Lincoln Academy - Lincolnian Yearbook (Newcastle, ME)

Page 31 text:

THE LINCOLNIAN At 9 30 Ff1daV mornmg lt came and read WILL PAY ALL EXPENSES FOR YOUR BOY TO GO THROUGH COLLEGE IF AFTERWARD HE WILL ACCEPT POS ITION IN MY FIRM STOP SAME OFFER IS OPEN TO OTHER BOV CALLED TOM STOP LET ME KNOW STOP J P GILD HURST Worthen LEWIS 42 DEFENDER The mornmg of December 7 1941 dawn ed clear and cool 1n the small town of M1n dalo on the West coast of Luzon 1n the Ph1l1pp1nes In Splte of the cold It was a beautlful mornmg Whlle Prlvate Ph1l Henden wearlly opened h1s eyes they ga? ed upon a brlght sun r1s1ng majestlcally over the harbor at MaHda1O Although Ph1l had been at M1nda1o but three weeks he had begun to admlre the natural beauty of the harbor and shorelme As Ph1l dress ed qulckly he thought to hlmself of thmgs more serlous than the beautv of the town 1n whlch he had been statloned He thought to hlmself for lnstance of the broadcast yesterday The words of the Manllla announcer came clearly back to h1s m1nd The Serlousness of the Sltua t1on can hardly be expressed 1n words We must be prepared for any eventual1ty The cunmngness of our prospect1ve enemy IS well known Ph1l forgot these words however as he answered the call to mess He thought only of h1s tasks that day Sp6C1dl target practlce on the back range spec1al class es 1n swamp Hghtlllg technlque and many others beslde h1s regular dutles Thmgs were certalnly belng rushed lately Ph1l thought to hlmself after h1s target practlce was over Most of the leaders on the West coast were Jlttery Ph1l declded General McArthur was slowly workmg the natlve populace to a fervor Colonel Dav1dson had four tlmes the past week lectured to hlS officers on war t1me condltlons Even Ph1ls fellow prlvates seemed to wear a somewhat grave expresslon on thelr faces The .laps were trlcky they all knew that They all knew that at any moment they mlght become engaged xn a fight for thexr very exlstence They all knew that It was posslble yes even probable They all knew a lot that the people back ln the States dldnt know The men at the small a1r base got the news first It came 1n around eleven 1n the mornlng It astonlshed no one Ph1l heard It around noon The Japs had attacked Pearl Harbor ln HHWHII They had landed trcops on the Northern shore Thev had bombed Manllla In Splte of all thxs there was no great excltement as Ph1l knew there would be back 1n the States In the evening the men llstened to Mc Arthur over the radlo from Manlla He told them what they already knew He told them to expect 1nvas1on at any hour and to take means to resxst that 1nvas1on It seemed funny to Ph1l to thmk of belng a defender He had come to the Ph1l1p p1nes from North Carolma hopmg for act lon He was golng to get It now but 1n a dlfferent marner than he had expected The officers bore down somewhat dur mg the next few days Hasty preparatlons were made Unlts of natlve Ph1l1pp1ne de fenders were sent to the 11th Dlx 1s1on at M1Hd31O A closer feelmg 8X1St6d between the natlves and the U S Army troops than Ph1l had wltnessed slrce commg to the Ph1l1pp1nes a year ago Together they waxted for what they knew was commg what men llke McArthur had warned them was comlng elghteen months ago On the fourteenth Jap bombers attack ed two destroyers IH the harbor slnklng one and wrecklng havoc and confuslon 1n the town ltself This was the prelude to the real thlng Ph1l guessed as he watched the A A s Qantlaxrcraftsj send a Jap bomber crashmg down ln flames The bombardment lasted for two hours unt1l darkness had fallen over the vlllage In the nlgnt the transports came steamlng outslde the harbor and at the first streak of dawn they made a mad rush for the land l'h1s was the Slght that greeted Ph1l and the rest of the men when thev awoke A Jap battleshlp was unmerc1fullv pound 1ng the a1rport and barracks The damage brought about by thls surprlse attack was great When at last effectlve fire had begun to be poured mtc the transports Ph1l and a dozen of h1s comrades were squat squarely behmd new machlne guns brought from the States last month By this tlme the 29 . v . as - v - f . - , . . . - 1 s 1 1 ' . ' 7 . 7 - ' , . . , - . , y , I . . Y a - ' 7 .1 , . . . . i H . . - . . ' a I . - ,, . . Q l U I I I ' ' . . u. f ' v s . . 1 - - , - . . - V . . Q . A V . . . ' V ' . v . ' . r ' ' - . , . ' ' V . ' 1 , , a I n u A

Page 30 text:

