BTC 10-Shun [April 28, 1944]

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VOL. 2. NO. 39. Greensboro, N. C, Friday, April 28, 1944. FREE DISTRIBUTION
NCoL Lewis Assumes Command Of Post
New Streamlined Setup
Takes Effect On Monday
BTC 10 undergoes a thorough reorganization of its
administrative and operational setup Sunday at midnight.
Under provisions of an AAF Training Command memo­randum
outlining the organization of AAF Base Units, this
post joins other AAF Training Command installations in
the sweeping changes. ,- ^ £ ,
The streamline pattern, aimed at - .
t h e facilitation of military admin- g -#
Sunday Matinees
At Theater 3
Start April 30
istration, calls for the setting up
of three major sections under the
commanding officer, Col. Converse
K. Lewis.
Names of the deputies to admin­ister
the three sections will be an­nounced
later.
There will be a deputy for ad­ministration
and service; another
for training and operations; and a
t h i rd for supplies and maintenance.
I n addition, there will be the of­fice
of the air inspector, operating
directly under the commanding of­ficer.
' Under the -deputy for administra­tion
and service will be, among
others, the major staff sections
which have made up post head­quarters
S-l in the past. There will
toe the AAF Basic Unit and Unit
headquarters, intelligence (former­ly
S-2), the provost marshal, public
relations, special and morale serv­ices,
the adjutant, personnel (which
includes unit personnel, personal
'.affai's, classification, civilian per­sonnel),
budget and fiscal, statisti­cal,
finance, chaplain, post ex­change,
legal, reproduction, messes,
medical and troop training for per­manent
party.
PP Sections.
Petmanent party enlisted men
who work in the above sections
will be divided as follows: Section
"A"—administrative and services
section; "D"—Woman's Army Corps;
"F"—the 376th aviation; and the
IBand unit.
The deputy for training and op­erations
(formerly covered by S-3)
will have a staff secretary and a
director of training. Section "B'
will be set up for the PP of the
training and operations section.
Other sections under the deputy for
training and operations will include
Sections "H" (formerly the 1188
training group); "I" (the 1176th);
"K" (1175th); "L" (1177th); "M"
(1178th): "N" (1179th); "O"
(1180th); "P" (1181st); "Q"
(1182nd); "R" (1186th); "S"
*T" (1187th); "U" (1189th); "V" (a
new unit); "W" (1185th); and "X"
(1184th).
The Deputy for supplies and
maintenance will be in charge of
t h e purchasing and contracting de­partment,
supervisor of main­tenance
and the supervisor of sup-ipHes.
- . . . .
The maintenance division includes
Beginning Sunday, April 30,
Theater No. 3, next to the Main
PX, will show a regular Sun­day
Matinee movie. Doors for
t h e film program will open at
3 p. m. and the show will start
at 3:15.
This Sunday's feature is
TAMPJ0O, starring .Edward G.
Robinson, Lynn Bari and Vic­tor
McLaglen. Also on the bill
are Army-Navy Screen Maga­zine,
Movietone News and a
Terrytown cartoon.
(Continued On Page Three).
AAF Now Open
To Fliers From
Civilian Fields
The AAF opened its ranks this
week to some 11,000 civilian flying
instructors and trainees in a move
apparently designed to meet criti­cism
that such talent was being
overlooked while the army con­tinued
to train less experienced
women fliers as WASPS.
The war department offered these
Civilians the chance to enter the
Air Forces as commissioned pilots
or for other duties by dropping the
•requirement that they must be
^ f i b e r s of the army enlisted re-
^ H r e s to be eligible.
"Affected are instructors and
trainees in the recently-discon­tinued
CAA-war training service
flight instructors program, instruc­tors
in AAF civilian contract pri­vate
schools and instructors engaged'
in the CAAWTS college indoctrina­tion
program.
Boards are accepting as service
pilots all who have 1,000 flying
hours, 200 of which are on aircraft
of 200 horse power or more and
who can pass physical and flight
tests.
Civilian Jobs
Are Available
In Washington
Civilian personnel are reminded
that at present there are vacancies
for typists and clerks at Headquar­ters,
Army Air Forces, in Washing­ton
for any persons interested.
Typists must be able to type
from plain copy at a rate of not
less than 40 words a minute, taking
into consideration the usual deduc­tion
for errors. The clerks should
preferably have completed high
school. Conditions of transfer fol­low:
a. Employes selected for transfer
may be offered promotion to the
next grade level (through CAF-3)
providing their qualifications meet
the Civil Service standards estab­lished
for such promotions.
b. Transferees will be paid $6 per
diem rate while in travel status and
will be met upon arrival at Wash­ington
and given assistance .in
housing and reporting to new duty
status.
