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HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE. This is that 13th month the merchants
talk about in their sales—an in-between time with the old year dying and the new
year not yet born. For weeks, magazines and sports writers and commentators have
been getting ready for this in-between season. Who was good this year? Who was tops?
And now the returns are coming in so let’s see what they say. Bob Hope’s
program is tops in radio, Bing Crosby is still the leading entertainer
although the Frankie Sinatra fans have elected him the foremost
crooner of the year. The Quiz Kids are about the only quiz program that anyone listens
to any more. The Lone Ranger is still riding high and most people thought Bill
Stern had a rather wide edge this year on Ted Husing.
Amos and Andy have returned to the air but are not even among the first ten shows
in popularity. Eddie Cantor has slipped so far that he is barely
on the bottom rung. Bennie Goodman is still king of swing.
Tommy Dorsey is tops in the sweet band division; Spike Jones
is king of corn. Angelo Bertilli of Notre Dame was generally acknowledged
to be the outstanding football player of the year and his team the best in the nation.
Clare Boothe Luce, the Connecticut Yankee, and the Duchess of Windsor,
the Baltimore belle, ran a dead heat in the fashion sweepstakes, tying for best
dressed woman of the year. Roz Russel, only movie gal to place,
came in ninth. The Roosevelts, mere and pere, beat everyone else when it came to
traveling. Greer Garson and Paul Lukas carried
off the Hollywood Oscars. Song hit of the year was right out of the hills, “Pistol
Packin’ Mama.” Time Magazine has gone into its trance looking for the man of the
year. This is their annual Time out. While they’re still looking, Y.L.F.H. nominates
the guy Henry Wallace has been talking about, the common man. If
this is his “century,” most certainly this is his “year.” It was a year in which
he worked hard, fought bravely and died well. And through it all he remained politely
self-effacing and obscure. Blindly we go knocking ourselves out from tree to tree
looking for the forest. Someday we'll erect a great monument to him. But we'll never
recognize him as The Man of the Year. No, still bewildered, we’ll inscribe upon
its base, these words, “The Unknown Soldier.” So, let Time waste time. Y.L.F.H.,
that Fearless Friend of the Sad Sack, proudly places in nomination its champion
of champions. We give you Our Man of the Year, that first class fighting man,
“Pvt. (j.g.) Joe Doakes.”
HOME TOWN. Iowa led the country in E, F, and G bond sales during
the last bond drive. We’ll do it again in the next one, come January 18th... We
dreamt of a White Christmas. Yeh, Well, we can dream, can’t we? Still no snow and
the weather very mild. Christmas Day it was thirty-six above, a day full of sunshine
and blue sky. We had three or four very cold days early in the month but since then
it’s been mild. And still no snow. Very lovely weather . . . Mrs. Raymond Fortney,
jr., of Shreveport, La., is in Otho for the holidays . . . Mrs, Josephine Korsa
of Moorland is back from Iowa City where she has been in the hospital . . .
M. G. “Pat” Manning dropped dead just a few feet from our office last
week. He had been running the Warden Laundry and was starting home ... The Motor
Vehicle Department says you are going to be delinquent this year if you didn’t get
your new car sticker, not plates, by January 1. Attorney General Rankin
says, “No such thing. You’ve still got to the first of March.” So confusin’... Had
a big banquet for the Four-H Club boys and girls at the Congregational Church in
Fort Dodge last week. Over two hundred came. Lots of awards given out, lots of speeches
and lots of food eaten . . . The fish market is urging everyone to get their lutefisk
early . . . Bert Burnquist says after a recent trip to Iowa City,
the State University like “all Gaul” is divided into three parts, the navy, the
army, and a fair facsimile of Vassar . . . Frank Frahm, former
supervisor, living four miles east of Fort Dodge, died last week .. . One of the
Christmas sights of the town is the nativity scene on the lawn of the Mercy Hospital
. . . Robert Flattery, Colfax township farmer, died last week...
Over at Gilmore City, where they had that bad school fire a week or two ago, they
are going to resume school in several vacant buildings in the town... Local football
enthusiasts got a look at some wonderful grid movies when Jack Hedges
and Bruce
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E. Mahan of the State University were here Tuesday. Iowa - Indiana
in full color and Iowa - Nebraska in black and white. Wonder if they can’t be shipped
out to camps and overseas. We'll write and find out . . . Remember when corn sold
for ten cents a bushel? John Mersch, who lives near Rodman, sold
the crops of four year the other day, 35,000 bushels, for $1.01 a bushel . . . Hogs
are still coming into market so fast that KVFD every noon warns farmers not to bring
them to market unless they already have made arrangements for their sale . . . William
Lynch of Lehigh graduated from Ames last week as a vet... Government has asked farmers
in Webster County to raise some waxy-maize corn next year. It is used to make tapioca.
