Thursday, December 14, 1944
Our Army and Navy Boys
Private First Class Ward Hill, of Lobelia, who was wounded in Italy some time ago, has returned to the States.
Pfc. William C. Herold, 22, son of Mr. and Mrs. Moser B. Herold, received shrapnel wounds in the arm and neck, while serving with the Army on Leyte in the Philippines, according to a letter received by his parents dated November 12.
Ensign Harold E. Byrd, the son of Mrs. Clyde E. Byrd, of Cass, together with other members of Composite Squadron Four, helped to stop and turn back a strong Jap task force off Samar on October 24, while their small carrier weathered nearly three hours of shelling by four battleships, seven cruisers and nine destroyers. Ensign Byrd, flying a Navy AVENGER torpedo bomber, helped in an attack against two battleships and two heavy cruisers, which were seriously damaged, after VC-4’s planes flew through strong anti-aircraft to get them.
Harry Junior Miller, MM1-c, of the Navy has notified his wife and his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Harry Miller, of Dunmore, that he has been transferred to the Pacific Fleet. He is serving aboard the U. S. S. Tuscaloosa, which participated in the invasions in Northern and Southern France and in other theatres of battle in the Atlantic.
Good news for the Tibbs family of Seebert. Word was received that one of their sons, Matthew, who has been serving overseas, returned to the States last week. We hope he won’t have to go back across. He is a former employee of the Henry Ford Motor Company.
Private First Class C. L. Wilmoth, of the Infantry, son of Mr. and Mrs. S. J. Wilmoth, of Durbin, with 28 months’ service, is home with an honorable discharge. He saw six months’ service in the South Pacific.
LETTER
Mrs. Nancy Rose received the following letter from her son, Cpl. Hubert Rose, who is serving somewhere in Italy:
Dear Mother;
I will drop you a few lines to let you know I am well and feeling fine. I hope this finds you and all the rest well and getting along good.
I have just come back from the front line, and we are getting hot meals and have a dry place to sleep, away from the roar of the guns. And, boy, I am telling you it is good to be rid of all those things, I don’t know how long my rest will last, but a long time, I hope.
Mother, I think this war is going to make a better boy out of me. When I get back, I don’t want to do anything more than help you at home, and I am going to appreciate a lot of things that I did not before, such as something good to eat and a comfortable place to sleep.
Mother, I have never prayed so much as I have lately, and I am going to keep praying so long as I live. I feel that the Lord has saved me many times. I know you have prayed for me. I believe the Lord is going to send me home some day…
Tell everyone hello and to write.
Love to all,
Hubert
THE DEER HUNT
My guess is that when the full count is in of the deer killing in Pocahontas County last week that the score will be as usual – around a couple hundred head. The weather was a bit rigorous.
The Buckeye party on Buckley Mountain bagged three powerful bucks. The big one shot down by Stanley Loudermilk dressed out a shade better than 200 pounds. It was a native “red” deer. The other two showed the “gray” of imported Michigan deer. Taylor Morrison and Jesse McNeill were the other two lucky hunters.
The big deer I saw measured was killed on Pond Ridge, down in the Oldham Woods by James Workman. While this deer dressed out 160 pounds, it stood four feet high at the shoulders and measured an even six feet from horn to tail. The antlers were unusually massive. This was a native “red” deer…
THE BIG SNOW
Just about the worst snow and storm of half a century has the country in its grip as this is written on Tuesday. Snow began to fall on Monday morning and on Tuesday morning the snow at Marlinton was seventeen inches on the level. It was deeper on higher ground. Tuesday morning, the wind arose, and with the snow drifting, it was, at times, just tolerable. The roads are drifted full and there is no traffic either to Elkins nor to Lewisburg.
The radio reports this to be the worst storm on record between North Dakota and Elkins, West Virginia. The Elkins weather station was established nearly fifty years ago.
