Page 58 - Mastheads Jan-June 1945

PAGE 2 THE MASTHEAD, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1945

Coxswain Has One Many Nurses of Treasure Island Giving So Others May Live * So You Haven't Got But
Silver, Four Bronze * One Life, Eh? Well, Share

Stars on Pacific Ribbon It With a Wounded Man
Louis U. Spell, lion-hearted cox- Yeah, we've got a bloody war to
swain from Autryville, N. C., is one fight and it will take blood and
"rebel" who does not pass the hours "guts" to win it.
fighting over the War Between the As the Pacific campaigns are
States. intensified, more men will be
Bull Run and Gettysburg are pale knocked out of action. You can't
memories beside the hot action he give them "guts" but you can give
has seen at Midway, in the Coral them blood-your own life-giving
Sea, at Tarawa, Guadalcanal, the whole blood-so they can get back
Gilberts and the Marshalls. into the fight.
At present. nearly 20,000 pints of
. Enlisting in July, 1940, Spell wi.s
aboard a heavy cruiser escorting a life-giving whole blood have been
convoy to the Philippines when the rushed to Pacific combat areas
Japs descended upon Pearl Harbor. from the West Coast by Naval Air
Tran~port Service planes, according
"Strip for Action!" to Captain J. E. Dyer, Commander,
Hi s ship w a s immediately
stripped for action. He helped throw NATS, West Coast.
The Navy's aerial transport fleet
overboard comfortable chairs from has become a gigantic vein-'lili:e
the wardroom, extra chow tables, system which performs the. miracle
benches, and books-all fire haz-
ards. They were weighted with of reviving wounded men by trans-
sandbags so the Japs could not fusions 6,500 miles away frorri the
spot where the blood was donated
trace the convoy.
by patriotic citizens at the West
The convoy was re-routed to
Coast blood banks.
Brisbane. The "Aussies" gave him The whole blood, collected from
and his shipmates a royal welcome. San Francisco and Los Angeles
Everything was on the house for Red Cross banks, is iced at the
the men of the first American man- Oakland NATS center, packed in
o'-war to put in at an Australian lightweight portable refrigerators,
port after the initial Japanese at-
and put on the planes-all within
tack. a few hours.
Pearl Harbor Havoc Lt. Harry Blake, Navy doctor
In January he made Pearl Har- from the Bureau of Medicine and
bor. A film of diesel oil covered its
Surgery, predicts that NATS
waters. The wreck of the Arizona planes will be ferrying approxi-
still smoked. Everywhere were
mately a ton of the precious fluid
beached and capsized hulls of war- a day to the forward areas. Will
ships. yours be included?
Longest Cruise in History
In February, 1942, Spell's cruiser
patrolled the Coral Sea with a task A FORMAL NOTE, PERHAPS?
force. They shot down 18 Jap "Bet- THE ENTIRE aft-ernoon watch of nurses at the of nurses' blood in centrifuge machine, which sepa- CAMP GORDON JOHNSTON,
ties" without damage to a single Hospital recently .visited the Treasure Island Blood rates plasma from whole blood. Lower right-Ens. Fla. (CNS)-Before S/Sgt. Charles
American vessel. An entry in his Bank before going on duty and donated their blood. Elayne D. Shaffret donates blood under watchful Kraly, La Salle, Ill., writes to his
service record states that this Accompanying pictures show various steps. Upper supervision of Ens. Nellie B. Cheledinas, who gave girl he show-ers, shaves, combs his
her own a few minutes later. Ens. Dorothy C. Hal"d-
left-Marlys M. Lay, PhM3c, obtains blood sample
cruise, during which his ship did from Ens. Nell M. Penkunas. Upper right-Ens. Jane ing (left) and Cheledinas look at containers which hair and changes into OD's.
not once drop anchor, lasted 76 L. Kendigh has her blood pressure checked by Ens. hold their blood. They know what it will mean to
days-the longest in American Mary C. Furnari. Lower left-Ens. Sara A. Mc- wounded fighting men who would like to get back Rem~-
naval history up to that time. Neese and James E. Marr, PhM2c, plac-e containers into the fight.
The Navy Comes Back lt Takes Both
Spell put into Pearl Harbor again Forrestal Announces the Joyful Tears, Laughs, Gripes
in April, 1942. WAR BONDS
AND TAXES
"I was amazed to observe what Establishment of Navy Fill Phone Center's Guest Book
progress had been made on our To Win Victory
wrecked vessels," he declared. "The Unit Commendation Comments on women, weather, writes, "and your help let me call
West Virginia was already almost war, and everything that service- her that day."
fit for duty-only a few months be- Secretary Forrestal announced men think about-that's what the At busy hours it is sometimes
fore I'd seen her back turret guns today that the Navy had estab- Pacific Telegraph and Telephone difficult to put a call through. A
rising out of the water. The navy lished, with the approval o{ the Company fished up when it placed gunner's·. mate from Pennsylvania
yard was working day and night." President, a unit citation that will in its center in the Recreation answers the complainers however.
The Yorktown, Wasp, and Hornet be junior to the Presidential Unit Building a guest register for He says: "Phone calls here may
In June, 1942, Spell was at Mid- Citation and will be known as the remarks so it might improve its take a long time but, brother, try
way. "Good luck and good hunt- Navy Unit Commendation. service on the Island. And-oh yes making one south of the equator or
ing," Admiral Nimitz had wished The Commendation w i 11 be -some of the sailors even men- west of the 180th meridian! The
