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Show amrh-- THE rich i COUNTY REAPER, RANDOLPH. Hotel Caters Exclusively to Servicemen and Their Families With Ernie Pyle at the Front: Wounded British Flier Fights Death Eight Days One of the most unusual hotels in the nation is located in Washington, D. C., where, despite nightly sellouts, accommodat- Americans Rescue .Cheerful Tommy From Badly Wrecked Plane ions are provided far below OP A ceiling prices! It is the United Nations Service Center, formerly the Capitol Park hotel, now under the exclusive management of the Recreation Services of the War Hospitality committee. The only hotel in the United States taken over completely for this purpose, it is perhaps the largest Canteen in the world,, for servicemen of all the United Nations, and is operated as a voluntary community project along modern health and 'sanitation lines. The United Nations Service center has everything from" its own newspaper, Flags Abreast, to a free nursery for children of traveling servicemen. Washington, D. C., is such a hub for the armed services that the Canteen, despite the hotels size, was forced to take over an adjoining school house, converting it into room for 345 more beds, a total of 570 available sleeping accommodations nightly. The huge center was officially opened October 27, 1943, and there of accomhas been a virtual sell-omodations since. It is the only Canteen that accepts the wives and families of servicemen, as well as those in uniform. No reservations are acc- By Ernie Pyle (EDITORS NOTE: Although Ernie Pyle rest after two and written before he left France J much-neede- d come, first served. This epted-first is true of both officers and enlisted men. Just recently, the 1,000,000th visit- He ing serviceman was honored. was Petty Officer 3c Stanley Wiek-lunof Boston, Mass., stationed at the naval air base, Patuxent River, d, Md. Has Own Police' Force Actually it looks like the headquarters of the general staff, except that 74 former employees of the Capitol Park hotel are still working there as members of the Canteen staff. Everything that occurs at the Canteen must be approved by the military district of Washington and the Potomac River naval command. A duty is maintained by the Shore Patrol the Canteens own police force! Though much of the Canteens varied accommodations are free, some services are rendered on a cost basis, which astounds the average 24-ho- ur Land-Lubbe- for eight days on a battlefield. Typical guests at the Center are Petty Officer 3c Stanley Wicklund of Boston, and his wife. When Wicklund came in the door he was told that he was the serviceman to register at the hotel. The Wick-lunare shown resting in a corner of the nursery, where they have put Bobby to bed. th seven-months-o- ds ld Washington civilian. This is true of laundry service, clothes dryers, washing machines, valet shops, barber shops and the impressive cafeterias. The cafeterias are tremendous projects in themselves. There are two one each for officers and enlisted men. Miss Rochelle Z. Kendall of Dallas, Texas, is the Canteens food expert and nutritionist. Pointing out that the most modern and sanitary methods of food catering had been employed there, she said: Every governmental stress on basic, nutritious foods has been observed by us, as has the general governmental theme of utmost sanitation during this wartime crisis. We have, for example, employed singleservice paper eating and drinking utensils almost exclusively, in place of obsolete and sanitarily inadequate dishwashing equipment, thus avoiding the possible danger of transmish sion of disease from via poorly washed common eating and drinking utensils. More than 50,000 paper cups weekly are used. to Mothers d Nursery Is The free nursery at the Canteen, according to Mrs. Luther Gulick, the mouth-to-mout- God-Sen- rs Become Seamen In Six Months All right fellows. Line up on either side of the walk and open up your gear for inspection. No knives, guns, cameras or radios permitted aboard the base. m Thats the first order boots entering the U. S. Maritime Service training station at Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn, N. Y., hear when they land at the worlds largest merchant marine training station. Taken in tow by an MA (Master at arms), within 24 hours ffie new recruits are processed through the station and their equipment issued. From three to six months later these same boots emerge as thoroughly trained merchant seamen, ready to take their place as radio operators, deck or engine seamen, cooks, or assistant purser-hospitcorpsmen aboard one of Uncle Sams modern merchant vessels. Recruits from Nebraska, Indiana, Alabama, Michigan all across the country report in six days a week at U. S. Maritime Service training stations to learn to sail aboard a wartime cargo vessel to Deliver the Goods. For his first few days at Sheepshead Bay, the new trainee is under the supervision of the indoctrination officer. His orientation includes reasons for and proper method of saluting, proper stowing of gear and instructions in rules and regulations of the station. A section instructor section then assigned to each takes over and continues with the newly formed section through the first four weeks of preliminary or i boot training. In boot training, the new trainee receives instruction in 20 subjects ranging from gunnery to mental hygiene. He attends classes eight hours a day, five days a week. During his boot period, the new recruit uses a wide variety of training aids. He sees motion pictures, practical demonstrations of fire equipment, breathing devices, breeches buoys and guns. Wall charts on a variety of al 50-m- an line-throwi- b' one-hal- f is notv back in the United States for a