Page Two
CLOUDBUSTER
Saturday, November 7, 1942
Cruising With Covey
A Salute to the Marines
By David Y. Coverston, Y2c f
FROM THE HALLS OF MONTE- Per Fidelis.
ZUMA TO THE SHORES OF
TRIPOLI, WE WILL FIGHT OUR
COUNTRY’S BATTLES ON THE
LAND AND ON THE SEA!
So starts the famous Marine hymn,
and truer words have never been pen
ned. In all the major and minor bat
tles in w^hich this country has partici
pated, the Marines have always been
found in the front ranks, dishing it
out with gusto and having yet to re
treat.
Tuesday, Nov. 10, 1942, the U. S.
Marine Corps, our oldest fighting force,
celebrates its 167th birthday, and
they’re going to do it fighting!
It was in the year 1775 that the
“Leatherneck” organization was born,
being the first such defensive force the
United States had, and since, they have
been first in so many things it would
take an expert accountant to total
them. In the last world war, a Marine
corporal fired the first American shot,
and in the present conflict, a Marine
pilot sank the first Jap ship. A Marine
pilot was the first man to loop a sea
plane, and so on down the list, but they
are proudest of the title “First to
Fight.”
It takes a member of the Corps to
tell the real story of their organization,
and any one of them will do so upon
the slightest provocation, and once
started, a Marine is hard to stop—ask
the Japs!
Many sayings of the boys in Forest
Green have come down to us immortal
ized, such as “Retreat? Hell, we just
got here!”, “Come on, you Leather
necks, do you want to live forever?”,
and the latest, still cocky, still with all
the esprit de corps behind it, came when
the gallant defenders of Wake Island
were asked what could be sent them,
“Send us more Japs.”
The Marine Corps today is larger
and stronger than ever in its history,
and they are still battling against odds
that never seem to disturb them. At
Guadalcanal, Midway, in the Pacific,
and everywhere there’s a fight, you can
find Uncle Sam’s Marines, still, Sem-
PAULEHE
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nn
ime
ilbert
* «*rr», iMm stmZ p!”
TODAY
When the Pre-Flight School opened
at Chapel Hill, a squad of six Marines,
led by Gunnery Sergeant Faustin E.
Wirkus, came aboard to instruct the
cadets in rifle range procedure, care
and preservation of weapons, drill and
other primary phases of modern war
fare. Under a new order, recently put
into effect, the Marines now assigned
to Pre-Flight Schools will be known as
the Marine Aviation Detachment, and
will continue their work as an integral
part of Pre-Flight training.
The Marine Detachment assigned to
this station is headed by First Lieu
tenant Christopher Dale, USMCR.
Lieut. Dale was an outstanding ath
lete in high school, at one time holding
the interscholastic high school record
for javelin throwing, having tossed
the slender stick a distance of 218 feet.
Upon graduation from his elementary
schooling, Chris, as he is known to his
friends, enrolled at Wittenberg Col
lege, and later at the University of
Indiana where he became a star end on
the Hoosier football squad, and an im
portant member of the track team.
In 1937 he enlisted in the Marine
Corps as a buck private, rising soon to
the rate of sergeant. In keeping with
the policy of the corps that Marine of
ficers rise from the ranks. Dale was
selected for Officer’s Candidate School,
and in 19^40 was commissioned as a 2nd
Lieutenant. While giving instructions
to a group of “Raiders,” he was severe
ly wounded by that primary Marine
weapon, the bayonet, and was hospital
ized, slated to be retired when he re
covered. While confined to the sick
bay, Chris flitted about giving correc
tive exercises to other wounded men,
and there he met Lieut. Bayless, one
of the staff members of the Pre-Flight
organization, and when offered a
chance to come to Chapel Hill he jump
ed at it to prevent his retirement.
He was sent here to be the discipline
officer, and to write a pamphlet on
drill and small arms. His official title
Kate Smith to Broadcast Show
From Here Next Friday Night
Camel Caravan
A Thursday deadline for news
prevents the Cloudbuster from
reporting this issue on the per
formance given last night by the
Camel Caravan for Pre-Flight
personnel in Memorial Hall.
now is assistant drill officer and range
officer; the pamphlet has been written
and will be ready for distribution soon.
Besides the honor mentioned before,
Lieut. Dale is the professor of a Phi
Beta Kappa key, a member of Sigma
Delta Psi, highest honorary athletic
fraternity, has a MA degree from
UCLA, has trained two fighters who
have been rated in the upper ten of
the light and heavyweight ranks, and
notwithstanding Iowa Pre-Flight’s
claim to having a cadet that holds the
world’s records for hand grenade
throwing , is the titleholder in this art.
Dale won the first grenade tossing rec
ord by heaving the “Pineapple” 75
yards in target throwing, and 89 yards
in free throw competition. Lieut. Dale
is a Greek by ancestry, and is proud of
the fact that his aged grandmother is
carrying packs for the still fighting
troops of Greece.
