Tales from the Archives: Memories of Tommies Who Served in World War II  

As Memorial Day approaches and the world marks the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, it’s a good time to reflect on the contributions and sacrifices of the St. Thomas community during that time. More than 3,400 students, alumni, faculty and staff served in the war, with over 100 men giving their lives. 

While Minnesota was thousands of miles away from the battlefields, the campus tried to stay connected with those in uniform. Shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the student newspaper and the alumni magazine began publishing news and updates to the campus community.  

An Aquin newspaper column, “With the Tommies in Arms,” was a regular feature throughout the war. The first published in February 1942 reported Cpl. Bernard Fitzpatrick (CST 1938) and two other alums were under siege by Japanese forces in Bataan. For nearly three years after that column was published, Fitzpatrick’s name was mistakenly listed as missing in action in the Alumni Bulletin, when in fact he was a prisoner of war. He survived the infamous Bataan Death March and prison camps in both the Philippines and Japan. After the war, he wrote a memoir about his experiences, A Hike Into the Sun, which won the Minnesota Book Award in 1994.    

A side note, 15 College of St. Thomas and St. Thomas Military Academy affiliated men were captured during by the Japanese during the Battle of Bataan and Corregidor. Only two, Fitzpatrick and James Daly, survived the “The Hike” as the survivors called the march and the prisoner of war camps to return from the war.   

Maj. John C. Egan shared his experiences as a prisoner of war in Germany with the Alumni Bulletin. In October 1943, his plane was shot down during a mission over Germany. After evading capture for four days, he was eventually caught and spent the next 18 months in a German POW camp. “Captured pilots were held by the Luftwaffe, and we were treated relatively well,” Egan recalled. “However, we would have starved without the Red Cross food packages, which arrived regularly until mid-1944. After that, we received only about half our usual allotment.” 

Egan attended St. Thomas from 1935-37 as a pre-engineering student before leaving school to join the Army Air Corps. During the war, he served as a squadron leader in the 8th Army Air Corps 100th Bomb Group, whose contributions to the war effort are documented in the book Masters of the Air. 

During the war, Col. (Father) Patrick Ryan (CST 1923, SPS 1928), an Army chaplain, maintained correspondence with his former classmate and then-president of St. Thomas, Monsignor Vincent Flynn. Ryan, who joined the U.S. Army in 1928, served with the 3rd Infantry in North Africa before being reassigned to the 5th Army in Italy. As chief chaplain, he took part in the Allied landings at Salerno, Sicily. 

In one letter Ryan described being in Rome after its liberation from German forces in early June 1944: “It was a great feeling to enter Rome, I assure you. The people nearly went wild. In fact, it was hard to drive a car through the streets. Little children tossed flowers into the vehicles, and everyone seemed overjoyed at the arrival of the 5th Army.”    

Ryan later received an audience with Pope Pius XII along with Gen. Mark Clark and other Allied commanders. He later celebrated a Mass of Thanksgiving with over 10,000 in attendance to celebrate the victory over the Germans. 

These are just a few of the many accounts shared with the St. Thomas community during World War II. They reflect the courage, sacrifice and hope demonstrated by St. Thomas servicemen. As we honor their memory this Memorial Day, may we carry their legacy forward with deep gratitude and lasting appreciation.