THE SQUADRON PULSE
For the Men of the Fightin’ 3rd Published in the Philippines.
Vol. 1 No. 11 Weekly May 12, 1945 3rd Airdrome Squadron APO 74
2nd ANNIVERSARY OVERSEAS
[cartoon captions:
“WILL OLD ACQUAINTANCE BE FORGOT”
“VIVE LA 3RD”
“DON’T GET EXCITED BOYS - YOU’LL ALL BE AROUND NEXT MAY”]
The 17th of this month marks an historical date in the annals of our squadron. Two years have passed since a bunch of men, all boxed-up and labelled 3rd Airdrome Sq. were packed aboard the “Orange Marmalade” [believed to be the steamer Mormacsea - Ed.] and shipped out....Things however, got off to a grand beginning, with four solid months of solid good time in Australia. But solid existence ended as soon as we hit Guinea. Once upon these shores, names like Mubo, Salamaua, and Lae took on a new meaning. Words such as fun, milk and smooching became obsolete, while other and newer words...malaria, Atabrine, & dengue worked themselves into our everyday chatter...We are the Air Corps frontiersmen...the Lewis and Clarks and the Boones and the Fremonts...We have seen and lived the lowest form of existence, we have tasted the best; we have seen fun and comedy, we have seen sorrow & tragedy; we are cognizant of the value of good health, and we know what it’s like to be dead sick. We have witnessed the slow, cruel beginning when the Japs still had airpower, and used it. We were around when the Yanks and Aussies were fighting an offensive-defense, waiting the day when enough equipment would come over to start the ball rolling Japanward. Now after two years, we have seen this great influx and surge of power and its being used efficiently. So, now we wait and contemplate the future....there are many frontiers ahead, promising more sacrifice, but certain VICTORY.
THE SQUADRON PULSE
Vol. 1 No. 11 May 12, 1945.
Editor..................Pfc. Stringfield
Contributing Editor.....Cpl. Calkins
Managing Editor.........Sgt. Bland
Chief Compositor........Cpl. Drecoll
Compositors.............Cpl. Harrell, Cpl. Callahan
This paper may be sent home.
FLASHBACKS ----- By L.H. Stringfield
“THE RAINS CAME”
(2nd Installment)
Sleep...nothing like it....first rest in 3 nights....sky looks peaceful too...stars are out...What was that poem about stars? [Perhaps referring to “The Stars are Mansions Built by Nature’s Hand” by William Wordsworth, “Bright Star” by John Keats, “Ah Moon - and Star” by Emily Dickinson or Shakespeare's “Sonnet 14”? - Ed.] Well, anyway...wait! What’s this? “Hey Bob, did you spit or something?” “Hell no, go to sleep.”
Stars sure are pretty....” What the..??? Hey Bob, are you sure you’re not spitting?” “I will though if you don’t shut up.”
Oh well, just the morning dew, I guess. Now about that star...Hell where’d they go? The sky suddenly turned solid black. It was spitting heavier now & all over the place.
Men were squirming on their beds, and heads disappeared under blankets. Minutes past, more squirming, some cussing, but, hell, with a shelter-half & raincoat you can’t go wrong. This is still better than the boat.
More minutes flit by...frenzied squirming, and such “in-vain” cussing. This damn raincoat and wait till I see Supply about this shelter-half. Just wait!
Several more minutes...terrific squirming, thunderous cussing and groans of torture. To hell with the raincoat and who was it who named this sieve, a shelter half. “Hey Bob, getting wet?” A muffled voice answers through layers of ponchos, blankets, etc, “Hell no, these ponchos are the real McCoy.”
Couple more minutes pass. I roll over....no it can’t be! But the feel and the sound are unmistakable...swish, swoosh. The horrible realization....I’m flooded. In mad frenzy, I thrust a hand down to gauge its depth...3 inches at one place, & a good foot, in the sag near the rump. Feeling ten times worse than a victim of the Chinese water treatment, I got up & threw aside a matted heap of bedding and glared into the heavens, gnashing teeth.
Bob still has not budged an inch & was just about the only person who hadn’t by this time. He still thought he was secure. Perhaps he was, but, of course he hadn’t turned over yet. That’s when you find out things.
