The American Legion Magazine [Volume 34, No. 2 (February 1943)]

How American it is... to want something better!

SURE this war-plant worker looks forward to "something better"— resum-

ing study for her chosen career, that long -planned trip or to marriage.

That's why she's putting a healthy part of her earnings into war bonds

and stamps— to speed the return of peace and all the other things which

help make this "the land of something better."

Some of us can help most in the front lines, others on production lines

— all of us can buy war bonds and stamps

EVEN IN WARTIME, free America still enjoys many

"better things" which are not available to less fortunate peoples. P. Ballantine & Sons, makers of "something better" in mod-

erate beverages — Ballantine —America's largest selling ale.

P. Ballantine & Sons, Newark, N. J. :( SO YOU WONT RUN. EH, ADOLF! BY WALT DISNEY

Two or three months ago the nazl fuehrer told his people that he would not take it on the lam the way the kaiser did in 1918. Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy, surveying the situation with philosophic calm, wonder where he could run, now that the Russian Bear, the Chinese Dragon, the British Lion and the American Eagle

are moving in for the kill. If you look closely you'll see Musso and Hirohito also

FEBRUARY, 1943 I ^UE BOUftfiQ/|/ THE AMERICAN BUY UNITEDWARSTATES BONDS LEGION STAMPS MAGAZINE February, 1943 Vol. 34, No. 2

Postmaster: Please send notices on form 3578 and copies returned under labels fonr 3579 to 777 N. Meridian St., Indianapolis, Ind.

Published monthly by The American Legion, 455 West 22d St., Chicago, 111. Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in Section 1103, Act of Oct. 3, 1917, authorized Jan. 5, 1925. Price, single copy, 15 cents, yearly subscription, $1.25

EXECUTIVE AND ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICES EDITORIAL AND ADVERTISING OFFICES Indianapolis, Indiana One Park Avenue, New York City

The Message Center CONTENTS COVER DESIGN IN THE January issue of Reader's By Harvey Dunn Digest is an absorbing article titled 'S AN ILLUSTRIOUS Yank Meets Jap in Fight to Finish that SO YOU WONT RUN, EH. ADOLF! 1 amily this bour- By Walt Disney — should be read by every American. bon family — with AMERICAN ALL THE WAY 5 many distinguished GOOD many pre conceived ideas By Robert- Francis A Illustration by William Htaslip members. But Old Grand- of what happens in warfare have had to be revised since the fighting Dad heads it . . . heads I'VE HAD MY FILL OF IT 6 broke out in September, 1939. One of By Peter B. Kyne it unmistakably, as one Illustrations by Herbert M. Stoops taste will tell you. There's IN OUR CORNER: AFRICA 8 sunny mellowness to By Ray Tucker Old Grand-Dad, rare fra- THE BOTTLE 10 grance, a delightful taste. By Irving Wallace You will like it from the Illustrations by Wallace Morgan

first. And you will HERE'S WHY THEY'RE TOPS 12 never stop lik- By Frederic Sondern, Jr.

ing it. lAPAN'S FATAL WEAKNESS 14 By James R. Young Cartoon by John Cassel

ONE TASTE WILL TAKE IT EASY. TIO SAM 16 TELL YOU WHY By Alberto Martinez

TAX NOTE: You pay THE NAVY'S BATTLING BUILDERS 18 no tax on the quality By A. D. Rathbone, IV of a whiskey — only on the quantity. Why not THE FARM THAT WENT TO WAR 20 choose the best ? A LINCOLN TRIBUTE 21

FIRST TO WRITE 22 By Howard Wolf Brigadier General Hanford Mac- Illustration by V. E. Pyles Nider writes a letter to his wife EDITORIAL AND WALLY 24 from an Australian hospital where he is recovering from eight wounds ALL-OUT FOR VICTORY 26 he got in the New Guinea fighting By Boyd B. Stutler

them is the hoary one that generals ITS THE SAME OLD STREET 30 By John Noll die in bed, meaning that once a man J. {Continued on page 56) BURSTS AND DUDS 64

' " ^ orm ' or Y our convenience if you wish to have the maga- IIVIHORTANT zine sent to another address will be found on page 55.

THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE is the official publication of The American Legion and is owned exclusively by The American Legion. Copyright 1943 by The American Legion. Entered as second class matter Sept. 26, 1931, at the Post Office at Chicago, III., under the act of March 3, 1879. Roane Waring, Indianapolis, Ind., National Commander, Chairman of the Legion Publications Commission; Vilas H. Whaley, Racine, Wis., Vice Chairman. Members of Commission: Phil Conley, Charleston, W. Va.; Jerry Owen, Salem, Ore.; Theodore Cogswell, Washington, D. C; Robert W. Colftesh, Des Moines, la.; Dr. William F. Murphy, Palestine, Tex.; Lawrence Hager, Owensboro, Ky.; Frank C. Love, Syracuse, N. Y.; Elmer Nelson, Milford, Mass.; William E. Fischelis, Philadelphia, Pa.; Claude S. Ramsey, Raleigh, N. C; Glenn H. Campbell, Cleveland, O.; Earl L. Meyer, Alliance, Neb.; George Bideaux, Tucson, Ariz.; Le Roy D. Downs, South Norwalk, Conn. Director of Publications, James F. Barton, Indianapolis, Ind.; Editor, Alexander Gardiner; Director of Advertising, Thomas O. Woolf; Managing Editor, Boyd B. Stutler; Art Director, Frank Lisiecki; Associate BOTTLED IN BOND, 100 PROOF Editor, John J. Noll. The Editors cannot be responsible for unsolicited manuscripts unless return postage is enclosed. National Distillers Products Corporation, N. Names of characters in our fiction and semi-fiction articles that deal with types are fictitious. Use of the name of any person living or dead is pure cohicidence.

2 The AMERICAN LEGION Magazine When Purchasing Pkouucts Please Mention The American Legion Magazine OLDSMO BILE WORKERS HAVE BEEN automatic cannon for fighter planes — long-range cannon for tanks — shot and shell for tanks and DOING IT FOR NEARLY TWO YEARS . . . BACKING UP OUR FIGHTING MEN WITH the artillery. Oldsmobile is carrying out these vast VOLUME PRODUCTION OF FIRE-POWER war-production assignments in close co-operation with more than 130 subcontractors, working with America is "passing the ammunition" today to them as an All-American "Keep 'Em Firing" team. almost every corner of the globe. From the skilled They're part of the free industry of a jree coun- hands of her millions of ... to the workmen try, and they're working to

eager hands of her millions of lighting men . . . keep it that way. "Let's You Can Help"Pass the planes and ships and tanks and and cannon pass the ammunition," the Ammunition" shot and shell are passing in a never-ending stream. -Buy U. S. American industry is say- War Bonds \ and Stamps From Oldsmobile, for example, come fast-firing ing, "and we'll all stay free!" ^^Pf*/ / 1/V DIVISION OLDSMOBILE OF GENERAL MOTORS

VOLUME PRODUCER OF FIRE-POWER" FOR THE f S.

FEBRUARY, 1943 3 When Purchasing Products Please Mention The American Legion Magazine .

Dear Mr..

Bill would have wanted me to write you

this letter.

He was the one who first recognized the truth of your statement— "The future

belongs to those who prepare for it." To

me, I must confess, other things seemed more important— then.

Today I am so grateful that you per-

suaded Bill to say "yes" to life insurance!

Your friendly interest and your perse-

verance— these alone, I am sure, have made it possible for our children to

make the most of the happy future Bill

and I always planned for them . .

july 7—Saw Allisons at home. Presented april 8 — Heard Bill Allison was in hos- plan providing that, if Mr. A died, Mrs. A pital—pneumonia. Stopped to cheer him nov. 13 — Called on W. H. Allison, would receive $150 monthly until children up, but too ill to be seen. 32. Has son and daugh- are for life. lawyer, young grown, then $60 a month But may 14 —Yesterday took Grace Allison first ter. "Not interested in insurance." Mrs. A seems more interested in furnish- of lifetime monthly income checks from may 30—Saw W. H. Allison. Outlined ing their new home. Bill's insurance. Very thankful letter from Family Income Policy for protection aug. 4 — Called again at Allison home. her today. Especially satisfied with this of wife and children. Wife doesn't want After further discussion, he bought plan case because of time and effort required him ro buy life insurance. as outlined last month. Well pleased. to place this much-needed protection.

AS A service to the government Prudential and to you, Prudential representatives sell War Savings Stamps. INSURANCE COMPANY OF AMERICA For victory —buy some today! HOME OFFICEt NEWARK, NEW JERSEY

4 The AMERICAN LEGION Magazine When Purchasing Products Please Mention The American Legion Magazine —

By Robert Francis

first-act curtain came down Illustrated by WILLIAM HEASLIP wrote "Over There" that same day. He THEand the house lights blazed on. was a great showman and one to choose A few hardy souls went up the George Cohan started to sing. It was a instinctively the precisely right moment aisles for a smoke, but I noticed simple melody based on three bugle for doing and saying anything. Those that most of the packed audience notes. Trumpet and trombone leaned close to him at the time insist that he stayed in their seats. Back in 191 7, in- forward in their seats and softly picked got the idea while riding to town from termissions in a New York theater be- up the beat. The strings followed and his house at Great Neck, Long Island, longed to Uncle Sam. the drum caught the sway and the swing and that he had a verse and chorus From behind the curtain stepped a of it. Before the first chorus was half- finished by the time his train arrived slight figure with a quizzical, drooping way through the whole house rocked to at Pennsylvania Station. left eyelid and an impish grin. He the tramping rhythm of marching feet It really doesn't matter. That night he bounced when he walked with just a and over it came the clarion call of the gave the country something important, suggestion of be-damned-to-you swagger. A.E.F., sung as only George Michael something that every expert on Tin Pan If he had had a hat on, you knew it Cohan could sing such a song in those Alley had been feverishly—and vainly would have tilted over his left ear. days: "And we won't come back, 'til trying to do, a song that would quicken

Hands deep in coat pockets, one shoulder it's over . . . Over There!" A new Amer- the tired feet of Yanks on the muddy hunched in the familiar pose, George ican war song was born. roads of France and one those at home Michael Cohan began to sell Liberty I don't know that George Cohan would sing as a challenge and a promise. Bonds. The audience was quick

And how he sold 'em! to recognize it. Programs It wasn't because he was flew in the air. The a popular star in his own theater came to its col- play in his own theater. lective feet, cheering and It was something deeper. whistling. It must have Something that made been for him one of the him seem a symbol of most satisfying nights living, fighting America. of his career. Not for The ushers were run twenty years was I to ragged carrying cash and see him get such an ova- pledges up to the stage. tion again, and by that Someone in the bal- time he had been dubbed cony shouted for a dance. First Actor and become Another wanted a song. something of a legendary They all wanted "A figure in the theater. Grand Old Flag." He It might be mentioned grinned and waited, and here that George Mi- finally raised his hand. chael was subsequently "If you can take it," taken to task by one of he called, pulling a scrap his critics for continued of paper from his pocket, flag-waving and for not "I'll sing something I contributing more of made up this morning. himself to the World That is, if the boys in War than a song. Had the pit can make sense the critic taken the out of this cue sheet." trouble he might have The piano player found out that Cohan smoothed out the crum- tried to enlist in the pled sheet before him The First Actor examines the medal awarded Army at the age of and struck a chord. And by Congress and presented by the First Citizen (Co?iti7iiied on page 38)

FEBRUARY. 1943 — !

I've Had My Fill of It

By PETER B. KYNE

RECENTLY I service between the had Sunday The chow they ate in '98 and twenty years thenafter, open latrines and our dinner with kitchen and were do- *~ Hell a sergeant in from Sammy and Meuse-Argonne right back to ing a big business in This is the Army. General Shatter, was nothing that you'd cheer about, typhoid fever and in- what they fed me testinal ills. In addi- declares this vet'ran eater. They feed the soldier and they had a mime- tion to horrible food ographed menu, too: swell today, alas, too late for Peter in those days army Olives and celery en sanitation was not. branch, fruit salad, an excellent vege- after lighting in Camp Merritt, the em- For breakfast I had half-boiled beans table soup, roast turkey with stuffing, barkation camp for troops destined for swimming in a scum of grease, bread brown gravy, sweet potatoes, string Philippine service. Consequently, he had and coffee. Kaiser had added fresh cof- beans, choice of apple pie or ice cream, brought only the clothing he had on fee to half a boilerful left over from coffee or milk. I didn't eat very heartily and the Army had no clothing for him supper and the result was terrible. But because I was so damned mad to think and for the past three weeks Kaiser, the bread was good, even if for the first

I was a citizen of a republic that coddled while waiting for some clothing to ar- time I was eating it without butter. soldiers with grub like this and, in ad- rive, had worked in a heavy woolen Four hours of drill had me in a dif- dition, bedded them down on real mat- undershirt, using his outside shirt to ferent frame of mind for the noon meal, tresses, with sheets and pillow cases. sleep in. That undershirt, stiff with which was fried sowbelly—fat with a To an elder statesman like myself it grease and perspiration and foul with thin streak of lean, bread and more just didn't seem right and it will prob- dirt and charcoal, stood to attention terrible coffee—perhaps a little more ter- ably draw a sneer from the old boys rible now, because Kaiser never wasted of i gi 7-'i 8 who bedded down on a a drop of made coffee but just threw

donkey's breakfast and didn't fresh coffee into it. even have sheets in hospital. Camp Merritt was a sand-field area. While dallying with that A thirty-five-mile trade wind blows all

roast turkey — get me, com- . . .. summer in San Francisco and sand in rades, this wasn't battery fund suspension found haven in grub, but the basic army ra- Kaiser's stew and boiled beans. tion for Sunday — my mind I have often wondered how went back to my first army we managed to survive the meal on the evening of June sand, because some years ago

1 8, 1898. And man, was I when I had a stock farm in hungry, for I had had a harry- Southern California some of ing day, what with 20-40 in my pure-bred swine died mys- my right eye and scabs on my teriously and upon post-mor- shins due to striking things tem were found to have their in the dark, but which the intestines clogged with sand. recruiting surgeon who was For nearly a week a hot wind, prejudiced against me because known as a Santa Ana, had he knew I planned to commit been blowing off the Mojave perjury in the matter of my desert and carrying sand in

age, elected to regard as scrof- suspension so thick it obscured ula. I was quite worn out in the sun and this sand had got- the battle to outgame that ten into the pigs' slop. It would hombre, so when the quarter- seem, therefore, that while in master sergeant of L Company 1898 I was not so strong as a of the 14th United States Infantry is- A million flies were doing busi- horse I was stronger than a hog sued me a messkit and one blanket and ness in typhoid and intestinal Once in a while, in Camp Merritt, we I asked: "Where do I sleep?" and he- ill! in Kaiser's kitchen would have some real bacon and prunes, replied: "In the sand, goddammit; and beans alternated with boiled rice,

where do you expect to sleep? In a when Kaiser shucked it at night. Despite sans milk or sugar. The prunes were bed?" I was still further depressed. his manifold woes, Kaiser was the best- merely skins wrapped around a pit, for The nadir of my despair was not natured and kindliest man I have ever the Spanish War offered a grand oppor- reached, however, until I saw presiding met; he welcomed me heartily to the tunity for every crook in the Army and over the "kitchen" one Private Kaiser, outfit and helped me prodigally to a out of it to unload on the soldiers grub who, although not remotely a cook, was villainous stew, the while he dripped hardly fit for a starving Armenian. Even pinch-hitting as one. The sight of this honest sweat into it. So I fed my stew if Kaiser had been able to prepare it excellent fellow threw a chill into me. to the latrine, washed my messkit in the well it still would have been unfit for It seems he had been sent out from a hot bitter coffee and went down town human consumption. Most of the dried recruit depot at Columbus, Ohio, expect- to eat, trying hard to forget that a fruit was wormy. I managed to survive ing to be one of the boys in blue an hour million flies had inaugurated a shuttle by getting supper in a restaurant.

r> The AMERICAN LEGION Magazine We didn't know how well off we for hours until it was cool, else some Illustrated by HERB STOOPS were, however, until we crowded aboard lazy vagabond would steal it. a little transport and started out to Arrived at a former Spanish army line, wishful to insult Bates but not help Dewey. There was no refrigeration post in the suburbs of Manila, we lost wishful to be cook, bent over the rice plant aboard our transport and as soon Kaiser. It seems he was, in civil life, boiler and took a long loud sniff, and as the ice in the cold storage room an odd-jobs man, with a predilection to the infuriated Bates drove his face down commenced to melt the store of meat tinsmithing, locksmithing and carpenter- into the hot mass and held it there. grew green and slimy. However, the ing, and he had brought a small kit of That was a gorgeous fight. Then Kaiser faithful cooks trimmed this off and tools into the service with him. So he investigated the boiler and found a hole gave it to the sea gulls and albatross was made Artificer In the last war he in it, which accounted for the scorched that followed us. But all the condiments would have been a Chief Mechanic. in the world could not conceal from Thereafter cooks came and went as fast us the fact that we were eating carrion. as they do in civil life and now we I have heard that Englishmen will hang a pheasant until it is so ripe the guts are ready to drop out of it, but I have yet to meet an American as big a fool as that. Now this spoiled or spoiling meat could only be served as stew, with potatoes and onions in it; we ate the vegetables and threw the stew overboard. I recall the colonel's son, a private in I Company, making heavy going of it with his ration when his old man came along "inspecting" and said softly: "How are you making it, Jim?" And when Jim replied angrily that he couldn't eat the infamous grub father said: "Be a soldier, my son, be a soldier." Apparently in those days to be a soldier pre-supposed an ability to digest anything and keep quiet about it. There has always been a streak of the sneak in my nature, so before em- barking I laid in a large stock of Bull Durham and brown papers, after ob- serving indubitable signs of a tobacco famine. This I traded to a mess boy After that no bones were thrown overboard on the boat in return for occasional gifts of broken meats from the fire- men's mess, but when I discovered he were without bread and made the ac- rice. He repaired it and about that time was also selling these scraps for cash quaintance of the hardtack of blessed the company commander discovered one I laid off him and got immediate re- memory, until a baker in an engineer Sprague who was a nuisance at drill. sults in the shape of better and bigger detachment invented a yeast that wuuld You could have won a fabulous fortune scraps. These saved my life. not rancidify in the tropics, so we all betting that at the command March, Our fresh water was gone in three built bake ovens and dug up bakers Sprague would step off with his right days and thereafter our drinking water and began to live again. Our baker was foot. So he was always in trouble, poor was condensed seawater served scalding quite insane and every little while would devil, and for this reason and because hot. We used to wait in line for hours come into the orderly office jibbering in civil life he had been second mate to fill our canteens at a single faucet and jabbering that Dewey's fleet had its on a whaling vessel, he was made per- and then hang it top-side and watch it guns trained on his bakeshop and would manent cook and to take the curse off one day, blow him to pieces. Sixteen his banishment was made a corporal. years after the Filipino insurrection I Sprague knew something less than met one of ours who told me that while nothing about cooking but he had imagi- on the bum in Montana he crawled into nation and he set about learning to a concrete railroad culvert to spend the cook, with the result that life took on a night and ran into our old baker there, gaudier hue, particularly after we used

still hiding from Dewey. I cherish a up a diabolical ration known as dessi- kindly feeling for him, however, be- cated potatoes. This was a war-time cause he liked me and often made me invention of the devil — spuds diced a dried-peach pie. minutely and dehydrated, although why In the Philippines we could bank on nobody ever knew. The quartermaster boiled rice once a day, and scorched general sent down a couple of hundred boiled rice about thrice weekly. Once thousand pounds to the Philippine Ex- we had it every day for a week, con- peditionary Force without bothering sequently the cooks were mortally in- with a test, and the inventor did not sulted and fist fights raged; so the furnish a recipe for cooking the awful company commander ordered that the stuff. So Sprague used to pour water first man to insult the cook would take on a panful of it, throw in a few cups over the cook's job. Next day one Bates of bacon grease and bake it as one

I felt like a cannibal stewing was serving and he scorched the rice. would a cake. It tasted like baked saw-

that trusting little monkey One Olson, at the head of the mess ( Continued on page 33)

FEBRUARY, 1943 ur Corner: AFRICA By RAY TUCKER

historical explanation for THEHitler's failure to checkmate or even damage seriously our North African invading units reveals American diplomatic and military leaders at their sparkling best. It marks a high in realistic foreign policy almost unexampled at Washington, and demon- strates that the United States has come of age internationally. Lieut. Gen. D wight D. Eisenhower The spectacular conquest of a vast segment of the Dark Continent, with Admiral William D. Leahy its yet unrealized implications concerning the war's trend and outcome and our post-war program, justifies com- had given him an excuse by an pletely the slow, patient spadework ac- actual descent on the sunlit rim complished by Cordell Hull and his of the Mediterranean. When he erstwhile Ambassador to Vichy—Ad- did violate the armistice terms, miral William D. Leahy. The dramatic thereby angering the French pop- story can be told most vividly and ef- ulace and certain of Petain's chief fectively giving by the foreground be- aides, it was too late. The en- fore describing the two-year background forced delay possible made par- , that made possible this brilliant under- tial scuttling of the French fleet taking. at Toulon—one of the principal Der Fuehrer suspected that the United activity on the waterfronts of this coun- prizes he wanted. Nations entertained covetous designs on try, England and Canada. Such a grand Spain and Portugal would not allow this general area several weeks before armada—850 ships, 150,000 Americans him to attack us through their countries the operation. Spies in Madrid had sent and the weapons necessary for the show lest they become involved in an un- him word that a powerful enemy fleet —could hardly be collected and inte- wanted war. Incidentally, the President was assembling in Gibraltar Harbor. He grated without some word reaching the and the Secretary of State have been presumably got information of feverish Gestapo's long ears. assailed for alleged "appeasement" of But his first defensive move showed the Fascist-minded Franco, but here that Washington's constant propagan- again our practical policy stood us in dizing about Dakar's threat to this con- good stead. tinent had borne good fruit. He mo- Our "temporary tieup" with Admiral bilized his U-boats off the West African Jean Francois Darlan, formerly second coast instead of in the Mediterranean, in command to Marshal Petain, was an- thus permitting our naval and cargo other helpful factor. Several days be- vessels to slip through the straits almost fore his alignment with the Anglo- unmolested. American invaders was announced pub- licly, he notified the Vichy Government THE Roosevelt-Hull policy of remain- that his inspection of colonial areas and ing on friendly terms with the Laval- bases had disclosed everything to be Petain regime, despite criticism by the shipshape and serene. This optimistic uninformed, raised another obstacle in report, which was relayed to Berlin by the Nazi chieftain's path. For fear of Petain in good faith, tended to quiet

antagonizing the French, he dared not Wilhelmstrasse worries and delay an all- • Bearer of Gold cross the Unoccupied Zone until we out counterattack.

The AMERICAN LEGION Magazine — —

Our military leaders' performance in Secretary Hull emerges from the Africa Incident as the great- Morocco was equally breath-taking. Darlan's presence in Algiers at the mo- est diplomat of our time. His refusal to break with Vichy has ment of our entry was an utter surprise paid enormous dividends to the cause of the United Nations to Lieutenant General Dwight David ("Ike") Eisenhower, in command of

the attacking forces. The latter knew The recent Anglo-French-American ding statesmanship which, when all th( of the arrival of General Henri Giraud, alliance in North Africa resulted directly facts tumble out, will rank the mild for the French hero's smuggled sub- from this misunderstood deal, and it modest and slow-spoken man from Ten- marine trip from France to Africa had carries an importance which is not gen- nessee as one of our great Secretaries been previously arranged for by William erally realized. Darlan and his fellow of State.

J. Donovan's ubiquitous agents. Also naval officers had been violently bitter In view of the scorn and criticism on hand at this historic moment, fortui- against the British ever since Churchill's he endured because of his Vichy policy tously or not, was Governor General forces attacked French fleets at Oran it may be said without sentimental 01 Albert Nogues of the Vichy regime. and Dakar—at the latter place, inci- poetic exaggeration that he is a living Giraud became Darlan's successor after dentally, in conjunction with Charles de example of Kipling's original "Iffy" the Admiral's assassination on Christ- Gaulle's Free French. It was because "If you can keep your head when all mas Eve. of this enmity that even before we en- about you are losing theirs, and blaming ." Although the details of the negotia- tered the conflict, London gave Wash- it on you. . . tions may remain obscure until all the ington the exclusive assignment of keep- Mr. Hull faced two choices when White, Yellow, Red and Brown Papers ing on speaking terms with Vichy and France fell before the German onslaught are published, it is understood that paving the way for the miraculous suc- in June of 1940, and the alternatives General Eisenhower figuratively locked cess of the North African venture. became more difficult when Laval rose the three Frenchmen in a room when Perhaps the most intriguing and sig- to power under the Nazi aegis. He could he found them favorable to our cause, nificant scene in this drama on the Dark break with Vichy in condemnation of advised them to choose a leader and Continent was that in which Major its acceptance of German shackles, as so promised to abide by their decision. General Mark W. Clark played the many demanded that he do, including They apparently picked the Admiral with a Gallic sense of practicality. He was better known at home because of his attachment in an official capacity to the Old Marshal's establishment, He had appointed many of the naval officers stationed in North and West Africa, and his assumption of a leadership role might—and did—win them over. Lastly, the prime consideration was to prevent the French fleet from falling into Hitler's hands. Explaining that he was "a soldier and not a politician," Eisenhower recom- mended acceptance of Darlan in a cable to Washington. Recognizing the value of this reinforcement, President Roosevelt quickly approved the plan. The Chief of State of the Vichy government and the general Liberal ideologists have raised a who commanded its armed forces furore over our association with Laval's former collaborationist. The President and the Secretary of State have ex- leading character. While he negotiated Wendell Willkie. As a matter of fact, plained that the alliance was a tempo- with local and native officials in a house there was considerable sentiment within rary expediency, and carried no com- in Algiers, somebody tipped off the cops the Administration for such a course. mitments with respect to our post-war about his presence and purpose. The But he figured that greater objectives a'titude toward a reconstructed French quiet, professorial Mark ducked into a were to be gained by maintaining at Government. Fact is that in kidnapping dark wine cellar, where he stood with least sentimental and diplomatic rela- the Admiral, Washington is duplicating the $15,000 in one hand and a pistol in tions with a historically friendly nation. what Abraham Lincoln attempted when the other. In rough outline here was his underlying he offered command of the Northern "I didn't know whether to bribe 'em purpose: (1) To checkmate Hitler in Armies to Robert E. Lee. or shoot 'em if they discovered me," his designs and demands for full eco- The reasons for the Civil War Presi- he explained subsequently. nomic, industrial, naval and military co- dent's gesture was political as well as This incident, together with the fact operation from the French. (2) To pre- military. Lee was not then known as a that $150,000 worth of Morgenthau gold vent Vichy from exceeding the strict great war strategist. Mr. Lincoln hoped was sunk in transit, suggests that real terms of the armistice by turning over that the beloved and great-hearted Vir- coin, not fifty-nine-cent currency, passed the fleet and Mediterranean bases, in- ginian's acceptance would prevent his hands during these stirring days. Our cluding Dakar, to the conqueror. (3) Commonwealth, Maryland and other forces did not ship bullion across the To demonstrate to Frenchmen that the nearby States from quitting the Union. seas solely for making bullets. But what land whose liberty was won through

Lincoln failed. Messrs. Roosevelt, is a bit of bribery between friends the aid of Lafayette and Rochambeau Hull and Eisenhower did not. The Ad- or enemies? was still a friend, that they were not miral's open support meant that we Well, that is a story of military alone in the world, and that they should lost only 1610 men in the landing oper- maneuvers perhaps unique in world not heed Laval's advice that the only ations, with only about 500 killed, and annals because of their scope, magnitude hope of resurrection rested in complete obtained the strategically valuable Dakar and portent. But behind this heroic stake collaboration with Berlin. (4) To keep without the firing of a shot. lies a two-year saga of shrewd, plod- {Continued on page 36)

FEBRUARY, 1943 9 The Bottle warn

By IRVING WALLACE

WAS a fat, long-necked whiskey bottle. rushing water swelling the wave larger and larger, puffing the IT It dipped up and down in the transparent green water bottle higher and higher on its white-capped crest. like a tin duck on a Coney Island target range. It rolled It was descending now, fast, very fast, hurtling over the up along the stretching waves, and nervously flattened water, twisting, rolling, tumbling. It was thrown, with a skid- out as the waves inflated and merged. ding noiseless impact. It was a very strong bottle. It had floated on the waters It lay still. It lay, couched in the hot white sand, its of the cool and hot Pacific for many miles. cylindrical glass body sweating water in trickles and then in It was almost home, at last. It was lifted by a wave, the long drops. It lay, high and exposed on the shore, its tightly sealed neck pointing from the narrow beach of Waikiki to the busy bustle of nearby Honolulu.

THE bottle was found at 10:17 that evening. The Coast Guardsman, Seaman Gurkey, on patrol, saw a brightness in the full yellow of a three-quarter moon, and

he went to the brightness, and it was the whiskey bottle. He

might have kicked it away, but bending over, he saw the

cork buried tightly in its neck. He lifted it, held it up in the moonlight, but couldn't see a thing. He shook it, and heard something flapping lightly inside. The possibilities of drama interrupting a dull routine in- fected Seaman Gurkey. In movies, of which he saw three a week, and in stories, there was always something important

in a sealed bottle. He tucked it under his armpit, and carrying his rifle in front of him, broke into a dog-trot toward his station. Ensign Gray, tiredly typing a report in his office at the station, took the bottle from Seaman Gurkey. "Where'd you find this?" asked Ensign Gray. "On the beach, sir," replied Seaman Gurkey, tamping down excitement in his throat. "I think there's something in it." Ensign Gray, political for twenty-eight, considered. Well, maybe there was and maybe there wasn't. If there wasn't he'd be a small fool. A dramatic small fool. He handed the bottle back to Seaman Gurkey with decision. "Take a staff car, Gur- key, and get into town. I'm letting you take this to Naval Intelligence."

