Mike Lacche had listed in his enlistment papers that one of his most recent jobs was working as an equipment operator in local movie theatres. In addition to becoming an Army Base Boxing Champion, Mike Lacche would also become an accomplished chef.
                                   
On September 21, 1939, the Philadelphia Athletics were 53-92 and the Philadelphia Phillies were 45-106; combined, they had less wins than the New York Yankees who the day Mike Lacche enlisted were 102-43 with a 17.5-game-lead over the Boston Red Sox.

Also on the day Mike Lacche enlisted, his two home state National Football League teams: the Pittsburgh Pirates were coming off a 10-0 loss to the Chicago Cardinals; the Philadelphia Eagles were coming off a 13-3 loss to the New York Giants.

Stay tuned for more on S/Sgt. Michael "Mike" Anthony Lacche, United States Army Welterweight Base Boxing Champion, Fort Kamehameha, Hawaii, 1942

Celebration of Life: WWII part three: Joseph N. Ermer

Joseph "Joe" N. Ermer was part of a crew that for years would take part in invasions, pick up troops, and get the badly wounded back to the hospital ship. Click here for audio version.

"We had four doctors and one dentist on board during invasions; we had three operating theatres and would usually take on board about 400 of the worst casualties. Needles to say, we had to bury some at sea - those who didn't make it.

At first my GQ station was in Damage Control, but I tried as a gunner on the 20 mm and I did quite well. They sent me to Gunnery School at Espiritu Santo in New Hebrides. After that, my GQ station was gunner on the 20 mm on top of Carpenter Shop near the fantail. I really liked the gun. It was the largest one-man gun, although I had a sightsetter and a loader. The gunner was strapped in and could fire in any direction, even directly overhead.

When we would run through a drum of shells, the loader would quickly change drums. The sightsetter would be given the range from fire control and would set it on the gunsight. The gunsight was electronic and would show the target in the middle of a lighted reticule.  The site would actually compute the lead by figuring the travel and range together. However, when planes were too close, we would fire by instinct. There wouldn't be any point in using the sight.

The whole mount would be raised or lowered, like a barber chair, to fit the height of the gunner. Since I was tall, I'd have it up pretty high, which enabled me to fire down at the water. That was handy when the torpedo planes came in.

If the gun got too hot, it could jam. We had an extra barrel in the tube welded to the side of the gun tube. It was the job of the loader and sightsetter to put on asbestos gloves and twist out the six-foot-long barrel and replace it.

Things got difficult when the Japanese started using Kamikaze tactics. Sometimes there were as many as 300 planes attacking the fleet at once. During the invasion of Leyte, in the Philippines, we got to do some mine clearing. We were one of the lead APQ's and we streamed paravanes. They looked like underwater kites from the bow. We had to maintain a steady speeds to have them run properly. If the

cable encountered a mine mooring, it would slide to the paravane and cut loose. The mine would come to the surface and we had sharp-shooters to blow them up.

We made quite a few landings in the Philippines. In one of them, we were involved in a night battle with a Japanese Destroyer off Manila Bay. During the Leyte Invasion, we were almost caught by the Japanese. The home fleet came down from the north and the East Indies fleet came from the southwest. They were after the transports off Leyre. That is the famous episode where they baited Halsey out with a flint in the north. He bit and rushed away, leaving the invasion fleet with just some escort carriers and a couple of cruisers a destroyer flotilla and some torpedo boats (JFK comes to mind).

The Japanese were throwing the book at us: Battleships, cruisers, anything. It apparently was touch and go for a while. We did lose several key ships, but the Japanese where turned back.
Stay tuned for more on the life of a true friend, mentor, artist and role model: Joseph "Joe" N. Ermer.

Joseph "Joe" N. Ermer Memoirs (click links below to view/hear):
Celebration of Life: Joseph N. Ermer
Celebration of life: early childhood: Joseph N. Ermer
Celebration of Life: sports in the early years: Joseph N. Ermer
Celebration of Life: early years: Boy Scouts: Joseph N. Ermer
Celebration of Life: WWII part one: Joseph N. Ermer
Celebration of Life: WWII part two: Joseph N. Ermer
Celebration of Life: WWII part three: Joseph N. Ermer
Celebration of Life: WWII part four: Joseph N. Ermer

Celebration of Life: WWII part two: Joseph N. Ermer

Before setting off to the South Pacific. Joseph "Joe' N. Ermer got his orders to report to the Receiving Station in Philadelphia. Joe Ermer was given final leave to wrap up his affairs in Washington D.C. and take his new wife back home to Brooklyn. Click here for audio version.

