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Show News from the Washington County People At Service Camps and Nation's Battle Fronts Lieut. Viron Jones Writes In his letter of July 6, to the Washington County News, Lieut. Viron V. Jones, one of the four remaining air corps sons of Mrs. A. W. Augason, offers a suggestion sugges-tion in behalf of the boys in the service, which unquestionably has plenty of merit as a morale builder. Writing from an island in the North Pacific, Lieut. Jones expresses ex-presses his appreciation for the work of the Red Cross, the U.S.O. and other organizations to provide entertainment for the "Boys", and says, "but there is one little thing which would stir the heart of every fighting "Dixieite", in that foxhole no matter on what front he may be, and that is News". Not just the military news which they get early, but "news from that valley between the black ridges, the Virgin river and the Vermillion cliffs". Lieut. Jones admits they get the Washington County News now and then, but not usually until it is a month old or more. His idea is for local civic clubs, church groups or . others to get together and provide the means for a weekly printed V-Mail letter to each soldier boy, giving briefly what is doing in politics, business, improvements, school news, dances, parties, plays, socials, church news of importance and soldier news specials, so they might get this while the facts are still young enough to be called news. This may or may not sound like a big order, and certainly it would mean a wonderful lot for the boys, although it would be difficult to cram very much onto a V-Mail sheet, and it would of course be expensive. Others who have read the letter from Lieut. Jones have suggested that parents and other family members take the hint, and fill out a V-Mail V-Mail sheet each week to as many boys as they can, at least their own sons, and give them news, not just personal sentiment and questions as to how they are and such. V-Mail is the first to go and first to arrive and if groups could make some workout on this idea it would certainly be the means of bringing the absent boys a step closer to home every week, fa S3 h Writes from New Guinea Mrs. Ellis Larson has just received re-ceived word from her brother, Pfc. Warren Dee Hall, now serving serv-ing as a tank destroyer driver in the New Guinea area. This is the first word received from Pfc. Hall since Sept. 1942, when he was serving in Australia under General MacArthur. He has been overseas for 16 months, and naturally has a yen to get back and see if the old coastline and home-town have changed. He entered the service in March 1941, with the Cedar City unit of the National Guard, being a resident resi-dent of that city. In his letter he writes, "I am safe and well; have just received your Christmas presents and want to thank all the family for the nice things they sent, and especially for the letters you keep writing. Please send me a "Book of Mormon", if you can. We don't have much time to write and are generally on the move. But keep sending the letters to me anyway". Pa to Pfc Cliff Writes from England Writing from England June 26, Pvt. A. B. (Champ) Cuff reports he has received most every issue of the News since his arrival there last August, and has been especially es-pecially interested in the soldier stories since he knows so many of the boys mentioned in that section. Having been somewhat in poor health he has had to depart from the field of training in which he began, but says he is getting along fine now. On the trip over he met up with Andrew Stephens of Washington and while they still keep contact with each other, they are in widely different locations. loca-tions. He extends greetings to all the folks he knew while in St. George and says he hopes to be coming back before too long and getting back into the old routines. Fa Fa pa Receive News Clipping Mr. and Mrs. Joseph T. Atkin just received the following interesting inter-esting clipping from an Alaskan newspaper regarding their nephew, Wendell Motter, who has been located there since February 1941. The item is headed. "Two Escape Es-cape Sinking Plane. Pilot Dives to Free Passenger from Belt". The story follows: Quick thinking and acting on the part of Sgt. Wendell Motter aided in averting what might have been a serious accident when a rented plane he was piloting crashed into Lake Spenard last Sunday evening. Both he and his passenger, Miss Rita Schmitz, telephone tel-ephone operator for the Alaska Communications System, got a good soaking, but were uninjured. Motter said he was taking off from a landing strip near the lake and was about 15 feet up and attempting to level off to gain speed .when his motor went out. He had to choose between a crash on rough terrain of the lake. He chose the lake and instructed in-structed Miss Schmitz to fasten her safety belt. "Trouble really began then," Motter explained. "Miss Schmitz couldn't get her belt loose and water was slowly filling the cabin". Miss Schmitz said Motter went under water and freed her belt then aided her in getting to shore. She said it happened so fast that she did not have much chance to get frightened. Miss Schmitz is from Cleveland, Ohio, and Motter from St. George, Utah. The plane, which belonged to a flying service was salvaged with little damage and will be repaired." Mrs. Atkin reports that Sgt. Motter is now teaching a radio school, and holds his first-class commercial license in radio telephone tele-phone and radio telegraphy, a double rating few operators are fortunate enough to have. He writes that he is looking forward hopefully for a short furlough this summer and will be glad to come home. He has not been home since he left in 1941. F Fa IBi Alpheus Hartley Writes Stationed a t Farragut, Ida., NS Alpheus