TOP DRAWER CHRISTMAS PRESENT. Sgt. Bill Mulroney’s
cable to his parents Christmas day that his bombing missions had ended. He has completed
25 over Germany as a bombardier and radio man on a Fort. He is dripping with medals.
He’ll stay in England.
HERE AND THERE. If you ever get to Teheran, Iran, look up Melville
“Delvyie” Monk. Former Dodger football great, way back when, Delvie
has been in Haiti with the government for years. Now he is stationed in T. I. with
the American legation . . . How you guys get around. Sgt. Glenn E, Peterson
is in Sardinia. And Corp. Floyd Glidden is in Iran. He is with
the Quartermasters Corps attached to the Persian Gulf command ... And the people
you meet . . . Pvt. Donn Richey had tea with Eleanor
the other day at the USO in Ft. Myers, Va. . . . Miss Melva Gibson
enlists in the WAVES. She expects to be sent to Hunter College... S/Sgt. Duane
D. Harrington is out on an honorable discharge, over-age, and has a
job in a defense plant in Des Moines. During service overseas he was wounded and
decorated with the Purple Heart . . . Corp. Jack Saeger of the
U. S. Marines was at Tarawa. Came through without a scratch . . . Ensign Geo.
Schnurr has been assigned to a navy base at Santa Rosa, California,
for the duration. Mrs. Schnurr and the children have joined him
. . . Lt. Chas. Atwell is leaving for Camp Custer, Mich. From there
he expects to go to the University of Chicako . . . Sgt. C, L. “Windy” Brown
of the Marines was in on the attack on Tarawa. He writes, “It was plenty damned
rugged and everyone has memories of buddies half buried in the sandy beach of that
hell hole of an islet” . . . W.J. “Fritz” Schrandt writing
from Italy says, “I don’t know what in the hell to think about this war. The Germans
seem bound and determined to hold this winter line and don’t kid yourself, they
have that fortified. They’re dug in solid rock and nothing but a direct hit can
budge them. There is a lot of hand to hand fighting and that is really gory from
what we've seen.”
ON FURLOUGH. Corp. L. H. Shaw from the air base
at Las Vegas, Nevada . . . Capt. G. T. Byrne is home at Moorland
for the holidays with his new wife. She was Ellen Sparks of Glendale,
Arizona, George has been flying in the Aleutians for the past 18 months. He goes
from here to Miami Beach, Fla., for reassignment . . . Corp. Frances Clavert
of the WAC from Sault Sainte Marie, Mich. . . . Wm. Kane from Farragut
. . . Lt. George Smith from Great Lakes . . . Corp. Les Challberg
from the Mississippi ordance plant at Jackson, Miss. ... Servia Vandi
of Lehigh from Corpus Christi, Texas . . . Victor Ruthart of Lehigh
from Camp Brown, Colo. . . . 1st Lt. Don Schoerlein of Gowrie,
home from the Aleutians . . . Dean Woodle of Lehigh from Norfolk,
Va. . . . Corp. Herb Soppeland of Gowrie is back home from North
Africa. He suffered a leg injury while with the engineering corps of the Ninth Division
and has been recovering at a hospital in this country. Saw his thirteen-month-old
son for the first time when he arrived home last week. He is the first Gowrie soldier
back from Africa . . . Deno Gardini of Lehigh is home for Christmas
from Camp Funston, Kansas . . . Roscoe Millis of Callender in the
USM has been home visiting his folks . . . Lt. N. W. Runge, U.S.N.
from his station at Lambert Field, St. Louis, Mo. . . . Pvt. Howard Nevonen
from Camp Kohler, Calif. Howard fractured a bone in his foot during basic training
and is on convalescent leave . . . Ensign Nora Toohey from Quonset
Point, Rhode Island . . . Pfc. Russell Rae from Camp Gorden, Ga.
. . . S/Sgt. Harold Strong from Savannah, Ga. He flew in Christmas
eve to surprise his wife and sons . . . Lt. John Metcalf from Henderson,
Ky. . . . Dan
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O’Connor, U.S.N., from Missouri State Teachers College . . . Boyd
Burnquist from the Naval Academy at Annapolis.
PROMOTED. From Pvt. to Corp., Verne Schaeffer
at
Morris Air Field, Charlotte, N. C. . . . From Pvt. to Corp., William Lingreen
at Camp Edwards, Miss. . . . From Pfc. to Corp., William Hultman
with the 36th Division of the fifth army in Italy . . . From 1st Sgt. to Sgt. Major,
Leo R. Sonnenberg, USMC, at Camp Pendleton, Oceanside, Calif. .
