Veterans Day Salute to Press Register Staff Who Served Their Country

Paul Hannie at a machine that turned coded perforated tape into photo typeset copy.

Paul Hannie (1926-2009) handled the layout of my pages when I was an editorial page editor at The Mobile Press Register. He also was one of the many World War II and other veterans who worked at the newspaper during my time there.

During World War II, Paul served with the U.S. Navy Air Corps and was based in the south Pacific with Black Cat Squadron of PBY Catalinas. The name "Black Cat" was derived from the matte-black paint scheme and night-time bombing operations conducted by the PBY Catalinas.

For his action during the war, Paul was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, which is presented for “heroism or extraordinary achievement while participating in an aerial flight.”

Advertising executive Burt Schwarz (1914-2003) was another World War II veteran. He talked to me briefly one day about his service and told me about being captured by the Germans. Burt was not Jewish, but feared that his German captors would think his last name sounded Jewish and that they would execute him. He, of course, survived the war.

We had many other veterans on the paper including more recent veterans John Sellers and Bill Sellers, who were not related.

The newspaper never did a good job of telling its own stories and it is a shame that we never told the stories of the World War II veterans among us.

Do you know of other service men and women at the newspaper? Did they ever tell you their stories?