The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-09-11
RIVER CLAIMS BODY OF BURMA
 MISSIONARY
By JACK QUINN United Press War COrrespOndent)

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 stiiwells Headquarters, North Burma (UP) Underneath the wa. ters of the muddy Mogaung River lies the body of one of Burma's Strangest men, Il Johnny Appleseed of a missionary who spent % years in Burma teaching the natives how to plant and grow American Vege- tables and died trying to resettle the natives who had been driven out of their homes by the Japanese.
 This man, who drowned on July i4 when he was swept away in the raging currents of the monsoon flooded Mogaung River, was Bray. ton 0. Case, who always listed his next of kin as the American Bap- tist Foreign Missionary Society, l62 Madison avenue, New York.
 Case was drowned in the 1n- dawgl Lake area of North Burma while on trip down the MogaunC River to see about resettllng ra. tives in territory which had been won back from the Japanese by the Allies.
 Wore Heavy Boots
 The motor stopped on the boat on which Case was riding, aecord- ing to reports and he attempted to swim ashore. I:e was wearing heavy rubber boots for walking in the deep Burma mud, and failed to remove them when he jumped into the swift current. The boots filled with water and made 1t impossible for Case to swim. The current swept him 100 yards down the river before two British soldiers, who Jumped into the water in an attempt to save him, could reach him. They almost drowned before they made 1t to shore.
 Probably the last Amreican to see Case alive, the officer who put him on the boat, lst It. Robert T. Lindsey of Dallas, Tex, and Tuc- son, AriS, said, MT. Case wasn't afraid of the devil himself, and he wasn't afraid of that river, and that's probably what killed him"
 Case was well known to Amer. ican troops in Burma and was a frequent visitor to It. Gen. Joseph W. Stilwells combat headquarters He conducted the funeral servicC for the first American dead in the first official American cemetery ir Burma.
 Walked Everywhere
 Lindsey said Case was about iX-foot-two, @ great big, long-leg. ged rawboned man" He walked everywhere he went, "all over the Himalaya mountain range" accord ing to lst It. Richard w. White of Macon, Ga, carrying a 30-pound sack of seeds for his native friends in addition to his other equipment One story around Stilwell's head quarters Is that group of officers made hike over certian sections oi the mountains in Burma and sent back report containing the recon. mendation that no officer over the age of thirty should be permitted tc make that walk. Then they discov. cred that Case, whose age Is between 55 and SO, had been making this same walk, carrying all his equip ment and his seeds.
 Lindsey said that Case "knew every dialect in Burma" For a time, he conducted a school for American officers and taught them the rudiments of Burmese and lec- tured them on how to get along with the natives and how to survive ir the jungle. He showed them what wild plants were edible and which were poisonous.
 But his main work was with the natives. He showed them how to clear sections of the jungle, how to plant seeds, such as tomatoes potatoes, corn, and then showed them the advantages of digging with an American hoe and rakine with an American rake, violent departure from established custom to which the natives did not always immediately take.
 Herded Natives
 AS Stilwell's forces moved acros: North Burma, Case went right along with them, herding his la. tives along and getting them re- settled in villages and talking them into beginning gardens whicl would make them self-sufficient Officers at Stilwell's headquarter' said that MT. Case used to worry us to death for permission to gt somewhere - but you couldn't ge mad at him, you had to admire him for his persistence"
 His persistence and his desir' to be always pushing forwart caused his death. Lindsey said tha when he put Case into the boa on the morning of July IA, he tolt him the river had not been cleared for travel, that he did not thinl it safe for the missionary to travel
 Well. MT. Case just grunte, and said: got to go' and climbe' in the boat. That's the way he was !