IN THE tiny ante-room of Naval Intelligence, around the corner from the patio-encircled Honolulu postoffice, Lieu- tenant (j.g.) Dawson and Lieutenant (j.g.) Powsky sat smok- ing and debating, lackadaisically, the physical merits of Miss Lana Turner and Miss Betty Grable. They both turned, ready to welcome any intrusion into boredom, when Seaman Gurkey came bounding in, slipping and saluting, and pushing the whiskey bottle in front of him.

"Found it on Waikiki Beach, sirs!" exclaimed Seaman Gurkey. "There's something in it!" Lieutenant Dawson took the bottle in both big hands, and

studied it. Lieutenant Powsky gangled over his shoulder, interested. Finally Lieutenant Dawson spoke. "It's a whiskey bottle. A quart. Randolph Straight Bourbon Whiskey. The cork here has been whittled down to fit into the neck and seal it. Here, give me a knife, someone." Seaman Gurkey produced a knife. Lieutenant Dawson sniped at the cork, pried it more slowly than necessary to add suspense before the suspense would be worthless. "Better hurry," suggested Lieutenant Powsky. "Maybe it's something Commander Williamson should see." Lieutenant Dawson, still prying slowly, frowned, muttering. ." He could see that the cork "That land-locked brass-hat . . . probably can't even read . . as they were whenever was buried tightly in its neck Both men. diverted for a moment,

10 The AMERICAN LEGION Magazine " " )

"Hello, men," offered the Commander. "Come in! What's up?"

the new Commander's name was mentioned, thought about Illustrated by WALLACE MORGAN Williamson. They, like most of the junior officers, disliked him. Motivation for this dislike was obscure. Possibly it was visitors. He saw the bottle. He said, "Hello, men. Come in! that Commander Williamson, beefy, red-faced, bespectacled, What's up?" had been commissioned directly out of civilian life. He'd been Lieutenant Dawson, following Williamson's padding feet a dollar-a-year-man, a reformed mid-West industrialist, who into the study, poured out the story. Gurkey added three worked in the WPB, until he was commissioned and sent to sentences of color. Powsky interrupted twice, underlining its Honolulu to help re-organize this branch of Intelligence. importance. Suddenly, the cork was out of the bottle. With one hand, "Sit down, men," said Commander Williamson, himself Lieutenant Dawson brushed the pieces of cork from his blue settling into the swivel chair behind his mahogany desk. "So trousers, and with the other he turned the bit bottle upside this is the bottle." He looked at it briefly, running his tongue down. They all heard something flutter inside. around inside his cheeks. "And this is the note that you found "Here, hold this, Powsky," said Lieutenant Dawson handing in the bottle.'" He placed the note on the desk in front of him the bottle. "Let me get it out with my little finger." him, smoothed it with the palm of a pudgy hand, and saw In a moment the piece of paper, folded very square, fell that it was printed in pencil and brief. Carefully, he read it. to the desk. It was a piece of small notebook paper, loose-leaf, and To Whom It May Concern:

Lieutenant Dawson had to unfold it four time before it was If you find this bottle, and are sympathetic to the American open. He glanced at it, then looked up at the others. He cause, please take this note to the first American soldier or jumped to his feet. officer you can find. "Geez! This is important!— Christ, this is something! We've The writer of this note is Captain George C. Hendriks, of got to get this to Ximitz the Destroyer . You will be able to verify my com- Lieutenant Powsky interrupted. "Better take it to the chief. mand by checking with the navy in Washington. I cannot give He's our superior." too much information, since this note might fall into the hands "But Williamson won't understand how important—well, of the enemy. My boat was attacked off Midway on the second — battle we better do it, and fast ! Let me see, where's his address afternoon of the by new Japanese torpedo-carrying "I got a car downstairs," said Seaman Gurkey, shaking him- airplanes. Along with three officers and five seamen, we got self out of nonentity. away from our ship on a raft, and managed to reach a small uninhabited island. We have been here a day, and find con- COMMANDER WILLIAMSON, rotund body encased in a ditions such that we will be able to survive indefinitely. maroon bathrobe, opened the door. He saw three saluting < Continued on page 42

FEBRUARY, 1943 II Formerly flying cadets, they're bow specielii'u in Uncle Sam's Air Forces *#

Here's Why They're Tops

By FREDERIC SONDERN, Jr.

The Training U. S. Airmen Get

Makes Them Masters of Combat

EVERY battlefront. the airmen—several hundred thousand is ONAmerican airman is making the quota for this year—the Flying a reputation for high effici- Training Command of the Army Air The kids learn traffic patterns ency. Our bomber pilots have Forces has not relaxed its high stand- involving nearby flying fields set a record for getting to their targets ards one bit. in the most heavily guarded Nazi ter- For example, before a pilot takes a ritories and coming home again with a Flying Fortress into enemy territory, minimum of casualties. Our fighter pilots he gets eleven months of intensive, are downing Messerschmitts and Zeros careful, personal education, with one at a large ratio to their own losses. And instructor to every five students. It < «. the accuracy of our bombardiers has does the most difficult and complicated Ms been proved from France to Guadal- job of teaching in the whole curriculum canal. of modern warfare with an extraor- The reasons for this success are the dinary degree of good sense and in- care with which the American pilot, genuity. bombardier, navigator or gunner is Good airmen can be made only out Dumbbells you take standing up, picked and the superb training he gets of youngsters with very special qualities. but tromping bicycles otherwise before he goes into combat. Despite Moreover, the different jobs call for the pressing demand for more and more men of different types. A man may be

\2 The AMERICAN LEGION Magazine follow the erratic gyrations of a metal button. Every time the button gets away from the pointer a "miss" is registered. A Discrimination Reaction Tester tells constitutionally unable to fly a plane, whether a pilot candidate will be able yet he may be able to drop every bomb to cope with the dozens of controls of in his rack "on the nose," or he may an instrument board. Buttons on a have the imperturbable precision the switchboard control lights on a panel. navigator needs. The first problem the When the examiner indicates a certain Air Forces faced when war called for light, the candidate must instantly push great expansion was how to sift the the button that flashes that light. thousands of applicants into the proper These tests and other preliminaries at bins quickly and accurately, thereby Classification Center put the cadet saving the precious time of instructors through a grueling week. On the basis and equipment. of his score and his expressed prefer- Psychological Research Units were ence, it is decided whether he is to be set up in each of the three Training trained as pilot, bombardier or navi- Centers, manned by the best psycholo- gator. gists the Air Forces could find. Field Under this system "washouts" in the crews of psychologists flew with poor training schools have come down sharply. and excellent students in good weather That is the valuable proof of an ex- and bad and discovered some fifty car- pensive pudding. dinal reasons for their making mistakes Pilot cadets go to Pre-Flight School and not making them. For example, to for nine weeks. At these miniature, in- use stick and rudder in unison, a pilot tensified West Points the cadets learn must coordinate perfectly the move- to be soldiers. Under stiff discipline, ment of his hands and feet. Many peo- they are taught to salute and drill punc- ple just can't do it. Other men never tiliously, to keep themselves and their can conquer their fear of falling. Some (Continued on page 34) are confused and irritated by complicated instruments. Some have no mechanical "feel."

Then there is the navigation student who loses his head when the jouncing of the plane in rough air jitters his

sextant while he is getting a "fix," or jiggles the meter that he is trying to read. A bombardier needs sensitive hands and an inherent sense of timing which airmen call "the now" because under nerve-racking tension he must be able to make split-second decisions and set a bewildering array of handwheels with hairbreadth precision. On the basis of such findings, the psychologists designed a series of tests. Memory tests reveal whether a poten- tial pilot will be able to keep in mind the dozens of airplane profiles, friendly and hostile, that he will have to recognize. The Two-Hand Coordinator estab- lishes a man's ability to manage the bombsight. Two handwheels control a pointer with which the candidate must

Night landing on a comparatively small portable strip is a must of our advanced pilot training

FEBRUARY, 1943 13 ;

Japan's Fatal Weakness

By JAMES ft. YOUNG

of precious ships and ma- JAPAN'S collapse will Japan in the first 13 months of war let loose vir- result from factors terial, but have exacted a tually everything she had against us. Now she's which her powerfully toll the enemy can ill afford. organized fighting feeling the pinch, for her lack of industrial ca- I can quote from a Japa- nese business man to give forces, in their desperation pacity makes replacements slow, and she hasn't and setbacks, cannot con- the orthodox Tokyo inter- with her opponents in im- trol. the savvy to keep up pretation, how militarists industrialists calculated Nippon's fundamental proving plants and weapons. This is particularly and weakness, as Joseph Clark to win. Yoshiichi Nagatani, true in the all-important matter of airplanes Grew, former Ambassador a top-flight manufacturer, to Tokyo emphasizes in his has stressed that the United assessment of her military capacity, is Illustrated by JOHN CASSEL States could not win because we would the failure of her leaders in the long- not be willing to tool up to wartime pro- prepared plot to attack, to make pro- complished, the double-tracked Trans- duction, that we would not stop mak- vision for losses or collapse. They have Siberian railway would be open to Japan ing refrigerators to produce jeeps. He left no road open for retreat. There is to import arms from Czechoslovakia, told his people that we were so divided no provision for acquiring substitutes steel from Sweden, and machinery from that we could not form an army to go and replacements in war industries. Germany and conquered European coun- overseas; he said we would not undergo Why? tries. Vladivostok, the Nazis emphasized, hardships and that we lacked spiritual Japan was sold the idea, by the nu- would become another Jap submarine power. He told his Japanese listeners merous Nazi political, economic and base for attacks on the United States. that because of low national morale, at military gauleiters in Tokyo, that a Kamchatka would be a Japanese air our first defeat we would be led in re- lightning stroke would incapacitate the base for thrusts at unprepared Alaska volt by Senators Nye and Taft, and United States in the Pacific, and knock and cities in our Pacific Northwest. Charles A. Lindbergh. England out of the Orient. In a few We have suffered losses numbering months, the Japs were assured, Tokyo's JAPAN and Germany planned to con- some 50,000 in dead, injured and miss Black Dragon leaders would be Master centrate on India after the capture ing. Time is against Japan and distance Dragons of the Pacific, from Siberia on of Moscow and Manila. Japan with a plagues our transport problems. But we the north to Sydney in the south and larger navy and mercantile marine than can overcome time and distance. The navigate patrol the short time of all the Pacific basin of 64,000,000 Germany, would and Japanese, I emphasize, are on square miles. Indian Ocean and the Suez Canal, and and, in their octopus operations, are The Japanese accepted this conclu- jointly operate in the Mediterranean dangerously spread out, particularly re- sion without any apparent consideration with the third Axis partner, Italy. Thus, specting lines made vulnerable to sub- told persons attacks. America's war industry of an if. Japan, as I am by who marine but Moscow, the Japs were told, would returned on the diplomatic exchange problems are tough and many, we has be taken by Christmas (of 1941). The ship Gripsholm, anticipated a rail route are not weak at the core. Japan long term Japs would have Manila. The proposal via Russia and an ocean lane by Suez, strength at the top, through appeared bomb-proof. Gen. Yamashita to handle the war materials, machinery planning, but at the core she is weak. offensive had been in Europe with Count Gen. and tools to replace the gigantic pur- The inevitable American Terauchi for observation and instruction chases she had made in the United deep at the heart of Japan's eight in- pressure in the high points of blitzkrieg and para- States, for had we not been Japan's dustrial centers will exert a troop tactics, later to be used in the chief source of industrial strength? like the push that caves ant-eaten wood Malayan campaign, the Philippines and Within a year after promised Nazi but the basic cause of our enemy's ulti- termites of in- the Dutch East Indies. victories, Japan observed the United mate defeat will be the disintegration, lack of skilled Moscow did not fall. Manila did. And Nations driving Rommel's men from dustrial highly-trained tech- had we been on the alert, the White North Africa; the Reds were throwing labor, shortage of superintend- House having given sufficient warnings, the Nazis back at Stalingrad; convoys nicians, graft among plant purchasing agents, we would not now be on the defensive of Americans and materials continued ents and bribery of in war factories, position nor have suffered such terrific to Australia and the Solomons; more awkward bottlenecks replace unexpected losses at Cavite and Pearl Harbor. Our American planes were bombing Japa- and the inability to especially submarines Navy and our air force units would nese-held cities in China, particularly air and ship losses, and tank- have remained in control of the Pacific. Hankow, Hanoi, Haiphong, Hong Kong and aircraft carriers, bombers ers. transport and cargo vessels, This particular reference is not written and Bangkok. Of supremacy to establish an "out" for our miserable As a full-fledged typewriter strategist, Japan perhaps retains world tonnage. failures and insufficient precaution. The I place myself out on a limb with the numerically and possibly in of declamation is part of the entire story unqualified statement that failure crazed leaders around which, in this article, I am Japan's world-wide conquest plans may 1 constructing a word-picture frame on be dated from the time the Nazis failed H must go on fighting to the ulti- cannot re- the premise that Japan cannot win. to take Moscow. mate, disastrous end. They stationary. And it will not be a Following the fall of Moscow and the Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox main pride, of the "face" we hear immobilizing of all Russia, which the recently told the National Association of matter of Nazis assured the Japs would be ac- Manufacturers we have expended a lot (Continued on page 48) LEGION Magazine 14 The AMERICAN

Take It Easy, Tio Sam

By ALBERTO MARTINEZ

Plain talk by an American citizen on what to do to make South Americans cheer the Colossus of the North, meaning us

the bonds issued by WHENsmall city in Argentina a sank to 40 on the New York market, most of the investors decided they had listened to bad financial advice and sold out, plumb disgusted with the South American way. The one man who didn't sell, but bought up all the bonds he could lay hands on, reaped a fortune of $500,000. The difference lay in no gift of second sight, but in the fact that he made

it his business to try to understand the people who had defaulted on their bonds. He just couldn't believe they were crooks. He had proof that the street railway system, power plant, gas mains and waterworks actually existed

and it was reasonable to assume they were worth somewhere near what they had been bonded for. This Yankee business man went down to investigate. First he took some Span- ish lessons. On arrival, he asked permission to attend the next meeting of the city council. Pleased at his interest, city officials readily complied. At the meeting, he listened for an hour before he spoke. Except for the language, this might have been a town council meeting in Ohio or Iowa or Mas- sachusetts. Local politicos do not differ too much, no matter where they are located on the map. The councilmen were discussing the bonds. They were scared. They had got into the soup. They were unclear about the business details—even as your city council or mine, I fear, might have been —but they were dead certain it wasn't their fault that something had gone wrong. Moreover, they hoped this stranger who had breezed in on them wasn't carrying the Big Stick up his

The AMERICAN LEGION Magazine sleeve. They eyed him from time to time, not with hostility, but with suspicion.

The American courteously asked, in Spanish, if he might enter the discussion. The air was tense when he started. But he did not raise his voice. He told them, in the same terms he would have used in the council chamber back home, that he hoped the bond affair could be straightened out. He added that he had only dropped in to get their ideas and talk things over. Interest deepened. Sighs of relief were heard. Imagine Uncle Shylock not blustering and pounding the table with his fist!

The visitor did not fit at all into their conception of an Amer- ican business man.

"Senores," he said, "a bond is not just a pretty paper covered with green scrollwork and fine print. It represents an engagement of honor. When you issued these bonds, you pledged that on default your public works would pass into the posses- sion of the bond-holders. Now I happen to hold a majority of these bonds, but it would be ridiculous for me to step in Plaza de Mayo, Buenos Aires, where Argen- and try to operate these properties. They belong to the people tine political proclamations are promulgated of your city, people who have trusted you to represent them.

Surely there is a better way for friends and neighbors to do business." When he had finished, the city council stood up and cheered. The chairman escorted him to a seat on the dais. He had appealed to the deepest and most sincere emotion that governs Latin-Americans—their sense of honor. Eager and excited discussion followed. They already had a substantial sum in the bank, but had been embarrassed over inability to make the full bond payments, hence had done nothing about it. They asked the Yankee to give them the benefit of his financial experience. He did. Next morning a payment was made, credit was reestablished—and by the time the simpatico Yankee's boat arrived in New York, the price of the municipal bonds was up to 95, their rightful value. This true story is worth detailing, because it illustrates two things we of the United States ought to understand about South Americans. First, they are idealists from the word go; and second, they welcome technical advice but prefer to run their own affairs. Had the Yankee blustered, he would have Harbor at Antofagasta, Chile, the out- got nowhere with them. let for the mines of southwestern Bolivia One of the great worries which besets thinking men all over South America at present is the lavish way in which the United States tends to solve the problems of its neighbors simply by pouring in cash. They appreciate the generosity, but cash now means debt later. South Americans are not looking for temporary, stop-gap solutions of their problems. Don't forget that the average South American business or public man knows a great deal more about the United States than his counterpart in this country knows about South Amer- ica. This is natural. The United States holds a dominant position in Pan-American affairs and Latin-Americans are just as eager to be friendly as we are. Don't misunderstand the Latin-American's business customs or think they indicate lack of practical ability—for example, when he asks about your family and discusses the weather at length before getting down to the matter in hand. He gets the work done, too. True, he takes a siesta after lunch—a practice approved by a great majority of physicians—but he stays on the job until 7 p.m. He likes the Good Neighbor policy first rate, but honestly, some of our attempts to be subtle about A Brazilian coffee plantation that is as patting him on the back give him a laugh which you'll never pleasing to the eye as it is productive see on his face. By contrast, a sincere effort seldom fails with him. Some time before Pearl Harbor, I accompanied a young Peruvian to is in contrast to the Germans, who were always painstaking in the Long Island airport where he was to take off via clipper their efforts to ingratiate themselves with the people with whom for Quiriquire, an oil camp in Venezuela. A former consul for they did business. his government in Philadelphia, he had signed up as a member "In the summer of 1937," he told me, "provincial officials, of a group of 12 Spanish teachers who were going into the accompanied by the principal American oil men, boarded the jungle. Their pupils were to be American oil company execu- ship which was bringing young Nelson Rockefeller on a visit tives. I asked how this eagerness to study Spanish had come to Maracaibo. There was the usual official greeting, which was

about, for it is well known that the traditional American busi- translated into English by an interpreter. When Rockefeller ness man in South America scorned to learn the language. This stood up to respond, the interpreter {Continued on page 46)

FEBRUARY, 1943 17 Against a background of heavy bulldozers the Seabees carry

on their drill. Inset is the corps device of the Battalion

By A. D. RATHBONE, IV

the Japs attacked the scant available facts concerning the officers and men. Thus began a new arm WHEN Island, unwit- Wake they amazing defense of that four and one of the Navy—that force unintentionally tingly set in motion a half mile-long atoll, it is known that motivated by the Japs—an arm now brand new force that is those civilian workers—many of them grown to a strength of more than 210,- destined to play a major role in wreck- World War One Veterans—grabbed 000 men. ing the little monkey men, and in the whatever would shoot and fought along- It was also an answer to the readily smashing of Japan's Axis partners. The side the Marines, a prophetic promise apparent need for construction person- bombs, the shells, and the machine-gun of the new force to come. nel at many and various locations out- bullets that rained down on that tiny The echoes of that Jap bombardment side the United States, and, after Wake Pacific outpost for 17 days and nights rolled across the Pacific, reverberated Island, it was clear that this personnel took their harsh toll, not only of Ma- over the Rocky Mountains, rumbled on should be part of the armed forces, and rines, but also among a crew of civilian to Washington, and culminated in a should be in uniform, trained and engineers and construction men, whose Navy directive, in December, 1941, au- equipped accordingly. Officers of the business on Wake was that of building thorizing the recruiting of one Construc- Navy's Civil Engineer Corps, under Ad- and improving Naval installations. From tion Regiment of approximately 3300 miral Ben Moreell, Chief of the Bureau of Yards and Docks, were assigned to organize and train the Construction Battalions. A call went out for men from 17 to 50 years old, who were trained and experienced technicians in every conceivable phase of construction and building. The last official word from Wake Island was Major Devereux's message: "The Japs have landed in force. Situa- tion still in doubt." That was on De- cember 24th, 1941. Thirty-two days later the initial Construction Battalion went into training at Quonset Point, Rhode Island. In no time at all this new force, first of its kind in the Navy's history, became descriptively and affection- ately known as "Seabees," from the phonetic pronunciation of the letters "C.B." The wartime business of the Seabees and an explanation of their Ready to land, with everything includ- motto, "We defend what we build," is telling their insigne. ing the kitchen sink and the G. I. cans best begun by of 18 The AMERICAN LEGION MagaSne More than 210,000 men are enrolled in the worlc-and-fight Construction Battalions of the Navy. Every one's a tough customer, and how!

Across a blue background, encircled by a hawser, streaks one of the maddest, fightingest bees ever depicted. His white Navy hat is defiantly cocked over scowling brows, beneath which angry eyes are flashing in a manner which bodes ill to his enemies. His two fore hands hold a spit- ting Tommy gun, there's a wrench in his second left hand, and a hammer clutched threateningly in his third fist. The sleeves of his uniform, from fore to aft, respectively bear the Naval rating badges of Gunner's Mate, Machinist's Mate, and Carpenter's Mate, while the corps device of the Civil Engineer Corps of the Navy adorns each wrist. He's rough, he's tough, he means business, and he's rarin' to go places and build things for Uncle Sam's Navy—and woe betide any Jap or Nazi who gets in his way or tries to stop him! The immediate answer to the call for men who could fight with one hand and build with the other came from every cross-road of the nation. It brought mechanics, plumbers, carpenters, electricians, blacksmiths, painters, riggers, steelworkers, pipefitters. It found instant response from expert operators of bulldozers, dredges, steam-shovels, cranes, derricks, gas and Diesel engines, and trucks. Still more men, who knew welding, generators, refrigeration, evaporators, water purifiers, excavation, dynamiting, heavy moving, concrete work, drafting, and surveying turned up at recruiting stations. Then there were cooks, bakers, laun- drymen, sailmakers, rodmen, wharf-builders and telephone linemen, divers, doctors, and dentists. Probably no more extensive or complete cross-section of American technical skill has ever before been gathered together in one unit, and among them, as anyone should know, were scores upon scores of men who took part in the last world-wide fracas. In fact, the Seabees have become a Mecca for World War Veterans. A typical example is Wilbur F. Taylor, of a Pennsylvania Post, who served in the Army Motor Trans- port Corps before, and who lost a son in the Marines when the U.S.S. Oklahoma was sunk by Jap bombs in Pearl Harbor. The news of that disaster was hardly off the wires when Comrade Taylor and a number of buddies from his Post offered their services to the War Department. Inci- dentally, Comrade Taylor, CMM, Battalion 20, Company B, has two other sons and twelve nephews scattered through various branches of the service. Another typical veteran is L. J. Miller of Chicago, who now rates as a CMM in the 29th Battalion, but who, as flight sergeant, saw action in France with the Lafayette Escadrille and the iSSth Squadron to the tune of eight German planes shot down. Legionnaire father-and-son combination enlistments

in the Seabees long ago reached a point where it wasn't news. It takes at least a veteran father and two sons to create a stir among recruiting officers, or among the commanding officers at a Seabee training camp, when a family contingent like that arrives. But, youngsters or oldsters, each man must know his trade and know it well. In the blueprint for organization

of the Seabees, it was recognized that a construction man couldn't be made in the eight weeks allowed for training. Therefore, men of technical {Continued on page 54)

I. Coral diggings and wire mesh make a road in jig- time at the new U. S. base in the South Pacific. 2. "We defend what we build" is the Seabees' motto. 'Nuf said? 3. Boom went the dynamite, and before you could say "Construction Battalion, United States Navy" there was a twenty-foot ditch for Seabee training. 4. A small part of the $90,000 salvage in sixty days' operations

FEBRUARY. 1943 19 The Farm That Went To War

The Boss, Legionnaire r°"iaf,V Sundholm of Carl Dyvad ~\ vie* ° wK»cV» rh n iV\ons Post of Albert City A 9 an in e P'oce

fice of this unique establishment. A young woman. Miss Harriet Danielson. YOU speak too elegant English assistant general manager of both the saw a manpower shortage long before it IFyou will probably call it an agri- original concern and of the farm that's came up to smack the nation in the face, cultural establishment. But if you gone to war. is its presiding genius. Mr. and with a few employes from his main hope to see cows, pigs and chickens Sundholm himself spends a good deal of plant assisting, he trained the group of at Legionnaire Sundholm's place in Al- his time there, designing the dies, tools women who in large part are carrying on bert City in northwestern Iowa, you'll and other equipment which have brought the work in the new buildings on the have to wait until we've whipped Hitler him recognition by the War Production farm. Most of them have either a hus- and his partners of the double cross. Ed Board in Washington. band, brother or son in the service, and Sundholm. a prosperous manufacturer of As you go into the farmhouse-office they're deadly in earnest about the job greasing equipment used by most of the of this unique establishment you are they're doing. major oil companies, put up a number greeted by Miss Odette Parsels. recep- In the portion of the barn which will of buildings on his four-hundred-acre tionist, and whether you are a general eventually house the stanchions for the tract a couple of years back and had an in the Army, a salesman or what have milk cows, milking machines and other idea he'd raise purebred stock. Instead you. you've got to convince her before equipment, you will find dozens of the buildings house machinery that is you get your pass for admission to the women seated at long tables, carefully turning out stuff we and our allies are plant. That's as it should be, of course, checking the parts produced by the other using to blast the enemy. for it is on a one hundred percent war departments of the plant. Mr. Sundholm's firm, the Superior footing, and the determined group of Even the hog house and poultry house Manufacturing Company, had so many men and women who are employed are contributing to the war effort, the war orders it simply couldn't take care there do not intend to have their work hog house being used for storage of raw of them, and so the dairy farm that had sabotaged. materials, and the poultry house having never had a chance to operate in the The machine shed with its automatic been converted into a modern tool room manner intended, became a munitions screw machines, drill presses and tapping containing lathes, milling machines, plant, with determined men and women machines is a hive of activity, and most grinders, drill presses, hardness testers keeping the wheels turning as fast as of the equipment is operated by women. and a variety of gauge blocks and possible. Mr. Sundholm. a member of Carl Dyvad measuring instruments.

The comfortable farmhouse is the of- Post of the Legion in Albert City. fore- As the war continues it is possible that the small number of men who are employed there will be shifted to other

work, and if that happens Mr. Sund- holm will train more housewives for the jobs. He and his workers intend that there shall be no slackening of effort and that the materials that come off the line in an ever increasing quantity will measure up to the exacting standards set by the Government. When the power of the Axis is finally smashed the farm that went to war will probably have a chance to operate as a dairy establishment. But Mr. Sundholm isn't thinking about that these days. He figures he can handle the bottlenecks that operation of a war plant entails these days, and anybody familiar with his methods will have to admit that he's Mrs. Ann Johnson, chief inspector, and the competent crew that got the savvy to whip almost any dif-

makes certain no second-rate . stuff goes to the armed forces ficulty that may arise.

20 The AMERICAN LEGION Magazine A Lincoln Tribute to Washington

MAY I be pardoned if, upon this occasion, I

. mention that away back in ray childhood, the earliest days of my being able to read, I got hold of a small book, such a one as few of the younger members have ever seen — Weems's Life of Wash- ington. I remember all the accounts there given of the battlefields and struggles for the liberty of the country, and none fixed themselves on my imagination so deeply as the struggle here at Trenton, New Jersev. The crossing of the river, the contest with the Hessian?, the great hardships endured at that time, all fixed themselves on my memory- more than any single Revolutior.irv event; and you all know, for you have all been boys, how these early impressions last longer than any others. I recollect thinking then, bo;- even though I was, that there must have been something more than common that these men struggled for. I am exceedingly anxious that that thing — that something even more than national independence, that something that held out a great promise to all the people of the world for all time to come — I am exceedingly anxious that this Union, the Constitution and all the liberties or the people, shall be perpetuated in accordance with the original idea for which that struggle was made; and I shall be most happy indeed if I shall be a humble instrument in the hands of the Almighty-, and of this his almost chosen people, for perpet- uating the object of that .great struggle.

THIS anc."eria:lon of the Father of His Country and the flea serving trader

him wito kept v. ; r.'-;-.ei :a:.-s ct America, a fjuur ccrxarr.- vis delivered in one ".£ the darkest hoars of the nation's history. Mr. Lincoln was on his way from his home in Illinois to he inaugurated President, and threats had been, marie that he would not be allowed to reach Washinetoa ali-e. Stoccine off at Trenton, New Jersev, on Fehruarv 21,

1 36 1, he addressed the State Senate, and the circnmstance of its being the eve of Wasfeaag- oon's birthdav and the scene of perhaps his

most spectacular victory gave fct P 1 liifc > elect an opportunity 00 which he roue magnificently in the ape here quoced.