years on the fighting front, this column was ON THE WESTERN FRONT. I would like to tell you in detail the remarkable story of the wounded RAF pilot whom we released after he had lain unnoticed in the wreckage of his plane -- ut UTAH Outdoor steering trainers are used to teach apprentice seamen the proper method of standing a wheel watch, relieving the helmsman, and following a course. The trainers are circular metal platforms floating in concrete basins. They are equipped with a ships wheel, binnacle, and compass. As the trainee turns the wheel in accordance with directions the instructor, the platform tates. of topics room are kept in view on ro- class- bulkheads. Completing four weeks of boot training, the new recruits move into work week. A variety of duty inindicluding kp is assigned each atto and vidual to teach discipline tend to necessary station tasks. Next the apprentice is ready in-to move into the course of advanced struction for which his preference and tested capabilities qualify him. Deck trainees, at the end of their weeks of training, receive three final of the one practical duty aboard Service training Maritime U. S. on Long Island ships which operate sound and Chesapeake bay. Ashore to they use ingenious equipment indoor of the one large In learn, a complete buildings a mockup of so that constructed is ships bridge the equipment and unmen may see derstand the instrucEngine trainees receive of technical tion in a wide variety to continuing subjects in addition physical in gunnery, boats, courses In the staand swimming. training which provides tion powerhouse and heating, a for cooking steam is installed. Liberty ship engine and bakers cooks Men for the inter-relatio- n. d to nursery chairman, is a mothers and children traveling through Washington. Employing two registered nurses on an eight-hou- r shift each, and one child educator or psychologist, the nursery operates 24 hours a day. There are 60 volunteers in this department alone, all having passed an intensive course in child care before acceptance. Since its opening, 2,568 children have been cared for, with the average between 9 and 12 months of age. The youngest guest of the infant! nursery was a But most unusual is the nurserys Baby Ferry Command. This is a group of uniformed AWVS women who roam the citys Union station a block away, and route weary mothers and children to the Canteen. Should a child or mother be ill, both army and navy dispensaries in the city are on call for emergencies. Apparently nothing has been left to chance in this greatest of all Canteens. It is a mighty institution that has grown out of this war, and is av living testimonial of the home fronts contribution to the war effort in general, and to the serviceman and his family in particular. God-sen- schools are selected after a series of special examinations. In addition to standard seamanship courses these men learn butchering, cooking and baking. They are provided with two Liberty ship galleys and two Victory ship galleys exact to the final pot and pan. Fifty men are admitted to the Maritime Service hospital corps school each week, selected by competitive examination. Trained to double as pursers and hospital corps-me- n aboard merchant vessels, this is one of the hardest courses of instruction. The men are not doctors but skilled and competent medical men able to treat ordinary ailments of seamen and, most important, how to .utilize most modern medical methods and drugs to keep alive and comfortable a dangerously ill man until the services of a medical officer become available. Founded by a provision of the Merchant Marine Act of 1936, the U. S. Maritime Service came into being as the training organization for men to man Americas merchant marine. In addition to the Maritime Service which trains both apprentice seamen and men for officers who have had 14 months sea time, the Merchant Marine Cadet Corps trains for duty in young the merchant marine. The parent organization, the War Shipping administration, comes under the jurisdiction of the U. S. Maritime Commission. Under recent age limit changes youths 16 to 17 can enroll for merchant seaman training by the U. S. Maritime Service provided they have their parents consent. Men between 26 to 35 can still volunteer for all branches of Maritime Service training, provided they secure a referral card from the U. S. Employment Service. Men up to 50 years of age can volunteer for cooks and bakers training only. Expenses of recruits are paid to one of the four major training stations of the Maritime Service. In station at addition to a 10,000-ma- n Sheepshead Bay are schools at Hoffman Island, N. Y., St. Petersburg, Fla., and Avalon, Calif. Pay during training is $50 per month with increases for the more advanced schools. Uniforms and quarters are furnished trainees. Upon completing training, the men are assigned aboard a merchant ves sel to begin Delivering the Goods all over the world. cadet-midshipm- en 3 - Several American soldiers sprung Ill tell you about that. Do you out of somewhere a few moments see that woods a little way north of after we arrived. us? They grasped the There were several small woods situation instant- but I said, Yes. ly, and began he that first night Well, tearing at the they set fire tosaid, woods. I could that sides of the plane with pliers and tell it by the glow in the cockpit. here the plane was soaked with wire clippers. And hundred-octan- e I thought They worked as the fire would gasoline. across spread right seconds though field. the But it didnt. had suddenly beActually what he had thought was come jewels. woods afire was the little town the metal The tough Ernie Pyle came off in strips of La Detinais, which had been set no bigger than your fingers, and