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Show ..iflH PRESS ASSOCIATION 7 1 -7 FAST 30 SOUTH SALT LAKb CITY Serving American Fork, Alpine and Highland VoL10,No.41 MHg$qifMMMm - in nn.m iiiiiiiiiiiiMiiiiiii)iiiiiiiii..Miii.iiiiLiiiiii J-aa 4 -J &i . V ' i 17 xiv.;--.' -i- I '-" ' -1 A v v 1 i LaRie Pack instructs Kelli Peterson and Caroline Moeller the bed of Fort Creek during project to clear the creek in the proper way to stack the wood they've carried from following Fort Canyon fire. Alpine youths help cleari creek Fort Creek bed cleared to prepare for spring runoff By RACHEL C. MURDOCH Where would you expect to find 150 teenagers at 7:30 on a Saturday morning? Chances are, more people would guess "in bed" than "walking through a cold creek scooping up nuddy logs and weeds." But that's exactly where 150 plus Alpine youth were on Oct. 8 - up a creek. Following the fire up Fort Canyon in Alpine earlier this summer, a good deal of Alpine's watershed was left without cover. -Fireliminated so much of the undergrowth oniha mountain, that we were afraid the spring runoff would be very high," said Alpine city-councilman city-councilman Dale Bentley. The council decided that Fort Creek should be cleared of logs and other obstructions to avoid any problems in the spring. "A few years ago, we almost lost a few bridges in town when large logs in the creek became lodged crosswise and debris piled up behind them," said Bentley. "We could have had a bridge washed out or a home flooded. We wanted to try to avoid that situation next year." Bentley, along with the leaders in the Alpine IDS stake, organized a youth service project to clean out the creek. And Saturday morning, starting at 7 a.m., 12 to 18-year-olds and several leaders (a little over 18) began attacking the creek. "I think most of them thought the (BYU) homecoming game would be more fun," said Bentley. "But they're here, and they're all really working - although I'm sure it wasn't too easy." Some groups were also planning a little benefit from the service they were performing. "Some groups were planning to sell the wood they pulled out as firewood so they could raise money for a trip they are taking," said Bentley. "So that way it's helping everyone out." Lehi man recalls Editor's note: As Emperor Hirohito lies near death in Japan, reports of his illness brought back a flood of memories memo-ries for Lehi's Cleon Laney. Laney was a combat radio engineer engi-neer in the South Pacific during dur-ing the World War II. Here is an account of some of the events he experienced. By CLEON LANEY In 1945 I helped Japan's Emperor Em-peror Hirohito convince 300 Japanese Japa-nese soldiers that the war was over and Japan had lost. The year before I had come to Tinian Island as a combat radio engineer, landing with the assault forces to help set up telephone and radio communication systems for cur forces. I came ashore with the Marine Corps, the first Army officer to land on the island that would be the base for the bombers that would deliver the first atomic weapons. Tinian would become more than that. As soon as we landed, we went to work designing and building many of the systems that would eventually put 200 B-29 bombers per night over Japan. My assignment on Tinian gave me an opportunity to come in contact con-tact with some of the most important impor-tant military leaders in the Pacific. When Gen. Curtis LeMay moved to Tinian as overall Air Force Commander, I was assigned the job of wiring his headquarters and sleeping quarters for his telephone tele-phone communications. I also installed a radio teletype and telephone system to coordinate the fighters that were to shoot down the Japanese aircraft that were constantly bombing our installation in-stallation on Tinian Island. That assignment led to my being Wednesday, October 12 , 1988 O Of? " : Cleon Laney assigned to the staff of General Fedrick Von Kimble, the island commander, where I worked as chief island radio engineer. Gen. Von Kimble introduced me to Gen. Curtis LeMay and also Gen. Jimmy Doolittle, when Gen. Doolittle visited Tinian planning to move the 8th Air Force to the Pacific Pa-cific when the war in Europe ended. Tinian Island became the center of our efforts to end the war with Japan when the Navy cruiser Indianapolis Indi-anapolis delivered the atomic bomb to Tinian. From the island, the bomb would be flown to Hiroshima in that historic bombing raid that introduced the atomic age. The skipper of the Indianapolis complained that he had been chased by Japanese submarines all the way from San Francisco to Tinian. 50 cents a single copy f ...It.? Ray Eddington watches his step as he carried saw looking look-ing for logs to attack. emperor's role in end of For eight nights before the bomb was to be dropped, pamphlets were dropped over Japan, telling the Japanese that if they didn't surrender, surren-der, they would be wiped from the face of the earth. So the Japanese knew about the atomic bomb, and knew it was being delivered by the Indianapolis. Indianapo-lis. Pursuit of the cruiser had been relentless, and continued after the bomb had been delivered. The Indianapolis was torpedoed halfway between Tinian and Okinawa Oki-nawa - costing the lives of 500 American sailors. The commander of the Indianapolis Indian-apolis was subsequently court martialed on charges of failing to give the order to abandon ship and failing to send out a distress signal quickly enough. I was one of the investigators in the incident after I was ordered to search all radio logs and report my findings directly to Washington, D.C. At the same time, World War II came to an end after atom bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki -- and our forces on Tinian Tin-ian Island were left with the problem prob-lem of what to do about the Japanese Japa-nese soldiers on a nearby island. The island is five miles off the coast of Tinian, and when the war ended, there were about 300 Japanese Japa-nese soldiers on the island, commanded com-manded by a lieutenant in the Japanese army. We had largely ignored the nearby Japanese for the previous year because they were isolated and didn't have the weapons to bother us. Our artillery did use the island for target practice. After the war, General Von Kimble decided it was time for the nearby island forces to surrender, but first we had to convince the . 