The Western news. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1933-current, 1943-07-01
Soldier Tells
Of Life On
Guddd|CdndI
Libby Youth Gives
Brief Pen Picture of
Hardships, Excitement
CHARGED BY BOAR
IN DEAD OF NIGHT

Private Charles A. Challinor, who
saw heavy fighting on Guadalcanal,
has recently been patient at the
u. S. naval hospital, San Diego, suf-
fering from malaria. He writes to
his parents here, Mr.. and Mrs. c. A.
Challinor, that he is recovering
nicely and expects to be home soon.
Writing under date of June 10 he
said he had been in the hospital 33
days. Excerpts from his two letters
follow:
I had banana, two cups Of cof-
fee and cereal for breakfast, and
some scrambled eggs-I hate 'em. I
I really am going to enjoy your
cooking when get home. No one
can cook like you. | would like
to have some of your chicken moo
die soup, mashed potatoes and
some shrimp salad and apple pie
and cheese with whipped cream on
the pie. We are going to have roast
turkey today, but this chow here
just hasn't got the flavor it has at
home.
Fighting ON Guadalcanai
Did | tell you what happened
one night on Guadalcanal? Here
goes. We made big push one day
and dug in at the foot of ridge.
It was real thick jungle and the
Japs were on the other side of the
ridge. Three of us were guarding a
gully. We had two automatic rifles
and a Springfield rifle with bay
onet. Two of us were trying to
sleep in fox hole in a foot Of wa
ter and one guy was standing guard
with the Springfield In front OF
the fox hole was a marine who
had been killed that day. He was
on a stretcher covered with pom
cho. To make the story short, big
wild boar came down out OF the
gully, jumped over the stretcher
and ran between the guards legs,
knocking him down, and then over
the top of me and the fellow in the
fox hole We both made grab and
got hold of handful of hair.
never let 60 of anything SO fast in
my life. Boy! There certainly was a
mad scramble for minute. We
were scared stiff and figured the
Japs were attacking
I'VE stayed awake the rest of the
night, About | o'clock in the morn
ing the Japs opened up with trench
mortars and they are really wicked.
They didn't come close to us,
though they were landing on our
left flank. Some of our company
were hit had. One fellow had his
foot blown off and another lost his
leg. He died before we could get
him out, and there were several
other fellows wounded. So you
see how lucky I was and you worry
because | have touch of malaria.
ut isn't any wonder I'm run
down though. We had to go back
after chow every day and all along
the trail were dead rotten Japs.
The stencil was horrible and when
we did get the chow | was usually
so sick I couldn't eat. I surely am
glad it is all over with for me-"
Writing under the date of June
% Private Challinor says:
"0ne of my friends here just got
a Christmas package. 1t was mailed
in October and it really has been
over a lot of miles.
II bet when I was on Guadalcanal
I used the Western News for some
thing it has never been used for
before My buddy and used it to
line our fox hole to keep the sand
out. I sure hated to part with those
papers. I read them so many times
almost knew them by heart.
you can say that | saw Tom Kit
ley, Wayne Johnson and Ted Fowl
er and they were all in the best
of health and anxious to get crack