Friday, July 11, 2014

Soldier News - continued

Frederick Anderson of Margaretville promoted to Major General
Sidney Enterprise, December 16, 1943
 

Promotion of Brig. Gen. Frederick L. Anderson to a major general is announced by U.S. Army headquarters.  Anderson, commander of the Eighth Air Force bomber command, is 38 years old and becomes one of the youngest major generals in the American Army.  A native of Margaretville [Delaware Co., NY], he makes his home at Washington, D.C.  [Sidney Enterprise, Dec. 16, 1943]

LaVere Wallace Receives Navy Wings
Bainbridge News & Republican, Jan. 6, 1944

After 10 months of training, including a pre-flight course at the Naval Station at Athens, Ga., and basic training at Dallas, Texas, LaVere E. Wallace was designated as Chief Aviation Pilot at the U.S. Navy Aviation Training Station at Pensacola, Fla., on Dec. 24.  Mrs. Paul L. Carpenter and her son, Albert, attended the ceremonies at the Pensacola station.  Chief Wallace entered the Navy as an apprentice seaman in 1934 and worked his way up to the rank of Chief Quartermaster on the U.S.S. Trenton before he began his aviation training.  He has been ordered to report for duty at the U.S. Naval Air Base at San Diego, Calif.  and left town yesterday afternoon.  [Bainbridge News & Republican, Jan. 6, 1944]

P.F.C. Asa Bradish Given Decoration Overseas
Bainbridge News & Republican, Jan. 6, 1944

While serving with a famous Fighter Group now busy dive-bombing the slowly retreating Germans in Italy, P.F.C. Asa L. Bradish, of Bainbridge [Chenango Co., NY], was awarded the Good Conduct Medal for, in the words of his Commanding Officer's recommendation, "exemplary behavior, efficiency and fidelity."  During his year overseas, P.F.C. Bradish's Group fought its way through the desert into Tunisia with General Montgomery's legendary Eighth Army, covered the invasion of Sicily, and then moved to Italy to continue chasing the remnants of the force that not so long ago was pounding at the gates of Alexandria.

Since leaving the States P.F.C. Bradish has seen many a spot whose names will plague future generations of history students--Cairo and Suez, Mersa Matruh and Halfaya Pass, Tripoli and the Mareth line, Wadi Akarit and Kairouan, Tunis and Bizerte and a dozen other desert battlefields that witnessed the longest retreat of the war.  He has worked in the blazing heat of the Libyan Desert, the soggy mud of Tunisia and the pleasant green fields of Southern Italy.  He fought side by side of the British, the French, the South Africans, the Ghurkas and the New Zealanders, and dived into slit trenches with men from every state in the Union. Through it all, no matter what the conditions or the danger, he has worked hard and faithfully, and it is this devotion to duty during the long and arduous push that earned him his decoration. 

"Dick" Collins Receives Commission in Navy
Bainbridge News & Republican, Jan. 6, 1944

Richard Collins, youngest son of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Collins, Jr., of Westfield, Mass., graduated from Officer's Training School at the Merchant Marine Academy on Dec. 6, receiving his commission as an ensign in the U.S. Navy.  he was given a choice of remaining in the Merchant marine or joining the Navy; he chose the Navy and reported for duty Dec. 27.

"Dick" a native of Bainbridge [Chenango Co., NY] and a grandson of Thomas Collins, of West Main street, Bainbridge, had served with the Merchant Marine for nine months, prior to entering the academy; during this period he had many exciting experiences on trips in various parts of the world.  His older brother, Thomas III, is serving with the U.S. Coast Guard. 

No comments:

Post a Comment