May 31, 2013

Oroville Mercury Register
July 25, 1945
In The Fight
T/Sgt. Wilbur Vaughn who was chosen one of a picked group to represent the United States in Brazil on the return of the Brazilian forces to their homeland. Vaughan Honored: Gets Bronze Star Wilbur Vaughn has added another stripe to the insignia he wears on his arm. He is now T/Sgt. Vaughn, according to a letter received by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Vaughan. He has also been awarded the Bronze Star for outstanding service during the Lake Gardia campaign. Adding to the above honors, he also told about a trip he was about to make to Brazil, one of fourteen picked men from his regiment. They, with twenty eight men from two other regiments, were to represent the United States on the return of the Brazilian Exp. Force to their homeland. He said big celebrations and festivities had been planned and US GI representatives would be special guests, participating in parades and other events. They expected to land in Rio de Janeiro and spend a week or ten days in Brazil before returning to Italy either by plane or boat. The following extract from Vaughan’s letter will probably prove interesting to those in this country who have just experienced a modern harvest time. “Harvest time is here for summer hay, and some of the crude methods which Italians use for this prove interesting. Scythe and sickle are used exclusively in cutting, which proves very slow in the large fields. They cut all the grass even along the roads and between the railroad tracks. It is all raked by hand after it dries, then the women pack it to the barns which is probably the most interesting step in the process. They pack it into frames or baskets which they carry either on their heads or their backs. The pile is 6X10 feet square, which when being packed looks extremely odd and also heavy. It is difficult to distinguish a pile on the ground from one being carried when in the fields. While all this is being done by the women and children, the men are probably standing around in the village square shooting the bull. The American GI’s are probably getting some good ideas for running their farms when they return!”
(Stu- Yea, right, I think our women will say no, get a machine.)

Stu’s Notes:
Well Memorial Day went off as planned. The Oroville Veterans Memorial Park for all of Butte County has put on the program for quite a few years now. We’ve been meeting and planning since February. everything on our part is went great. The Bridge went great, over a hundred people, The Nelson Middle School Band of Thermalito, under the Direction of Robert Christensen, played great. They have been playing on the bridge for us since we brought back this ceremony six years ago. As usual our District Attorney, Mike Ramsey was there, he told me he remembers coming out on the bridge as a little boy with his father. His father, I knew as a Marine Hero, Chet Ramsey WWII. I want to thank all that came out under a threat of getting soaked. But the Weather stayed nice for us that day. The American Legion worked hard on the BBQ maybe to hard, they sold out! I’m sure they will have more food on hand next year. At our Ceremony on Veterans Hill at the Memorial Park Cemetery, every body in the Ceremony did a Command performance; Mike Hedrick did a fine job as M.C. This Observation, if you took away everybody in the program and took the Veterans’ with all their spouse’s away, there would be about 50 people left out of the over 200 that were there, sad. We did have a Supervisor, Bill Connelly, who gave a moving talk. We had two representatives from the City of Oroville, Cheri Bunker, City Council and Art da Rosa, Public Works. That is all I saw, if I didn’t see you maybe you weren’t there. Hopefully next year more will come to see all the hard work that is put into Oroville’s Memorial Day. Thank you Channel 12/24 for coming out to the Cemetery and staying through most of our event. Thank you, Oroville Mercury for the great front page pictures and story of our event. Thank you, Jeremy Buis for the great sound system at the Cemetery. Thank you Bill Fox for your portrayal of a Revolutionary War Soldier, his great, great, great Grandfather was there, not Bill. Out on the Bridge, Sherry Morehouse read off a list of 100 names of Veterans of Oroville Area that died this past year. Bob Morehouse rang the bell after each name and said “no answer”. At the end of the Bell Ringing, Sherry tossed a wreath out into the Feather River.

I wrote of Wilbur Vaughan December 18, 2009. He trained a lot in the snow, I wonder if he found any in Italy, also I know Marilynn Vaughan who worked on Oroville Dam, and maybe she can tell me more about Wilbur, Stay tuned. I did not know Brazil fought in WWII, many countries south of our borders did not, some even took in the Evil Nazis that escaped, to live out their lives unlike the millions they took.