The Daily Alaska empire Newspaper, January 17, 1944, Page 11

THE DAILY ALASKA EMPIRE— JUNEAU, ALASKA MONDAY, JANUARY 17, 1944 HAFFLE - HEADED GUY hut, ten bunks, there on jobs, but back to it, our he hut—and all ped o hut, and You think asked. “When shake it—and to take five . when the wil rumble cf tra going by in trembling.” the TURHMOIL AND V/ILLIWAW Back 1 visiting hi in the A Seattle, Macdonald was former working mat ffces, and preparin gnment—the south-| In BY ANNE SWENSSON SEATTLE — It takes a ‘“haffle- headed guy in kersey-lined pants”| to ver Alaska the way Grant Macdonald was correspondent and shotographer, has dc nt north for the ctan months ad with the other d war correspon- headquarters on g for a r and Oanadia taken mused, best d in his own words, muste ad pigecn who can d> it—and without the Kersey, too.” “Haffle-headed” and “sad pigeon,” tplained with a touch of sympathy for the uninitiated, are his favorite versions of Alaskan G. I. slang. “A haffle-head is a —well, a sad clon of the Aleutians t! mud, ccnfusicn, 2 s a d Big bascs—w brothe they're | tremendous. O: me of them can drive a jeep all doy. on good I sask, a dummy—and a sad pigeon, roads and bad ones, and still be I gue it’s about the same thing. going somewhere Me, T'll do for an example.” | “We had a Press Hm e first w see. Big Some figures for Ostriches! In the Sicilian campaign, part of our losses in the material employed were as follows: @ We lost 8% of our medium tanks. ® We lost nearly half of our 57-mm. guns. o We lost 33%% of our 75-mm. gun carriages. o We lost 22% of our 105-mm. howitzer carriages. ® We lost 54% of our 37-mm. gun carriages. ® We lost an undisclosed number of ships, landing barges, airplanes. B o We lost a vast quantity of collateral material like food, clothing, things like 1,100 milcs of copper telephone wire. } e We lost all this in a monih-long minor campaign that was in every sense of the word a complete victory for us. We'd go out from Adak 7 est place you ever M A & ctivity shook a . Macdonald held I'm the mud August, Macdonaid picture ht of Flags 1. “Men “W re coming Macdonald’s own safety was im-| Feel tha id, periled in the “invasion” by his the lining wearing a heavy, fleece-lined great- “That's kersey which “wasn't strictly G. T.” us guys wrot a matter of fact, the general 1 me I was taking my life in sack hands,” Macdonald re- called. “Said it was a dead ringer for a enlisted man’s coat, and he wouldn't be responsible for my safet Macdenald recounted his part in the landing and taking of Kiska, in 1 letter to his former “boss,” Frank - of the Seattle of- Use of the phrase ciated Press. The ¢cnald said. A described by the censor Macdonald s account of | Hon proudly take on out came That busi- | coat much “As 4 told my we always adquarters. was the saw. So il the time up his hands, shoa Not editors here in * heard of kersey 1 misprint, put it jersey. thing s scratch for me- the own wnother linir warping. Not those k but will! hit out on the ‘clmin.'” tting the ; then the and bulidoz i1 kept the huts word,"” “went ' letter was ead this when the Ameri-|passing it as “th n troops retool those soldiers to K he anding r clothes he wore have improperly described many Macdonald asserted this,” hun “but T betcha there Souvenirs Galore he explained. “In avvy, when you called it you've ‘got the word. When that happens, you know right to go for the best clothes, 10 best equipment.” enade ed out a cotton- When er lined jacket and overalls, it was ¥ with heavy soles, and were slap-happy, Adaky-wack: Kiska hunting s Im; around First WESRIY down with eve shells, youd a souvenir paradise.” hald's eyes lit [T g 330 LOST 22% LOST There’s just no use in trying to dodge “this fact: Somebody’s got to pay for thai stuff we lost. Somebody’s got to pay for the new stuff that replaced it. Somebody’s got to pay for the infinitely larger amount of stuff that’s going to be used—and part of it lost—in ltaly, in France, in the Balkans, in Norway, in India, in a lot of plu(' It’s no use kidding ourselves. Sam—and we’ve got to lend him the money to do it by buy- ing War Bonds. There’s no cheap way out —no easy way out—there’s just nothing we can do except to keep on working and l)uymg more and more Bonds till this War is won. And the harder we pitch in right now —and the more Bonds we buy — the quicker that will be. That “somebody” is Uncle ... THAT WAS SICILY WAIT UNTIL WE GET THE BILL FOR EUROPE! BACK THE INVASION! this war message sponsored by The Alaskan Hote Alaskan Cuf Rate Liquor Siore land (ocklail Bar Baranof Liquor Store PAGE FIVE pulling out aginas of a sleeve in a jacket.