By Thomas Matowitz
The Second World War began with the German invasion of Poland on September 1. 1939. Half a world away, Mentor Ohio was a sleepy rural community which appeared to have a small stake in the outcome. Reassured by the vast oceans involved, many Americans felt that events in far away Europe were unlikely to have any immediate effect on our country.
Mentor at that time was made up of two entities, Mentor Village and Mentor Township. Their combined population was approximately five thousand residents. They relied on news from daily newspapers and radio broadcasts, and slower means of travel meant that the world was a much larger place than it seems today. Middle aged men who fought in France in the First World War had reason to feel anxious about their sons, but for most Mentor residents life continued as before.
Gradually this began to change. Congress, by a single vote, enacted the country’s first peacetime draft in 1940. Suddenly the war seemed less remote. The situation changed drastically on December 7, 1941. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor projected the United States abruptly into the war. Before the war was over, nearly two hundred fifty Mentor residents served in uniform, and twenty five of them lost their lives. Mentor residents served in every capacity from privates in the ranks to rated military pilots.
Two close friends from Mentor entered Army flight training together. Their names were Mel Wyant and Harry Allchin. Mel became a flying instructor , spending much of the war teaching instrument flying skills to fighter pilots. Harry became an Eighth Air Force B – 17 pilot and failed to return from his third combat mission .It was six months before his distraught parents received confirmation of his death. Mel Wyant survived the war and returned to manage his family’s flourishing rose business. He lived to a ripe old age and continued to fly actively for many years after the war.
One of the saddest Mentor stories to emerge from the war was that of Russell Brown. Russell was valedictorian of the MHS class of 1935.In early 1941 he enlisted in the Army, being inducted at Camp Perry. He was assigned to one of the Army’s earliest armored units and shortly found himself on his way to the Philippines. In a tragic irony this probably seemed like a desirable assignment since the war seemed likely to be confined to Europe. Events proved differently. The Japanese attacked just days after Russell arrived and he shortly found himself a POW. He must have been a tough young man. He survived three years of captivity only to lose his life when an American submarine torpedoed the Japanese ship transporting him to Japan.
Like all World War Two veterans, Mentor residents who took part in the war are rapidly disappearing. This Memorial Day gives us another chance to thank them and honor them for their service to our country.