"When I got to Philadelphia, I found that I was part of the nucleus of the crew. The Gunnery Officer was in charge as we were building up the crew as they reported in," Joe Ermer wrote. "When the crew was assembled, we took off for Baltimore where they were finishing converting a brand new maritime C-3 into an attack transport. They were finishing up installing all the guns, etc. I got to talk to one of the electrical foreman. It turned out that he was Mr. Augusten's (Ruth's father) nephew, Arne Ludvigsen. He invited Ruth and me to stay with them as long as I was in Baltimore. Real nice people.

After that was over, we shipped out to Norfolk to have our degaussing installed; that protects the ship from magnetic mines. From Norfolk we headed for the Panama Canal. I was assigned to the First Lieutenant. On a Navy Ship, he is something like the First Mate except he is only involved in the Ship not the personnel. That is the Exec's job. I really got along with the First Lieutenant; he was a Merchant Marine Reserve Officer - a lean, dark Irishman from Boston, Joseph J. Flaherty.

We got caught in the tail end of a hurricane near Puerto Rico; it did a bit of topside damage and gave us a chance to get our sea-legs. We went through the Canal at night. No lights. I was on anchor detail. A small boat was coming towards us to pick up a line to take it to the little locomotive. We were going too fast and couldn't see how close we were to the locks. Suddenly, the old man yells for us to drop the anchor. Down goes the anchor, almost into the small boat; but it did bring us up short before we put the Panal Canal out of action.

From Panama we went to San Pedro where we got our Pacific paint job; a uniform dull blue. Atlantic camouflage was a dazzle black and gray. We wound up in San Diego for a couple of months. They

were assembling an invasion fleet and we practiced landings on San Clemente Island. The surf was usually quite heavy and we wrecked some landing craft, which had to be replaced.

Our first enemy action was at Kwajalien; we were about three miles off the beach at the island with an airfield. It was manned by Japanese Royal Marines, most of whom were actually Koreans and they were much bigger than Japanese.

One of the big problems were the covered drainage ditches. Our troops would secure an area but would find they had overrun some of the Japanese hiding in the ditches. They would pop up, kill as many as they could before being killed themselves.

We lost our first crewman, Mc Hugh, a married man in his late 30s, with children. He had been drafted from a small town in West Virginia. We also lost a young crewman. He was walking along the deck, stepped over a winch cable, which flew up and caught him between the legs. He fell through an open hatch and landed on the concrete lowest hull deck.

Soon, invasions and all that came with war became a regular part of life for Joe Ermer and his crew mates.  Stay tuned for more on the life of a true friend, mentor, artist and role model: Joseph "Joe" N. Ermer.

Joseph "Joe" N. Ermer Memoirs (click links below to view/hear):
Celebration of Life: Joseph N. Ermer
Celebration of life: early childhood: Joseph N. Ermer
Celebration of Life: sports in the early years: Joseph N. Ermer
Celebration of Life: early years: Boy Scouts: Joseph N. Ermer
Celebration of Life: WWII part one: Joseph N. Ermer
Celebration of Life: WWII part two: Joseph N. Ermer
Celebration of Life: WWII part three: Joseph N. Ermer
Celebration of Life: WWII part four: Joseph N. Ermer

Celebration of Life: WWII part one: Joseph N. Ermer

Like many of those who serve in war, Joseph "Joe" N. Ermer looked at every day after returning home as partially having a responsibility to honor those who didn't come home. Joe Ermer's memoirs, in part, were his way to keep light on those years and those greatest of American heroes. Click here for audio version.


"I was at a Health Seminar yesterday and the moderator asked the crowd 'do you know what day tomorrow is? 'I piped up, 'Pearl Harbor Day'. She was looking out at us and said, 'Um, I was thinking more of the last day to  change your HMO,' "Joe Ermer wrote December 7, 2011. "I remember those day, very vivid, just like it was yesterday. Faces -- all very clear. Still makes me think why I got to come home and others didn't."

By the early 1940s, Joe Ermer was a young man doing well: he had his parents and brother Bobby, friends, health and hope for a better future. But turmoil was growing in Europe; Joe, like many of his generation, had a deep sense of duty and gratitude to his country; this also was strengthened coming out of the Great Depression. "Everyone was tired of being tired."

"War clouds were beginning to gather. There was a draft lottery. I wound up with a very high number, but wanted some experience, while still keeping my job at the bank; so I joined the (New York) State Guard," Joe Ermer wrote. "I really enjoyed the experience: lots of drills, some firing practice, a few maneuvers on the beach (hunting saboteurs). The main benefit was getting military experience. That may have been a reason that the Navy put me right on active duty and bypassed Boot Camp. I made Corporal in the Guard and joined the Navy as a 3rd class PO, equivalent to a Buck Sergeant."

