March 26, 2004
Oroville Mercury Register April 25, 28 & 30 1945
LAWRENCE PHILLIPS RECEIVES HIS WINGS
Altus (Okla.) Army Air Field—Lawrence C. Phillips, 19, (pictured
here) son of Mr. and Mrs. James S. Phillips, of Veatch St. has
been commissioned a second lieutenant and has received the silver
pilot’s wings of the Army Air Forces at the Altus (Okla.) Army Air
Field. From this advanced 2-engine pilot training school of the
AAF Central Flying Training Command, with head quarters at Randolph
Field, Tex, he will go on to further advanced training at a multi-engined
bomber or fighter school or to the Central Instructors’ School at
Randolph Field. After completing his advanced course he will be
ready to carry the air attack over enemy territory, or return as
an instructor to an advanced school.
MIKE AICEGA BACK AFTER IOW JIMA
Mr. and Mrs. Martin Aicega of Oroville have received word from their
son, Cpl. Mike Aicega, USMC, that he is safe and in this
country. This is the first news of their son that they have received
in ten weeks, the last letter coming about two weeks before the
invasion of Iwo Jima in which Cpl. Aicega took part. The news arrived
in a telegram which Aicega sent from San Diego Thursday morning,
and it was followed by a phone call from him from the same city
early in the evening. He said he was going to try to contact his
two brothers, John and Martin, who are also in San Diego, but would
be back in Oroville sometime this week. Cpl. Aicega is a member
of the famous Fourth Marine Division and has been overseas for twenty-six
months.
LOCAL MAN UNDERGOES STRAFING TO CARE FOR WOUNDED
Cpl. Earl J. Pully is a member of the 316th Medical
Battalion, which has been faced with intermittent German artillery
fire and strafing from enemy planes for more than three months as
it operates close to the Po Valley along the Fifth Army front in
Italy. The medics’ main job is to evacuate wounded doughboys from
the field of battle. They also are responsible for hospitalization
in cases which are not serious and for supervision of sanitation
and food handling for 15,000 men. As the Gothic Line was breached,
a single company of the 316th handled more than 220 casualties
in one day. Almost five hours was required to carry each litter
case to an aid station during a 48-hour period in the fighting for
Mt. Albano. Volunteers drove into no man’s land under intense fire
when litter squads, exhausted by the necessity to make long, circuitous
trips, were virtually unable to continue their work. Mrs. Pulley,
the sergeant’s wife, lives on Route 3.
Sgt. Deborah Jean Shaner, Iraq 2004
We got a call from Debbie on her cell phone, March 21st.
She was on a mission to Kuwait. It was 8:30 PM here and 7:30AM there.
They are on their month of missions. In April they should be working
in there camp somewhere. Home in May. She casually says good bye,
of course we exchange I love you. She says their trucks are headed
for Iraq. (Almost like they were driving to L. A.). She says, “
Dad see you soon”. Well it’s not L. A. but it’s a job our service
men and women are doing in many far-flung places. There lives on
the line every day, as they have in all our wars. So be proud of
them all and when you see one, young or old, say thank you and God
Bless them.
Stu’s Notes: I received a call about last weeks article from
Veterans Memorial Park Committee member, Jack Brereton. He told
me that Frank C. Kroepelin was his uncle. He will try to get more
of his story. Jack has been our committee from the very start, almost
3 years, he has been indispensable. He also helped tremendously
on the Dam Memorial. I’m finding out that Oroville had a lot of
men fighting on Iwo Jima.