28 THE LINCOLNIAN IBLE MOMENT STOP BAKER AND BAKER ATTY S AT LAW Young Wllllam W1l11ams reread the w1re ln a sort of dazed sllence he notrced 1n a detached sort of way that h1s knees were tremblmg and that he would soon need a chalr wh1ch was fortunately just behmd h1m else he would have found hlmself rn the ungentlemanly pos1t1on of s1tt1ng on the floor The clock 1n the hall tlcked off three full mmutes before B1lly came to h1s senses then Wlth a yell that would have done credlt to a Moro bushman he dashed 1nto the kltchen 1n search of hls mother and s1ster Mrs W1ll1amS who was to be truthful only Blllys step mother suddenly found her kltchen 1nvaded by what she took to be a young tornado A hand grabbed her by the arm and a telegram was dangled be fore her eyes She read It and turned to B1lly Wlth a happy llght sh1n1ng ID her eyes B1lly she sa1d lf what th1s says IS true then all our worrles about sendlng you to college th1s fall are over but lf lt IS not true we are doomed to a terrlbla. dxsappolntment for I cannot remember any of your relatlves who could posslbly have had so much money unless She thought a moment I dont know you had an uncle once who was supposed to have had money You run along Ill Wlfe h1m and see B1lly dashed out the door IH search of h1s s1ster He found her under the old elm tree talk1ng to Dora Brown whom he conslder ed to be everlastlngly stuck up the reason belng that she was the daughter of a sena tor He passed the telegram to L1la and no tlced even rn h1s breathless haste that Dora Brown was readlng 1t over her should er Then an astonlshlng change occurred Whlle h1s s1ster st1ll sat 1n a daze Dora looked up and gxvlng h1m one of the sweet est smlles 1mag1nab1e sa1d Why B1lly you lucky boy I can t lmaglne anyone who deserves this more than you Why didnt you tell me you had rxch relat1ves'7 B1lly could falrly see the honey and sugar coat1ng on her words and h1s answer was characterlstlc of hls frank attltude to wards llfe Aw gee Mlss Brown I didnt know It myself untll I got th1s and he waved the telegram Excellent she laughed You always were a good Joker B1lly B1llys eyes narrowed He had never spoken more than a few words to th1s glrl IH all h1s llfe She had never spoken to h1m unless C1Vll1Z6d courtesy absolutely de manded It She had alwavs lmpressed h1m as th1nk1ng that he and mans other m1d dle class people were far beneath her Why th1S sudden change unless It was the money? Soon howex er M1ss Dora Brown depart ed leavlng B1lly and h1s sister an unheard of thmg an 1nv1tat1on to attend her monthly party an 1nv1tat1on they both a greed to forget about That afternoon the news was all over town The majorlty of people were glad for B1lly Wxlhams was an honest and very hkeable youth B1lly had scheduled for that afternoon a Hshlng tr1p w1th h1s eternal compan1on Tom Owen When two oclock came and Tom had not arrlved B1lly declded to tele phone and see what was hold1ng h1m He d1d and was lmmedlately connected w1th Tom thought we were golng fishlng I heard you d got a lot of money I fig ured you wouldn t care about me or about fishmg anymore Get th1s sa1d Bxllv my gettlng money doesn t mean anythmg to my real frlends You get your thlngs and meet me 1n front of the house They met and walked up Maln Street together People that B1lly never knew exlsted before spoke to h1m IH a frlendly fashlon He was surprlsed at h1s number of new frlends but was glad that he st1ll had h1s real ones An hour later two local boys who had been fishlng along Muddy Rn er rescued a half drowned old man who had sllpped IDIO the rlver from a ledge whlle he was admlrmg the scenery The man was Mr GlldhUfSI a m1ll1ona1re and the boys were Tom and B1lly Mr Glldhurst had come to town to correct a very grave mlstake made by h1s lawyers Baker and Baker B1lly took Mr Glldhurst home brought h1m dry clothes and left h1m to talk w1th hrs mother a Ll 77 S5 . . Y 1 vs - V yy, . . . . . , , 7 . , . . . y . Q 7 . I s , V y ' - Y . . Y . . . . . . , , ' Y 7 . ' 7 7 ' 7 , - . Y . ' 7 4- ' vv ' sa' ' ' ' I I 7 7 - , . . 7 Gb 7 77 ' GL - - Whats the matter? asked B1lly. I ' ' H H . 44 a H ' y - 5 1 , ' .77 ' ' 77 . is ' 77 ' ' L6 ' ' 7 JY . . . Y ' . ' . ' 97 , - . ' 9 7 7 ' . . . , ' s ' V , .v -y v . - ' , ' - 7 . ' ' 7 . . ' ' 31 . . '. 1 ' ' ' I . ' a a 7 - , I . ., . . , . . s 1 1 . , . . . ,, . . . 7 7

