MEDFORD MAIL TRIBUNE. MEDFORD. OREGON, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1942
PAGE THREES
Q
ON THE HOME FRONT
News From Jackson County for
Men in the Armed Services
MECFOHTWt J&s.TRIBm
Tli Mall Tribune suggests yea clip ud null thU news
roundup to relative at friend la service.
Date.
Dear..
Santa Claua visited Medford
thli morning and among the
considerable number of men in
the service who, thanks to fur
loughs, were at home to greet
the old fellow was Dan Ehr
heart, technical sergeant in
the U. S. army air forces and the
city's most decorated soldier.
Dan, who used to play plenty
of tackle for Medford high, has
received the Distinguished Fly
ing Cross, the Silver Star and
the Purple Heart for action in
the southwest Pacific, Java, the
Coral sea and the Philippines.
He is a "belly gunner" in a Fly
ing Fortress and, while modesty
prevented him from saying so,
has undoubtedly blasted a good
ly number of Jap Zeros to King
dom Come.
He participated in the first
COME
Apostolic Faith Church
Cor. N. Central and 3rd St.
Christmas Musical Program
Tonight - 7:45
ORGAN RECITAL
Christmas Carols
In A Monastery Garden-
Violin Obligate
Naomi Frost
CHORUS-CHOIR
Unfold Ye Portals
Accompanied
King All Glorious.
ORCHESTRA
Adoration
LeRoy Meff
Sunday Services Sabbath School, 8:30) Morning Worship, 11
Evening Evangelistic Service, 7:44.
Mid-week Services Tuesday, Thursday k Friday Night, 8:00
NO COLLECTIONS. EVERYBODY WELCOME
CANDLES
OF THE
YULETIDE
May your Christmas can
dles burn brightly with hap
piness, and may your every
wish come true.
SEASON'S
GREETINGS
Swem's Gift Shop
air battle over Buna In New
Guinea, where our troops are
right now giving the Sons of
Heaven helL and it was in this
action that ha suffered the
wounds that won him the Pur
ple Heart. In this battle IS
Zeros attacked hi plane and
eight of them never flew again.
The Fortress returned safely to
its base.
We in Medford hava received
word of the promotions of sev
eral local boys, including Shelby
Turtle, Jr, upped to a cadet
lieutenant in the army air force:
Paul Corwin, promoted to staff
sergeant and now stationed with
the glider forces at Stuttgart,
Ark., flying school; Olaf Sever-
son, advanced to corporal at the
gunnery school in Jacksonville,
Fla., and Clayton F. Martin, pro
moted to corporal and stationed
.Ketelber
by Thelma Hunt
organist
-Gounod
by the orchestra
George M. VaU
.Felix Borowskl
Director .
iiiSu m Wtiifc-
StaiillilX
erf
X WWf THE
KtooiiitaB
t Nf MV WALI
with a bomber squadron at
Barksdale Field, La.
Commissioned sin ensign In
the U. S. naval reserve at Cor
pus Christ!, Tex., recently was
Robert E. (Bobby) Ettinger, like
Sgt. Ehrheart an ex-Black Tor
nado football player.
Quite a number of local boys
have joined the armed forces of
late. Among them are Bob
Leslie, a member of the state
police force for a year and a
half, who enlisted in the U. S.
army reserve; Bob Leonard, for
mer Medford chap now living
in Sacramento, Calif., who en
tered the army and Tod Tibbutt
and Maurice J. Sample, who en
listed in the air force and are
stationed for training at Santa
Ana Calif., air base.
Pvt. Orval J. Thomas has
been assiened to the AAF Basic
Flying school at Pecos, Tex.,
Pvt. Herbert A. Pruitt is in the
airplane mechanic department
of the army air force at AJo,
Ariz.; Rufus N. Younger is an
electrician's mate, second class
with the navy and stationed at
Camo Peary. Williamsburg, Pa.;
Edward L. Evanson is receiving
training in the "Sea Bees" at
Davlsville. R. I., and Roy Arthur
Reed recently - reported for
training in the navy at the Far-
ragut, (Idaho) Naval Training
station.
