Ferguson: Maids
By Mrs. Walter Ferguson
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Franklin Jr.’s men send ‘Pa’ $150 birthday check
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2,796 of Iwo wounded flown to Hawaii
HONOLULU, Hawaii (UP) – The Air Transport Command flew 2,796 men wounded on Iwo Jima from the Marianas to Hawaii during a record two-week period, it was disclosed by Maj. Gen. William Ord Ryan, commander of the ATC Pacific Division.
Hospital planes of the fleet made 109 trips for the evacuation between March 7 and March 20, Gen. Ryan said.
He disclosed that more than 10,000 wounded men per month are being evacuated by air from all battle areas in the Pacific.
Roving Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
IN THE WESTERN PACIFIC – The second day I was aboard our carrier, the chief steward came up to my cabin and happily announced that he had a cake for me, but it was so big he didn’t know how to handle it.
For a while I couldn’t get what he was driving at, but finally he made it clear.
It seemed the night bakers had baked a huge cake for me, and it was to be served at dinner that evening. The steward was worried because the cake was so big they didn’t have a board big enough to put it on, and therefore couldn’t put it on the table where everybody could see it.
But that evening when we went down to dinner, here was the cake in front of my chair, right in the middle of the table, almost filling it up. They had solved the problem by getting the carpenters to make a board.
Written in pink icing on top of the white cake were the words “Welcome Aboard, Mr. Pyle,” and as somebody suggested, I was so taken aback at being called “Mr. Pyle” that I didn’t recognize it at first.
I was very pleased and embarrassed by this first official cake of my lifetime, and of course I had to take a lot of ribbing from my friends. They said they’d been slaving on that ship for a year and nobody ever baked a special cake for them.
Misses roundup
After supper I groped my way through the labyrinth of passages below, and finally tracked down the thoughtful person who had baked the cake.
He was Ray Conner, baker second class from LeGrande, Oregon. LeGrande is in Eastern Oregon not far from Pendleton, and Ray was moaning that he hadn’t seen the famous Pendleton roundup now for three years.
I asked him how he happened to bake a cake for me, and he said well he had got through his regular baking a little early the night before, and hadn’t anything else to do, and just thought it was a good idea.
Ray’s father is a schoolteacher, and Ray was studying to be one, but now after all this business, he kind of doubts he’ll want to teach school.
If I had to be in the Navy, I think I’d about as soon be a baker as anything else. The bakeshop is always clean as a whistle, and it always smells good. And you are almost your own boss.
Ray is quite satisfied with his lot in the Navy, mainly because a bakery is so wonderfully clean. “I can’t stand to work in filth,” he said.
Another cake!
I was feeling pretty stuck-up about my cake, and then next evening when we went down to supper, here was a big cake on the adjoining table. Did I see red!
I made a few discreet inquiries to see who had the gall to have a cake in front of him so soon after my triumph. And I learned it was for the pilot who, the day before, had made the 8000th landing on our carrier. It seems that’s a tradition, for every thousandth landing.
So after the meal I went around and introduced myself to this cad. He was Lt. Edward Van Vranken of Stockton, California.
I said, “I’m pretty sore. I thought I was the only one around here who rated a cake.”
And he said, “Well, I’m jealous. You had photographers taking pictures of your cake. But could I get a photographer? No.”
So I said, “Well, that’s better. So you made the 8000th landing? Was it a good one?”
Old stuff to him
And he grinned and said, “Well, I got aboard.” And then he said, “As a matter of fact, it was a pretty good landing. And if you’re ever in California after the war, come to Stockton and we’ll have something better than cake.”
Lt. Van Vranken is no neophyte at landing on carriers. He was flying from one when we invaded Morocco in 1942, and he was there.
He had made around 120 carrier landings before he came on this ship, and now his total is up around 200. A guy who makes that many landings on a carrier and is still making them, didn’t learn it in correspondence school.
Eight thousand landings is small stuff for the big carriers. For some of them are lots older, and too they have three times as many planes to land every day.
I think the record in our oldest carriers is something up around 80,000. But we like 8,000 on our ship. And anyhow we haven’t got enough flour for 80 cakes.
Labor, industry leaders back annual wage
Johnston, Murray give arguments
By Allan L. Smith, Scripps-Howard staff writer
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Gracie Allen Reporting
By Gracie Allen
Well, now it looks like that long-standing argument about women’s slacks has finally become official. The War Labor Board and the Members of Congress are arguing about whether they are essential or not.
It seems the situation in slacks is becoming too tight for comfort. Well, that’s something that could happen to anyone. Anyway, ladies, I think we ought to keep an eye on this situation.
Personally, I don’t think men are to be trusted when it comes to making laws on women’s clothes. The best of them have an ax to grind or a charge account to cut.
Besides if we left it up to the men, they’d make the law so just slim, glamorous girls like Betty Grable and Ann Sheridan could wear them. Why should such girls be the privileged few? We want all women to wear them.
Monahan: Viva Warners – they reach Berlin first!
Stanley film deals with terror and treachery inside Germany
By Kaspar Monahan
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Bette Davis playing twins in new film, Stolen Life
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Millett: Work parties to replace bridge are suggested
Women might help each other to do needed gardening or painting
By Ruth Millett
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Pirates to play three service teams
Benswanger rebuilds exhibition program – Catcher Camelli signs
By Chester L. Smith, Press sports editor
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Pullman must sell sleeping car business
Company to comply with court order
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Colgate sales hit new high in 1944
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I don’t think rundstedt is dead (yet.)
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