PENNANT PARADE
U.S.A.T. MOTOR SHIP "PENNANT"
Vol. II, No. 9 3 Nov.
1945 11th
day
at
sea
U.S. TIGHTENS GRIP
ON TOP JAP LEADERS
BIG
FINANCE HIT
THREE
SUSPECTED EXECUTIONERS OF DOOLITTLE FLYERS
and the head of Japan's Gestapo [the Kenpeitai - Ed.] were jailed Friday
in a day which also saw General MacArthur freeze
security transactions of the fifteen greatest financial houses of the empire. In the bleak Ōmori Camp [POW camp where the Japs held Allied prisoners during the war. - Ed.]
was Lt. Gen. Shigeru Sawada, former Deputy Chief of
the Imperial General Staff who commanded the Shanghai area when three captured Doolittle flyers fell
before a firing squad, October 15, 1942. Also placed in Ōmori for questioning was Lt. Yusei Wamitsu, son
of the president of the Greater East Asia Independence Society. The third suspect, a Maj. Hata [probably meaning Field Marshall Shunroku Hata - Ed.], was
in custody in the Tokyo Military Hospital with
stomach ulcers. Genki Abe, former Jap Home Minister
who led in organizing the terroristic thought police
which at times out-Gestapoed the Nazi Gestapo also
surrendered.
MacArthur's directive freezing security transactions dealt a heavy blow to the rapacious financial combines which mopped up economically behind
the conquering armies of Japan.
ATOM BOMB
HOLDS NO FEAR FOR SEVERSKY
TOKYO: Maj. A.P.
Seversky declared
Friday the fearsome atomic bomb
that hastened Japan's defeat could kill
no more people
than a regular ten-ton bomb if dropped
on U.S. cities of
steel and concrete.
The famed warplane
designer arguing against getting
hysterical about
the atomic bomb
told a news conference he also doubted if it could sink a
battleship. [My father's eyewitness account of Hiroshima said: "In the harbor area, boats of all types lie sunk at their docks. Subs, battleships, and a few aircraft carriers could be seen in various states of destruction." - Ed. ]
PENNANT'S DAILY PROGRESS
What ground
we had picked up in the good weather, we lost in the last storm.
It was not enough to begin to
justify the rumors that were going around.
Our course is
due east now. Without anymore setbacks, we will hit our destination
late the 6th or early the 7th (of November).
[map]
Vol. II, No. 9 3 Nov. 1945 Page 2
STAFF
Editor.............Len Stringfield
Sports Editor......William O'Brien
Artist.............R.E. Doyle
Feature Writers....John A. Polomski
Roy K. Dumas
Richard Berlow
Mimeographer.......Jimmy Lucci
Trans. CO...Capt. Richard Gimpel
Master......Capt. George Hansen
Trans. Sv.
Off....Lt. Leonard Miskit
World News by
Courtesy of the Ship's
Radio
MOVIES
"BACKGROUND TO DANGER"
George Raft
Sidney Greenstreet
Peter Lorre
| 1930 |
......... |
Co. A |
| 2130 |
......... |
Co. B, Co. 2 |
BIG "E" BECOMES MUSEUM PIECE
Navy announced Thursday aircraft carrier Enterprise or "Big E" [will]
be saved from scrap heap
and be preserved as shrine in
recognition [of]
great Pacific fighting record. Navy Secretary Forrestal reported Big "E" too
old and no longer considered fit for
combat duty. She is now at Boston Navy Yard for outfitting
as transport to carry vets from E.T.O.
TRANSPORT COORDINATOR PROPOSED
WASHINGTON: Senator Knowland,
California Republican and former
Army major, proposed in Senate
that coordinator of military
transportation be designated to
speed return of overseas troops.
The senator believes men can
brought home faster under a
transportation coordinator.
IT PAYS TO KNOW
Something about politics (yes, politics) - state, national, and
international.
It is sad but it's
true, the American soldier is the
most politically ignorant soldier in the world, and doesn't give a damn either.
Like his father after the last
war, the average G.I. wants to get
home and just forget about the
whole damned mess.
Can't blame us much for that, I guess,
but this smug complacency,
we know now, is largely responsible for the war we've just finished.