Sgt. Albert Charles Andre,
J-ICUTCNANTGCNtm
sawn
foSflflCIA-Of1E TtaSWAKS
IVIflAllY TOHTACTtP WloH A
French MitiryNoovrL
OFF ICUUS TO OOMiT HtS HISSOHf
who has been stationed in Alas
ka for the past 21 months with
an air squadron, is spending a
furlough at his home in Jackson
ville.
Sports in Medford are picking
up slightly. The high school bas
ketball team last Friday defeat
ed Weed, Calif., 29 to 20, with
Cantain Don Fawcett scoring 13
points. But this week tne Doys
were trimmed by an alumni
team. 31 to IB. Walt Kresse
scored 10 points and Henry Her
man eight for thd grads.
The ice hockey league got
under way last Saturday night,
with the USO Bombers defeat
ing the 91st Infantry Division
Artillery, 8 to 1. Second game
of the schedule was played Tues
day night, the 91st Snipers tie
lng the 78th Field Hospital Clip
pers, 3 to 3,
People at the postomce reaiiy
put in some overtime last night,
Christmas eve, working until
after midnight delivering Christ
mas parcels. And they kept right
on delivering gifts all day to
day, Christmas. Frank DeSouza,
postmaster, said it was the heav
iest volume of Christmas mail
in history.
John Day, president of the
Pacific Co, said recently that
the concern would start mining
chrome in the Briggs Creek area
near Galice as soon as road con
ditions improved sufficiently to
ship the metal out for process
ing.
A new field recreation repre
sentative of the federal govern
ment has been appointed for
Oregon, and he visited Medford
the past week. He is Roger J.
Folgate, former director of phy
sical education and athletic di
rector at Pacific university.
Today, the streets of Medford
are Jam-packed wltn soldiers
from Camp Whije, enjoying
passes and furloughs. You
wouldn't recognize the old home
town. Over 350 families in the
city invited one or more Camp
White boys to their homes for
Christmas dinners, but we doubt
if mv of them came up with a
more elaborate spread than did
those army cooks at the canton
ment. To every" one of you boys In
the army, navy, air force, ma
rines and coast guard, the Mail
THhnn. and all the people of
Medford your relatives, friends
and acauaintances wisn you
Merry Christmas and a Happy
New Year.
TONY STUMPED
Cleveland. O. flJ.B Federal
Judge Paul Jones was question-
in immigrants xor naiura na
tion.
One of them was 'Tony,
-nustached steelworker, who has
been In this country lor 40
The Judge asked who the head
man down in Washington is.
Tony replied, "George Wash
ington."
"He was the first president,'
Judge Jones Informed him and
then re-asked the question.
This time Tony answered heft-
fly. "Christopher Columbus."
judge Jones changed his tac
tics and asked him if he had ever
heard o! Franklin D. Roosevelt.
He hadn't. He also thought
Abraham Lincoln was a laborer,
didn't know who was governor
of Ohio or who was mayor of
Cleevland. Tony doesn't speak
English, although he'f been her
39 years.
Neediest to say, his request
for citizenship was denied.
GLASSES
Dr. R. M. Hood, Optometrist
Sparta Bids.
Mala tat llmmu. Mtdrore, Of
Skllltol tn ills ImmW ftlest
U. S. EXPEDITION
IN LIBERIA KEPT
Troops Thece Used as De
coys to Make North Afri
can Occupation Effective.
By Donald Coa
United Press Staff Correspondent
Headquarters, United States
Forces in Liberia (Delayed)
(U.R) United States forces in sev
eral West African locations, in
cluding this technically neutral
republic, apparently were de
coys to make the surprise occu
pation of North Africa more ef
fective.
How well they succeeded In
drawing Axis and Vichy French
attention toward Dakar was in
dicated in the announcement
that the French had evacuated
four shiploads of women and chil.
dren from Dkar to Casablanca
only weeks before the Allied
forces struck at Casablanca and
other North African ports.
These decoys were not de
fenseless wooden ducks, either.
Had there been occasion the
forces in a half-dozen coastal
places could have protected their
establishments effectively
Meanwhile they were actively
fighting the battle of supply to
keep materials rolling to China.
India, the Middle East and
Egypt.
Now the occupation of North
Africa has effectively neutralized
any threat Dakar and the French
Ivory coast could have been
toward the United Nations Instal
lations, for all French West Af
rica was dependent on supplies
from the northern area now in
Allied control.
