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Show Fightin1 Binghamites Report In an all-out war effort every private enterprise has a public responsibility. This is especially true in the publishing business. With pride, the Bingham Bulletin Bulle-tin reports that each week 60 fellows in service receive copies of the Bulletin. In addition, many local subscribers forward their own papers to a son, brother or friend in service. The men write that while any local news is of interest, they are especially anxious anx-ious to hear bits of news about each( other. A column, "Fighting Talk", is inaugurated this week in response to many suggestions, i Parpnt nnrl frinnrla ova ula n phone or write information the fellows will find pleasureable reading. Bingham district men are in ' the armed forces, on land, on sea, and in the air, on nearly every fighting front throughout the world. None have had more ', interesting experiences than the , Koukles brothers, formerly of Copperfield. 1 Until recently, Corporal Michael Mich-ael Koukles served with head-; head-; quarters battery, 41st infantry 1 division artillery, and saw action I in the battle of Buna, New Guinea. Guin-ea. His sister, Mrs. Frank Zaccaria, Zac-caria, didn't know exactly where her brother was serving until she saw his picture in the February Febru-ary 15 issue of Life magazine. She was sure the photo was of Mike, she said, because the division di-vision was identified by number and she recognized a ring on his finger. The caption read: "A soldier and his home near Buna village right on the front line. At night he sleeps in the trench in water up to his neck." Mike was shown seated on a trench, holding his gun and with his feet in the mud. A letter he wrote January 5 advised Mrs. Zaccaria that he was no longer with his old outfit but is at present in second training, O.C.S., in Australia. Aus-tralia. He lias been in army -service since April 11, 1941, and was with the field" artillery at Fort Lewis, Wash., and landed in. Australia May 18, 1942. Corporal George Koukles has been in the army since May, 1941, and was stationed at Fort Lewis, Wash., until June, 1942, with a division of engineers. His sister knew that he had been moved far north and supposed he was working on the new Alaskan Alas-kan highway. Recently she received re-ceived a letter containing clippings clip-pings describing the completion of a new highway constructed by the U.S. government north of Peace river to MacKenzie river riv-er in the Canadian northwest. Disclosure of the project was made two weeks ago in the Canadian Can-adian House of Commons. The road was described as an addition addi-tion to the Alaskan highway. Corporal Koukles wrote recently recent-ly that he is moving farther into the north and will not be able to send a letter for the next four months. Sergeant Frank Begley, whose APO address is New York, heads his letters "Near East" and writes writ-es that his "good news" is the recent receipt of his sergeant's stripes. Begley. entered the service ser-vice April 11, 1942. His mother, Mrs. Thomas Rogerson, this week received a letter dated just a month ago, in which he tells of hearing "green canaries sing". Mrs. Rogerson is proud of the pictures which passed censorship censor-ship and which show her son standing near the Sohinx and with pyramids in the background. Corporal J. Gordon Gust, a chief clerk at the U. S. army medical corps at the information department of the Letterman hospital, San Francisco, left Wednesday after a four-day visit vis-it with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. H R. Gust. One of the first boys from Bingham to enlist after selective se-lective service legislation passed, Gordon left here October 13, 1940. Corporal Gust was in Utah as one of the escorts with a train of troops sent to Bushnell hospital hos-pital at Brigham City. Private Victor Contratto, who enlisted with the marines January Janu-ary 28, 1942, is now believed to be in Australia after release from Guadalcanal where thev had plenty of action. A V-mail letter written January 30 to his brother, broth-er, Chief of Police R. J. Contratto Con-tratto and Mrs. Contratto, told that Vic is in a fine place and able to get everything he wants or can use. He asked for Bob I Crellin's address, because "it might be possible to see him", lie wrote he was in the "best of spirits and health", although the weather is "uncomfortably hot . Private First Class Joseph Willis Wil-lis Garrett, Australia, on February Febru-ary 20, wrote the Bulletin a most interesting account of his experiences exper-iences in Australia and gave a few comparisons of the Australian Austra-lian and American ways of life. Willis began army service June 18, 1941. He left United States on Thanksgiving day, November 21, 1941, and passed through Pearl (Continued on page eight) FIGHTIN' BINGHAMITES REPORT j .(Continued from page one) Harbor a few days before the December 7 bombing. In his letter he tells how copies of the home town papers are treasured and of traveling 40 miles to take "Sonny" Walker (whom he met Christmas Eve, 1941) some Bulletins. Bul-letins. Among the first group of Americans to be stationed in Australia, he admits he was flattered flat-tered by the attention and interest inter-est Americans received from Australians. He says that generally gener-ally speaking, the climatic dif- ferences between most sections of U.S. and Australia would account ac-count for the indolent, easy-going manner people living in the Land Down Under have a-dopted. a-dopted. On February 23, Private Garrett rounded out 14 months in Australia and "it has not seemed seem-ed that long." He says that the Australians are now accustomed to the drive of Americans and their use of vehicles of all types to get things done, but he believes be-lieves that "one-half of the Australian Aus-tralian population thinks we are completely mad." In closing he advised Bingham to "keep up the good work. I just can't visualize the activity in Bingham and surrounding sur-rounding areas, but what you tell me proves it is terrific. As our neighbors, the Australian allies al-lies say, "Cheerio". Services overseas does not always al-ways entail activity, excitement and danger. Private First Class Elmer John Householder, son of Deputy Sheriff and Mrs. E. J. Householder, has been posted on one of the numerous small isles in the Hawaiian group for nearly 8 year and battles daily, not Japs, but dullness and monotony. Private Householder left here for the army April, 7 1942. He went from Fort Douglas to Camp Roberts Rob-erts and was at Fort Ord when his sailing orders arrived. In writing of his life on a tropical isle he shows his delight in the beauty of surroundings, tells of the tropical birds and describes the life of natives, how they swim and spear octopi. The service ser-vice men "get all the radio programs pro-grams from the states and rarely rare-ly miss a picture at the show house." Private Householder lives in a tent, spends most of his days on guard duty and dreams of home "Dearest Mother Mo-ther and Dad you might think I have forgotten you, but that will never be. I think of you ev-ery ev-ery minute of the day". |