We've learned out of World War II
that we had learned nothing
out of World War I.
Now we are in such a position,
in this Atomic Age, that we can't
make any more mistakes unless,
of course, we want to commit international suicide.
It's not important what
political beliefs we have so long
as we take an active and genuine
interest in them.
This interest,
before long,
will give us knowledge
enough to recognize the
truth and what course is best
for us to follow.
We've learned that freedom
isn't something to be won and then
forgotten.
It must be renewed
like soil after yielding good
crops; must be rewound like a faithful clock; exercised like a
healthy muscle.
It's our victory, and our
peace, dammit; let's not foul it up.
CHAPLAIN'S CORNER
Someone has very aptly said, "Profanity is the crutch of conversational cripples."
If this
is so, we have a great many
cripples aboard the U.S. Pennant.
God's word says, "Thou
shalt
not take the name of the Lord in
vain; for the Lord will not hold
guiltless that taketh his
name in vain."
[Interestingly, the newsletter staff chose to run this item immediately after an article which uses the words damn, damned and dammit, as well as “foul,” which was obviously a euphemism for another four-letter word which begins with F. - Ed.]
Nov. 3, 1945 Page 3
[cartoon captions:
"HOTEL"
"There's the guy who couldn't wait to get out of uniform."]
WHITE HOUSE FAVORS
20% CIVIL SERVICE BOOST
SENATOR BYRD PROTESTS
WASHINGTON:
The White House
Friday threw its weight behind a proposal to boost civil service
pay by twenty percent.
Senator [Robert]
Byrd, Democrat from [West] Virginia, protested immediately that such a
boost would set standards for the entire country. Arthur S. Flemming,
Civil Service Commissioner who
stated the White House views, replied in advance that anybody may
interpret the backing for civil
service boost as a tipoff on
policy toward pay in general.
NO MORE HIGGINS
CHICAGO: Andrew J. Higgins,
New Orleans
boat builder, proposed
Friday that the AF of L
Union purchase and
operate the three
plants he closed because of their strike.
There will be no more Higgins Industries
Inc.,
in the manufacturing business. In
New Orleans, he said
two thousand members
of the AF of L locals
went on strike.
[According to Wikipedia, Higgins Industries was liquidated on November 9, 1945, and assets were later transferred to a new company Higgins, Inc. While the company appeared to be harsh with workers, note that Higgins employed "the first fully integrated working force of women and men, African-Americans and whites in New Orleans." - Ed.]
JAP ATROCITIES
MANILA: Japanese
troops machine gunned
and burned 500 to
1,000 persons in a mad carnival of murder at
the German Club last
Feb. the war crimes
trial reported Friday.
COAST-TO-COAST
TAXI SERVICE
SAN
DIEGO:
Marine Capt. Harry E. Kipp reported
at Camp Pendleton today
after a coast-to-coast
taxicab trip from Lafayette, Georgia. Kipp,
just married, couldn't get a reservation back
and hired the cab for
seven hundred and
fifty dollars [about $13,247 in 2025 dollars - Ed.].
[In 2011, Kipp’s wife published a book, The Enduring Friendships of Six Marine Wives (and their husbands). - Ed.]
VALLEJO, CAL: A rare
surgical operation converting the stump of a
forearm into two large
fingers is being used
at Mare Island Naval
Hospital on combat
veterans.
"BALFOUR DAY" OUTBREAK
CAIRO: Rioting anti-Zionists stormed thru
Cairo Friday, smashing
windows and looting
business houses. Authorities estimated at
least two hundred and
ninety civilians and
ninety police injured
in the "Balfour Day"
outbreak. While no
deaths were reported
in Cairo, unofficial
and entirely unconfirmed
reports said seven persons were killed.
WASHINGTON: The Air
Force marked up Friday a secondary victory for its B-29's
over mileage and
weather in the tough
non-stop hop from Japan
to Washington made
recently.
[cartoon captions:
MALE CALL by Milton Caniff, creator of "Terry and the Pirates"
"SADDLEPANTS, WE KNOW WHAT YOU DID TO THEM DICE LAST PAYDAY - SEE! IT'S
EXPOSED IN YANK!"
