"Some Gave All"
Oroville Mercury
December 23, 1950
Chico Captain Lost On Ill-Fated Plane
Capt. Richard H. Hunt of East 9th Street, Chico,
was the pilot of the ill-fated C-54 transport plane that crashed
into a mountain top Dec. 19 in the Philippines. He is one of the
37 listed as missing in the crash, United Press said today. The
plane was enroute from Okinawa to Clark Field, the Philippines,
when it hit the mountain on the Island of Luzon.
“Some Gave All”
Oroville Mercury
December 23, 1950
Six Guardsmen Perish In Armory Explosion
Booneville, Miss. U.P. - Six National guardsmen cleaning
rifles in preparation for recall to national service were fatal
victims today of an explosion that set off a flash fire in a National
Guard armory. Two guardsmen were instantly killed last night. Four
others died this morning at Northeast Mississippi Hospital.
Oroville Mercury
November 8, 1950
Entertainer Of Wounded Servicemen says ‘This Is Where I Came In’
by Elizabeth Toomey
New York -(U.P.) - Seven years and some 1000 shows ago Sara Sandorf
started playing the piano in wards and auditoriums of veterans’
hospitals. First she blinked back the tears when boys wounded in
World War II asked her to play “I’ll Walk Alone.” Then she learned
different ways to play “Begin the Beguine,” the second most frequent
requested, “so that the tempo of the music suited the mood of the
boys.” Now Miss Sandorf, a diminutive redhead who married one of
the wounded veterans she met at a ward entertainment at Halloran
General Hospital on Staten Island, finds herself playing for young
veterans of the Korean war on the three night a week she goes to
veteran’s hospitals.“Sometimes I have the
feeling that this is where I came in,” she said. She appears with
volunteer entertainers sent out by the American Theater Wing, the
only group which sends out professional entertainers on a volunteer
basis at present. “Even after all these years I never know quite
what to expect when we go into a ward,: she said. “You have to be
able to sense the mood of the boys. Sometimes I make last minute
switches in the music I’d planned to play. I’ll see a boy who looks
Italian in one of the beds and play ‘Oh, Marie,’ or ‘Sorento,’ and
he perks right up. Or I’ll play an Irish song. That’s always safe.“The
men that are the easiest to entertain are the ones just waiting
for bones to heal before they go back to normal. The boys in paraplegic
wards seem the hardest to cheer up.” Her own husband, Allen Buttrick
has recovered sufficiently from serious wounds he received with
the infantry on Saipan to hold down a civil service job. “We just
moved into our first real home. A two room apartment in Forest Hills,”
She explained “And the first thing I’ve promised myself is a grand
piano.” Her husband agrees with this and with her absence from home
three nights a week too. He remembers how much music meant to him
when he was recovering,: she said with a smile. “He insists that
when he came out from under the either after one of his operations
there was a theater wing quartet singing beside his bed.”
Oroville Mercury Register
November 24, 1950
WAF Hitch-Hikes Home By Air For Holiday
Home for the Thanksgiving holiday after hitch-hiking her way by
air across the United States is Pfc. Janet Wagner, 19, daughter
of Mr. and Mrs. J. C. Wagner of Route 5. Miss Wagner left the Roslyn
Air Force base in New York on Nov. 12 and caught a flight to Chanute
Field Ill. From there she hitch-hiked separate flights to Oklahoma
City, El Paso, Tucson, Los Angeles and finally arrived at Fairfield
Nov. 17 where she was met by her father, who drove her the rest
of the way home. Miss Wagner was graduated from Oroville High School
last June 9, celebrated her 19th birthday, June 10 and
entered the Woman’s Air Force June 19. She took basic training at
Lakeland Air Force base in Texas and was transferred to New York
after completing her preliminary training on Aug. 14. She is in
communications.
Stu’s Notes: I don’t know the rest of the story about Capt. Richard
H. Hunt. Hopefully he was found alive. I ran the story of Sara Sandorf
because America is blessed to have people like her; lately in America’s
big financial collapse it seems that there is so much greed in our
country. Well we still have lots of Sara Sandorfs, we just need
to hear more stories like hers. My daughter Debbie did what Pfc.
Janet Wagner did in her many Military travels. Once she came home
in a refueling Air Force Tanker and got to watch how it was done.
Many think the National Guard never goes to war but they did and
still do big time.