his men. It was that, with some awarded by the S-ecretary of the tioned the telephones. jungle rot will get you before you
losses for our side. Spell's ship tried Navy to any sh_ip, aircraft, detach- even get the operator."
Operators' Good Looks
to save the burning Yorktown, but ment or other unit in the Naval
Apparently one feature of its Talk About Weather
a Jap torpedo bomber got in a fatal Service, which, subsequent to De-
hit anyhow. cember 6, 1941, has distinguished service that the Telephone Com- Peopl-e may talk about the
One night in September he saw itself by outstanding heroism in pany need not worry about is its weather and yet do nothing about
op,erators' looks. "Oh boy!'·' ex- it, but sailors on Treasure Island
flashes on the Coral Sea horizon. action against the -enemy, but not claims a: gunner's mate. "Yes, I'm have their own solution to the
They came from the guns of de- st rd th
stroyers giving· the gallant Wasp sufficiently to ju if~ a~a of e from Brooklyn and the girls there problem. They'll take th-e weather
Presidential Unit Citation. It also · cannot compete with the pretty that prevails at home. "I always
her coup de grace. will be awa rd ed to any similar unit girls Bell Telephone employs here." heard of sunny California but all
On Navy Day, 1942, Spell's ship which has distinguished itself by
took part in the battle of Santa extremely meritorious service not A salty Casanova with a more I've seen so far is rain," asserts a
Cruz, off Guadalcanal. He remained involving combat but in support ot direct approach writ-es: "I think seaman from New York. "I'll take
by his 20 mm. gun in sky aft all military operations. the blond that is working here New York City 12 months a year."
day, firing a total of 3500 rounds, Personnel serving in a unit at today is really cute. What we The serviceman's ironic sense of
with two gun stoppages. They took the time the commendation was couldn't do on a date together. I humor balances his inclination to
aboard 300 crew members from the won will be authorized to wear the loved you at first. sight." gripe. A motor machinist's mate
Hornet, and again he witnessed the Navy Unit Citation Ribbon, which Valuing the operators' beauty, writes: "They can have their West
sinking of a great American naval will consist of a wide myrtle green but prizing them more highly for Coast. I'll tak,e the East any day."
vessel by our destroyers. another quality is a private in the His mates were quick with their
stripe in the center with a smaller
Trial by Fire cardinal red, spanish yellow and Marine Corps just back from two shafts, penciling them below his
On November 30, 1942, Spell's royal blue stripes ext-ending to the years in the Pacific. "The good entry. Comments one: "I wish you
ship was part of a force detailed to edge, in that order, on either side. service (five minutes to N. Y.)," could too." Another: "Tell it to the
keep the Japs from landing rein- he relates, "scared me at first. I'm ch_aplain." And a third: "My sym-
forcements on Guadalcanal. It was all for women operators here. Only pathy, ole boy."
2300, with-rain falling, when she of the way through fire, before hope rest of U. S. feminity is as The telephone company may not
received an almost mortal blow in reaching safety." politely able to handle the jobs get much help from these remarks,
the fourth battle of Savo Island. At Gilberts and Marshalls they've had to take over because but it certainly must have lots of
A torpedo smote the heavy Returning to duty in the Pacific, of the war." fun reading them.
cruiser amidships, piercing her fuel Spell was assigned to a battle- Records Veterans' Joy
tanks. A sheet of flame about 200 wagon. Under its protecting guns,
feet high shot into the air and fell our forces landed on Tarawa. In Servicemen who have been re-
backward, striking sky aft, Spell's December, 1943, Spell took part in ceived aboard aft-er long overseas Nazis Have New Way
battle station. the bombardment of Nauru Island, duty find the Telephone Center a
"It knocked me flat," Spell re- between the Gilberts and the Mar- haven of heart's-ease. "It's good Of Arranging Books
called. "I jumped to my feet, hold- shalls. Here he fell a victim to com- to be back in the U. S. A.," de-
ing my hands over my face to pro- bat fatigue. Malaria followed. clares a machinist's mate. "The BRUSSELS (CNS) -When the
tect it from the flames. Sky aft was Spell is now attached to the Bell S:y-st-em brought me close to Nazis occupied Brussels, they in-
a blazing death trap. I had to get Naval Training School on Treasure my dear wife and children, the stituted the "New Order" in all the
out-but the ladder· to the main Island. His Purple Heart, the one closest in 41 months." libraril!-'3. Deciding the regular cus- ANN WILL DO! In top billing
deck had been shot away. silver and four bronze stars on his tom of arranging books according opposite Tom Conway in "Two
O'clock Courage," Ann Rutherford is
"A boatswain's mate and I tied Pacific ribbon identify him as one A fireman from Milwaukee is to subject was wrong, they ar- qualified to show the other girls in
a heaving line to the end of a gun of many "rebels" fighting the Japs, equally grateful. "Arrived in the ranged them according to size, "to RKO Radio's beauty line-up that she
barr-el. We slid down 38 feet, part not the Yankees! States on my wife's birthday," he give the place neatness and order." has what it takes.