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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (July 10, 1955)
IX MSDTOHD (OREGON) MAIL THIBOTfB Sunday. July 10, IS55 What Were MiMing Turncoats Lolke as Hoys? Author TraveDs Far To (Get Answer Editor's note: Thro yonnr Aneri cam bavo turned back to their native Und aiter tint choosing to cast their lot with Communism. Whatever moti vated them In the first place? Virginia Pasley. a reporter for the Long bland aewipaper Newsdsy. traveled 1S.0M miles into 23 states to find the answer for her book. "21 Staved." Here is what she found oat about the three turncoat GIs who have chosen to re turn. Publication rights approved by Far rer, Straus and Cudahy, New York. PFC. WILLIAM A. COWART Dalton, Ga. Born Jan. 10, 1033 Protestant. Three Yean High School. Billy Cowart pestered his mother unceasingly until she let him quit school and enlist in the Army. Shipped to Japan, he was with the first soldiers thrown Into the front lines when the Ko rean war began. Within three weeks he was wounded and cap tured by the Communists. For a time he wrote letters from prison camp to everyone he knew in his home town. Grad ually the letters fell off. And then the news came that Billy had abandoned his native land, decided to stay with the Reds. "I've gone too far; I can't go back," he told the only man in the hut stilj on speaking terms with him since he had become pro-Chinese. "He came over and told me that he had just been to regimen tal headquarters and had agreed to refuse repatriation," said James Wilson of Chattanooga, Tenn., a returned prisoner of war. "I tried to argue him out of it. But he said it was too late; that he didn't have any friends anyway; that no one would talk 4 klm What kind of boy was Billyll r -l 51 He was an only child, adored by his mother. His parents were divorced when he was six.. He saw his father only once more, when he was 14. Friends said his step-father "did everything he could for the boy and treated him as though he were his own." In school his IQ was rated aver age but he was in the lower fourth of his class. Wanted Attention "He pretended not to care about people but he really wanted to be popular," one teacher said. "He just went about it in the wrong way. In his at tempt to stand out he only made himself look foolish. He would wear old clothes, hats with trin kets or bells on them to get at tention. Or he would stay out side the classroom until after the bell rang so he could get noticed by being late." Billy participated in no school activities or athletics. He had no pals among the boys. But he did have a steady girl in a somewhat shy, adolescent way. He carried her books, ate lunch with her. He didn't date her much in the evenings, though he went to church with her and talked for hours on the telephone. The girl was married after his capture. His mother wrote him about it. A cabin mate recalled that about that time Billy swam far out into a lake near the camp with the idea of committing suicide but changed his mind, Later letters indicated he wasn't badly shaken. He worked in the textile mills in Dalton. His former boss, J. F. Calloway Jr., feels that anyone who hasn't been subjected to im prisonment and torture is not in a position to condemn those who cracked under it. Things To Remember "Bill was just a kid and he was wounded," Calloway said. "Remember that. Even those who came back didn't know what they were fighting for. As for Billy, he hardly knew who was President." Billy's mother broke down under the strain of worrying over her. son. For a long time she clung to the thought that this boy is really not her boy, not really the Billy Cowart who marched off from Dalton so proudly in 1949. She thinks maybe the news his girl married affected him. "And then if they told him he would be arrested when he came back to this country, he would have stayed over there because Billy had a horror of being arrested," sbe said. "He was afraid of the police." Looking back. Mrs. Green feels that she left him alone too much and depended- on him too much: "He did most of the housework after school because my husband and I were at the mills. And then he worked too, at the mill and at a sandwich shop because he wanted to earn his own money. PFC. OTHO G. BELL Hillsboro, Miss. Born Jan. 23, 1931 Protestant 8th Grade. Otho Bell was 23 on Jan. 23, 1954, the last day he had to change his mind and go back to his wife and the daughter he had never seen, the farm in Mississip pi where he had been raised. Otho's mother was 23 the day she died the day