21 NOW it's the Marines who are doing write are operating in our oldest tradi- "A U. S. Outpost Somewhere in the the telling. And bringing back the tion of covering the action fronts. South Pacific," there was George Wil- original brand of professional war re- Before Second Lieutenant H. L. Mer- kins Kendall, who rode with Taylor's porting, American style. illat sending out of Guadalcanal the first army, served as aide to General Worth That's right. All you've read about of this war's news stories by a battling in Scott's campaign, and came home the Marine Corps "combat reporters" as public-relations Marine, there was Colo- with "major" prefixed to the name. unpr cedented figures in United States nel Thomas Bangs Thorpe, U. S. A., These and other fighter-writers of the battle correspondence is based on a mis- writing the first published account of Mexican War were the first regular, rec- taken notion. Actually, the recruited war-opening Palo Alto on an 1846 field ognized, professional war correspond- newspapermen put through the basic of battle. ents of American journalism. training at Parris Island or San Diego Before Sergeant Richard T. Wright The Revolution had no regular re- and shipped out in uniform to fight and reporting Gavutu Island action from porters and most of the letters telling its

22 The AMERICAN LEGION Magazine The star-spangled array of American war correspondents from the days of Tom Thorpe and the Mexican War to those fellows you heard over the radio last night

story in the newspapers were not orig- took up the sword," as Reid put it. Mexican flag at Monterrey, participated inally intended for publication, even. Nevertheless, Lieutenant Reid sent out in Buena Vista and Vera Cruz, and The War of 1812, again, ran to official an occasional letter or poem, and Clay, marched on Mexico City, to be wounded reports and letters, and unofficial letters who had been captured, sent a series of in the last battle of the war. He ran his home by soldiers who weren't newsmen. letters from his prison in Mexico City. own horse expresses, and official Army Nearest approach to a war correspond- The actual coverage was chiefly by dispatches, as well as correspondence for ent was perhaps James M. Bradford, the press of New Orleans, as a number the Picayune, were entrusted to his who had founded the St. Francisville, of its adventurer-editor-authors hopped riders. Louisiana, Time Piece just before the right into the dual military-journalistic One of these horseman assistants was war. Enlisting in Jackson's army for the action in a preview of the 1942 manner. youthful Charles M. Bugbee. He often defense of New Orleans, he sent back a All the letters of the volunteering ran the gauntlet of Mexican fire on the series of letters to his paper on the oper- Colonel Thorpe (still remembered as roads "but as he had a peculiar way of ations. the author of "Tom Owen, the Bee dodging their balls, he was believed by Largest news efforts of the Mexican Hunter" and "The Big Bear of Arkan- them to be bullet proof." Or so said the War were concentrated on Zachary Tay- sas") were widely copied. contemporary Lowell Courier. Traveling lor's Army of the North and on Win- The accounts by Kendall, of the New from Vera Cruz to Mexico City as a field Scott's taking of Vera Cruz and Orleans Picayune ownership, were so New York Sun representative after the advance on Mexico City. often reprinted that his G. W. K. signa- war, Bugbee apparently neglected to Mayne Reid, of later boys-book fame, ture at story's end became familiar to dodge. He died of three bullets in a and Cassius M. Clay were among the the entire country. stage-coach holdup. journalists who "flung down the pen and The battling G. W. K. captured a {Continued on page 42)

Through these eyes Americans have seen the ebb and flow of warfare during the past seventy years

FEBRUARY. 1943 23 .

WHAT WE FIGHT FOR THE EDITORIAL VIEWPOINT

YOU were to ask American fighting men in the course of action taken by the individual is dictated by IFvarious theaters of war why they are engaged in the head of the state. action against the Axis powers you would doubt- If the Axis should win this war, these lads know, less get a variety of answers. But if you were to not only would that be the system we would have to take the first dozen or the first thousand and compare follow, but in addition we would as the conquered them you would probably find that you had found in face the prospect of working extremely long hours for them a common denominator. It would be that which just enough to keep soul and body together. For the Woodrow Wilson expressed so ably twenty-six years Axis, under the leadership of Nazi officialdom, has been ago next April—to make the world safe for democracy. at work figuring these things out to the final syllable. In saying this we should emphasize that the Amer- The history of the conquered nations since the fall of ican fighting man of this war, like the fighting man •939 proves that the Germans mean to make non of that earlier war, has no idea of making the rest of Germans the "hewers of wood and drawers of water" the world conform to what might be called a Yankee of the world's social system. Once they achieved vic- ideal of what democracy is or ought to be. The youth- tory they would set up quisling administrations in the ful American, whether his education stopped at early conquered countries. Having control of raw materials, grades of grammar school or was continuing in the they would make certain that access to these would be upper reaches of a graduate school when he donned reserved to them and to a lesser extent their allies the the uniform of his country, has been accustomed to Japanese. Then indeed would the clock be turned think of the United States as a nation in which a back a thousand years: mankind would groan under person has a right to express an opinion, to meet with the weight of a slaveocracy beside which the Russian his fellows without getting permission from the au- system of serfdom obtaining up to the sixties of the thorities, and to read the books, newspapers and mag- last century or that of Negro slavery in our land would azines which are available on newsstands and in public seem benevolent. For the German has shown that he libraries in even the smallest communities of the land. combines ruthlessness with efficiency, and will stop at Even those in uniform with the scantiest of educational nothing to carry out his will. background know that in the Axis countries the cit- To make certain that this blight does not fall upon izens have virtually none of those rights, that the our own land our fighting men are serving in virtually

WINTER. OFFENSIVE.'

--THE. 60YS IN ICE.LANP, ALASKA -1UE ALEUTIANS, AND OTHER COLD SECTORS', ARE APPROPRIATELY Clap in Regulation issues ,-ro fight -the war - anp winter. v/eather - 6ot us 'civilian defenders" at home have, "to provide oof? own means -TO Combat -the frigid Blasts' -that Slow around the Watch- "towers", anp air- raid wardens' huts, etc, these pays - and Some of theaa are quite, ingenious -you will note \^

K GETS MIGHTY COLD UP INTHE. OBSERVATION "TDWER. - ESPECIALLY AT NICHTS - \. AMP SPEAK1N6 OF WHISKERS 24 The AMERICAN LEGION Magazine every section of the habitable globe. We and our allies, No nation can live to itself alone, with the develop- holding to various philosophies of government, have ment of the airplane and other methods of communi- in the face of the common enemy pooled our re- cation. The farthest reaches of the habitable globe are sources, and have pledged each to the others not to physically closer to our national capital today than make a separate peace with the Axis aggressors. Even was George Washington at Mount Vernon in 1787 to those countries which have been overrun by the enemy Philadelphia, when he started from home to attend the are furnishing men to the common cause. Constitutional Convention. The toll of this war will The American soldiers of this war and those who be so heavy that the problems of keeping alive the served in 191 7-' 18 have had very little to say about populations of the various nations once the enemy has after-the-war planning, preferring to put first things been conquered will tax the resources of the Western first in the scheme of things. Winning the war is the Hemisphere, which is likely to be the only section of paramount concern of both our civilians and our men the globe spared the actual devastation attendant on in uniform, for without that we should face a condi- the clash of arms. Once that job of rehabilitation has tion worse than death. We believe that the President been accomplished the equally important one of set- of the United States and the Secretary of State are tak- ting up safeguards against aggression from whatever ing the occasion to say to our allies what the Presi- source will have to be tackled. Once for all, mankind dent said to Hitler and Mussolini in his message of will have to find a design for living which by mutual April 14, 1939, that we stand for "the most practical tolerance will translate the aspirations of countless manner of opening up avenues of international trade generations which have seen "through a glass darkly" to the end that every nation of the earth may be en- the coming of peace that shall have no end. abled to buy and sell on equal terms in the world mar- To find a formula that the Hague tribunals and the ket as well as to possess assurance of obtaining the League of Nations were unable to achieve, a formula materials and products of peaceful economic life." * that will be fool-proof in its every application, calls To that we Americans stand pledged. At this stage for a degree of intelligence, integrity and tolerance of the war it is not necessary to go further. which human beings have never yet been able to call The people of the United States have no territorial into being. designs, and have no desire to force their ideas of gov- It is a challenge which we must meet, and it is for ernment on other nations, except those which have such a brave new world that we fight. shown that their way of life is a menace to us as well As a hymn which ironically is sung to the tune of as other peoples. There are three such—Germany, Italy Denischland iiber Allcs puts it: and Japan. We shall have to join with the other na- "We are living, we are dwelling tions of the victorious alliance in setting up some sys- In a grand and awful time tem of control of those three countries for a period In an age to ages telling, of years, lest the fruits of victory be frittered away. To be living is sublime."

* See The American Legion Magazine, December 1942, Page 56. "eEAVERS!/?

IF -THE SHORTXcre. IN razor ©lapes keeps* up we're. l1kel* "to see va/hiskers become Popular Aoaim - ahv>

WE. SHuPPER -ToTrUNK - what a -Bunoh of Bums we'll look LiKts. OF "THE HIRSUTE FAGiAU -UtfflL WE GET -THE THINGS TRIMMED up. AEDRNMEN-TS WE /MIGHT SEE AT SOME. FUTURES POS-f MEEflNC - TAKE Look" g IH^PS^^V AfEEK AT-fVtESE. BARBERS' Most of us will have a time peodinc? VA/HICH STVL£ BEARP WE'P LikE. TO RAISE TO LIKE. — THERE ARE SO MAKV pi&TtNCTWE STYLES J%4 Uxk<& -IWIS-BUT SfcM&TACeS TO CH0DS&FROM,y'KNaC>. Will BE- (TSOME OLD Shoe -too-' IMPfdVEP- UKE'&EFDRE. £ AFTfcRTHEEe. FASUIONEPS)-*- so* f u&x? tecK- 'kEr+fUCKV KERW EU" - 3 urns ipes 0*>a •*T*HE "SLEEP HAVE. AH \A/ITH IT OVER. tLEORiC OR UNDER THE- (5A2CR.- a? SHEE-rf-fRlPLE 'The Kru*6 -THREAT. KATCrtER,- SAves NAP- KINS, AND

FOR AIR. NUPOME£ MKXrVWED "CclRL-V" Miwc>ef> SPECIALLY DES«JNEP CAN LIVE UPTbTHEAPPEUt/KnO/^ 6EHT&- For a

FEBRUARY, 1943 25 Streamlined observation tower perched atop the County Court House at Mineola, New York, guarding the approach to New York City and a vital defense area. This post is maintained by Roger Williams Patterson Post

and is pledged to service for the duration. There are no locks on the doors

THERE is nothing half way home front on the production line to get about the Legion's participation out all the things that are required for in the victory effort of our com- the purpose of keeping an Army, a Navy mon country. On that point the and an Air Force of millions of men in veterans of the old World War and the the field. several hundred veterans of the current Legionnaires have accepted the realism

conflict, who have been returned to civil of the struggle. It is a job to be done, life, now members of the Legion, are and quickly. No sacrifice of personal agreed. It is no exaggeration to say that comfort, of physical effort, of financial

The American Legion embodies the most means is too great if it will hasten the victory-conscious group in the United end of the war and bring victory over States of America. the Axis powers—a victory complete and Its membership has been through war decisive; a victory so complete that the and they know it for a muddy, bloody, older men of the Legion, and of the dirty piece of business. They know that nation, can be assured that our grand- the glory and glamor of war do not exist sons will not have to fight another for the men who fight the battles, who World War.

see their comrades die beside them, or Agreed, too, is the Legion demand have their ships shot out from under that we win the war; win the peace, and

them. All of that glory business is return to the normal American way of

reserved for imaginative writers, writ- life. To that war aim the Legion has ing for those to whom the war is some- dedicated itself, and its Posts in nearly thing removed from personal experience. twelve thousand American communities The global war of today, as fought by are directing their best efforts. Not only land, sea and air by highly trained and Darrell Dunkle Post, Reno, Neva- the Legion Posts, but enrolled under the almost completely mechanized units, is da, has built shelters for service same banner are the American Legion a grimly realistic thing. And equally men on the main highway ap- Auxiliary, the Forty and Eight and the grim is the battle being fought on the proaches to its home city Sons of The American Legion.

26 The AMERICAN LEGION Magazine So, when the new tower was built no locks were placed on the doors—and no keys were issued to the officers in command.

At Ocean City, New Jersey, is another

tower guarding a vital area. It is main-

tained by Morgan-Ranck Post, and it's atop the magnificent Municipal Pier, located on the ocean side of the board-

walk. Completed at a cost of $1,280, it has been operating since December 21, 1942, says Chaplain Norman V. Sargent, and has maintained a full-time watch since that time. A corps of 150 observers serve, under the direction of Chief Ob- server Philip Shafto. In its first year, the Morgan-Ranck observation tower reported 8,500 plane flights and much activity at sea, including a head-on col- lision of two vessels. The highest number of flights reported in one two-hour watch was fifty-six, which kept the wires hot and the observers all a-dither. In the monthly inspections conducted by The Sons of the Legion has sent more guarding one of the approaches to New Army officers the efficiency rating of this than one-third of its total enrolled mem- York City, has progressed from a tower has never fallen below ninety- bership into the armed forces, and it is makeshift platform on the roof of the eight. likely that the lads will increase that court house to a streamlined tower of That's just two of the dozens of re- percentage to a full one-half before the modern design and construction erected ports; too bad the limitation of space summer is well advanced. The end of on that same roof. does not permit going on through the the school year, when a new group of This Post, on December 8th, passed folder. Now for some other phases of Legion Sons will complete their high its first year on an all-out, twenty-four Legion activity. school work, will release thousands more hour basis with a corps of 252 enrolled Sale of War Bonds and Stamps is a for active service. The 'teen age draft observers. Chief Observer Ed Grant, Jr., national program. The Posts, however, regulations remove the possibility of is organizing a corps of fifty reserves to at least most of them, believe that the college attendance for those who are fill in as men leave for armed service or Legion itself should set an example of physically fit until the menace of Hitler, for one reason or another are unable to practicing what it preaches—therefore Hirohito and company has been squelched serve. most Post treasuries were stripped for once and forever. The observation post has received the purchase of Bonds before the sales The war work of the Legion and its a gold-star rating, the highest award campaigns got under way. Building Posts runs the whole range of the na- that can be given for efficient operation. projects were scrapped, social programs tional effort. Very few, if any, war Publicity Officer Walter Frutnick says went into the discard—the cash money activities can be named in which a Patterson Post has pledged to man the went into Bonds to help Uncle Sam win Legion Post or individual Legionnaires station as long as there is need for it. his toughest war. Nearly every Post put are not exerting leadership. Small Posts, as well as the large ones, make their contributions.

One of the very first general calls to duty after the Jap attack on Pearl

Harbor on December 7, 1941, was to man observations posts in the plan of civilian defense. Hundreds of Posts had crews of trained observers, but after that Sunday morning all observation towers went on a full twenty-four-hour basis, thus requiring the services of hundreds of volunteers. The Legion-trained observers broke them in—the efficiency of this service has been attested by commendation after commendation by the highest authorities in our military and defense system. Last December, then, was a month of anniversaries. Some thousands of Legion Posts passed their first anniversary on the civilian front watch towers. The first year gave them time to perfect the system and provide and equip comfortable stations for the observers. For Medford (Oregon) Post held a Bond-Buying Parly instead of instance, Roger Williams Patterson an Armistice Day dinner. Left to right, on platform, District Post of Mineola, New York, located Commander Lloyd Williamson, Mrs. Lela E. Rogers (mother of out on Long Island in close proximity Ginger), War Savings Committee Chairman; Post Comman- to a number of military air fields and der Fritz Nissen, and Major General Charles A. Gerhardt

FEBRUARY, 1943 27 a

An old Austrian field piece of World War vintage, the gift of Charles P. Rowe Post of Pomona, California, goes to the scrap pile for recasting into modern weapons

on its special campaign, many on a about the same time Ro^eland Post, also memory of County Commander James straight house-to-house and office-to- of Chicago, purchased a civilian-defense T. Smith, who passed away during his office sales canvass; others with blare of ambulance at a cost of $3,600 which it term of office. Fifteen physicians and bugle and ruffle of drum. All got results. presented to the city of Chicago, for surgeons, all Legionnaires, and a trained At Bangor. Maine, James W. Williams service at the West Pullman fire station. crew of twenty-five Legionnaires—all Post conducted a Bond and Stamp Auc- Alfred J. Teninga, Post Publicity Of- graduates of the Red Cross first aid tion—sale of items contributed by mer- ficer, also reports that Roseland Post school—make up the disaster emergency chants, manufacturers and professional has invested $10,000, raised in a modern- crew who work under direction of Dr. people to be paid for in War Bonds and home project, in War Bonds. At Gar- Robert M. Shields, County Commander. Stamps. The plan worked, reports Legion- field Heights, Ohio, John R. Lawrence The disaster unit had its induction into naire Harold A. Towle, and a round Post held a street fair which raised service at a very bad pier-and-ship fire. $2 5. ooo worth of Bonds was sold. The money enough to buy a fully equipped The Richmond County Legion organiza- radio station, newspapers and local thea- ambulance for use in civilian defense tion—that's Staten Island, across the ters cooperated in the sale. There's an in Garfield Heights. A respirator, says harbor from New York City—has also idea worth considering by other sales W. L. Bedillion, Publicity Chairman, contributed two blood banks to local committees—any idea that will turn in purchased by the Auxiliary Unit, was hospitals and, to date, approximately $25,000 for Uncle Sam without a cent included in the equipment. 1,800 transfusions have been given. of profit for anyone is worthwhile. Another contribution to community That is another part of the victory effort. Then out near the Pacific, Medford welfare was made by the Richmond Recruiting for the Navy was a very (Oregon) Post decided to hold a Bond- County (New York) Legion Council definite program carried on by hundreds buying party instead of the usual Armis- when it presented a complete mobile of Posts before it was adopted as a tice Day dinner. The members gathered disaster unit to the Civilian Defense national program. A. B. Chase, publisher at the dugout and after a little pep-'em- Council of Richmond County—given in of the Hollywood Legionnaire, sends up talk, rushed the platform for their Bonds. The members carried away $15,000 worth. In New York City, Com- mander E. M. Whitty of Metropolitan Post reports a glowing citation for his Post for its work in organizing the 16,000 employes of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company for the purchase of Bonds, and thereby winning a Treasury Department "T" Banner for the company. That's only a few references to Posts at work on the home front. In other fields of home defense individual Posts have proved their worth and their concern for the safety of their home communities. At Spangler, Pennsylvania, Lynn Wetherson Post presented an emergency lighting system to the Span- gler Volunteer Fire Company— portable one, easily carried by two men, but equipped with a spotlight and two flood lights adequate to care for any emergency need. American Furniture Mart Post of Exactly $27,637.92 was the amount of the check handed Chicago, Illinois, gave its home city Charles Crumpach (right), Camden County (N. J.) Com- a completely equipped ambulance, mander, by Walter H. Donovan of the Garden at a cost of $4,000, reports Adjutant State Racing Association as the Legion's share in Mortimer E. Stern. And at just "Armed Services Day." The money went to relief funds

28 The AMERICAN LEGION Magazine a —

given by the eighteen Posts of the District to the Chicago Service Men's Center. And so it goes. Each month some 300 letters and reports come to the desk of the Stepkeeper telling of some project or some accomplishment by Legion outfits. The Legion

is a working group, victory-conscious and lending every assistance possible to speed the day when, with a long sigh of relief, we can turn our thoughts back to the normal things

of our every-day American life.

Service Fund

Virginia's first new GREAT number of Posts have Thomas W. Helm III (center), A veteran member, wounded at Pearl Harbor, shak- engaged in various types of the ing hands with Lieutenant Charles L. Kessler, Past fund raising activities for benefit of in service, and nearly every Department Commander John J. Wicker at right. men Legionnaire Helm enrolled with North Richmond Post fund-raising committee is looking for new ideas. Here is one that comes from the Camden County word that a Navy Recruiting Office lection program—report that 700 Christ- (New Jersey) Legion Council that pro- was set up in Hollywood (California) mas packages, each package containing duced more than $27,000 in one day. Post clubhouse on January 15, 1942, fourteen items, was sent out to men in And that is not hay in any part of the under direction of Chief Quartermaster service. That outfit, says Tony Milewski, country. E. C. Pierson, a Post member, and finances its work by scrap sales and The plan is a simple one. Interested later when the Post's Commander, Harry voluntary contributions, and is main- members of the Camden County Legion, Ansel, signed up for Navy service, he taining the training brigade—now with including Major James Bentley (cur- was assigned to his own club house 235 former members in the armed serv- rent rank), County Commander Charles for recruiting duty. More than 2,400 ices—and is sending 250 cartons of Brumbach, County Adjutant B. Everett recruits had been sent to Uncle Sam's cigarettes per month to local men with Zelley and other members of the Coun- fighting ships from this station before the fighting forces. ty Executive Committee, arranged for the first of December. And that is good At Longview, Texas, Mr. and Mrs. one day to be set apart as "Armed work. At Cincinnati, Ohio, Columbia W. R. Nicholson gave their former Services Day" by the Garden State Rac- System Post resolved to enlist one man home in that city to Bernay Camp Post ing Association at their park at Camden. for the Navy for each member of the for use as a Service Men's Center— Under the agreement all profits over Post during Navy Recruiting Week, need that had been apparent for many and above the standard cost of opera- December 1st to 7th. An auxiliary months. The new home under operation tion were to be turned over to the Cam- recruiting station was set up, reports and direction of the Post serves not den County Legion for distribut ion to vari- Publicity Officer E. M. Doran, manned only the casual service men, but the ous service funds. Though bad weather and by members and the work was going personnel and patients at a military transportation difficulties cut deeply into swimmingly when, on December 5th, hospital established there. At Chicago, the anticipated attendance on "Armed orders were received to stop recruiting. again, Adjutant M. E. Connelly of the Services Day," the Legion cut in the The Post is officially credited with 450 Seventh Legion District reports that proceeds of the day amounted to enlistments during the five days of its large fans (not needed in February, of $27,637.92. And this fund the Camden campaign. And that, too, is good work. course, but the presentation was made County Legion divided three ways to for Caring for the needs of service men is care future needs) have been (Continued on page 52) a job that has not been neglected. Re- ports have been received from a number of Posts that have set up recreational centers—some in large cities, some in small towns. Clarence A. Dunning Post at Summerville, South Carolina, has entertained more than 2,000 service men at its hut during the summer and fall months, and the same spirit is evidenced all over the country. Darrel Dunkle Post of Reno, Nevada, has erected shelters for service men at the east and west approaches to the city, for the benefit of transients, with a big sign requesting passing motorists to "Give Our Boys a Lift." The shelters have proved very helpful to men on furlough and to others who need to reach their destination with the least time and Burning the mortgage of the home of Emil Ewoldt trouble. Post at Manning, Iowa. Left to right, H. E. Meyers, Again, our friends of Moscarella Post H. J. M. Hansen, Peter F. Hansen, Captain Frank of Spring Valley, New York—the Post Miles, U. S. Army and editor of the Iowa Legion- that does big things with its scrap col- aire, Harry Hoffman, E. J. Kuhl and F. J. Mentzer

FEBRUARY, 1943 29 ——

department, in the issue for ture in the July issue and sent the issue "I noticed the picture while looking THISJanuary, invited our Legion- to his son who was stationed at Bliss. through your Legion Magazine in the naires-to-be—that is, the men We wrote Mr. Shaughnessy to that U. S. 0. Club in our neighboring city and women now in uniform who effect and suggested even that he him- of El Paso. It gave me an idea. I took will in time join our ranks—to submit self might have trained at Bliss during the snapshot and sent it to my father pictures and stories of the revived our earlier World War. That letter was and asked him to compare it with yours. camps (now mostly designated "forts") sent by Mr. Shaughnessy to his son in Dad was not in the First World War of the First World War that the old- Fort Bliss, and here is the surprising my sisters and I were already young timers will remember. We reported that letter that came from Sergeant Bob: members of his family. He borrowed a a present-day sergeant down in Texas "Thanks for your kind letter in re- copy of your magazine from his friend, had already submitted such a picture gard to the letter and picture my father Jack Miller, a very active member of and we're keeping our promise of show- sent to your office. I took that picture the Legion Post located in our home ing it to you all this month. . town of Troy, Ohio. If the alertness of this "Now if you compare the sergeant (now a lieutenant) formation of the top of the showed is an indication of hills in the background, you how much our present Army will find that my guess was is on its toes, this war is good—it is the very same as good as won. company street, although Take a gander at the two taken from a slightly differ- snapshots of a company ent angle, and bare of sol- street that are displayed on diers, or equipment spread this page. Believe it or not for inspection. — it's the very same com- "I was inducted into pany street, with a gap of service on January 27, a quarter-century between 1942, and after completing the taking of the two pho- my basic training in chem- tographs. And we'll let you ical warfare I was sent here be the judge as to whether as one of the cadre to acti- or not the taking of the vate a new battalion. Now in street, Fort lower snapshot doesn't com- Saturday inspection a company it is fully trained and ready prise a believe-it-or-not Bliss, Texas, as it was in 1917 and—below to meet the enemy on any story. First, however, let us front. I regret I can't go refresh your memory to the with the gang, as I have extent that the picture of been selected to attend the inspection in the com- Officer Candidates' School. pany street was used to When I finish, I'll be better illustrate Then and Now prepared to give 'em hell in the July, 1942, issue. when I do get there. Shortly after that issue "When you publish my was distributed, this letter picture, please send a copy came from F. R. Shaugh- to my father in Troy, Ohio, nessy of Troy, Ohio: so I won't miss seeing it. "In your July issue, on Thanks very much, and page 33 you show a photo- Keep Us Fighting!" graph of Fort Bliss, Texas, taken in 191 7. UT, going on with the "The enclosed snapshot B A snapshot of the identical street in Fort Bliss is of the very same street and now" pictures taken taken in August, 1942, by a present-day so Idier taken twenty-five years at Fort Bliss, we were later—August, 1942. This handed a double-barreled is Company B, 82d Chemical Battalion. here at Fort Bliss after seeing the illus- surprise! We wrote to Legionnaire Otto "The snapshot is submitted by my tration in your July issue. H. Hinkson at his home at 517 Rush son, Sergeant Robert M. Shaughnessy." "I am a member of the 82d Chemical Street, South Bend, Indiana, the man It was natural for us to jump to the Battalion, located here on the very same who let us use the Fort Bliss-1917 com- conclusion that F. R. Shaughnessy was spot pictured in the July Legion Maga- pany street picture, asking him if he a veteran of our war, that he belonged zine. Even out tents and much of our would lend it to us again so we could

to the Legion, saw the Fort Bliss pic- equipment are similar to those of 191 7. use it with Sergeant Shaughnessy 's snap-

30 The AMERICAN LEGION Magazine shot. A couple of months forth a justified claim for passed by, during which we THEN and NOW recognition of their work in mailed two follow-up re- World War I. quests, and finally there Another gob of our days came a letter date-lined and times steps forward gone forever! The ex-bluejackets cer- "Sheppard Field, Texas, with the two pictures we tainly have more than a little to crow November 16, 1942," from show one of a loaded about concerning the heroic work of — Hinkson, in which he said: troop transport about to their branch of service in this present "Sorry your letter was pull from its French pier, late in following me from the other of a gun crew South Bend down here to aboard that vessel. Bill Nel- Sheppard Field, Texas—but son, 68 Randall Avenue, I happened to have the Bridgeport, Connecticut, Fort Bliss picture with me, member of Bronson Hawley and here it is. Post of the Legion, is the "Yes, I'm back in uni- man we have to thank for form. I enlisted on Decem- the use of the pictures and ber 6, 1916, for World War for this yarn: I, and not long ago again "Just to keep up that old joined up and am with the Navy friendly-enemy spirit 404th T. S. S. here at Shep- of World War I, I comment pard Field. During this past upon the pictures of the U. October I passed through S. S. Mongolia that our

Fort Bliss, where I sol- good comrade, W. J. diered in 1916 and 1917, on Schwarz of Kent, Washing- a troop train. ton, contributed to your de-

"As I told you last sum- partment in the August is- mer when I first submitted sue of the Legion Magazine. the Fort Bliss company- The French populace turned out in St. Nazaire to bid fare- "I'll admit she was a fine street picture, my son, Eu- well to the troop-loaded U. S. S. Mongolia in January, 1919 ship and had a great crew, gene H., was ready to go but she never did rank with into service. Today he is her sister ship, the good old with the 90th M. P. Com- U. S. S. Manchuria. There pany at Camp Barkeley, was a ship, and what a Texas, about 150 miles crew! Picked six times in a from my Field. I may try row as the cleanest ship in to get a transfer so I can the transport fleet, why, we be with my son—until one never had a rat or a cock- or both of us is moved roach on the Manchuria un- again." til we tied alongside the We had to telephone Mongolia at Pier 5 at Ho- Army Information for the boken, New Jersey! Then interpretation of the "T. all the vermin came over to S. S."—Hinkson's outfit. visit and they never left! This new Army has pro- No hard feelings, Chief duced so many new special- Schwarz. ized branches and groups "I am sending you a cou- that an oldtimer like us is ple of snapshots—one of sometimes at a loss to know our ship, loaded with home- what they are. For your in- The six-inch gun crew engage in a little going soldiers about to pull formation that abbreviation practice on the aft deck of the Mongolia out of St. Nazaire, France stands for "Technical —a port which the Nazis School Squadron." unfortunately are now using

And here is good news about our war, and it's reflected in these columns. as a sub base; the other picture shows young contributor, Sergeant Robert M. As an outstanding example, we refer you our six-inch gun crew. That gun crew Shaughnessy. In response to a telegram to the issue for last October in which came off the U. S. S. Huntington to the to his father, we received the following: the North Sea Mine Force veterans set Manchuria—a swell gang of fellows and "My son, Robert, at Officer a crack gun crew. Candidates' School, received "On the sailing shown, we his commission on December Wonder uitaen uoe'll had aboard part of the Wildcat 0 23d. He was Cadet Robert be Seirk back -to -Hie about- is uoill we ever Division (81st) from down M. Shaughnessy, Company C, vjStates novo//? V\a$a Come backhese South, and set out for Newport Regiment of Cadets, Edgewood News, Virginia. What a brass Arsenal, Maryland." band those southern boys had! So, in this issue, we can say Before we sailed, a French "Congratulations, Lieutenant FWt£>i&oeM. band came out on the quay to Shaughnessy." play us a farewell tune, and V they did all right until the OF OCCU- we'll Wildcat boys broke out their THERE was a time, PATION- admit, when the gobs w band with the 'Barnyard weren't on their toes in getting Blues' and it chased the proper representation in Then French band right off the dock. and Now—but those days have "The U. S. S. Huron and the

FEBRUARY, 1943 31 Not- Was/].

