USS Wakefield rings China Veterans Home 5,125 officers ana enlisted men, high point veterans of the first and Sixth Marine Divisions, who have been on occupation duty in China, since Japan's capitulation. arrived in San Diego fJiday morning aboard the USS Wakefield. As the veteran Marines marched down the gangway and touched the old "terra firma" of the states for the first time in many months, they were serenaded by the Marine Corps Base Band. "wolf calls" filled the air when the pretty USO路 birls, on hand to welcome the boys and distribute doughnuts and coffee, milk, candy and other small gifts, were spotted by the Leathemecks.
VOLUME 4
45 POINTERS UISCH RGED AT CAM PEN Four hundred Marines, most of them 45-point men, Friday were discharged from separation company here the day the drop in points became effective. Cutting the critical score to 45 made it possible for this recordbreaking mass discharge, the 'highest number of men to be turned into civilian life in a single day from separation company. Included in the group of newly made civilians are men of nearly every vocation on record. Approximately 50 per cent of the group ,h8--ve stated they have a job tn return to while 30 per cent plan to go to school. The other 20 per cent is not sure what the future holds. Among those being discharged is Pfc. William C. Jacobson, of Bonner, Montana, who plans to play' professional baseball with the St. Louis Cardinals. Jacobson, who took part in the Philippine liberation, also hopes to attend classes at the University of Montana. Corp. Ralph B. Tyree, 24-yearold california artist, also is returning to civilian life. Planning to make his home in Sacramento, Tyree became well known for his painting and decorating which in the Corps. Roxie B. Humberson, Leatherneck sergeant, also plans to take l,lp professional baseball as a civ(Continued on page 8)
Wives, sweethearts and families of many of the returning veterClIl拢. were among the happy reception throng. Represe:ltatives of the various Press Bureaus, News Reels, Newspapers and Radio networks, were in attendance to record th~ joyous homecoming. Following the debarkation festivities the veterans were taken to the R&R Center at the Marine Corps Base for processing. Officials at the R&R Center stated that the processing would be completed within a maximum of nine days. Recently replaced in the China area by drafts sent out from the states, the veteran Leathemecks boarded the Wakefield at Tsingtoa, China, for their homeward trek.
MONDAY, 4 FEBRUARY, 1946
98 RE-ENUST HERE DURING PAST WEEK A record of ninety-eight enlistments in the Peace Time Marine Corps was set by the Area R e c r u i tin g Office at CanPen during the past week. Although the reenlistment total hit an even 100, medical I!xaminations disqualified two of the aspirants. LtCol Custis Burton, Jr., Recruiting Officer, states the number of reenlistments is increasing. daily and a total of more than 100 enlistments weekly are expected.
GRAPPLERS PLEASE CAMP MARINES
NUMBER 5
FifTH AMPHIBIOUS CORPS MQTHS BACK IN STATES TO 01 BAND HQ EN PING PONG FINALS Finalists in the Headquarters Battalion Ping Pong Tourney will tangle in the playoffs on a date yet to be announced by the Battalion Special Service Section. Those who wilI participate include: Sgt. R. E. Creighton, Corp. B. L. Robinson, Pfc. N. R. Crimnen, Pfc A. G. Krause, PhM3/3 R. Lazendy, and Pfc. L. W. Crandal. The double finals will be played at the same time.
The event will be witnessed by Hundreds of shivering CamPen Col Robert G. Hunt, CO of the Marines witnessed the first big- Battalion. time wrestling show to be held " at the base last Thursday evening. Despite the fact that the California weather caught cold the spectators remained throughout the three hour show to witness the grapplers.
FILM SCENES FOR PICTURE AT CAM PEN
Pete Mehringer tossed Mike NaThursday of last week reprezarian in 22 min. 22 seconds in sentatives of the Twentieth Centhe opener. tury Fox studios were at CamPen Jack Kizer and Dick Trout taking location shots of the Santa drew in a two fall duel, with Kis- Margarita Naval Hospital. The er winning one fall in 14 minutes scene wilI appear in a new movie 13 seconds and Trout taking the now in production entitled "Somestarring other fall in 23 minutes and 16 where In The Night," John Hodiak and Lloyd Nolan. seconds. The movie story is about a disIn the Main event Wild Red charged Marine, and a sequence Berry took two out of three falls in the movie will show him being to win a decision over John Swen- discharged from the service at the Santa Margarita hospital. ski.
One of the United States' oldest and most famed amphibious warfare units, the Headquarters, Fifth. Amphibiou:i Corps, arrived here last Thursday to be di3banded. At the San Diego docks Thursday, LtGen Holland M. Smith, CamPen Commanding Genera], welcomed back the Corps which took into the Pacific for warfare in 1943. N ow commanded by MajGen Harry Schmidt, of San Diego, The Corps headquarters has just returned from Japan where it directed the activities of the 32nd Army Infantry Division and the 2nd and 5th Marine Divisions and many other Army units in the occupation of Kyushu and southern Honshu Islands. The Corps, which was scheduled to play a major part in the assault against the Japanese homeland, was the spearhead of the Navy's central Pacific advance. Its list of operations reads like an itinerary of the war's progress: Tarawa and Makin in the Gilberts, Kwajalein, Eniwetok and Roi-Namur in the Marshalls, Saipan, Tinian and Guam in the Marianas and Iwo Jima in the Volcano Islands. At Iwo Jima General Schmidt commanded the largest Marine force ever to fight on a single battlefield in the entire history of the Marine Corps, but V Amphibious Corps' saga is not sole. (Continued on Page 5)