Any post employe desiring to
transfer should report immediately
to the Civilian Personnel Office
here.
Only One Guest
Permitted At Shows
Military personnel are informed
that attendance at USO. Camel
Caravan and other such live talent
shows presented in War Depart­ment
^Tneaters is restricted to one
civilian guest for each ^member of
the armed forces.
COL. CONVERSE R. LEWIS, COMMANDING OFFICER
Truth And Consequences
Parlor Game At Service Club
Proves Hilarious Success
They led the pretty girl around
the Service Club lounge and
stopped in front of a grinning sol­dier.
"Can you identify {his soldier?"
~S/Sgt. Foster Hartman, Special
Service Office Impressario asked
her.
She couldn't, because: first, she
didn't know the young man; and
second, she was blindfolded.
So the young lady took the con­sequences.
She sang "I Love You
Truly" in a lovely soprano and
then the Bashful youth had to
yield to a r e a l movie kiss. Every­body
applauded, and the opening
evening of "Truth and Conse­quences"
was under way.
The new program, a Special
Service presentation, will take
place every Wednesday night at
8. Hurry, hurry, hurry.
There were present several hun­dred
men and guests from the
Woman's College or the Univer­sity
of North Carolina Tuesday
night. If the young man or wom­an
answers a question correctly,
he receives five packs of cigarets.
H he fails, he gets three packs and
takes the consequences. Most of
the participants took the conse­quences.
Here's a typical question: "Why
is a woman like a deck of cards?"
Here's a typical answer: "Be­cause
it takes a heart to win her.
a diamond to hold her, a club to.
csntrol her, and a spade to bury
her." (The Laughter Card is then
waved frantically.) Wanna play?
An extra carton of cigarets went
to the boy and girl who were
judged by the audience as the
funniest. It went to a couple who
donned under garments and put
on a race. The attractive young
lady donned long Johns (on top of
her dress, Oscar) while the ser­geant
forced his way into those
"unmentionables'' women wear.
They were too modest to give
their names.
Two soldiers fed raisin pie to
each other and gave out with
"Down by the Old Mill Stream"
from Gaetano Donizetti's Lucia
De Lammermoor. Another blind­folded
fellow stepped across egg­shells
while the band played
"On." A husky tech sergeant
pushed a peanut across the floor
with his nose.
The girls giggled. The band
.Still played "On."
Air Wacs To Receive
Summer Uniforms
Enlisted Air Wacs of the post de­tachment
will soon be issued a uni
form of khaki tropical worsted ma
terial for summer wear. The new
uniform, requisitioned after a re
cent War Department circular au­thorizing
the" change, is similar to
the summer suit now worn by
WAC officers.
Civilian Employe's Husband CO Of Ranger
Battalion That Disappeared Behind Nazi Lines
Hidden in the fog of war is the
fate of the lost Ranger battalions
at Cisterna. The two battalions
disappeared on January 30 behind
German lines; were either wiped
out or captured.
Commanding one of those bat­talions
was Maj. John W. Dobson,
whose wife is the* attractive young
lady in the office of Capt. W. J.
Wisihmann of the Officer's Sec­tion
on this post. Mrs. Dobson has
been notified by the War Depart­ment,
that her husband was miss­ing.
Since then she has been hope­ful
that he is_well and more recent­ly
has had reason to understand
that he is a prisoner of war.
But to the world at large the
story of those lost battalions will
remain a secret locked in the
hearts of allied troops and buried
in the records of the enemy until
after that war.
Only fragmentary pieces of what
happened to the two battalions that
set out to "raise hell" at 1 a. m.
behind the German lines have been
gathered more than a month after
they disappeared on January 30.
All that is known came from a
handful who returned and from a
German announcement that some
950 had been taken prisoner. The
Nazis claimed that about 100 were
killed and many more wounded.
Spearhead Attack.
The Ranger battalions were the
spearhead of an atack on Cisterna
at a time when Allied beachheads
were still pushing forward with
little opposition. They were to in­filtrate
behind the Nazi -lines in
the middle of night and disrupt
enemy lines at dawn when infantry
on each side would move into Cis­terna
and join them.
But the infantry never arrived.
The Nazis too had been on the
move during the night. Reinforce­ments
were brought up in front
of the town and the Rangers were
trapped.