Page 32 text:

THE LINCOLNIAN Japs were landing Although Ph1l and the other machme gunners were cuttmg down a large number of them they seemed to come from an unendlng reservolr Hordes of the small yellow rats stormed the beach Machlne guns of the enemy began barklng and the commandlng ofTlcer Colonel Davldson lssued the order to re treat to previously prepared posltlons There they could take account of stock When they had figured thelr losses they calculated that they had 400 men left wh1le they were opposed by a force that probably exceeded 1500 Ph1l Henden was not afrald He knew that they could not stem the yellow txde that was slowly creepmg up to them Yet he had confidence 1n thelr ab1l1ty to re treat and Joxn the other defenders of Luzon If they had had any a1r support lt might have been dlfferent But all the avallable planes were bemg used over Mamlla and Nlchols Fleld As a result con tmuous straflng of the Amerlcan ranks spelled dlsaster to the Amcrlcan cause Phxl survlved the next few days of hell He retreated day after day unt1l at last 2000 Japanese were bexng thrown agamst 200 Amerlcans who relied on their artlll ery and machxne guns to stop the yellow per1l that was now at thexr very throats God the magor port1on of the remamxng 200 men reached the ma1n army of Gener al Douglas McArthur You know the rest of the story The weary defenders retreated to Mamlla lost that Clty and by a superb maneuver swerved north west agaln to the Battan Penlnsula Phll was k1lled on February 1 Under the strafing of low flylng planes the Amerxcan machlne gunners were forc ed to retreat hurrledly maklng falrly easy targets for Jap sharpshooters He d1d not know what happened xt was all over m a second A bullet that mlght have been made wlth American lead creased h1s bram clearly He dropped wlthout a sound The followmg message was dellvered to Mrs John Henden last week at Wanvllle North Carollna The War Department re grets to report that your son was k11led ln action on February 1 wh1le defendlng Amerxcan terrltory That was all that was necessarv She un derstood Her son had been k11led IH the l1ne of duty He had been a defender of Amex-1ca To All Americans Somewhere somehow there has been a SGFIOUS sllp up ln the past few years We Ln the States have dlsre garded the pleas of men llke McArth ur men who knew what was comlng There wxll be a lot of Phll Hendens ID thxs war They wlll be killed on many fronts 1n many ways It IS our duty to stop th1s confllct as quxckly as poss 1ble and then to llsten to our leaders and preserve the peace that follows Jascha French 43 A NEW YEAR S RESOLUTION Gladys Evans walklng down Fanton Street met Edlth Young who was a ye1y dear frlend of hers Made any New Year s resolutlons Ed1e'7 asked Gladys Ive made a resolutlon that Ill take my best hat upstalrs after this Bob cut all the feathers off It this mornlng and put them on his darts I was so mad I could have cheerfully kllled hlm said Edlth He took mother s frult knlfe mxnd you to cut them off Aren t k1d brothers awful asked Gladys Just this mormng D1ck broke my badmmton racquet k1ll1ng some kmd of a mole xn the cellar and elther he or Bob took my l1pst1ck to palnt hlmself up when he was playmg Indnan Honestly Edle I m gettlng txred of those brats You arent the only one Look' There comes Mrs Sp1nner known as Old Fly away Goodness' She looks mad Do you suppose Bob and D1ck have done anythmg to her Search me but we w1ll soon find out Watch out for the wxndstorm' Sald Edle Where are those brothers of yours Where are they I say? Gosh Idont know Ol Eh I mean Mrs Sp1nner Were you lookxng for them? Do you want them? Well what do you suppose I asked for them for lf I dldnt want them? I havent seen them smce thls morn mg replxed Gladys 'J .10 . t V , - , . - : 3 - . ' . . ' 7 - , . 1 . ' . , . ' ' . , 1 7 . I ' - 9 - . . . . 1 Y . . , . . . . , . , , - ,. v . . . sf ' ' 3 I I ' H , ' as 1 ' Y Y ' . 1 1 ' . l' ' 77 ' ' K6 v , . , , . . . Wlth Amerlcan courage and the help of H r ' 3 l gg 9- ' 51 ' H . . . Y 4 , - I 1 ! - v , . . . . 7 , . . ' , . , , . . ,, . . L6 1 - . , . . Y . , ' ' ' 7 1 Q . . , as Q l u ' . . ,, . . . L6 V , I Q! u I 4 , 66 7 , I y 9 1 ' ' n ' ' 1 . . ' ' U - an . t , ' ' ' v as ' ' ' sl 1 - - , - ' - n . ,, . ' V n