Page 47 - Mastheads July-Dec 1945

THE MASTHEAD, SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 1945 PAGE 7
"MOM" CHUNG SAYS HER "SONS" ARE 0TS"PR0DUCES" SAILORS JEWISH NEW YEAR

PHI BETA KAPPA OF FIGHTING MEN Island School Set-up SEPTEMBER 7
Sailor: "How about a date Sun-
Her Golden Dolphins Rosh Hashanah, or the Jewish day night?"
Grooms Men for Special celebration of the New Year, will Gal: "Sorry, I'm getting married
Keep "Clean Sweep" Ship Assignments begin at sundown on Friday, Sep- Sunday night, but how about Mon-
tember 7 and continue until sun-
day night?"
Broom Flying To train pe·rsonnel for all de- down Sunday, 'September 9. The * * *
stroyers and cruisers built on the Day of Atonement, Yorn Kippur, "Why do they always make us
Her plain office was typical. With will begin at sundown September undress when we go to sick call?"
its green, black-bordered walls, a West Coast; for all large auxiliary 16 and conclude at sundown Sep-
vessels being christened in the Bay "Beats me," said a naked by-
faded rug, medical l;>ooks stacked Area, and additional pre-commis- tember 17. stander. "I just came in to check
fashionless in the corner and the sioning training for other parts of The various Temples and Syna- the fire extinguishers."
three chairs with desk of hand- the Coast, is the job of Treasure go.gues in San Francisco, Oakland,
carved ebony-wood, it was typical Island's Operational Training Vallejo and Palo Alto will conduct * * *
of Dr. Margaret Chung, who is school. se·rvices to which men and women A lady was entertaining three
"mom" to that hard-flying group of the armed forces are invited. Air Corps men at her home one
of courageous Ame·rican pilots Here "green" recruits and sea- .Personnel of Jewish faith will be Sunday. As a special treat she
called the "Fair-Haired Bastards." soned veterans are given training granted liberty as may be prac- decided to· roast them a duck and
to better fit them for their special just before carving, she turned to
She leaned forward from behind assignments. Refresher courses are ticable according to existing duty
the first airman and asked him
he~ desk- the top was vacant- to also offered to men whose ships are schedules. what particular job he· did.
praise her "sons." A "Fair-Haired now undergoing repair work.
Bastard" is a good guy who can fly, Gal: "I want a lipstick, please." "I'm a pilot, Mam," he answered.
Operating on a policy of "teach- "Very well, you shall have the
who's not afraid to die, a courage- Clerk : "What size?" wings!"
ous man who is loyal, tolerant, a ing the men what they need most Gal: "Oh, two rides and a week-
and in the shortest possible time," The second was asked the same
"square" man who contributes to She is "mom" to her fighters end beach party."
the progress and glory of aviation OTS bas grown into a training in- question and he said, "I'm on the
stitution which turns out more ground staff." "Then you shall have
and who makes the world a better
When she talked of being hon- "students" per year than any uni- the legs," she said, and before she
place because he lives. morphosis resulted in personnel
ored at Ciro's in Hollywood just the versity in the country. could open her mouth again, the .
Marine flyer Joe Foss, who was other night (we had to ask her) Training in practically every job being sent here for training fo,r third burst fo·rth with, "I'm a rear
first to tie Rickenbacker's score, is pre-commissioning details.
you could picture her there. Same which has to be filled aboard ship, gunner, Mam, just serve me some
one of her sons. Admiral Halsey is Manned by a staff combining
as in the office up the hill on Sacra- plus basic instructions on the prin- vegetables."
son No. 600. General Frank Arm- mento Street in San Francisco-- ciples of operating new type equip- education and experience, a policy
* * *
strong who heads the B-29 Bomber the office that didn't look like a ment, enables the sailor, upon leav- was formulated whereby the men The aggressive wife of a meek
Command in the Pacific and Ad- doctor's office----she would be the ing OTS, to actually know the type would be taught what they needed little man was taking her husband
mirals "Poco" Smith, Rowecliff and most. And it was presented in a
same in Ciro's. Her pictures show of work he will be asked to per- to .task. While she was raving at
Marc Mitscher are all active mem- her with coal black hair- it is form. way where the "student" could
bers. Marine General Parker, the grasp it without too much diffi- him for his utter stupidity, the
graying a little. No make-up. A _ In June, 1943, after almost two doorbell rang and some friends
late General Harmon, China's culty. Naturally, as new ideas were
physician is busy these days. She years of functioning under the ban- came to make a call. The little hus-
Claire Chennault and Generals brought to mind, numerous changes
has a plain gentle face and a cap- ner of "Naval Training School band sat in dejected silence and lis-
Brine and Gull- they are her sons were made in teaching methods.
tivating personality. The kind of (Local Defense)," the name was tened to his wife and the friends
too. So are Navy Commander Lecturing on the subject was
woman her sons would love. changed to "Operational Training talk.
