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About Vernonia eagle. (Vernonia, Or.) 1922-1974 | View Entire Issue (June 28, 1945)
6 hursday, June 28, 1945____ Vernonia Eagle Letter to Mrs. Cline Tells Cousin's Activity The foliowin? letter was writ ten by klwartl Cline of More head, Kentucky, a cousin of Ms. Myrtie C ine, and, although he is not known here, the letter tells much of a soldier’s life and is printed here for that purpose. Stendal, Germany, May 20, 1945. With the lift of censorship, everything can be told. I’ll be gin with the dear old USA which takes me back to August 28, 1945. The week prior to the 28th, our Advance Party came from Fort Dix, New Jersey to Fort Hamilton (lower Brooklyn), New York where we received our last minute courses such as train ing against chemical*attaek and abadoning ship in case of emer gency. Every other night we re ceived passes to New York City and I made the most of it. On Sunday night, August 27, we weighed ourselves like pack mules with GI equipment and awaited a barge. At midnight we tugged up the Hudson and reached Pier No. 8 in Brooklyn about two o’clock in the morning of the 28th. With a band play ing to our departure and the Red Cross gals hustling coffee and dougnuts to us, we strug gled with our heavy loads and filed onto a ship which we found later to be the Queen Elizabeth. In the early noon Queen Lizzy slipped out of port and we all scrambled on deck to take a la-:t glimpse at Staten Island and that sweet gal with the Torch of Lib- eerty. That was the saddest feel ing I’ve ever experienced. I’m sure my greatest thrill will be seeing her once more. It’s un explainable but almost every GI had a tear in his eye. Then for 5 days we beat the water •unescorted but Lizzy could out run almost any ship; what she couldn’t out-run, she could out shoot so we were comparatively safe. The British food wasn’t too tasty, but fortunately neither the food nor the ride made mo sick. On Sunday September the 3rd, we arrived in Garlock, Scot land, a few miles from Glasgow. Boy! did land look good! The Scotch lassies brought coffee and doughnuts and made us feel wel come. We boarded a British train and headed for southern England. At 8:00 o’clock on the 4th we were at Winchester, Eng land. Now it was quiet for our boys were gone into France. The countrysides of Scotland and England are beautiful, but the cities seem a little backward. On the 8th we left Southhampton on a Belgium ship. Wo dropped an chor in the middle cf the English Channel and proceeded to rock for the night, pulling out under cover of darkness in the early morning hours with a bright moon overhead. It was cold, too cold to sleep on deck, so I sat wrapped in my single blanket and watched the lapping waters and the signals from other ships in the convoy. On the 9th we arrived at the Omaha Beachhead and walked through the battle grounds where many of our boys were) killed. The cemetery at the top of the hill witnessed this. We boarded GI trucks and -stopped in Valgnes, France, a wreck from our air attacks. We spent the next two weeks driving and servicing vehicles for the divis ion that was to arrive September 22nd. On the 22nd, we moved to area “M” at St. Pierre Eglise, and lived there until October 28th. All the time we lived in puptents and endured Nor mandy’s incessant fall rains. Life was most disagreeable. However, I enjoyed trips to Cherbourg, Valognes and Rheims. This gave mo the opportunity to see St. Lo, Charteres and Brest—the real battles in France. On the 29th of October our battalion marched by convoy from St. Pierre Eglise to Beek, Holland through Paris and scenic Belgium by the Meuse River. We arrived in Beek on the 31st of October. This wa3 our first actual fire and baptism to battle. On No vember 2nd, our rear echelon was organized and we organized our administrative units into one •unit at Brunssum, Holland. Here we met the most hospitable peo ple.