News in Alaska
Sirs:
. . . During a recent "alert" when local and West Coast broadcasting stations were off the air, our only source of news was the BBC and Radio Tokyo. It was interesting to hear Tokyo broadcast that our town had been bombed heavily. It gave us a measuring stick for future misstatements. But it was not until TIME arrived that we learned locally that Dutch Harbor was attacked the day before Midway. . . .
MRS. P. L. HEITMEYER Anchorage, Alaska
Nod of Approval
Sirs:
Ever so often something shows up in this war that reaffirms our belief and at the same time makes us realize that there are those amongst us that are building well for the future. . . .
TIME, in instituting its special edition for Central and South America, and now to England, has accomplished one of those intelligent deeds. . . .
In writing I think of some of the other actions that now come back as French Toast. For instance, Juan Trippe's determination to build an air system through South America, and how fortunate all the Americas are that this did happen. So you are in a like manner being a splendid ambassador to our neighbors. . . .
I do wish you success. ... I am certain that you will succeed, and that once again you will have proved that TIME is one of the most constructive influences in our times.
BURKETT NEWTON South Pasadena, Calif.
20-40 Vision Required
Sirs:
TIME (June 29) says that the Army will take men with 20-100 vision for glider pilot training. Information given us by the Army for use in recruiting gives eye requirement minimum as 20-40 without glasses, correctible to 20-20.
DAVID E. HEPFORD Chairman Aviation Committee Harrisburg Junior Chamber of Commerce Harrisburg, Pa.
>-- TIME'S statement and a similar one appearing in the June 20 Army & Navy Register were based on information from the U.S. Army Recruiting Service, First Corps Area, Boston and the First Corps Area was wrong. The minimum eye requirement for prospective glider pilots is still 20-40, correctible to 20-20.-ED.
Desert Dive-Bombers
Sirs:
TIME, July 6: "It was high time, past time that the British learned the use of dive-bombers in desert warfare. . . ."
On this July 4 morning, we all read in the newspapers and heard on the radio of the German dive-bomber attack on British ground troops in Egypt. This attack occurred July 3.
British Hurricane planes piloted by South Africans were ordered up to meet the attack (the cooperation between the R.A.F., the S.A.A.F. and the ground troops is as close as the cooperation between Hitler and his satanic majesty). There were 15 German dive-bombers, protected by a screen of Messerschmitt 109 fighters-both Germany's best. The South Africans shot down 13 out of the 15 German dive-bombers and wiped out one Messerschmitt for luck. . . .
HARRY W. COOK Regina, Sask.
-- Vulnerable weapons are not necessarily useless. Example: aircraft carriers. Let not Reader Cook forget that Field Marshal Rommel might never have got beyond Libya had not dive-bombers blasted the way for the capture of Bir Hacheim and Tobruk.-ED
Poet's Compliments
Sirs:
A poet's compliments to whoever wrote about the new Thunderbolt plane, it "climbs like a homesick angel" [TIME, June 22].
WITTER BYNNER Chapala, Jalisco, Mexico
-- To Poet Bynner (Eden Tree, Against the Cold) thanks, but TIME must respectfully decline his praise. In Santa Fe among his Chinese jade, Mexican serapes and Navajo rugs, he evidently has not heard the phrase which has for some years been part of aviation's shop-talk.-ED.
Step Forward
Sirs:
An active and successful businessman who had long been studying naval methods with desire, recently volunteered. For reasons which will easily appear, he cannot be named without getting him into trouble. The following letter from him has been edited only to avoid identification:
"I was assigned to become one of four operations officers, which meant spurs, a desk, blackboard, colored pins, a chart, a battery of telephones, and a file of messages and correspondence, also a suite of rooms at the nearby hotel.
"My stomach and my conscience revolted, and I 'put in' for assignment as executive officer of a ship undergoing renovations at a certain Navy yard. That meant that I would be in charge and responsible for getting the ship properly equipped and manned for the captain to take to sea.
"Then came two nightmarish weeks of battling with 'waffle bottoms' (swivel-chair bureaucrats just commissioned as supply officers from some WPA or shipping-clerk job) with others qualified but too busy. Worst of all were the labor unions. Day after day there would be 20 to 50 workmen (?) on board, but never more than five or ten actually doing anything. The night shift would invariably lunch, read papers, sip coffee and argue throughout the night. There wasn't anything I could do except to use 'sugar.' (Even admirals have been kicked out of the Navy yards because they tried to get work done by the yard 'monkeys.') The riggers come on board and wait for the riveters, the riveters wait for the carpenters, the carpenters wait for the electricians, and the electricians wait for quitting time. When it is necessary to drill through a bulkhead of steel sheathed in wood, one encounters a real crisis. The carpenters dare not drill beyond the wood, and the rigger (or whoever it is) may not drill beyond the steel. When the drill slips and goes through both wood and steel, everything stops, and I have heard that sometimes they plug the hole and start over.
"For several weeks I endured noise, filth, inefficiency, carelessness, laziness, ignorance, indifference, pompousness, shortages and other difficulties. My contacts with Naval officers in authority were quite satisfactory, but they too were at the mercy of the civilian or union setup.
