Morgan County Democrat. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1886-1943, 1941-04-10
LAWRENCE EMBREE SEES
HISTORY IN THE MAKING

The following very interesting
letter was written by Lawrence En-
bree, to his parents, Mr.. and Mrs.
Dennis Embree, of Bristol town
ship, from Fort Lauderdale, Flor
ida:
l had very exciting week end
which l will try to describe as fully
as possible. / turned on the radio
as usual Saturday morning and the
first thing | heard was an urgent
call for all home defense corps
members to get in touch with
platoon leaders as soon as possible.
am corporal in this outfit so
got dressed and went down town
and contacted the captain, who told
me they wanted us to mobolize to
go down and help protect the presi-
Dental party which was due in
port in the afternoon. We arrived
in port en-masse and proceeded to
set up our defense Due to the alb
sence Of the regular l was appoint
ed supply sergeant, SO after issuing
out the equipment I didn't have
anything to do except loaf around
the rest of the time. We stayed
al Ouhu uHtil / " ClOCh SATURDAY
night then went back again at
Sunday morning and stayed until
after he had boarded the train and
safely started on his way to Wash
ington.
/ got very good view of the
president, being not over ten feet
from him. He has very impressive
smile, and apparently was in the
best of health. l was impressed
with the precaution they took to
insure his safety, besides the secret
service men there were state and
city police. county officers and our
bunch, which numbered about 80
men. We even guarded the rail
road tracks from the port up to the
city until his train had gone.
And now the end of that story
and the beginning of another: After
we were dismissed I decided that l
was going to get my weekly fishing
done any way, SO l came home,
changed clothes, ate dinner, took
Marion and my tackle and returned
to my favorite fishing spot at the
port. 1t is across from and in the
same slip where the German ship
Auraca is docked. The Auraca was
chased in here about a year ago by
the British man-of-war Oreon. | be-
lieve l sent you some clippings at
the time and also some pictures
that | took from time to time.
Well | was sitting there looking
at the Nazi flag on the back of the
boat, noticing it was larger than
the one they usually had up (they
put up a bigger flag each time
Roosevelt was here), when / saw a
coast guard boat pull up and dock
near the Auraca, then another came
and docked by the first one. didn't
think much Of this because the Pa
tonic (Roosevelt's boat) and the
Cruiser Benson, which went with
the presidents boat on their trip,
were in port. Before / caught any
fish a whole bunch of the coast
guards went aboard the Auraca and
in about an hour G still hadn't
caught any fish, we saw them bring
ing the German crew off from the
boat and then | saw the swastika
come down and the stars and stripes
go up on the mast of the Auraca.
There was a cheer from the crowd,
of course there weren't many there,
as the whole thing had been kept
very secretive.
l have met several of the boys. A
few of them could speak English.
They were just an ordinary bunch
of boys, mostly in their early twen-
ties, like you would expect to meet
anywhere. They took them to the
coast guard base and are going to
turn them over to immigration au-
thorities. | cannot help but think !
how much better treatment those |
boys are going to get than if the sit |
uatiOn were reversed. under |
stand this is one Of sc boats of for
eign registry that the government
took over. l didn't catch any FISH,
but saw something that may be
history in the making. Will close |
and write sooner.-Love, Lawrence.