The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-12-29

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 The turkey belonged to Brig. Gen. Lewis G. Merritt, comman- der of the Marine Corps Base at Cherry Point, N. C., on Saturday, December 23, just before Christ mas, the general was in Washing ton, D. C., and his turkey was in North Carolina.
 On that same day, also, a biz Marine Corps RAD transport plane was scheduled to take off from Cherry Point, N. C., to Washing ton at 10 a. m. But weather held it at the airport. A bunch of enlisted men, women marines, ana young officers, anxious to get home for a Christmas holiday, waited at the arfield. They were blissfully ignorant of General Merritt'S turkey. The only thing they thought about was getting home to a possible turkey dinner themselves.
 At 1:15 p. m., the weather cleared, and the plane was about to take off. But sudden ly it was held up. Word came that General Merritt's aide was driving from KinStOn, N. c., with the generals Christmas turkey to be flown to him in Washington.
 So the plane waited again. The 19 marines, homeward bound, fretted and fumed. But all they could do was wait. Finally, the idle and turkey arrived, the pre- cious bird was put aboard, and at 3:20 p. m., after two more hours delay, the plane took off. BRING BACK MY
 TURKEY TO ME
 Then suddenly, as the plane was only 45 minutes out Of Wash ington, it circled in the air, and went back to North Carolina. The pilot had received orders that General Merritt would eat his turkey not in Washington, but in Cherry Point.
 So there was nothing but for the 19 Marine passengers to go back with the turkey. They had been trying to catch airplane and train connections ill Washing ton, but the generals turkey came first. He had taken a plane back to Cherry Point, learned that his turkey was in midair on it's way to Washington, so the big plane was ordered back again.
 Finally the plane landed at Cherry Point, the turkey was unlOaded, and the 19 passen- gers at last took off for Wash ingtOn arriving there at p. m. They had started on their trip at 10 a. m., been delayed three hours by weather and about six hours by turkey.
 A total of about 15O gallons of precious high-Octane gasoline was used up, to say nothing of the motor gas used by the gen. erals aide in driving from Kim stOn to Cherry Point, about 60 miles.
 NOTE: Pay-off was that after the turkey arrived, General Mer- ritt didn't eat it on Christmas after all. He was invited out. According to member of his office staff he flew down, to en- joy Christmas some place in South Carolina.
 MORE PAY FOR CONGRESS
 In the many years this news man has been covering Wash intgon, one unacceptable conclu- sion he has reached which prob ably won't be too popular with the American public is that mem- bers of Congress deserve high sal- aries.
 Despite all the criticism that is heaped on congress, despite the fact that all of us like to make congress the whipping boy and the goat, the real fact is that the average run of representatives and senators do a conscientious, hard-working, intelligent job.
 There are, Of course, some sour apples in the barrel which spoil the reputation of the rest. But this observer, who has watched congress operate close up for years, Is convinced that the average congressman earns we'll over his salary.
 And when you consider his ex- penses, he earns about double his