. . Orien Allard from technician fifth grade to technician fourth
grade . . . To first Lt., Lyle V. Jensen, somewhere in England.
Lyle has the air medal and three oak leaf clusters.
SCOREBOARD. Lanyon continues its winning streak. Lanyon 28—Harcourt
22 . . . Gowrie drops one to Rippey. Rippey 39— Gowrie 22. Jack Nation of Rippey
got 24, Teleen of Gowrie 9... The Dodgers took a beating in a hard fought battle
with Ames at the Webster City coaches tournament Monday night. Ames 31— Dodgers
28.
WEDDING BELLS. Miss Edith Arkoff to Arthur
Highman of Chicago, January 2nd, in Chicago . . . Miss Mildred Dood
to L. Gail Thomas, Jr. , Chief Pharmacist’s mate of Aurora, IIl.,
at Aurora, December 18th.
FAMILY ON FURLOUGH. Dean C. Noland, ship’s cook
2/c and the Mrs., yeoman 2/¢e of the WAVES, from Grosse Ile, Mich.
THEY MET IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC. Corp. James Rodenborn,
Sgt. Louis Charon and Jack McHenry, S 3/c with
the Seabees. All inducted on the same day in Fort Dodge, they hadn't seen each other
since. They had Christmas dinner together.
COMMISSIONED. Miss Justine Becker as a 2nd Lt.
in the Army Nurses Corps at Camp Carson, Colo.
MAJOR IS BACK in town with a discharge from the army. Honorable
or dishonorable, we are unable to inform you because Major refuses to be interviewed.
Major is Dr. J. R. Macdonald’s Dalmatian. He’s been in the K-9
corps for eleven months. Why he was discharged no one seems to know.
YOUR LETTERS TO US. Pvt. Earnest C. Welch, somewhere
in Iran. “Your letter sure brought back a lot of pleasant memories. I sure would
like some of the ice cream and fresh milk from the Fort Dodge Creamery.”
John F. Estlund, F 2/c, New London, Conn. “You might tell all my
friends in Fort Dodge and Barnum that I’m going to like sub duty swell.”
R. E. Viers, GM 3/c, Brooklyn, N. Y. “My brother Doug is in Algiers.
If everything goes ok he is a marry a French girl soon.” (Ed. Note. Congratulations,
Doug. Hope everything goes ok. I see you are following Roger’s example.)
J. W. “Bud” Gormally, RM 2/c, USS William P. Biddle, Pacific. “You
could name YLFH “The World Gazette” because I imagine it is sent to the four corners...
(Ed. Note. Right). The turkeys we had for Thanksgiving were Iowa raised . . . They
were excellent and all hands did justice to the meal.”
Pvt. Robt. J. Donly, Davis, Calif. “The liquid sunshine has made
several appearances, which might be called previous. The previews were plenty wet
so I hope the main attraction takes a long time in getting here.”
Lt. Wm. G. Hesser, Sicily. “We at the field were greatly honored
by a visit from President Roosevelt and ————__—_—__. (censored—Bill censors his
own letters and as a censor he is very tough on himself). We were all surprised
to see them here. I am enclosing a small souvenir from Italy (a Nazi flag). I would
suggest hanging in on a sign with this caption, “Rid the world of this flag. Buy
war bonds.” (Swell idea and we will do just that.) Please play “People Will Say
We’re in Love” from me to my wife, Charlotte. (Ok Bill—shall be done).
Pfc. Clayton Core, Fort Hancock, N. J. “A fellow from Spirit Lake
just walked in. We have been the only fellows from Iowa in this camp since I entered
the army fifteen months ago, Naturally my nickname is ‘Iowa’.”
Pvt. Tom Jordan, USMC, South Pacific. “I’ve only met one Fort Dodger
out here and that was Jack Babcock and I met him when I was in
the hospital. Chuck Isaacson is near here. He’s in the 9th Marines.
They are a fighting good outfit and only a few miles from here. I sure hope I get
the rest of the letters. The one I got I let everyone in the tent read. They all
read it and they are from all over the U. S. and they sure liked it.”
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1st Lt. Lyle V. Jensen, England. “I’m doing fine here. Just got
promoted to 1st Lt. I’ll drop some bombs on Hitler’s fortress for the gang at KVFD.”
M/Sgt. Mert W. Williams, North Africa. “Was amused at your article
on the dried egg plant. If you do have such an industry in Fort Dodge, better sick
a good insurance agent on them, for I know of several Yankees that would enjoy burning
such a place to the ground. Especially after eating those eggs army style. With
war going on in Italy Africa seems like a quiet place. At least compared to what
it was last year at this time.”
