Mike Souhrada - No Sacrifice for Victory too Great

The Souhrada Family Website

No Sacrifice for Victory Too Great For Michael Souhrada

[from the 1998 Souhrada Family Newsletter]

Complied by Catherine (Souhrada) Wyrobeck

Original source unknown, but probably newspaper article from 1943 - -

Mike Souhrada – circa early 1940s

A thirty-three and a third per cent monthly deduction for War Bonds is just one contribution Michael Souhrada of Oxford Junction, Iowa is making to this country's war effort. Two stalwart sons, 1st Lt. Arthur J. and Major Albert H. Souhrada, are his biggest stakes in the fracas and he is determined that his boys and the rest of our fighting men will have plenty of the equipment it takes for victory.

His first deduction, made more than a year ago was for 12 1/2% when Albert was called into service. He increased it to 25% some months later when Arthur was called up and increased it again to 33 1/3% in April of this year.

Born in old Bohemia in 1880, Michael Souhrada came to the United States in 1882. His railroad career started on the Milwaukee Road in 1896 as a section laborer and he was made section foreman in 1901....the position he has held up to the present time with the exception of his two years of service in the army during the Spanish-American War.

Arthur and Albert both worked at the C.M.St.P.&P. (Chicago Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad) shops in Milwaukee before going into the army. Both boys had military training in the C.M.T.C. (Citizen’s Military Training Camps) and took correspondence courses in military tactics, on the strength of which they were originally commissioned in the Army Reserve.

In addition to his generous purchase of War Bonds and his two sons in the service, Michael Souhrada, who joined the Benefit Association of Railway Employees in May 1921, is an enthusiastic OCD worker. A jovial man with a realistic attitude toward the war, he says:

"I am glad to live in a country like the United States, to have my children and grandchildren enjoy all the privileges of a democracy and not suffer as Mother's people and my other relatives suffered in the Old Country. We must win this war. It’s a duty no one should take lightly and we should be glad to have larger and larger amounts deducted from our pay for Bonds to bring as an early victory."

Bottom picture is somewhat prophetic showing Arthur (left) and Albert at ages of 5 and 4, respectively, in "make believe" uniforms but now they wear the real thing.

[L-R] Art Souhrada, Lillian Willimack Vacek, Helen Willimack Vacek, and Al Souhrada
circa 1918