Show I: thr garland ttmrs garland ittxd ? A Nazi Prisoners Work Parachutes Jeeps Halftracks Flamethrowers Be Used Peacetime to Battle Forest Methods Devised for War i i Are Being Adapted to Save Timber Resources i I of war become The swords 4 i ! the plowshares of peace! and this time Mars has some weapons that are going to come in mighty handy in the ’never ending battle against forest fires Some very logical asked 3uestions are being not use bombs to drop on forest fires? Why not use bombers equipped with precision sights to aim these bombs? Why not use fire- fighting parachute troops to drop behind “enemy” lines or to transport to fire regions difficult to negotiate by land? The mu who ia expected to take I'f 1I in f charge of this program is David Godwin a veteran at the forest who baa been active in work for a number of experimental years Godwin already has Investigated forpossibility of fires using bombs which In realwere exploding fire extinguiswas a number hers That however of years ago and didn't meet with much auccesa It was difficult the to found hit the exact experimenters spot where the would do the most good and there was difficulty in covering a sufficiently large area Aviation enthusiasts however are t counting upon effective and other precision instruments to this Vi tu ati on ”aV an a iter- the est ity native treat i they believe there may be possibilities in the use of heli- copters Nip doubt a fleet of bombing planes could be used to advantage in blasting a fire out of a forest especially with ground support from a paratrooper battalion The use of troops to fight forest fires was first tried a few years ago and they have been seeing action in this capacity ever since But there never has been enough of them to combat a really big fire This number can be expanded greatly after the war and the wartime training of paratroop combat units can bring about the fireof a’ formidable organization fighting force 'Jeep’ Will Be Fire Engine When it comes to techniques in forest fire fighting however It may be not only the use of waves of bombing planes and parachute roops to uugment the present forces The ubiquitous "jeep”— acto the Jungle trails of customed New Guinea and the difficult terrain of Africa and Italy — is already recommended by professional foresters as highly suitable for service as a Likewise the miniature fire engine radio unquestionably will be used by the thousands to keep in contact between fire chiefs their crewmen aviation spotters pilots and paratroopers overhead Vhich combine automobile speeds with tank and tractor ability to negotiate swamps and rugged land can serve efficiently as big brother to the Jeeps and for use as bulldozers to scrape fire trail barriers to the progress of flames Bulldozers already are essential firefighting equipment Even developed by the chemical warfare service may be called upon for building "back ' M Vi V" 4? I i sr v j f-- ' VjLJ As soon at a forest ranger spots a fire be radios for the flying firefighters Here a “smoke jumper" is making a "feather bed landing" In the tops of a young coniferous growth burning out areas In the path of spreading flames Accompanying them would be men with fire exto guard against the tinguishers back fires getUng out of control The paratrooper however will doubtless have a glory and a duty all his own His greatest service will come from the fact that he can Once a watcher (rom get there first a or from a patrolling plana spots smoke it need be only a can few minutes until a paratrooper land within 50 or 100 yards of the blaze and by getting there while the fire is just starting he will be able In many cases to extinguish It out additional help Paratroopers by Hundred But when long periods of dryness have rendered the forests highly inflammable and fires spread quickly a radio summons from the spotters can bring reinforcements in a hurry A single big plane may bring a score or morp paratroopers a dozen planes could bring them by the hundreds With their faces protected by plastic masks heads covered with padded helmets and bodies covered with to spare fabrics them injuries in case of and with coils of rope landings for descent from the handy quick trees the paratroopers can reach a fire many precioua minutes sooner than men on trucks or horseback can generally arrive Poitable devices that are strapped to a man’s back are already standard forest equipment suitable for the paratroopers Sometimes these are with a An alternasmall tank of water tive device uses water but builds the pressure behind it with carbon dioxide either In its liquid form or in the form of “dry ice " Some portable extinguishers use carbon dioxide itself to play upon the fires It snuffs them out by driving away the oxygen Extinguishers of greater capacity and other supplies will be attached to parachutes and dropped from other planes Meantime the jeeps and halftracks trucks and bulldozers will be moving up with other reinforcements and supplies They rpay bring the flame throwers to build back fires if necessary They'll bring long lines of hose and by motors which pumps powered are twins to those used on rowboats With the high pressure equipment be able to combat fires in they'll “snags" dead trees which are an because they tend especial menace to carry ground fires upward to the toPs of 0her trecs Ground Reinforcements When a forest fire goes into the tree tops it is about as difficult to check as any fire can possibly be In an old forest a crown fire may be as high above ground as the 15th story of a skyscraper— with no automatic sprinkler system to help fires” ' I ' After landing ihe "smoke jumper" unstraps his paraihute and goes to work with his portable Are extinguisher He carries other tools soeh as axes and spades The heavier equipment can be dropped by parachute when tycessary or NavyP 0 there are 10000 times as many little fires we seldom hear about and the sum total of their damage is the greater of the two Anyhow every big fire was little when it startWho starts them? The public ed accounts for approximately 98 per cent of all forest fires according to the official records of the forest service careless tossing of burning matches or tobacco is described as Incendi-the most frequent cause rists— people who start fires for a Sea Gets Mail Delivered Wrecked Europe ld w f f J"' h : iSdp 64 'Tt ' xj v I Up German prisoners both war and civilian are put to work as punishment for Infraction of Allied military to- - build