WWII veteran trained as torpedo gunner

SLAYTON — The year was 1943. Jim Meaden was in his senior year of high school at Slayton and working alongside his dad, Otto, in the family-owned Meaden Machine Works, when his draft notice arrived in the mail. He was told he would need to report for duty soon after graduation, but it wasn’t until he was interviewed by specialists at boot camp that he was assigned to the U.S. Navy.