The Daily Alaska empire., 1945-10-04


 portunity to make the trip. The others-the big majority are here.)
 The USO congratulates these fel- lows on their hard-won title. We hope their Juneau furlough may be one entirely befitting champions.
 REUNIONS IN JUNEAU; OR
 "itS 4 SMALL WORLD"
 These days when our GI friends think of little else but getting home, 1t generally appears to be the bigness of the world that stands out. Home, for most people, seems a long, long way off. Yet every once in while out faith is established in that cid adage that its a small world, after all" Like, for example, dur ing that period of just an hour or two on Monday night
 Early that evening we'd enjoyed the feeling that we'd aided in a sort of reunion. But that one was a one-sided affair. It was a coinci- Gence, too. We'd just met a new Coast Guardsnan, Paul c. Galbraith. When he told US he was from a small town not far from Seattle, we hand cd him the "Post-Intelligencer" of that morning. Perhaps you'll be interested in this paper, we suggest ed. Taking one look at the front page, he exclaimed: T should say I am interested Here's picture of a friend of mine. I haven't heard word about him in several years and now look what's happened to himp He was referring to the gall lant young Navy hero, Robert Bush, from South Bend, Wash, pictured there with his bride CT know both of them we'll" said Paul) Start ing on their honeymoon, the young couple were headed for Washing ton, D. C., where in a few days Bush will receive the Congressional Med al of Honor at the hands of Presi- den Truman.
 Another young Coast Guardsman, shortly after that, was just starting out the door when we caught up with him. He said his name was Ralph Rippo, from San Pedro, Calf, he didn't know anybody here; he was just a stranger passing through town, killing time waiting for his ship to sail Yes, he'd like to look over the list of fellows registered from California, he said i've had a suspicion he was just being polite, not liking to reject our suggestion) :. Anyway, he quickly ran through all the hundreds of California names without any recognition-that is, un- til he came upon the very last name of all He fairly shouted: Bob Me zich! Why he's my best buddy. knew Ee was in Alaska SomWhere but I never have been certain where. Say do you know to what address I can write him?" Yes was the reply, but I can do more for you than that. Here's Bob's picture on my desk" (We handed him the group photograph of the Alaskan Soft Ball champions, pointing out the fellow in the lower left hand corner) "Is that the Bob Mezich you knoW?" Tt sure is. Say, that's wonderful Do you know where I can write him?" Would you care to talk with him on the phone instead?" we asked. Would I That's too good to be true" Within a few seconds we'd called the hotel-and the two lon separated friends were talking ex- Citedly on the telephone. Not over three minutes later they had met in Bob's room.
 Air Corpsman John Lay, from Montclair, New Jersey, looked up from the Registry short while later that same evening, Here's one I think I know--Leslie Wheeler. He's real good trumpet player, isn't hep A very good trumpet player, weassured him. Then he and I were classmates in high school" Before that evening was over, not only had these two old friends met, but they were boring over Less copy of the Montclair High School Annual. It turned out that John had been president of that very large graduat- ing class, and he and Les had been fellow members of it's important Student-Faculty committee. It did not surprise US bit, under all the circumstances, that John and Les got big kick out of this unexpected reunion of theirs last Monday night!
 It always is lot of fun for us who are on the USO staff to make new friends among the servicemen as they come into the club house for the first time. But it's almost as