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 Major
(USAF Reserve Ret.) Jarvis Temple Yagla
(1916-2007) was born on the 11 November 1916 in Waterloo, Iowa to Philip and
Ada (Critchfield) Yagla. When Jarvis was thirteen (13) years old, his father
died of a massive heart attack at the beginning of the depression. His
mother became so depressed she could not care for herself and died shortly
thereafter. He lived with his two older brothers until he graduated from
Waterloo East High School in 1935. They survived on odd jobs like paper
routes and they operated a hamburger stand at the corner of East Fourth and
Walnut in downtown Waterloo. While he was in high school, he was the student
body Vice President, (1935) Captain and quarterback on the football team.
(The Waterloo Courier wrote that he was the best quarterback in the state
and the Des Moines Register chose him the third team All-State quarterback.)
Jarv was also the Captain of and player for the school basketball team, and the high scorer and
Captain of the Waterloo Royals amature hockey team
that won four (4) consecutive titles from 1937 thru 1940. As if that wasn't
enough althletics, he won a
state golf championship and several local titles!
Jarvis
enlisted in the Army Air Corps in June 1942. Preflight was at Santa Ana,
California - Primary at King City, California - Basic at Chino, California -
Advanced at Stockton Field, California - PBY transition training at
Pensacola, Florida - and Navigation at Selma, Louisiana. He earned
both the Army Air Corps wings and Naval Aviator's wings, graduating from
class 43-C on the 10 March 1943. Other graduates from this class that were
members of the 2nd ERS were George A. "Al" Barnes
and Charles F. "Chuck" Tully. On the 14 November 1942, Jarvis married
Evelyn Knode of Waterloo and they had two (2) children. Jon born nine months
later in 1943, and Gene born in 1946.
In July 1944, Jarvis flew as a
co-pilot on OA-10A,
44-33874 [Orders] from Sacramento,
California over the Golden Gate Bridge all the way to Hawaii, then continued
to
Townsville,
Australia. The rest of his crew consisted of: (Commander) Major Dwight
F. Lewis, (Navigator) 2nd Lt. John M. Reeves,
(Engineer) Staff Sergeant
Theodore
Mikosh, (Radio Opr.) Master Sergeant Henry Wallace, (Radar Opr.)
Sergeant
Anthony Sadonis, and (Flight Surgeon) Major Donald
D. Corlett. While with the 2nd Emergency, Jarvis flew Eighty-six (86)
combat missions and more than 600 flight hours. He
was awarded the
Silver Star [see
recommendation][see
the Order] for gallantry
for a mission where he rescued a downed Navy F6F "Hellcat" pilot on the
16 September 1944. He was promoted to Captain on the 15 April 1945. His other awards and decorations include the
Purple Heart,
Air Medal (w/5 OLC), [see
the
letter to Ev Yagla] the
Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal,
WWII Victory Medal, and
the Philippine Liberation Medal.
 fter
the war Jarvis remained in the Air Force Reserve and was called to active
duty for the Korean conflict. He did not, however, see combat. In the 1950's
he was co-owner of Clark and Yagla, a coal furnace sales and service
business. He was promoted to Major and on 11 July 1961 he became Commander of the newly formed
9542nd Air Force Reserve Recovery Squadron at Waterloo Municipal Airport.
The purpose of the Squadron, which was comprised of one hundred fifty-six
(156) airmen and twenty-two (22) Officers residing in the local area, to
assist the regular Air Force if their air bases were destroyed during an
intial strike. In
October 1978, Jarvis was inducted into the East High School Hall of Fame,
and the next March he retired from the Waterloo Building Inspection
Department where he was responsible for writing a major part of the city's
heating code and was one of Waterloo's first environmental protection
officials with the title Air Pollution Inspector.
Later in life he
became a master wood worker and made many museum-quality pieces of
furniture. Jarvis
passed away on the 5 December 2007 at the age of ninety-one (91) in Waterloo
where he and Evelyn lived their whole lives, but for the war years. Evelyn
passed away ten (10) days later. His son Gene is retired from a law firm
(Lindeman and Yagla) where he was a partner and Jon is a research engineer
and chief scientist for a U.S. Naval Research laboratory near Washington,
D.C.
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