Agonized completely & finding neither shelter nor solace amongst my distraught neighbors, I began to stroll betwixt a maze of cots & totem men. Everybody was cold, hungry and wanted a cigarette, and everywhere you looked were misty, haggard forms of drooping men, with heads bent, & arms hanging like a forest of storm-withered willows. It was an impossible situation where not a damn thing could be done, except just wait in awful silence till morning and hope that a hot sun would shine to dry things out. Never, never anywhere had we endured such miserable existence.
Seeing more than my eyes could take, I sploshed back to my cot. It hadn’t floated away yet. Then I checked on Bob and his progress, but I found no Bob....only his drenched, puddled, sand-begrimed sack. Bob must have rolled over...or something. Well, the next morning we had a good breakfast.....cold Vienna sausage.....So, with that in our growling tummies, we went to a little spot where we had more fun and stuff, and paratroopers.
CAPTAIN MITCHELL COMMENDS---
Sgt. Hayes, for efficiency in the installation of the water system.
AS TIME GOES BY----BIRTHDAYS
Cantrell 14, Calkins 14, Arbeeny 15, Schmitz 15, Theobald 15, Jones 15, Hofer 15, Davenport 16, & Montgomery the 19th.
SQUADRON INSIGNIA
Every now and then we think of it, but somehow do nothing about it. The PULSE suggests that either the popular insignia that E. Bennett designed or a new one designed by LaMogro [probably meaning LoMagro - Ed.] be drawn up and be sent off for mass production. Our Squadron pride is at stake.
VICTORY EUROPE: HEINIES QUIT IN MASS SURRENDER
After years of agonizing warfare, the Heinies finally decided that kraut and a fräulein are a better livelihood than fighting for some maniac who wanted lebensraum.
It has not only been a war that has produced, on a grand scale, some of mankind’s deadliest and most unbelievable weapons, such as the sub, tank and an airplane that flies, but, also great statesmen that know how to weld together a lasting peace.
Realizing all the crimes committed in his name, the German leader Kaiser Wilhelm fled to Holland and with the severe punishment of suffering a guilty conscience is chopping wood. November 11, 1918 is indeed a memorial date.
MAJEWSKI BORROWS FROM ANCIENT RITUAL TO CELEBRATE VE DAY
May 7th was the big day-----that long-awaited day when Germany quit unconditionally, and so around the gladdened world, people either knelt in silent prayer or went off in wild drunken orgies. But Majewski celebrated in his own little way.
It was last June 6th, with the Allies storming the Normandy beaches, that the diligent Majewski conceived of a plan on how to conduct a VE ceremony for the non-drinking man. But his plan did not come into effect as soon as he liked, the unpredictable Huns holding out longer than he, Eisenhower or Henry Ford expected. Anon, he began to show signs of mental frustration; then one evening the news was proclaimed....Victory Europe!
Eagerly, Majewski set upon his premeditated business. He called in special guests as witnesses. To the bewildered eyes of the spectators, the purposeful Sgt. slowly went into his ritual. On the floor he had a snug little bundle of European maps and in his firm fingers he had a match. Then he spoke, “Gentlemen, if you will allow me.....”
The maps went up in quiet flame. During an interim of blissful silence, a draught of wind whirled up the charred remains and carried them away to nothingness. A tear rolled down the Sgt.’s cheek.
MY DAZE
By R.V. Calkins
The customary man from Mars, observing the 3rd Airdrome Sq on the afternoon of May 11, ‘45 would probably have thought everybody was hitting the weed, or else the millennium was at hand. This Martian strolling through the area (by special permission of Orson Welles) would have heard such puzzling comments as, “Ya gotta have 85 points!” “My kid’s worth 12 points!” “How much do we get for the Good Conduct Medal?”
Climbing back into his spaceship, the man from Mars would have took off like mad, possibly remarking to himself, “My God, the 3rd Airdrome is out of this world!” Little would he realize that the men were talking about DEMOBILIZATION.
In fact, all afternoon men talked about DEMOBILIZATION; they went to chow and talked about DEMOBILIZATION; and that night they went over to Club Carabao, got drunk and talked about DEMOBILIZATION. Some guys lost all control and packed their bags. According to one report, Ace Stuart carried A & B bags and a footlocker to the Orderly Room, muttering to himself, “I got 94, put me on the manifest, I got 94.”
‘Blank’ Blankenship, who came in the Army when they used horses and had lectures on the Musket, M-1, shook hands all around and promised to write everybody from Larkinburg, Kansas. Larry (Rose of Tralee) Theobald sang ‘California, Here I Come’ for a solid hour, and only then was stopped by repeated warnings that he would ruin his voice.