Hartley writes the News to do a little legitimate boasting of the boys of Washington Wash-ington county, whom he says are taking honors in their divisions. He also expresses thanks for the weekly prompt arrival of the Washington County News and says it is "especially choice to the service serv-ice man. It enables us to keep a line on the happenings of southern Utah, the one spot that is so dear to us". He feels it is an honor to do a little boasting about the superiority super-iority of Utah boys, saying that Company 391, of which 50 per cent are from Utah, are showing up remarkably well. This company com-pany passed higher in physical fitness than any other company in Farragut to date. "Merlin K. Holt of Gunlock, bears the distinction of heading this list of strong men", he writes. "Also in general gen-eral classification tests this company com-pany passed with the highest av erage ever recorded in Farragut. Some of the boys who make up this fine company come from Washington county and include: Ross McArthur, Delwin Hinton, Wanless Pectol, June Barton and Merlin Holt. (No doubt he should have added his own name.) Pfc Shelby Frei In Egypt Word just received by Mr. and Mrs. Vivian J. Frei of Santa Clara from their son, Pfc. Shelby Frei, tells them he is now serving just out of Cairo, Egypt: He gives interesting in-teresting descriptions of that area. In the service since August, 1942, he just recently was granted his first furlough. This eight-day allowance gave him an opportunity opportun-ity to join other soldiers for a bus trip to Palestine. They visited Jerusalem, Nazareth, Bethlehem, the scene of the crucifixion, the path up which the Christ bore the heavy cross, the Temple where he worshiped, the Jordan river and the Dead Sea, and other places of interest of which he had heard and read in Biblical history since childhood, but had never hoped to see. Being in the medical corps, he is in a large hospital in the Near East, he tells interestingly, though briefly, of the marvelous work being be-ing done and of the hopefulness of soldiers that the conclusion of hostilities is not too far away. S3 S3 )S9 Lieut, R. Hansen Writes Writing from the Venice Armv : air base in Florida last week, I Lieut. Russell Hansen tells hisl parents of an exciting experience which fortunately he escaped with only minor injury, and says he learned a good lesson. Lieut. Hansen flies the P-47's and P-39's and says they are (Continued on page eight) News from Our People In the Armed Services (Continued from page six) wonderful machines, but sometimes some-times give the pilot a real workout. work-out. He was up plenty high recently re-cently in a P-39 doing the required re-quired manuevers, when something went wrong while he had the plane on its back in the barrel roll. Down he went from 13,000 to 3,000 feet and he was making ready for a parachute exit when things clicked and he was able to right the plane again, leveled off and made his landing in safety. Too busy to really get frightened, he figures this near-accident was a mighty good lesson and he'll remember it for possible future use. P5 S3 Arrives from Mississippi Seaman Rex Terry and wife arrived ar-rived last Friday afternoon from Gulf Port, Miss., for a short visit with relatives, before his return to his post on Monday. Crosscountry Cross-country traveling is so slow it gave them only three days here. Mrs; Terry plans to go on to Idaho to remain for the duration with her parents, since her husband, hus-band, who is a graduate cook and baker for the Navy has ideas he may have overseas assignments coming up before he gets another an-other furlough. Seaman Terry says he likes his job, and judging by his gain in weight and physique generally, 'he must get a chance at the food himself now and then. to' las Si Mr. and Mrs. Vernon Tobler were happy to receive a letter last Monday from their son, Walter, saying he had arrived safely somewhere some-where in India. This is the first word they have received from him since he sailed for overseas, sometime some-time around the 1st of June. He said so far he had enjoyed his trip very much, seeing a lot of new lands and people and that they were receiving very good food and care and also told of some interesting things about the people there. (a fa Schuyler Maggard Visits Seaman Schuyler Maggard, who has been visiting with Mrs. Maggard Mag-gard in St. George for 10 days, left Wednesday evening to return to his ship. Mrs. Maggard will accompany him as far as Salt Lake Citv. Enroute thev will visit in Parowan and Provo with relatives rela-tives before his departure. Mr. Maggard, who is a Signalman Signal-man First Class in the U. S. Navy, is looking well and says Uncle Sam is meeting every requirement re-quirement in looking after his workers, giving them plenty of good food and all other essentials. However, he will be plenty happy when his landing port is not far away. fa s s Cpl. Price On Furlough Home for a 10-day furlough with his mother, Mrs. Roy Williams, is Cpl. Andrew R. (Tart) Price. This is his first visit home in many months, and CpL Price says he is thoroughly enjoying Dixie temperatures after being on desert maneuvers at Camp Horn, Ariz., where the thermometer registers figures that wouldn't be believed if he told them. Transferred recently to the division di-vision of Rangers, Cpl. Price is enthused with his work, and is happy that the present training post is near enough home to permit per-mit his present furlough. Prior to coming west he was stationed in Camp Rucker, Ala., and had man euvers training in Tennessee, the world's largest maneuver area. He was also for a time in Texas, but ' still thinks Utah is a good place to live. He plans to leave about - Aug. 3rd to return to Camp Horn via Kanab, to which Col and Mrs. Williams will accompany him. |