building up air pressure and vice versa. We never hear of any further troubles from this pump.
Milford Twp had just dodged the bullet on having a couple of classes of students who might have been blinded by this explosion with glass splinters acting as shrapnel. No one, demonstrators or spectators, was wearing any form of eye protection. Somebody was really watching over the Milford Twp School that day.
Both Dave and Dale went on to Aviation in the Military Service and both returned to farm in Milford Twp.
Dave Allen `55, lead one of the most interesting lives of any of Milford's graduates. Following graduation he attended, and obtained a four year degree from ISU in 1959. He then was selected to enter the Navy Flight Training program and earned his Navy Gold Pilot Wings. Most of his Navy flight time was in a A-4 which is a single person attack plane. He was Carrier Qualified and was stationed on the “Hancock”. One day, he flew his plane over to the “Coral Sea”, another Aircraft Carrier where he knew that fellow Milfordite, Alan Twedt `57, was stationed. It is fun to hear both fellows accounts of this reunion. Alan was called up to the “Ready Room” and he didn't know what he had or hadn't done to be ordered there. When he saw Dave, Lt Allen, he didn't know whether to s--- or salute. Dave was in the first raid over North Vietnam by Navy planes. In late 1964, following his Navy obligation, he went to work for the CIA's “secret” airline and completed two tours, each of eighteen months, flying Short Takeoff and Landing Aircraft in the southeast Asia area. (There were 242 people who disappeared on these secret missions.) He flew supplies, food and personnel to anticommunist people in Southeast Asia and in Laos. He also, during this time, flew an aircraft from central Europe, across the deserts of Asia and on to Vietnam. He was qualified to fly seven different planes.
After this “great” adventure Dave left southeast Asia and returned stateside. He obtained a position with Pan American as a Pilot and was stationed in Calif. With- in two years he was stricken with a very serious nerve deterioration condition, but after considerable time and effort, and personal fortitude, he was able to overcome this extremely painful and disabilitating condition to be able to come back to Iowa and start farming with his Dad. His Dad, Phillip, retired and Dave completely took over that operation. Farming was very economically chAllenging in the eighties so he started driving a semi and gradually took that position as a full time occupation.
Dave is a guy who everyone enjoyed having on their team because he was good team player and made very few mistakes--and that's an attribute a Navy Pilot needs if he's going to be around for the duration.
His only child, Andrew Allen, born 7-7-'77, is board chair of the Iowa Homeless Youth Centers and is a board member of the Youth and Shelter Services.
Before Milford Twp graduated their first senior class in 1927 there was an organized athletic league (All County Association) for those who were interested in sport competition with other schools. Fifteen teams had been organized into the Story County Athletic Association. There were competitive games played and county tournaments. This Association developed a program of awarding athletic letters to the students who played in two-thirds of the games participated in by the team. They awarded, in 1927, letters to eight girls and six boys from the Milford Twp teams.
Although there is no doubt about the Milford Twp lads playing competitive sports, (the Milford Twp team(s) had a game with Colo on the fifth of Dec of 1924) there exists no known record of the girls playing other teams during this time period. In 1919, Milford girls played in a tournament in Iowa Falls. This was the only record found which mentioned the ladies' efforts. No record of the outcome of the game(s). A picture has been found with a 1929 senior girl wearing a letter sweater with three arm bands and the letter “M” on the left front waist pocket. It is assumed this is her sweater and not her boy friend's sweater by the fact it fits her. There were girl's basketball clubs organized that did not play organized competitive games. However, it seems questionable that a County Association would issue letters for non-competitive activities. So, would it seem possible that the Milford Twp girls did have competitive basketball and track in the timeframe of the late teens and into the twenties.
The County tournament started in 1922. In 1926, one year before its first graduation class, Milford Twp, Fernald, Kelley, North Grant, and Shipley were in the “B” division of the tournament. Milford won this bracket for its first Story County Championship.
However, by 1929, a new conference was formed and play started in the fall of 1929. Thus was the short lived Consolidated Six league developed from six of the recently consolidated high schools in Story County. The teams in this league were Milford Twp, Kelly, Slater, Cambridge, Huxley, and Shipley. The conference was organized for only boys' basketball, but they expected to extend it to girls' basketball and other sports in the fall of 1930. Milford Township won