La Grande evening observer. (La Grande, Or.) 1904-1959, June 13, 1945, Image 6

Historic Oregon Newspapers

La Grande evening observer., June 13, 1945, Image 6

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Newspaper Page TextPage Sue TUB LA GRANDE EVENING OBSERVER, LA GRANDE, OREGON Our Boarding House With Major Hoopt Out Our Way . R. William ggj3' COLLIE 1 "-'r&Ji C:.aisr 1 CIX of 3 wuro silting around the bottered old card table in the bornliko shack that served us pilots' operations ut the Kunming terminal of China Nntional Avlu tion Corporation. The cold fog settling slowly over the airfield had driven everyone indoors ex cept the mechanics and field at tendants who were refueling our planes. I was $112 in the hole I re member this distinctly because it was Just the beginning of a bad' run of luck at stud poker. Bob Robertson of Macon, Ca, and his co-pllot, a Chinese boy named Woty Sung, were leading by a heavy margin, each having a stack cf lettuce in front of him like the harvest from a Victory garden back home. Eddie Quinn, also C.-inese and co-pllot on Capt. Al Gl igiss' ship, was a little ahead, too; but BUI Fox of Dolhart, Tex., my co-pllot, and young Tsui, our radioman, were right with me at the bottom of our pockets. By every law of chanc :, it seemed to me, one of us was about due for a winning hand. So it was an awkward tlmo to hear Flight Superintendent Pottschmidt shouting: "Captain Genovcsel Hey, Gen!" And then in a mufrled, impatient aside, "Whero the hell is that guy?" "Potty" was a big man, about 40, with a fighter's build. Stand ing behind his desk with his hands in his hip pockets and his broad shoulders hunched, his big blond head had to tilt down to look at me. In fact, my five feet eight inches looked pretty small among most of the boys flying across, the Himalaya Hump be tween Kunming, In China's Yun nan Province, and Assam, India, "Got Job for you, Gen," Pott schmidt said. "Thirty-two pas sengers and they're all hot to get started." He glanced at his office window, getting steadily grayer with fog, and shook his head. "Let me know what route you'll toke so we'll know where to look for the pieces." fHINA NATIONAL doesn't fly for pleasure. There wore no tourists among those 32 passen gers. Aside from two Allied generals I had flown before, there were many high Chinese officers and a few civilians. Among the latter I recognized a confidential ad viser to Gen. Chiang Kai-shek and a foreign-office big shot. They were all people that really de served to get whero they w; go ing, and I wished to hell that it wasn't my responsibility to get them there. I checked with Pottschmidt iust before taking off und said I would fly the north route. Ills liiforma- tf -4h7 - :d is? . fir. f We never carried (runs on China National transports they weighed too much and cut down on cargo capacity. tlon from Captain GIngIss, who hod been the lost one in from Assam about C o'clock that morn- in, wa- that the stratus forma- tlon ran ' p only to about 15,000 feet atave that it was clear but th t there was a sleet storm blow- Inj near Lake Tall. Our take-off wasn't too bad: the fog was thin enough across the fl' 'd so I could see the ground 100 yards ahead; it was Just a matter of giving both engines of my Douglas C-53 everything they had and then the Instant we were off the runway, pulling up the gear so wo wouldn't trip on the trees hiding at the end of the strip. tiear or tne Held. Fox and I relaxed and I settled down to the serious business of climbing up to lo.uuu leet wnere I would find that promised clear salline. Fox grinned at our present zero visi bility and nodded toward the cabin where the oasseneera were huddled. Then in his slow, Texas drawl he said, "If It was a clear day those Japs would be flockin' around like vultures after carrion, to bag a load like this." There wasn't much poetry in the remark, but there was