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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 21, 1958)
Founder'of American Rangers Still Very Much Alive to Men By UAL BOYLE NEW YORK IJH A great lead er never quite dies altogether. He lives in the spirit he kindled among those who followed him. So it is that, in a very real way, William Orlando Darby, founder of the American Rangers in the second World War, is still very much alive, although he died two days before the war closed. ‘•Even after all these years we can't think of him as dead." said Charles Contrera. who served as driver-interpreter for the bril liant young West Pointer from Fort Smith, Ark., whose career was ended at 34 by a German ar tillery shell on the Italian front. “To us he was almost a God. To the men he seemed super human. He was wounded three times, but we never really be lieved he could be killed—he had been through so much." Hollywood recently "discov ered” Col. Darby, an officer many believed was destined to be Army chief of staff, and Warner Bros, has told part of his story in a notable film of battle action called. "Darby’s Rangers." Contrera was one of a num ber of former Rangers who at tended a preview of the picture here the other night. Now 38. Contrera is an upholsterer by trade. He and his wife. Lucille, have bought a home and are hoping to adopt a baby. He rarely fights the war any more “except sometimes at night in his sleep," said his wife, but when he does think of it, his thoughts turn always to Col. Darby. Charlie was one of the first to volunteer when Darby was given the assignment of creating an elite spearhead force for the Army, a force comparable to the U.S. Marines, but smaller. As a FFC, Contrera landed with the Rangers in Africa, but it wasn't until after the group had stormed the beaches of Sicily that he came to know Darby well. "He wanted a driver who could also act as an interpreter,” Con Ukraine Pravda Assails Religion MOSCOW Wi—The newspaper Ukraine Pravda, official com munist party organ for that Soviet republic, said Monday that while religion persists in the Soviet Union primarily as a curiosity, it remains a problem and must be stamped out. Religion persists among “un stable and uneducated” elements, the paper said, and anti-religious lectures alone are not enough to combat it. “All the forces of ideological influence must be mobilized in a struggle against religion — the cinema, radio, television and class and individual discussions,” the newspaper said. Some of the restrictions on re ligion were relaxed in the Soviet Union after the death of Stalin in 1953, but atheism remained the official doctrine of the ruling Communist Party. In recent months the party has returned to the offensive against religion. : trera recalled, “and when I NU1 him I could speak a couple of Italian dialects he said, ‘get be hind the wheel. Let's go.' “I didn't know what that would mean to me-^or I mighf' have kept my mouth shut. We lived on the front line. We were in tight squeezes all the time. “The Colonel liked to do his own reconnoitering for his night attacks. When we couldn't go any further by jeep, we'd climb aboard donkeys. And when we got to places in the hills where even the donkeys balked, we'd jump off and go on by foot." Contrera remembers later in Italy how. day after day. he had to speed his jeep across a 75-yard • open area of road swept by ma I chine gun fire. “The Colonel got a kick out of | timing the enemy fire and beat I ing it," he said. “We could see the bullets kicking up dust be hind us, but nothing ever both | ered him. And, somehow, I felt safe with him." Only one time did Darby ever Ironic Twist Throws Communist in Prison SEATTLE {Jfi — A woman who renounced communism and turn ed state's evidence became through an ironic twist Monday the only person to serve time in prison from the Northwest’s celebrated Smith Act trials of 1953. Mrs. Barbara Hartle, for years a leading Communist Party func tionary in this raea, recanted aft er her arrest, pleaded guilty and testified freely against the six others also charged with conspir ing to teach and advocate the | forcible overthrow of the govern : ment. She and four others were con victed in October, 1953. one was acquitted and one took his own life during the trial. ' Monday the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Fran cisco reversed the convictions of Henry P. Huff, 58; John S. ; Daschbach, 42; Terry Pettus, 52, ] and Paul M. Bowman, 34, and ( freed them. They cannot be re- ; tried. Mrs. Hartle, star