|sadl jersey—all down we were wear sey-lined pants. and the sad-|than I was to lug the load—guess States | that's what makes them valuable.” of | Thought it | do with Warm, 1 wore opening to a cave. boy, regulation pinks all the time, even| . is'be walking along on the” tundra and “sad sack,” Mac nnoisseur of Slang, under your feet informa- or a tunnel pointed | @ dug-out storehouse for Jap navy but we They went fur.lined, in the same material,” he | oq souvenirs. I did it myself, got all loaded | hand pajrbanks and many other Alaskan first hit the island, gee, scldom mentioned. up in 1ce, and he scooped up im- | ggiq souvenirs. Then he .. 96.5 Percent of War Wounded Recover Today VV:\SHIN(vT()I\ After of war an analysis of United battle casualties by the Office of War Information shows woundec soldiers have double the survival in thi in the First World War. More (IL\H 96.5 percent of today's wounded re- cover. But the chances of be killed or cracking mentally are twice as great today. mittens, | gjx percent of the soldiers wound- iry the First World War died while 35 percent of the wounded Nome,|jn this war have died of their wounds. Improved medical tech- niques have raised the survival of wounded ratio in the Second World War, says the OWI While recovery of wounded sol- “Guys in the mud—bullding, 'gjers is higher than it was in the |drilling, shooting, getting ready. pirst World War, the number killed | Bverything is the same color Uup jn action is greater in the present there, the huts, the jeeps, the cats, conflict. For every six wounded the barracks, even the men—mud men in this war two are killed, colored. whereas in the 1917-18 period only “I tried once to brighten 1t up— une was killed for every six wound- wanted them to paint the jeep we ¢q press guys used cut at Adak, a Ment bright red, and put ‘Press Car’' on |,y it. Nobody saw the humor in it, nobody understood | “I heard when T left, though, that the one lcne guy left -at Adak finally had done it, had a sign put cn the jeep, ‘Press Jeep. “It must be lcnely for there now, that one guy |around in that Press Hut | “Nobedy to drink Sneaky Pete with | —that’s pineapple juice with alcohol in it—and those williwaws at night.” | Macdonald sighed, shivered, re- called his own “civilian issue” bed - end pillows at his home at 7500 !c i | 24th Ave. N. W., and added, | “Guess I'm just a sad sack, a hnffl"»"‘n'ad % e NEW YORK--When Coastguards- man Charles Giomanna, 20, came back h«.mv in time for Chl'lstm(lh ku.sexm from Adnlr nmm —on his 1,000 shell fragments from SAN FRANCISCO-—Japan can be bod, cdefeated In one year after the fall Der Feuhrer, of Germany, in the vicw of Dr. T. A German shell struck his F. Tsiang, Chinese delegate to the vasion barge cff the Atlentic City Food Conference and erno last September 9 and when | former ambassador to the Soviet Charlie reached proper { Unicn, care doctors found that his body Even if it should take ad absorbed 1 e than 1,300 frag- China “will stick it to the nents. They removed 300 . | said. Charlie has lost 30 pounds, he “There is no such thing as eco- | walks with a limp and his left arm nomic bankruptcy of China,” he ex- is in a cast. Doctors say it prob- plained. “There is inflaton—yes, but ably will take two more years for' |it makes no difference to the farm- I(hor,(- fragments to work their way |ers, who make up 80 percent of the out of his flesh. | povulation, and use almost no mon-| *“ I was hit by one of those darn- ey, and it doesn’t affect the mer- | ed things that didn't whistle,” he ;rrants It affects very much the 2 said at a Coast Guard conducted percent of the population that make‘mt(-ruew “We used to call the up ‘the white collar class’ They shells whistling death. If you heard write editorials, make all the noise, | the shells whistling the chances 80 that outside China its importance were you didn't need to bother is perhaps exaggerated.” | ducking.” When the full power of the Allies, “My medal and dog-chain were is turned into the Pacific, the di- blown away from my neck, and my plemat said, bases in the Southern lifebelt, trouser legs and jacket were Chinese provinces can be established torn away by the force of the ex- from which it will be possible to plosion. Fortunately, my canteen bomb Japanese industry on a wide and Mae West (lifebelt) absorbed scale. |plenty of the shrapnel.” Charlie said sulfa drugs and Buy War Bonds and hurry the blood plasma saver his life. He tired to better “But I got them all out too Took a One of the “Adaky-wacky” in- |fantry men, poked at