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Griffin Daily News
People’s Forces
Ragtag, Rugged
By TOM TIEDE
NEA Staff Correspondent
BEN CAT, South Vietnam
—(NEA)—For nearly a dec-
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The Sound of Christmas
T]he sound of Christmas is music. [Tjhrough music we
rediscover the mood and spirit of this special season.
It brings visions of the manger and wise men and
angel choirs—and even old Santa with his bag of toys.
Ujt is difficult to imagine Christmas without happy
music. Yet, there were those, hundreds of years ago,
who tried to prohibit the playing of Christmas carols.
They thought that Christmas music should be restrict
ed to the old hymns, written long before in Latin
verse. [C]arols, of course, are not Christmas hymns. The
first Christmas hymn was sung in the Fourth Century,
it is believed, while the carols appeared in the 13th
Century. Unlike Christmas hymns, carols were happy
and gay. They told of the belief in the goodness of
man. They were meant to bring joy and hope to
Christmas. [T|n 1647 a powerful group in England man
aged to suppress the singing of Christmas carols, ex
cept in rural areas, for 200 years. Eventually, though,
the joyous and lilting music again became an important
part of our Christmas celebration. |C]hristmas without
music would be a sad time, indeed. fT]he people of
Hanes sincerely hope that you enjoy this Christmas
and its beautiful music, reconfirmed in the belief that
the birth of Jesus Christ marked the beginning of
the most impor
man history.
6
Wednesday, Dec. 10, 1969
ade this steamy little village
belonged to the enemy. At
will, Viet Cong taxed, con
scripted and terrorized the
population.
But no more.
The last time the VC came
here, they were greeted not
with docility—but with small
arms fire from sandbag
bunkers. The Communists
tried once, twice, three and
four times to penetrate—but
were eventually beaten back
into the jungles.
And who were the defend
ing heroes of Ben Cat?
Not U.S. troops.
Not even Vietnamese
troops.
But children. Sixteen- and
17-year-old kids who have
grouped to protect their
homes and families at any
cost.
The improbable warriors
are part of an equally im
probable civilian army now
building in this country. It’s
called the People’s Self De
fense Force. And it’s the
most ragtag, ruffled but alto
gether encouraging military
establishment in the war.
PSDF, as it’s initialed, is
an outgrowth of Vietnam’s
“general mobilization law”
which requires all healthy
citizens, 16 to 50 years old,
to serve in some kind of fed
eral armed force.
Regular services, of course,
snap up the best of this age
group. The irregular forces
(regional units, mercenary
EiH JIM
bands, paramilitary groups)
grab the next best on the
list.
And everybody else goes
to the PSDF.
“Everybody else” makes
up a sundry lot. Women with
suckling infants. Old men
bleary-eyed with opium
smoke. Teen-age couples who
kiss and cuddle before guard
duty—and, if possible, dur
ing guard duty.
They are far from profes
sional. But when it comes to
defending what belongs to
them, few combatants are
superior to these aroused
citizen-soldiers.
The other day, a band of
VC tried to murder a nearby
hamlet chief in his bed. The
hamlet’s PSDF was incensed.
It gathered, made a plan,
ambushed the startled Com
munists—then chased them
for three miles before cool
ing down.
Now the hamlet chief
sleeps in peace.
At present, there are al
most three million of these
PSDF members in Vietnam.
More than a million are
fighters—the rest are sup
porters. In all, they com
prise about 18 per cent of
the nation’s population.
More than one-third of the
force are boys, 16 and 17
years old. Another third are
women. The rest are men
either too old for the regular
army, or retired or disabled
from it.
Women are not required
to be fighters. But more than
170,000 of them, all ages,
have volunteered for armed
use. And some of the girls
regularly notch rifles with
VC kills.
Snickers one:
“We used to sleep with
them when they came here.
tant period in hu-
Merry Christmas
Hanes Corporation
KfedF Being honored at annual retired | lit ,
■M teachers program given by the I
* ~ >•”» ' • ‘T ■ Future Teachers of America of K “V 1
| Griffin High School are il-ri
I Miss Florence Gresham, 50 I
■ years service, and Miss Marian I
H Wallace. service.
I Serving refreshments is BL _
I Rosemary Henzel, 6th District 4* * "W ; ' ?
Director of FTA. v
fc ■ xl
Now we try to shoot them.
We prefer our own men in
stead.”
To do their shooting, the
PSDF members are armed
with a variety of primitive,
hand-me-down weapons.
Some old Gar and rifles,
some World War II carbines
and some captured Chinese
and Russian implements.
Currently, there is only one
weapon available for every
five PSDF members. But the
empty hands usually carry
clubs, scythes, axes or what
ever else makes do.
As old or as crude as the
weapons may be, they work.
Citizens of the PSDF have
reportedly killed 3,000 enemy
soldiers.
At least one with a pitch
fork.
For these efforts, mem
bers of the People’s Self De
fense Force get little in re
turn. They are neither paid,
uniformed nor fed. They are
expected to be on call 24
hours a day, but if their
crops or businesses suffer,
the expense is theirs alone.
In a few cases, this lack
of compensation has caused
troubles. Low morale and
shoot-em-ups. Some units
have wounded more of them
selves than the enemy. Other
units have turned into worse
profit-milking terrorists than
the VC have ever been.
F** chrTstmas I
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iMMiliiiirii > in ii imr, m i r I , - . -
We are pleased to announce that
Karen W. Freeman
has rejoined our staff of expert beau
ticians at Professional Beauty Salon
121 West Taylor Street
Karen wishes to invite her friends and
customers to visit her here and to call
her for any beauty service, at
227-3940
Other expert stylists to serve you are
• DeVane McCullers • Annette Lominack
• Chloie Greenway • Doris Jones
• Elaine McKnight, Apprentice Trainee
Professional Beauty Salon
121 West Taylor Street Phone 227-3940
ALSO — There is a complete staff of experienced
stylists at Professional Beauty Salon No. 2 at
245 Meriwether Street — Phone 227-6137