Second in command of the detach
ment is Gunnery Sergeant Faustin
E. Wirkus. A more varied and inter
esting life story is hard to find outside
of the “Arabian Knights.”
Having finished 16 years of active
duty in 19*31, “King” Wirkus went into
the Fleet Marine Corps Reserve, and
sold stocks and bonds for 11 years un
til called back to duty in February of
this year. During his time in the Corp,
Sarg Wirkus has seen more than most
people ever dream of.
As a first lieutenant, he was loaned
to the Haitian government by the U. S.,
and took over the job of Constabulary
(Continued on last page)
Make Your Selection
of
CHRISTMAS CARDS
While our stock is complete.
New shipment just arrived.
Ledbetter-Pickard
It Will Pay to Shop for Christmas
NOW
Buy Your Christmas Needs While Our Stock
Is Complete
SUTTON’S DRUG STORE
“Complete Drug Service”
FOR SIXTEEN YEARS...
. . . HOUSEWIVES OF CHAPEL HILL HAVE
TRADED WITH US.
We are proud of this record, and trust that we will
continue to give the same courteous service that
has made the words “Good Food” and Shields’
synonymous.
SHIELDS’HOME-OWNED FOOD STORE
Jane Wyatt and George Murphy
Attention Please!
All persons expecting to attend
the Kate Smith broadcast are
requested to be seated in the au
ditorium by 1955 at the latest,
so as not to disturb the show af
ter it has started. No one will be
admitted to the hall after that
deadline. Also, no children under
12 years of age will be allowed to
attend.
Borrowed...
Bayonet Preferred—At a time
when young men regard with envy the
commissions and swivel-chair jobs in
Washington, it is noteworthy that the
envied are not always contented. We
salute Paul C. Smith, who has given
up both his Naval lieutenant com
mander’s uniform and his job as news
chief of the Office of War Informa
tion to become a buck private in the
Marines..
We’re especially impressed by Mr.
Smith’s reason for trading an execu
tive chair for a bayonet—“There’s
nothing wrong with being a lieutenant
commander except that I couldn’t run
a destroyer, which is what lieutenant
commanders are supposed to do.”
We’ll bet he makes a better-than-aver-
age Marine, and in the Marines the
average is high,—Washington Daily
News.
* * *
NAVY FOOT CARE —The most
general, the most indispensable and the
most abused method of locomotion in
an army is the human foot. ... It is
also the source of the greatest trouble
with soldiers, a ceaseless cause of lost
time and second only to tuberculosis
as a factor in disablement. . . . The
United States Navy, which doesn’t
walk as much as the Army, recognizes
this and has accepted the services of
chiropodists as a special branch. The
Army, which in spite of wheels and
Napoleon, really travels on its feet,
has not yet availed itself of the same
expert attention. — Los Angeles Ex
aminer.
Pre-Flight Jewelry
at
Ledbetter-Pickard
Jane Wyatt,
George Murphy
Are Guest Stars
The Kate Smith Hour, featuring
Kate Smith and Ted Collins, with
guest stars George Murphy and Jane
Wyatt, will be broadcast with its reg
ular weekly show from the stage of
Memorial Hall next Friday evening
from 2000 to 2055. Cadets, officers,
enlisted men and civilians of the Pre-
Flight School will compose the audi
ence. Appearing on the same program
will be the Pre-Flight Glee Club.
A second broadcast will be given
from 0000 (midnight) to 0055 at
which time students, faculty members,
and the public are invited to attend.
Scheduled to come here the sixth of
October but cancelled due to technical
difficulties, the Kate Smith Hour will
provide the finest possible evening of
entertainment. Both Kate Smith and
her manager, Ted Collins, are nation
ally known figures in the musical
world, and with two famous movie
stars such as Murphy and Wyatt the
show promises to be something to-
write home about.
Coming with the show in addition to
the four previously mentioned stars
are a 22-piece orchestra, announcers,,
technicians, and others necessary to
handle a network hookup show. The
Columbia Broadcasting System will
carry the program, and cadets and of
ficers are urged to write their parents
and friends and ask them to listen in.
Miss Wyatt and Mr. Murphy will do
a scene from their latest picture, “The
Navy Comes Through,” on the radio
broadcast. The picture, which has
just been released, will be shown at
the Carolina Theatre here on Friday
and Saturday.
Both Miss Wyatt and Mr. Murphy
will make a personal appearance at
the Carolina on Friday. Following
the broadcast on Friday night Miss
Smith, Miss Wyatt, Mr. Collins, and
Mr. Murphy will go to Durham where
they will make a personal appearance
at the Carolina theatre there. This
performance will be open to the public
as will the personal appearance of
Miss Wyatt and Mr. Murphy at the
Carolina here.
On the radio broadcast the Pre-
Flight Glee Club will sing “Sky An
chors” and “Flying High.”
Miss Smith, Ted Collins, and other
performers, will arrive in Chapel Hill
on Thursday morning.
—Buy War Bonds-
• White Arrow Shirts
• Collars
• Cuff Links
• Black Sox
• Buttons
Buy Yours at
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