012_Victory News 20 October 1945

              "VICTORY NEWS
VOL. IV
Published Semi-Monthly in the Interest of the Personnel of the Utah Army Service Forces Depot
OGDEN, UTAH, SATURDAY, OCT. 20, 1945
No. 12
Brigadier General Herman Feldman, left, visits Brigadier General James B. Alfonte. General Feldman recently returned from duty in the Pacific.
Army Terminates Contracts for Cigarettes
The War Department has an¬nounced termination of all con¬tracts for cigarettes and at the same time said reductions were being made in contracts for chew¬ing gum, cereals and cornstarch.
Contracts for peanuts and chili con came also were terminated.
Withdrawal of the Army for procurement of cigarettes which were scheduled for delivery during the remainder of 1945 ended con¬tracts' for 163,135,000 packs, Quar¬termaster Corps officials said. Dol¬lar value of the contracts was given as $8,156,750, all of which were placed prior to May, 1945, but upon which deliveries had been deferred due to reduced requirements fol¬lowing V-E day.
As to the other contracts, com¬mitments for 20,000,000 half-pound packages of salted peanuts with a dollar value of $3,500,000 were terminated. The peanuts had been intended for sale through Army commissaries and post exchanges.
Contracts for 20,000,000 packages of chewing gum with a dollar value of $600,000 were ended; as were commitments for 742,500 pounds of cornstarch worth $63,855.
Contracts for September delivery of uncooked breakfast cereals were reduced by approximately 13,000,000 pounds, including contracts for 8,697,000 pounds of rolled oats and 5,016,000 pounds of uncooked wheat and whole wheat cereals.
Contracts for 6,617,702 pounds of chili con carne, valued at $1,200,000, also were terminated. These cov¬ered products intended for delivery prior to September 30.
Thanks to Fellow Workers
Carl and Ethel England wish to express sincere appreciation to their many depot friends who
contributed money to meet expenses occasioned by the tragic death of their daughter-in-law.
Many Jobs Open at Utah ASF Depot
Jobs are available for aproximately 1000 ungraded employees at the depot, General Alfonte announced last week
These openings include positions as truck drivers, laborers and operators    of    materials   handling
equipment at good pay and short hours, the general  said.
During the past several weeks hundreds of new employees have been employed at the depot. Many previously had been employees of other military installations in the Ogden area. Of new employees hired during the past thirty days, 150 have been veterans of World War II. A large percentage of these veterans have been able to accept skilled jobs as a result of specialized training received during military service.
""It is anticipated that within the next few weeks many soldiers who are now receiving discharges will apply at the depot for jobs, and there will be openings for them,"" General Alfonte said.
Civilian dormitories at the depot provide adequate living facilities for employees at $8.00 per month per person. Telephones, access to city bus facilities, maid service, and daily mail deliveries are a few of the conveniences provided for dor¬mitory dwellers.
Since the cessation of hostilities, the depot's work load has not de¬creased appreciably and it is an¬ticipated that activities will not diminish for many months to come, General Alfonte stated.
The use of prisoners of war has greatly alleviated the civilian labor shortage felt at the depot during the past three years. As civilians become available for jobs, the prisoners will be released. In no instance will a prisoner of war be kept in a job when civilian labor is available, the General said.
If   there's   anything   worse   than a waffle that's cold,
Or  mashed   potatoes  three  days old,
It's suddenly meeting a fat old hen
That you loved in High School in nineteen-ten.
She said she felt like a young colt, but she looked more like an old .45.
Eye Witness of Jap Surrender Visits Depot
Visiting the depot last week was Brigadier General Herman Feld¬man who has recently returned from the Central Pacific. He wit¬nessed the signing of the now his¬toric Jap surrender document on the battleship Missouri anchored in Sagami Bay. General Feldman flew to Japan from Guam for the ceremony.
As a member of Admiral Nimitz's staff, the general supervised joint supply distribution for the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps through¬out the Central and South Pacific areas, with headquarters on Guam. He made numerous liaison trips by air to active theatres of operations.
Prior to his assignment overseas, General Feldman was Deputy, The Quartermaster General, in Wash¬ington. He will return to Washing¬ton in the near future for an im¬portant assignment concerned with redistribution and disposition of vast amounts of Quartermaster supplies throughout the world.
General Alfonte conducted Gen¬eral Feldman on a tour of the depot.
Red Cross Course Scheduled
A standard Red  First Aid course is being given as Bonneville Park Community Building every Friday evening at 7:30 p.m. under the direction of Alpha H. Manning, member of the depot civilian guard force.
The class is sponsored by the National Red Cross Organization and credit will be given to those completing the course. Anyone in¬terested in enrolling is invited to be present Friday evening. Al¬though there have already been two classes held, new enrollees will be able to complete the course, Mr. Manning said.
American Army personnel stationed in England wrote 258,000,000 V-Mail letters to friends and rela¬tives in the United States between June, 1942, and August, 1945, Ninth Service Command headquarters at Fort Douglas, Utah, learned today.