Most of the old army men and those men who had fruitful marriages while in the U.S. were pretty excited. A few had over a hundred points. Other fellas weren’t so well off. Mac, bitterly cynical, made remarks he usually reserves for the English and you-know-what. Schwartz, in a frenzy of enthusiasm, got off his sack and explained the system to everyone happily until he began to figure up his points. The next half hour he sat around moaning, “Oh, why couldn’t I have a kid?”
By the evening of May 12, the glamour wore off. Except for Ace, who still carried his barracks bags to chow, most of the boys decided it would be at least another month before they got home. Art Keister, asked by the PULSE to make a statement, said, “This 85-point system is a fine thing. I feel about it like I feel about 18 months rotation.”
Art has been over 34 months.
SPORTS REVIEW
By Fessenden
BASKETBALL
FIRST BASKETBALL GAME WON BY FORFEIT
After sweating out the stubborn GI light system, the 3rd basketball team were credited with a win in their first league game by nature of a forfeit. The 41st Troop Carriers failed to show up within half an hour after starting time.
The evening, however, was not entirely wasted. A pick-up team, composed of the Older Pool Hall Boys hanging around the gym was organized to give the boys a game. Throughout the first half they did give them quite a game, too, the O.P.H.B. leading 9-8 at the end of the first half. Then the boys knuckled down and went on to win 31-21.
The game with the 874th Engineers, scheduled for Thursday evening, has been postponed, due to the Anniversary Party, until Friday. Reports drifting in say that the Engineers are really gunning for the 3rd, so this promises to be a good game.
All games are played in the high school gymnasium of the local fun-town.
SOFTBALL
3RD WINS 2-1 OVER 870TH
The softball team won 2-1 over the 870th Engineer Battallion in a non-league game played at the Engineers diamond Saturday evening, May 12.
The 3rd eked their two runs out of three hits by Cathcart, Stouch and Rose. Rose allowed the Engineers 4 hits.
Berning, sf
Cummings, ss
Cathcart, 2b
Stouch, 3b
Fowler, lf
Schmitz, 1b
Rohal, c
Smith, R.E.
Butto, rf
Rose, p
Goelzer, lf |
AB
3
3
3
3
1
2
2
1
2
2
0 |
R
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
1
0
0
0 |
H
0
0
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
1
0 |
PO
2
2
2
3
0
6
6
0
0
7
0 |
A
0
0
1
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
0 |
E
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
1
1
0 |
STOP PRESS
The basketball game with the 874th Engineers for Saturday night has been called off, but there will be a game Sat the 19th at 2030 with A Co, 6th Rangers.
CUMMINGS HITS IN NINTH INNING TO WIN FOR 3RD
In their first game in the 7th A.S.G. [Air Service Group - Ed.] softball league, the 3rd, after a thrilling 9th inning, came through with a 7-6 win over the 480th Service Sqdn.
With the 480th leading 3-2 at the end of the 3rd inning, R.E. Smith hit what would normally be a two-bagger, scoring Fowler and Schmitz. But things not being normal, Rohal waited for Smitty at first and then tried to race him to second, or maybe he got his brogans tied up in flypaper; anyway he and Smitty got into second about the same time and as the rules of softball definitely state that 2nd base can accommodate only one runner at a time, Smitty had to return to first.
The game got all tied up in the last of the seventh and had to go two extra innings until Cummings hit in the first of the ninth to score Henry. [A softball game has seven innings, not nine like baseball. - Ed.]
For the 3rd Airdrome, 7 runs, 12 hits and 4 errors; for the 480th, 6 runs, 10 hits and 1 error.
Berning, sf
Cummings, ss
Cathcart, 2b
Stouch, 3b
Fowler, lf
Schmitz, 1b
Rohal, c
Smith, R.E.
Butto, rf
Henry, p
Rose, p |
|
AB
5
5
4
3
4
3
4
4
4
2
0 |
R
0
1
0
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
0 |
H
1
2
2
0
2
1
1
2
1
0
0 |
PO
6
3
11
2
1
10
3
0
0
0
0 |
A
0
2
2
3
0
0
1
0
0
1
0 |
E
0
1
0
0
0
2
0
0
0
1
0 |
Runs batted in: Smith 4, Cummings 1, Butto 1, Fowler 1.
|
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