PRSRT STD US POSTAGE PAID CLAYTON, CA PERMIT 190
IT’S YOUR PAPER www.claytonpioneer.com
November 28, 2003
925.672.0500
Mayor warns governor of fire danger With the advent of the rainy season, the immediate fire danger to Mt. Diablo and the foothills may not be so immediate. But, past legislation outlawing cattle grazing from Mt. Diablo State Park has left us vulnerable and unprotected. The deadly destruction and devastation in southern California last month painfully reminds us that we are but one spark away from disaster. In a November 6 letter to the new governor, Mayor Pete Laurence places the state of California on notice. Clayton demands a remedy--sooner, not later.
Photo courtesy KCTS-TV, Seattle, WA
BRITISH TROOPSHIP, HMT ROHNA
US keeps disaster secret for 50 years BY TAMARA STEINER Clayton Pioneer
On November 11 every year, we honor our veterans. We remember their bravery, celebrate the survivors of war and mourn those that didn’t come home. But, a lesser known anniversary also falls in November. In this article, we remember and honor the survivors and casualties of the worst troopship disaster in World War II.
November 25, 1943, Thanksgiving Day, Army Air Corpsman, Corporal Bill Casky and 1,980 other American soldiers boarded His Majesty’s Transport Rohna, “a dark gray, spooking looking,” rusty, coal burning British troopship and set sail in a 24
BILL
CASKY
ship convoy bound for bases in China, Burma and India. For 1,015 GI’s that day, a meal of canned chicken and weevil infested biscuits would be their last Thanksgiving dinner. At dusk on the second day out, the Rohna, was hit by the world’s first guided missile. Within an hour, the ship sunk. Six hundred men died instantly. The rest died on the decks, or were battered by malfunctioning lifeboats swinging uselessly on rusted and jammed cables against the side of the Rohna, or were burned to death in the flaming waters, or were killed by gunfire as the Germans strafed the drowning men. Many got too tired and cold to hold on to whatever piece of debris they had been able to grab onto and simply let go, rolled over and drowned. It was the greatest loss of American personnel at sea during World War II. Casky, now 80 and a long time Clayton resident, was one of the luckier ones that night. He was playing cards, fan-tan (7UP) with five friends on the third deck down when the attack began and immediately got up on deck where he watched the radio-
guided bomb leave the German Heinkel 177. “I saw the bomb being released,” recalls Casky. “I didn’t know exactly what it was. I didn’t know it was radio controlled. There was no way in the world that it could miss.” The bomb hit the Rohna, cutting through the engine room and leaving a “hole the size of a house” in each side of the ship— where it went in, and where it came out--and over 600 dead soldiers in between. A sweet natured, unassuming man with an impish smile, Casky’s throat still tightens and he swallows hard when he talks about the night the Rohna went down. Everything went wrong, he remembers. There weren’t enough lifeboats, and most of them were useless. The men were never shown how to use the life belts. Most wore them around their waists instead of up under their arms, causing them to tip over in the water. Casky’s life belt didn’t inflate and he had to blow it up by mouth. When the bomb hit, he scrambled up top and “got the hell overboard,” lowering himself over the side and dropping 30 feet into the freezing, oily water, where he
See Rohna, Page 2
Ann Tompach is remembered Ann Tompach, retired Deputy City Manager of Clayton, passed away peacefully in her sleep at home on Nov. 7. Ann began her career with the City of Clayton as a planning secretary in August 1974. She served as deputy city clerk for a time and helped in the finance department before becoming the Deputy City Manager. She retired in July, 1993. Co-worker, Lynn Cupit, an accounting technician, remembers Ann as a true professional, representing the city in its best form. “Ann had great respect for the city and for herself. Her expectations and her standards
were high—she expected the best from people, and got it.” Ann was also known for her sense of humor. “She didn’t bring her ego to work with her,” recalls Cupit. Born in Murphysboro, Illinois to the late William and Irene Sherman, Ann moved to California in 1959 and lived here for the next 43 years. She was preceded in death by her father, William; mother, Irene; and brothers, Winston, Wendell and James Sherman. She is survived by her loving husband of 43 years, Norm, and three children, Lisa Wolf, Scott Tompach and Kristan Gerald, and seven grand-
children, Nicholas (Nick) and Erika Wolf, Travis, Carra, and Lauren Tompach, Melissa and Morgan Gerald. Ann brought great joy to her family, friends and the community. She loved spending time with her children and grandchildren and she enjoyed participating in the development of Clayton. At her request, a private memorial has taken place. Donations in her memory may be made to The Greater Bay Area Make a Wish Foundation, 120 Montgomery Street, Suite, 1080, San Francisco, CA 941044313. The Neptune Society of
MARGARET ANN TOMPACH September 14, 1928 November 7, 2003 Northern California handled arrangements.