plenty of truth. Wo never carried guns on China National transports they weighed too much and cut down on cargo capacity and our only protection against Jap attacks were bad weather and our own flying ability. AT 12,000 feet, Fox and I and Tsui, our radioman, put on our oxygen masks and kept right on climbing. My hope of getting Into the clear -t i 3,000 was fading; the soup seemed to got thicker the higher we went. And, as a matter of fact, it cllcln'; clear until we were at moro than 18,000 feet. Then for almost two hours we had good flying except for a strong wind blowing north. According to my calculations we were considerably north and east of Lake Talf when Fox and I caught our first glimpse of the purplish-gray wall rising thou sands of feet high straight ahead of us and to either side as far as we could sea, It was a good quarter-hour's flying time uway, but there was no doubt in either of our minds as to what this sig nified. "Cop'n Glnglss's sleet has moved a llttlo bit no'th," Bill drowled, and after a few mors minutes, shortly before we would ease Into the wall of ice, he turned the switch on our de-icing boots. I could feel him looking at me a moment later and I glanced down at the wing on my side. The boot was motionless. The mechanism wasn't working. "How much drag can we take and still make it, Gen?" Bill asked quietly, "If we're on course there shouldn't be onv hills hleher than 10,000 feet from here on," I said. But that was a pretty big "if." I couldn't be sure how far off our course the wind was blowing us, and I knew there were peaks shooting a lot higher than 10,000 feet that weren't too many miles to the north. I gave the ship moro throttle and pulled back on the stick. We went into the sleet at 10,000 feet. I handed Tsui a note giving our estimated position for mm to radio to Dinjan in code. Our sets weren't strong enough to send word messages unless we were within a half-hour's flying time of either base. Tsui took the note, switched on the trans mitterand then began to curse quietly in Chinese. A few min utes later he handed back the note with a brief message ap pended; "Radio dead." That meant we were out ot contact with the base, strictly on our own. (To lie Continued) HOOPLE IS HERE, TWO OF NOL) SPARROWS VJ1UU HAVE TO RIDE TANDEM ONi ONE (ZOOST I HOP& YOU DON'T MIND.' Y5 1 1 1 zr. 1 1 v v I Couurtoht, 104S, J. C. Winston Co.; Distributed NEA SERVICE, VC. Air Cooled! oH.rJo.we UKe crowds Jru. snore BUT TH1& ZOO Ife GETTING 60 FULL OP HOOPLE SPECIMENS THAT PRETTY SOOKi WE'LL HANE TO LIME UP FOR A NAP IrA THE LAUNDRY BAD PAPA1 TrCC.KT U7AI f i tfM IN HIS SLEEP: A DUET K W wvm macx 0 f AMD THE OLD I GENST CAN . K J HAVE AAV ROOM! Ji that Cells so w hot it would 1 - yl CRISP JK m J . - - nil r VNHAW THEY'VE MADE V KINPA RUFFLES THAT'S WHY TH1 T . YOU OMLV A SECOND THE Of MAN'S IGUYAINT SAYIKJ' V CLASS MACHINIST'S DIGNITY QUITE MOTH IN' HE WAS MATE, WHEN YOU A BIT ONE OF HERE TEN YEARS I ) LEAR.NEP TH' TRADE HIS BEST PUPILS IAN1 THEY NEVER U HERE IN THIS SHOP 1 NOT BEIN' MADE J EVEN THOUGHT I UNDER ME WHY, YOU A ADMIRAL IN OF MAKIN' HIM A J WERE ONE OF TH' BEST SIX MONTHS.' Aa FOREMAN.' MACHINISTS 1 EVER p v rT wr-lf II ft TUPNEP OUT--WHAT'S 4$ ' VsL WRONG WITH G'r UJt-Q, , rnj . li SIS V m r lilt: AH-KON1 MM,BMWuwltJ,, " u Boots and Her Buddies By Edgar Martin POPPVViCb A OT'W.t AS A VUV5KH3!K VAUOb nvfST& 6000 6)VOOTVi& ,tAbWlf E WOO ViOVi,NOO DO'T UMitM 1 1 ... . "iZ&M'-.MKl. INC. T. M. BIC. 0. . AT. OFF, Freckles and His Friends Merrill Blosser MO THE CLASSICS STU DENTS OFTHE UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNAT THANKS A MILLION.' I LIKE UVN. TOO, AND LARD'S MARKS OU&HT TO PICK UPAS THE RESULT OP YOUR SWELL , SUGGESTION' r S N m mm M. , s p-;; ijinnK 0 SAY, THE LOVELY BABES Af NOWONfJIf 1 WHO MY, MY. PRESS AAAH ) ' i'TV!S 1 11 WWESTEP TrVE UNIVERSITY OF ON COULD BE INSPIRED By SHOELACES' JlS BEHIND THE CINNATI DIDN'T CARE FOR THE TEACHER YOJJ (SAVE DO I L 1 1 ? 