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Show A1Q Wednesday, January 10, 2007 Vernal Express a Public Forum 1 1 I Letters to the Editor What is your opinion? The Vernal Express welcomes letters from its readers concerning any subject pertinent to the Uintah Basin. There are no restrictions on contents, if not libelous, vindictive vin-dictive and in good taste. The letters need to be a reasonable length, two typewritten double spaced pages. Letters must be submitted exclusively to the Vernal Express and bear the writer's writ-er's full name, signature, phone number and address. Letters for the sole purpose of expressing express-ing thanks to individuals or groups will not be printed in the forum. Letters may be mailed to P.O. Box 1000, Vernal, Utah 84078, faxed at 789-8690 or through email at editorvernal.com. The name or names of the persons submitting letters must appear on all published letters. All letters let-ters are subject to condensation. Letters express the opinion of the writer and are not necessar-ily necessar-ily the opinion of the Vernal Express Editor. ' ' '. ' ' lllflllifllliltli imp Flags fly at half-mast at County building. The Flag at Half-Staff for 67 American soldiers Dear Editor, During June 1950, I was serving in the 548th Recon Tech Squadron at Yokota Air Base 30 miles west of Tokyo, Japan. While eating breakfast on Sunday morning on the 25 of June, our squadron was informed that North Korea had begun, an . invasion of South Korea. We finished our break: fast and went immediately to our dufy stations. ' Major George Fisher assembled his squadron and enlightened us about the present pres-ent situation that we would be involved in. At that time, the "Fire Fight" was already two hours in progress. At that time all squadron members reported to their duty stations. My military occupational specialty was photo interpretation interpreta-tion from which we generated photo intelligence. At that time in our files, we possessed no aerial photos. Now we went to the map files. These files were intelligence files that were captured cap-tured from Japan at the end of World War n. To our amazement, amaze-ment, there were no maps printed in American English. Every map was in Japanese. Wow, they should have known that we would sometime need these maps. In order to solve the immediate problem, we brought in Japanese workers to interpret names on the maps. Immediately United States Air Force began saturation filming using WW n B-29 bombers. Each roll of film was 10 inches wide by 400 feet long. The World War II Japanese maps were nearly worthless to us. The 548th Rec Recon Squadron had map making capabilities so we began making mak-ing our own maps. The first recon bomber B-29 returned to Yokota Air Base approximately 8 hours later. Red priority had been placed on this particular mission, as they had been assigned to cover the 38th Parallel, especially north of Seoul As photo interpreters, inter-preters, we were ready and waiting for these first photos. There were 200 10 by 20-inch photos in the first mission. A team of 10 photo interpreters was chosen to begin reading this initial mission. It required very little time to determine the main force of the attackers troop numbers, tanks trucks and jeeps. When we had pretty well determined the size of enemy force, we requested our Squadron Commander, Major Fisher, to review . what we had found. Major Fisher was a World War II veteran. After he had viewed our photos, he commented, "Judging from the size of the North Korean attacking force, this isn't a fire fight, there is going to be Hell to pay." Without really taking the time to ponder the situation, we were looking at the beginning I of the Korean War. Someone had to be first. I guess it just as well be us. After all, this is the job we had attended school for in Denver, Colo. Several more Recon planes flew designated zones in many areas of North and South Korea ... 548th Photo Interpreters continued to scan and write - reports on these missions. At 6 a.m. we reported at our duty stations. When we walked into our work stations, what a shock we had. The photo lab had continued work throughout through-out the night processing film and printing photos. There were mountains of photos. It didn't require a seven star gen eral to figure that we had an awful lot of work ahead of us. At approximately 11 a.m. on the 26th of June, Major Fisher came into our work area. He looked around for a couple minutes, then said, "I need 10 volunteers." Right away we got his message. The major told us to report at the Flight Line immediately. "When you arrive at the Flight Line, you ; will receive your instructions." As we walked to the line we would see the entire base in a beehive of activity. And at the flight line there were two C-47 cargo planes and a large ambulance bus. As we walked up, we were met by an Air Force captain. He instructed instruct-ed us to follow him. The captain led us up the ramp to the open door of the first C-47. As we climbed up the ramp, we could see that the plane had been hit several times with rifle fire. That was nothing compared to what we found inside the plane body. As we moved inside the plane body we could see dozens of bodies laying on the floor. Our captain instructed us to place each body on a litter and carry them outside into the ambulance bus. Each body had been placed into a cotton mattress cover. Even though they were covered, we knew that these were American soldiers' sol-diers' bodies. Each had been shot multiple times as all kinds of body fluids were seeping out of the so-called body bags. As heart-wrenching and distasteful distaste-ful as our duty was, not one man uttered a word of