World War II Chronicle

World War II Chronicle: January 15, 1943

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The front page mentions an air strike in Burma where a pilot named Grant Mahony busted a Japanese truck. Capt. Gratton Mahony of the 17th Fighter Squadron (Provisional) notched his first victory on the Dec. 8, 1941 and by war’s end will have more combat hours than any other American pilot. He is also about to be assigned to PROJECT 9, which we mentioned yesterday

Mahony

Eddie Rickenbacker’s copilot continues his story on page four… George Fielding Eliot column on page 12… Sports section begins on page 20, which reports that Chicago Bear halfback Hugh Gallarneau has become an officer in the Marines and will travel across the Pacific, directing night fighters. The former All-American at Stanford was also the Pacific Coast Conference champion heavyweight boxer… Former Tennessee standout Bob Foxx has been transferred from his post at Georgia Pre-Flight to become a flight instructor. The Volunteers went undefeated and untied all three seasons Foxx was in the backfield (1938-40)…

Foxx played minor league baseball in 1941

Hugh Fullerton mentions former NBA President Harvey L. “Heinie” Miller, now skipper of the 5th Marine Reserve Battalion, who is promoting boxing for our fighting men. There won’t be a National Basketball Association until after the war; Miller led the National Boxing Association. He enlisted in the Navy in 1905 (serving aboard the frigate USS Constellation, now a museum ship) and took up boxing, becoming the Army and Navy Bantamweight Champion and Lightweight Champion of the Far East. Meanwhile, on the next page Gene “The Fighting Marine” Tunney has just inspected Georgetown University’s athletic program.

Capt. Miller and Tunney in 1928

On page 25, some of the historic cannons displayed at the State Department will be melted down for the war effort. It is unknown which of the artillery pieces, some of which date back to the Seventeenth Century, will be scrapped… Next week the First Lady will christen her second USS Yorktown. She performed the honor the first time for the lead aircraft carrier in the Yorktown Class in 1937. That ship was lost during the Battle of Midway last year. The new flattop, which sits at Newport News shipyards at Norfolk, Va., was originally named Bonhomme Richard, and is the Navy’s third vessel to bear the name…

Page 37 features a first-hand account from a sailor who survived the sinking of USS Juneau, telling the Sullivan parents that their five sons have all perished… Actress Ginger Rogers has married a Marine she met during a USO performance. Pvt. Jack Briggs has appeared in a handful of pictures, including Parachute Battalion (1941), featured alongside several actors who also serve, including Buddy Ebsen — “Jed Clampett” of television’s Beverly Hillbillies — is a Coast Guard officer aboard a weather station ship in the Pacific, and Robert Preston who is an intelligence officer for the 9th Air Force.

Ginger Rogers and Jack Briggs, who will serve in the Pacific

Evening star. (Washington, D.C.), 15 January 1943. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1943-01-15/ed-1/

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