The ORD news [January 12, 1945]

              1060TH AAF
BASE UNIT THE ORD NEWS TWc STAMP MAILS
NEWS' HOME
VOL. 3. NO. 36. Greensboro, N. C, Friday, January 12, 1945. FREE DISTRIBUTION
GI Driver's License Is D iploma At This School
THREE DAYS of study at the Motor Pool's these EM are listening to Pfc. Grady N. Martin
Drivers' Preventive Maintenance School are re- lecture on safe driving. Principal emphasis of the
quired of all GIs and civilians before they can course is on safety. At its completion, applicants
get a license to drive ORD automotive equipment, for an ORD license are given a written exam and
T-1436 has been turned into a classroom, where a driver's test.
Land, Ho!
First Sight Of I/. S. Soil
Great Moment For Vets
By T/SGT. DAVE PETERSON
The greatest day in a soldier's life, they call-it.
No, not the day he's discharged . . . or even the day he
marries the little gal back on the farm who waited for
him. It's the day he comes home from overseas . . . the
day his ship sails into an American port. The day, the
hour, the moment he first sees a dim, far-off speck that
he knows is United States soil and the time which passes
from then until he first sets foot on American terra firma.
That time of waiting, after land*
is first, sighted, and until eventual
disembarkation, is a great emo­tional
sfrain. The returning GI
suffars,' and acutely, every emotion
in the book.
My "great day" is a New York
Har'oor story but it might well
apply to any other harbor. The
emotions felt are much the same.
The night before the morning
we were to come into port the
undercurrent of excitement which
had existed on board was coming
to a head. Hardly any one went
to bed early and at midnight the
decks and rails were lined with
men. Usually they were in small
groups of four or five engaged in
conversation, but now and then
you would see a lone wolf standing
along a rail somewhere looking far
off into the night.
The "bull sessions," as conversa­tion
is called in army lingo, were
even more varied than usual that
night. Some still talked of war
and army and overseas, but by far
the larger share seemed suddenly
unable to talk shop any more.
For so long these boys had been
laughing and joking about things
that weren't funny at all. Things
often tragic, full of pathos which
must be laughed at arid joked
about to help break the tension.
Now it was as if a curtain had
suddenly been lifted. Men were
suddenly daring to talk again;
" daring to talk and talk freely
about things which had long been
taboo.
The relief of being able to talk
naturally again had diverse effects.
Some became sentimental, others
talked almost hysterically, some
lied more fluently, boasted more
flagrantly. And then there were
"others who didn't talk at all but
(Continued On Page Three)
This Week's Yarn
About Der Fuehrer
London (CNS)—Although the
worries of war are turning his
hair gray, the eyes of Adolf Hit­ler
still "beam with youthful ra-
' diance," according to an article
prepared by Propaganda Minister
Paul Joseph Goebbels for publi­cation
in Das Reich. "Never does
a word of deception or of base
intent cross his lips," the Goeb­bels'
article adds. "He is truth it­self."
Suggestions Earn
Prizes For Seven
GIs And Civilians
Seven awards, ranging from cig-arets
and theater tickets to each
awards of as much as $10, have
been claimed in recent weeks by
ORD personnel, both military and
civilian,, for ideas submitted to the
post Suggestion Box committee.
Awards are made for any and
all suggestions which are approved
by the committee and adopted for
post use.
Installation of newly - designed
suggestion boxes at several new
locations was announced this week
by the committee. The receptacles
are now located in the following
buildings:
T-l. 2, 6, 580, 563, 519, 963, 845,
735, 692, 609, 286, 110, 118, 76, 1200,
1271, 1326, 1440, 499, 488 and the
Motor Pool. Boxes at the Message
Center and in Building T-1525 will
be replaced as soon as they have
been repainted.
Prize Winners.
Suggestion Box prize winners,
their awards and the ideas which
earned them prizes and letters of
commendation, are announced by
the committee as follows:
Pvt. W. B. Fravert, who sug­gested
that recorded music be played
in WD theaters before movies. His
award was a book of theater tickets.
Miss Elizabeth Smith, whose sug­gestion
that a sign be placed at the
rear of Post Headquarters showing
bus schedules, won her an award
of $10.
Mrs. Betty S. Stewart, who
claimed an award of $5 for suggest­ing
that Post Headquarters offices
be numbered.
