24
Hereford, joined the Army Engineers
in April, 1944. For some reason he was
not sent across with his original com
pany but was kept in the U.S. with
five others of his company, and stayed
on the Pacific Coast until May, 1945,
when he was sent to the Ryukyus. Not
much has been heard from him ex
cept that he landed safely. He is a son
of Ed Watkins, motor grader man at
Hereford. Hubert L. Watkins, who was
given a paragraph in the July-August
State Employee is also a son of Ed W at
kins. Hubert’s parents inform us that
he had a narrow escape when in one of
the last drives a German bullet crossed
in front of him and grazed his chest.
"Just a scratch and all right now,” he
said. We’d prefer doing our own
scratching.
A friend of Pfc. Clarence R. "Bob”
Smith, former gas attendant at the John
Day Maintenance Office, informs us
that Bob crossed the Rhine with the
first tank corps to go over. We were
unable to verify this with his relatives,
but having observed him riding a mo
torcycle through the streets of John
Day before joining, we believe if he
drove a tank with the same zeal, it had
a lot to do with the early crack up of
German morale after he entered the
service. He is at Ulm, Germany, and
says he may stay a year or more.
Bob Barnum has moved from the
Philippines to "Somewhere in the West
ern Pacific.” Due to strict censorship,
Bob was unable to give us more interest
ing news of his work as he has in the
past*
A former Oregon State Highway
Commission engineer has been training
Chinese soldiers to handle the motor
trucks flowing into China over the
Stilwell road.
A lack of Chinese mechanics bottle
necked the supply movement necessary
during the war to speed tons of sup
plies to forward areas. Thousands of
Chinese, many of whom never had seen
such giant trucks, were given special
training at the driver training school
of Chinese services of supply.
9
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