Sgt. Herb Kinseth, Italy. “The Italian people and those of Africa
are very much sold on the Americans and their democratic way of life—so once peace
is won—world conditions should be in the best of shape for future generations.”
Chaplain Arnold H. Bertram, England. “After nearly a year in Africa
it was a delightful experience to end up in England especially in view of the fact
that the first three YLFHs were awaiting my arrival. You just tell everyone who
has a hand in getting those news sheets to the men and women in the service that
their efforts, no matter how great, are negligible in comparison with the joy and
warmness they bring to our hearts. I see Richard Webster quite
often. He was promoted to Sgt. recently. Lots of power and God’s blessing to you
folks at home.”
Pfc. Robert C. Pfaff, Miami Beach, Fla. “I am assigned to the psychological
section of the Medical and Psychological Examining Unit of the Army Air Forces .
. . Our job is to test cadets for their aptitude for air crew training . . . Here
in Miami Beach we like in swanky hotels. Ours, the White House Hotel, is right on
the ocean and we have our own private beach.”
AND WE HAD other wonderful letters and cards from here and there
and all over the world. They came from Sgt. Edward F. Dwyer, APO
New York... Pfc. Pete Hillesland, Laredo, Texas . . . E. A.
O’Connor, Camp Haan, Calif.... Corp. V. L. Peterson,
Italy . . . Lt. D. Cole McMartin, England . . . Sgt. Geo. J.
Swartz, Australia . . . Pvt. Kenneth Gawtry, Harlingen, Texas
.. . Pfc. Bob Ploog, South Pacific . . . Lt. Robt. Carson,
Camp Adair, Ore. . . . Pvt. Vyva C. Kerr, USMC, New River, N. C.
. . . Pfc. Jack E. Dodgen, University of Ky., Lexington, Ky. .
. . Sgt. Robt. Fisher, APO Los Angeles . . . Gilbert E. Merris,
APO Los Angeles . . . Pvt. Ed Coughlon, Camp Crowder, Mo. . . .
Pfc. Richard Grukken, Davis, Calif. . . . Pfc. Chas. A. Isaacson,
USMC, South Pacific . . . Pvt. Tom Paris, O’Reilly Gen. Hosp.,
Springfield, Mo. . . . A/C Don Thompson, Tyndall Field, Fla. .
. . Pvt. Walter A. Schuh, Pamona, Calif. . . . S/Sgt. Lawrence
Stanek, England . . . Arthur Raymond Cote
S l/c, Boston . . . Pfc. Walter “Buck” Vargason, Italy . . .
Pvt. Howard J. Nelson, Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas . . . Ralph Edward Bishop,
Hawaii . . . Ron. L. Schwendemann, USS Snook . . . Arthur K.
Brown, USS Enterprice . . . Pfc. Doyle T. Livasy,
USMC, Hawaii . . . Lyle Barber, S 2/c, Camp Kearney, San Diego,
Calif. . . . Pvt. Mervin D. Bowman, Haines, Alaska . . . H.
Edward Pratt, PhM 2/c, Great Lakes... Pvt. De-Wayne Godfrey,
Salt Lake City . . . Pvt. Irene C. Miller, WAC, Camp Upton, N.
Y. . . . John G. Hamann S 1/e, Coast Guard, San Francisco . . .
Pvt. Gordon Belthius, Miami Beach, Florida... Pvt. C. Frank
Weiss, Italy . . . Cpl. W. M. Hartman, Hawaiian Islands
. . . T/S Glen H. Hanson, New Guinea . . . S/Sgt. Alvin Fry,
APO Los Angeles . . . Corp. Geo. C. Robinson, USMC, New River,
N. C. . . . John F. Potter, V-12, Ames, Iowa . . . Sgt. Julian
Messerly, Tucson, Arizona . . . and Pfc. Luther Chinberg,
Ft. Bliss, Texas. We can never thank you enough for your Christmas wishes, your
New Year greetings, and all of your warm friendly thoughts, often written, we know,
under most difficult conditions. Our wish for every man Jack of you and every woman
Jill is that this war may end, honorably, victoriously, and soon, that you may be
given the strength and the courage to carry on in the difficult days that lie ahead—and
that you may come back to us, every one of you, to a better world, a world in which
the peace and freedom for which you fight may be established, in honor, kindness,
and generosity, without rancor, greed, or hate. Please write when you have written
to everyone else. Let us know when your addresses change. We'll carry on. We'll
keep sending. God bless you everyone and keep you safe. Happy New Yar.
Your Home Town Correspondent,
ED BREEN
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