Lt. John C. Vance, who received
a letter of commendation for sug­gesting
that the courtesy of Retreat
be included in training lectures.
Lt. Louis Loewenstein, whose
suggestion that vehicle lights be
dimmed on post to lessen hazard
to pedestrian traffic. He received
a carton of cigarets.
Cpl. Joseph E. Dudas, who re­ceived
a $5 PX credit award for
suggesting that the CO of each
section appoint an EM to go through
section barracks to collect bottles
for the dispensary, due to the pres­ent
shortage of such bottles.
S/Sgt. Thomas C. Walker, who
claimed a carton of cigarets for
Will Ask Post
Contributions
In Dime Drive
In two more days the Dimes will
be "marching" at ORD.
Every section and department on
the post is entering whole-hearted­ly
into preliminary plans for the
campaign to raise funds with which
to combat infantile paralysis. The
drive begins January 14 and con­tinues
through January 30.
An extensive march of dimes pro­gram
is being planned at ORD
under the direction of Mai. L. B.
Cannon, designated as liaison offi­cer,
and with the assistance of the
Officers' Wives club, Special Serv­ices
and the Post Camouflage sec­tion.
Although full details of the post
campaign have not yet been an
nounced, the drive will include
large posters produced by the
camouflage artists and the placing
of milk bottles in convenient places
for voluntary contributions.
No individual solicitations will
be made, according to a statement
made by Col. Paul R. Younts, post
commander, nor will collections be
taken at pay tables. The CO said,
however, that "since this effort is
to aid a most needy and worthy
cause, I feel confident that each
and every member of this station
will want to have some part in the
campaign."
The Officers' Wives club will
sponsor a benefit bridge and bingo
party January 31, with all funds
being turned over to the March of
Dimes fund.
Post-Wide Safety
Campaign Started
Elimination Of Accident Hazards
Will Be Goal Of New Committees
"Reduction and elimination of all accident hazards"
became the safety goal of ORD as the post's already
highly successful safety program was intensified this
week.
Committees have already been organized in each sec­tion
to search out possible causes for accidents and similar
groups are to be formed in the various ORD depart­ments,
according to Maj. Orville S. Thompson, Ground
[Safety Officer.
"Time lost from work
Well, All Right I
Romantic Site,
Soft Lights-
Dance Tonight!
Soft lights and sweet music
will form the romantic, un-GI
setting tonight for the first of a
series of weekly membership
dances to be held in the attrac­tive
new clubrooms of the post
NCO club.
Music for the affair will be
furnished by an ORD dance or­chestra
known as the "Trouba-dors,"
and admission will be by
membership card only. Dancing
will begin at 8:30.
Work of decorating the new
clubrooms, which had not been
completed at the time of the
formal opening two weeks ago,
has since progressed steadily, and
many other • improvements have
been made to the quarters. A
club grill is now being installed,
and floors throughout the build­ing
have been re-sanded for the
added enjoyment of the dancers.
The NCO clubrooms are located
in Building T-646.
Post Real Estate
Officer Handles
Price Complaints
Soldiers of this post who have
complaints to make regarding any
instances of overcharging by civil­ian
merchants, landlords or other
cases where it is believed laws reg­ulating
price control have been
violated are invited to bring their
cases to the post Real Estate office,
Capt. Joseph A. Lauren, post RE of­ficer,
announced today.
This office has been established
to prooess complaints of all mili­tary
personnel of this station and
to be of any assistance in securing
adequate off-post housing.
French Classes Held
Each Tuesday Night
Classes in conversational French
are currently being offered every
Tuesday night from 7 to 9 at the
hospital, building T-1210.
Under the direction of Pvt.
Franklin Bills, these classes are
open to all military personnel.
Studies are arranged so that a be­ginner
may enter the class at any
time and still receive full value
from the course.
because
of accidents cuts down our effi­ciency
as a working military unit,"
explained the major's assistant, Lt.
John W. Baker, who returned last
week from Southern Methodist
University where he attended a
ten-day safety course. "In the re­duction
and elimination of all ac­cident
hazards lies the key to the
maximum use of our military and
civilian manpower."
The safety committees of each
section are headed by an officer,
assisted by a non-com and five
other enlisted men. Their func­tion
is to report on anything that
might be the cause of an accident
. . . for example, a loose or miss­ing
plank in a boardwalk.