bed 8r returning geverament regulations They are forced to Clean Up wrecked building At the CiUdeDe of Port Louis Lorlent France they uncovered mass graves of French troops and civilians civUians murdered by Nails Picture shows (Inset upper left) : German prisoners cleaning up a street in Kitxinger Germany Oval: Uncovering a mass grave Center: An assembly Une at Munich making beds and n 853 Cadets Graduate From West Point System of 5000 Branches Reaches Remotest Islands One of the most gigantic wartime tasks confronting postal men is delivering mall to mobile units The mounting tempo of of the fleet in the last year means operations not only that greater distances must to effect delivery but be spanned that a greater number of men are in combat activities involved all classes of mail to an creasing volume unprecedented 86132623 1945 March During pieces of letter mall passed through Fleet Post Office San Francisco to navy marine and coast guard personnel In the Pacific In March 1944 there were 36686937 pieces of letter mail dispatched to the Pacific that showing clearly the mall volume increased well qVer 100 per cent In one year It is expected that it will rise even farther The nerve center of the navy mail service is In the navy department D C Here ship and Washington are traced and plane movements communicated daily to the fleet post office by wire and airmail formation on ship and plane move ments come in from all over the world — by radio letter and messenger there are the world Throughout over 5000 navy post offices varying in size and appearance-sogreatly within the United States but the vast majority are on board ship or at advanced bases or on captured and liberated islands The large ones serving the mobile units are designated as fleet post offices What Navy Men Want Extensive surveys show that navy coast guard and marine corps personnel overseas above all want letters — letters giving local news and telling of things done and things Secondly they want obplanned sentimental jects with a personal appeal such as photographs snapshots made by their drawings and newspaper clippings youngsters that can be enclosed in these letters Such surveys also show that they know what they don’t positively want They don’t want cakes soft candies cookies cigarettes and fando not These kits foods toilet cy survive the trip to the Pacific and arrive In a battered moldy condition To make sure your package the followin good condition ing suggestions are outlined’ Vie a strong container (special boxea are designed for this purpose) 2 Pack each article in shredded paper or some filler material to prevent movement inside the package 3 Inside each package put a sheet of paper with a list of the contents and the full address of the person to whom it is sent plus your reinrn sddress then 4 Tie the box with cord WRAP It In heavy paper and tie It with strong cord 5 PRINT the address in Ink directly on the wrapping don’t labels which fall use gummed off when they are subjected to moisture Experience has shown that a man overseas places a far higher value on a letter from home than a pack or a long delayed age of candy Because of the great newspaper morale factor the navy delivers first class mail to the far Pacific as peditiously as possible Host of Stmill Fires Do More Damage Than the Few Great or for malice— A tough forest fire is a terrible enemv to combat It sometimes attacks on a front from one to more than twenty miles in width It can ween forward at a speed to overIt detake a man on horseback velops a heat that can ignite a stump more than 100 yards removed from to flames It currents stirs air any the speed of a tornado The great forest fires the ones we read about are the more spectacular and do terrific damage — but Re-Bui- Fires combat it and plenty of oxygen to make it burn freely Thus if the original fire does get out of control of the first paratroopers to reach it and proves too big for the first reinforcements also it is almost certain that the third wave of paratroopers and ground forces will resort to building backfires and digging trenches ss the maximum effort to check it Bulldozers and half tracks will mechanize a large part of the digging job Men with and extinguishers will handle the backfires Other men with will clear the path of of s the bulldozers and trees too big for them to bowl over America has a big stake in forest lands Forest operators are seeing to it that our trees continue to grow but they know that fire is the biggest menace to growth They neef weapons with which to fight fires and they expect those that this war provides will help to keep a better control over this persistent enemy On Land to An overhead view showing some of ihe 853 cadets who graduated from the West Point military academy as Lt Gen Barton K Yount commanding general AAFTC gives the graduates their wings Dwight A Riley of Athens Ohio was selected as honor man of the 1945 graduating class Among the graduates was Cadet W D Clark who received his diploma from the hand of Gen Mark W Clark his father Record St Louis Girl Sets Mail Little Rose Marie with a part of the 8000 wrote in to Smiling Ed for her birthday Chostner eight pieces of mail sent McConnell asking 14 ‘Beavers’ of St Louis Is surrounded her in just one week after she for at least one birthday card LST on Coast Guard r k Takes Big Toll The submarine Farche has sunk 4500000 tons of Jap shipping since the war began Photo shows Lt Comdr W M McCory and lookout men as they stand at the conning tower of the Parche flying Its battle flag after its return to Pearl Har- bor New Twirler 44 Wi n Ay- t - t' - Ones thrill rank second men are 61000 Approximately kept constantly subject to fire fight Of some 52 these today lng duty 500 are responsible to state forest of private era and administrators and about ly owned timberlands 9000 are members of the federal land administrative agencies whict forest the service In spit include fire anno of their efforts however ally destroys as much as 800000001 cubic feet of timber These guys have been dodging the Ahoy mate fetch a la winnower! LST these 14 barber long enough Serving aboard a “beavers" took part la the assault on Okinawa A rongh and ready band thev carry their hobbies on their china —the same kind of luxuriant feliag that Grandpa used t wear I® wtndnp actios here is Dave Ferriss sensational new pitcher ol the Boston Red Bov who bai chalked up hla sixth straight victory with ft fthatoat- - 4 f |