The Western news. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1933-current, 1944-03-30
Wdr|dnd Boy
Working On
Burma Road

Mr.. and Mrs. Willard Plots Of
Warland, who have three sons in
the military service and another in
Alaska, recently received letter
from Jack Plots, Pfc, who is in
the U. S. Army Engineers in North
Burma. Jack is working on the Bur-
ma Road and states that the slopes
of Keller creek in the Kootenai
look like open hill sides compared
to the mountains in Burma. Jack
was home on THROUGH about a
year ago. He sent an interesting
news clipping taken from one Of the
Army papers, relative to the road
the U. S. Engineers are building
which NAV be of interest to many
around Libby.
Bob Plots is some where in Au-
stralia, Pete is, presumably, some
where in the South Pacific, and an
other son, Joe, is working in a big
sawmill at Ketchikan, Alaska The
clipping follows:
It's a little silly to tell United
States Army Engineers that a job
is impossible. It's especially silly
when they are building a road and
under the command of a peripatetic
old guy like Col. Lewis Pick.
Pick has white hair and didn't
develop his sturdy bottom sitting
behind desks. He developed it ira
yelling up and down the Ledo Road
in jeep, telling the boys with the
hairy ears that they had to get SO
many miles done that day and damn
the rain, the jungle, the mud, the
the mountains and the
consequences.
We are not trying to imply that
Pick has gone forth like Lancelot
in gilded armor, driving the lead
bulldozer and challenging his boys
to keep up. He probably couldn't
drive bulldozer if he had to. What
we are trying to say is that Pick
is the guy who puts ants in every
ones pants and delivered on an
project that must equal
in immensitv and difficulty any that
has ever been attempted by the
OllltC0 otdlCo Allly,
Pick doesn't live in an ivory tower
and neither do the boys whose mus
cles are actually building what is
intended to be a new line of COM
into China. These junior
officers and men live along the road,
on top of saWtooth ridges, and are
quite comfortable now. This, gen
tie readers, is the dry" season. 1t
only rains about four days out of
five and the guys building the road
only get wet on the outside. Later,
when the monsoon opens, they II
get wet from sweat and wet from
rain and their clothes will never
dry out, their shoes will mould,
leeches will construct dugouts in
their navels, mosquitoes will be as
big as B-25's, the mud will be the
same only more SO, but they'll con-
tinue to build the road
An officer will get an order from
Pick to build five miles in "a hours
and he'll say, What does that damn
fool think / am, a magician" He'll
tell his sergeant, who will explain,
Tive got four bulldozers. Two
haven't got clutches anymore. One
is hitting on three cylinders. The
other will be busy pushing stuck
trucks that are never kept off this
God-for- saken boulevard so we can
build it,"
They'll grippe, curse, say it can't be
done, get their IT'S slips and build
the five miles. They'll never admit
it was possible to build it. They'll
alibi that it was done because of
some fortuitous circumstances be-
yond their control and say it can't
be done again. The truth is that 1t
will be done again, and again. re-
CARELESS OF circumstances, and one
day American trucks with Chinese
Continued on page s.