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Show Local Guard Unit Gets $10,000 Gun Proud recipients of a huge lo5 mm. M-l gun are National Guard members of Battery A, 14bth Artillery Battalion in Mt' Pleasant. Now housed in the Mt. Pleasant Armory, the $10,-000.00 $10,-000.00 gun came from Rock Island, Isl-and, Illinois, and is the second such gun to be assigned within the state of Utah, the first going to the National Guard at Spanish Span-ish Fork. Capable of firing a 97 pound projectile approximately approxim-ately lo miles through its 27 s foot tube, the large piece of artillery ar-tillery requires a 14-man crew and a battery executive, and can fire directly or indirectly. At present there is no equipment heavy enough to tow the huge gun, but an IS ton tractor w?ll , be allocated for that purpose, containing equipment to operate oper-ate air brakes on the 15 ton gun. Captain Gordon Staker, commanding com-manding officer of Battery A said that the gun is only one of many pieces of equipment which are being used in training train-ing of members of the National Guard. Three trucks, ton 3-4 ton and 2V ton, are included includ-ed in the list of equipment now on hand as well as field glasses surveying instruments, telescopes, teles-copes, radio alignment and l"u"6 equipment, telephones, gasoline lanterns, gasoline cook kits, army telephone switchboards, switch-boards, regular and emergency lineman's kits; several field ranges (cooking), uniforms, watches, tents, blankets, helmets, hel-mets, gas masks, water cans carpenters sets, axes, picks,' shovels, telephone wire and various kinds of guns, including 30 calibre carbines, bazookas, and 45 caliber pistols. "Three functions of the Field Artillery," explained Captain Staker, "are to move, communicate, and shoot, although not necessarily in that order." According to Captain Staker there are still 63 T. O. vacancies vacan-cies now open for enlisted men, 22 of which may be non-commissioned officers. Vets can enlist in grade as far as grades go, and there are still two openings open-ings for officers in order for the Battery to-reach full strength of 100 men and 1 officers. $1,- 11 (.23 was paid out Monday night to approximately 30 men, and this amount could be increased in-creased to $30,000.00 a year if full strength could be reached This would be a major contribution contri-bution to a farming community such as Mt. Pleasant. Civic groups of Mt. Pleasant were especially es-pecially urged to support the National Guard recruiting drive now being sponsored and which will continue until November 1(3. The enlisted man who succeeds suc-ceeds in recruiting the most additional ad-ditional National Guard members mem-bers in each state will be sent to Washington, D. C. at the expense ex-pense of the National Guard Bureau, and will be the guest Of the Sprrptarv 7n- iL j u4 wax ciiiu ine Superintendent of the United States Military Academy at the Army-Navy football game in Philadelphia on November 29 of this year. Quota for Battery A of the 145th Field Artillery Battalion is 28 men. According to a letter written to all Unit commanders of the Utah National Na-tional Guard by Major Reed H. Richards, Major, F. A., Fort Douglas, champion recruiter will be determined by awarding one point for each man recruited. Recruits that come into an organization org-anization without beine credited to an individual man will be credited on a pro-rata basis among all the men of the unit that have brought in recruits in that particular week. Enlistments are open to physically phys-ically and mentally qualified men from the ages of 18 to 35; over the age of 35 the applicant must have had two years of military service in order to qualify, and above the age of 40, he must have had five years of service. Drilling is held each Monday night at 8:00 p. m. in the Armory. During the early part of October Octo-ber drills will be held twice each week, in . order that the latter two weeks of the month may be free for the men to go deer hunting if they are inclined to do so, without interference from drill practice. Among enlisted men, Floyd A. Syndergaard has served for the longest period in the National Na-tional Guard, with a record nf 19 years. Verland Johansen has served 12 12 years, Charles Wright, Bennett E. Madsen, Leslie Les-lie E. Nelson, Jay Dean Staker, William M. Beck, Lynn R. Poulsen Poul-sen and Owen E. Olson, each 10 years; Glen J. Christensen, 8 years; John R. Seely, Bert A. Ruesch, 7 years; Emil Lund,' 6 years; Vaughn J. Johansen, Merrill W. Seely, 5 years, and Roland L. Norman, 3 years. There are 7 veterans of World War 2, and 14 men without previous military service. Plans are being made for a special National Guard day in Mt. Pleasant November 10, in which the Guard will have "open house", with all material out for inspection. Pay scale for the two-hour weekly training train-ing periods is as follows: private, pri-vate, $2.50; private first class, $2.66; corporal and T5, $3.00; sergeant and' T4, $3.33; staff sergeant and TI3, $3.83; technical techni-cal sergeant, $4.50; master and first sergeant, $5.50. Interested men may report to Armory any Monday night at 3:00 or to Sgt. Floyd Syndergaard, Synder-gaard, who is on duty Monday through Friday at the Armory. |