complaint com-plaint My own thoughts were, "I don't have to go looking for a war. It has come and found me." From the two C-47 planes, we unloaded the bodies of 67 American soldiers that liad been in Seoul South Korea. These were not combat soldiers as we may think of them. We learned from the plane crew that these soldiers had been a part of KMAG, Korea Military Advisory Group at Seoul We also learned from the crew that the North Korean invasion inva-sion force had arrived at Seoul Airport while the crew was warming their engines for takeoff. take-off. That is where they received the bullet holes in their planes, "f - With our assignment complete, com-plete, we began walking back to our squadron area. When we had walked about a city block, we heard a bugler at the squadron squad-ron parade ground, sounding "Assembly." A short distance later we could see the bugler standing approximately 50 feet from the flag pole. Looking over to our Squadron Headquarter, we saw four master sergeants marching toward the flag pole. The sergeants halted approximately approxi-mately 5 paces from the flag pole. Then the sergeant on the right moved up to the flag pole. When the sergeant raised his arms to lower the American flag, the other sergeants presented pre-sented the military salute. We did the same. As our flag began to lower very slowly, the bugler began to play "Taps." When the short ceremony was completed, complet-ed, the sergeants very slowly marched back to the headquarter headquar-ter building. When our 10-man squad arrived back at our duty area, like us, almost everyone had lost the ability to speak. Yes, even old World War II soldiers. sol-diers. During my enlistment in the United States Air Force, from 1948 to 1952, 1 have never seen our flag ceremony performed in this manner. I feel that it was very appropriate then, and I still do. Duane Hall Vernal Reward offered Dear Editor, A recent attempted armed robbery of the Smith's Pharmacy occurred where a pharmacist was stabbed after he refused to give the individual individu-al drugs. The attempted robbery was a violent act in and of itself. But, what really bothers me is why the criminal had to stab the pharmacist, an upstanding person in our community. It is because of this cowardly act of stabbing the pharmacist that I am personally offering a $1,000 reward for the arrest and conviction of the coward or cowards cow-ards that were involved. If anyone has any information informa-tion about this crime please contact the Vernal Police Department at 789-4222 or your local police department. You will remain anonymous. Chief Steve Guibord Naples Police Library provides a variety of services By Elizabeth Goode Express Writer The Uintah County Library Board reports many advances which are underway in the switch, cable, and wiring systems sys-tems that provide service to the computers located within the library for public use. In " addition, readers who access the Uintah County web site should experience an increase in internet speed in accessing the library. The target date for all of the work to be completed is the end of January, but prior to "cut-over" all aspects will be tested to minimize problems. Much time and effort has been put into refurbishing and Upgrading the equipment and logistics "behind the scenes" that users never have to be concerned con-cerned with. There is a possibility possibil-ity that the library internet site may not function for a few days during the upgrade, but the library's Dynix system will not - be affected, and book check-in and out will continue without interruption. The faster Ether-gig Ether-gig line, which will run almost 20 times faster than the current Smith Food and Drug Store, on 1080 W. Highway 40, was evacuated Thursday morning around 11 a.m., Dec. 28th when a heating and air conditioning unit overheated, sending smoke into the store. There was no fire and only the heating unit on the roof sustained damage. ON 1100 CITIZENS DEMANDED THEClTYbUYj A F IRE ENGl NE, VERNAL OTY 0FFCER5 AGRLZO AND ACQUIRED A HORSE-DRAWN FIRE C ART WITH A 200FT:HOSE. STORY HAS ITTHATTHE DELL WAS RINGING AND SHERIFF POPE WENT BACING HORSE BACK TOTHE FIRE CART, ROPED BT AND PULLED IT TO A FIRE line, is 80 percent funded by the state. The Library Board and staff have conferenced with Dynix to have the system stable in March, befcre it is changed to the Ether-gig line. Rather than adding more new techniques and tasks, Dynix is focusing on fixing the problems that have been encountered, fulfilling their contract "A new" program is being offered at the Library entitled "The Richest Man hi Babylon." This 20-week program can be started at any time, because it is written as a pamphlet i WJ Jg& HOLE AND THEN HOLLER Smith's fire program. Books will be available avail-able to be checked out, and is based on a book by that title by George Clauson, circa 1927, which is the foundation for many other finance books. This FREE program is built to help participants get out of debt and save money, through thrift and financial planning. The Thursday evening classes will be on January 11, 18 and 25 at 7 pjn. in the Uintah County Library. The library staff want to reinforce the fact that classes, book dubs, book lending, and all of - the programs associ T.G. SCARECROW ated with the library are truly free, without hidden costs. Individuals may need to bring materials for some training classes, but the library card is the only expense for checking check-ing out books, videos, tapes, and CDs. A library card is only one dollar ($1) for residents; borrowed items do need to be returned on time or renewed before the date due. Darlene Burns will be assuming the Commissioner position on the Library Board. |