Oroville Mercury Register
December 5, 1950
Aldridge Enlists In Marine Corps
Eddie L. Aldridge, 23, son of Mr. and Mrs. Max Zaitman of Quincy
Road, was on his way today to the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in
San Diego following his enlistment here, T-Sgt. Charles Wilson said
today. Aldridge , a resident of Oroville for the Past two years,
hopes to continue his boxing career in the Marine Corps. He has
trained for boxing and had one professional fight. Mr. and Mrs.
Zaitman are proprietors of a grocery store on Old Quincy Road, and
were former residents of Los Angeles.
Oroville Mercury Register
December 5, 1950
Fear UN Withdrawal From Korea Near China Pressure May Force Move
London-(UP)- Prime Minister Clement Attlee has sent word to his
cabinet from Washington that the Allies may be forced into a mass
evacuation of Korea, an authoritative source said today. This source
said that Attlee sent a most pessimistic appraisal of the Korean
Military situation and was “shocked” at the review of the war picture
given by Gen. Omar Bradley. British military men admitted privately
that there is a better than 50-50 chance that the United Nations
will have to pull out of Korea. The British position still is that
war with China must be avoided, this source said. But Attlee’s visit
to Washington was said to have brought home the realization of how
difficult that will be.
Oroville Mercury Register
December 5, 1950
Faces of Children, Harried GIs, Chinese Fanatics Mirror Korea War
On Northeast Front
Korea –(UP)- These are the faces of war in Korea: A dead GI wearing
a mask of bloody ice from the frozen surface of the Chosin reservoir…
The grinning face of a Chinese soldier lighted by the flames of
an ambushed and burning truckload of American wounded…The face of
a wounded trooper waiting his turn for an evacuation plane-dirty
and bearded and hollow-eyed from a fight that has been going on
around the clock for days… An air force pilot laughing almost hysterically
at a feeble joke from his co-pilot as his wheels clear the runway
in a take off from Hagaru. His laughter screens the emotion of a
man who has just seen a plane crash in front of him and whose passengers
are the frozen bodies of battle casualties… A crying Korean baby,
carried into an American field hospital after a Napalm tank hit…
A General standing in front of a map and directing the battle as
calmly as a professor of history while the concussion of exploding
shells jars the walls around him… And the hard face of an American
boy who has taken the worst the Chinese can throw at him and says;
“Give us enough food and ammunition and we’ll hold out until Hell
freezes over.”
Oroville Mercury Register
February 25, 1942
In Service
Harold Walsh who was called to active duty last week in the radio
section of the navy intelligence service. Walsh, 21 year-old son
of Mr. and Mrs. Plummer Walsh of Oroville, enlisted last October,
and will enter as yeoman, third class. He was graduated from Oroville
high school in 1938, attended Yuba junior college two years, and
for the past year has been a student at a radio school in San Francisco.
At present he is on duty in San Francisco.
Oroville Mercury Register
February 25, 1942
To End Training
Jerry Weiss, 17, formerly of Oroville, who expects to go on active
duty with the U. S. navy March 31, following preparation at San
Diego and “Seattle. He enlisted last September. Weiss was reared
by Dave Dry, Third avenue, Oroville and attended elementary and
high school here.
Stu’s Notes: The three above men so brave and patriotic, to
join the services in such dangerous, scary time’s. April 1942 most
world news up to then was of America on the run. The Japanese had
killed over 2,000 men at Pearl Harbor, our ships were being sunk,
and German submarines were raising havoc in the Atlantic. The war
was being fought all over the world and the good side was loosing
on so many battle fields and far off seas. Remember our Allies had
been in the war since Sept. 1, 1939, when the Germans went into
Poland and since I think 1937 when the Japanese were doing so much
evil in China against a brave but ill equipped Chinese Army. Soon
the tide of war would change due to men just like the above three
men, the young men that enlisted in Dec. 1950, Korea War time, we
were on a fast retreat, the news was full of atrocities by the enemy
yet he joins the Marines who are always in the thick of it. His
mother must have been proud but frantic. His buddies,, some anyway
probably said you’re crazy.
Well our retaining wall should be done as you read this, just look
out there and see you can walk right out almost to the river. There
will be the Granite Stones to Honor brave men and women of America
out on that semi circle.. Next week I think I will start to write
of how we’ve come this far, it all started so long ago.