A then-modem De Haviland 4, with Liberty motor, is shown maybe gone over the side for good. That at the Air Production Center, Romorantin, France, 1918 old saying, 'Shipmates Forever,' surely means just that. I wish I could hear U. S. S. George Washington were both Ball at the Hotel Astor on Monday, from some of them. One of my ship- Patersor., in the port of St. Nazaire when we left January 27, 1919. . . . mates, James Mercandino of on this trip, I think early in January, "We had three guns on the Manchu- New Jersey, and I have managed to visit 1 91 9. I had made five trips on the ria—two five-inch guns on the bow and each other once a year for the lasL Huron before I went aboard the Man- a six-inch gun aft. The six-inch crew, twenty-five years. churia. as I said, came off the U. S. S. Hunting- "So long, shipmates—I'm heading for "The picture was taken almost at ton, one of the 'Big Four' of the Convoy my Legion Post meeting tonight." the outer end of the canal that runs up Service—the other three being the Mon- through St. Nazaire—the canal which I tana, Seattle, and North Carolina. The AND now for a short flight with the understand the British Navy tried to gun captain was Coxswain Hillis—he is l\. Air Corps of that other war—our plug up with an old destroyer during this the only man of the crew whose name war—an air corps whose jallopies might present war, in an attempt to bottle up I can recall right now. compare with the present-day fighters the German subs. "Our old skipper, Charles Freeman, and bombers as the one-hoss shay might "It was on this trip that we backed at last reports was Rear Admiral Free- compare with a super deluxe modern into a barge, on which lived the barge man and stationed at Seattle, Washing- sixteen-cylinder automobile. captain, his wife and four children. Our ton. I often wonder what became of the That "flight" is merely figurative, left propeller hit the barge and almost old Mongolia and Manchuria—two great as our contributor, Roy P. McCona- tore it in half, and when she started to ships. I made sixteen trips on the latter. hay of Van Wert, Ohio, was with the go down, the barge captain and his fam- And I often wonder what became of my 466th Aero Squadron—a construction ily came out of the cabin screaming and old shipmates. Wonder if they are still squadron based at Romorantin, France, crying. Our division officer, Lieutenant in service, married and settled down, or (Continued on page 60) Van Matre, gave orders to go over the side after the four kids who by this time were in the water, but a couple of Ma- rines on the dock pulled the kids out. Any member of the Manchuria crew will recall this trip. After we dropped our load of soldiers at Newport News and got to New York, we held our Ship"s

All railroad men and all Martins. Where now are the members

ot the Martin quintet, 1 3 1st Company, Transportation Corps?

32 The AMERICAN LEGION Magazine I'VE HAD MY FILL OF IT

{Continued from page 7) meal off the carcass before it spoiled. when he got it or how much of it he got. dust and nobody ever ate any of it. Once, when far removed from our When I was discharged in Manila I, However, it had to be cooked and served transport and very hungry, my bunkie in company with four hundred and fifty until it was all gone. and I sank to the lowest gustatory other discharged regulars, went home on Presently we got a break from beans, depths. We slew and stewed and ate a the troopship Tartar. No provision had sowbelly weavelly prunes and canned trusting little monkey. I felt like a can- been made for feeding us. The 20th salmon. We began to get refrigerated nibal and Johnny swore the beast re- Kansas Volunteer Infantry was aboard beef and mutton from Australia and minded him of his Uncle Mike back but they wouldn't feed us, so, believe Sprague did well by us then. When we in Ireland, which almost ruined his it or not, we starved from Manila to had chuck meat he had the kitchen Hong Kong and that was four days police grind it into hamburger in the and a half! We complained to our consul sort of little grinder you'll find in any in Hong Kong but he said he thought three-room furnished apartment, and we were doing very well and refused to this was a dreadful chore. Sprague also save us; then somebody remembered worked up a pretty good hash from the Tartar was a Canadian-Pacific ves- canned corn beef and after many trials sel chartered to our Government, and he evolved a very good hot-cake which, flew the British flag. So we took our served with syrup, was a godsend. He troubles to the British Harbor master, also made fresh coffee for every meal. who refused the ship clearance until we On Christmas day, 1898, we had were taken care of. The quartermaster two shoats roasted, brown baked po- thereupon hired four black China coast- tatoes, brown pan gravy, dried apple ers as cooks—and if the trip to Manila pie and black tea, this last donated by appetite. On another occasion we sur- was terrible the trip home was horrible. me. A friend had sent me five pounds vived on the tail of an iguana, a four- Another lad and I discovered that for Christmas. The company command- foot green lizard that lives in trees. these blackamoors sliced up the meat er, poor young devil, bought us each Both monkey and iguana were swell. for breakfast about five A. M. and threw a quart of cold Schlitz beer from his What bothered us, however, and marvelous bones with meat on them meager hundred and a quarter a month. brought on a perpetual longing, was the overboard. Sometimes they were short That was as close as we ever came to lack of green vegetables. The Army with their throw and these wonderful the modern ration. gave us some canned tomatoes but no bones landed in the scuppers. We used We used to go forth on campaigns canned vegetables, so we raided corn- to nab them out and pick them sans we called "hikes." For a hike the fields when we could and I used to salt and pepper and when these cooks quartermaster sergeant (he combined gather the tender little shoots of sprout- saw this they put some extra zing into the modern duties of mess sergeant and ing bamboo and boil them. They helped. their pitch and no more bones landed supply sergeant) would issue a hundred Also, we had a yearning for food with in the gutters. Finally we became con-

and fifty extra rounds of ammunition, organic sugar in it, so we used to gather vinced they enjoyed depriving us of the one small can of corned beef, two cans scrubby wild pineapples and mangoes garbage more than seeing us eat it; I of salmon, half a dozen big hardtack and hide them in litter in a dark place was down to 118 pounds in my uniform and some coffee and sugar. You put the and patiently wait two weeks for them and didn't have much pep, and my pal sugar in the toe of an extra sock and to ripen. We had plenty of bananas, but was in much the same fix, but when we

tied a string above it; then you put a banana doesn't fill the bill. realized Negroes were putting it over the coffee next and tied another string: I soldiered in that regiment from on us and virtually taking the garbage on top of that you put mixed salt and June 14, 1898 to August 16, 1899 and out of our mouths we went below and pepper. Then you forded a river up to I was hungry every day and half nuts came up with our souvenirs. Mac had your eyebrows. This was supposed to be for vitamins found in fresh vegetables a kris, a wavy-bladed cut-and-thrust three days' rations but it lasted for and also the minerals we needed and weapon about three feet long, and I three meals and then we foraged and were deprived of. I suppose there were had a forty-four caliber Remington pis-

the hell with orders against it. If we no bio-chemists in those days. The real tol lifted from the body of a dead killed a caribou we always selected a hell of it was, though, that nobody Filipino officer. Thereafter when we

calf because we could only get one seemed to care about a soldier's grub, saw a bone with decent pickings on it

FOR GOD AND COUNTRY

we associate ourselves together for the of our association in the Great War; to safeguard and transmit to posterity the principles of justice, following purposes: to inculcate a sense of individual obli- freedom and democracy; to uphold and defend the Constitution of gation to the community, state and the United States of America; nation; to consecrate and sanctify our comrade- ship by our devotion to help- to maintain law and order; to combat the autocracy of both the mutual fulness. to foster and perpetuate a one hundred classes and the masses; percent Americanism; to make right the master of might; —Preamble to the Constitution to preserve the memories and incidents to promote peace and good will on earth; oj The American Legion

FERRUARY, 1943 33 about to be hove overboard we desired pines eaten the roots and raw green wouldn't be controlled, so she thought that it should be brought to us where leaves from some cabbage our company her lovely dinner was going to be wasted we waited, seated on the Number One commander purchased from the com- as far as I was concerned. "It is, like hatch coaming. We demanded salt and pany funds. Alas, it had come over from hell," I said, and tied into it and even pepper, too, and we got it. I often China. In three days I had amoebic came back for seconds! I showed them think that was the closest I ever came dysentery and had to wait twenty-three how a man who knew how could eat to murder. I know it was the closest years before medical science had ad- and enjoy his fodder. I ever came to shame. vanced to the point where a doctor could clear away the wreckage to my WELL, it was all for the best—not IN Hong Kong we discovered a restau- starboard gut. for me, but for the battery I com- rant called The Hong Kong, New I was back in civil life on my nine- manded in ioi7-'i8. Remembering those York, London, Panama And San Fran- teenth birthday. My eldest brother met old days I saw to it that my soldiers cisco Restaurant. We gave this restau- me as I came down the gangplank and were fed a good balanced ration prepared rant our singular trade and the Chinese after we had greeted each other I said: by cooks who knew their business. The proprietor couldn't understand it, al- "Johnny, take me somewhere and feed biggest kick I got out of the last war though once he knew what we wanted me. I'm broke." was watching those bucks eat. Also, at he saw that we got it. We wanted green Johnny said: "Well, it's only four morning inspection of the kitchen, when vegetables but dared not eat them be- o'clock now and we're going out to I saw my cooks with nice fresh white cause we knew that the Chinese fertilize Cousin Nellie's for dinner at six. She aprons and caps, with their nails mani- their truck gardens with human feces has a wonderful turkey dinner in your cured and the kitchen freshly hosed out and everybody in China has an intestinal honor." and everything spic and span and sani- bug of sorts. But—the cucumber crop "Johnny," I said, "I can't wait. I've tary, I used to think rather well of was ripe and we could peel great big been hungry and semi-starved—at least myself. green cucumbers ourselves, sop them in suffering from lack of nutrition for six- And my men did, too. They used vinegar and salt and mutter about the teen months. I'll eat now." to brag that their Old Man had been goodness of God! So we went up town and I ate an through the mill and no goddam cook Incidentally, quite a time before I eight-course dinner. Then we went out could put it over on him! discovered Chinese vegetables were very to Cousin Nellie's and Johnny told her Yes, cooking is a thankless job, which bad for little boys I had in the Philip- he'd done his best to control me but I is why so many cooks are insane.

HERE S WHY THEY RE TOPS

{Continued from page 13) emotional experiences. The instructor mother, friend, and absolute master. He quarters neat as a pin, and to acquire has to take the scare out of these new repeats the maneuvers that he learned that bearing so essential to anyone who sensations, prove to his student that at "Primary," but this time he must do has a command. And the command flying is easy and safe, make him relax, them with absolute precision and in problems of the flying officer are the think, and "ease" his controls instinc- formation with other planes. "Basic" is toughest in the Army. The "skipper" tively. There are tricks to that. the acid test of the fledgling pilot. of a bomber is under the eyes of his If a cadet is over anxious and too The young Army instructor is extraor- crew at every moment of combat. He tense, the instructor makes a great show dinary, too. He would give his soul to must have that subtle kind of control, of being completely at ease even when go abroad, into combat and adventure. without "pulling rank," that a good the student bounces and weaves him all Instructing means at least five hours in football captain has over his team. over the sky. He looks at the scenery, the air every day—one with each cadet "Take care of your crew, and your crew fiddles with his map, and is apparently in his care; five grueling hours of cease- will take care of you" is an idea which unconcerned. It always works. The stu- less vigilance to prevent the student is pounded into every cadet's head, day dent gradually relaxes, and stays that from making a split-second mistake that after day. way. There are cures also for the cocky could cost their lives, and teaching him, After his "indoctrination" at Pre- fledgling who likes to take chances. The over and over again, the maneuvers and Flight School, the pilot cadet goes to instructor leads him into a tight spot tricks which will save his skin in some Primary School. Under the pressure of and doesn't pull him out until the young future combat. All the instructor ever sudden expansion, the Air Forces handed man is thoroughly scared. That gen- sees is endless southern plains, and more this part of the training schedule over erally works, too. "dodos." The instructors grumble and to civilian schools and civilian instruc- The civilian instructors do a superla- grouse, but they do their job with in- tors, under contract. It turned out to tive job. More cadets are eliminated in finite patience and care. be a boon in many ways. The civilian "Primary" than at any other stage of One 20-year-old lieutenant told me instructors are men who have taught training—those who simply haven't the about a student who could not seem to every kind of flying tyro. They have "flying knack" of quick, accurate think- learn to put his landing flaps down in patience, poise, and a great knowledge ing and speedy, steady reactions. The time. "I lie awake nights thinking about of what happens to human nature in the rest finish their Ground School courses that guy," the young officer said. An- air. They have no terrifying rank bars in basic meteorology, navigation, engine other had just heard that a former on their shoulders, are easy to talk to, and plane construction and related sub- student of his had been killed in combat. and have a fatherly sort of understand- jects, and are graduated after nine He kept repeating, "There must have ing for the quirks and fears which even weeks. been something I didn't teach him the most courageous youngster goes The next stop of the "dodo"—as the right." through. pilot cadets have nicknamed them- Like the Primary instructors, these At Primary School, the cadet learns selves—is Basic School, for another very earnest young men are continually take-off and landing, simple flight ma- nine weeks. Here the cadet meets a figuring out ways of cutting down the neuvers, and elementary acrobatics from powerful plane with two engines, a radio, "wash-outs." the back cockpit of a light, open, two- a complicated instrument board, and Then there are students who fail to seater monoplane, with dual controls. the Army instructor—not much older look at their instruments every few mo- The first training flights are intense than himself—who will be his father, ments, as a good pilot should. One in- 34 The AMERICAN LEGION Magazine — —

structor discovered that by secretly School—Fixed Gunnery, because he has He swings his turret, aims his guns, and turning off the gasoline supply valve to point his whole plane to fire the fixed shoots. A compressed air mechanism and making the ominous red warning guns. even makes his guns recoil like real ones. lights flash, he so scared his student Bombardiers and navigators go to the His hits and misses are recorded auto- that he never forgot to look at his in- Flexible Gunnery Schools, because they matically on a photographic strip. Every struments again. serve guns on some types of planes. So now and then a friendly craft is sprung There are schools for the instructors, do the enlisted men who operate the on him. to see whether he has learned too, where experienced educators, flight turrets of the big bombers. his lessons in plane recognition. surgeons, psychologists, and other special- The Training Command discovered After this, they are ready for the air. ized officers coach them. A student loses that skeet shooting— firing at clay pig- to shoot at sleeve targets towed by other much of his fear of the '"blackout" that planes and to practice on markers on comes when he pulls out of a fast dive, the ground simulating tanks, trucks, if his instructor explains the physiology houses, and people. "Americans seem to of it. There is a course on the practical be born marksmen," one officer told me. use of personality. "Make the student "If they are properly trained, they're like you; he will work harder"—is a terrific." cardinal precept. For a long time, even- cadet wanted In a Basic Trainer, the instructor sits to be a pilot. It took an extensive pub- in the rear seat, behind his student. He licity campaign to convince the young can watch the student very carefully, men of the country that the job of drop- and does. While a cadet is learning to ping the bomb was just as important fly "blind"—by his instruments alone as getting it there. It is—and it takes or to bring his plane down at night on six months to leam how. a dimly lighted field, or to maneuver The incredibly accurate and very se- in that wild aerial version of follow- cret Norden bombsight—the newest pat- the-leader known as the "rat-race," both tern of which is used only by American their lives depend on the instructors bombardiers—is an object of veneration. watchfulness. The cadet takes an oath to protect its

At this point, the instructor must de- secret with his life. Each bombsight is cide whether the student is to be a wrapped in a zippered canvas case. Be- "With the whole doggone desert bomber pilot or a pursuit pilot. Usually fore every flight, the cadet must sign to fall on, I would hafta land on a it is fairly easy to tell. The pursuit pilot for it, and take it over from cactus!" armed must have a recklessness and dash which guards. will not do for the skipper of a Flying It must not be exposed for an instant

Fortress on whose calm and steady pre- eons mechanically thrown into the air before he is in the air, and must be decision depends a quarter of a million at unpredictable and constantly changing livered back to the armed guards im- dollars' worth of equipment and eight angles—is the best introduction to aerial mediately after landing. Textbooks deal- other lives of highly and expensively gunnery. So some of the finest skeet ing with the bombsight are kept in a safe trained experts. "You know right away shots in the country first teach the young and are used only in guarded study halls. from the way a fellow flies his plane in airman skeet shooting from the usual The cadet may make no notes and do a rat race," one officer said. "The man stationary platform, then from a moving no homework dealing with it. He is who ought to be a pursuit pilot loves truck. taught how to destroy it if he should it. The bomber pilot can do it—well, The student learns to use a machine- have to make a forced landing in enemy too—but he doesn't like it." gun with a realistic but economical com- territory, and how to guard it in friendly If he has passed all his check-rides pressed-air gun that fires BB shot. Then country. and Ground School courses, the cadet he is shown a row of 15 machine guns, A student bombardier was recently goes for another nine weeks, either each of which has something different forced down and injured near a middle to Twin-Engine Advanced School—for the matter with it. He has to find the western city. He insisted on taking the bomber and other heavy craft pilots— faults and correct them. After that, he bombsight with him in the ambulance or to Single Engine Advanced School learns how to run the power turret that and would not be treated and risk un- for pursuit pilots. By this time he is mounts guns on the bombers. The touch consciousness until he had delivered it thoroughly at home in the air. of a control turns it in any desired di- into safe hands. So proud are the cadets To the Advanced Schools come direction and raises or lowers its 50- of their specialty that the "pullets" gests of the war experiences of our caliber machine guns. In a power-turret as the fledgling bombardiers are known pilots. The Air Services Intelligence dismounted on a truck, the student shoots —refuse to wash off their "bombardier's covers, for example, that a certain type at a target carried by a jeep which eye" for days at a time. It is the black, of German plane has difficulty in turning weaves around an erratic course. In the sooty ring that the rubber eye-piece to the left; that a certain Japanese meantime, at lecture after lecture—the leaves on the user's face. plane is particularly vulnerable in one Gunnery student works 1 1 hours a day— During the first weeks, the bombardier spot. he learns and memorizes the shapes and cadet learns his business from a rolling Actual fighting disclosed that there silhouettes of friendly and enemy craft, scaffold, about 15 feet high, that looks were some serious flaws in our fliers' and the most effective way to shoot at much like a giant version of a baby's training. The pilots were accustomed to each. high chair. He sits on it, the bombsight superb weather, and to big airfields and The Waller Trainer is the most amaz- mounted in front of him. On the floor broad runways. They were inadequately ing device of all. Five movie projectors is the "bug"—a box about two feet prepared for European storms, sleet, throw on a huge screen a moving picture square which moves on wheels according and fog, and for landing fields hacked of what a gunner sees in combat. A to the whims of the instructor. On the out of the New7 Guinea jungle. That has sound track makes the illusion perfect. "bug" is an accurate scale drawing of been remedied. At Advanced School, the On a gallery are mounted a row of a German submarine or some other ap- cadets now have to fly in every kind of power-turrets, with guns which photo- propriate target. The cadet sights, lets weather and learn to "land on a dime." graph instead of shoot. The student in his imaginary bombs go, and an auto- As part of Advanced School the pursuit the turret suddenly sees and hears a matic mechanism shows whether he has pilot puts in five weeks at Gunnery Zero streaking at him out of the clouds. hit or not.

FEBRUARY. 1943 35 — —

After the "pullet" gets his funda- change places. The developed film shows of a bombing mission in actual war. mentals and goes into the air, he drops in feet how far each hit was from the When the pilot, bombardier or navi- no less than 200 practice bombs—from exact center of the target. The result gator has his wings, and the gunner his various altitudes from 500 to 15,000 decides whether he gets his wings. wings and chevrons, he has graduated feet, where oxygen masks must be used, The navigator cadet, known in the from the Flying Training Command and and under every kind of flying condi- service as the "jackpot," gets an equally is sent to an operational training unit. tion—before he gets his wings. Two thorough training. For six months, he Here, bomber teams—which stay to- bombardier cadets go up at a time on flies in every kind of weather across gether all through their combat service these "bombing missions," with a pilot country in every direction, practicing are made up, and trained on long and and an instructor. One cadet, crouching over and over again the celestial navi- difficult flights in Fortresses and other in the bombardier's "blister" in the nose gation, dead reckoning, map reading, heavy ships. Incidentally, bombardiers, of the ship—an instructor sitting behind recognition of landmarks that he has navigators and gunners informally pick him—drops half of the bombs in the learned in theory on the ground. To get up enough about flying so that any one rack on a series of target circles which his wings, he must be able to figure to of them can bring a ship home, should are whitewashed on the ground of the the mile where he is and to the minute the two pilots be killed or wounded. bombing range, while his partner—with when he is going to arrive at —his ob- This has happened several times in this a movie camera—takes pictures of each jective. On a correct "E.T.A." "esti- war. After a few weeks of this the bomb flight and hit through the open mated time of arrival"—and an abso- Army Air Forces consider them finally doors of the bomb-bay. Then they lutely precise course depends the success prepared for combat. They are.

IN OUR CORNER: AFRICA

(Continued from page g) military men at Vichy. He told them in major struggles since the dawn of known scouts at Vichy, throughout Unoccu- detail of America's growing industrial history, would "present a vital area of pied France and North Africa. and military might. He is credited with a decisive conflict before the war was In explaining this policy in simple having convinced Darlan, and possibly over." terms, also our action in maintaining Petain, who thought after Dunkirk that The United States was not then a bel- staffs at Berlin and Tokyo even after England would soon be brought to her ligerent, but the Cabinet member's ob- we had become enemies in fact, Mr. Hull knees, that the Axis could not win under servations influenced Army-Navy think- said: any circumstances. ing. It explains, no doubt, the meticulous "Many people imagine that you can- The North African military campaign preparedness which marked our actual not maintain diplomatic relations unless was born in Mr. Hull's high-ceilinged, invasion of that area. you are on agreeable, friendly relations. mid-Victorian office, proving once again Decision to translate the Hull pro- That does not mean anything. his farsightedness. On a Saturday after- gram into battlefield reality was made "I have seen so many people—law- noon, October 12, 1940, he summoned when Mr. Roosevelt and Prime Minister yers, for instance—who do not speak to our highest Army and Navy strategists, Churchill discussed the question during each other except in a law suit or in and reviewed as well as forecast the the latter's visit to Washington last transacting business. You would not world situation. The date when he held June. It was then that F. D. R., on the know but that they were good friends, his history class is important, for it was basis of Mr. Hull's talk and confidential though they were as bitter as they could eight months before Germany invaded memorandum to the Joint High Com- be. You doubtless know of many people Russia and almost fourteen months be- mand, gave the green light to Chief of who never speak unless they have to fore Pearl Harbor. He envisaged both Staff Marshall, Admiral Leahy and the except in business. those developments and their import. then Chief of Naval Operations Stark. "So it was in that sense that we kept He suggested that Germany, more Almost simultaneously with this mo- up this fiction of diplomatic contact. than ever before, held the whip hand; mentous conference at the State Depart- We had great objectives in mind. It that Berlin would continue the bom- ment, Mr. Hull opened a diplomatic, was utterly immaterial to us whether bardment of Britain without letup until propaganda and reconnaissance front in we spoke to Laval when we met him on she was conquered; that Hitler mignt North Africa. As in France, he felt it the street, just so we could carry for- soon persuade Japan to enter the fray. was essential that the eyes of natives and ward these objectives." He also pointed out that a logical move colonial Frenchmen should be turned There is the core of our Vichy policy would be for Der Fuehrer to attempt in hope toward Washington rather. than in a Tennessee nutshell! a conquest of Africa from Gibraltar to Berlin. Their economic plight was diffi- The Secretary of State then sought the Suez Canal, thus making the Mare cult, and it seemed that the proffer of a means to effectuate this highly prac- Nostrum an Axis pond. With President Samaritan hand might make friends for tical and materialistic philosophy. To a Roosevelt in agreement, he forecast that us in that key area. broken, prostrate and hopeless France the Mediterranean, theater of so many So he sent Robert D. Murphy, then Marshal Petain was a symbol—a memory of happier days, so Mr. Hull looked around for an American whose presence at Vichy would recall old ties between the two nations. His first choice was General John J. Pershing, still an idol overseas, but our World War Com- mander was too ill. So he chose Admiral Leahy, an old friend of the Defender of Verdun and of Admiral Darlan who died at the hands of an assassin late last December. Bill Leahy's contribution cannot be overestimated. He reminisced over World War days with the naval and

36 MORALE IS A LOT OF LITTLE THINGS

I LOVE MY dad . . . I'm glatl he's mine ... I . . . with wholesome American food ... as a

want him for . . . my Valentine." beverage of moderation after a good day's work.

And that, you can be sure, is the most im- A small thing, surely — not of crucial impor- portant thing in Mr. Gordon's mail this morning! tance to any of us.

We all know why. We all know how much And yet — morale is a lot of little things like little things can mean to us — especially nowadays. this. Little things that help to lift the spirits, keep up the courage. Little things that Small acts of kindness ... a new tie your wife are part and parcel of our "just couldn't resist" ... a picture from Tommy own American wav of life.

with a new stripe on his sleeve . . . And, after all, aren't they among the things we fight for? A lot of little things . . . They help you over the rough spots— they help to keep morale up. A cool, refreshing glass of beer— ^gnjjgo

a moment of relaxation . . . It happens that millions of Americans attach a ^m^^y^^ in trying times like these they special value to their right to enjoy a refreshing '^Vif^/- glass of beer ... in the company of good friends too help to keep morale up °*d^°

FEBRUARY, 1943 37 When Purchasing Products Please Mention The American Legion Magazine —

Counselor of Embassy at Vichy, to They did much more than serve as Mr. Murphy, it was a unique situation^ Algiers to consult with General Maxime accountants, inspectors and bookkeepers. namely, a neutral power (France) to Weygand, who commanded Petain forces They were permitted to move freely in permit representatives of a belligerent in all Africa. Mr. Murphy is a big, the coastal and hinterland regions, and (the United States) to remain in her blond, grinning, forceful fellow with a their reports proved invaluable later. territory for the ostensible reason of captivating personality that equipped They told of the strength of harbor and checking supplies which did not and him for his special assignment. He land fortifications, the location of air would not arrive. found Weygand anti-Fascist, and on fields, the material resources available, But Admiral Leahy, recognizing the February 25, 1941, they initiated the the prospects of welcome or resistance value of their work, sent a directive kind of agreement our Secretary of by the inhabitants. They made pals for from the White House demanding that

State wanted. Vichy also assented to it, the United States (every drum, box or the shipments go forward. "Damn the oddly. bag bore the words, "U.S.A." in mighty critics!" roared a high Army officer. Under this compact French authori- letters), established contacts with "We need the last-minute information ties in North Africa were permitted to friendly French officials and other anti- those boys are turning up!" buy from us certain necessary, non- Axis elements, spread good will for the So the goods flowed on, and two military products for civilian consump- United Nations. ships—the Aldebaran and the He de Re tion, with an explicit promise that they Their position became difficult after —were loading at New Orleans for a would not be exported to metropolitan our entrance into the conflict. Germany return voyage when the Eisenhower ex- France or to Germany. French funds in high-pressured Vichy to drive them out, pedition landed. this country were unblocked by a spe- but Petain would not bow. Hitler cited From August until mid-October, cial Treasury license, and they bought their presence in demanding that North when details for the invasion were near- oil, textiles, sugar, tea, kerosene, agri- African naval bases be turned over to ing completion, Mr. Murphy and his cultural machinery. In return we pur- him. Weygand protested against acqui- chief aides commuted almost weekly be- chased such strategic materials as cork, escence, which cost him his post as tween their stations, London and Wash- olive oil, red squill, etc. Governor General, but the Nazis did not ington. The last word "Bob" gave the Far more important than this eco- obtain these immensely important cen- General before the shoveoff from the nomic arrangement, however, was the ters. Our men's labors won us such British capital was that he need expect permission given the State Department friendship that Vichy did not dare to scant resistance except from French to station twenty highly efficient "con- act too highhandedly in this area. naval units at Casablanca. The event trol officers" in this area to supervise Last summer the flow of goods dwin- proved the accuracy of his judgment. distribution and to insure that no» a dled to a trickle, due partially to In short, Cordell Hull directed the drop or ounce of these commodities domestic shortages and because of Ad- strategy, called the plays and, in the reached the Axis. Although they con- ministration baiters' charges that we grand goal line drive, his youngsters ran sisted of Vice-Consuls, most of them were "appeasing" the traitorous Laval. interference for the Army and Navy. were picked by the Army and Navy. When shipments stopped altogether, That is the inside story of an opera- Besides a precise knowledge of French, there seemed to be no justification for tion which historians may some day the majority had enjoyed naval or our scouts' continued presence on the characterize as the turning point in the military training. scene. As French officials explained to world's greatest war.

