November 2023

By Jesse Hardy
(Brian Rukes’ AP English 3 class)

Michael James Booher went to Cherokee High School and graduated in 1991.

William Roberts “Billy” Laird

1940 graduate of El Reno High School.

Born March 16, 1921
Died Feb. 7, 1943

Laird enlisted in the U.S. Navy on May 18, 1942, just about six months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

SM3c Laird was one of two signalmen assigned to the troop transport ship the Henry R. Mallory.

Harry Eugene Bradly

Born Dec. 13, 1922
Died Jan. 25, 1943

Died in a crash of an AT-6 Texan trainer aircraft along the coast of Texas.

Bradly only attended El Reno schools through the seventh grade, at which point his family moved to Chicago, Ill., his father working for the Rock Island Railroad and being transferred there from El Reno.

Bradly graduated from Calumet High School in Chicago in 1941.

Harry J. Moss

Born Sept. 10, 1910
Died March 4, 1945

Graduated from El Reno High School in 1928.

Played semi-professional baseball for a time.

Was an engineer on an early version of the B-17 Flying Fortress, based at Clark Field in the Philippines when the Japanese attacks occurred in December 1941.

Died as a Prisoner of War of the Japanese six months before the Japanese surrendered to end World War II, and more than three years after he was first captured.

Homer Don Wright

Born May 29, 1915
Died June 14, 1944

EHS graduate Class of 1935.

A Ship’s Cook in the U.S. Navy whose services were highly desired.

Perished at sea aboard the submarine USS Golet off the coast of Japan just two weeks before his son was born.

Instructor pilot Josh McVay at Vance AFB, Enid

Major Josh McVay is currently a pilot with the Oklahoma Air National Guard.

Josh has served multiple combat deployments across the world including in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He currently flies MC12s out of Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City.  

Kit McVay in Iraq, 2007.

SSgt Kit McVay served in the United States Army for 10 years. Kit also served in multiple combat deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Kit is an attorney in Tulsa.

Lloyd W. Carroll

1958-1960 and 1961-1962

U.S. Army

A 143 SIG. BN 3 AM DIV.

Frankfurt, Germany.

Carroll was a radio operator that did the Morse Codes.

Larry Thomason

Army 1966 - 1968

Alabama and Vietnam.

Robert Morse

Born Oct. 5, 1932
Died Jan. 10, 1951

Attended El Reno schools from grade school through his freshman year at El Reno High School.

Was an E-2 Private serving as a Light Weapons Infantryman in G Company, 2nd Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division.

Was Killed in Action in Korea on Jan. 10, 1951, after having been “in country” for less than one month.