- Thanks so much for their beds which they gave so freely and their coffee from tulip bulbs. From nothing, they gave us our first home in Europe. On the 29th oi November, after our troops had broken the impreg nable Siegfried Line, we took a position in the Carolus Magnus mines in Palenberg, Germany in the middle of the West Wall. We spent the winter here and got back to Brunssum occasion ally, as well as to Heerlen and SPECIAL NOTICE TO FLAMO USERS! Maastricht. During December the heavy artillery constantly shook our building firing cn the Ger mans on the Roer River. On December 16th while Von Run- stedt was pushing the bulge south of us, we were bombed several times, but never received a di rect hit. When 2 planes came in for bombing and straffing, our .50 calibers brought them down in flames. Late.- a third burst in flames in mid air and the pi lot hit the silk. So picturesque was a tumbling plane and a drift ing chute—enemy—not in a mov ie. Our knock-outs were high for this day. One day we were bom barded with Hitler's secret wea pon the VI and shook: up might ily with his V2, which buried our vehicles and men alive. In mid January I got an opportunity to visit the First Army front with my friends of the 99th division that I left in July, 1943. They held the bulge and a tour showed me the remains: Germans, horses, cows, hogs, guns, tanks, trucks. All was destruction. On Febru ary 23rd, our division crossed the Roer River and on the 27th we moved to Linnich, Germany on the Roer. Here I saw my first dead American and I can’t for get.. This was the most beaten up town I had yet seen—the once German resort; now rubble. Bombs fell every where, trying to knock out the supply route to the troops, the only bridge across the River. On the 2nd of March, we moved to Viersen, Germany under cover of dark ness and remained until the 17th when we again moved under night skies for Krefeld on the Rhine. This time we utalized a Hilter Youth Camp for our bil lets. When the move across the Rhine was well started, we crossed the Rhine at Wesel at midnight on the 8th of April. Here we expected blackout, but Brooklyn Bridge or the Golden Gate was never brighter. Men worked under flood lights com pleting railroad bridges and lay ing bridges for vehicles. On the 9th after an all night ride, we arrived at Minden and stayed for 4 days in a German barracks. On the 12th we moved to Han over and were billeted in a mod ern school of music with pianos in every room. Hanover, the once historic city for English kings was now a rubble pile with nar row passageways in the streets. On the 16th of April, we pulled stakes once more and departed for Stendal on the Elbe. This time we found ourselves to be the forward elements and twice we were alerted for attacks against tanks and wehrwolves.. Enroute, I came with the advance party and we encountered Ger man tank and small arms fire, but none of us were in great danger. While here at Stendal (a German airfield), in early May, German PWs streamed across the Elbe surrendering to the “good” Americans to avoid the “ruthless” Russians. So soon they have forgotten the thous ands of Poles their own SS men have burned and machine gunned in Gardelegen, the next city which is nearby. All was not bitter. We had our good times; we learned to laugh at dangers. But war is all that Sherman said it was. The score: TWO DOWN ‘and ONE to go. What next? 52 GIFTS IN ONE— AN EAGLE SUBSCRIPTION Use Flamo economically... Be sure burners are clean and properly adjusted. Proper utensils and low- flame cooking methods help save. Return cylinders promptly... Standard FLAMO brings city gas conven iences to homes beyond the gas mains. Plan now to have FLAMO for your home when we can once more serve Dew customers. Steel is at war, so they’re scarce. Return empty cy linders at once to insure a dependable gas supply. K*» O» fl /IM o L. G. HAWKEN Vernonia, Oregon Phone 502 Your local representative for STANDARD OF CALIFORNIA GOOD HAVE-NOTS meet the better haves . . . or vice versa . . . here upon common ground where both the wanted and the lost are found. Ad. in Our Classified Section Get Results! THE VERNONIA EAGLE The Forum POEM SENT Some folks who have plenty are holding back on bonds, folks in our town. Do you think this poem might soften selfish hearts. I cut it out some months ago then forgot it till I ran across it today. How often I wish I could help. I bought bonds last war, but this one I am on the side lines. The author of this poem gave his all. Mrs. A. E. Jennings. SOMETHING TO REMEMBER I’m full of dammed malaria, I shake the whole day long. The quinine’s ringing in my ears, I'm anything but strong. Mosquito bite« all over me, You’d think I had the itch. My ears are full of Guinea mud. My bunk a muddy ditch. not to be ignorant of them that “are asleep.” 