Flying Indians to gather one more time

They were going to be known as the Indian Squadron.

Two groups of more than 20 men attending Southeast Missouri State Teacher College were told that if they all signed up for the Navy, they would all go serve in World War II together as their own squadron with their own insignia. And they would stay together.

It was obviously a recruiting ploy, Charles Brune knows now, and neither group stayed together very long.

Brune's group, the second to leave for training, went to a University of Iowa Navy pre-flight school and captured the moniker "The Flying Indians."

The group was never an official squadron -- they scattered to many different places after flight school -- but the group did spend a lot of time together and developed many memories, some not so good.

"A lot of them got shot down," Brune said.

Brune is organizing a reunion of the Flying Indians and either of the Indians Squadron members for Oct. 19. He plans to have a float in the university's homecoming parade planned the same weekend.

Several of the Flying Indians still get together once a year, but Brune has lost touch with many of them. He's hoping some publicity might help in finding some of the military men he called friends in the early 1940s.

To report any information about surviving members of the Flying Indians, call Brune at 335-3528. His mailing address is 1242 Fairlane Drive, Cape Girardeau, Mo., 63701.