Evening star., 1945-01-18
Dog
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sponsible for shipping it by air un-
der priority.
He left Washington for overseas
more than two weeks before the dog
was shipped and left behind a re-
quest that if an empty bomber or
something was going across the
country that the dog be taken.
He said the dog was a friendly
creature and it would not be neces-
sary to crate or box him.
He left no request for any pri-
ority.
THE President knew nothing
about it; no one here knew anything
about it until stories appeared in
the press yesterday"
The Presidents secretary explained
that priority was put on the dogs
crate here before shipment. In re-
sponse to another question he said
he did not know how the dog had
reached Washington.
Asked at his conference about the
incident, Secretary Of War Stimsons S
only comment was:
L can only say that some one,
somewhere down the line, has made
a mistake
Mr.. Stimson said the only infor-
nation he had on the incident comes
from newspaper stories.
Came From England.
Reports have quoted Mrs. Elliott
Roosevelt (movie actress Faye Emer-
som as saying that her husband had
sent two bull mastiffs, weighing
around 1870 pounds each to this
country by air from England to
start breed. She said the dog
Blaze was delivered to her in Hol-
lywood by an Army major in a
truck"
One reporter asked if it was GUS
tomary tor Army personnel to be
permitted to ship personal property
on planes as was done in this in
stance and Mr.. Early said he was
mot conversant with regulations.
One reporter wanted to know If
amy one would be punished as
the result of the incident, and Mr.
Early said that if the reference was
to the sailor who disclosed it, that
the answer was certainly not"
The matter was barred in Antioch.
Calf, yesterday by Seaman First
Class Leon Leroy, a Navy gunner
in merchant ship, one of the trio
who had to leave the plane, and his
mother, Mrs. Al Leroy, was quoted
as being somewhat apprehensive
that it might affect his standing
with the Navy
Gets Five-Day Extension.
Later, Mrs. Leroy revealed, her
son had received a flve-day extern
sion of his leave. He now is due to
rejoin his ship January 27 instead of
January o.
She said he was having some diff
ficulty arranging transportation be-
cause he lost his Identification pa
pers in the Memphis plane incident
and has only telegram from his
superior officer, which won his re-
lease from the shore patrol in Little
Rock, Ark, where he was detained
for two days. 1t certifies that he is
not AWOL and is on emergency
leave.
Seaman Leroy, who had been
called home by his fathers death,
and an Army sergeant hurrying to
the side of his sick wife told news
men they were put off the plane be-
cause the dog had a higher priority
the Associated Press reported
Both agreed third serviceman
also was bumped"
The wife of fourth serviceman
said her husband wrote he couldn't
board the plane at Dallas, Tex, for
the same reason.
Dog Rates Higher.
Seaman Leroy told newsmen he
boarded the plane at Newark, N. j.,
after learning of his fathers death
and had &C" priority.
He said high priority matter was
put aboard at. Memphis, requiring
that some weight be left behind,
that he and two other servicemen
had to get off because the Grated
dog was rated "a"
Last night at Riverside, Calf,
Technical Sergt. Dave AXIS, veteran
of the China -Burma-India war,
said he was bumped off" the plane
at Memphis while on his way to
visit his wife, who is i'll.
He said Grated dog occupied al
most all of four seats" and a flight
clerk told him it was consigned to
Mrs. Roosevelt.
Servicemen Pretty Sore."
Like the other two servicemen,
whose names don't know, was
pretty sore to think that we got
bumped off a plane on account of
a dog, particularly since I was on
such short leave and was en- route
here to see my sick wife," he said.
"Of course, we understood we
would be subject to being bumped
to make room for war cargo, but
we couldn't understand how the
transportation of a dog was going
to help the war effort"
Sergt. AXIS, who boarded the plane
at Dayton, Ohio, took a train from
Memphis to Dallas and there
boarded another Army cargo plane
/ for Riverside.
| At Granite City, ILL.,, Mrs. Ola
Wee Nix said her husband, Maurice
Nix, Navy carpenters mate who
had been home to visit their foui
| Ill children, wrote her from Sar
Francisco his trip back was delayed
because he was unable to board q
! plane at Dallas. He said he had :
ID priority and that the plane