"Y'CAN'T PROVE NUTHIN'!"
"THAT'S NOT TH' POINT - WE GOT A PROPOSITION! LISTEN..."
LATER
"WHY-YEAH-I LIKE TO TICKLE THE IVORIES, GENERAL! LET'S GO!"
"SWELL, MISS LACE...IT'LL ADD CLASS TO TH'GAME!"
"GET WELL FOR LITTLE NELL, ICE! COME OUT NATURAL, A NUDIST DICE! A FOUR AND A THREE AND THE BEER'S ON ME! SEVEN LACE TO HEAVEN, DICE..."
"AND I SEVENED AGAIN! SORRY TO TAKE ALL YOUR SMOKES, GANG!"
"THAT'S OKAY, MISS LACE - I GUESS WE'RE JUST LUCKY!"
Vol. II, No. 9 3 Nov. 1945 Page 4
SPORTS
The cold weather put the 'hex'
on the boxing program we had
planned to enact on board.
It is
too bad, too, for with the different gangs on board we surely could
have had some lively bouts.
The
weather doesn't prevent us from
a little dressing room talk though, so here goes:
The biggest amount of fight
talk now is the coming Conn-Louis
match to be held next June.
Champion Joe and Billy have been in the
Army these past years and have
stayed at boxing most of the time.
They are 'rarin' to go; Louis is
very confident that Billy won't
be around for as long as he
stayed last time (twelve rounds),
and Conn is equally sure he will
be the next champion. The whole
thing is and will be getting a terrific buildup and
it is
expected to produce the biggest
gate in all boxing history. Neither Conn or Louis are spring
chickens, and my guess is that no
matter who is the winner next
June, he won't be champion for long.
There are an awful lot of rising young fighters we shall now begin to hear of.
Who
is going to win the fight? It is a
little premature, but my money
is going to ride on Conn.
It will be interesting to see what
the odds would read on the boat.
How about putting down your opinion on a piece of
paper and
turning it into the library or
your 'paper boy' (first Sgt.).
We'll
print the results tomorrow.
[It was before this fight that Joe Louis delivered his famous line: “He can run, but he can’t hide.” Louis won by knockout in the eighth round. He went on to defeat Jersey Joe Walcott in two lackluster fights in 1947 and 1948 before announcing his retirement on March 1, 1949. - Ed.]
LIBERTY SHIPS SCRAPPED
SAN FRANCISCO:
United Press
reports government sending hundreds of merchant ships to marine
graveyard. No longer useful,
they
cannot be converted into troopships despite protests of G.I.'s sweating it out at Manila, Okinawa,
Guam and Yokohama. War Shipping
Administration officials said 90
ships have already been scuttled
and 110 more are now being stripped
of all usable equipment prior to
scuttling.
WORLD NEWS IN BRIEF
BATAVIA [Jakarta]: Encounters with
Indonesian extremists broke out
in Batavia Friday after heavy
fighting at Magelang was halted.
Under a temporary truce negotiated with the aid of President
Sukarno of the Indonesian Republic, fighting in the capital began in Indonesian Headquarters
behind the hotel and gunfire
lasted for an hour.
* * *
NEW YORK: Harold Claassen, Associated Press, predicted Friday that Navy will defeat Notre
Dame in the game at Cleveland
Stadium Saturday.
The midshipmen, who have not
been exactly impressive in any
of their five triumphs, were selected by Claassen to end a similar
winning streak owned by Notre
Dame. Irish have looked better
in their triumphs Claassen said,
but the opposition has not been
on a par with the clubs vanquished by Navy.
[Navy and Notre Dame played to a 6-6 tie. - Ed.]
* * *
Navy reported a total of
198,000 Pacific troops now in
process of being returned home.
24,000 including liberated prisoners reached West Coast ports
Thursday. About 11,000 are due
Friday. 100,000 others are now
en route aboard transports and
balance of total are in staging
areas and processing centers,
being loaded aboard transports
for the journey home.
[cartoon caption: "BUT HONEY - THAT'S WHAT THEY CALL CREAMED BEEF ON TOAST IN THE ARMY!"]
|
|