Dear Governor Elect Schwarzenegger: The recent southern California fires are a travesty, killing 21 citizens and 1 firefighter, destroying nearly 3,600 homes and charring more than 743,000 acres of brush and timber. More than 27,000 people remain displaced by our state’s largest-ever wildfire. And yet, these deadly fires are poised to repeat themselves elsewhere in California, including communities surrounding the base of Mt. Tamalpais in Marin County and those like my community and others surrounding the baseline of Mt. Diablo in Contra Costa County. As Mayor of the town of Clayton on the north slope of Mt. Diablo, we were once fairly well protected through annual cattle grazing that kept the fuel loads to a manageable level on these state park lands and dedicated open space. When Clayton suffered its last fire in 1977, it burned for 3.5 days the entire north side of the mountain down to our houses until firefighters finally extinguished it, once again with the aid of a rainstorm. Then, in the early 1990s, environmental groups heavily lobbied to have existing cattle grazing removed from Mt. Diablo State Park. Our City, along with EVERY other city in Contra Costa County, the County Board of Supervisors, state assemblymembers, and EVERY Fire Department agency in our County lobbied to retain grazing activities, at least in key buffer areas of the lower foothills. Pro-grazing as a resource management tool was embraced at that time by science, public safety, ranchers, and by common sense but ultimately the State Department of Parks, on a close split vote, sided with the environmentalist’s bidding. Grazing was subsequently restricted within Mt. Diablo State Park, offering instead only 20-30 feet of an annually-disced buffer in some places between our homes and the State-purchased open space, right down to the edges of our pre-existing homes. We now have almost 10 seasons of “no grazing” and chronic build-up of fuel load on these lands, making the entire area of Mt. Diablo a powder keg firebomb just prime for another dry lightening storm, irresponsible hiker, arsonist or even a terrorist reeking havoc on our surrounding communities. Now that rains have started and the fire season is ending, we have approximately six (6) months to
devise and implement a responsible resource plan to lessen this fire tragedy just waiting to happen. Your State Department of Parks and Recreation is most likely still sympathetic to the environmental extremists who insist upon a “no grazing” policy at any location. At the time of our discussions in the early 1990s, the California Department of Forestry similarly spouted that party line, saying such silly things as ... “we are at no risk because fires don’t burn downhill,” and ... “you shouldn’t have built houses up to our park,” blindly ignoring the true fact that our homes were already there before the land was purchased by the State down to their property lines. Such faulty reasoning needs to be seriously re-examined, and quickly. We in Clayton hold the State of California responsible for any and all loss of life and loss of property that will undoubtedly occur the next time Mt. Diablo State Park catches fire. Just as a private property owner who negligently maintains a fire danger that harms or kills others, we expect that the State will extinguish the next fire and summarily pay any and all costs related to loss of life and property, whether private or public. It is the State of California’s negligence that consciously allows fuel load on this neighboring land to increase unabated. It is the State’s implemented policy (unlike East Bay Regional Park District and our own City policies for municipal-owned open space) that outlaws cattle grazing as a responsible and effective management tool. And, it is the State of California that we are placing on notice once again of this serious fire danger that can be, and must be, remedied as soon as possible. Our City stands ready at any time to work with your new administration and other state agencies to rectify this egregious problem and oversight on our border, and hopefully in a way that also saves other communities, life and property surrounding urban parks. Urban park settings need some distinct regulations and protections in this regard, contrary to accepted practices in the remote Sierras. It is time for a change, a new beginning of no longer “business as usual.” Sincerely, Peter A. Laurence Mayor