he was born and Otho grew up feeling that he had "killed -his mother" to the point where he got the idea he himself would die on his 23rd birthday. It isn't necessary to presume that Otho's decision to stay with his Red jailers was a decision to die so far as home and family and country were concerned. Otho had other strikes against him too. He had not been educated, as one teacher put it, "to the point where he would be a good citi- .zen of a democracy or would be capable of judging what the Reds told him." On the other hand, he had learned to do what he was told and no backtalk. "I could always scare him into anything his father, Elbert A. Bell, said. "And if I had the chance I could have scared him into coming back home." Easily Scared But it was the Chinese Com munists, not Otho's father, who had the chance to scare him into doing what they wanted him to do and they succeeded well enough so that Otho, though the only one of the 21 with a wife and child, went behind the Iron Curtain with the others. Otho's father remarried when the boy was seven months old and there were six more children by this marriage. "He was just the same as my own, I had him so young," the second Mrs. Bell said. "Seems like I though more of him at times than the others. "Otho was a good little boy. He didn't fight with the other children he got along too good with them." Bell Worked his boys hard on their farm. He says Otho was "a real good worker," strong and healthy. The boy liked to hunt for possum and squirrel in the woods, fish the streams for cat and trout. He didn't like school and spent three years in the eigth grade. He enlisted shortly after his 17th birthday, lying about his age. He didn't like it and his father managed to get him out but then he enlisted again a year later. He still disliked Army life. He phoned home collect constantly, wrote for money to come home on week end leave. Three times he was AWOL and sentenced to 77 days hard labor. Met Future Wife Then he was sent to Fort Lewis, Wash., where he met his future wife, Jewell. They were married a few months before the Korean war started. He was shipped overseas and their daughter, Paula, was bora just before he was captured in No vember of 1950. "He was real good to me," NOW. . . Right in your own backyard . Air Conditioning ! 176 Vo lust been appointed dealers Because so many merchant In this community want to air condition their places of business, we set out to provide the best money can buy. Today we are honored to announce our appointment as franchised dealers for Carrier Air Conditioning backed by the skill and know how of the great institution that founded the air conditioning indus try over forty years ago. This important news means that we now offer a complete line of Carrier Store Weathermakers the most .compact and efficient self contained unit ever built for air cooling, dehumidificatidn, air clean ing and circulation. Our new con nection also provides expert advice on the installed air conditioning of larger spaces. Whether you plan to air condi tion your business tomorrow, or in the near future it will pay you to talk it over with our engineering experts now. We're as close to you as your telephone ready, willing and able to give you every help. MODERN PLUMBING & SHEET METAL CO. REFRIGERATION DEPARTMENT 613 E. Jackson Phone 3-5368 AUTHORIZED CARRIER SALES AND SERVICt Jewell said, -"he wouldn't let me do any heavy work after we knew the baby was coming. After he got overseas he wrote me five letters a week even if it was only a line. Jewell has been waiting for her husband. One of the last mes sages she received from him asked if she and Paula still loved him and added, "I am wondering if you are planning to marry someone else or still want to be my wife." Jewell wrote back that he would always be her husband and that Paula prays for him every night. PFC. LEWIS W. GRIGGS Neches, Tex. Born Aug. 2, 1932 Baptis Two years high school Mention Lewis Grigs in Neches and they shake their heads. "He was a strange one, ' a neighbor said. "He stood aloof, Didn't speak if he didn't care to. -Town like this everyone knows everyone else. Speaks to every one else. But he'd just go along with his head in the air. Wouldn't .even look at you." As in many rural communi ties, most of the young people who were children with Lewis have scattered and gone. Those that remain remember him as a "lone wolf." He didn't mix much with the other kids," one girl said. "His father was strict with him. Only place he could go was to church He wasn't like the rest of us." Lewis went