AMERICAN ALL THE WAY

{Continued from page 5) aggressive youngster, "a real live nephew "On the New York Central and Penn- thirty-nine and was told he was too old of my Uncle Sam, born on the Fourth sylvania lines, mostly," replied Cohan, to go over there with his song. Nor did of July," as he told them out of the airily. the critic probably know that all the corner of his mouth. They loved his There are a hundred yarns about the royalties from the sale of "Over There" speed and his swagger and quick-witted legendary Cohan ; his tempestuous fights were devoted to patriotic charities. independence. He was the impudent with theater managers, his fury at ac- It's likely that Cohan merely shrug- spirit of Yankee Doodle come to life cepting any sort of dictation. Many of ged his shoulders at the blast, because at the turn-of-the-century, with a derby them are just that—legendary. the greater part of his career was spent and cane instead of a cocked-hat and He was a storm center in the theater in violent verbal combat with editors spurs, and he rode an imaginary pony for many years. When the actors' strike and dramatic critics. The latter jeered right into their hearts. came along in 191 9, he fought it tooth and fumed at his flag-waving acts in And young George found other ways and nail. He believed that they were "Little Johnny Jones," "George Wash- to confound his critics. Erlanger loftily being misled and that his rights as a ington, Jr." and "The Yankee Prince." asked him if he thought he could write producer were being assailed. However,

The flag they said was dragged in to a play without a flag in it. it was not actors he was fighting, but save his bad shows. But, oddly enough, "I can write a play," replied cocky a principle which he felt was contrary the shows played to jammed houses all George, "without anything but a pencil." to a spirit of individual independence. over the country, and such songs from And to prove it, he sat down and Right or wrong, it was this same man them as "A Grand Old Flag," "Gee, wrote "Forty-five Minutes From Broad- who, twenty years later when a factory Ain't I Glad I'm Home Again," and way," a little comedy which made a in North Brookfield, Massachusetts, was "Any Place the Old Flag Flies" were million dollars profit. struck by lightning, immediately offered sung in every parlor and whistled on Then in 191 3 he dramatized an Earl $100,000 to repair the damage, so that every street from Maine to California. Derr Biggers story, "Seven Keys to the townspeople might not be kept out The critics couldn't understand it Baldpate," and broke the then unbreak- of work. and Georgie jeered right back. able law of playwriting. The audience "It was there I got the only smatter- The reason wasn't far to seek. In all was actually kept in suspense until the ings of real boyhood I have ever known," his jingoism and flag-waving George last curtain. That was the beginning of he told a crony. "I want to keep that Cohan was sincere. The great American the whodunit plays. town going." public which came to the theater just "On what lines do you plan your There spoke the real George Cohan, to be entertained loved this cocky, plays?" one puzzled critic asked him. prickly as a cactus, shrewd and belliger-

38 Thi AMERICAN LEGION Magazine —

BEWARE THE ANGER OF A PATIENT MAN

Abraham Lincoln was a patient man. But the wrath of Lincoln, the War President,

was withering and relentless. Uncle Sam is patient. So are the millions of simple, peace-

ful Americans he represents. But his anger

and theirs fully aroused will teach the Axis

aggressors that it is something to be re-

spected and feared.

ft ft ft

The coming of war, forced upon a peaceful

people, has exhausted this patience. It is replaced by a grimness that can only come from righteous anger. Each American has his own way of expressing his anger. The

men of American Central are expressing it with war materials for our fighting forces.

The ever increasing flood of production is evidence of their steadfastness of purpose.

ft ft ft

Let the enemies of America take what comfort they can from their early suc-

cesses. The war is just getting started. The men of American Central have dropped their peace time tasks and joined hands with their comrades in America's Armies

and Arsenals to teach our enemies a lesson. To beware the Anger of a Patient Man

particularly if he happens to be Uncle Sam. AMERICAN CENTRAL MANUFACTURING CORPORATION

CONNERSVlLI

FEBRUARY, 1943 Whin Purchasing Products Plea.su Mention The American Legion Magazine ent on the outside, but sentimental and generous underneath. Perhaps that's another reason for the success of his plays. His heroes were all big-hearted guys. They might make a mistake now and then, but they always did the right thing in the end. There was a little of the guy, who was known on Broadway as a "soft touch," in every one of those plays. But there isn't any doubt that the gibes and baiting about flag-waving left their scars. I remember a fiftieth birthday interview, when one of the flash- light brigade brought in a flag and

wanted him to pose with it. "We'll skip that one, boys," he said, quietly. "I'm getting too old to take the kidding about that." So they took shots of him at the piano and at his desk correcting a script. It wasn't what they wanted, but it was what they got. And George Cohan went right on doing things his own way. As the years rolled by, one after another of the critics succumbed to the Cohan spell. Suddenly, they began to find all sorts of subtle meanings in his plays, meanings which he himself had no idea were there —and to his utter astonishment after his appearance in Eugene O'Neill's "Ah, Wilderness" he was proclaimed First The "lead sheet" of George M. Cohan's classic of the First Actor. His drawling comment on the World War which he used when he sang it that first time first was: "It's just a show." And to the second: "I'm a song-and-dance man." That was his evaluation of himself. a night which marked the election of inscription: "Presented to George M. Actor, producer, author of fifty plays another Roosevelt. His hair was darker Cohan by Act of Congress dated June 29, and collaborator on thirty-five more, and his feet more nimble when he 1936, in recognition of his services composer of over five hundred songs, pranced out on the stage of the Liberty during the World War in composing the the man who has probably had more Theater as Little Johnny Jones for his patriotic songs 'Over There' and 'A effect on the American theater than first success. Of course, none of us knew Grand Old Flag.' " On the other side any other of his time summed up his that "I'd Rather Be Right" was to be under his name was an eagle in flight whole achievement in that title. He his last big hit and that his span was to superimposed upon an American flag. started out as "a song-and-dance man," be bounded by T. Roosevelt and F. D. He was asked that day the name of and that he'd be to the end of the last Roosevelt. the next war song he would write. act. I wondered, too, if he remembered "I hope we will never have to write Came election night, 1937. Cordons of that night back in '17 when he hauled another one," he said, soberly. "But if police barred off the entrance to the that crumpled paper from his pocket we do, I will have to turn the job over Alvin Theater. You had to show your and put a thrill up my spine that I've to some younger man." tickets half a block away from the never forgotten. lobby. George M. Cohan was back on Likely he had. George lived a full HE was right in his last prophecy. Broadway in a musical for the first time life. But he was to remember it later, Last November the Final Curtain in ten years and he was going to do because Congress had already belatedly was rung down for the indomitable something that no actor had ever done awarded him a gold medal, and the only spirit of Yankee Doodle Dandy. All of before—satirize a living President of the ieason that held up its delivery was that the Broadway he sang and wrote about United States on the stage. George Michael was actually too shy to thronged to St. Patrick's Cathedral to go down to the White House to collect bid farewell to one of its most beloved THE curtain went up and on swung it. Finally, in 1940, he made the trip. and illustrious. But George Michael that familiar, jaunty figure, white- "Well, how's my double?" shouted Cohan didn't sing and play just for haired now, but still ruddy faced and the President, as he was ushered into Broadway. A bit of his heart was in agile as of yore. Beyond a pair of eye- the Executive office. every little town and city over the glasses and a morning coat, he made no "Fine," said Cohan. "How do you country, and millions who were never attempt to look like his model. But the feel about him?" lucky enough to see him will mourn the craft of years was there, gesture and "Oh," said the President, grinning, passing of a great American. manner were perfect. It was satire with- "I always thought you were very good out sting, and George Cohan's portrait on the stage." Why old New York is just the same of a bewildered, tap-dancing president "Thanks, Mr. President," said Cohan, to me As Steubenville or Kankakee. was a climax to his career. The audience "I've always thought you were great on 'Way down south or 'way up north, rose and cheered him. the radio." East or west is Paradise. I wondered as I watched him' that The medal, he said afterward, gave Any great big gay town, night, if he was remembering another him the biggest thrill he had ever had Any little jay town, opening night thirty-three years before, in his life. On one side it bore the Any place the Old Flag flies." 40 The AMERICAN LEGION Magazine TAirimes like these

teach us a new gratitude for the sim-

ple things in life. A quiet evening

of rest, a friendly game with a next

door neighbor, good talk, good re- freshment, these make a welcome interlude of sanity in a seeth- ing world. For millions of Americans that interlude becomes calmer, happier, more content with a glass of friendly Schlitz.

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FEBRUARY, 1943 41 When Purchasing Products Please Mention The American Llgion Magazine " " " " "! THE BOTTLE

(Continued from page n) there's much I've already learned. This Straight Bourbon Whiskey . . . Distilled Through circumstances, which I dare bottle for example." He picked it up and Bottled by Randolph Distilling Com- not in this note, two my men again, and placed it on his knee. "It's pany . . . reveal of Milwaukee, Wisconsin . . . and myself have come across vital in- important. The note in it was certainly March, IQ42 . . formation concerning a new Japanese written by Captain Hendriks of our Lieutenant Dawson absorbed the print- air weapon tested at Midway and we Navy. And I'm sure, too, Captain Hen- ing on the glass, then spoke from his Jiave learned how Japan plans to use driks and his men were adrift, and would confusion. "It sounds legitimate enough this weapon in the near future. now like to be rescued. But this bottle to me. There are bottles of this stuff on Please try to send a plane for us the has a greater importance." every boat and— moment you read this. I must get the Lieutenant Dawson, with Powsky and "Sure," admitted Commander Wil- information into American hatids. Oft Seaman Gurkey edging in alongside him, liamson, smiling. "Sure it's legitimate, the back of this sheet of paper I am was puzzled. "Greater importance?" too damn legitimate. The Japs copy listing our approximate location, with "Yes." Commander Williamson ran his perfectly, but they don't knowT when to identifying landmarks of our island, and hand down over the bottle. "This is the stop. Most of all, they just don't under- landmarks in the vicinity. reason the Japs won't win the war." stand the United States or American in- God pray you get this in time. And "What do you mean, sir?" dustry— send a plane large enough so that all "I mean," said Commander William- Lieutenant Dawson, with the others, nine of us can be rescued. son, calmly, seriously, "that the Japs was shaken. "You mean the Japs sent— Captain G. C. Hendriks think we're going on with business as "Of course the Japs themselves sent usual. They don't understand, yet, that this bottle. You see, I know, and the COMMANDER WILLIAMSON rose, our factories which once manufactured Japs don't, that the Randolph Distilling tugged the sash of his robe tighter, juke boxes are now converting the steel Company, like most other liquor com- came around the desk, sat on the edge. of one juke box into steel for five light panies making bottles, has been manu- He picked up the bottle, and held it in machine guns. They don't understand, facturing only glass instrument panels the light, and turned it in his hands. He yet, that our factories that once pro- for navy bombers since December, 1941 held it up again and studied it, and then duced phonograph records now turn the And the imprint on this whiskey bottle is set it down. He turned to his men, and shellac of one record into water-proofing March, 1942! . . . I'm sure more of these smiled. the primers of 33,000 rifle cartridges. will turn up, clever tricks to get us to "Nothing to worry about," he said, They don't— understand, yet, that our send one of our long-range bombers to finally. "Thanks, men, you can go home factories the island in the note, so that they can now." Lieutenant Dawson, drunk with im- ambush and capture it whole, for use in It was Lieutenant Dawson who pro- patience, brushing aside superiority, in- imitation or for some deceptive use

that . . tested. "But, sir, it's most vital, isn't— it? terrupted hotly, "But what's got to against us . We'll oblige, of course, I mean, sir, what do you intend do with the bottle and the message?" but not with one bomber. With fifty, Commander Williamson's round face Commander Williamson grasped the maybe! ... It might have w'orked, but broke into a beaming grin. "I'm sure you bottle by its neck and held it up before those Japs just don't understand Amer- men are now positive I don't know my the others. "Read the printing on this ican industry . . . and now . . . thev'll job. Well, I've much to learn. But, bottle . . . One Quart . . . Randolph suffer!"

FIRST TO WRITE

(Continued from page 23) considerable part of the Confederacy's falling hands, run the enemy forts in Also renowned for highballing on the war news was mailed and telegraphed by gunboats, elude or fail to elude guerilla roads was James L. Freaner, doubling men who were both army officers and bands and stage melodramatic escapes as New Orleans Delta correspondent professional newspaper correspondents. from prisons. and official dispatch bearer. His "Mus- One of the war's oddest careers was From '62 forward were continuous tang" signature was self-conferred in that of Henry M. Stanley. The future years of great battles. The fighting still honor of killing a Mexican officer at titan of African exploration went into was of the sort the eye could follow. Monterey and succeeding to his horse. the war as a soldier in the Confederate And. for all the commanding officer op- As well as the combat reporters, the Army and came out as an enlisted man position to specials with the armies, the staff members of Yank have ancestors in the United States Navy. He com- boys generally managed to be all over older than the most doddering survivors menced journalism during that Navy the field when things were happening. of the original The Stars and Stripes. stretch, participating in attacks on Fort As writers they tore off individual Soldier-printers "worked" Army news- Fisher in 1864 and 1865 and writing ac- stuff constituting some of the best and papers from hand-presses in all the im- counts of the actions which were wel- some of the worst word-weaving ever portant camps of the Mexican campaign. comed by the newspapers. put to print in the nation's newspapers. First of them all—and so the Adam The full-time non-combatant news- As news gatherers they were expected to of the S. & S. and Yank line—was The men writing the most of the North's rustle their stuff by personal observation. American Flag of Matamoros, Mexico. news were "specials" representing the As news deliverers they often had to be No sweetness and light affair, the Flag leading individual newspapers of such their own express riders in getting the was the original source of the detailed metropolitan cities as New York, Cin- story to the home paper. stories of looting and assault by the law- cinnati, Chicago, St. Louis. After Gettysburg, Charles Carleton less fringe of volunteers it denounced This was a war made to order for Coffin of the Boston Journal rode 28 as "coward scoundrels" disgracing the dashing reporters—from their stand- miles on horseback to Westminster, name of the American soldier. point, perhaps, the model one of all time. caught an all-night freight train to Bal- The Civil War, too, had its camp This was the war in which they really timore, and succeeded in filing only a newspapers — mostly Union, and its did leather about the battlefields on half -column to his paper and a message combat reporters—mostly Southern. A courier service, snatch up the flag from to Washington officialdom. Then he jour-

4-' The AMERICAN LEGION Magazine neyed on to Boston where he was smuggled into a plant besieged by the curiou> and wrote his detailed, eye-witness story. George W. Smalley of the New York WARNER BROS! Tribune rode with Hooker on a recon- All-time, All-Out, noitering expedition the day before An- tietam, carried messages for the general All-American through the thickest of the fighting, twice had his horse shot from under Show-World him. After the battle he visited camp after camp, sat in with the Tribune's Miracle! three other witnesses of the battle as all prepared hasty reports, and then swung into the saddle for a six-hour ride to the Frederick telegraph office with the brief accounts.

In the morning it was an argument with an operator who finally put through a short dispatch to Washington. First coherent account of the battle to reach officialdom, it was held there until night before being sent on to Smalley's paper. The correspondent reached Baltimore that night, found no wires available, and wrote his six-column detailed account on the train to New York. It was, perhaps, the best battle account of the war. W. S. Furay of the Cincinnati Gazette pointed through Georgia for his home city on a night train which also carried a rival Queen City correspondent in pos- session of a list of the dead and wounded in one of the Atlanta battles. The train jumped the track, killing and injuring a number of passengers and smashing the car in which the correspondents were riding. Ten mnutes later they came together in the dark and found that each had been hunting the other's body and notes. Of the several hundred serving as professional correspondents at one time or another, Smalley and Coffin were probably the outstanding ones of all. Coffin, historian and novelist best remembered for his "Boys of '76" juvenile, was the only battle reporter working the war from start to finish. He and Smalley had no monopoly of spectacular performance, however. There was the New York World's Edmund Clarence Stedman, poet and future Wall Street magnate, catching up the standard of the Massachusetts Fifth at the first Bull Run and rallying the men about him. There was B. S. Osbon of the Herald who was appointed Farra- Directed by gut's signal officer and was the only MICHAEL CURTIZ newspaperman to run the forts at New Lyrics and Music by Orleans. There were Albert D. Richard- LESLIE RICHARD WHORF ' M. son (post-war victim in a sensational JOAN GEORGE murder) and Junius T. Browne of the IEANNECAGNEY FRANCES LANGFORD GEO. TOBIAS IRENE MANNING New York Tribune who were captured Screen Play by Robert Buckner and Edmund Joseph Original Story by Robert Buckner COHAN running the Confederate batteries at Vicksburg and escaped from Salisbury, N. C, prison to make their way through the rebel lines. There was young Henry E. Wing of the Tribune coming out of the Wilderness with the first fighting news and outwitting Mosby's guerillas See REGULAR, and Confederate cavalry. <° PRICES! These are established incidents. In The Time the realm of the dubious and the patently 43 FEBRUARY, 1943 When Purchasing Products Please Mention The American Legion Magazine —

mythical, there was the New York Times ace roof and a prominent place in the ground they had gained since the open- correspondent hauled from the bushes photographs. ing of the Civil War. by Grant and Meade after they had Hearst sent such as James Creelman Every staff correspondent of a news taken to a thicket for secrecy in dis- and Edward Marshall, who scribbled agency or newspaper in 1899 Manila cussing the next day's battle plans. away at Las Guasimas with a Mauser joined in a protest against Otis mailed There was a Herald correspondent smug- bullet through his spine. There was also, to Hong Kong and cabled from there. gling a story out of Libby Prison in the This was a clash of reporters and com- button of an exchanged prisoner's coat. manding officer, however, and not of re- There were the other jugged specials porters and the Army and Navy.

.. . General sneaking news to the world in chewing V l! P-jf 1 - Lawton and others got along tobacco, boot soles, re-sewed wallets. very well with the correspondents and the latter insisted, in fact, that their aS Kendall, Thorpe, and Freaner were cable of protest and revelation was partly £\_ the direct ancestors of the Marine the result of "the pressure upon us to combat reporters, Smalley, Coffin, 'tell the truth' from army officers of Whitelaw Reid, Richard T. Colburn, high rank." L. L. Crounse, Henry Villard, and the Robert M. Collins from the AP other Civil War civilian stars were the Manila staff and Frederick Palmer of the direct ancestors of such 1942-43 by-liners New York World were among the writ- as Leland Stowe of the Chicago Daily ers adding to their reputations in the News, Gault MacGowan of the New 1900 taking of Tientsin and march to York Sun, Russell Hill of the New York Peking. For Palmer, with experience in Herald Tribune, and Stanley Johnston of the '97 Greek war and in the Philippines, the Chicago Tribune. the Boxer rising was step three in an As with Johnston and his Midway unparalleled U. S. corespondent career story, they were often in hot water with carrying through Macedonian, Russo- the authorities. Grant had little use for Jap, Turkish, Balkan, World I, and the reporters. Sherman, Halleck, Mc- World II wars and insurrections. Old time correspondents at the na- Clellan, and others ran them out at op- Palmer and Richard Harding Davis tion's capitol rushing from the re- portune times. Johnston, Beauregard, were the principal elders of World War I porters' gallery to file their stories. Bragg similarly chased non-combatant correspondence. Some of the others They still do it that way reporters from the Confederate lines. Bill Shepherd, Walter Whiffen — had Each side had tales of their betraying brief training in the 1914 occupation of military secrets in print and there were lest we forget, William Randolph Hearst Vera Cruz or crossed the border with occasional individual arrests and court at the Santiago sea fight in his New York Pershing in 191 6. Floyd Gibbons first saw martials in addition to the general evic- Journal's dispatch boat and helping take action in Mexico. Webb Miller and Hal tions. off Spaniards from Cervera's flagship and O'Flaherty first saw it there with Per-

With all the bickering and the tumult, another beached, burning cruiser. shing. however, the Civil War so thoroughly Thomas M. Dieudade starred for the Across the pond before the U. S. established the civilian correspondent New York Sun, Richard Harding Davis entry, four newsmen—Shepherd, Karl idea that the Associated Press and the and Stephen Bonsai for the Herald. The von Wiegand, William Philip Simms, major papers hopped to covering the large journalistic difference between this and Henry Wood—wrote the then little Spanish-American War with no thought one and the Civil War, however, was that known United Press into the front ranks of resistance from the authorities. the AP men turned in the top all-around of wire services in less than a year of Representatives of New York World, performance. conflict. New York Herald, and Chicago Record Even Richard Harding Davis admitted And despite the outstanding feats (John T. McCutcheon, later famed car- that, in nominating Howard N. Thomp- racked up at intervals by such as Gib- toonist of the Chicago Tribune) rode son and E. R. Johnstone as AP's best. bons, Frazier Hunt, Herbert Bayard through the Manila Bay action aboard The difference between Davis, splashing Swope, and Will Irwin, World War I Dewey's flagship. AP men and specials about in the style of the Civil War spe- coverage was AP and U.P. for the long went aboard the warships to Cuba. San- cials, and the single-minded Associated haul and the complete picture. These tiago Bay found an AP correspondent men was graphically highlighted at Las services had to have Fred Palmer's as- on the bridge of the U. S. S. Brooklyn Guasimas, first land engagement of the sistance, however. He was the only with the fortunate Commodore Schley, Cuban campaign. American correspondent accredited to another aboard the New York of luck- As dismounted Rough Riders and reg- the British army and fleet, 1914-16, and less Admiral Sampson. ular cavalry outflanked infantry and his stories were carried for a time by AP, The correspondent corps was a varie- orders to be first at the Spaniards, U.P. and Hearst's International News gated group, indeed. The numerous New "Dick" Davis grabbed up a carbine from Service, all three. In 191 7 he took time York World men to the front included a fallen soldier and hopped in to boss out from correspondent neutrality after the eminent author Stephen Crane who lieutenants, bang away at the enemy, 20 years to become a major in the Sig- low-rated the courage of New York's and order charges. Meanwhile, John P. nal Corps (later lieutenant colonel) 71st Regiment and made Publisher Dunning of Associated worked the firing and press censor of the A. E. F. The Joseph Pulitzer of the paper very un- line with just one object—getting a cor- A. E. F. had 16 correspondents of U. S. happy. There was also* the uproarious rect list of the dead and wounded. It press associations and newspapers when Sylvester Scovel. was the only one compiled that day. Palmer swung into action—but not that Scovel, who had been jailed by the If the Spanish-American War was many combat soldiers. Spaniards for his highly-colored filings notable for AP's coming of age in battle The situation of reporters outnumber- on the Cuban revolution in '95, rounded correspondence, the war in the Philip- ing fighting men didn't long continue the circle by landing in a United States pines was distinguished for the tough- but there were always more than enough Army brig in '98. That was in connection est U. S. war censorship of record to and journalists, considering the little free- with the raising of the American flag over including now. General E. S. Otis came dom of action allowed these non-com- Santiago. Sylvester took a poke at Gen- down with iron regulations tossing the batants. Chafing as much or more than eral Shafter when ordered from the pal- correspondents for a loss of all the anyone under the restrictions was U.P.

44 The AMERICAN LEGION Magazine — "

correspondent J. W. (not yet West- headquarters, these civilian reporters re- reporters buzzing about United States brook) Pegler. He contrived, however, writing the Army account in their own Army battle-fronts, Civil War style, and to use the A. E. F. for a spot of promo- words but relying on it for all of their riding the warships into action, Spanish- tion when he went out with the Signal facts. American War fashion. And with the Corps on wig-wag and rocket signal prac- No non-combatant U. S. newsmen correspondents of the new Fifth Estate tice. "Today's News Today" was the went over the top with the troops. Not —the radio—right in there with the best United Press slogan, and "The reporter of them. here represents Today's News Today" The journalistic casualty lists curtly was spelled out as one of the first mes- show the difference. No U. S. corre- sages sent by the United States Army spondents were killed in action in World from hill to hill in France. War I. One died of influenza; half a Pegler, joining the Navy the next year, dozen picked up slight wounds; two was but a sample of the odd assortment were gassed. None was captured or in- of correspondents mobbing over to the terned save for those in Germany and continent as Uncle Sam stepped into the Austria-Hungary when war broke. war. The range of individual paper cor- World War II's list to date is: 10 respondents crossing to join such long- dead in action, 2 long missing, 21 on-the-scene ones as Wythe Williams, wounded or injured in line of duty, 18 Paul Scott Mowrer (now editor of the captured in battle, several score in- Chicago Daily News), and Edgar Ansel terned (of whom more than 40 have Mowrer was from Heywood Broun to been exchanged). Edwin L. James (now managing editor Seven of the deaths, 13 of the wound- of the New York Times). ings, and 15 of the captures have oc- The Stars and Stripes staff members curred since Pearl Harbor. So with the parents of the combat reporters in some dropping from sight of AP's Witt Han- "Hmmm— I don't remember getting senses—were, of course, officers and en- — cock and U.P.'s William McDougall, the dis vun—fat men's fifty-yard dash listed men plucked right out of the regi- two reporters who were last on Java and ments arriving in France. haven't been heard from since March 5. There were no combat reporters writ- one of them was on a warship in any of Getting the news of mobile war and ing for the reading public back home but the few naval actions. Such first-hand global war means landing with the Ma- many a large action story on the Argonne battle coverage as they did get in on rines on the Solomons, running the front actually was covered only by Army was almost wholly of the conducted tour gauntlet at Dieppe with the raiders, fly- officers who had been newspapermen in variety. ing with the bombers to smash Rabaul, civilian life. Their copy was made avail- It remained for World War II to re- going into desert action in the tanks, able to all correspondents accredited to introduce the spectacle of American riding the warships in engagements from

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FEBRUARY, 1943 When Purchasing Products Please Mention The Amirkan Lk.ion Magazine the Mediterranean to the far Pacific. and dying on the bayonets of Jap tor- Guadalcanal, Harold Denny of the New It is AP's Larry Allen twice going turers. It is Clark Lee of AP, snaring York Times caught by the Germans in overboard from sinking British destroy- the Army fox holes on Bataan and pack- the Libyan tank war, Keith Wheeler of ers, the second time to be captured by ing so much into super-condensed wire- the Chicago Times flying with the bomb- the Germans (he's still an Axis pris- less dispatches that the Infantry Journal ers to drive the Japs from the Aleutians. oner) and immediately to demand an praised them for carrying the details of It is scores of other such non-combatants interview with Rommel. fighting and not merely the highlights. risking lives for the story.

It is the New York Times' Byron It's Harold Guard of U.P. sliding into It is also the fighting correspondents Darnton, World War veteran who saw roadside ditches at the Malayan front, of Yank going out with the combat units plenty of action in France as an infantry riding an American bomber blasting a to report for the toughest of all critical sergeant in the 32nd (Red Arrow) Divi- Japanese base in New Britain. It's Jack reading publics—the men in service. sion, who met accidental death in New Singer of I.N.S. on a torpedo plane sink- It is, as we started out by saying, the Guinea on October 18 after his reports ing a Jap aircraft carrier, Singer Marine Corps combat reporters fighting of fighting in the South Pacific had who a week later went down with the and then writing for the whole home stirred the nation. Darnton's last Legion . Wasp in the Southwest Pacific battle public. assignment for the Times was at the zone. All these types of U. S. war reporter Milwaukee National Convention in 1941. It is Cecil Brown of CBS swimming have looked very good in there in the It is Don Bell of NBC broadcasting from the torpedoed Repulse, Joe James best-covered phase of the best-covered in the midst of the bombing of Manila, Custer of U.P. wounded in the assault on war on record.

TAKE IT EASY, TIO SAM

(Continued from page 17) specifications. The businesslike way in which the jumped up, too. But Rockefeller polite- Now ready for complete operation, 14 coffee-growing countries have handled ly waved him aside and spoke for 10 the Serra development which makes Uncle Sam in popularizing coffee has won minutes in good Spanish. He had spent rivers run uphill stands as an engineer- admiration not only from our diplomats three months at the Berlitz School in ing triumph comparable to Boulder but from our commercial interests, who New York, perfecting himself in the Dam or the Grand Coulee. In Chile, refer to it as the outstanding market- language for this occasion. two mountain streams were combined ing program of recent years. Coffee con- "It made a tremendous hit with the to supply water for another power proj- sumption in the United States rose from Yenezuelans because it was so genuine, ect. These are gigantic undertakings, as 13 pounds per capita in 1936 to 16 and a real compliment to them. Soon is the Sorocabana railway electrification pounds in 1941. after Rockefeller returned to the United job in Brazil, in which the two largest But the war is interfering, raising States, Standard Oil offered all its South American manufacturers in this field new problems which some of our own American executives Spanish instruction pooled their interests, under the benev- shipping officials seem slow to grasp. at company expense. Teachers have been olent eye of our State Department. Several of our neighboring countries de- flying down in relays ever since, for They are a foretaste of what await pend on coffee for 95 percent of their the American oil men have discovered American enterprisers when the war is total trade—it is economic life or death that their new willingness to speak the over—if by that time we have learned to them. When submarine activity language makes all the difference in to be simpatico, by going to the Latin- caused serious interruption of coffee relations with Venezuelan officials and Americans to find out what they want shipments, these countries proved their business men." and how they want it, rather than try- good neighborly spirit by accepting the The electrical manufacturers, with a ing to unload goods on them which we blow without protest. They lined up on normal business of millions in South want to manufacture. our side in the war and they are loyal America, have learned the lesson of Another good example of intelligent to us, even when it hurts. Would we, providing what the customer wants, in Yankee management of trade with South under similar conditions, be as patient? competition with German and British America is that of the Collins Company, When the alert business men of the firms. In one outstanding instance, the a Connecticut concern which has prac- coffee countries observed, however, that credit goes to a Canadian engineer. In tically cornered the market for the some ships actually were being ordered the big Serra power development near machete, that big curved knife which the out of their ports only partially loaded,

Sao Paulo it was decided that the only agricultural worker carries for a hun- because a minor official in the United way to provide sufficient volume of dred and one tasks. Instead of shipping States had arbitrarily refused import water for a hydroelectric plant would ordinary axes to South America, this licenses for coffee, they had to call on be to divert three streams into a canal, firm studied the machete—there are all the restraint and good manners then make the water run uphill for three scores of different designs—and shipped which have been inbred in them, to miles, carry it over a divide and thence the kinds the market wanted. Ele- keep from telling the world that Tio down to the power plant. mentary, yes, but by no means a usual Sam's good neighborliness is a matter The Brazilians needed the power and procedure in past years by Americans chiefly of words. Now they don't really saw no reason for building the plant with goods to sell. think that, but among themselves they elsewhere just because there were a few Fair business must work profitably are saying that the shipping situation mountains in the way. Their neighbors both ways. Let's look at the job Central has been mishandled. from the north, they were convinced, and South Americans have done in mar- Had we taken our good neighbors could solve the problem. Instead of try- keting the commodity which is in normal into our confidence and sincerely tried ing to talk the Brazilians out of this years the greatest single item of import to learn their wishes and needs and point scheme, the Canadian engineer in charge into the United States—coffee. Roberto of view, instead of merely offering to calmly said it could be done, by using Aguilar, distinguished economist of El lend them cash and let them hold the a series of hydraulic pumps and sluices, Salvador, recently told a Washington coffee bag, they could have been of real to be operated by giant motors made business group that "coffee forms the help in solving the problem—and in in the U.S.A. After considerable ponder- economic basis on which hemispheric providing more than a one-cup-a-day ing, the Yankee manufacturers worked trade is founded. Without coffee, it coffee ration for Americans, without out the equipment according to his would not exist." sacrificing one cubic foot of shipping

46 The AMERICAN LEGION Magazine —

space needed for other war materials. fillers and adulterants, which according their paintings and sculptures. It is Here's once we have lacked understand- to Senhor Penteado add nothing to the North America which needs help in de- ing, have failed to be simpatico. Steps value of the coffee, but may actually veloping its artistic culture. are now being taken to seek the advice destroy its flavor and aroma. We receive grateful credit for our of the coffee countries. Fortunately, it While the preparation of your morn- work in public health among neighbor

is not too late. ing "cup of courage" is a detail, if an countries. But let's not forget it was Dr.

