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Show WSotleCkeek .C.-' She's knocking again. The old adage that "opportunity knocks only once," may not be holding true, locally, just at the moment. The eager lady is not only knocking, knock-ing, she has the door quarter-way open. Lt. Douglas Johns, commanding command-ing officer of the Pleasant Grove Army Reserve unit is asking for help and support in seeming an armory for this community. That is good news for everyone who lives in this locality. There's little doubt that figuratively, figur-atively, buckets of tears have been shed here in Battle Creek because this is about the only city in Utah of comparable or larger size that does not have a National Guard or Army Reserve Armory. Twenty-five years ago we had an up and coming National Guard Medical detachment, commanded" by local doctors and dentists. Then came World War II and the detachment was moved out as a unit in March, 1941. Following World War II the local Guard was reactivated as a Service Battery and continued as " such until the outbreak of the Korean conflict, which it entered as a unit. It was never reactivated reactivat-ed after that. Anyway, that's a brief history of of what happened to the National Na-tional Guard in Pleasant Grove. Over the years that the "Guard" was a going concern, several at tempts were made to secure an armory. Something went amiss each time. Politics, apathy,- and sometimes open opposition on the part of city officials, nullified the efforts of those interested. And, "Old Man Discouragement" took over. All of this is just water under the bridge now. Crying over past mistakes and sins of omission and commission will accomplish nothing. noth-ing. All that is of importance at present, is that we have the chance once more. Will we open wide to opportunity this time, or slam the door in her face again? A military armory can become a wonderful community asset. All one needs to do is read the daily papers to see how often these civic centers are used for public functions, other than military training activities. Pleasant Grove needs such a facility. We are woefully behind our sister Utah communities in this respect now. At last City Council meeting, Mayor Adams and Councilman Klemm were authorized to investigate inves-tigate the federal angles of an Army Reserve Armory for Pleasant Pleas-ant Grove. They and the other city officials offic-ials deserve the support of every citizen in the drive to carry such a worthy project to fulfillment. That's right, opportunity is knocking again. So long 'til Thursday. |