Thursday, May 10, 1945
V-DAY
President Truman has set Sunday, May 13, as V-DAY. My idea of a poor sort of a man is one who does not go to Church on V-Day.
Our Army and Navy Boys
Mrs. Estie J. Brown, of Marlinton, whose husband, Grady W. Brown, has been a prisoner of war in Germany, received the following telegram from the War Department last Friday:
“The Secretary of War desires me to inform you that your husband, Grady W. Brown, returned to military control April 20, 1945.
J. A. Ulio,
The Adjutant General
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Somewhere in India – Two West Virginia soldiers, who were half-way around the world, Private First Class Leroy H. Beale, of Slaty Fork, was attending a program at the American Red Cross Club “Repairadise Inn” in India, when he recognized his friend, Corporal Theodore E. Hill from Belington. Neither knew that the other was in the India-Burma theater until they met in the Red Cross Club.
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Captain Sam Neel, who was captured December 16 and liberated about Easter Sunday, talked to his uncle, Harper Smith, Monday.
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An Eighth Air Force Bomber Station, England – The promotion of Rufus J. Elliott, 23, of Boyer, from staff sergeant to technical sergeant has been announced by Brigadier General Howard M. Turner, Commanding General, 1st Air Division.
Elliott, who is engineer gunner on the combat crew of a B-17 Flying Fortress, is a veteran of nine missions over enemy territory and holds the Air Medal. He has been in the European theater of operations almost two years.
The son of Mr. and Mrs. Rufus H. Elliott, of Boyer, he was a farmer before entering the Army in August 1942.
LETTER
Mrs. Raymond Cochran, of Beard, received the following letter from her son, Staff Sgt. Walter F. Cochran, who is serving with the ground force in Netherland E. Indies.
April 15, 1945
Dear Mom;
… It sure was an awful let down to hear of President Roosevelt’s death. I couldn’t believe it for a long time. We heard the next day about noon that he had died, but it wasn’t confirmed until some time in the afternoon. That night before the show, they gave us most of the details. We were given an hour off this morning to attend special church service in his honor. It was really a nice service, too.
The Chapel was packed with both officers and men. The Chaplain was a middle aged man and he sure was a good speaker. At the beginning of the service we sang, “Our Country ‘Tis of Thee.” After a short prayer by the Chaplain, he read a prayer that George Washington once made to his army. Then he recited the 23rd Psalm after which a Corporal sang, “Abide With Me,” and he had a nice voice. The Chaplain then gave a very interesting message concerning the President. He didn’t overdo it in the least either. I think I could have said almost as much though. It should not have been any effort to talk of his life. After the message, we sang, “Faith of our Fathers,” after which we stood at attention, while the bugler played “Taps,” which concluded the service, but I am sure it wasn’t the end of the memory of one of the greatest men our country has ever known.
I can’t help but wonder if our nation’s interest can ever be as well cared for. I guess that was about the worst blow we have had since war was declared…
Everything is going fine here. I’m still very much on the busy side, but time passes pretty fast…
It is getting dark, so I will have to close. Take good care of yourself and write often.
Walter
WEDDING
On Friday night, April 27, 1945, Sgt. Ira Lee Jeffries, and Miss Dorothy Lee Tyree, of Buckeye, were united in marriage at the Manse in Marlinton by Rev. James C. Wool, pastor of the Presbyterian Church. Sgt. Jeffries was for 34 months a prisoner of the Japanese in the Philippine Islands. He is, at present, stationed at the Ashford General Hospital, in White Sulphur Springs, where he is recovering from the effects of his imprisonment.
FIELD NOTES
A natural born nature lover, hunter and fisher was all burned up and broken up in business one day last week when he found the fresh killed carcasses of two yearling deer in the state road near Seneca State Forest. In the dark of early morning, a careless truck driver had run down the little buck and doe. The venison was salvaged and served to the school children in hot lunches at Marlinton and Greenbank.
This matter of murdering deer on this highway would be an almost every night occurrence if the vast majority of drivers did not slow down to give the light blinded animals a chance for their lives.
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I can no longer put confidence in snakes as weather sign. Here the snow fell almost every day last week in some parts of Pocahontas County, with noted temperatures down to 20 degrees and lower, yet neighbor Levi Baxter on the Jerico Road, killed a couple of whaling big blacksnakes early in the month of March.
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Emerson Newman, of the Marvin community, above Millpoint, found out on Monday morning there were beavers using his farm. They had cut down a wild plum tree, to let it lie, and oak and thorn saplings to carry away to their home in the cave. The stream which drains this farm, the Smith place, disappears in a cave, a hundred yards or so from the residence. If the beavers stop up the cave, it will make a lake of the farm. For some time, Mr. Newman has noticed some animals had been going in and out of the cave, and wondered how skunks could make so much sign.