Under chairmanship of Eurico Pen- important one. of your day, it has a Carlos Finlay, a Cuban, who first ad- teado, representative of Brazil, the Pan- real influence on good neighborly rela- vanced the theory that yellow fever was

American Coffee Bureau, an official body tions with the 14 coffee countries. It is carried by mosquitoes, opening the way made up of delegates from the principal not unthinkable that the new apprecia- for the work of Dr. Walter Reed and coffee countries, is now engaged in an tion which the coffee shortage has Major General Gorgas. And we should educational campaign in this country, brought about here of the economic be acquainted with the record of Dr. to acquaint Americans with the facts of problems involved in the coffee trade Oswaldo Cruz, 29-year-old Rio physician, life of the coffee bean, which are ABC may prove as valuable a part of the who rid his city of yellow fever in to every schoolboy in their own coun- Good Neighbor policy as a shipload of three years, and of Dr. Emilio Ribas of tries, but which even high-placed of- culture which we might export to South Sao Paulo with a similar fine accom- ficials in our own never heard of. The America for the purpose of uplifting plishment. OPA and the OWI wisely conferred the natives. Smallpox deaths have been cut from with Bureau representatives in acquaint- There are many things which South 17.900 in 1930 in South America to ing the public with rationing regulations, America needs from us besides goods 1350 in 1941. Bubonic plague, which particularly in regard to the use of and money and a few which she doesn't afflicted 65 ports, is now nearly cleaned adulterants. Our Pure Food and Drug need. She needs some good publishing out, only two ports reporting human Act requires that coffee with which houses, say, in Rio. Bogota or Buenos cases. In 1942 Latin-American coun- chick peas, barley, chickory or other Aires, to publish American books in tries spent $100,000,000 on public adulterants have been mixed must be English. Newspaper comics and Holly- health, as against $40,000,000 in 1930. plainly marked. Latin-Americans have wood movies are scarcely ideal media Nor does this include appropriations by been more than pleased with the decision through which we can be seen as we individual states and municipalities. that a coffee ration coupon can be ex- really are. Books are expensive. They A few South American health super- changed for only the same quantity, could be produced much more cheaply latives may serve to revise our opinion whether it is pure coffee or an adul- in South America. of our neighbors' backwardness: First terated mixture. In the arts, Latin-Americans are do- hospital in the Americas, established in This is big news in Central and South ing all right as they are. We draw on Santo Domingo in 1503; oldest hospital American papers, ^t shows Tio Sam in them for talent such as Bidu Sayou, the still functioning, San Jesus Nazareno, the role of an understanding friend. The Metropolitan Opera singer, Carmen Mi- founded in Mexico, 1521; lowest death regulation is likely to discourage use of randa and a host of others. We admire rate in the hemisphere in 1941, probably

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FEBRUARY, 1943 47 When Purchasing Products Please Mention The American Legion Magazine —

lowest in the world in 1942, in Uruguay; And then he gave me some practical you meet Central and South American only School of Tropical Medicine in pointers: business men. Remember that the slicker the hemisphere, Puerto Rico; world's Write business letters addressed to is always in a hurry, the honest man leading Institute of Snake Poisons, Latin-Americans in Spanish or Por- who is enjoying himself likes to linger Brazil; first country to make diphtheria tuguese. A little courtesy which is ap- awhile. inoculation compulsory, Dominican Re- preciated. Don't ever be deceived by the good public. Make complete invoices of goods in manners of a Latin American into triplicate. It's an old South American thinking he doesn't know the score. HOW, then, are we going to make custom and following it makes a hit. Don't betray gross ignorance of half ourselves simpatico with our Latin- Express figures, when possible, in the your own hemisphere by neglecting your American neighbors? I asked a Central metric system. Easy to do with a table geography book. If you have any deal- American diplomat. His surprising an- from a sixth-grade arithmetic. Latins ings with a man from south of the Rio swer was: "Take it easy. After all, Latin- think in terms of kilos, meters, etc., Grande, pay him the compliment of Americans have not a little admiration not in inches and pounds. looking up the basic facts about his and affection for Tio Sam. Don't try Don!t give a false impression of rude- country before you discuss it with to oversell us." ness by seeming to be in a hurry when him.

JAPAN'S FATAL WEAKNESS

(Continued from page 14) patterns, dies, lathes, machine and pre- deposits, the world's third largest elec- about, but force of circumstances. Per- cision tools, oils, metallurgy and alloys, tric power generating capacity, bauxite sonally, havirig seen the Japanese in- American quality is superior. Military for aluminum and good copper mines. dividually and collectively for 13 years secrets prohibit publication of what has My ledger of international accounts, under many conditions, I have come to been created by American engineering however, lists Japan's many weaknesses scout the idea that they place more ingenuity and resources. It is no secret, in the industrial veins leading to the value than other races on "saving face." however, that new American steels and heart of Hirohito's empire. More practical, more urgent reasons, plastics are the best in the world. One The collapse of Malaya, the Dutch govern now. Japan has staked every- alloy has a tensile strength of 200,000 East Indies, Bataan and Corregidor were thing, committed treacheries and cruel- pounds a square inch. It is almost en- grievous blows to us. Nevertheless, ties that can never be forgotten or for- tirely non-corrosive and a good 40 per- Japan cannot remain satisfied. She must given, shown herself abysmally unworthy cent lighter than its aluminum grand- attack repeatedly in the direction of of any membership in the family of na- parent. Alaska, Australia, Siberia or India. tions, and knows there will be no quar- New heat-treated American aluminum Should Japan acquire one of the four, ter. She must win all or lose all—rule alloy has a tensile strength of 68.000 she would perforce continue to assault half the world or retire to a position pounds* a square inch. We are moving everywhere. I am certain she will bog somewhat equivalent to that of Abys- into the giant transport class with in each undertaking. At home, Japan sinia. 140,000-pound flying boats. Research, cannot continue to show gains. Her pro- Japan loosed, in one great freshet, all backed by unlimited financial resources, duction effort some months ago passed the power possessed by a country that bright minds and fine laboratories will its peak. Japan is fighting just as des- has very little fundamental industrial perfect better materials than Axis plot- perately as the United States. Since origin. Like great waters rushing through ters could dream after their best caviar- Pearl Harbor, her forces are using every- a broken dam, Japan's power must sub- and-champagne celebrations. The Japs thing they possess and fighting every- side as all floods ebb, leaving a task of would lift eyebrows, they would suck where, but the tempo of American pro- reclamation and rehabilitation of an their breath, (as they do when they are duction in shipbuilding, materials, man- island which will become a slaughter- flabbergasted) they would bow till power training, airplanes and equipment ; house arsenal of anarchy and rebellion their eyes met the ground (in awe they has not reached anywhere near maxi- from the day the emperor's palace is do so), if they had an inkling of Ameri- mum capacity. bombed. can advancement in aviation. Japan's militarists are cocksure in the Japan could have flung thousands of I write this with deep admiration, belief that they never make a mistake. airplanes at a half-prepared United acquired through observation, of Ameri- They cannot see that resources will be- States and a harassed Britain and could can air-power as I have seen it built come exhausted, and that new markets have done a lot of damage. But she and in operation on a War Department will not open. Efforts to consolidate cannot build sufficient planes to replace sponsored coast-to-coast tour of United occupied areas will be no more success- the planes, submarines and carriers lost States Army Air fields. From Grenier ful than similar attempts in China in in combat. The United States can send Field in New Hampshire, I have raced the last five years, and I doubt she can thousands of planes roaring over the through the Southeast air command, the exploit properly her rubber, tin and enemy's head, and at targets of destruc- Middle West, across the plains of Texas tungsten seizures. Quite definitely she tion, until the island of Japan is a mass (where we have more air fields than in will not obtain required quantities of of flame and ruins. all Japan), to the Pacific Northwest. East Indies oil. The explanation for Japan's weak- I make certain concessions to the Japan's industrial position is unten-

nesses, which are greater than her points Japanese. Geographical location, long able. She is isolated from her Axis part- of strength, I have found in a detailed preparations, conceit, confiscatory gov- ners and internally afflicted by politico- study of the dent in her giant armada ernment powers to force manufacturers military squabbles. I am informed by engineering, plant capacity and raw and unskilled labor to work without neutrals who have arrived in this coun- materials. profit; hundreds of small war factories try that these quarrels are far more The United States is producing, I and large ones, may favor Japan. I'll violent than the outside world conceives. believe, the finest planes in the world, revrse my estimate of Japan's planes in The Japs were buoyed by numerous deadlier than any possessed or planned both services as of December 7, 1941, initial successes, based on sneak at- by our enemies. Production in units and to around 8,000. I grant them certain tacks. Coral Sea, Macassar, Midway, finished planes is greater than the com- stock pile reserves, coke and limestone, Aleutian and Solomons losses are not bined output of the Axis nations. In cheap ship plate, unlimited soft coal known to Mr. Moto. Tokyo's leaders

48 The AMERICAN LEGION Magazint continue to assure the people that we cannot tight; that we would prefer to make concessions, call a halt, and com- promise the war. Japan is working des- perately to produce planes and material, but certain of her industrialists whose plants were built with foreign goods and equipped with imported dies, patterns and presses, realize that if they cannot win quickly they are doomed. Alone, Japan cannot master air or sea communications lines. She must keep her main island protected from an air invasion. Submarine attacks on shipping lines means a huge defense force of a minimum of half a million, and a large navy personnel to protect and operate all shipyards. Outlying bases, many already overextended, must be fed, equipped and garrisoned — a constant drain on supplies and men. She is thrown on her resources, for she no longer im- Tlie Marlin Firearms ports from abroad. Japan's industries plant is now 100% on war production. are not bright and modern. Many are obsolete. Cash expenditures for war are small in contrast with the United States. Now here's a chance for you hunters ols of Field & Stream, Jack O'Connor Chinese resistance hampers Japan by and target shooting fans, to cash in on of Outdoor Life, Maj. Chas. Askins wearing her down and subjects her to your knowledge of guns! Marlin—al- of Sports Afield—will select the win- economic deterioration in the occupied ways on the lookout for new ideas to ning entries. All ideas for which prizes areas. improve sporting firearms— wants to are given become the property of The I believe that wholesale attacks on hear from you. Sportsmen and gun Marlin Firearms Company and none Japan, such as the RAF loosed on Ham- dealers are cordially invited to join will be returned. Prizes awarded for burg. Dusseldorf, Essen and Cologne, Marlin's big Gun Contest—with S 1,000 the seventeen ideas which are most would augur the defeat of Japan. in cash prizes to shoot at. And remem- valuable and practical, in the opinion Japan's mental gymnastics, especially ber, many a good idea is simple and of the judges. Duplicate prizes awarded among her militarists who believe them- easy to describe. Your chance is as in the event of a tie. winners will be selves invincible and invulnerable, leap good as the next fellow's to win a prize. determined and prizes announced as from a premise to a conclusion without It's easy to get in the contest—read the soon as possible. allowance for possible interference. Thus details below and send your entry in CONTEST RULES came the upset in Japanese calculations, today! Contest ends July 1, 1943. The Marlin Gun Contest is open to all the utter panic, when American Army Jot down your ideas for improving sportsmen and dealers in guns, with bombers approached and attacked Japan any current model Marlin Gun. Follow the exception of Marlin employees. as the Tokyo radio was boasting of the the simple contest rules and send your Written suggestions must not exceed absence of fear and claiming that no entry in. If you wish, you 300 words, the shorter the foreign plane would ever reach Japan. may suggest new features, better. No limit to num- Knowing Japan's many ideally concen- not at present in the line. ber of entries which may trated targets for bombing, we have set A free catalog is yours for be submitted. Write name the pattern. We must dislocate and the asking, to review the and address clearly on destroy factory installations and air features of Marlin Guns. each suggestion. Mail plants which have provided her with entries to Dept. M The PRIZES IN THE BIG great power. Marlin Firearms Co., 17 MARLIN CONTEST Japan has passed the peak of her East 42nd Street, New ten-year military campaign. She has The first prize is $500.00 York City. reached the lowest point on a military in cash; second prize Entries must be re- graph, in the loss of some 315 ships and $100; third prize $50.00; ceived on or before July nearly one thousand planes. In peace fourteen additional prizes 1, 1943. time, or while fighting China, Japan of $25.00 cash each. Sev- Win cash with your could import or manufacture replace- enteen prizes in all! (Marlin suggests ideas! Enter the Marlin Contest today. ments. Not now, however. Japan's the purchase of U. S. Savings Bonds Marlin has been known since 1870 strength was predicated on the importa- with the prize money.) for progress in gun design, quality and tion of six to eight essential raw mate- JUDGING dependability. Below are some famous rials and a world market in tools, steels Three famous gun editors— Bob Nich- Marlin features: and oils with which to construct fine ships and planes. I have acquired important new information on Japan's industries. The Japanese reasoned they had fooled the foreigners with whom they did business. When you sell a bill of goods, you can surmise the purposes of the equip-

ment, and in certain categories of sup- All Marlin rifles — lever action, Marlin's Over & Under Shotgun, Marlin lever action rifles, in cali- bers .22, .30-. spec, have clipand tubular magazine and . 22 in 12, 16 and 20 gauges and .410 30 and .32 plies one can gauge the productive ca- automatic, feature deep-cut, accu- bore, is hammerless, cocks on open- the solid-top, case-hardened re- pacity and what the Japs would build. rate, "Ballard" rifling. ing, has sturdy one-piece frame. ceiver, with safe side ejection. 49 FEBRUARY, 1943 When Purchasing Products Please Mention The American Legion Magazine —

A world war eliminated Japan's sources but delivery was not fulfilled—the foundries used about 60 percent of of 1942-43 airplane designs and ma- Russo-German war halted the shipments quality American scrap, mixed with in- chine tool patterns. Tokyo, my residence via the Trans-Siberian, and the Suez ferior domestic iron ore. With that per- for thirteen years, is the center of remained closed. centage they produced a pretty good Japan's precision instrument and tool Western Japan is the Youngstown- steel. If steel, as Winston Churchill ob- industry. Japanese factory superintend- Pittsburgh area. The cities are Fukuoka, served, is the criterion of a nation's ents were dissatisfied with their own Kokuro, Moji, Nagasaki and Shimono- strength, the measuring stick would productions and imitations. An indus- seki. Steel productivity there is another show Japan is crippled seriously. try which relies on copying foreign industrial enigma. Peace time capacity Japan has coal. The problem is mine models rapidly approaches the point of production of iron and steel took a poor labor. Women and children have worked obsolescence unless imports are unin- sixth place in the world, although paper in the mines since 1938. Forced Korean terrupted. This is a real brake on manu- plans would bring Japan to third place. labor, about 80,000 men, has been im- facturing. The Japs leaned too heavily The wishful accomplishment was based ported into the Kysuhu mines of West- on inspiration from foreign catalogs, on uninterrupted imports of heavy ern Japan. Transport is done in small and, since quality has never been a consideration in Japanese manufacturing in peace-time cut-throat competi-

tion in the export market, it stands that no flexibility in a changeover was allowed for the day when they would be pressed for first class domestic equipment in the air or afloat. The Japanese margins in quality, precision, and output are too close to provide for safety or success in a long pull war emergency. Japan cannot overcome these pronounced major industrial bottlenecks. Priority regulations will not clear the stagnated iron and steel industry. Poor compounds will not produce good rubber for tires and planes. Continued jailing of engineers and manufacturers for inferior work and operating in black markets will not build airplanes and ships to replace the half dozen aircraft carriers and their car- goes now at the bottom of the Pacific. My summary of Japan shows many major defects. But do not presume that Japan is weak, or underestimate Japan's striking power. This presentation is based on the observations of some of "I explained lhat a mistake had been made, but he the keenest foreign judges of Japan, won't give it up. Says he always wanted a zoot suit." men who are top flight engineers. Their conclusion is that Japan's failure will come from industrial disintegration and American and German foundry equip- coastal boats. Operating from certain American air attacks on concentrated ment, and fine iron ore from the Philip- well developed and exposed ports, the and exposed industries, and weakened pines. Japan had the coking coal and coaling steamers could be bombed out shipping and transportation lines. limestone for making pig iron, but lacked of commission. Most loading is by hand Japan's refineries are restricted. One deposits of high grade ores with which and baskets Railway cars, of the Brit- of the best, an American built plant, to produce fine steel. Their ore sulphur ish type, are scarce. Rolling stock was destroyed in the Doolittle raid. It content is too high for good steel. on Japanese railroads has depreciated cannot be replaced. Oil is Japan's head- Japanese battleships, submarines and through inferior ball bearings in journal ache. Diesel fuel for the world's largest aircraft carriers were constructed with boxes, my Gripsholm diplomatic sources fleet of small vessels, lubricating, ma- imported high grade steel ship plates. advise. chine tool, instrument oil, and high Engines, navigating instruments and ball The requisitioning of gondolas and grade aviation gasoline, are not made bearings were of foreign make. Cheap cars for Manchuria and China has played in Japan in quantity. An insufficiency cargo vessels for the intercoastal trade havoc with Japan's once excellently of oil well-drilling machinery and the and nearby China sea routes were built operated railways. lack of experienced engineers are appar- of low-grade domestic plate. For pre- Japan's elaborate industries in Man- ent. Some 700 industrial and engineer- war operations a secondary plate was churia, with few exceptions, are hitched ing experts headed for Java and Malaya acceptable, but war measures eliminate to steam-generating plants. In Japan were lost in a submarine attack on the this category and the Army and Navy proper I know of a network of trans- Taiyo Mam off Hong Kong—a serious require the finest that steel plants can mission lines and hydro-electric power blow to technical forces. process. plants built when her engineers, with Synthetic fuel production commenced My sources do not believe Japan has American aid, placed the Empire third eight years ago. The output was unsatis- substantial stock piles of high grade in the world in kilowatt hour power pro- factory. New machinery from Germany American scrap, notwithstanding the duction. Eastern Japan, however, oper- did not arrive in time to fulfill the blue- boatloads she bought here and in Austra- ates on one cycle and Western Japan print program. The Japs had arranged lia. Japan denuded Australian scrap Kobe, Osaka and Kyoto—on another. to exchange six million tons of soya yards. Some of the metal has been com- Bombing of the generating plants in bean-cake for German ersatz engineering down on Port Moresby and other the Tokyo-Yokohama area, which feed ing. The Japs had the bills of lading Australian cities in recent weeks. Japan's the bulk of power to chemical, tool,

So The AMERICAN LEGION Magazine ruobt., auto and arsenal factories, would their ground crews make certain that mond drill, aviation and numerous light paralyze those industries. Alternate German plugs are substituted. industries, registered admirable devel- power lines are believed unavailable Japan's war machine needs copper. opments. Reckless overexpansion was for bringing in electricity from the Japan had several large copper mines identified with the boom which followed Western power stations. Railroads would which grew with the fantastic develop- abandonment of the gold standard in be restricted. Many of Japan's locomo- ment of her electrical industry through 1931. But the feverish switch from tives are electrically operated. An acute American and German encouragement peace time assembly lines to stream- shortage of coal-burning engines was and competition. Japan should produce lined mechanized war schedules started created by the Army's demand for them about 100,000 tons of copper a year but hysteria in industrial circles in 1938-39. in China operations. this would not meet war manufacturing The government edict established special Bauxite is available in Korea, but schedules. Local deposits, I understand, planning boards to seek order. Chaos

quality is irregular. Formosa. Korea and have been worked almost to the bot- continued. Private enterprise was elimi- Manchukuo have plants, those of the tom. Import copper reserves never stood nated. The bottlenecks remained. Amer- Nippon Aluminum Company, which pro- at any worth-while figure, and now ican freezing and licensing action halted duce an estimated 45,000 metric tons Japan has no import source. necessary Japanese imports of new ma-

a year. Their methods and compounds Summarizing metals, Japan is totally chine tools. Hence the obsolescence to- originated in Pittsburgh. Domestic ca- deficient in mica, tungsten, tin, high day in Japanese light industries. pacity is available for production of grade iron ore and good bauxite. Japan A common deficiency in Japanese 3000 to 4000 planes a year, granting is not self sufficient in copper, bauxite, production is the failure to maintain that the aluminum is restricted to air- zinc or lead. I do not subscribe to the adequately compounds and high stand- plane purposes. The best aluminum fear that her armies will acquire these ards in alloys, castings and forgings. plant was built by an American. Blue- materials in conquered countries. Japan Many of their products will not ap- prints for expansion were shelved by does not possess the processing facilities proach American military inspection World War II. Hence, Japan cannot for major war requirements in overseas standards, aggravated by a shortage of obtain more aluminum than the capacity areas. high grade tool oil, hampered by un- of existing plants. Japan's industrialists long engaged in skilled labor and fraught with wide- Magnesium production is of limited high pressure selling and confiscation of spread graft among foremen. Change- tonnage, but high in quality. The Japa- capital from banks and insurance com- overs to new models, or to systems re- nese succeeded in manufacturing ex- panies to launch a totalitarian war ef- quired by recent discoveries and pat- cellent magnesium piston rings. Against fort, under the demands by the army ents, are today impossible. That di- that credit is the debit of poor spark and navy for more than the people lemma exists in the auto and aviation plugs. Japan relies on German spark could turn out. During peace years, industry. Truck chassis have been noted plugs. Planes are tested with Japanese Japan's shipping, radio, textile, rayon, for their weak construction. Parts de- plugs as a matter of subsidy and con- locomotive, dyestuff, chemical, storage partments have not maintained inven- tract requirement but in war operations battery, electrical, air compressor, dia- tories to meet army demands This is

ATTENTION

THIS CARD is sent to your young friends in the service no matter where they may be when you give them a year's subscription to The American Legion Magazine. IT COSTS you only 75c for a full year — 12 issues. Get order blanks from the January issue, page 32, or your Post Commander and send your orders to us now. Remember today's service men are tomorrow's Legionnaires.

The American Legion Magazine, 777 North Meridian St., Indianapolis, Ind.

FEBRUARY, 1943 Si When Purchasing Products Pitase MrxTioN The American Legion Magazine especially true in aircraft industries. Japanese mandated islands and supply scarce. Ball bearing steel is unobtain- Total truck building is around 15,000 lines. American planes will move down able. Oil is precious. units a year at best. the Yangtze valley from Hankow, Nan- Japan's air and industrial backbone For considerable time to come with chang and Nanking, on their important is inadequate to defeat the American distance and geography in their favor, mission of bombing that Gibraltar of giants of industries. Japan should know the Japanese, notwithstanding their the Pacific—Formosa, and the cities of that with each turn around the clock, many weak points, may possess nu- Western Japan. as the war in the Pacific continues, her merical superiority in ships, planes, Japan's air production is diminishing. air, sea and shipping power will neither tanks and almost unlimited military The great Mitsubishi plant which pro- cover her gains nor hold them. manpower of perhaps 10,000,000 men. duced pursuit and bombardment planes, American production — and I can However, for a long-term pull, and with propellors and accessories, was destroyed compare it with what I know Japan United States bombers blasting deep at Nagoya by the Doolittle expedition. possesses—will in the end defeat Japan. at the heart of Japan, I contend our New aircraft carriers to replace Coral Japan's bottlenecked and starved do- Pacific enemy cannot survive. I expect and Midway battles will not be launched mestic industries will break under the our planes and ships to slash through on any nearby week-end. Ship plate is colossal demands of her army and navy.

ALL-OUT FOR VICTORY

(Continued from page 29) of the University of South Dakota law C. Hartbauer of Pittsburgh, attended the $9,212.64 each to the Army Emergency school. Both settled in Lyman County Post's dinner. Relief, Navy Relief and United Services after graduation and practiced law in Secretary Knox was met on his ar- Organization. the same county and town. Both are rival by a delegation headed by Post members of Johnson-Huntsman Post, Commander Ben I. Brown and was Mortgage Burners The American Legion. Both have had taken on a tour of the major war plants long service in public life, and when in that industrial city. At the evening EMIL EWALT POST of Manning, elected Governor and Lieutenant Gov- banquet the Secretary was presented by Iowa—an outfit with 110 members ernor, respectively, at the same election, Past Commander Ralph H. Whitehead, in a town of 1,800—has bought play- Governor Sharpe received 109,786 votes master of ceremonies. Colonel Knox ground equipment for the City Park, and Lieutenant Governor Miller 109,785. urged "more effort on the home front sponsored a Boy Scout Troop and Junior to save, years of bleeding and anguish Baseball Team, holds an annual three- Armistice Observance to bring nearer the day when we can day homecoming, staged a drive for sale address ourselves to problems of peace." of War Bonds, gathered scrap metal, and SECRETARY OF THE NAVY put on a Christmas party for more than FRANK KNOX was the guest of Champion Chaplain 1,000 children. honor and principal speaker at the annual Armistice Day banquet held by don't all speak at once, but if While it was doing all that for the NOW community, the Post was whittling Burt Foster Post at McKeesport, Penn- any Chaplain in this big Legion away at an old mortgage on its club sylvania. More than 1,200 persons, in- can beat the record of Victor F. Pettric house, obtained in 1938 when an old cluding Department Commander Daniel of Los Angeles, California, this depart- warehouse was purchased. At that time the old building was wrecked by volunteer labor, and with but $800 in the treasury, the Post started building the new home, a fine brick structure which cost $15,000 to complete. Now it is all paid for, and the Post threw a party to burn the mortgage. Another burning bee reported to the Stepkeeper was one held by Brooks- Doll Post of Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, which, along late in November, cele- brated the event by staging a party at its clubhouse. "Now," says Adjutant Willis H. Geissinger, "our Post can turn all of its activities toward the war effort." Brooks-Doll Post has sponsored a Junior All-Legion band which holds first place in Pennsylvania and took down the top prize at the Milwaukee National Convention.

One For the Book

SHARPE, Governor of South MQ.Dakota, and A. C. Miller, Lieu- tenant Governor, seem to run along on parallel lines. Both are attorneys, reports The observation tower maintained by Morgan-Ranck Post of Ocean City, New Legionnaires H. 0. Schoessler and Walter Jersey—an important link in the defense system of the First Fighter Command J. Binn of Johnson-Huntsman Post, Ken- —is perched atop the Municipal Pier. This Post has been on a full-time basis nebec, South Dakota. Both are graduates for more than a year

52 The AMERICAN LEGION Magazine —

ment would like to hear from him. He held the job of Chaplain in four separate Legion organizations at one and the same time. So five or better, to beat. Chaplain Pettric held simultaneously the offices of Chaplain in Westwood- Bruin Post, the Los Angeles County Council, Twenty-Fourth Legion District organization, and the Fourth Area organization. Department of California.

Building A Post W'HEN Charles Craven Post of Mabelvale, Arkansas, was organized we met just anywhere we could, usually on store porches," writes W. A. Lay, First Vice Commander. "But when Charles G. Holland, Post Commander, was first elected in 1939 his first idea was to build a hut. When he laid his plans before the members they sank low in their seats—the treasury contained exactly $84. "But things started working and the Post membership crawled up to a number equal to that of the population of the village. The Commander urged early payment of dues and with the money some of the building materials were bought. Then we needed a well, and that called for more members. The building was completed and the well sunk before the next call came—that was for furniture and it required a 200 percent membership to swing it. Now the membership is twice the population of the village, Charles Craven Post has a hut, valued at $4,000, nicely furnished and all paid for. But just $84 remains in the treasury. to into Aviation— Now "The Auxiliary Unit helped in the How get achievement, not only in getting the building but in furnishing its club room by C. 5. (Casey) Jones ——— and kitchen." NO. 3 iff a series of advertisements describing the free training and opportunities now available in aviation. Addressed to the thousands oj men and women Victory Corps who wish to prepare themselves for war service in this key industry.