1 H SCENES AT W POINT OF" ME ! MOW ABOur Our- LfftP IT n M FRECKLES VIEW ABOUf WELL.LARD, FITHNG- ME WITH A 1 Ttiki KR 0 I U HEADQUARTERS LATIN jr YOU'RE NO STREAMLINED TEACHER LATIN ) (K fZWI II FOR JUSr VTin BALL OF RRE LIKE THOSE CINCINNATI 'irO, S Wm, CvOp1 MOMENT - fill LATIN j PIGEONS V-NO-- -T mWAI moment... ni n yrrzH pvm500- wmW lll J J ) 'K3NEN M ... yrz szc l 1 -ttt 4zsssmm bsss4j: I -sa Tailored Lingerie 'mlXSm ' m ) ErM r 4 I o VJ-. liS C R J fPl'Ctln Red RvdeT : v Fred Harm S V WashTubbs . By Leslie Turner S'ii rT ' f BV USINfi OUR HKTE TO LEAVE VCU HERE, EASY ) f IF THESE FUSiTIVE SUPERMEN ( f I'LL PO All 1 CAM TO HAMEPft.WW6 AMD RVTA V" Bff3vSS'4 fll, L : I'Pf lff-t ' tnt'lV! .X PLANE AT yOKAlA BUT IF YOU IMAMT IT THAT WAY.... J POWT TRV 10 HOP OFF BV MKK, V OUT O' PANGER BY THEM. f 1 FAI1 J CroSvff.V ' la i v if iih-'fJ: t BIB, VOU CAN h-- v THEY'LL HAVE TO WAIT FOR -,, RSa5 faa I I ; Nrl wiwl:yi'- '4 reach the base paylksht. vouil se back . yjT I TOJO NO GOOD' Waving BV WBK fl Vk 'r . , , TT I S-mmr 5 8 9 8 'Ha I ' one of the "I surrender" leaf- fe -xg; -T I N , J ' . if W V lots dropped in northern Luzon. S " XTSTVKIsssivL-JL t WH X I.IVa. Mw1 J$jfyr By SUE BURNETT loc vl. MUk WWVs "M ff.U ( ffiMVNf?I ' ' W,U tallorc. ,lip ,, pantio him covered. OTA S'-iK IM. ' flW Wi s- especially dosiMnod fnr the . ,. , I J3VNfc 0 I Q I Ji EMU VWWil! lai-Kcr woman. You'll like the ",l '"""- '- L ft fiWJt-ZK T If-ypl lSl 3. 4i. 42. 44. 4. 48. so tioia Kverymmg r ..aSl'-54 i Lstiil M A LT1 . uml B2. Si,e :18. slip, ,,.nli.'eS , . t - y-iiv.WOfe.lCV JTC VMgTII 111 8 lmmfiBCm 1" LVA. pantios. l'i yards. II ... I ;-v , m "u wp uy v. T.Hamlin in mills, your namo, aililrcss. i I x f . .,,, . ' I DON'T UNDERSTAND A WWliLnyiCUSO WELL, AW WAY, ) THAT'S OPD.' -MA. -trvsv AT oqp DiSAPPEARANCEjl PUjSR I HIS AX IS Jl DISTINCTLY y&i SADFRV, I KMOWB-S Q1 ( JC - OOP MUST BE 7 J BUT KKJOWING HIM ENO 51&N STILL- RECALL IT THAT AX IS IN THIS Y-ZgZ i g By MRS. ANNE CABOT Just tin- sort nf ensy-on-thc- leet sanclals you : hkc to step into after n cold shower on ator rid day! Crochet them in bright colors red, yellow and green und wear them with your cotton slacks or housy shorts. They're inexpensive 10 mane anil air quickly crocheted. To obtain complete crocheting Instructions for the summer sa dais ipauern no. sh'.ibi sizes small, medium and large includ ed, send IS eenls in coin, plus 1 cent postage, your name, address and the pattern number to Anne Cabot, La Grande Evening Ob server, 7U!I Mission St., San Fran cisco. Calif. Two More Japanese Generals Killed SAN KHANCISCO, June Kl (UP) The Japanese Dome! agen cy reported the deaths of two mole Japanese generals in action today. Maj. Clen. Katsu Yokowo died of wounds April Hi and Maj. Clen, Tasuku Yushikawa died in action May 7. Domei said. Both were promoted posthumously to the rank ot lieutenant general. o Well tailored slip and pantio set especially designed for the larger woman. You'll like the way it fits under sheer summer dresses. 1'attern No. 8738 is designed for sizes 8(i, 38. 40, 42, 44, 4(i, 411, 50 and C'. Size 38, slip, renuiros 2:,4 yards of 35 or 3!l-inch mater ial; panlies, 1 1 1 yards, For 11, is pnWcr.i, send 20 cents, in coins, your name, address, size desired and the pattern num ber to Sue liurnett, La (.ii.uule F.vciiing Observer. 7U1 Mission St., San Francisco, Calif. Heady now the spring issue of Fashion. Jut is cents. A com plete guide in planning wardrobe needs for all the family. AUTOMOBILES COLLIDE A minor collision between auto mobiles driven by F. J. I.olles. (il)4 M avenue, and John It. Camo. 2010 Washington avenup. was le poited to the cry police yester day. It occiiili d at Jefferson and" Hemlock streets as one ot the ears wa., pulling away from the curb. "My girl writes she's llto wenr lug an 'up do' now!"