August 8, 2003
Oroville Mercury December 4th and October 26th 1950
"Some Gave All"
WOUNDS FATAL TO OROVILLE GI
Pfc. Howard Hawes,
17, of Hilldale Avenue, died of wounds received in Korea,
friends of the family said today. A telegram notifying his mother
Mrs. June Hawes, of his death, was received from the Defense
Department Saturday night, according to
Glen Keifer of
Oroville. Hawes, a former Oroville high school student, was
wounded by mortar fire Oct. 5 while serving as a member of the
5th regiment of the 1st Cavalry. His mother later received a
telegram stating that he had been wounded. Hawes enlisted in
April with Lawrence
Keifer, son of
Glen Keifer and
Mrs. Mary Morris
of Quincy Road. The youths arrived in Korea in mid-September.
Keifer is now hospitalized in Letterman General Hospital in
San Francisco suffering from frozen feet.
SOLDIER'S WIFE GETS FIRST-HAND REPORT ON KOREA LETTER FROM
KOREA
Mrs. Dorothy Nicolas
of Thermalito, wife of
Sgt. Richard Nicolison
the army's 1st Cavalry Division, reads a letter from her
husband that illustrates the turn of events in Korea. It was
written on stationery Nicolas took from a Korean officer he
killed. The illustration on the paper depicts the advance of
powerful North Korean forces with tanks, airplanes and artillery
during early days of the war. How tough the going was in Korea
for United Nations forces before they put the North Koreans
to rout is told in a letter to the wife of a Thermalito career
soldier. The letter, from
Sgt. Richard Nicolas,
27, of the first cavalry, was received by Mrs. Nicolas last
week. It was written Oct. 3 while Nicolas was in a rest camp.
Nicolas, who was stationed in Japan when the war broke, went
into action in Korea July 5. For weeks the men fought without
a chance to take a bath, often without food and water. Then
the pressure eased, enough reinforcements arrived so they could
be pulled out for a seven-day rest. But the war wasn't over.
Nicolas and the other men who had reached a rest camp, at last,
gave blood to others who hadn't been as lucky in the fighting.
Nicolas was in the first regiment to go across the 3e parallel.
He has been in the army 12 years. His wife and three children
a daughter, Diann,
5, and sons Danny,
4 and Johnny,
2, had planned to go to Japan Sept. 1 to join Nicolas but the
Korean incident prevented the reunion. Before going to Japan
in April, 1950, Sgt. Nicolas served 14 months in Alaska.
NO HOPE FOR BOB WITH MAXINE ALONG
WONSAN, Korea-(U.P.)- Comedian
Bob Hope
performed for the 1st Marine Division at the airport here today,
but blonde Marilyn Maxwell,
wearing a tight sweater and singing "I Want To Love You,"
stole the show.
The Hope caravan entertained the leather necks for two hours
in a cavernous hangar which had been cleared of wrecked Russian
made planes only a few hours earlier. There were no loud speakers
and the acoustics were poor. But the sultry
Miss Maxwell
brought down the house with her renditions of "I Want To Love
You' and "I Want To Go Home With You".
Stu's notes; I was 10 years old living here in Oroville,
(Thermalito) when this young man was killed just 7 years older
then me. We walked the same streets yet I never heard of him
until a few days ago when l was reading an old Mercury Register.
Why did our town forget him? He went to war and died for us
and we didn't even remember his name. Just a few words in the
paper and he was gone. Forgotten. So young, so brave, so far
from home. Lynn and I went to Fairfield Saturday. Debbie’s Commander’s
wife, Esther Bristow had a Bar-B-Que for the families of the
2632nd Transportation Co., Debbie's outfit. Seems
they are running shotgun for the Iraqi truck drivers.
Staff Sgt. David Chapman
came home on official business and told each of us about
our soldiers. He knew them all personally. He said they were
the best (he is regular army). Debbie did have a little fender
bender with an Iraqi car, but the convoy does not stop The driver
was standing by his car waving as they went on. Good
or bad wave was not determined. David will go back soon.
Bob Hope, one of a kind; he loved the troops.