INSTRUCTING high school boys in An architect drafting ployee of the plant and enter a selected vo- military drill has been a program of aircraft parts. ..a real cational school for training in such skills as

La Grange (Illinois) Post for two years," estate salesman at a Electrical Sub-assembly. . . Power Sewing . . . Ma- chine Shop Work... Tube Bending... Riveting.., lathe.. .a housewife reports Commander Henry M. Larsen. Sheet Metal Work. operating a drill. ..all "Last year a class in basic military over the country men Vp-Grading: Extra training which you re- training was organized by Comrade and women are learn- ceive as an employee, to fit you for a better job. of is Harry Warner of the Chicago Ordnance ing new skills, finding Part this training on your own time. Courses include Department, enrolling fifty high school new interest and use-

Blueprint Reading . . . Aircraft Engine Mechanics boys beginning with sophomores and fulness in the indus- . . . Drafting . . . Radio Repair and Maintenance. try which is of first Supervisory training is including junior college lads. Of this also given, on plant time, in foremanship and inspection. C. S. JONES importance in win- group, twenty-seven received certificates ning the war. • • • • upon full completion of the course. Aircraft Manufacturing offers innumer- Application for Pre-Factory Training may ''The course includes actual drill, able opportunities today—in training and in be made to the employment office of your nearest aircraft plant. Information can study of the IDR, map reading, charts, jobs. Requirements vary some, but in gen- also women, married or single, 18 be obtained from the local office of the U. S. organization of the Army, and first aid. eral men and Service. years of age up, U. S. citizens and not now Employment Visual instruction included movies of employed in war industry are eligible. Free training and educational This S. > subjects. tuition and pay during the training period if / 1_President season the class has an enrolment of are offered. seventy-five and some of the more • • • • ACADEMY OF AERONAUTICS, La Guardia capable boys of last year's class are building airplanes—such as Con- Companies Field. New York City • CASEY JONES SCHOOL serving as drill instructors. Legionnaires solidated in San Diego, Curtiss-Wright in OF AERONAUTICS, Newark, N. J. in Hartford- lend assistance in specialized subjects. Buffalo, United Aircraft East Engineering and Design courses still open for pri- are accepting applications from their re- vate enrollment to qualified applicants. Mechanics Assisting Major Warner is Comrade Ollie spective localities for training courses of courses devoted exclusively to military and gov- Stenger, former football coach at the ernment contract training. which the following are typical: high school." Pre-Factory Training: You become an em- Training the Key Men of Tomorrow in Aviation Boyd B. Stuti.er 1

FEBRUARY, 1043 53 When Purchasing Products Please Mention The American Legion Magazine THE NAVY'S BATTLING BUILDERS

(Continued from page ig) kinds, and they're not just on display. veillance and observation of the officers, experience were, and are, being sought, They're there to be run, to be torn who will discuss all these matters with and once enlisted, they are put through down, repaired, and re-assembled. The him. From this information, 180 men a three weeks' indoctrination course in welding shop, which was built by some will be chosen out of each newly-form- military manners, methods, and maneu- of the earliest battalions in camp, is ing battalion. Twelve who are particu- vers; in small arms training and tactics; equipped with the latest devices, and the larly fitted to do so will instruct twelve in the theory and practice of construc- neatest jobs you'd ever want to see are classes of fifteen specialists. While the

tion methods and the standard makes turned out by the best of the Seabees, idea of these specialist courses is to of equipment that are being used. This while others watch and learn. turn out a group of thoroughly compe-

is followed by five weeks of intensive Another room is devoted to the study tent foremen, the ratings of men se- and practical "build-'em-up-and-tear- of pontoons and their uses. Those lected to teach do not change because 'em-down" activities designed to famil- welded steel boxes, measuring five feet of their being chosen as instructors. Ad- iarize every member of a Seabee bat- on a side, can be utilized in various vancement in the Seabees comes only talion with all phases of work which ways. They may be linked together in in the field for meritorious action—good his unit will encounter. While each man rows of eight to twelve to form barges, instructors are likely to be retained at specializes in his own trade or tech- and then, when three or four such rows Camp Allen for some time before being nique, he also learns to be a helper in —depending on the size of barge desired attached to a battalion, even though the many another vocation. Thus, the con- —are fastened to each other, there is rest of their group has moved on to crete men may assist the carpenters in sufficient buoyancy to float ashore from Camp Bradford and, eventually, to for- the building of forms, but when it is a transport ship tons upon tons of ma- eign service. time to mix and pour cement for a gun terials needed in the Seabee business at And if there is one thing a Seabee emplacement, the foundations of a wharf hand. The pontoons may also be assem- looks forward to with avidity and im- or a warehouse, it then becomes a case bled in other shapes to form floating patience, it is foreign service, for he of turnabout, and the carpenters are drydocks or piers. But here in this knows that once his battalion has been the helpers. In the Seabees, there's never school room, with models about one- formed with its officers and enlisted a dull moment for anybody, coopera- twelfth actual size, the crews learn the men, and has been declared ready for

tion is the watchword, and teamwork is versatility of the pontoons. Later, at action, it's action in foreign lands he a fetish. Camp Bradford, they will work with the will get. Seabees don't serve in the con- Let's drop in on Camp Allen, at Nor- real thing. tinental limits of the United States. folk, Virginia, one of the three Seabee During the three weeks at Camp That explains why a certain Chief Petty

training camps, and see what life is like Allen, when a Seabee is still a "boot," Officer, an expert on Diesel engines, is in this newest of Uncle Sam's fighting he learns the manual of arms, rifle pretty much fed up with what he terms services, a service destined, according marksmanship, extended order drill, the "fighting the battle of Virginia." Al- to a Navy Civil Engineer Corps officer techniques of the 45 pistol, the Thomp- though 48 years old, four times a father, on duty in an area where several Seabee son sub-machine gun, and hand gre- three times a grandfather, and a vet- ". battalions are in action, . . to be one nades. He studies the principles of lay- eran of the last war, this Chief says of the most important developments out of bases, of air-raid protection and he has had enough of instructing others. of the war to date." combat signals. He learns to wear his He has well-laid plans to sell the com- See that company of "boots" going Navy uniform properly, and generally manding officer of the next battalion to down the street over there? They don't to conduct himself as a Navy man go through Camp Allen on the idea that do too good a job of marching as yet, should. He fills out lengthy question- he should be sent out to build and fight. but they've been here only a couple of naires which disclose, even in more de- And from the looks of him, he can build days. The youthful figures are straight tail than have similar and previous pa- and fight —and there are many others enough and step out with a natural pers, what he has studied and accom- like him. vigor, but the older men haven't quite plished in his own technical line, what "Island X," that somewhat cryptic caught their second wind. They soon experience he may have had in charge designation for all ultimate Seabee desti- will, though, for drill and calisthenics, of men. nations, may mean an island, an isth- and physical work-outs of varying na- He will be under the constant sur- mus, a peninsula, a continent, or merely tures occupy much of the time between 6:30 reveille and 9:30 taps, and it's all under the careful supervision of the medicos, who warn the gray hairs and the bald heads to go easy and light on MERE'S TO the physical side of the training until they more nearly resemble the tough- OUR ened lads they were in earlier years. SERGEANT It's a rough game and a hard one A WIT AND A those first few days, and many an old- THINKER, timer discovers muscles he had entirely EACH ONE OF forgotten, and a weariness he didn't an- FELLOWS ticipate, and perhaps he'll secretly admit THINKS to himself he isn't quite the husky chap J he's he thought he was. UST AN OLD In that huge, warehouse- type building SWEETHEART just down the company street, we'll find the class and lecture rooms, and the practical laboratories, where the men will take machinery apart and put it together again. There are Diesels, generators, dynamos, and boilers of all

54 The AMERICAN LEGION Magazine —

a bridgehead on a beach anywhere in pontoon barges, constructed by the Sea- entrenched behind sand dunes, brush, the whole wide world. Besides being bees, are powered with big outboard and rocks. The problem is to effect a sure of service abroad, a Seabee can be motors and loaded to the guards with successful landing, to clear the area of pretty positive of action, too, for in one every kind of material, machinery, and the "enemy," to establish a complete of his earliest lectures he is told: "The supplies that a Seabee outfit would re- base of living and working quarters, purpose and duty of the Construction quire to effect an actual landing on and to construct a 1500-foot airplane Battalions are to erect, reconstruct, or "Island X," if it were occupied by the runway on the beach—all within 30 repair advance bases, or to expand exist- real enemy. The only difference is that consecutive hours! ing facilities on an island, or possibly the barges are loaded from the shore At the signal, the attacking barges some mainland. The area may or may instead of from the transports which move toward shore, with the men pre- not already be occupied by the Army, will take the battalion to its "Island X." pared for anything. The scow-like blunt the Navy, or the Marine Corps. Seabees The opposing forces, also Seabees, are noses of the barges nudge the beach and may have to clear an area of enemy forces, and their duties may include holding such an area." Getting Up Nights Makes Because of these and other exacting possibilities in the future lives of Sea- bees, Camp Bradford is in existence to- Many Feel Old Too Soon day. A few miles from Camp Allen, on If you're feeling out o' sorts, Get Up Nights or which become poisonous if allowed to ac- wind-swept shores of Vir- may the sandy, suffer from Burning Passages, Backache, Swollen cumulate, thus aiding nature in stimulating an in- ginia, Bradford is about as near the type Ankles, Nervousness, Rheumatic Pains, Dizziness, crease of energy, which may easily make you feel Circles Under Eyes and feel worn-out, the cause years younger. of wilderness that the Construction Bat- may be non-organic and non-systemic Kidney and Bladder troubles. Guaranteed Trial Offer talions will later call "home," as any- Worry, Colds, working too hard, or over-eating Usually, in non-organic and non-systemic Kid- thing could be. Acres and acres of pine or drinking may create an excess of Acids and ney and Bladder disorders the very first dose of overload your Kidneys so that they need help to Cystex goes right to work helping the Kidneys flush straggling scrubs, dense under- trees, flush out poisonous wastes that might otherwise out excess Acids, poisons and wastes. And this undermine your health. growth, swamps, the sea and its salty cleansing, purifying Kidney action, in just a day or so, may easily make you feel younger, stronger and winds comprise this laboratory of final Help Kidneys Remove Acids better than in years. An iron clad guarantee in- Nature provides the Kidneys sures an immediate refund of all your money un- preparation for Seabee life to come, to clean and purify your blood and to remove excess Acids. The Kid- less you are completely satisfied. Get Cystex from which may be anywhere from Tunisia neys contain about nine million tiny tubes or fil- your druggist today for only 35c. ters through which the heart pumps blood about Author's Note : Cystex is produced under the to Trinidad to Tulagi Harbor, from 200 times an hour, night and day, so it's easy to direction of a licensed physician for The Knox Co., one the largest drug companies in the world Buna to Balboa to Brisbane, from Rey- see that they may get tired and slow down when of overloaded. with laboratory connections in the U.S.A., Canada, kjavik to Rabaul to Rangoon. Fourteen years ago a practicing physician's pre- England, Australia, and South America. The guar- scription called Cystex was made available to the antee of money back unless satisfied is enforced Once at Bradford, the battalion really public through drug stores, making it easy and in- 100% and is a dependable form of Cystex. begins to find itself, to get the feel of expensive to help thousands suffering from non- assurance to all users of organic and non-systemic Kidney and Bladder all what it is about, and to form that troubles in these three simple ways : 1. Help the Now 35c -75c- $1.50 Kidneys remove excess acids which may become individualistic personality that has al- poisoning and irritating. 2. To palliate burning ways made any American fighting unit and smarting of the urinary passages, and bladder Cystex irritation. 3. Help the Kidneys flush out wastes so particularly outstanding. No longer are they "boots," these men of all trades and ages who are building for America HAVE YOU CHANGED YOUR ADDRESS? in the far-away places. Seasoned and If you have changed your address since paying your 1942 dues, notice of such toughened by their basic training, they change should be promptly sent to the Circulation Department of The American now simulate as closely as possible life Legion Magazine and The National Legionnaire in order to have uninterrupted in the raw, which is life as they will delivery of the publications. Mr. Legionnaire, this is your job. Don't pass the buck to find it for the duration. your post officers. Fill in the coupon printed below—it will serve for both publications. At the same time, if you have not already done so, give notice of change of address The sandy, jungle-like terrain on that to your post adjutant. raggedy fringe of Virginia offers engi- Why do we ask for prompt notice? In the year just past the Circulation Division neering problems in road construction, received 141,814 notices from postmasters of their inability to deliver The American erection and usage of living quarters, Legion Magazine and The National Legionnaire because of incorrect address or because the without postmaster or the Circulation production of fresh water supplies from members moved notifying the Department. Each notice so received costs two cents. the ocean, and numerous other enigmas Soon after paying dues you should get magazine and National Legionnaire. Your Avhich result in ideal training and condi- name's on one of 1,100,000 address stencils we have. If you fill out form below, we'll find it you'll tioning. They now build their pierheads ; get your magazine. and floating drydocks from real pontoons instead of models; they erect and YOUR LATEST ADDRESS tear down storage tanks ranging from Is the address to which this issue of THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE iooo to io.ooo gallons capacity; they was mailed correct for all near future issues? If not, please fill in this coupon and mail to THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE, 777 N. Meridian St., Indianapolis, dynamite stumps, rocks, and other sec- Ind. tions of the scenery; they lay steel mesh Until further notice, my mailing address for the magazine is roads capable of supporting the heaviest NEW ADDRESS tanks across sandy stretches. The weld- ers, the pipefitters, the electricians, and Name the draftsmen, the powdermen, the truck (Please Print) drivers, all receive practical instruction Addr under the most realistic conditions. Eventually, and before the battalion City State is graduated, there is a simulated attack 1943 Membership Card No. on a beachhead against "enemy" forces, with both attackers and defenders sup- Post No. Dept. OLD ADDRESS plied with plenty of flour bombs, and if you think one of these task force re- Address hearsals is mere child's play, you should City State be a member of a landing party. Huge

FEBRUARY, ig 43 55 When- Purchasing Products Please Mention The American Legion Magazine thrust their way up as far as possible. case the "enemy" returns; a one-thou- accomplish it. But such are the Seabees. Hundreds of men, now accustomed to sand gallon water storage tank almost Many who volunteer have forsaken their arms and in the best of physical seems to erect itself. In short, the "Bees" high-salaried positions and top wages condition, leap overboard and thrash thoroughly live up to the industrious- in favor of a seaman 2d class rating their way through the breakers to land. ness attributed to the little fellow in which brings $54 a month for home serv- The front ends of the pontoon barges nature from whom they have taken ice and $64.80 when abroad. At the unfold into ramps, down which other their name. other end of the line a chief petty men dash lugging machine guns, while The day rolls on, muscles become officer commands $126 in this country still others drag light field pieces. Mean- weary, and backs ache, but the battalion and $151.20 overseas, so it's not for while, the flour bombs have gone into is still in there, working hard. Night monetary gain that young and older action. Men on both sides are hit and falls, and with infrequent and dimmed men, fathers and their sons, veterans thereby eliminated from further par- by the hundreds are joining the Sea- ticipation in this maneuver. Some of bees. the invaluable machinery and materials It is that "something" which put of the landing party are also struck and us all in it last time, that makes all of invalidated for use in the construction us want to do it again. It is a "some- problems that lie ahead. However, the thing" the Japs know nothing about, enemy is soon overcome by the furious never heard of, and wouldn't understand dash and the clever deployment of the if they did. It is the "something" that landing party, and what was a "battle- motivates that brand new force the field" a moment ago, suddenly and mi- little yellow men set in motion when raculously becomes a hustling, bustling, they began blasting far-away Wake realistic construction camp. Island December 7, 1941, a force they In far less time than it takes to tell found well nigh irresistible even then, about it, the several specialist groups from a paltry few hundred Marines and of the battalion are hard at work build- a handful of very angry, but ill-armed ing and constructing things. Quonset civilian construction men. huts, those metallic-domed, insulated, From the hell-let-loose on Wake was comfortable structures that have re- lights the construction goes on—and on, born the. Seabees, a child of necessity placed the Nissen huts of the last war, and ever on. Finally, the job is done, that has grown to manhood in less than spring up like mushrooms; the enormous and nearly every man is ready to drop a year's time. From the original call for evaporator is trundled to shore and be- in his tracks. The runway is smooth, only 3300 men, the Construction Bat- gins making fresh water from the salty serviceable, and ready for planes. The talions of the Navy now number over sea; bulldozers, road-scrapers, and Seabee village is complete with living 210,000—more than 21 complete bat- dredges roar down the beach to clear quarters, lights, power, water, and a talions. They're all over the world, the section for the airplane runway; temporary sewage system. Food, medical building for America, preparing the dynamite crews drill holes under stumps and dental care, laundry facilities, and jumping-off places, the re-fueling bases, and rocks, set their charges, and slam a supply depot for the ever-rumbling the air fields for fighting planes, and home their detonating switches to clear machinery have all been provided. The other installations for the Navy and the offending obstacles out of the way; the task is finished, and what was required rest of our armed forces. With a brief rolling kitchen—a far cry from those to be completed in 30 hours has been but vivid history thus far, the Seabees we knew in France—brings forth appe- done in a mere 26, without sleep, with will make still more important history tizing smells of this war's greatly im- meals on the run, and with the utmost in the months to come, and wherever proved version of "slum-gullion;" car- perfection in human cooperation and they may be, they will, with Wake penters barely manage to keep ahead of endeavor. Island and other Jap-blasted outposts the concrete crews in the building of That was a real "he-man" job. Only always in mind, acquit themselves in forms for gun emplacements, just in men fired with "what it takes" could the best of American traditions.

THE MESSAGE CENTER

{Confirmed from page 2) killed an American enlisted man five ting there when we saw a soldier jump gets a star on his shoulders he's as safe feet away from the general. into a hole. General MacNider went from hostile fire as a civilian in the National Commander Roane War- over to talk to him and was standing continental United States. Well, it just ing, upon being advised that General only about five feet away. ain't so. This comes to us as we think MacNider had been hit, arranged to "There were three blinding explo- of Jack MacNider, as he is affection- have the Army radio send General sions. ately known up and down and MacNider this message: "The Legion "All of us were thrown to the through America, a former National is proud of you. God bless you. A ground. The soldier was blown in two. Commander of The American Legion speedy recovery, and carry on, Jack." General MacNider was wounded, but who for the record in the War De- And that's what Jack is doing, at last the rest of us were unhurt. partment at Washington is Brigadier accounts. "Back in the hospital the general re- General Hanford MacNider. Not that Here is the story of how the general fused to use another blanket, saying Jack is dead. Thank God he isn't, but was wounded, as told by his aide, some other soldier needed it worse he was wounded in eight places last Major C. M. Beaver: than he. He also complained that November 24th during action around "We had been at the forward line other soldiers needed blood plasma Gona in the island of New Guinea, where the Americans were laying down more than he did." north of Australia. Despite his protests a mortar barrage against machine-gun General MacNider was awarded the that he was not badly hurt he was nests, and located two of them. The Distinguished Service Cross with cluster given a quart of blood plasma. The Japs retaliated with machine-gun fire in our war, and holds the Silver wounds were the result of the explo- and mortar fire. Star with two clusters and the Purple sion of a Japanese grenade which "General MacNider and I were sit- Heart, as well as foreign decorations

56 ' AMERICAN LEGION Magazine —

for valor. He went back into active own rough 'Acre for a Soldier' signs and service soon after Pearl Harbor, and placed them in their fields. although he is 53 years old he is the "In Marshall County, Alabama, 500 kind of hombre you'd like to have FSA farmers decided at a group meet- alongside you when things get tough. ing to make it a personal dedication to a The Legion is proud of Jack MacNider, son, a kinsman, neighbor, or friend. They All-American. drew up and signed formal pledges and each dedicated acre was marked with a SOME time ago Mr. A. J. Carr of special shield bearing the stars and stripes Carthage. Indiana, wrote suggesting and the announcement, 'My Soldier's of Old Line Legal Reserve that every farmer in the nation pur- Acre is Planted Here.' New suggestions chase bonds for an "adopted" soldier came from farmers everywhere the idea from an especially dedicated acreage was adopted. The Marshall County acre' marked by a sign. It looked like a pretty pledge promised to 'tend it with more JXfelKtiMuue good idea to us, and we wrote to Secre- than ordinary care and to make it pro- tary of Agriculture Claude R. Wickard duce to its fullest capacity more food for from POSTAL LIFE of New York, asking him for his comment. have freedom.' In Edgefield County, South We if you are 21; $1,160 if you are 30; $1,143 it MM are -10 proportionate .it oilier now received from Emery E. Jacobs, As- Carolina, no one was eligible for an 'Acre ; amounts IMS Xois is Postal's new .U>- Payment Modified s Policy. It Is sistant to the Secretary, this note: for a Soldier' sign until an acre was above Old Line Leasl Rcservt Life Insurance with all Standard Provisions including cash and loan values somewhat similar 'Acre for a Sol- standard for the neighborhood or crop, "A The premium is only $1.00 a month per unit I dier* plan was started by our Farm with evidence of special attention. nutter tib.it your tige (minimum amount sold is J units). The face amount varies with the am which Security Administration borrowers in "In Randolph County, Georgia, the policy is issued. Thil preimum is half the permanent r ite beginning the 6th vc.ir. t he policy is fully Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, and Cuthbert Rotary Club sponsored the PAID UP Ifil 30 YEARS with no mote premiums Florida last March and has been taken idea. The first groups to respond wanted to pay! Send coupon at once foe full description of benefits, and amount of insurance for your age. up with fine enthusiasm by small farmers to deliver their hampers of beans and POSTAL HAS NO AGENTS! in other sections of the country. loads of peanuts direct to Uncle Sam, POLICY Postal Life of New York has special- Is ised tor V vcars in Insurance-by-mait. "This program started when these but it was explained to them that it Participating and over-the-counter. It operates un- small farmers found that each cultivated would be best to buy stamps ami con- der the New York State Insurance Laws and has paid out over acre could help support one individual vert them into bonds. Reports indicate PROVIDES lor $55,000,000.00 soldier on the firing line, as his outfit that proceeds of a great many of these DIVIDENDS to Policy Holders and Ueuctu i.mcs. required the cotton from one-half to one dedicated acres are used to purchase Clip and Mail Coupon Today! acre of land, the hide of one steer, the war bonds. Postal I ite Insurance Company wool of 20 sheep and 'The fur of all the •'I doubt if it would be practical for 511 Fifth Ave., Dept. Dl57,New York, N. Y. l rabbits on your bottom land.' These all farm families to assign their bonds Mail me complete information about your new "Sl.OO-per-month-per-umt" .UVPayment Modi families wanted to think of themselves to someone outside their family. But fied 5 Whole Life Policy at my A, Hj — Seeds — Shrubs anil Nursery Items I will years ago Gibson City, Illinois, asked to bring —not birthday presents tioml you 3 Giant Flowering Chrysan- , TEN thimumi for lOc with copv of my Catalog — a town of 2,300 people, was dis- —but something to aid the fight. One Cprr Big Illustrated 1943 r Htl. featuring uumv UIO ISO New and ~* Ran House Plants — anil thousands of garden .it traught by word passed around that year eighty schoolmates showed up items tit Bargain Price*. Semi 10e to cover postage and puoKing 'Mums, or Postal for Catalog Alone. little Dickie Kemple, aged four, was Dickie's home and since then Dickie's N.W. BUCKBEE — GREAT NORTHERN SEED CO. CHARLOTTE M. HAINES Hwm 9*9*4 and liMlWsaal Wt* suffering from infantile paralysis. The private birthday celebrations have been R. H. SHUMWAY SEEDSMAN townsfolk, however, didn't know Dickie held each year, as this year, in the then as they do now. public" school building.

Today Dickie is one of the town's Now each year little Dickie is the leading citizens, especially each Jan- general of an army of children who MANY NEVER uary 30th, when the annual infantile- compete with each other to see who can paralysis fund-raising drive climaxes raise the most money, who run a small SUSPECT CAUSE with the celebration of President Roose- broadcasting unit and ask each passer- velt's Birthday. For every year Dickie by what lie is doing to help eradicate OF BACKACHES and his mother, who is vice-cbairman the last great plague. This Old Treatment Often of the Ford County Chapter of the Last year the children raised $169— Brings Happy Relief National Foundation for Infantile seven cents for every man, woman and Many sufferers relievo nagging backache quickly; once they discover that t ho real cause of their trouble) Paralysis, have arranged a private cele- child in the town. From this year's may be tired kidnevs. 'lbo kidneys are Nature's chief way of taking tho bration to help raise money to fight the campaign General Dickie hopes to excess acids anil waste out of the blood. They help most people pass about li pints 11 day. enemy of childhood. raise a dime or more from everyone When disorder of kidney function permits poisonous matter to remain in your blood, it may cause nag- First, these celebrations weren't big one of the highest per capita records in ging backache, rheumatic pains. leg pains, loss of pep and energy, get tint: up nights, swelling, putliness nation. ones. They were held in Dickie's home. the General Dkkie just doesn't under tho eyes, headaches and dizziness. Frequent or scanty passages with smarting and burning some- His schoolmates were invited and know the word defeat. times shows there is something wrong with your kidneys or bladder. Your contribution toward the fight against Infantile Paralysis will be most Do&t wait! Ask your druggist for Poiin'a PtUs, used successfully by millions for over li> years. The\ welcome. Remember that he gives twice who gives quickly. Send your give happy relief and »ill help the 15 miles of kidney tubes tlush out poisonous waste from your blood. ^ kit dimes or other sums to the President, The White House, Washington, D. C. Doivn's l*ills.

FF.IiRUARY. 1041 When Purchasing Products Pifase Mention Tin: American Legion Magazine — .

On all the coasts of the Seven Continents today there's scarcely a square foot of sand where free children can play in peace. On every sea of the Seven Seas ships and men are being sent to the bottom by torpedo and gunfire. In a dozen conquered countries people are starving. American soldiers —our soldiers— American women and children our own people, are in con- centration camps taking orders from the brutal Japs. Better drop those rose-colored glasses and look at the facts! A desperate struggle is ahead of us We must outmatch our enemies, plane for plane, ship for ship, and gun for gun, otherwise our own country will take its place on the long list of de- feated nations.

Our choice is a simple one. Fight — or help those who are fighting. Man a gun or pay for that gun. Drop a bomb or pay for the bomb. With War Bonds. With every single nickel, dime or dollar we can. Join the Pay Roll Savings Plan, whoever you are, wherever you work. Let your employer set aside 10% of your pay every payday. Each time your savings amount to 318.75, you get a bond worth #25.00 in ten years. That's the way we Americans will do it. We won't sit back indifferent. We won't "wait and see" until there's nothing left to see.

"Do it now" is a good American slogan. So let's do it! It's later than you think!

DO YOU KNOW? • When you buy WAR BONDS, you're semiannually! • You can have enough money to do a saving, not giving! Series E WAR • Joining a Pay Roll Savings Plan lot of things you'd like to do, and to BONDS are worth 33'/3 percent more makes savings easy! buy the many things you'll need after in 10 years! You get back $4 for every the war is over, if you save enough in • Joining your bank's Victory Club (it $3 you invest! War Bonds every pay day NOW! works like any Thrift or Christmas • These BONDS, when held to ma- Club) is a convenient way to save for • You can start buying WAR BONDS turity (10 years), yield 2.9 percent per War Bonds for those who aren't mem- by buying War Stamps for as little as year on your investment, compounded bers of a Pay Roll Savings Plan. 10 cents. """XZ*"" 10% in War Bonds

This space is a contribution to America's all-out war effort by The American Legion Magazine

The AMERICAN LEGION Magazine DEFORMED OR 1943 VICTORY BOOK CAMPAIGN INJURED BACK Thousands of Commander Roane Waring has pledged the assistance NATIONAL Remarkable Cases of The American Legion, American Legion Auxiliary, the Forty A Man. helpless, unable to walk because of a and Eight, the Eight and Forty and the Sons of The American Legion spinal injury, was, through support of the in the Victory Philo Burt Appliance, 1943 Book Campaign which is being sponsored by the riding horseback ami Playing tennis, within American Library Association, American Red Cross and United Service a year. A Lady. 7:' years old, who suffered Organizations, Inc. a severe spinal disorder, found relief. A Child, paralyzed from a spinal The purpose of the campaign, as announced in these columns in the deformity was able to play about the house. In three weeks' issue, is to collect time. January worthwhile reading material for the millions The Philo Burt Appliance been successfully used In over sixty- three thousand cases in Uie past of men and women in active service. 3U years. 30 DAYS' TRIAL TO PROVE The slogan of the campaign is: ITS VALUE IN YOUR OWN CASE The Appliance is light, cool, flexible and easily adjusted—how different Any book you really want to keep is a good one to give. from tiie old torturing plaster casts, leather and celluloid jackets or steel braces. Even' sufferer with Quality of books donated will be more important than Quantity. a weakened, injured, diseased or deformed best sellers, stories, spine owes it to himself These may include current mystery and adventure to investigate. Physicians recommend it and we and small-sized editions of popular titles. Technical books, published work with your Doctor. Reduced price within since 1935, covering such subjects as aeronautics, chemistry, mathematics, reach of all afflicted. Send for descriptive book mechanical drawing, radio, physics and so on, are also in demand. Describe your case so we can give you definite information. The program of the Victory Book Campaign, covering details, has been PHILO BURT CO. mailed to every American Legion Post and every American Legion 92-14 Odd Fellows Temple Jamestown, New York Auxiliary Unit through the respective Department Headquarters. Many Posts and Units are probably already engaged in the campaign, which opened on January 5th, and will continue officially until March 5th, although the collection of books will continue beyond that date. Save YourFeet Thousands relieved from pain walk In communities where Book Campaign committees are not organized, freely with HEEFNER the Legion and Auxiliary are urged to take the lead. ARCH SUPPORTS Write for free Booklet Milt D. Campbell, Executive Director fit* "FOOT Division of National Defense f^*' FACTS" HEEFNER SUPPORT 62 The American Legion ARCH CO. Lewis BMg., Salem. Virginia Indianapolis, Indiana

ToAnySuit! Double the life of your coat and vest with correctly matched pants. 100,000 patterns." Every pair band tailored to your measure. Our match sent FREE for your O. K. before pants are made. Tit guaranteed. Send pleoe Of cloth or vett today. SUPERIOR MATCH PANTS COMPANY 209 S. State St. Dept. 424 Chicago

Colitis Often Accompanies Piles FREE BOOK—Explains Facts

The McCleary Clinic. HC1466 Elms Blvd., Ex- celsior Springs, Mo., is putting out an up-to-the- minute, illustrated 122-page book on Piles, Fis- tula, Stomach and Colon disorders, and associated ailments as shown in the chart below.

| NERVOUSNESS I

"Gee, Ma, do you want me to grow You may now have a copy of this book by asking for it with a postcard or letter sent to the op with a frustration complex?" above address. No obligation so write today. FEBRUARY, 1043 59 When Purchasing Products Please Mention The American Legion Magazine SERVICE FLAG

for YOUR FAMILY

Honor YOUR Service Man with this beautiful Service Flag in your window or home. Satin.with yellow fringe—blue star in field of red for each man in service. ORDER FROM THIS AD No. 21—slit Till" each... 50« No. 23—Sl«« ions" each . . 7S« No. 24— Size 12»1«" each...si-oo No. 25—Slse 19x24" each.. .$1. SO include! I to 5 stars—gold stars also Special aires for Legion PostB* Lodge Halls, Churches, etc. Order today. Money promptly re* Send for free catalogue* funded It you are not satisfied.