4 WW it r a ft 14 J" W- inr- 'if Tin Japanese commander that the war was over. The General came to my office and told me to set up a radio receiver re-ceiver and antenna system that would give the best reception from Japan. At the same time, he sent a boat to circle the island. Using loudspeakers, the Japanese soldiers sol-diers were told that the war was over, and asking them to send someone to listen to a broadcast from Emperor Hirohito. The following day, General Von Kimble brought two Japanese soldiers sol-diers to my office. He told me that the Emperor was continuously broadcasting a -AlL ' MxmML:mmJTm. .. . - -- T Two Japanese soldiers react to radio broadcast by Emperor Hirohito telling them World War II has been ended and ordering them to surrender. Apartment plan finds opposition By BARBARA CHRISTIANSEN American Fork's west Main Street may have another set of apartments. Developers have approached the city's Site Plan Review Board and the Planning and Zoning Commission and received approval for the plans. The site is 273 W. Main, just east ofHolley Auto. Plans call for a six-plex to be constructed on the rear of the lot, and the front section to be left vacant for future commercial use. A boundary dispute between the present owners of the property and the neighbor to the east, Helen Green, has delayed the project. Green's brother, Jess, is chairman chair-man of the Planning and Zoning Commission and has disqualified himself from the group for discussion discus-sion and voting on the project. The Greens claim that the developer devel-oper Mr. Prestwich or those working work-ing for him have blocked Helen's driveway at times and prevented her leaving her property. Prestwich has obtained a copy of the deed to his property which indicates that Green's driveway is on his property. Jess Green said that an understanding under-standing called a prescriptive easement ease-ment began in the 1940's which allowed his family access to the driveway. He maintains that the practice has been followed long enough for the access to be recognized recog-nized as a legal access. "Different surveys indicate different dif-ferent lines," he said. "Even with Cave tours to end Oct. 30 Cave tours at Timpanogos Cave National Monument will be available through Sunday, Oct. 30. Visitor Center hours will be 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Ticket sales for cave tours are available between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. daily. Chief Ranger Scott Isaacson reports, "The fall color display in American Fork Canyon is spectacular. This time of year is an exceptional time to visit Timpanogos Cave." Saturday and Sunday afternoons can be very busy. Cave tour tickets may be sold out early. Timpanogos Cave will offer unique field trip opportunities for over 5,000 local school children this year. To avoid a wait, visit the cave early in the morning or after noon. The snack bar and picnic areas are open daily through Oct. 30. The visitor center remains open through the winter from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily. The caves will reopen May 1, 1981. For further information, call 756-5238. message to all Japanese troops telling them the war was over and ordering them to surrender. That was the message he wanted to get across to the two Japanese soldiers. sol-diers. Then the General left me alone with the enemy soldiers. They didn't speak any English and I didn't speak any Japanese. I very carefully tuned my receiver re-ceiver across the frequencies the Emperor was supposed to be using. I couldnt understand any of the broadcasts, so I carefully watched the facial expressions of the Japanese Japa-nese solders as I tuned the shortwave short-wave receiver from station to sta that case, there is a definite encroachment en-croachment by the applicant" (Prestwich). Joe Gordon, who acted as chairman chair-man of the Planning Commission in Green's absence, and city Planning Plan-ning Consultant Rod Despain both pointed out that the Planning Commission was not the body to negotiate boundary disputes. Gordon said his position required re-quired him to look at issues such as safety, ingress and egress, and traffic flow. From that standpoint, he decided the site plan was adequate ade-quate if a fence were constructed north of the proposed apartments to separate it from the commercial area. Admitting that the property does not comply with the city code for the CC-1 (Central Commercial) zone, requiring a certain amount of frontage along the street, Gordon noted that non-conformance was pre-existing and had been previously previ-ously approved by the city's Board of Adjustments. Despain mentioned that previous previ-ous concessions from the city had been in an effort to upgrade the property. "It's better than what we had before," he said. Green said that if a fence is constructed on the boundaries the developers claim, his family will initiate a lawsuit. "Lawsuits don't scare me," Prestwich replied. Green indicated that his family will appeal to the city's Board of Adjustments. WW II tion. I could tell as soon as the signal picked up the voice of the man most Japanese considered to be a god -Hirohito. After several hours of listening and conferring with one another, the two Japanese soldiers stood up and nodded to me that they were ready to go. I called Gen. Von Kimble on the telephone and told him that I had completed my assignment Shortly after, the Japanese lieutenant, lieu-tenant, along with his 300 troops, surrendered to Gen. Von Kimble and were all brought to Tinian Island. V |