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The history of the Bombers as told by the
head Bomber.....
The Bombers were loosely formed in the early days of Wheeling High
School, back in 1964. Many of the initial associations however, went
back to fourth grade at Feehanville Elementary School, which is long
gone. Wheeling had clicks, and many of the Bombers came from these
clicks. In addition most of the original twelve were involved in high
school athletics, which accounted for members representing classes 1967,
1968 and 1969.
As an
informal organization "The Bombers" egged houses, smashed pumpkins and
squirted pedestrians with fire extinguishers filled with piss. Our
heroes were Hell's Angels, Clint Eastwood and Jim Morrison. The worst
thing that could happen to you in 1968 was to have The Bombers show up
at your party. The best thing that could happen to you in 1968 was to
be a "Bomber" or in my opinion to be in favor with the Bombers. We hung
together, we cruised, we raised hell and we took life as it came. One
of the hallmarks of being a Bomber, was not knowing if there was a spare
tire in your trunk and simply not caring. There were no over achievers
and everyone got by just fine.
Something went terribly wrong after high school, we started growing up!.
Bombers went to southern California, Arizona, southern Illinois,
Vietnam, jail and a host of other locations, pursuing the end of the
60's. In some cases college was the vehicle causing many of us to grow
apart. Over the years several of us have stayed in touch. It only
takes two Bombers in any place at any time to get things rolling.
Since the glory days of so long ago, two Bombers departed this world.
Both are stories in themselves and do not need to be retold today.
What I can say is that not a day goes by that I don't miss Dennis Sramek and Mike
"Dutch" Henry. They are in our hearts and our thoughts
- we are them and they are us, and that is how it is.
John Ribando and I ride Harleys to Sturgis every August for the rally.
Our friends hear us talking about the "Bombers" all the time, but seem
to shine us on. In rebuttal John made Bomber t-shirts for the
2001rally. They went over well, and so we sent some off to the brothers
we were in contact with. At Hackney's the Friday night after the 2001
Homecoming game, I toasted you Gary, for a good job in putting together
the post game party. During that toast some bum in the peanut gallery
yelled "Hey what happened to the Bombers". The four or five Bombers
present stood up and displayed their presence as well as the new
t-shirts. That was the match that lit my fuse to reorganize the
Bombers.
Today we have formalized our mark and our association. The ten
remaining original Bombers are fully activated and online. We have
created a Wheeling High School Scholarship, which has been approved by
District 214 and fully funded by Bombers. Our first stab at an annual
event "The Bombers Blast" picnic was very successful. I am very proud
to report that once again we have started to grow our ranks with our
newest bomber being Jay Jobst class of '69. Additionally we have three
new prospects in the pledge phase of membership, no names but one was
valedictorian for the class of '68. We have a picnic committee,
membership committee and we have a scholarship committee. We are
reinventing ourselves in an effort to give back a little of what we all
took from W.H.S during our high school years. I hope this slightly
longwinded explanation is useful to you. Included is a list of the
original dirty dozen with contact information on everyone.
Best wishes as always
Coe D. Meyer
President |
