| Vol. 2 No. 29 | pages 1 and 2 | July 17, 1953 |
Lt. Col. Roy B. Southworth, Jr.
Colonel H. G. Hamilton, has announced that Lt. Col. Roy B. Southworth, Jr., has assumed the duties of Executive Officer and second in command at BHOD.
Replacing Lt. Col. C. R. Byram, who left the Depot April 20, for an overseas assignment Lt. Col. Southworth arrived from Ft. Hood, Texas, last week.
The new executive officer has had a varied and interesting military career since entering the army.
A native of California, Lt. Col. Southworth left his native heath, San Diego, as a boy when his family moved to Seattle.
Following four years of academic pursuits, young Southworth decided on a military career and was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in November 1937.
During the first part of World War II, he saw service in South America and Africa with the Air Corps and then, following a course at the command and General Staff School at Ft. Leavenworth, was assigned to the 7th Infantry Division as Division Ordnance Officer. He was with his far-famed fighting unit at Okinawa, the invasion of the Philippines, and landed on Korean soil the day the armistice was signed.
After a tour of duty as Ordnance Officer of the XXIV Corps in Korea, Lt. Col. Southworth returned to the states and various stateside assignments.
In 1950, he became a member of the U. S. Military Mission in Iran with headquarters in Teheran. During his two year tenure of duty as the Mission's Ordnanace Officer and as an advisor to the Iranian State Police, he visited much of the Middle East.
Grateful recognition of his work at Teheran was made by the Iranian Government when it awarded him the Iranian Distinguished Service Medal, the Service Cross, and Medal of Merit.
With thirteen decorations, the new "exec" is entitled to display quite a splash of color on his chest. He has the Purple Heart, Bronze Star, Commendation Ribbon, ETO and Pacific Campaign ribbons, Philippines' President's Citation, Occupation Medal of Japan, Philippines Liberation, and the Iranian decorations.
Lt. Col. Southworth was accompanied to his new post by Mrs. Southworth and their thirteen year old daughter, Ann.
| Vol. 2 No. 29 | page 3 | July 17, 1953 |
Lt. Colonel Roy B. Southworth, executive officer, proved his versatility as he demonstrated his abiility to handle a GE as well as a GI (the GE being one of the BHOD Diesel-Electric locomoties) on a tour of inspection of the trackage at this installation Tuesday morning.
Accompanied by Earl Larson in the capacity of engineer and George Batchelder as trainman the doughty Colonel started his trek around the depot in old Reliable, namely engine 7125. Taking over the throttle shortly after Larson had pulled out from the roundhouse, Col. Southworth operated like the veteran we suspect he is, handling the controls with such expertness and ease that the ride was described by his passengers as "smooth as silk" and "like floating on a cloud". (One of his passengers has had the experience of floating on clouds.) Of course due allowance is made for any rough track encountered if any.
The tour look in the loop in the explosives area with a trip into Combat. He herded the iron steed back into the barn with the deftness of a Hendrix or a Coen.
Col. Southworth praised the maintenance crews for the splendid condition of most of the trackage and expressed a desire for futher tours in the near future.
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