1 Thessalonians 4:13, 14. In untroubled sleep there is perfect unconsciousness. To all such, time is nonexistent. So al so is it in death. Their “thoughts perish.” Psalms 146:4. They have "no remembrance.” Psalms 6:5. They “cannot praise” God. Isaiah 38:18. “The dead know not anything.” Ecclesiastes 9:5. They “go down into silence.” Psalms 115:17. This, then, is man’s condition in death. The grave is his house. Job 17:13. There he rests in peace until the call comes. Then “all that are IN THE GRAVES shall hear His voice, and shall come forth.” John 5:28. “Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise.” Isaiah 26:19. “The trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised.” 1 Corinthians 15:52. “The dead in Christ shall rise first.” 1 Thessalonians 4:16. This Biblical view of man’s con dition in death makes the rés urrection a necessity, and gives point to Paul’s word: “If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain . . . THEN THEY ALSO THAT ARE FALLEN ASLEEP IN CHRIST ARE PERISHED.” 1 Corinthians 15:17, 18. How could those words pcssibly be true if the doctrine that the righteous at death go immediately to heav en is true? No, the resurrection is a necessity. If it were not for that, they that “are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.” (To be continued) G. F. Brown I’m living in a jungle It’s hot as merry hell. K-rations are my menu, No cooking I can smell. For this I get two bucks a day, And a chance for a little ground That measures 4x6x4, And a covered grassy mound. My pal who came down here with me, The lad was just eighteen. Got him a bed he’ll never leave, The coverlet is grassy green. s Another one will see no more, Another one lost an arm, And hundreds more I do not know Are safe now from all harm. 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H H — For Hardware ---- See Hoffman — H Mole Cartridges each 6c We’d let them hear the moan We’d let then see them With sniper’s bullets close, With star shells in the wounded H — For Hardware — See Hoffman — lie whizzing H H Mole Killer H Carco to control root maggots H pkg. 5Oc I’ll bet those guys would have ■enough, And right at home they’d stay, No strikes they’d start right soon again For “two bucks more per day.” MAN, HERE AND HEREAFTER Part 16 WHY AN ETERNAL HELL IS IMPOSSIBLE The spirit, we learned, is the impersonal, life - giving breath from God, which in the beginning was breathed into the nostrils of Adam and made him a living soul. This “breath of life” was given to man and beast alike, and is the universal life principle from God. Genesis 2:7; 7:15, 21, 22. At death this breath of life goes back to God, who gave it. “The spirit shall return unto God who gave it.” Ecclesiastes 12:7. It came from God; it goes back to God. IT WAS IMPERSONAL WHEN IT WAS BREATHED INTO ADAM; IT RETURNS THE SAME WAY. The spirit, the breath of life, leases man and beast at death. God gave them life, now He takes it away. And the life returns to God who gave it. As in the beginning this breath of life caused Adam to become a living soul, so now when it is taken away it leaves the form as it was before, life less, inert, without consciousness, without personality. What has become of the soul? It has ceased to be. As the music ceases when the bow is stilled upon the strings as the light departs when the current is turned off, so the soul - consciousness, personality, will, is no more when God with draws His spirit. Man then rests in peace until the morning of the resurrection. “He entereth into peace; they rest In their beds, each one that walketh in his up rightness.” Isaiah 57:2, R.V. Death is compared to a sleep. “Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake.” Daniel 12:2. Stephen “fell asleep.” Acts 7:60. 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H H H H M H H H H Use our Aphis Spray tube 35c H H — For Hardware — See Hoffman — H H For your fruit trees use H H Bordeaux Mixture Pkg- 35c H H — For Hardware — See Hoffman — H YES, WE HAVE SNAROL AND GO-WEST H BAIT FOR SNAILS AND SLUGS HOFFMAN HARDWARE CO- Uncle Sam For Bonds—See For Hardware—See Hoffman Phone 181 Vernonia H H H H NZHZHZHZHZHZHZHZHZHZHZHZI rr
