Phillips High School - Phillipian Yearbook (Phillips, ME)

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THE PHILLIPIAN 23 THE UNITED STATES MARINES OMEVV HERE in the South Pacific three lapanese landing barges approach the shore of a tiny island. On the shore, 50 feet from the water's edge, wait two Marines about 19 years old, a machine gunner and a loader. The rest have gone inland to make their stand. The laps make their landing. The ma- chine gunner waits till the leader is 12 feet from the muzzle of his gun, then opens fire. These laps never went back. They were killed to a man by this gunner of the United States Marine Corps, who was found by his mates, dead, his fingers tightened on the trigger of his gun even in death. 'This is but one of many examples of hero- ism performed by the U. S. Marines. . You will find the Marines everywhere. They sail the seven seas, guard the shores of the United States, and go wherever else Uncle Sam needs them. The U. S. M. C. was first organized in 1775. Since then they have played a very important part in all the big and little wars of our country. They are a rapid moving, quickly mobilized body of men, pledged to serve their country anywhere and under any condition. In the course of its 169 years of existence, the Marine Corps has developed many fine traditions. The Marine emblem, for example, is not just a pretty trinket. It symbolizes Leather- neck employment. It explains in a glance that Marines take active parts in engage- ments on land, at sea, and in the air, hence the combination of the eagle, the anchor, and the hemisphere. The appellation Leatherneck relates to the Marine uniform. The fact that Marines in early days wore a black leather stock gave rise to a name that has been current for many generations. The Marines are, in fact, hard boiled, but only when their mission requires it. In the present war the Marines are mak- ing history again. They are the fellows who travel to the out of the way battlefronts, the Marianas, Saipan, Tarawa. I don't need to recount the retaking of these places lost to the laps. There isn't one of us here who hasn,t read about it and rejoiced. The class of 1945 wishes to express appre- ciation tonight to the boys of Phillips who help make the U. S. Marine Corps .the won- derful Hghting unit that it is. In all we have had four boys in the Ma- rine Corps. To those four boys, the class of 1945 wishes to pay tribute tonight. To Harvey Lovett, killed in action on Guadal- canal, to Tommy Thompson and Malcolm Hardy who were recently discharged, and to Azel Campbell, somewhere in the Pacific. Corydon Hardy TRIBUTE TO THE NAVY N the days before Pearl Harbor, when we thought of the Navy, we thought of glamour, adventure, of seeing the world. Today the thought of the Navy brings en- tirely different pictures to mind. Perhaps we see a convoy zig-zagging its way across the Atlantic carrying badly needed supplies to our fighting men. Or maybe we see the men of the Coast'Guard patrolling our shores on the lookout for submarines or spies. Or the Seabees, or the Merchant Marine. For all are branches of the United States Navy. On December 7, 1941, at 7:55 a. m., there arrived at Pearl Harbor 135 lapanese planes, to rain destruction on the most beautiful targets ever offered an aerial bombardier. Anchored side by side, without steam up, lay a long line of United States warships. VVhen those 155 lap planes left, half the battleships in the entire United States Navy were either sunk or rendered powerless for months to come. It was an awful blow and dearly we paid for it. But soon new ships were slipping off the ways-and more-and more, until again we took our place as a great naval power.

