The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1944-01-10
With
The AEF
By KENNETH L. DIXON

ana the Violent villa OF Vessels
Everybody in America know.
about the former. Everybody over
here knows about the latter.
The violent Villa of vessels is
the Broadway and Forty-SeconS
Street of the Mediterranean thea.
ter. Generals and CTS sit at tba
same table. Buck privates DOW.
WOW with playwrights in uniforms
Air aces, novelists and war cor.
respondents chew the fat Heated
table pounding, angry arguments
on the ar, the world and women
shake the big Neopolitan apart.
ment building in which it is hons
ed.
And at the head Of the table, hia
back to the balcony which IooLs
out over the bay, sits the master
of this amazing menage-Maior
Jay Vessels, 46-year-old mad monI.
of bald eagle, ex-buck sergeant n,
the last war, ex-neWspaper man
would-be Minnesota trapper. He,
the public relations chief Of IN.
18th Air Support Command.
Vessels, whose nickname hinges
on his oft-expressed hope to run
a trap line around Bald Eagla
lake in Minnesota after the war;
became a legend during the North
African campaign. He had almost
no equipment, facilities, or instruc.
tons. He hitchhiked back and
forth, setting up press headquar.
tiers in foxholes, slit trenches,
shacks or tents, begging, borrow.
ing or "requisitioning" transpor.
tation. He even swiped generals
jeep in one pinch. He became fam
GUS as guy who could fast-talk
anybody out of anything if it would
help publicize his pilots.
"And he never tried to order
us around, tell us what to write
| or asked to read our copy" one
reporter summed it up the other
day. Hes stuck to his interpre.
tation of his job-just to help US
out"
But the rough going in those
days determined Vessels, who used
to work for the Associated Press
in New York and Minneapolis, that
if he ever got a chance to set
up a real headquarters he'd do
it.
So, after he'd sweated out the
Italian invasion, when his boys
were operating from bases in front
of their own artillery, Jay came
to Naples, located the apartment
high on the hill, and the Violent
Villa of Vessels was born.
From there junkets are made to
nearby airbases, to the front 10
inspect bomb damage, to the rest
camps for personality stories. It's
a cooling off place for guys Just
back from the front who want 10
revitalize their luck. It's a relax.
ing spot for pilots who become
a little keyed up. From time to
time around the Vessels table they
cut loose in the arguments or tell
some of the most colorful stories
of the war. Almost everything
goes. Hence the name "Violent Vii.
Ia"
The legends about it are legion
and most of them are at least
founded on fact.
There was the reporter who used
to join the others in watching Ger
man air raids from the balcony
window. Then he started feigning
fright, going to the shelter in the
basement. Everybody thought it
was strange until they found that
the beautiful senorina downstairs
also went to that shelter. After
that, so many started getting scar
ed that the senorina got more
scared of staring reporters and
quit going down.
Then there was the corporal who
drove the colonel up to the villa
and followed him respectfully up
stairs. Fifteen minutes later the
colonel had some money on the
table and was rafting the gallop-
ing dominoes, waiting for takers
"Shoot, you DOPE" shouted the
corporal, You're faded"
There was the reporter whose
hobby was collecting small bombs
BOBBY traps and other internal ma
chimes. One night just back from
the front he relaxed a little TOO
much and started showing his col
lection.
The first blast SCARED up the
| bathroom.
Vessels sprang up from his col,
rushed out into the hall and touno
the booby-trapper hanging over Ihe
elevator shaft with mine detohd'
tor in his hand. Two stories COW"
a general slept.
"S'al right, Starlight, Starlight
said the celebrant. 81 just waos
to wake up the general. This IS
time to 60 off just as 1t goes
BY"
Back inside, Jay found boooy
traps all over the place. "IreS'
springs and wicked looking &C,
chanisms were spread out on wv
army cots and the dining ROOF"
table.
Vessels has been bombed, S}Iol'
ed, shelled and subjected to Si!,p,
ing, but never was he shaken NJ
that wild night in the Violent ViIt'
Next morning he vowed anew tna',
when the war is over, nou"r"51
,1,o,,ld hin, aff tn at neaCG!Il