"I was inducted into the Navy in March '42. My first duty assignment was at Floyd Bennett Field. I was only there long enough to get my uniform and gear when orders came to transfer three (men)...to D.C. for further assignment. That 'further assignment' worried the rest of the guys, so they gave it to the last three on board: Egan, Eschbacher and Ermer. The three Es. We got traveling money and went to DC on the old Baltimore and Ohio. When get got there, the chief told us we would be the night shift and we'd get a living allowance and to go get a place to stay. This was wartime Washington DC. We were riding a trolley out the NW area, when the motorman heard us talking and said he might have something for us.

He gave us the address and a note to his wife. They had an extra furnished bedroom with twin beds and a connecting closed-in sun porch with a couch. We took it gladly. They were nice people with a little girl. Our work was in the Precedence Section, which had to do with Officer Promotion. I learned so much about politics and the ins-and-outs of officer promotions that, later on, I was fairly popular with the Officers on the Elmore.

Ruth A. Ermer

It turned out also that Phil Egan was engaged to another Ruth, who had also gone to Bayridge High School about a year ahead of my Ruth. We decided that the opportunity was too good to pass up and we collaborated in writing persuasive letters to our Ruths (identical letters). Phil had been a newspaper man in a small midwest town and between the two of us, we really put on the pressure. Ruth and I got married on August 23rd. I think Phil and his Ruth got married a week later.

I managed to find a furnished apartment with a nice old southern landlady. She would bring fruit cobblers. Ruth and I had a great honeymoon in the Poconos. We got pretty friendly with some of the other sailors and their wives. We'd picnic on the Potomac, go to amusement parks and eat out. Obviously, it couldn't last.

When we were advised that if we volunteered for Sea Duty, we might get what we asked for - I requested Destroyer Escort in the North Atlantic. I figured that I'd make it back to Brooklyn once in a while. I got it alright: Attack Transport in the South Pacific. Except for knowing my chances of getting home were now nil, I had always been fascinated  by the islands of the Pacific: read everything I could get on them.

Soon, Joe Ermer would see the best and the worst of 1942 South Pacific. Stay tuned for more on the life of a true friend, mentor, artist and role model: Joseph "Joe" N. Ermer.

Joseph "Joe" N. Ermer Memoirs (click links below to view/hear):
Celebration of Life: Joseph N. Ermer
Celebration of life: early childhood: Joseph N. Ermer
Celebration of Life: sports in the early years: Joseph N. Ermer
Celebration of Life: early years: Boy Scouts: Joseph N. Ermer
Celebration of Life: WWII part one: Joseph N. Ermer
Celebration of Life: WWII part two: Joseph N. Ermer
Celebration of Life: WWII part three: Joseph N. Ermer
Celebration of Life: WWII part four: Joseph N. Ermer

Celebration of Life: early years: Boy Scouts: Joseph N. Ermer

In his memoirs, Joseph "Joe" N. Ermer talked about the importance sports and service taught in the Boy Scouts, which for most children, was the best way to get a good meal, education and have something constructive to participate in.

"Scouting was a very important part of my early teens. Mr. Hix would run a point contest that would last from September to June," Joe Ermer wrote. "You got points for every test you passed, every contest you won, metrit badge, etc. The winner would be taken on some great trip. I took first place every year until 16 when I was

no longer eligible. So, I got to spend a week at Princeton. One of Mr. Hix's friends was a Professor. I went with Ralph Shaw (who came in second place) to Colorado and Yellowstone Park. I went to the Audubon Society Convention in Quebec. I stayed at the Chateau Frontenac and went to the Chicago Worlds Fair; This was (around) 1930 or 1931."

A decade later, with war raging around the world, Joe Ermer and all fellow Americans would get a historic wake up call with Pearl Harbor.

Stay tuned for more on the life of a true friend, mentor, artist and role model: Joseph "Joe" N. Ermer.



Joseph "Joe" N. Ermer Memoirs (click links below to view/hear):
Celebration of Life: Joseph N. Ermer
Celebration of life: early childhood: Joseph N. Ermer
Celebration of Life: sports in the early years: Joseph N. Ermer
Celebration of Life: early years: Boy Scouts: Joseph N. Ermer
Celebration of Life: WWII part one: Joseph N. Ermer
Celebration of Life: WWII part two: Joseph N. Ermer
Celebration of Life: WWII part three: Joseph N. Ermer
Celebration of Life: WWII part four: Joseph N. Ermer