Thursday, December 13, 1945
EUGENE P. BUSSARD
Mr. and Mrs. Albert Bussard, of Mill Gap, Highland County, Virginia, formerly of Frost, received a telegram last Saturday stating that their son, Sergeant Eugene P. Bussard, was killed in action over Germany on March 24, 1945. He was a radio man on a B-17 plane… He is survived by his parents and three brothers: Albert Lee, just out of the service; Wallace and Floyd.
Our Army and Navy Boys
Corporal Ralph Elliott is home from the Army with his honorable discharge. He had twenty-four months’ service and, for five and a half months, he was held a prisoner of war by the Germans.
Guy Jones, M. P., of Mill Point is still overseas, serving in Hawaii. He is the son of Mrs. Maude Jones.
George Price Adkison, son of Mr. and Mrs. Harper Adkison, is home from the United States Navy with an honorable discharge after forty months in the service.
Claude Carpenter, with the Artillery in Patton’s Army, 21 months overseas, is back home with an honorable discharge.
John Boggs, Vernon Skee Crider, Floyd McDowell, John R. Wilson and Thomas Wilson are home from the army with honorable discharges.
Bus Smith is home from the Navy after long and honorable service in the South Pacific.
Private Harold Shifflett, of Marlinton, has reported to the Medical Department of Enlisted Technicians School at Brooks Hospital Center, Fort Sam Houston, Texas, to undergo training as an Army medical-surgical technician…
The following poem was sent to Miss Genevieve Wilfong, of Watoga, by her brother, Private First Class Beecher Wilfong, who is serving with the Armed Forces in the Philippine Islands.
TEACH ME TO LOVE
There was a time in my daily prayer
I asked for all the things I dreamed most fair, and necessary to my life – Success,
Riches, of course, and ease, and happiness, a host of friends, a home without alloy, primrose path of luxury and joy,
Social distinction and enough of fame
To leave behind a well remembered name.
Ambition ruled my life, I longed to do
Great things, that all my little world might view and whisper, wonderful.
Oh, be patient, God,
How blind we are until Thy shepherd’s rod of tender chastening gently leads us on to better things. Today I have but one petition, Lord –
Teach me to love, indeed, it is my greatest and my only need –
Teach me to love, not those who first love me,
But all the world, with that rare purity of broad, outreaching thought, which bears no trace
Of earthly taint, But holds in its embrace
Humanity and only seems to see
The good in all, reflected, Lord, from Thee.
And teach me, Father, how to love the most
Those who most stand in need of love, that host of people, who are sick and poor and bad,
Whose tired faces show their lives are sad,
Who toil along the road with footsteps slow and with hearts more heavy than the world can know –
People, when others pass discreetly by, or fail to hear the pleading of that cry
For help amid the tumult of the crowd
Whose very anguish makes them cold and proud, resentful, stubborn and bitter in their grief
I want to bring them comfort and relief
To put my hand in theirs, and at their side
Walk softly on, a faithful and fearless guide,
Oh, Savior, help me to feel these sad ones double dear,
Because they need so much which they thought was lost, to speak
Such words of cheer that as passing along
The wilderness shall blossom into song,
Ah, love divine, how empty was that prayer of other days!
That which was once so fair –
Those flimsy baubles which the world calls joys
Are nothing to me but broken toys, outlived, outgrown, I thank Thee, that I knew these much desired dreams of long ago,
Like butterflies have their summers day of brief enchantment, and have gone, I pray for better things
Thou knowest, God above, my desire now – teach me to love.
FIELD NOTES
Last Monday Eb Green of Williams River, was hunting deer in the snow on Tea Creek Mountain. He came upon the freshly killed and covered up body of a small deer. Tracks in the snow and other sign showed it to be the work of a panther. It was plain to be seen the deer had put up a considerable struggle before being done to death. The carcass was not disturbed; not even enough to see how much the panther had eaten of his kill. The idea was to string a bunch of traps around it. Whether the panther comes back or not, the book says a covered up panther kill makes wonderful bait for wild cats.
WEDDING
Mr. and Mrs. Moffett McNeel announce the marriage of their daughter, Miss Nancy Penick, to Earl Edwards, of Powhatan, Alabama, on November 23, 1945.
The bride has just recently been honorably discharged from the Waves, and the groom, from the Marines. They will live in Charleston.