everything his bayoneted rifle, shed into some brush and discovered the “The Japs were swell camouflage |artists, Macdonald asserted, “You'd i v tates suddenly you'd hear hollow sounds a building, a house I didn’t believe it un- [Ul T did it myself.” The cave, well camouflaged, was including dozens fur-lined great- clothes, navy-blue, | officers’ |of long, | coats. “I sent home a coupla said. “Top-noteh stuff.” Macdonald went also to towns, and to bases and outposts “What did I photograph? The same thing, over and over,” he al cases have also taken a mp in this war. Army fig- 10w 5 percent of todmy’s hes- s overseas are for mental while the rate was 2 per- the First World War. In 20 percent of the cases in overseas hospitals today are for mental disorders while the rate n the First World War was 12 per- cent. ure; oital e 205eS, cent in the Nav, him out rattling in- !Hcking of Hitler and then make contributed a pint of blood before short work of the Nips. he joined the Coast Guard and he Isaid he wanted to contribute an- A single U. S. armored division other pint when able because doc- uses up more than 600 tons of am- tors used up two pints in treating munition and 78,000 pounds of food him, every day in action. Before the war he lived with his ———————— guardians, Mr. and Mrs. Vito Mat- BUY WAR BONDS tera, of Chicago. " DEATH ON THE ROAD TO. s iR A square yards of sand so vital for their foothold. Two men lie dead in the wmhmommwmuolu»mm::m U. S. Navy photo, ; the job into the ~ bined land, beaches of ¢ medical I WOULD YGU LIKE THIS MAN'S JOB! Gen. Fisenhower Faces Su- preme Test of Career When Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower was named for the job of ca g the fight to Hitler's front yard, United Nation's commanders put hands of a soldier who in all history has had the most experience in directing vast com- sea and air operations. the successive ions against North nd Italy now have become varm-up” operations for the supreme test. He takes on the task at 53 years of age, with a record for careful planning hich has won success in every major move in the Medi- terranean theater. If fellow officers could use only e adjective to describe General nhower it probably would be tireless.” He works long hours, ex- pects the same of his associates, and has a capacity for thorough- ness in grasping every detail of a ign which astonishes others. One of the few orders General Marshall ha iven him since Elsen- hower took command in the Medi- terranean was not to work so hard, He told him, so the report goes, that he expected him to take a little time off every day or so for rest and recreation. Favorite of Churchili Eisenhower sold himself to Chur- chill when, as & major general, he went to England in mid-1942 as commander of United States Army forees in the European theater. One of the finest men I ever knew,” Churchill called him once he got to know him. Frem Eiscnhower's reputation, it scems a safe assumption that when he day comes to invade Europe the Germans wiil be hii with every force he can throw against them. He cnee summead up his philos- phy of war in baseba® terms: “You can’t hit a home run by Lunting. Ycu have to step up there nd take yeur cut at the ball” He has ight to use baseball rlay 7 as a professional helped pay his schooling before he entered West Point in 1911, West Point, incidentally, was sec- ond choice. He wanted to go to the Naval Academy and got an ap- pointment there, but at the last moment it developed that he was over the age-limit of 20. So he switched to West Point, where he became a star fullback. Trained Tank Forces Eisenhower’s background before the present conflict came along in- cludes training of American tank forces during World War I (he never got overseas) and a tour of duty as aide to Gen. Douglas Mac- Arthur when the latter was military adviser to the Philippine Govern- ment, In those days he worked out de- tails on the military plans which MacArthur carried out when the Japanese invaded—the retreat into Bataan for the stand to await the help which, it turned out, could not be sent. Eisenhower was only a Heuten- ant colonel in the regular army when Pearl Harbor plunged this country into the war, but has since been advanced to the regular rank of major general. His rank as a full general is a temporary, wartime | one. For Eisenhower, amphibious ope Africa, Sieily roxYo Mmmmuonhndhgnmnhmuvtmdh&hplc\mflkmml&oukhdb-ch in the central Solomons as U. S. forces deployed from a landing craft under enemy fire and seized the few left foreground at the water’s edge. (International Soundphoto)