The Wilmington morning star., 1945-11-16

lie ceremony then picked up ~
rifles and presented one to each
member of the American guard.
Our guard ended matters by
marching the Japs off to confine.
ment, while some of our men cheer
ed.
Maj. Hennessey and his men had
jumped on Mukden with compact
but powerful radio. Communica-
ton with Chungking was quickly
established and among the first
messages received was an order
from Gen. Wedemeyers headquart-
ers to evacuate me from Sian as
speedily as possible.
Exchange Stories
We exchanged a thousand other
stories in our CAT plane that won
derful day of August q as we
flew across northern China en- route
to the kind of lives we had known
so many years before. At 4:30 that
afternoon we put down at the Amer
lean air base at Sian, in China, a
place with the same name as that
of our late Manchurian prison
camp, but - well - as different
as night and day.
Sian, China, is remarkable old
city that was the capital of China
1000 years ago. It has towering
walls, wide streets and taller and
stronger natives than you find in
southern China. The buildings at
our field were well kept, well made
and beautifully arranged. The mess
was hard for any of us to believe,
for there was all the food we could
eat and, to top it off, the apparition
of cherry pie la mode. My chief
of staff, Gen. Beebe, happens to
be an ice cream addict and / guess
during the long cruel years of his
captivity and starvation he built
up the most powerful ice cream
appetite on record. Anyway, he ate
enough that night to founder him.
self.
The next morning, August %
appeared at reveille for the raising
of the flag on new pole being
put into operation that day. 1t was
a blood-tingling sight for all of us,
for it was the first American flag
we had seen since the last one
came down on Corregidor. The Flag
is stirring emblem at any time,
but you can imagine our own emo
lions as we stood there and saw it
for the first time in 80 months.
After a breakfast of real eggs
the camp commander took me on
a short inspection tour which open
ed my eyes to the enormous strides
our country had made during my
long years of Imprisonment. The
simplest things were foreign to me:
new small arms, the shape OF the
helmets, new uniforms, new
planes, cars, new and at first in
MORE. This is for Friday.
comprehensive terms such as CT,
to describe an American soldier.
F We were in Chungking by 1870
that afternoon. Lieut.. Gen. Wede-
meyer greeted us most cordially
at the short, colorful Chungking air.
strip and took Gems. Moore, Jones,
Beebe and me to fine quarters III
his home where he saw to it that
we had luxurious baths and re-
placed some of our scare-crowish
clothing with his own fine uniforms.
Another marvel he had was a
radioed photo of my wife on which
was a note in Adele's handwriting.
That afternoon l accompanied
Gen. Wedemeyer to his headquart-
ers, held a brief press conference,
sent off radio to my wife. and
then one to the Adjutant General
reporting officially my return and
that of the other American officers
with me. Late in the day I receiv-
ed from Wedemeyer - in deep
ly moving ceremony - the Distin-
guished Service Cross which had
been awarded to me by Gen. Mac
Arthur on January 30, 1912, for
services performed in the North
Luzon campaign.
In the evening after dinner that
was hard to believe, even though it
was spread there before me. went
back to Wedemeyer' office and
made my first broadcast to the
United States. l said substantially
what had told the reporters earl-
err in the day:
well, here l am, looking pretty
old, but assure you feeling twenty
years younger than I did ten days
ago.
Il imagine most of you know that
because of circumstances over
which l had no control, and in or
der to avoid what would have been
a far greater disaster, I was forced
on May 6, 1912, to tender to Lieu
tenant General Homma the sur
render of my forces in the Philip
pines.
my gallant troops had perhaps
made a defense against more over
| whelming odds and under more dis
advantageous circumstances than
troops of the American Army had
been confronted with in the history
Of that Army.
II had little direct contact with
nv country or official agencie:
thereof for over three years. But
such contact here and there as
had caused me to believe that the
Administration and the War De.
partment and the American people
had accepted my dire disaster with