July 31, 2015

Oroville Mercury Register
February 27, 1942
No. 1 Cook
Richard Dudman, Stanford graduate and former reporter on the Mercury, is now chief cook on a freighter bound for England. “For three weeks,” he writes, “I’ve been planning all the menus and doing all the cooking for 42 men…One day when the chief mate heard incorrectly that I was thinking of quitting he actually begged me to stay.” He attributes his success to several factors: “1. The last cook was very bad; 2. My propaganda program has been successful (the steward passed the word around that I cooked for years in Oregon), and 3. Any fool can slip a roast into an oven. The cooking is all simple. Last night when I decided in a hurry to give them pork and beans I put the cans out of sight and modestly took the praise that rightfully belonged to the Heinz people.” Dudman adds that the board “took two months.” (Stu; Just goes to show you can learn a lot at Stanford.)

Oroville Mercury Register
February 27, 1942
Only Two Of Crew Of 43 Rescued; S.F. Survivor Thought U-Boat A Fishing Vessel
Ashbury Park, N.J. –(U.P.)- The Standard Oil tanker R. P. Resor, 7,451 tons, was torpedoed and set afire 18 miles off the New Jersey coast by an enemy submarine which first was mistaken for a fishing vessel, survivors said Friday. The crew of 43 was forced to abandon ship in a sea of flames. Fate of the crew was uncertain except for two survivors who were rescued by a coast guard boat and taken to the coast guard station at Manasquan, N. J. It was the 25th vessel attacked by the enemy submarine pack since it began operating in the coastal waters off the United States Jan. 14.

Oroville Mercury Register
February 27, 1942
Veteran Dies Here Suddenly
Charles A. Conley died suddenly at his home on D Street at 12:45 p.m. Friday. A member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Oroville Post 1747, he had served overseas with Company C, 124th Machine Gun Battalion. He enlisted in May, 1917, and was discharged in 1919. He served in the following engagements: Somme, Meuse-Argonne, Amiens, Verdum, Fromereville, and Troyon. Funeral arrangements are in charge of Hamilton and Riley.
(Stu: Called the World War up to Dec 7, 1941.)

Oroville Mercury Register
February 27, 1942
Carpenter To Leave Sunday
Ralph Carpenter, city clerk, will leave Oroville Sunday to report at San Francisco for training in the United States navy, in which he enlisted recently as an apprentice seaman. He expects to apply for assignment to the payroll department, but will undergo six weeks of training in San Diego. He is to appear in San Francisco at 2 p.m. Monday. Carpenter, the son of Mrs. Frances Bottjer of High Street, and brother of Mrs. Genevieve Grimes chief deputy in the county auditor’s office, was born in Oroville and attended elementary school and high school here. He was employed in the First National Bank for three years, first as a messenger and later as a teller and from 1926 until 1930 was a teller at the Humboldt Bank of San Francisco. Afterward he worked for two years in Gaskins Drug store and in 1935 became chief deputy county auditor. He held this position until 1937 when he was appointed city clerk. He is a member of the Elks lodge and the Kiwanis club. Carpenter will be replaced as city clerk by Ed Hocking, formerly of the county road department.

Oroville Mercury Register
February 27, 1942
Vichy To Keep French Fleet From Hitler
Washington-(U.P.)- Acting Secretary of State Sumner Welles said Friday that the French government at Vichy had given formal assurances of an intention to remain neutral and to keep the French fleet out of German control. Welles said, however, that the further clarification of several important questions was necessary before the French situation could be finally determined. Welles revealed that on Feb. 10 President Roosevelt sent a personal message to Marshal Petain at Vichy, informing him of this country’s displeasure over the reports of French aid to Axis forces in North Africa.

Stu’s Notes:
Any where else a Cook’s job is pretty safe, well not so on a ship with German Submarines all around as far as I know WWII is the only War that the Merchant Marines were given Military status. This is all we know of Richard Dudman. I wonder, I always wonder, did he survive the war and come home to Oroville? Ralph Carpenter, did he come home to Oroville after the war? I think I remember that name around town, maybe The Kiwanis club can tell me more about him. I think I spoke to the Kiwanis years ago, over the years I’ve spoke about our Memorial’s progress to almost every Club in Oroville some 3 times. Oroville Veterans Memorial Park Committee Member, Ted Grainger was my partner for a long time until he passed away. I like those free lunches and Breakfast’s. I do know the French Fleet bottled up in a North African Port came out fighting and our Navy shot them up bad. So sad that French sailors and American sailors had to die over the stupidity of a French Admiral.