The daily monitor leader. [volume] (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1942-19??, 1942-06-02

a really significant occasion for
Major j. Gordon Rankin, JUS
tice of the peace at Utica.
His mind travelled back to
the day in the spring drive of
1918 at scissors, France, when
his son, Joseph T. Rankin, fell
in action with the 26th United
States Infantry of the Fighting
First division just seven or eight
miles from where the major
himself was commanding the
Fourth Air Park, or service of
supply and maintenance for the
First Pursuit Group of the Unit
ed States Army Air Corps. That
was where the famous ace Cap
tain Eddie Rickenbacker and
General Billy Mitchell, 1.-The fly
ing fool" of the World War days
were stationed.
PRESENT DAY
From French battlefields the
majors mind touched upon two
of his remaining four sons, Pri-
Vate William T. Rankin, a mill
tary policeman, somewhere in
the Pacific or West Coast sec
tors, and S cond Lieutenant
Robert Rankin, of the Gath bat
talon, |. r. T. c. at Camp VOL
tCrS, Texas.
Memorial Day passed with no
word from his two Army sons,
but he had heard recently from
24-ycar-old Robert, who reCeiv-
ed his commission only month
ago. AS for Will j a m, asked
where he might be stationed,
Major Rankin said, We'll, your
guess is just as good as mine"
The military tradition has run
strongly in the Rankin family.
"CINILIAN SOLDIER"
The major himself has put in
80 years of this service and that,
being, as he says, "a civilian
soldier rather than a profession
al one" In 80 he enlisted with
the volunteers but didn't get
outside the country that time.
AfterWard he joined the Mich
igan National Guard as a mem
Der of the First Michigan Infan-
/ try which has been reChristened
| several times since then, first as
the 32nd regiment and later as
the l25th Infantry or the l26th,
the major doesn't just remem-
Der which. He rose to the rank
/ of captain in the National Guard
and finally went on the retired
/ list in 1914 after serving three
months during the copper strike
in the Upper Peninsula. In 1917
a he was hauled OUT of retire
ment and sent overseas with the
Air Corps which gave him no
end of a kick.
Il ran a lot Of crrands for
. General Billy Mitchell and l told
him one day that it was funny
thing putting an old infantry
man into the air service" Major
Rankin related. He said that
that wasn't any funnier than the
/ fact that we had had to build up
an air force overnight that was
numerically stronger than the
United States Army was when
war was declared"
LETTER FROM ACE
Today there was a letter on
the majors desk from his old
crony, Captain Eddie Ricken-
hacker.
At the time that his son, Jo-
Seph, was killed in action, faith
er and son were only a matter
Of six or seven miles apart in
the scissors drive but it was
veral days after the lads
death before his father heard OF
it.
William, his oldest boy in the
service, enlisted about a year
and a half ago and Lieutenant
Robert started his Army career
as a private before being com
miSSioned in the Infantry Re.
placement Center at Camp Vol.
tiers. At Selfridge Field it was
explained today that the infan'
try training center performs the
same service for the doughboy
branch Of the service as the pos
here does for the Air Forces.
The major holds court in hi:
"Send Your Furs TO q Furrie