Pi Upsilon Gamma newsletters

This collection consists of one box of newsletters entitled the “Pug Service Growler.” This newsletter was distributed to PUG members and alumni during and immediately following World War II to update the membership on the wartime activities, locations, and deaths of members serving in the armed forces. Newsletters take the form of compilations of transcribed letters mailed to Pi Upsilon Gamma headquarters from men stationed in encampments in the United States and abroad. The collection contains newsletters from December 1943 through September 1946.

Throughout the newsletters, fraternity members and alumni reference their roles in major World War II battles and campaigns. in 1944, Pi Upsilon Gamma alumni Ray Grossman and Wes Johnson describe the campaign in southern Italy, during which Grossman was injured by shrapnel and awarded the Purple Heart. Other topics include the D-Day invasion of Normandy in June 1944, Pacific theater campaigns in Okinawa and Guam, freeing slave laborers imprisoned in German concentration camps, and other topics. Authors of the letters make frequent reference to the horrors of war, poor conditions overseas, and their longing for the amenities of home. Also included are tributes, memorials, and reflections on those members who were killed in action throughout the war.