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22 THE PHILLIPIAN LITERARY DEPARTME T E are proud tonight to be able to place Old Glory on this platform. VVe love our Hag. each and every one of us, not only for its beauty, but for what it rep- resents. Land of our Hearts! A free land - free from want, free from fear, free to worship and to speak. Land of our Hearts, where the feet of the aggressors do not tread, where our flag waves in the breeze, a breeze untainted by falling bombs. Land of our Hearts, America! America, that boys from this school, from the class of 1945, are fighting for. VVe have reason to be proud of our coun- try, proud of its size, its resources, its people, its government. XVe like our way of life, a way of life based on freedom for all. When we read stories of conditions in cer- tain of the countries in Europe we realize anew that we would fight to the last man to keep America, American. Before Pearl Harbor, we were very poorly prepared for war. Why? Because America is not an aggressor nation. We are slow to fight. In one day-less than a day after Pearl Harbor we were changed from a peace lov- ing, easy-going people to a people eager to iight, maddened, ready to do anything to avepge that sneak attack by the japanese. Looking back it is hard to realize how fast we got into gear. In almost no time at all we had an army, a navy, and an air corps- not just adequate. but superior. Our factories were changed overnight from peace time production to war time production. Isn't a country that can do a thing like that worth lighting for? So again I say that we are proud to pre- sent the stars and stripes, representing a free people, a free land - the Land of our Hearts. Frank Beal E, the Class of 1945, are glad to wel- come you, parents, teachers, friends and relatives, members of the school board, and our superintendent, to our last gathering as members of Phillips High School. We realize that through the years of our school- ing you have helped to guide us and have taken an active interest in us and our prob- lems. We appreciate this and welcome you, one and all, to these graduating exercises. VVe have chosen for the title of our grad- uation program, Land of Our Hearts. Probably never more than now have we been made to realize how much this land of ours means to us: how very dear it is to our hearts. We look around us-our buildings stand tall and straight. We scan the sky- the planes we see are ours -we watch them out of sight, admiring their beauty and their speed. There is no one here tonight who has not, in the slight degree possible, pictured the terror that has reigned through long years in the European countries - the falling bombs, the smoking ruins, the death, the destruction. There is no one here who does not realize that without our mighty army, our navy, our marines -all branches of the armed services -our land, too, might be in the hands of our enemies. With full hearts we thank God that our land has been spared. Today Phillips, Avon, and Madrid have a total of 227 boys and girls in the armed forces. We are proud of them and will back them to the limit until peace is declared. There is so little that we at home can do for them! But we can express our apprecia- tion and gratitude, and that is what our class wishes to do tonight-pay tribute to the boys and girls of Phillips who have kept America the Land of Our Hearts. Marjorie Gould

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24 THE PH Who transports our troops to foreign shores? The Navy. Who carries supplies to them and to our allies? The Navy. Who makes it possible for us to help our allies? VVho guards our shores? The Navy. The class of 1945 wishes tonight to'pay tribute to the 33 boys and girls from Phillips who are serving with the United States Navy, and special tribute to the boys who, if they were not serving our country, would be receiving their diplomas with us tonight -- Mahlon Ross and Everett Caton. Carmond Moore TRIBUTE TO THE UNITED STATES ARMY AND THE ARMY AIR CORPS ROM the time of the Revolutionary War to the present time the army has played its heroic part in our history. ln the year 1940, before Pearl Harbor, we had a moderately small standing army. Now we have an army totaling over 8,000,000 men and women, the various branches of which are fighting together in one great unit, the like of which the world has never known. A very important branch of our mighty army, and one which appeals greatly to the youth of the nation, is the Army Air Corps. Ask any boy of grammar or high school age what he plans to do when he gets older and without a moment's hesitation he will say, loin the Air Corps. And no wonder. The fiier's life is full of glamor, thrills, danger. Death and destruc- tion to the enemy! The saving of a life for our friends! All through the Army Air Corps. A Somewhere we'll find you is the official motto of a group of mercy fliers organized to save the lives of American air men forced to bail out in enemy territory. It is no easy motto to live up to, for sometimes this group of fiiers has to cover territory where no white man has ever before set foot. A certain Captain Spruell, a medical offi- cer with the rescue unit, was aboard a mercy plane, when word was received that a C-47 had crash-landed in the Himalayas after a lap attack, and the engineer had a broken ILLIPIAN back. XVithout hesitation Spruell bailed out over the wreck, strapped the engineer's back, hired native stretcher bearers from a nearby village and personally led the party on a perilous three-week journey over the moun- tain passes back to India. Such incidents as these make us proud of our army and proud of the 182 men and women of Phillips who help to make it the great organization that it is. We pay special tribute to Leslie Adley, Elwood Campbell, Richard Stinchfield, Vinton Kennedy, Ger- ald Corson, Floyd Norton, Lawrence Kelley, Glendon Smith and Leon Works of our own class. Delvine Vose VALEDICTORY - I THE YOUTH OF AMERICA N the days before the war, Phillips, like other towns, was a thriving center of business. Saturday nights many cars lined Main Street, and every day countless num- bers of cars and trucks went to and from this town. Garages did an enormous business. Gro- cery store shelves and refrigerators were well stocked. One could see at almost any time during the day a crowd of loafers, older boys as well as high school boys, collected in front of the post office or barber shop. War, cruel war, has changed all this! Ex- cepting for an occasional truck or car, Main Street is so quiet that every day seems like Sunday to a passer-by. ' Our class, more than any other, has felt the effect of this war! While we were soph- omores, the first boy from our class, Elwood Campbell, was drafted. Since then eleven boys who would have graduated tonight have been called into the armed forces! During those carefree days before the war, we young people thought only of pleasure outside of school hours. The serious side of life never occurred to us. Boys fiocked to the bowling alley and pool room, and we girls were making plans for dances. Our elders called us soft-and we were.