May 10, 2013

Oroville Mercury Register
December 1, 1950
“There’s a Job To Do,”
Oroville Girls Decide, So They Join Navy
Two of Oroville’s most attractive young women took a long look at the world situation, decided they didn’t like what they saw, and did something about it. They joined the Waves and are on their way to the Great Lakes Naval Training Center near Chicago today. They are Miss Laura Lee Childs, daughter of Dr. and Mrs. J. W. Childs of Fifth Ave., and Miss Leta Langston of Acacia Avenue, daughter of Mrs. Don Langston of Oroville, and Frank Bedient of Reno. The Girls have been friends for years. They were graduated together from Oroville Union High School with the class of 1947, and have recently been working together in the county hospital. Miss Childs was a billing clerk and Miss Langston was secretary to L. A. McMillan, hospital superintendent. Miss Childs is one of Oroville’s most noted women athletes, having set a 2,000-point record in the Girls Athletic Assn at the high school that has not been equaled. She served as a life guard last summer under the city recreation department, was a member of the Oroville Pageant Riders, and taught physical education at the Bird Street School last year. She attended San Jose State College for two years. “We think there is going to be a world war,” Miss Langston said, “ and the Navy is going to need hospital technicians. This is the branch of service we hope to join.” They said they believed they were the first women to join the Navy from Oroville for over a year. They were sworn in today in San Francisco and were to leave for Chicago by train tonight. They will undergo a 10 week training period, and then will be assigned to duty. “We are not after any glamour,” the girls said,, “there is a job to do and we want to help do it.
(Stu- I’m sure they did, hope to find more.)

Oroville Mercury Register
December 1, 1950
Truman A-Bomb Statement Takes U.S. Military Leaders By Surprise
Washington - (UP) - President Truman’s offhand statement that this country is considering using the atomic bomb in Korea took his military commanders by complete surprise. They would hardly have been more surprised if a bomb had been dropped on them. It was equally surprising to America’s allies. A dispatch from London said Europe was “jolted,” The Canadian government asked for “clarification.” A thorough check among military men in the upper ranks here brought these returns: They have not given serious thought to the idea of asking Mr. Truman for permission to use the A-bomb in Korea. They have no present intention of asking for such authority. And they were astonished when they read news reports about what Mr. Truman had said. They conceded, however, that they might not be fully aware of the effects Mr. Truman might have been trying to achieve by saying what he did. In any event, the cold “day after” appraisal came down to this: “We have A-bombs. We have been making them at a steadily rising rate for five years. We are about to embark on further vast expansion of atomic weapon production. And, as Mr. Truman said yesterday, we are constantly studying possible roles for the A-bomb if we should ever have to use it again- which he hopes we won’t.

Oroville Mercury Register
December 1, 1950
Oroville Mercury Register
December 1, 1950
Defeat In Korea Means European War - MacArthur Forces in Korea Face Worst Odds In History
By Hugh Billie President of United Press World, © 1950 by United Press
Frankfurt, Germany – (UP)- Gen. Douglas MacArthur said today that his United Nations forces are fighting in Korea against “military odds without precedent in history” and warned that failure to meet the issue there will leave it to “be fought, and possibly lost, on the battlefields of Europe.” MacArthur cable me from Tokyo in response to a message I had sent to him on Tuesday from Paris. I told the General that after conferring with European statesmen I had found they saw war in Asia as a nightmare retarding the successful organization of European defense. In his reply MacArthur declared that from the beginning every effort had been made to “further the universal desire that the (Korean) war be localized.” He said that throughout the war against the North Koreans “we meticulously respected and held inviolate the international boundary, and I at no time even recommended that authority be granted to retaliate behind it.
(Stu- Gen Mac Arthur used the word “War”’)

Stu’s Note: Wow, Two very brave Oroville Girls . The recent headlines all point to a much bigger War and they chose to leave their nice warm Oroville homes and go off to who knows where and serve their Country. I wonder if Miss Laura Childs OHS record still stands. I hope she’s noted in the History exhibits that our 100 year reunion committee helped put together, well I think we did. My Reunion leader OHS 1958, Shirley Hottinger, would know.

Well you first heard it in the Oroville Mercury Register, December 1, 1950 and now in Stu’s Column, ’62 years later President Truman might use the Atomic Bomb in Korea and I always thought he fired Gen MacArthur for saying that.