"After two weeks I was informed that I would be the commanding officer or acting captain of the ship and that we would leave and go on duty in two days. I left with skeleton crew, skeleton armament, skeleton equipment, skeleton engine room, skeleton everything. Fortunately, I had just read the life of John Paul Jones before I was called into the service, and his difficulties remain a challenge.
"Now I am gradually building up an efficient unity of service, training men who have never been to sea before, some not even to training stations. I am having the officers, crew and a neighboring repair ship correct the yard mistakes and complete the fittings, painting and repairs, after sending to and visiting the nearest base every few days to loot whatever we could for our needs.
'But here at the front line things are far different. Everyone is out to do the job, possibly because that kind was not content to sit at desks and found their way to ships and outlaying bases. We'll have a ship and a crew eventually, but in the meantime I get along with an average of four or five hours sleep every day, and find that it is enough. Also it's a pretty good average compared to other captains on Inshore Patrol experience.
'I dare not write more about what is going on. I may tell you, I suppose, that I've seen depth bombs in action and have stood by the breech of trained guns; that's what I came for. That kind of duty is a step forward."
J. HORACE MCFARLAND Harrisburg, Pa.
Two-Legged Horse Meal?
Sirs:
. . . May I please correct the impression given in TIME, April 27 that British housewives are eating horseflesh. It is quite true that we do wait in a queue for it and often for a very long time, but I should like to point out that it is bought as food for our dogs, as naturally we cannot give them any of our household meat. . . .
IRENE GLOVER London
-- Many British housewives buy horsemeat only for the four-legged members of their families, but in some districts (South London and Soho for example) they buy plenty of "stewing meat" and "frying meat" (horseflesh) for two-legged members. As cat-&-dog food, horse meat is price-controlled at eightpence a pound, but there is no ceiling on its price for human consumption.-ED.
Flags
Sirs:
Don't the Stars & Stripes on the July 6 cover break a TIME-honored precedent of devotion to personalities? . . .
Lou BALDWIN Chicago,Ill.
Sirs:
... Of some twenty covers I saw, only TIME showed a church under the flag, so I heartily congratulate Mr. Artzybasheff and you.
REV. CHARLES F. UNGER Readington, N. J.
> TIME broke a precedent, and gladly, to cooperate with other leading magazines in a Fourth of July demonstration (TIME, July 6), but the precedent was not entirely one of personalities: there have previously appeared horses (TIME, March 18, 1929 & Aug. 20, 1934); dogs (TIME, March 3, 1930); and sea lions (TIME, April 18, 1932);
TIME, July 20, 1942 but never any cover of inanimate things.-ED.
Salvo, Fire!
Sirs :
I have just finished working the problem that was on p. 40 of TIME, June 22. .
My answers are:
a) angle TCP equals 32DEG-08'-27.6"
b) range GT equals 11,390 yards.
IRVING KENOFFEL Butte, Mont.
Sirs:
. . . Here's mine:
By the cosine law the range is readily found to be 11,390 yards.
By the sine law the deflection angle is readily found to be 32DEG 8'. ...
JULIUS S. MILLER Dillard University New Orleans, La.
^ To Readers Kenoffel and Miller an A in trigonometry. The solution of the artillery problem (solved by plane trigonometry) as given in West Point's Some Military Applications of Elementary Mathematics: "Deflection =32DEG 08.5'; range=11,390 yards."-ED.
No Argument
Sirs:
TIME, June 22-the Theater: "During the entire season, not one U.S. playwright produced a good original full-length play of any kind." Beg to differ. I am a U.S. playwright. By June 1, 1942 I wrote the following full-length plays: Afton Water, Get Away Old Man, and A Decent Birth, A Happy Funeral. You'd better take my word for it that they're good.
WILLIAM SAROYAN Salt Lake City, Utah
> --There is no need to argue whether Mr. Saroyan's plays were good. None of those in question was produced on Broadway. -Ed.
Too Busy, Too Mad
Sirs:
Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas spoke (TIME, June 29): "... I am afraid that too many Americans are still deceiving themselves about the job ahead. . . . Hitler . . . has been gambling against the ability of our millions of average families to understand our emergency, to respond to it with singleness of purpose, and to cope with it realistically. . . ."
While he was speaking these words and in confirmation of the fear they expressed, a member of the Chamber of Commerce, or hotel association, or publicity bureau of apparently every Atlantic beach resort from Norfolk to Boston was decrying and denying your statement concerning bodies and oil on the beaches [TIME, June 8]. ...
I don't pretend to speak for the corresponding agencies of North Carolina's beach resorts, but I do believe that the great majority of North Carolina's coastal population is more interested in winning the war than in promoting peacetime vacations there. . . .
News of every body and every oil slick ought to spur us on to increased war effort and not to listening to protests of selfish interests. Prospective visitors to North Carolina beaches, stay away until after the war! Our beaches arc probably dirty and greasy, and you might come across the body of a dead American sailor.
And besides, we're too busy and too damn mad to give you our best right now.
A. M. JENKINS Charlotte, N. C.
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