witness for the government, served 2012 months at the federal women's prison at Alderson, W. Va., and was released on parole in Janu ary, 1956. She retired then to comparative obscurity on a chick en ranch north of Spokane. Huff was Pacific Northwest chairman for the Communist Par ty, Pettus Northwest editor of the People’s Daily World, Bowen, a party functionary in the Seattle area and Daschbach chairman of the Washington State Civil Rights Congress. Karley Larsen, an official of the International Woodworkers of American, was acquitted. Wil liam Pennock, head of the Wash ington Pension Union, committed suicide while the trial was in pro gress. The appellate court decision Monday represented a setback for U. S. Atty. Charles P. Moriar ty of Seattle, who had recom mended that the convictions of the four be dismissed and they be retried. 'Keep Warm and Happy’ MAUD HUNTINGTON FUEL CO. 997 Oak St. DI 4-1211 DI 5-6262 loose his composure. That was at Cisterns, on the Anzio beach head, when a German division surrounded and largely destroyed two battalions of Hangers as he was trying to break through to their rescue. "Don't give up. Infiltrate back." Darby kept pleading into the field phone. “Don't give up! Don't give up! Don't give up!" "When he was told the men couldn't infiltrate back because they were trapped," said Con trera, "the Colonel put his head down on his arm and cried for several moments. He broke down. He had always put the safety of his men first, and he couldn't stand the thought of what was happening to them. "But none of us ever blamed him. It wasn't his fault." The last time Contrera ever saw Darby was when the Colonel came to visit 119 surviving Rangers at Camp Butner in North Carolina. "He never made a speech to us —just talked to us one by one. or in small groups. He was very sad.” After 11 months on the Army general staff in Washington Darby returned to the Italian front as deputy commander of the 10th Mountain Division. A German shell killed him soon after, as he was inspecting front line positions. “I have never before or since, looked up to a man as I did to | him." said Contrera. "After his j death they made him a Brigadier General, and that was nice of I them. He was all soldier." KWAX Schedule Tuesday 6:00 Sign on 6:05 News 6:10 Dinner Hour 7:00 Perspectives 7:30 Concert Hour 8:00 Concert Hour 8:15 Concert Hour 8:30 Easy Listening 8:45 Easy Listening 9:00 World News 9:15 Music on Deck 9:30 Assignment Middle East 9:45 15 on 78 10:00 Campus News, Sports 10:15 Miller’s Maladjustment 11:00 Sign off Use Emerald Classified Ads— Phone DI 5-1511, Ext. 218. TRAFFIC COl* in busy room sepia re Is hard to riml iimlit Rills presented to the poller force by motorist . on Fpiphuny, the trn clitioiuil Rift-RiviiiR cloy in Italy. Proposed Legislation to Require Unions to Make Records Public VANCOUVER, Wash ■ ^ Sec rotary of Labor Mitchell Monday said President Eisenhower will ask Congress for legislation re quiring unions to make their fi nancial records public. This is part of a "middle of the road" labor program which the President will propose, Mitchell told a breakfast meeting ar- 1 ranged by the Clark County Re publican Central Committee The President's proposal will Aspergillosis Claims Portland Penguin PORTLAND 1ff Portland lost another penguin from its flock yesterday. The bird, one of 67 flown here from the Antarctic last November, apparently died from aspergillosis, a fungus di- ! sease of the lungs. The disease has claimed 10 other penguins here and at other zoos where the penguins were shipped. Portland still has nine Adelies, | smaller size penguins, and 15 Emperors. At least one of the surviving Emperors is believed to be suffering from the disease. 1 rail for penalties for union* which refuse to dolose their records on handling of union fund* und pen sion programs These penalties would Include the loss of th<’ un ion's tax-free status and loss of certification as bargaining agents by the National Labor Kelntions Hoard, he said. Two Librarians to Travel to Meeting Head librarian, Carl Hlntz, and documents librarian. Klizabeth Kindly, will lx- in Chicago Jan. 28 through Feb. 1 to attend the midwinter meeting of the Amer ican Library Association. Hint/, is vice-chairman of the University Libraries section of the Association of College and Reference Libraries and Miss Kindly Is a director at large of the ACltL. THIS WEEK ONLY LADIES PLAIN WOOL COATS LADIES PLAIN WOOL COATS 1HR. SERVICE VICTONE PROCESS CLEANERS Sjg HR. 9 SERVICE New DRIVE-IN Service 13th & High