on a bus 18 miles to a consolidated high school. His last year, at 16, he was big for his age, six foot two. He played on the football squad, made the B team and got a let ter. He got an 82 in algebra but barely passed his other courses. One teacher said she thinks "We didn't do everything we could have for him." Polite and Bored "He seemed to be a boy you couldn't reach," she said. "He was quiet, withdrawn, polite and bored. He was just there. He didn't do his work. He just came and that's all. He was . . . not at all boyish. He gave me the feel ing as I watched him from day to day that he felt this was all unnecessary." Lewis' father was an electri cian. He died while his son was in prison camp. The family was considered well-off in tiny Neches but somewhat under privileged by standards of the nearby affluent town of Pales tine. ' The town and rural children seldom mix well in these con solidated schools and Lewis was no mixer anyway. He was never seen with anyone else around the halls of the school; he "never paid the slightest attention to girls." After an incident on the school bus where some of the other students picked on him and teased him no one remembers why or what about he left high school. His family sent him to a military academy but he left after six weeks. The day after his 17th birthday he enlisted in the Army. In Yalu Withdrawal He became a stretcher bearer in a medical company and saw Korean fighting until the disas trous withdrawal from the Yalu when he was captured. He wrote a letter to the Pales tine High School, urging the students to help end the Korean war. But it was phrased in rather stilted language and no one at the school thought that Lewis had actually composed it. His mother, a tall, spare wom an, has refused to believe that her son became a Communist of his own free will. For months she has refused to discuss him. Returned prisoners of war who were in camp with Griggs agree that he was a "peculiar egg." "I felt kind of sorry for him in spite of everything," said one. "I don't think he was quite right" , (See Story Page I) Tropical Rainstorms Cause Death in Mexico Mexico City U.R) Three days of tropical rainstorms have caused death and destruction and disrupted train and highway traffic throughout Mexico, the Communications Ministry has re ported. The city of Vera Crux was al most isolated by ' floods with several feet of water covering the streets. Big Chiloquin Mill Plans Announced By New Company Plans for construction of a 75,000-foot per shift sawmill at Chiloquin were revealed here Friday by officials of Simplot DeVoe Lumber company, a new ly organized firm. Articles of incorporation of Simplot-DeVoe Lumber were filed in Salem recently by J. R. Simplot, Boise industrialist; E. J. DeVoe, Medford lumberman; Jim Davis, Shady, Cove logger, and George Duff, plant manager for Cal-Ida Lumber company, Auburn, Calif. The firm already owns timber, 97 per cent of it pine, on the Klamath Indian reservation. It has purchased the Howard Sal vage mill at Cave Junction, and will move it to the Chiloquin site. Construction work will be started Monday, and the plant is expected to be in operation by Oct. 1. It will operate on a two-shifts-a-day basis for the first few months. The campany plans a 6 acre log pond to be filled from the Sprague river, which is adjacent to the property, and will build a dry kiln and planing mill start ing about the first of the year. 30-Acre Site The mill will be located on a 30-acre site formerly owned by Chiloquin Lumber company, which went out of existence about 1941. The site is. served by the main line of the Southern Pacific-Great Northern joint railroad line. Manager for the mill has not yet been selected. Until a man is chosen for the position, the mill will be administered by Ernie DeVoe, Medford lumberman who is interested in the firm. Simplot-DeVoe Lumber plans to cut about 25,000,000 board feet of timber in its first tract. They are now seeking a logging contractor. Sale of lumber produced by the Chiloquin mill will be han dled . by DeVoe Lumber sales, of Medford. Officers of Simplot-DeVoe Lumber are Simplot, president; Ernie DeVoe, first vice-president; Duff, second vice-presi dent; E. J. DeVoe, secretary, and John M. Dahl, Boise, treasurer, Four Hurt, Auto Destroyed in Crash Four people were slightly in jured and an automobile was de molished in a one vehicle acci dent on Central Point Market rd., about 8:30 p.m. Friday. Driver of the car was Willard Wayne Reed, 22, on leave from a ship stationed in San Diego harbor, police said. He suffered