Similar committees are to be
established in the warehouses, car­penter
shops and all other depart­ments
where civilians work.
"ORD already has an outstanding
safety record," Lt. Baker declared.
"Since last February there have
been only 25 accidents causing ci­vilian
employes to lose time from
their jobs. That represents a steady
decrease in the accident rate here.
Not New To AAF.
The stress of safety is not new
to the Air Forces. During his train­ing
as a bombardier and during the
thirty missions he flew with the 8th
Air Force, Lt. Baker saw at first
hand the remarkable results that
have been achieved by the AAF's
flying safety program. The same
attention is now being devoted to
the elimination of accidents on the
ground.
Safety courses, which have been
held at Southern Methodist, where
Lt. Baker was a member Of the
last class, are held regularly for
safety officers and civilian safety
engineers. The courses are devoted
to methods that can be used to re­duce
accidents and create safety
consciousness at AAF installations.
The ORD civilian safety engineer,
Mr. John B. Kirkman, makes con­tinual
inspections of such things as
projects run by the post engineer
to check for accident hazards. He
attended one of the Southern
Methodist classes last fall.
Reports on all accidents at ORD
are given to the Ground Safety
Office which moves into action
promptly to see how they can be
avoided in the future. The office
works closely, with all departments
of the post.
Once a month there is a meeting
of a Ground Safety Committee,
which includes representatives from
most of the units that make up
ORD. At that time all accidents are
reviewed with a discussion concen­trated
on how they can be prevent­ed
from re-occurring.
Important Changes Made In GI Insurance;
Optional Payment Plan May Be Requested
Among the many War Depart
ment circulars emanating from
Washington, D. C, these days,
there's one—No. 457—hot off the
presses, that will be of special in­terest
to the GI with govern­ment
insurance.
Under a new method of pay­ment—
the Refund Life Income
plan— a GI is now guaranteed
that- the full amount of his policy
will be paid off, despite the age
of his beneficiary.
Heretofore, a soldier could only
be certain that the Veterans Ad­ministration
would make 120 pay­ments
if the beneficiary were
over 30 years of age, and that
upon the death of the beneficiary,
the next in line of the immediate
family as designated by the sol­dier
would receive only the re­mainder
of the 120 payments not
yet paid out. In other words, un­der
the old plan, a 50 year old
beneficiary with $10,000 NSL In­surance
was guaranteed 120 cer­tain
monthly payments "of $53.90
each. This would amount to
suggesting that Staff office floors 468. If the beneficiary lived long-be
oiled as are barracks floors. er, payments would continue un­til
death. But if the beneficiary
died in five years after the pay­ments
began, only the remainder
of that $6,468 would be given to
the contingent beneficiary. And
GI Joe's family would "lose" $3,-
532.
Under the new plan, however,
the payments are paid out in
equal monthly amounts over a
period of time which cannot be
less than 120 months, dependent
upon the age of the beneficiary
at the time of the soldier's death.
If the beneficiary who is receiv­ing
the payments should die be­fore
the full value of the policy
is paid off, the remainder of the
policy is payable to the contingent
beneficiaries—or, if the insurance
is already converted, to the
estate.
For example, if, under the Re­fund
Life plan, at the time of a
soldier's death, he has a $10,000
policy with a 50 year old benefic­iary,
payments of $50.40 per
month would be paid out for 199.
monthly installments. If the first
beneficiary should die in 5 years,
next in line would continue to
receive the same $50.40 per month
payments until the full $10,000 is
paid out.
Each Case Differs.
This new plan, however, might
not be desirable for the GI who
has a beneficiary under 30 years
of age. The insurance law calls
for 240 certain monthly pay­ments
for beneficiaries in this
class, and if they live longer than
this period, payments would con­tinue
until death, sometimes giv-
| ing the beneficiary up to $16,000
on a $10,000 policy. But under the
new WD Circular No. 457, the
complete payment could not ex­ceed
$10,000.
_ The old plan may also be prac­ticable
for middle-aged bene­ficiaries
if they are in perfect
health and may be expected to
live above the Experience Table
of Mortality, which is 68 years for
men and 69 years for women.
This, however, is a gamble.
To change from one plan to
another, a GI will have to Indi­cate
his wishes to his finance or
personal affairs clerk in the or­derly
room.