afire by shelling. I didnt bother to only after terrific pulling and yank- tell him, for he was alive, and after ing. It seemed as if it would take all what could the technicalities mathours to make a hole big enough to ter? We had sent one soldier to the get the pilot out. The ripping and pounding against nearest aid station as soon as we the metal sides of the hollow plane discovered the wounded British pilot, made a thunderous noise. I peered trapped for eight days in his plane. He had to drive about six miles. inside and asked the pilot: Does the noise bother you? Just a few minutes after the othsoldiers finished tearing two holes er He said, "No, I can stand it. But tell them to be careful when they in the sides of the plane, a medical break through on the other side my captain and three aid men popped through the hedge and came runleg is broken, you know. ning. But the American boys worked The doctor knelt down and sized faster than we believed possible. up on everything in a few seconds. He tore their the They fingers asked an aid man for morphine. The jagged edges of the metal; they pilot willingly held out his right arm, broke strong aluminum ribs with and the doctor stuck a needle into one small crowbar and a lot of the bend of the elbow. The pilot human strength. Soon they had never flinched, but looked on ala hole big enough so that I could most approvingly. get my head and shoulders inYoure in good condition, the side the cockpit. doctor said to him. This is just canteen a handed me Somebody of water and I shoved it through the to make it easier for you when we hole to the pilot. He drank avidly. start to pull you out. Well wait a When he put the canteen down he few minutes for it to take hold. While we were sitting there on set it on his bare chest and held it with both hands. the ground beside the plane, waiting Bj God, I could drink a river for the morphine to take effect, the dry, he said. pilot said: Somebody outside said not to let I am delaying you from your him drink any more right now. The work. Im frightfully sorry pilot said, Would you pour some about it. on my head? One of the soldiers, touched I soaked my dirty handkerchief, by the remark, blurted: Good and rubbed his forehead with it. His God, lef tenant, you arent delayhair was nut brown in color and ing us. This is what were here for. Were just sorry weve been ixery long. His whiskers were reddish and scraggly and he had a little so long getting you out. mustache. His face seemed long The pilot momentarily closed his and thin, and yet you could tell by eyes and put his hand on his foreois tremendous chest that he was a head. And then, as if in resignation big man and powerful. at his own rudeness in bothering us, His eyes were not glassy, but I he said: was fascinated by his eyeballs. They Well, I dont know what I should didnt protrude; it was just that they do without you. were so big. When he turned them So incredibly strong was that pitoward you, it was as though he lots constitution that the morphine was slowly turning two big brown never put him out. tennis balls. He had complete command of They waited about 10 minutes. his thoughts. The Then two soldiers took off their web' you would expect of a man belts and looped them around the trapped for eight days without pilots armpits. The medics on the food or water, just did not exist other side said they had hold of his in him. He was just being himfoot and could gradually trapped self. free it. His face was dirty from much Its my back thats weak, the sweating, but the skin of his body pilot said. All the strength seems was white and clean. There was a to be gone from the small of my small scab on his forehead and there back. Youll have to help me there. were some light bruises on his arms. They pulled. The pilot, alInside the plane, the stench was though without food for eight shocking. My first thought was that days, was tremendously strong, there must be another man in the and he reached above his head plane who had been dead for days. to the planes framework and said to the pilot: helped lift himself. Is there someone else in the The belts slipped, and the solplane? diers took them off. They knelt And he answered, No, this is a and lifted his shoulders with single seater, old boy. their hands. What I had smelled was the pilot had padded the jagged edges bimself. We couldnt see the lower of They torn the aluminum, over which part of his left leg, but we judged it they would have to slide him, with must be gangrenous and in a horri- the heavy rubber of his collapsible ble shape. lifeboat. I can move my right leg, he The doctor said, "Well be as easy said, its all right. In fact Ive as we can. Tell us when to quit. had it out from here several Go And the brave man said, times, and moved it around for ahead. Ill stand it as long as I exercise. But the left one I cant can. move. They pulled again. The pilot made I asked, Where did you get a face and exerted himself to help the cigarette you were smoking them. They slid him slowly a few when we got here? inches through the hole, until he He said, Your chap gave it to suddenly called: me. The one who came first. He My back! Its stuck to the lighted it for me and stuck it in ground. Well have to break it loose through the hole, and went search- slowly. ing for the rest of you. They surveyed the possibilities a while, trying to figure a I was wondering if it wasnt danless painful way of getting him gerous for him to be smoking inside out. There wasnt any. He said: the wrecked plane. I mentioned I cant raise my behind at something about his being lucky that all. U you could slide something the plane hadnt caught fire when ae crashed. And he said: under me to carry the weight. half-deliriu- m |