OCR Text |
Show Cedar Guardsmen May Be Eligible Individually For Korea Combat Pay (Editor's Note: The following story is a social release from Sen. Wallace F. Bennett in Washington, D. C. to the Iron County Record. Sen. Bennett has been working with this office as a liaison between the national guard interests in Cedar City and the pentagon in Washington). Washing-ton). WASHINGTON, May 11 A revaluation re-valuation of combat time may give combat pay to some mem bers of the 2l3th Field Artillery Battalion for their part in Korean Ko-rean fighting. Son Wallace F. Bennett (R., Utah), who opened a congressional congress-ional invesigation of the case in February on the basis of an article ar-ticle in the Iron County Record, said Thursday that the Pentagon had found evidence that some members of the Utah National Guard outfit had been under hostile hos-tile fire longer than had first been known. Pentagon spokesmen, however, said that neither the 213th nor the 204th, a northern Utah unit, had been added to the special order listing full units eligible for combat pay of about $45 per month. Qualifying units must must have been under direct, hostile fire for six consecutive days during any 30-day period, and Pentagon reports Indicate that the Utah units as a whole have not yet been found to meet this requirement. The regulation jwas designed, the Pentagon admitted, ad-mitted, to give most of its ad- ' vantages to the front-line Infantryman. Infan-tryman. Sen. Bennett said that several individuals of both units are be-lieved be-lieved eligible and relayed the information that all men who served overseas with the 213th and the 204th are encouraged to apply or re-apply for their com-bat com-bat pay in light of additional information which has been received re-ceived by army officials. Information Infor-mation they may supply individually individ-ually may help the entire unit as well as themselves. The lawmaker said that he had asked the Pentagon to check reports re-ports of Lt. Col. J. Frank Dalley, former commander of the 213th in Korea, that indicated the unit or some of its men had been under un-der fire long enough in April, May, September, October and November, No-vember, 1951, to be eligible. He reported that some forward observer ob-server parties of all four batteries batter-ies of the unit (headquarters, A, B and C) may be eligible, but the Pentagon still has no evidence evi-dence that would qualify either battalion as a whole. About 1200 Utahns would qualify qua-lify if both battalions were placed on the special order, Sen. Bennett learned. |