"Killer" Kane, Army Colonel Dick "Some of my sons don't fly" she School, Treasure Island." The meta- made only in a final resort. "Let
Muckan and Colonel John L. Smith the man do the actual job himself, Suddenly, during a lull in . the
who knocked down nineteen planes continued. "But they are fighting and thereby learn through experi- conversation, his wife glared across
over Guadalcanal back in the dark men who are exceptionally good Dolphins have sunk at least one ence," is the keynote of the train- at him and shouted: "And don't sit
'Bastard' material. They are the hundred and fifty thousand tons of ing system at OTS. It, has already there making fists at me in your
days of 1942-43.
Kiwi (pronounced Keewees)- after shipping. She continued : proven to sound advantage. pockets, either!"
Someday when the history of a non-flying New Zealand bird and
American aviation and the com- "Skipper Kent, Dolphin No. 67,
an example of the kind of men they crash dived when seven destroyers
plete story of the war against
are is Commodore R. W . Cary, who pinned him under. Later they had The Wolf by Sansone
Japan is told, "mom" Chung's story won the Congressional Medal of
will be told, too. The story of one of Honor as an ensign; the Navy to go up. But the fight continued _Copyri1ht 1945 bJ Ltonud S,nsoM, distributed by Ump NeW1paper Senice
.. .-.... :.;·· ..
America's leading surgeons who Cross as a lieutenant; the Legion on the surface. One sailor, with the -:,:-:-:-:-:❖ ••
early in life dedicated herself to of Merit, three times by the Navy, after machine gun, raked the Jap's ·:·:·:·: ·:·:•~·: ·: ·:·:·:.
bettering the cause of humanity decks; killed over four hundred . i i!:!::::::·::::::::::::::::::::::;:::::::;i):t rill-----,
once by the Army, as well as the sailors, although his gun's sights
and of helping young flyers get the British DSO which he received dur-
chance to prove themselves when ing this war when in operations off had been blown off.
few others paid heed. Their records "Golden Dolphin No. 95 is Cap-
the Italian Coast as skipper of the
verify "mom's" faith in them. tain Burt Clakring, who spent so ij 'il!!lll}
USS Savannah, and later when much time in Yokahoma Harbor he
If you remember, her tri-grouped aboard the USS Brooklyn com-
is going to be a tourist guide after
organization of "Fair-Haired Bas- manding a cruiser force. Of the V-J Day, so he says. He san;k 300,
tards", "Kiwi", and "Golden Dol- some two hundred and .thirty Con- 000 tons of enemy shipping; holds
phins" came into being when she gressional Medals· of Honor pre- four Navy Crosses."
adopted seven hungry young col- sented to service men in the fight- Commander Fluckey, who came I I
lege kids who knew something of ing history of America, at least in under the Golden Gate bridge ){_~_ ~~~·
flying. 'She pleased her husky brood four of them are my sons. last year flying the 'clean-sweep'
by helping them get into the war "The last group of my sons are broom, had steamed into a Jap
· against aggression long before the in the submarine service-the Gol- harbor on the surface because the
Pearl Harbor smash. They called den Dolphins. Of course you know bottom was too shallow to sub-
' themselves "Mom Chung's Fair- that the daddy of the American merge. Forty Jap ships were an-
Haired Bastards". The lucky seven. submarine service of today is Ad- chored inside. When Fluckey's boys
The Japs ce.rtainly remember them.
miral Nimitz-Dolphin No. 100. had finished the harbor was almost
"Of the original seven" she was There are one hundred and twenty- clear- 250,000 tons of ships were
saying, "'Red' Gill was No. 5. You four such heroes of the group." resting on that shallow bottom.
remember reading about h i m At this point Dr. Chung re- They hoisted the 'Clean-Sweep'
aboard the old USS Lexingto~ dur- minded us that the submarine serv- broom!"
ing the Coral Sea battle. Later he ice is made up of less than one per Mom Chung smiled gently. The
was aboard the USS Santee after cent of the Navy; have accounted afternoon was late. She seemed a
he was executive officer at NAB in for over 79 per ·cent of all Jap ships little tired. "My sons are the Phi "Wh_at else did he tell you?'
Miami he served aboard the USS sunk- four million tons- or about Beta Kappa of fighting American
Bairoka. Lt. Colonel Fritz Coken, 1200 ships. Each of her Golden men.''
another of the original seven won
fame fighting over the Atlantic.
"Son No. 523 is Jim Flatly, larraclcs Residential Citation Rated For Bathroom Beach Head
whose flying group was the firs):. to
get into the war, while aboard the AND I THOUG-HT
USS Enterprise. They .outsmarted
the Japs when they used Guadal- TARAWA WAS
canal as a base which they were ROUG-H/
given a citation for helping to save.
Each skipper of this group has been
been one of my sons and they
promised me the most Jap planes
of any air group.
"But Air Group No. 2 is my own
squadron. I designed their insignia
of a Chinese dragon crushing a
Japanese plane. Commander Will
Dean-son No. 631-and his group
promised me two hundred J aps as
a Christmas present last year. They
· surprised me by bringing back five
hundred, plus six!
"Incidentally, ,'did you see the
show 'Fighting Lady' ? Those were
actual shots of Jim Flatly and his
air group sinking the second larg-
est carrier in the Jap navy.
"Flying Tigers ? " She retorted.
"Did you see that show of them-
what did you think of actor John
carroll? John wasn't acting. He i~
son No. 620!"