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Show With the Colors I Staff Sergeant Ennis D. Rogers, i sen of Mr. and Mrs. Roy N. j Rogers of Milford, is now station-: station-: ed at South Plains Army Flying j school, says a news release coming from Luibbock, Texas. Sergeant Rogers has started his training in Uncle Sam's giant cargo and troop-carrying gliders at the "Home of the Winged Commandos." Com-mandos." Upon completion of training soon in the big silent ships, the "Winged Commandos" will receive commissions as second lieuienants or appointments as flight officers. In civilian life Sergeant Rogers was a motion picture projectionist, and attended attend-ed Utah Statfe Agricultural college, col-lege, the release adds. Bill Kirk, 0Mest son of Mr and Mrs. J. Al Kirk, who is a radio technician third class, writes from the United States Naval Armory at Chicago that he recently tried out for the band and won a place as first saxophone. His band work is only a small part of his activities. activi-ties. He has five hours of mathematics mathe-matics a day with the study day lasting from 7 a.m. to 8:15 p.m., divided into 14 periods with no time off except Saturday afternoon after-noon and Sunday. Nprman Baxter, son of Charles V. Baxter, is home for a few days before resuming navy radio school work in Washington, D. C. A previous assignment to school was interrupted by the North African invasion and he has seen duty in both the Atlantic and Pacific since he was here last. From Pvt. C. W. Tribole, With a Railway Battalion In Iran Somewhere In Iran, May 6, 1943. Dear Mr. Williams: Salam alaecom, agha, as we say to one another here in Persia". (A free translation from Iranian to English .would be "Peace be 'with you, friend.") This salutation is the equivalent of "Good morning" or "Good day," and is used by all Persians and some Arabs here in this land of the Arabian Nights and the Persian beauties. The Milford News has found its way across countless thousands of miles of land and sea and has caught up with me here in an American army camp and, despite the fact that the news is four months old (these copies were forwarded for-warded from place to place) it is still news from home and the, home people news of Milford and its environs. I have been asked if the author who wrote "A loaf 0f bread, a jug, and thou beside me in the wilderness" wilder-ness" was talking through his hat or was inspired by some Persian beauty. My answer, after these months of casual observation, would be that he definitely must have been talking through His hat or was filled with Persian arac or sherab (whiskey or wine); unless, un-less, of course, he could see beauty in a barefooted, heavily draped woman who was using her head to carry water or a foul-smelling mixture of camel's milk and squash to the bazaar. These same beauties never bathe and their hands and faces are covered with a thick film of grease and dirt. I Their faces usually are hidden by the shawls they wear and I know definitely now that it is not their beauty they are hiding. Since diseases such as smallpox and scarlet fever are omnipresent here and since medical care is almost an unheard of thing to these people, peo-ple, who live like the cliff dwellers of the North Amerian continent, their faces are terribly marked and scarred. Together with the tattooing they inflict on themselves them-selves and jewelry of various types in their noses and ears, it is little wonder they hide their faces. No, indeed, the stories one reads of the beauties of Persia are purely myth. There isn't another country in the world so filthy and dirty. I thought that India was the worst I had seen and that nothing no-thing could be worse, but Iran has it cheated many, many ways. The summer temperatures of 135 to 140 degrees are creeping in on us and each day gets a little warmer. Milford's hot days would be cool here in Persia and Mil-fordites Mil-fordites should well appreciate the fact that they have cool nights to make sleeping easy. Nowhere in the world are there so many diseases as here: typhus, smallpox, scarlet fever, dysentery, malaria and countless others almost al-most unheard of at home. The United States army is constantly on the alert for all such diseases and to its members .gives shots at regular intervals; ' so, aside from a few cases of sand fly fever caused by the bite of the sand fly (and for which we are issued head nets to be worn almost constantly as a protective aid) we are standing the heat very well and also the diseases. Nowhere in the world does one have the cross section of humanity one meets here in Iran. It is no uncommon thing to speak daily to people of ten different countries and it is not at all uncommon to find linguists who are working at menial labor but have a working work-ing knowledge of seven or eight languages: Arabic, Persian, English, Eng-lish, American, Jewish, Indian, Turkish and Russian. The presence pre-sence of all these nationalities here accounts for it rather than the linguist's having traveled to these foreign soils. For the most part, most of these people have never been more than a few hundred, hun-dred, and some even less than 100 miles, away from their homes. They are very interesting people to talk with, but we are not permitted per-mitted to talk with them because of the proximity of the body louse, the carrier of typhus, the disease that is now taking a heavy toll among the lives of the natives of the villages. . Anyone who is well versed on ancient history of has a working knowledge o f Biblical history would have fertile grounds upon which to work "here in this land of "The Promised Land." Here are such monuments as Daniel's tomb, the Garden of Eden, the home 0f Adam and Eve, the burial tomb of Esther and many other Biblical and Tiistorical places of interest. We haven't been able to avail ourselves of seeing them as yet, however, as we are here for one purpose only, viz., to win the war and return home. We over here are confident of an early victory and are doing our part to reach that ultimate victory, vic-tory, a victory that will put an end to the Hitler-Tojo combination combina-tion and make the world a better place in which to live. We trust that you on the home front will herp us reach that end! If every American is as cooperative and does his part as well as the Mil-; ford friends, I'm confident that; the Axis powers will be axed and that in a very short time we shall . be seeing the lady who is "carry-! ing the torch" for each soldier; over seas the Statue of Liberty. That is the faith we have in you j folks yet at home. ! Yours in service, ' j PVT. C. W. TRIBOLE I |