Planned Far Back
The planting of the decoys
was planned far back, at least
weeks before a force arrived in
FORD
MERCURY
LINCOLN-ZEPHYR
Ht J? (
May the Spirit of Christmas ik( K (
A crV Live Forever! rJ ' j
S, Chrlttmat thlt year represents. In the mott tlC f
ij . 1 real and tamest sense, the very things wt art) 'J .JL
now fighting for en far flung battle front . . V CX ' ' I
& J It represents tplritual freedom, the right to assemble, wjt'sjr v
J f ) y tanetlty of tho homo . . . Yet, today w sacrifice tjw: I i)
1 1 for tho freedom to work, to play, to onjoy our lifo vJft-iL' j
) r jT on this earth, to dream and to make our dreamt como JCr'- 'A
wA i ' truo. The love, the friendship, the iplrit of magle v"' V
J v Chrittmattido thoto aro our priceless heritage. Our 'S i-
A hopes, our praytrt, our greater sacrifices mutt keep JfJ
V ' f Chrlttmat allv for yeart and generation! to coma. r'lr' ' V r4
V' I Let tho Yulatldo thlt yetr givo greater strength and JtV '
r rttolutlon to achieve tho goal of victory! '
K ' ART WINETROUT f '' Jf
XK and the "GANG''
i
&,iuia. wjnaiwuuwii wuv
companied the force were told
they probably could not write a
thing about it for several months.
Axis radio broadcasts made it
plain that Germany knew of the
troops' presence. And the Ger
man consul still was living In
Monrovia, capital of Liberia, al
though other Germans had been
evacuated.
Similarly no announcement
was made that American forces
were in British colonies.
Viscount Swlnton, British rest
dent minister for the West Af
rican colonies, said on July 28
that "Americans are here with
us. as they are everywhere In
this world-wide conflict."
No Official Comment
American authorities were not
exactly pleased about the state
ment. Nor were they when an
other of the United Nations let it
slip that American forces were
elsewhere In West Africa.
The value of the decoys would
be less unless the Axis were led
to think that Dakar was In dan
ger of another Allied assault.
Even when a British news
agency revealed the presence of
troops In Liberia in mid-October
there was no confirmation.
American correspondents
thought they saw the story on
which they had been sent In late
May vanish before their eyes.
Again on Oct. 30 more details of
the force were revealed. Whether
the details were true Is another
matter, but neither correction,
confirmation nor denial came
from Washington.
Then the North African cam
paign was announced. That Is
when the pieces began to fit to
gether. I remembered a high
ranking officer's attempt to steer
me on the right tract: several
months ago. He was trying to
answer the question dominant In
my thoughts for weeks: "Why
are newsmen sent out with this
force and forbidden to write!
about it?"
We had a long discussion and
finally, apparently roused by my
refusal to accept any of the rea
sons he had advanced, he said:
"Maybe this is Just a feint
that's possible, you know."
"Were Just Staging"
I didn't think so then, but I
do now. The confirmation came
a few day after the North Af
rican campaign opened. I asked
visiting officer about the ac
tivities of a detachment of our
troops in his home base.
"Oh, they've gone on, he re
plied. "They were Just staging."
Staging to keep the Axis
guessing.
American troops In Liberia.
mostly Negroes, have worked
hard since their arrival. They
had a difficult task in unload
ing cargo ships and moving thou
sands of tons of cargo across
treacherous sandbars. They had
difficult Job setting up camps
in the Jungles. The disease dan
gers were great Maintenance
work proceeded on existing air
ports and additional facilities
were created. Roads, bridges and
dams were built. Vast areas had
to be drained to get rid of mos
quitoes which carried malaria.
Here's Wishing
You a Happy
Holiday
And die Best in
the New Year
WESTERN THRIFT
Native populations had to be re
settled to get them away from
military areas.
In the British colonies troops
occupied existing or enlarged,
garrisons, principally to maintain
the flow of supplies.
Ctostnf time tor Cluttflad sds
a. m. Too 1st to Classify U:SO
p. m.
Office Closed
Dr. Jouell P. Bray
hat closed hit office until
about February 1st while
he it in Portland taking
post graduate work.