Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1921-07-07


was born in Wauseon and is the nep-
hew of Mrs. Robert S. Blair.
The following letter has just been
received by Mr.. and Mrs. Ira E. Kel-
Ter, N. Locust street, from their son
Carl who is a pilot in the Marine
Aviation Corps. Keller at present is
stationed on the Island of Guam,
having sailed from Philadelphia, Jan.
%, arriving at Guam March IS. This
is the second letter received from
him since his arrival there, the first
one being only note telling that he
had landed safely.
Stumay, Guam, H. l., April 1921
Well, we are here and have things
we'll in hand. l received several
letters from the states a few days
days ago, March %, but as the mail
boat only stops here a few hours, l
didn't have time to answer them so
they would go back on it. The next
boat is due the 28tR of this month
(once month) but l will write this
letter now while l have plenty of
time. The mail boat goes to Manila
then to Japan, to SanFrancisco. 1t
will take the letters about month
to reaSh you after they leave here.
This is sure one h-of a place.
The island is about Is miles wide and
20 miles long. 1t has about 35 900
inhabitants, about 5000 white and
the rest natives. The natives are
yellow in color and very ignorant,
lazy, dirty and no good. They wear
few clothes and live in old dirty
shacks and sleep on the floor. Ven
erial diseases are very common
among them. They raise some
corn, potatoes and rice and live
mostly on rice, bread, bananas and
cocoanuts. The main trees down
here are palm, banana and cocoanut.
Pine apples grow on some parts of
the island, but they grow on bushes
not trees. The natives made liquor
out of the cap of the cocoanut trees
by distilling it and it sure has a mean
kick. They call it "acadenni" and
it sells for $1.50 per quart.
The island is a solid coral rock and
you never see any mud, although it
rains about fifteen minutes out of
every hour. The days are very hot
but the nights are cool enough - to
sleep under two blankets. There are
three cities on the island, Agana,
$4,000 inhabitants and the main
naval base, Petee, 5000 and Sumay,
1000 where we are. Three are no
amusements anywhere on the island
and the two stores are back numbers
rs you can't buy a thing you need.
1t is very hard to get cigarettes down
1a1s h1rt h1.xy
paste ETC., from the canteen.
The roads here are wonderful, be-
ing all hard rock. However, there
are very few cars, as gasoline is
scarce and costs $125 per gallon.
We are lucky, as we have one Pack
ard truck, one Peerless truck, two
G. M. C. trucks two Ford touring,
one Cdaillac touring, four motor
| cycles, two gas tractors and one
steam tractor and enough gasoline
to last a year. Most of the trans
portatiop here is done by the old OK
and two wheel cart. There are mo
street cars nor railroads on the
island. These natives couldn't be-
lieve their eyes when they saw all
our trucks etc., but oh boy, you
should have seen them when our N
&c. 9, Zone of our large seaplanes)
took to the air. We set up one
ship so we can get our pay hops in
until we get the station all set up
We have one hundred men with us
and there are two line companies on
the island that do nothing but guard
duty. Two batteries of artillery
who have everything from z in. gun
to 16 inch planted all over the
mountains and believe me it would
be hard for a hostile ship to get close
to this place. Besides there is a
secret channel to get in here and a
| foreign ship must get permission
from Washington to put into this
/ port. The main channel is about
200 yards wide and just runs in a
short ways from the bay. The large
ships must anchor out and their car.
go transferred onto small boats
which brings it into the dock. We
have big job ahead of US as we
must dig a channel 200 feet wide
and feet deep and one-half mile
long or from our shore out to the
main channel; as the bottom is solic
coral, we must blast this stuff al
out.
Our camp is well located up or
the side of a hill looking out ovel
the sea. We have fourteen bunga
lows for bunk houses and they are
located right in big cocoanut grove
so we have plenty Of shade. Oul
hangers, machine shops, ETC., vii
be right below our camp on tn,
beach, We have two large quarter
for our power house so will hav,
plenty of good light. We have ;
) piano, lots of other instruments
moving picture outfit, and all kind
of athletic equipment. The plan,
came ashore today and l have bee
. knocking off some mean tunes. w
; sure have about everything an avia
tion outfit needs and then some.
. There is a fine place to swim an
good cold running water all over tn
island. We have wOnderfU
head" with twelve good showers i
!. it and all up-to-date plumbing fix
lures. About all the government use
|. the island for now is a cable static
! as there is no harbor here to spea
of where the big ships can come il
| will sure have lot to tell when
I Isee you and some wonderful pit
lures to show you.
= / expect to start back for tn
2 states about next January or Febrl
3 airy and l will return by way
5 Manila, Japan and SanFrancisco.
& | will have charge of the beac
B and hangers down here and will g
plenty of experience and flying al
s should have enough to do to keep Il
3 time from dragging.
2 Well, | think / have covered abol
5 everything, SO as it is getting la
p tNIll close Tor this time, Rememh
s me to all my friends in Central
8 and tell them / often think Of the
z even tho | am thousands of mi
5 away.