minor head injuries but was ex pected to be released from Sac red Heart hospital sometime yes terday. All others were released earlier after treatment. Passen gers "included Jimmy Leroy James, 21, also from the San Di ego ship, Sharon Lee Barrett, 15, and Shelby Jean Anderson, 14, both of Ashland. According to state police, the car was travelling east on Cen tral Point Market rd. at a high rate of speed. Reed lost control, and the car travelled 326 feet, skidded 182 feet with the brakes locked, crossed Bullock rd., jumped a shallow pit, and knock ed down a telephone pole and guy wire. The vehicle was a total wreck, oficers said. The highest and lowest points in the United States Mount Whitney and Death Valley are 86 miles apart. ACME HARDWARE Met yst NWVE KMIt ytsr I UH CRSil ItlSH was W CASH 3X3 i OP TO 24 MONTHS TO MM . '1 1 V SMALL MONTHLY PAYMENTS f tttt it YOUR Mfitl If IWftt 1 Ut SlMt it Cttk ttkt tflnstm sf tktt CONrfmENT PAYMENT PUN. Ivy ANYTHIW JN Nftf tttf My fit ft ft diy PWIBA1AY1 f START NOW I It Costs LESS Than You Think I Galaxies and Nebulae By J. HUGH PRUETT Astronomer, Extension Division Ortfon Hither Education System "I collect your articles and keep them in a note book. There is only one thing I don't like about them. You put too much emphasis on the positions of the stars and little things like that. I wish you would discuss planets, stars, nebulas, galaxies, etc. Is there any difference between a nebula and a galaxy? M.F." Many years ago at the re quests of readers of this column in several states, I started giving a sky review for the first story of each month. In such a review I try to help the readers learn the brighter stars and planets. Our correspondent will find that the remaining articles discuss various topics and are generally not "positional." Nebulae Means Mist The word "nebula" means mist, or .cloud. Scattered over the sky among-the stars, there are several faint, hazy, white patches which are barely dis cernible to " the unaided eye. These are spoken of as nebulous objects. When telescopic aid is employed, these become much more distinct' and thousands of additional ones appear. In 1781 Charles Messier, the French astronomer, compiled a list of 103 such objects. He was especially interested in the dis covery of comets and wanted the permanent nebulous objects well located so he would not ee getting them mistaken for comets. One of his nebulae later turned out to be a comet. His listings are still used. Thus M27, the well-known Dumb-bell neb ula, is number, 27 on Messier's list. A real nebula is a mass of glowing gas and dust of very irregular form. Many of Mes sier's supposed nebulae were such only in appearance through the optical aid he then had avail able. Most of these later proved to be open star clusters, globu lar clusters and outside galax ies. - Used for Haxy Objects The term "spiral nebula" was long used for hazy objects of a spiral form. The spectroscope finally revealed their light was not that of glowing gases but of stars. But until about 1924 they were thought to be mem bers of our own star system. In that year Hubble used distance measurements that showed they were immense star systems sim ilar to our own but far outside of ours. Later, individual stars were photographed in these dis tant objects. The term galaxy is now more properly used to in dicate our own star system (Milky Way system) of 100,000, 000,000 suns (our sun is a star) Federal Funds Released To Insure Mortgages Washington U.R) President Eisenhower has approved re lease of an additional $35,000,000 in federal funds for insuring home mortgages. The money will allow the fed eral National Mortgage Asso-. ciation to make advance commit ments to purchase home mort gages insured by the Federal Housing Administration or guaranteed by the Veterans Administration. ' as well as these outside systems. Our galaxy is believed to be about 100,000 light-years In di ameter. This means that light traveling 186,300 miles per sec ond requires 100,000 years to cross this immense expanse. Be yond our galaxy there is enor mous space deyoid of stars until the next galaxy is encountered. One of the nearest of these is M31, the Great Andromeda ga laxy, 1,500,000 light-years from us. It is comparable to our own in size. The most distant galaxy revealed by the 200-inch tele scope is 2,000,000,000 light-years distant. 2202 WEST MAIN FbXQY SKI (DIP NOTHING TOO SMALL We Fix Anything ALL WORK IS GUARANTEED OTdDIPI Don't Forget To Stock Up With IPMPSII - Daly's U-Dri0 Medford Airport 3 West Sixth Street o ftteHord, Oregon
