NEBRASKAland Magazine is dedicated to outstanding photography and informative writing with an engaging mix of articles and photos highlighting Nebraska’s outdoor activities, parklands, wildlife, history and people.
Issue link: http://mag.outdoornebraska.gov/i/315021
for three days and three nights; Egley lost two men. "Then I got to come home. Shortly after, I was walking down the street with my wife at the PT base back on the East Coast, and I heard that the atomic bomb had gone off on Japan – and I never had to go back out again." Many years later, Egley would be responsible for erecting a Hall of Fame at the Johnny Carson Theatre in town to honor Norfolk "boys" who died in service during WWII, the Korean War and Vietnam War. After the war ended in 1945, and with much to be thankful for, life for Egley went back to normal and the fishing continued. The Egleys had two sons, and looking back, Egley's fondest memories on the water were with them, as they took a number of trips to Minnesota with other families. Currently, Egley has seven grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren, to whom he continues to pass on his knowledge and love for fishing. Fisherman's Friend "Don, get that trophy, would you?" Kraemer pulled a big, blue trophy from off the refrigerator and handed it to Egley, who proudly showed it to me. He told me to look at the engraving. I read aloud, "Oldest Fisherman," and both men laughed. "I took him to this tournament and he was the oldest fisherman there at Grove Lake up at Royal," said Kraemer, "He was the oldest by about 15 years!" "I didn't seem to have any competition winning that trophy," Egley quipped. Egley and Kraemer's friendship goes back a long time. In fact, it was Egley who taught his younger friend how to fillet a fish. To this day, Egley still gives Kraemer a hard time about how bad he was at it in the beginning. In Kraemer's defense, the younger fisherman said it was because he's left-handed, making all of Egley's instructions completely backward. Egley and Kraemer shared many exciting fishing moments together, but they also shared the most frightening one, which After securing a commission in the Navy, Egley went into small boat training at several locations in the United States, including the University of Arizona. Egley is fourth from the left in the second row. Egley and his friends made many trips to Canada starting in 1955, traveling to different camps and areas to catch walleye, northern pike and bass. "My torpedo man was very skillful. I had the men working on a hot day scraping paint off the boat and that's why he drew that," said Egley. d m b a a o n o E r e F C i 32 NEBRASKAland • JUNE 2014 JUNE 2014 • NEBRASKAland 33 Back of photo: "December 27, 1944. Suicide attack by four Zeros – all hands lost on ship – over 300. Pace and Laker (gunner and cook) killed Dec. 31 by suicide plane while getting chow from Orestes, a PT tender. We shot at the planes but one got to the ship. We hit one that exploded behind my boat – PT-332. The explosion caused our boat to leak but we got to Mindoro Island ok. Bob and Andy were killed after we got to Mindoro Island. I wrote a letter to the parents." – Fred Egley