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CLOUDBUSTER
Saturday, September 25, 1943
Here's Hove! Excuse for Overstay Of Leave
CLOUDBUSTER
Vol. 2—No. 2 Sat., September 25, 1943
Published weekly at the U. S. Navy Pre-
Flight School, Chapel Hill, N. C., under super
vision of the Public Relations Office. Contri
butions of news, features, and cartoons are
welcome from all hands and should be turned
in to the Public Relations Office, Navy Hall.
★
CLOUDBUSTER receives Camp Newspaper
Service material. Republication of credited
matter prohibited without permission of CNS,
War Department, 205 E. 42nd St., N.Y.C.
★
CoMDR. John P. Graff, USN (Ret.)
Commanding Officer
Lieut. Comdr. James P. Raugh, USNR
Executive Officer
Lieut. P. 0. Brewer, USNR
Public Relations Officer
★
Editor: Lt. (jg) Leonard Eiserer, USNR
Associate Editor: Orville Campbell, Y2c
— m\m
By George J. Grewenow
Chaplain Corps, USNR
Theme songs identify programs, and re
curring themes identify columns. Were there
no “Chaplain Corps” labelling this column, it
still would be a push-over for “recognition”
because of its theme song. The theme is
sounded over and over because it is so vital.
We are fully persuaded that spiritual
things are not merely lightly added flavours
mixed into a physical program. Nor is reli
gion a mere concomitant factor in training.
It is basic. Without it we are inadequately
prepared for today’s kind of war. In the
words of Paul V. McNutt, “Total war means
the destruction of everything material. It
means ruined cities, factories in ashes, mil
lions and millions of homes—great and small
■—reduced to rubble. Faith, religious faith,
alone is beyond its reach.” Only when a man
forsakes that faith can he be totally de
stroyed. Religious faith is that dynamic
which some one has so appropriately called
“Victory’s absolute necessity.” What else but
faith did we have in those early black months
of the war?
This necessity is sharply pointed out in a
letter by a young Navy pilot, “Right in the
thick of everything when the going is tough
est, the leader invariably will be a man with
a religious background. He need not delay
in that moment and find a path back to God;
his very life has always been to that end.
Those who live by their own code in normal
times abandon it rather quickly when the go
ing gets tough. At the crucial moment they
are too busy mending their ways.”
At the crucial moment will it be necessary
for you to delay, or will you be basically
prepared ?
The following report from a sailor to his
commanding officer is reprinted in full as a
classic example of something or other:
From: R. E. Wilson, S2c, U. S. Navy
To: Commanding Officer,
Via: Division Officer
Subject: Overleave, Reason for.
“On Sept. 7, 1942, I left ship on ten days
leave at my brother’s farm in Cobblerock,
Ark.
“On Sept. 10 my brother’s barn burned
down, all except the brick silo which started
the fire.
“On Sept. 11 he decided to repair the silo
right away because he had to get his corn in
it. I was going to help him,
“I rigged a barrel hoist to the top of the
silo so that the necessary bricks could be
hoisted to the top of the silo where the repair
work was going on. Then we hauled up sev
eral hundred bricks. This later turned out to
be too many bricks.
“After my brother got all the brick work
repaired, there was still a lot of brick at the
top of the silo on a working platform we had
built. I said I would take it all down below.
So I climbed down the ladder and hauled the
barrel all the way up. Then I secured the line
with sort of a slip knot so I could undo it
easier later.
“Then I climbed back up the ladder and
piled brick into the barrel until it was full.
“I climbed back down the ladder. Then I
untied the line to let the brick down. How
ever, I found the barrel of brick heavier than
I was and as the barrel started down, I started
up. I thought of letting go, but by that time
I was so fiar up I thought it would be safer
to hang on.
“Half-way up, the barrel hit me on the
shoulder pretty hard but I still hung on.
“I was going pretty fast at the top and
bumped my head. My fingers also got pinched
in the pulley block. However, at the same
time the barrel hit the ground and the bottom
fell out of it, letting all the brick out.
“I was heavier than the barrel then and
started down again. I got burned on the leg
by the rope as I went down until I met the
barrel again which went by faster than be
fore and took the skin off my shins.
“I guess I landed pretty hard on the pile
of bricks because at that time I lost my pres
ence of mind and let go of the line and the
barrel came down and hit me squarely on the
head.
“The doctor wouldn’t let me start back to
the ship until Sept. 16, which made me two
days overleave, which I don’t think is too
much under the circumstances.”
Male CaU ^ Magnetic Azimuth
by Milton Caniff, creator of “Terry and the Pirates”
— (CNS)
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Copyright 1943 by Milton Caniff, distributed by Camp Newspaper Service