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Show Power Launch Sought For Lake Rescues The legendary "Goshen navy'"-has navy'"-has long been a standing joke in Utah county but if plans of Sheriff Theron S, Hall are accepted, his office will soon become a sea-going outfit. The sheriff's department is making mak-ing application through regular government channels to get a sur- plus navy power launch for its official offi-cial use in rescue and search work on Lake Utah. The application, if approved, will have 'a two-fold benefit, it will provide immediate facilities for search and rescue, and it should save the taxpayers some money. The sheriff's office has charge of all search and rescue work on I the lake, and over the past years the rental for boats has knocked a considerable hole in the department depart-ment budget whenever a drowning occurred. Sheriff Hall today pointed point-ed out that private boat enthusiasts enthusi-asts have rendered yeoman service in the past in furnishing boats for rescue work, but he indicated that a boat owned and controlled by the sheriff's office might enable en-able a little faster start -on rescue operations than in the past when it has been necessary to hunt up a member of the boat club before launching a search. The boat for which the office has applied is a 25 or 30 foot twin-engined twin-engined type, known in the navy as an admiral's launch. Its seaworthiness seawor-thiness in rough ocean weather has been proven and it is believed to be ideal for the type of work necessary on Utah lake. In anticipation of receiving the boat, members of the sheriff's force today were assigning nautical nauti-cal ranks to the various deputies, with the sheriff, of course, as "commander "com-mander of the fleet." It appeared the "crew" would be a trifle like the Mexican army, all generals and no privates. Deputy Harry Mower, however, was immediately relegated to apprentice ap-prentice seaman. It seems he's the only one on the force with real knowledge of the sea, gained first hand from 4 years in Uncle Sam's navy during the war, 2 years on actual sea duty.. Harry was on the first aircraft Hornet when the latter was sunk by Jap torpedoes near Guadalcanal. He was one of the ship's survivors picked up by the cruiser Augusta. |