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About Regimental mirror. (Fort Benning, Ga.) 1943-194? | View Entire Issue (April 27, 1944)
REGIMENT ANNOUNCES OWN BOND PRIZE IN INFANTRYMAN CONTEST T X . / \ ? l - _ V a f WM IRRO iCW Hilf • wlf «ry Slif w —- V VOL. 11. Free Circus Tickets For Gls Mark down 1944 as the year you got into the circus free h ithout having to sneak un f-r the canvas! " Starting Monday Benning Service clubs and the Ninth Street USO in Columbus will pass out free circus tickets to all Academic Gls and WACs who apply. Starting Tuesday the Hippodrome Thrill Circus will be set up in the Columbus Memorial Stadium for a real old time, 18-act star and animal show, wfth soldiers of Benning as the guests of the Columbus Junior Chamber of Commerce for the five-day stand. “The Thrill Circus offers Co lumbus its first great opportun ity to provide entertainment with a large enough seating ca pacity to take care of all Fort Benning military personnel who wish to attend.” announces Ed Johnson. Jaycee chairman. “BIG TOP” STARS Famous stars of the “Big Top” will highlight the five perform ances, each of which will start at 9:30 p. m. Fort Benning time. Billed as the name of the year is Malikowa, “America's most daring high-wire performer”, who will do breath-taking feats on a slender wire 40 feet up in the air, with no net to cancel out any errors! All of the traditional animal acts will be in the three-ring show, including the bears that ride bicycles, skate and perform on scooter cars; Harrison’s ed ucated dogs, and the usual com edy mule. The world-famous Rudynoff Troupe, recently fea tured in one of the largest cir cuses, will put on their spec tacular act with their trained Stalliorfs while the La Bonde Troupe will split sides with their topnotch laughing bar act. Boon ie and Philip, daring high-perch performers, and merry-making clowns will round out the show, with all the time-honored ac cessories like peanuts, side shoyvs, and sawdust to bring back the glitter and glamour of real pre-war circus days. Cannon On Air The 105 mm cannon will be the weapon dramatized tomor row night on The Infantry School’s “Thirteen Weapons of War” series over radio station WSB, Atlanta, at 11:30 p. m. Benning time. FORT BENNING, GEORGIA. THURSDAY. APRIL 27. 1944 Mail Catches Up To Combat Vet: 220 Letters In One Day! “I’ve been expecting them” was the calm remark of Pvt. Thomas F. Wilson, of the Academic Regiment, when the Company A mail clerk handed him a bundle of 220 letters at mail call the other day. “You see,” he assured the worried clerk, “this is really a year’s mail all at once—ever' since last April I’ve been hop ping all over Africa, Sicily and Italy, back and forth, and my mail has always been just a jump behind me. But I guess it’s pretty well caught up by now.” Wilson’s back correspondence —ranging from tiny V-mail let ters to large, bulky packets— was mainly from his mother, Mrs. Clare Wilson, and his young lady friend, Miss Boots Filbin, both of Russel, Ky. Piled one on another the letters stacked up over a foot high, with postage, mostly airmail, totaling well ov er $14.00, and numerous post marks stamped all over each en velope. “I’ll still be reading them this time next year.” laughed Wilson as he stuffed them into his field jacket and went back to work at the Communications Section of The Infantry School, where he is now assigned after serving ov erseas as a radio operator with the airborne Infantry. PURSUED BY PO Wilson, who entered the ser vice 18 months ago, got his mail regularly while taking his basics at Camp Wheeler, Ga. But in April, 1943, his glider Infantry outfit sailed for Africa, and from then on the fortunes of war shoved Wilson all around the Mediterranean with the post of fice authorities in hot pursuit. “We were as far as Oran when he heard that Von Arnim had surrendered in Tunisia,” Wilson recalls, “so instead of going to the front we trained in the des ert. One night in July I had one foot on ( a glide.” all set to leave for Sicily when it was de cided we would go by ship.” BACK TO AFRICA For more than a month Wilson was on patrol as a radio opera tor and rifleman around Comi cio, and then he was sent back to a hospital in Africa with a knee injury. “My mail was really missing me now,” he laughs, as he re- (OFFICIAL U. s. ARMY SIGNAL CORPS PHOTO) lates how he went next to a re placement depot and got mixed up in his orders. He thought he was being sent back to his old outfit and the depot thought dif ferently, which apparently was no help to the mail clerks, with scores of letters from Russel, Ky. on their hands as Wilson went by truck to Bizerte and by plane to Sicily. “My outfit was sweating out another invasion when I caught up with it,” Wilson says. He was assigned to a plane that hauled equipment to a place near Saler no called Maiori. IN GOOD COMPANY “The Rangers were fighting near ‘Shrapnel Pass’ and we were told to march 12 miles in land to support them. We were ordered to hold a hill at all costs, but we were in good com pany—Commandoes behind us, Rangers to the left of us, and paratroopers coming up. All hell broke loose on the second day we were there —the Nazis used all kinds of weapons, sent snip ers out at night, and had perfect camouflage to blend themselves into the rocks. Finally, after 18 days, the two British Armies (Continued on Page 5) All Art Forms Eligible Academic artists and wri ters—already inspired by last week’s Infantry School an nouncement of S2OO worth of prizes for the post-wide In fantry Day literary-art con test—will hail the announce ment today of a second con test, with another (SSO) bond prize, sponsored by the Aca demic Regiment No. 32. Although the new contest is limited to members of this com mand, it puts no restriction on form, thus welcoming entries by photographers and music com posers as well as writers and artiste, who can submit some form of expression of “The American Infantry and The A merican Infantryman” to the contest judges by retreat on May 31st. To make it possible for Aca demics to enter their works in both The Infantry School and the Academic Regiment compe titions, headquarters has made its contest regulations parallel to those of The Infantry School THEMES SAME The theme and deadline are the same for both contests. Wherever possible, enlisted Aca demics desiring to enter both contests (and eligible for TIS competition) should submit one copy of their composition to the Infantry School Public Relations Office for the post-wide contest, and a separate copy to the Aca demic Regiment public relations office, keeping a duplicate for personal reference. In the case of a large oil painting or a mural, however, where only one com plete work has been possible, the contestant should enter his com position in the post-wide contest and file a report of the entry to the Academic Regiment judges, including a description of the work. The judges will then ar range with the School judges to view the work and include it in their consideration for the SSO bond prize to be given by this regiment. In all forms where copies are possible—poetry, prose, music and the smaller art forms—the Academic Regiment judges will require separate entries. PRIZES JUNE 15TH Wirmers of the contests will be announced on Infantry Day, June 15th, which will be cele brated all over the allied world. Awards will be made at a spe cial ceremony. Winning Aca demic Regiment entries in one or both contests will be repro duced in the June 15th Infan try Day issue of the Mirror, which will include a special pic torial review featuring the role of the Academic Regiment in the development of the American Doughboy. The judges for the regimental SSO bond competition are Lt. Vernon C. Hoyt, Academic Reg iment public relations officer; Lt. Frances Van Nice, detach ment officer, WAC Detachment Two, The Infantry School and Sgt. Walter Miller, editor of the Mirror. The announcement of the sec ond contest now makes it possi ble for as many as three Aca demics to win awards on Infan try Day. The Infantry School judges will award a SIOO bond for the best literary expression and a SIOO band for the best (Continued on Page 6)