During those 37 months they in turn received 259,000,000 V-Mail letters from this country.
Depot Bond Purchases Hit New High
Regular War Bond payroll deductions at the depot have reached an all time high, General Alfonte announced today. Latest figures show that 18.95% of the entire depot payroll for the month of September went into War Bonds.
""Reduction in pay checks to depot employees with the adoption of the forty-hour week has not re¬sulted in cancellation of regular War Bond purchases. It is gratify¬ing to note that our employees are convinced of the need for saving for the future through the regular purchase of bonds,"" General Al¬fonte stated.
Employees of the depot have made an outstanding record both in bond purchases through payroll deductions and during campaigns when additional cash purchases were solicited.
Many honors have come to the installation as a result of its War Bond record, including the Treasury Department Minute Man flag signifying that 90% of employees put 10% of their pay into bonds, and the Secretary of War flag in recognition of a later record of 95% of employees allocating 15% of their pay for bond purchases.
World War I GI Guards Depot PWs
Staff Sergeant Clyde E. Driskill of Nodoc, Indiana, who was held captive by the Germans 18 months in World War I, is acting first ser¬geant of the compound at the Utah ASF Depot Prisoner of War Camp. He has been on prisoner of war camp duty for the last two years.
A member of the Rainbow (165th Infantry) Division he was captured near Chateau Thierry in July, 1918. He did farm work in Lyon, France, and Restatt, Germany, while im¬prisoned. He recalls that the prison¬ers ate very well, sometimes five times a day, while working on the farms.
After the Armistice was signed he was repatriated through Swit¬zerland and was released from the army in 1920. In 1930 Sgt. Driskill says he re-enlisted because he ""gets a kick out of the army."".
His wife, Thelma, is working at the Utah Depot as a woman guard. They live at 202-23rd Street in Ogden.
Tables Turned for Depot Soldiers
Situations in life may be com¬pletely reversed as proved by the experiences of four GIs at the de¬pot. A year ago they were prisoners of the Germans, but for the last several months the Germans were behind barbed wire enclosures as prisoners of war and the four American soldiers were doing the guarding at the depot PW Camp.
Sgt. Calvin R. Neeley of Blackfoot, Idaho, who was captured August 30, 1944, in the Rhone Valley in Southern France; Pfc Grandville Selle of Brownton, Minesota, who was captured September 13, 1943 at Salerno, Italy; Pfc James R. Tyler of Tombstone, Arizona, who was taken October 17, 1943 in Lottoro Valley, Italy; and Pvt. Dewey Clark of Albuquerque, New Mexico, who was captured six days after D-Day in St. Claire, France, were held captive by the Germans an aggregate of 55 months.
Last week these four infantry-men.each of whom has over 71 points, received orders to report to Fort Douglas Separation Point for discharge. Each of the men wears a combat infantryman badge and the ETO ribbon with from two to four battle stars and invasion spear¬heads. In addition Pfc Tyler wears the Purple Heart and Pvt. Clark the distinguished unit citation.
Two of the men, Pfc Selle and Pfc Tyler, met in a German prison camp in December 1943, were lib¬erated at the same time from Salzewedel, near the place where the American and Russian armies first joined, and have been together periodically since.
In telling of their liberation by the 44th Cavalry Pfc Tyler says, ""We could hear gunfire for days. Then four days before we were liberated our guards took off; we never saw them again. But another group of guards came and started marching us away from the Rus¬sian lines, and when the Ameri¬cans started a new drive, they marched us back the other way.""
Pfc Selle, who was imprisoned 19 months, says of his experiences, ""It was rough all the way through. If it hadn't been for the good old Red Cross a lot of us wouldn't be back here now. It was the Red Cross that kept us going.""
""I went from Rome to Germany on a German hospital train; I was the only American on board. I had fair treatment, except for a few unnecessary incidents,"" Pfc Tyler recalled.
Pvt. Clark, who hit the beaches on D-Day, was imprisoned in the Sudetenland working a ten-hour shift loading coal in the mines. ""It was kinda rough,"" he said.
Sgt. Neeley was one of a group of 2000 American prisoners of war who walked from a prison camp 42 miles east of Berlin to Warsaw with refugees after liberation by Russian armies.
One of the GIs plans to return to his civilian occupation of auto¬mobile body and fender painting, and the other three nodded agree¬ment when one of them made the statement that for awhile he would do ""nothing particular.""
Cleared from west coast Army ports of embarkation to meet the requirements in the Pacific were two and one half million troops and more than 44 million ship tons of cargo during the 45 months prior to V-J Day.
""What would you do if you got rabies?""
""I'd ask for a pencil and paper."" ""To make your will?"" ""No, to make a list of the people I'd want to bite.""
Captive of Germans in first World War hands discharge orders to four depot soldiers imprisoned by Germans in World War II. Photo shows, left to right, S/Sgt. Clyde E. Driskill, (seated at desk), Pvt. Dewey Clark, Pfc. James R. Tyler, Pfc. Grandville Selle, and Sgt. Calvin B. Neeley.
 
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