OCR Text |
Show With the Colors Enjoying a nice visit with home folks and friends is Warren Thompson, seaman first class and youngest son of Mr. and Mrs. William Wil-liam Thompson. Warren is a 1939 graduate of Milford high school and has now been in naval service three years this coming January. Almost completely re. covered from a bad case of rheumatic rheu-matic fever, he now is able to carry on full training in the amphibious am-phibious forces, with special emphasis em-phasis on anti-aircraft work. He is stationed at Port Hueneme, some 60 miles north of Los Angeles, but expects to "ship out" shortly after he reports back at his station on December 11. Aviation Cadet Charles Douglas Class, son of Mr. and Mrs. G. S. Frazier, of Milford, has reported at Carlsbad army air field, New Mexico, where he will receive advanced ad-vanced . flight training in high-level high-level bombardiering and dead, reckoning navigation, according to a press release to The News. .The Carlsbad army air field is the newest new-est bombardier school in the army air forces training command. During Dur-ing the 24 weeks training course, Cadet Class will study bombardiering bombardier-ing and dead-reckoning navigation under simulated combat conditions. On graduation he will be awarded silver bombardier's wings and will be ready for active duty as an officer of-ficer in the army air forces. John Roy White, 18, son of Mrs. Lucylle White of Milford, was graduated recently from the naval training school (electric) at the St. Louis, Missouri, naval armory and received recognition as eligible eligi-ble to qualify for the petty officer rate of electrician's mate third class, according to a press release received by The News. iSelection to attend the school was made on the basis of his recruit re-cruit training aptitude test scores. The completed course of study included in-cluded the practical use of electrical elec-trical tools, soldering, wiring, diagramming dia-gramming and repairing of tele-phone tele-phone circuits. A theoretical phase included principals of electricity elec-tricity and magnetism. Roy is new awaiting further duty orders to sea or to some shore station. James E. Price, 19, son of Mr. and Mrs. R. B. Price of Milford, recently awarded the silver wings of a pilot at the La Junta, Colo-rado Colo-rado advanced two-engine pilot school of the army air forces training train-ing command, is home for a visit before continuing his training at some other field. He was graduated as a Second Lieutenant after completing the final phase of flight training as an i aviation cadet in the A T-24 air-, air-, plane, a slightly modified version ! of the famed Mitchell B-25 medium 1 bomber. He is a 19-12 graduate of Milford high school and is married ' to the former Phyliss Rollins, who continues to make her home here. i Corporal James M. Ussery, son I of K. N. Ussery and brother of ! Mrs. Amos Jackson, South Milford, is completing his training on a Liberator bomber at Pueblo army ; . j air base, Colorado, according to a press release coming to The News. He is a gunner member of his crew, and is being fitted to be a valuable member of a team that will carry the fight into enemy territory. A mechanic in civilian life, Corporal Ussery entered the service in March, 1943. He is a former student of Milford high school. Herbert (Mack) McCarty en-route en-route to his new station, Camp Bradford, Virginia, spent five days last week visiting his wife and two small children after graduating November 17 from the navy yoe-man yoe-man school in San Diego, California. Califor-nia. Mrs. McCarty is the former Miss Betty Denny. Robert Swanson Davis, 23, husband hus-band of Beverly Elaine Davis of Milford, has arrived at the infantry replacement training center at Camp Wolters, Texas, to begin his basic training as an infantryman. He has been assigned to a battalion bat-talion stressing rifle training. Serjeant Le Grand C. Cramer, whose wife, Mrs. Barbara Cramer, and 13-month-old son, Craig, live at Beaver, has been awarded the Good Conduct medal for exemplary behavior and efficiency as a clerk! in the communications office of the transportation section of the South Pacific base command headquarters, head-quarters, according to a press release re-lease received this week. Sergeant Cramer entered the j army in June, 1943, received in-j I fantry basic training at Camp Ro. ' bertSj California, and went overseas over-seas in December, 1943. His parents, par-ents, Mr. and Mrs. Jack Ferguson, live at Milford. A brother, R M 1c Burnett Ferguson, is with the navy in the Pacific. ii:-rgeant Cramer was a rigger at the Port-continued Port-continued on last page) t With the Colors (Continued from last week) land shipyards in Oregon before he: entered the army. ! From Wallace J. Mastros, RM 3C, In Pacific Service November 4, 1944 Dear Mom and Dad: Well, I getting a little better pnyway. Instead of waiting a month to write, I only wait a week now. That is some improvement, isn't it? I haven't heard from you hut I thought I had better write and explain ex-plain where I have been and the delay in writing. You see, we were in the invasion of the Philippines at Leyte, and so were a little too busy to do any writing. I guess, that is a good enough excuse and you will forgivle me this time, won't you? This time three of us were in the assault wave and so were the first navy men on Philippine soil. We were on an L S T for about 10 days and didn't do a thing except eat and sleep; but, boy! I needed it as it sure was a rest from standing stand-ing those darned watches. We went in sixth wave and were supposed to hit 17 minutes after the first wave; but things went so well that we were on the beach just six minutes min-utes after the first ave had hit: utes after the first wave had hit. We hadn't been there very long when the Filipinos started coming down. They had been "holed-up" during the bombardment. They sure were a pitiful sight, but I don't think there was one that wasn't happy at our arrival. I guess there must have been thousands thou-sands of them down by us, and quite a few of them could speak pretty good English. We were just about talked to death. They said that the Japs took all their food and water and they hadn't had anything to eat for about three days, so we started feeding them "K" and "C" rations, and, boy! talk about eating! They also liked to smoke and they smoked more than anybody I have ever seen. They said they hadn't had any American cigarets for four years. They told us that if they were caught with any American things or were caught speaking English, they would have their heads cut off. They were the happiest and most polite people I have seen in a long time. When we left we gave them all the cigarets, soap, extra clothes and everything we had. I figured they needed it worse than I did and I can always get more. Well, this isn't much, but it will let you know I am safe and love you all very much. Write soon, won't you ? Your loving son, WALLACE P. S. 'I have a picture I want to send home soon (it was taken on Leyte), also some Japanese occupation occu-pation money. |