U.S.FLAGS-Seni for free catalogue*

REGALIA MFG. CO., Dept. A, Rock Island, III. SEND FOR CATALOGUE OF U.S. FLAGS RHEUMATISM • ARTHRITIS - NEURITIS • Get Mendenhall's Number 40 from your druggist or by mail postpaid for $1.25.

Money back if first bottle fails to satisfy.

J. C. MENDENHALL MEDICINE CO. Dept. 23 Evansville, Indiana

Are You Inviting "Has great, big, strong man got a pound of coffee for poor little me?" Ch ronic Ailments? FREE BOOK—Explains Dangers of Rectal-Colon Troubles IT'S THE SAME OLD STREET Backache, headache, constipation, dizziness, nausea, abdominal soreness, stomach and intestinal conditions are often (Continued from page 32) member took charge of equipping planes Piles, caused by Fistula or Colon Trou- where our American Air Production Cen- with radios, etc. One day in October, bles. You can understand how and why ter was located. The picture he permits Lieutenant Arthur told me to get when you see the pictures and diagrams 1918, and read your copy of a 40-page FREE us to reproduce is of a De Haviland 4, a large case of wind generators from BOOK which explains the nature of with a Liberty motor, and was taken at Gievres in a hurry. I mentioned that all

these ailments. Write today—a post- Romorantin. This is his story: our trucks had been sent up front and I card will do. Thornton & Minor Clinic, "Perhaps our gang of oldtimers, see- didn't know how to get the supplies over. Suite 287, 926 McGee St., Kansas City, Mo. ing the present war planes in flight or in His cryptic reply, 'That's your worry,' newsreels might get a kick out of the taught me a life-long lesson. TOMBSTONES enclosed picture of a plane that was con- "However, by dint of plenty of cigars sidered pretty hot stuff in our war. and chewing tobacco, I persuaded a good, DIRECT TO YOU $Q95 "The picture was taken at the Air old-fashioned, homespun American team- • Genuine beautiful ROCK- •JUD Production Center at Romorantin, which ster, who was filling chuck holes, to use DALE Monuments, Markers. * Satisfaction or Money Bock. EASY was an assembly plant. Planes would his mule team to move the stuff. Free lettering. Free catalog, terms come over from the States knocked "The strange sight of a mule team Freight paid. COMPARE OUR PRICES. down, the engine in one box, the fuse- parading through that big airplane ROCKDALE MONUMENT CO., Dept. 735, Juliet, III. lage in another, the wings in a third. hangar did something to those mechanics Frequently grass would be growing in working there, because right away they HAVE YOU SUBSCRIBED the boxes which would always cause began to race the plane motors. The re- some kidding among our gang, the 466th action of a jackass to all that wind and to The American Legion Magazine for 1943 Squadron. So there must have been racket simply meant a mule's hell and for a young friend in the service? If not do it today. See pages 30, 31 and 32 the Jan- bottle-necks then, too! those two animals proceeded to make uary issue or your Post Commander for full "The buildings of our assembly plant the place into a white wing's paradise. details and blanks. order were erected by men who were not steel- We finally got them quieted and the workers—just the ordinary run of men. equipment unloaded—I being much re- What we didn't know or have, we just lieved and, yet, much wiser. trt cut and tried, and got the job done. "Wonder how many of that old gang m "There was a Salvage Plant near our may be back in uniform? Let's hear from I ASTHMADOR buildings where crashed planes, either of them." the enemy or of the Allies, would come The medicated smoke of Dr. back by trainloads to be disassembled THEY'VE been working on the rail- R. Schiffmann's ASTHMADOR aids in reducing the severity and melted down to pigs again, but the road—and for all we know, may still — of asthmatic paroxysms helps war ended before we got the furnaces be. We're referring to the Martins, one you breathe more easily. ASTHMADOR is economical, built. I presume the idea was to send cf whom in the group on page 32, sent us dependably uniform — its qual- metal back to picture, ac- ity insured through rigid lab- the States in condensed the with a rather unusual oratory control. Try ASTH- form to use again—a good idea to re- count of their joint service during our MADOR in powder, cigarette or pipe mixture form. At all member in this present war, considering war. We wonder if their situation didn't drug stores — or write today for the metal shortage. cause a nice mixup in mail delivery. a free sample. R. SCHIFFMANN CO. "One incident I recall particularly: Anyway, this is what John L. Martin, LOS ANGELES, CAL., DEPT. P-19 The Radio Section of which I was a Finance Officer of Grayling (Michigan)

The AMERICAN LEGION Magazine WHtN Purchasing Products Please Mention The American Legion Magazine .

Post of the Legion, tells us about the every second man getting a can of picture: sardines to share with the man following "I am submitting a picture taken in him. the officers' clubrooms, 35th Engineers, "At Le Havre three days, and then Camp Pullman, La Rochelle, France, in to Tours, headquarters of the railroad February, 19 19. men in the A. E. F. During our six-day "These men were all members of the stay there, we were stationed at Camp 131st Company, Transportation Corps, de Grasse, a German prison camp about Railroad Operating Engineers, and while five miles from Tours. We visited Tours none of them is related to the other, all of them bore the surname of Martin. From left to right, they are: "John L. Martin, sergeant i/cl. (my- REEVES FABRICS self), who had been a brakeman on the make strong, sturdy New York Central Railroad, Grayling, UNIFORMS. ..WORK AND SPORT CLOTHES Michigan; Thomas J. Martin, private i/cl. engineer, Baltimore & Ohio Rail- road, Piedmont, West Virginia; John Specify Reeves Army Martin, private, switchman. New York Twill of which the U. S. Central, Albany, New York; Edward A. Army has already nYhitey) Martin, private, brakeman, bought sixty million Southern Railway, Chattanooga, Ten- yards. Also demand See your Glengarrie Poplin for nessee, and William Martin, private, dealer for uniforms, work matching shirts. Both fireman, New York Central, North or sport clothes mode from Reeves Fabrics, or write to: fabrics are Sanforized* Tonawanda, New York. * Fabric shrinkage not more than 1% (U. S. Government test CCC-T-191-a) "I may have erred some as to rank REEVES BROS., INC. and address of some of these fellow- .f% 54 Worth Street, New York City »fi £ Martins, but it is quite a long time since we soldiered together. Hope they Try this Wonderful see the picture and report to me. Treatment for "The company which included the DILES Pile Suffering FREE Martin quintet was formed at Fort Ben- I If you are troubled with itching, bleeding protruding piles, write for a jamin Harrison, Indiana, which was H or FREE sample of Page's Combination headquarters for the Army railroad men Treatment and you may bless the day you read this. Don't wait, WRITE TODAY. in the United States, and this is where nearly every afternoon and evening, and E. R. PAGE CO., Dept. 471A5 Marshall, Mich . the five Martins first met. After being every night at 22:49, a tra i n f°r organized for overseas service, we went Paris, the first stop being Camp de to Camp Upton, New York, and then Grasse. You can well imagine the train Asthma Mucus boarded the transport Empress of Brit- was loaded to capacity with every sol- ain at Hoboken. Aboard our ship were dier who could find a place to stand or Loosened First Day about seventy-five Red Cross nurses and hang—in the compartments, on the run- about eight thousand enlisted men and ning boards, on top of the coaches and For Thousands of Sufferers Choking, gasping, wheezing spasms of Bronchial officers. Landing in ex- Liverpool, England, all over. You can also imagine the Asthma ruin sleep and energy. Ingredients in the we left immediately by train for Win- citement caused by hundreds of rail- prescription Mendaco quickly circulate through the blood and commonly help loosen the thick chester and hiked about five miles—in road men aboard. When the collector strangling mucus the first day, thus aiding nature in palliating the terrible recurring choking spasms, the rain—to Camp Stadon, a so-called stopped at the first American soldier to and in promoting freer breathing and restful sleep. Mendaco is not a smoke, dope, or injection. rest camp. There a few days, to South- collect the fare, the only reply was 'pas Just pleasant, tasteless palliating tablets that have helped thousands of sufferers. Iron clad ampton and across the Channel to Le compre' and so it went. As it didn't take guarantee—money back unless completely satis- Havre and another British rest camp. long to reach the Camp, we would all factory. Ask your druggist for Mendaco today. Several of our men went AWOL because unload, and so far as I recall, there was of the chow—one meal that stands out never a fare collected. It was lots of in memory having consisted of a piece fun.

of bread and a half-cup of tea, with " Groups of our men went from Tours CHECKED In A Jiffy Relieve itching caused by eczema, athlete's foot, scabies, pimples and other itching conditions. Use cooling, medicated D.D.D. Prescription. Grease- less, stainless. Soothes, comforts and checks itching fast. 35c trial bottle LEGIONNAIRE CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS ISSUE proves it —or money back. Ask your druggist today for D. 0. 0. Prescription. HARVEY DUNN, DeWitt Post, Tenafly, New Jersey. MIDDLE-AGED BUSINESS MEN OR ROBERT FRANCIS, Sayville (New York) Posf. SALESMEN ft Join 75 Mo /W/. . WILLIAM HEASLIP, 107th Infantry Post, New York City. s s PETER B. KYNE, Merced (California) Post. 400to 2000 In A Month HERBERT M. STOOPS, First Division Lieut. Jefferson Feigl Post, New York City. r,I HALF-MILLION , OriO' y -^jtr DOLLAR HQ '. ,jnO s company, established over RAY TUCKER, National Press Club Post, Washington, D.C. JM^^ n etflC jmbW^^ tw0 decades, has opening for men - interviewing public of- fl' ttff~ capable of A. D. RATHBONE IV, Fancher Nicoll Post. Pleasantville, New York. ficials, heads of industries, army camps, schools, churches, stores, large growers and farmers in cities J. W. SCHLAIKJER, Winner (South Dakota) Post. and surrounding towns. Car not essential as many of our men travel V. E. PYLES, 107th Infantry Post, New York City. by bus. We deliver your orders, collect for them and advance your earnings daily. Priorities in other lines Conductors of regular departments of the magazine, all of whom are Legionnaires, are greatlv benefit us as there are no priorities in our line. Men who were "bankrupt" when not listed. they started with us, now have homes and security. Big season starts soon. Rush name, age for particulars. VICE PRESIDENT, Box 711, DepL 11, Fort Worth, Tex.

FEBRUARY, 19*3 6l Wh:n Pl-rchatnt. Products Please Mention The American Ltc.ion Magazine a

all the time to wherever they were THE needed. But the five Martins still stayed and sent with of American Legion Magazine together were most our company to the 35 th Engineers at INDEX of Camp Pullman, La Rochelle. The 35th was the outfit that 'built the cars' for ADVERTISERS the A. E. F. and some of our men worked as car builders, while others did some of the switching, as all our material came from the American Car and American Central Mfg. Corp. .39 Foundry Company in Hammond, In- diana, and had to be hauled inland from Ballantine, P. & Sons Cover II La Pallice, the seaport, about seven Blatz Brewing Company 53 miles over the French government rail- Brewing Industry Foundation 37 roads. Brooks Co 63 "The French railway depot at La Burt, Philo, Co 59 Rochelle was an unfinished stone building, which had been under construction for seven years prior to the start of the Casey Jones School of Aeronautics 53 war in 1914. It was being built under Condon Bros., Seedsmen 63 direction of a German architect. Of course, all operations ceased when war D.D.D. Corp .61 came, but to give an idea of its size,

Dental Products Corp.. The. .63 I can report that the 35th used it as Doan's Pills .57 their mess and between four and five Anyone recognize this soldier or the thousand were in it men served meals two fair maidens with him? Where Eveready Flashlights & Batteries 45 three times a day—the main waiting and when was the snapshot taken? room being used as a mess hall, and the This picture and others await the rooms intended for railroad offices as Heefner Arch Support Co. .59 owner kitchens.

"This picture was brought to light "Men of the 143d Infantry want to Knox Co. after seeing a picture of a member of know. Cystex 55 the 131st Company, T. C, in the No- "These pictures, along with a number 61 Mendaco vember, 1940, issue of the Trainmen's of others developed at Terreson's in Magazine. It was of Sergeant J. H. Birmingham, Alabama, were tucked of Dunsmuir, California, Marlin Firearms Co 49 Moelk a buddy away in his rifle belt by a soldier of and pal of mine. While looking through McCleary Clinic 59 World War I, and were lost until Private my army relics for an address book, Mendhall, J. C, Medicine Co 60 Frank J. Novelli of Galveston, Texas, I came across this picture. I wrote to rummaged around in the pockets of Moelk and got a reply. He is enjoying what he thought was a brand-new rifle National Carbon Co 45 good health and is a conductor on the belt issued to him, and discovered the National Distillers Products Corp. Southern Pacific Railway at Dunsmuir, faded prints. Old Grand-Dad 2 and also a charter member of Epps Post "If the soldier who owned the pic- of the Legion in Dunsmuir. tures, or a friend or member of his fam- Division General Motors 3 Oldsmobile "Five Martins in one company, as I ily will report, the pictures will be re- recall, caused no confusion. As to the turned. whereabouts of the other Martins Page, E. B., Co 61 now "I am not a veteran of World War I, I cannot say, as I have not kept in con- Postal Life Insurance Co 57 and hence have no Legion Post affilia- Prudential Insurance Co. of America 4 tact with any of them." tion, although while I was a reporter on the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, I had N THE reissuance of World War I a great deal of contact with the Legion Beeves Bros., Inc 61 I equipment to men in the present Posts in Fort Worth." Begalia Mfg. Co 60 Army, quite a number of souvenirs of We're sorry this is our first oppor- B. J. Beynolds Tobacco Co. those olden days have come to light, tunity to reproduce one of the snap- Camels Cover IV and we have succeeded in returning shots, because we have no idea where Bockdale Monument Co 60 some of them to our older comrades. the 1 4 2d Infantry may now be sta- Now we offer a chance to another vet- tioned. But we do have three of the Schenley Distillers Corp Cover III eran of our War to recover some snap- snapshot prints about which Lieutenant 60 Schiffmann, B., Co shot prints which he may now prize. North wrote, and are ready to deliver Schlitz, Jos., Brewing Co 41 Take a look at one of the pictures we them to anyone who can prove owner- Seagram Distillers Corp 47 show—strictly non-regulation, we'd say, ship. Shumway, B. H., Seedsman 57 with the fair damsels wearing campaign Superior Match Pants Co 59 hats and one of them, even, with side NOW for a report on a previous arms strapped about her waist. Here is quest of this kind. You will re- Thornton & Minor Clinic 60 how we learned about the pictures— call that in Then and Now in the Oc- letter from Phillip R. North, 2d Lieu- tober, 1942, issue we showed two snap- tenant, 14 2d Infantry, Public Relations shots—one of an officer holding a young Union Carbide & Carbon Corp 45 Officer of that regiment, written in child, the other evidently of the same United States Treasury Dept 58 Camp Bowie, Texas, March 26, 1941: officer and child with its mother and "Who are the soldiers in the enclosed grandmother. These were only two of a Vice President 61 snapshots? Were they at the last Legion batch of snapshot prints found by Le- convention? Are they alive today? Do gionnaire Archie Davis of Pearson, Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. .43 any of their buddies recognize them? Georgia, at Camp Lee, Virginia, in 1920,

62 The AMERICAN LEGION Magazine When Purchasing Products Please Mention The American Legion Magazine — 1

when he had re-enlisted in the Army For details of the following reunions MAKES FALSE TEETH FIT after having served with the 321st Field and other activities, write to the Legion- Artillery and 233d M. P. Company dur- naires whose names are listed: ing find our World War. He wanted to A denture wearing chemist, the owner of the pictures so they could Vets, op 314th Inf., AEF—25th annual con. who suffered from loose vention-reunion, Philadelphia, Pa., Sept. 24-26. plates, and sore gums, decided be returned. Geo. E. Hentschel, natl. secy., 1845 Champlost to do something about it. The re- Av., Philadelphia. sult, after long research and experi- Only one letter came to us from — Co. B, 3d Oregon, and 162d Inf.—43d annual ment, is DENTYTE, a revolutionary Commander Edward H. Rauch of Har- reunion-banquet, Portland, Ore., Mar. 6. R. E. resilient rubberlike substance that perfectly McEnany. 1101 NW Hoyt St., Portland. shapes to the mouth even the poorest fitting risburg (Pennsylvania) Post of the Le- Co. M, 307th Inf.—Annual dinner and re- plates, giving undreamed of comfort. It Is odor- union, 77th Div. Clubhouse, 28 39th less, tasteless, and may safely be used on any gion, whose headquarters are at 21 South E. St., New York City, Sat. night. Mar. 13. Henry type plate. One application lasts for months. Front Street in that capital city. Said H. Ringen, 85 Vermilyea Av., New York City. Instantly removable without solvents or scrap- 13TH Ry. Engrs.— 14th annual reunion, Au ing. Full size jar—a year s supply for one plate, Commander Rauch: rora, 111., June 18-20. Jas. A. Elliott, secy.- (6 months for two) postpaid, only $1.00. If not treas., 721 E. 21st St., Little Rock, satisfied after 30 days trial, return unused por- "Concerning the pictures found at Ark. 25th Engrs. Assoc.—All vets invited to join tion, for full refund. Camp Lee, Virginia, which appeared in revived Association. Write to Cameron K. Mc- The Dental Products Corp., Dept. Al-72, Manheim, Pa. Cormick, 2346 N. 6th St., Harrisburg, Pa. the last issue of the Legion Magazine, 1st Overseas Det., Ry. Engrs., Ft. Benj. CUSHION DENTURE LINER Harrison, Ind. Proposed vets organization DeniYie I think the officer is then-Captain, now- — and reunion. Write to M. D. Melchi, 307 State Brigadier General Leven C. Allen, Com- Av., Alamosa, Colo. 322D F. S. Bn. Vets. Assoc.—Battalion his- mandant of Infantry, Fort Benning, tory and 1942 roster is ready for distribution. For copies, write Georgia. He was at Camp Lee about Julius Merkelbach, 1530 44th BEAUTIFUL^E 1 Avenue, San Francisco, Calif. that time— 1920." Co. 6, 1st Air Serv. Mech. Regt., AEF HOUSE PLANTS Q+\ 4th annual reunion and dinner, Hotel Pica- Greatest House Plant Offer of the Year We immediately wrote to General dilly. New York City, Oct. 23. Write C. R. I II Weeping Lantana— Soft Lilac Pink. Summers, co. clrk., 3258 Clearview St., Phila- Allen sending him a copy of the October 1 Coleus Trailing Beauty. 1 Strawber- delphia, Pa. , — \ry Geranium. 1 Begonia Pink Gem. issue, and his reply, which shows that 656th Aero Sqdrn. For "Letter Reunion," — — All Blooming Size Plants. Only 25c Post- write news of yourself and comrades to Hollis I paid.Worth SLOO. Most complete assortment he is now Major General Leven C. Allen, L. Townsend, Nela Park, Cleveland, Ohio. | of Charming House Plants inAmerica;over250 Favor- Headquarters, The Infantry School, Fort Copies of all letters received will be distributed I varietie9,including"Grandmother's01d to the men who report. ites" and late introductions, featured in our Big Plant, Seed and Nursery Catalog, sent to you Benning, Georgia, brought this reply: 14th Det., Air Serv., Marine Field, CDCC Dayton, Send 25c for thit Big Bargain House Plant Offer. IHtt Ohio—Proposed organization and reunion. Re- "The two snapshot pictures repro- RocMord.JIHnouS port to Ex-Cpl. Samuel J. Kissinger, R. R. 2, CONDON BROS. SEEDSMEN duced on page sixty-six of the October Box 683, JopHn, Missouri. World War Tank Corps Assoc.—Although issue of The American Legion Magazine reunions have been suspended, the national organization and local Battalions are carrying on. American Legion are of Lieutenant D wight L. Adams, For plans for organization of new Battalions, The now deceased. I thank you and Legion- write Claude J. Harris, ehmn., organization National Headquarters comm., 817 1/, W. 43d St., Los Angeles, Calif., naire Archie Davis for your interest.'' or E. J. Price, natl. adjt., 130 N. Wells St., Indianapolis, Indiana Chicago, 111. We regret very much to know that Q. M. C, Fort Slocum, N. Y.—Proposed re- Lieutenant Adams has gone West—but union and organization of 1917-18 vets. Write Financial Statement M. Vernon Bendet, 87 Peck Av., Newark, N. J. now we trust that some of our readers Base Hosp. 93—Proposed reunion and or- November 30, 1942 ganization. Walter T. Togni, P. O. Box 372, be able to advise us the name and may Santa Barbara, Calif. address of the lieutenant's surviving rela- Natl. Otranto-Kashmir Assoc.—Annual re- Assets union, Muscatine, Iowa, Oct. 3. A. H. Telford, tives, as I know they will doubly appre- secy., Galesburg, 111. Cash on hand and on deposit $ 569.167.72 Reserve Mallet Assoc. To complete new Receivable 128,385.77 ciate receiving these pictures. — Accounts roster, for early distribution, send name and Inventories 158,073.17 address to J. E. Daily, natl. secy.. 1292 Chalmers Invested funds 2,690,925.02 Av., Detroit, Mich. Proposed reunion Norwalk, Permanent Investment: "SUSPENDED for the Duration" Ohio. June 12-13. Overseas Graves Decoration Trust Fund 217, 197.97 sign has hung out most U. S. S. Leviathan Vets. Assoc.—Annual Office building, Washington, D. C, less A been by Rutley's reunion dinner of World War crew, depreciation 123,970.98 veteran organizations in so far as re- Restaurant, 40th St. & Bdwy., New York City, Furniture, fixtures and equipment, less Sat., Mar. 20. All officers and men send reserva- depreciation 43,419.92 unions are concerned. There are, some tions to R. L. Hedlander, secy., Greenwich, Deferred charges 33.994.74 outfits whose membership is largely Conn. North Sea Mine Force Assoc., Inc. — $3,965,135.29 localized, still carrying on, and some Regional reunion and stag dinner. Hotel New Yorker, New York City, Feb. 9, to commemo- regional reunions of national veterans rate landing of first American sailors at Base Liabilities, Deferred Revenue H. (King) Cole, secy.-treas.. societies are still being scheduled. We 18. Write to Geo. New York Chapter, 203 E. 26th St., New York and Net Worth are looking forward to being swamped City. Current liabilities $ 76,613.08 restricted as to use 37,559.15 with announcements of "Victory Re- John J. Noll Funds Deferred revenue 593,765.68 unions" just as soon as we win this war. The Company Clerk Permanent trust: Overseas Graves Decoration Trust Fund 217, 197.97 Net Worth: Restricted capital $2,666,470.17 Unrestricted capital.. 373,529.24 $3,039,999.4

$3,965, 135.29

Frank E. Samuel, National Adjutant

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FEBRUARY, 1943 6.3 When Purchasing Products Please Mention The American Legion Macazine Raleigh News and Observer.

TRUTHFUL J. E. Jennings of Phoenix, Arizona, says it happened to him. He had applied for admission to a Veterans Adminis- tration Facility for treatment. After waiting some days ULYS WEBB of Galentine-Price he was advised that Post, Skiatook, Oklahoma, says his application had that a neighbor rushed into the Palace been approved and bar and called for a shot of red-eye. The that a hospital bed bartender placed a bottle and glass with- had been reserved kindly ear. in reach, then turned a for him. But—in "I've just come from home," said the the same mail he agitated patron. "Mrs. Brown has been received a circular there. She and my wife were dragging from a local crema- Mrs. Smith over the coals for the way tory telling him she treats Smith, but I didn't say any- how wonderful it is thing. After Mrs. Brown went home my to be cremated! "We had to do something—we gave wife said, 'What are you grinnin' about?' so many books to the boys in camp." You can't explain some things to a wom- A U R I C E an. No, sir. And, yes, it's none of your (R 0 S E Y) M < business how I got this bump on the ROSENWALD, New York's Navy Post than pleasingly plump, reports Legion- back of my head!" Past Commander, tells a story about naire Andy Bowen of Hill-Emery Post, Shipmate Barney Hitzel, in the Post's Quincy. He turned in a school paper LEGIONNAIRE Milton R. Epstein of Port 0' Call. Barney's wife found him that was a mess. The teacher handed it i Daylight Post, Los Angeles, opines one evening standing by the new baby's back and With biting sarcasm said: "You that, in the light of the progress of the crib, looking down at the sleeping in- are better fed than taught!" African campaign and choice of com- fant. Silently she watched him—she saw "Yes'm," cheerfully replied Tommy. air mander of the forces there, no one in his face, or thought she did, a mix- "I feed myself." can that it is say another case of "Doo- ture of emotions—rapture, doubt, de- little and Too Late." spair, ecstasy and incredulity. Touched LEGIONNAIRE John F. Glover, who and wondering alike at this unusual j keeps track of the marvels of theater war is THE production being stepped parental attitude, she said: "A penny signs in the Morgantown, West Virginia, up, says Legionnaire H. M. Lither- for your thoughts!" sector, reports that a local house has land of Moorehead, Minnesota. The ef- "For the life of me," Barney exploded crashed through with another startler: ficiency of the assembly line is truly in an oracular tone, "I can't see how "Geo. Washington Slept Here with J. amazing. Even the Army physical exams anybody can make a crib like that for Benny." are being speeded up. One doctor looks two dollars and ninety-eight cents!" in ond' ear, another doctor looks in the PRIVATE Goofby reported at the in- other. If they can firmary, as he did about once every see each other, they WHEN he was of schoolboy age, reject the man! Tom Hickey, Grand Chef de Gare week, with some little-heard-of ailment. This he said he was so troubled of the Illinois Forty and Eight, was more time ROBERT WYNNE of Dodge County with snoring that he couldn't get any -Post, Eastman, Georgia, reports that rest. The medical officer knew his man, an inductee was being ques- so he just looked wise. tioned by a well-wishing friend "Bad, Private Goofby, it's about his entry into the Army. very bad," he began. "Now to "How did you get in?" he was cure yourself just follow my 3.slccc3 instructions. The first thing on "Through the C. C. C," was going to bed at night raise the terse reply. yourself softly on your elbows "But," persisted the ques- then gently, but firmly, bite tioner, "the Civilian Conserva- yourself in the nose!" tion Corps men were not trans- ferred to the Army." "COME twenty-odd years "Can't help it," insisted the O ago," says Commander soldier. "The C. C. C. got me Harry F. Ephraim of Beacon anyways—Caught, Conscripted Post, Los Angeles, California, and Carried!" "I was a member of a boot company taking 'squads right' LEGIONNAIRE R. Everett at the old Brooklyn Navy t Whitson of Briarcliff Man- Yard. The instructor was an or, New York, makes a hobby old timer from the days of of collecting newspaper head- wooden ships and iron men. line bulls and blunders. Here "The boots were just about are a few: "Lewis Wins and average; at the command Loses Union Suit," San An- 'right face' half of the squad tonio Express; "Scent Foul would turn to the left. Finally Play in Death of Man Found the old salt blew up. He Bound and Hanged," Toledo hitched up his pants, spat on Times; "Local Man has Long- his hands and bellowed: est Horns in All Texas," North 'When I say "right face," face Fort Worth News, and "Officer the Jersey side, you gum- ! " Convicted of Accepting Bride," witted sons of aggravation '

64 The AMERICAN LEGION Magazine

PRINTED IN THE U. 5. A. BY THE CUNEO PRESS, INC. "ers m

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Making the best of a situation is the great American trait. Offering the best of whiskies... Schenley Royal Reserve. ..is the great American gesture. And buying War Bonds is the great American privilege. Buy War Bonds regularly.

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Crash helmet, coveralls, Ski champion, U. S. Army "Tell it to the Marines!" Dolphins on this sailor's " Camels — they're standard model 1943. His cigarette is And this Marine paratroop- right sleeve mean undersea equipment" with this tank a flavor champion of many er, with his parachute pack, service. " Pigboat" is his word driver. That's a General be- years' standing — Camel — will tell you the favorite for submarine — "Camel" for hind him — a "General Lee." the Army man's favorite. pack with Marines is Camel. his favorite smoke.

IN THE ARMY IN THE NAVY IN THE MARI IN THE COAS GUAR

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On land — on sea— yes, and in the air, too, the favorite is Camel. As this high -altitude Army bomber pilot says: "Camels suit me to a 'T'!"

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The "T-ZONE" — Taste and Throat — is the proving ground for cigarettes. Only your taste and throat can decide which ciga-

rette tastes best to you... and how it affects your throat. For On the right sleeve of these men, Take a jouncing Jeep, a your taste and throat are individual to you. Based on the ex- above, there's a small white Johnny Doughboy — an "I'd perience of millions of smokers, we believe Camels will suit shield. That means Coast Guard. walk a mile" grin — add 'em your "T-ZONE" to a " T." Prove it for yourself! Andwithmen in theCoastGuard, all up and you get CAMEL R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, Winston-Salem, North the favorite cigarette is Camel. the fighting man's favorite. Carolina