Partial description of the skirm­ish
that followed has been given
by Cpl. Ben W. Mosier of Ashta­bula,
O., and Sgt. Thomas B. Fer-gen
of Parkston, S. D , who were
among the handful to escape.
"When it got light," said- Mosier
"we saw one big building in front
of us and trees all around. Behind
us- there was a tank and when
we saw it we cheered. We thought
it was supporting us. Then it opened
up and we knew what it was."
Soon artillery opened up and
German infantry closed on, but
"the tanks hurt us the most," said
Fergen. "They caught us in a field
and seven moved in, firing with
everything they had."
At 8 o'clock both battalions r e ­ported
by radio that they were
surrounded. The commander of one
was killed and the commander of
the other, wounded,
The Rangers were scattered and
one by one guns and ammunition
gave out. By noon the radio of
one battalion went dead. A few
minutes later the sergeant major
of the other called that he was de­stroying
his radio because t h e com­mand
post no longer' could defend'
itself.
All that followed was silence.
Served As
COAtJB
And Kearns F
Col. Converse R. Lewis,
an officer in the United
States Army for 42 years
and former CO of BTC No.
5 at Kearns, Utah, and Jef­ferson
Barracks, Mo., as­sumed
command of this post
Monday morning. He re­placed
Col. V. R. Woodruff,
The new commanding oficer came
to BTC 10 when it was an­nounced
that JB, the original
AAF basic training center, was
turned over to the Seventh Service
Command of the Army Service
Forces. He had been in charge there
since October, 1943.
In a statement shortly after ha
assumed his new post, Col. Lewia
said, "My policy is full co-opera­tion
with the civilian community.
We desire to be friends with the
residents of Greensboro and desire
them to be friends with the officers
and men of BTC 10."
Noting that an Air Wac detach­ment
was assigned to this training
center, he added, "At the two posts
which I comanded previously, they-did
a fine job. I have, found Air
Wacs to be very efficient and good
soldiers. The only thing is, we need
more of them."
Seven Citations.
Holder of seven citations, includ­ing
the Distinguished Service Cross
and the Purple Heart. Col. 'Lewis
is a veteran of World War I, the
Moro campaigns in the Philippines
and the Mexican border campaign.
He was secretary of the infantry
school of musketry at Fort Sill.
Oklar, in 1914-15 and reorganized
the school a short time after Amer­ica's
entry into the first world war
Col. Lewis is a member of a tra­ditionally
military family. He was'
born in Fort Custer, Mont, and his
father, Col. Thomas J. Lewis, gradu­ated
from West Point in 1879. A son
of the rtew post commander, 1st Lt.
Converse R. Lewis, Jr., is now over­seas
with the Corps of Engineers.
After receiving a degree from
Vale, Col. Lewis was commissioned
a second lieutenant in the Regular
Army in 1903. He is a graduate
of such military schools as the spe­cial
service school at Ft. Leaven­worth,
Kan., 1910; school of the.
line at Ft. Leavenworth. 1920: com­mand
and staff school i n 1921 ahd
the War College in Washington,
1923.
He has served-at Governor's Is­land,
N Y., and the Presidio in
California, serving as plans an<f
training officer of the 30th Infan­t
ry at the latter station. In 1935,
he was promoted to a full colonelcy
and took command of the 13th In­fantry
at Ft. Devens, Mass., and
the third CCC district.
1 m i
Washout Pilot
Proves Menace
To Nazi Fliers
When they washed out 1st Lt.
Willard W. Milliken of Pilot Train­ing
School back in 1941 because
he was a "lousy pilot and a menace
to other fliers," the instructors evi­dently
forgot to mention that the
'other fliers" would be nazis.
Lt. Milliken went out last week
and shot down four ME-109s in a
ring-around-the-rosy air battle 12,-
000 feet over the Ruhr.
The Malvern, Iowa, flier was
tossed out of flying school in San
Diego after a field examiner's' ne­gative
report, so he earned his
wings with the R.A.F. flying for
the British from June to October,'
1942. Then he transferred to the
AAF.
Lt. Milliken now has 14 nazis to
his credit. During the four-slam,
his group of American Mustang
fighters trapped 25 Messerschmitts
Inside a circle of flaming Mustang
guns and knocked down 17,
The fourth enemy plane was the
most difficult to shoot down. Mil­liken
said: He took desperate eva­sive
action and went clear to the
deck. I finally kayoed him as he
came out of a slow roll. He crashed
in the woods and exploded. I al­most
did the same thing, for I
didn't realize I was so low.