September 5, 2003
Oroville Mercury Register
December 4th, 39th, 1950
November 15, 1950, March 24, 1950
REPORT CHICO SOLDIER MISSING IN ACTION
The Department of Defense announce in Washington today that Johnnie
L. Lewis, son of Mrs. Marie Van Sant of West E Street, Chico,
was missing in action in the Korea War.
AIR CORPS STUDENT RETURNS TO DUTY
James Erway, 18, son of Mr. and Mrs. James S. Erway of Thermalito,
is on his way back to Tulsa, Okla., today following a 14 day furlough
from his aeronautical school. Erway is an Air Corps student at the
Spartan school of Aeronautics where he is studying aircraft mechanics
eight hours a day, five days a week. He has been there three months
of a nine-month course. After he is graduated he said he hopes to
enter the Air Corps cadets so he can try for a pilot's wings. The
Erway Family have been residents of Thermalito, where they operate
a service station for the past three years. Young Erway entered
the Air Corps last July and said he plans to work evenings so he
can win his high school diploma while he is in the Air Corps. Erway's
half brother, Walter Anderson, is a Navy recruiting officer
in Eureka and veteran of 14 years in that service. He said aeronautical
school was "tough." Each day there is a quiz on the previous day's
work and if a grade of 80 is not obtained the trainee is assigned
to two hours overtime study.
NORTH KOREANS STILL SNIPE AT GIs IN SEOUL
Soldier's letter Says Seoul, Korea, is a mass of rubble,
according to Richard S. Gilpin, 22, grandson of Mr. and Mrs.
Samuel P. Chase of Miner's Ranch Road, who wrote recently of his
experiences there. Gilpin, who enlisted in the Air Corps in 1946
following his graduation from Oroville Union High School, said he
and 40 others were living in a schoolhouse "that had not quite been
blown apart." He described Seoul as "a wreck" and wrote "They really
blew hell out of Seoul." He added that United Nations forces had
passed through Seoul so rapidly in their advance toward the 38th
Parallel they left a large number of North Koreans behind. "The
North Koreans shoot at us from surrounding hills all day and then
sneak into town to steal food at night," he wrote. Gilpin trained
for Air Corps work in Texas and several other fields in the United
States and then was sent to Japan nine months ago with the army
of occupation. He is a sergeant. In Seoul, he was assigned to work
in the Air Corps message center, work he said he would rather have
avoided. "As soon as we get Seoul cleaned up," he wrote, "I will
move up north, I want to see all I can of this country while I am
here. I'm stuck in a message center now."
OROVILLE GI RATED TOP PISTOL SHOT
Pvt. Raymond N. Howell, brother of Miss Shirley Howell of
Woodleaf Star Route, Oroville, is rated one of the best pistol shots
in the first cavalry division, stationed in Tokyo, according to
an army press release. Howell, assigned to headquarters company,
7th cavalry regiment, won a place on the regimental pistol team
finished in fourth place in the 1950 First Cavalry division rifle
and pistol tournament in competition against teams from other regiments
and battalions in the division. Pvt. Howell was in third place in
his team's scores.
Stu's notes: This is all we know about this young Chico Boy.
Was he found; did he return home safely? Or is he one of the more
than 8,000 Young Men MIA in Korea? We will honor these men and POWs
and MIAs from all of our wars September 19th at 7PM on the steps
of the Veterans Memorial Hall on Montgomery Street. More on this
later. Nothing has changed with North Korea except that the son
is now running the Country and they cannot be trusted. Notice in
the first story the Mercury calls, Korea a War, which it truly was.
Even if the government called it a Police Action.