The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-10-23

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(Reg. U. s. Pat. Off)
 By OSCAR FRALEY e....A. Vry.aS~-

United Press Sports Writer
 New York, Oct. g. (UP)---Rosie ODonnell headed home" today 70 keep a rendezvous with grand bunch of guys who won't be back.
 Rosie Is Brig. Gen. Emmet O'Don- neil of Uncle SaHn's Air Forces. And nome" is the grim, gray plains at West Point where Rosie started the soldering career which made him famous.
 But It will be plain Rosie O'Don- nell who rides through the rigid ranks of gray-clad cadets, war wearied guy who for the mome1S will be back as Q cadet hunseI playing a bit of halfback for the Army in 1926 and 1927. Yet over shadowing those memories will De the haunting thoughts of the care free years from 1884 through 1e38 when he and the buddies with whom he worked were coaching on the gridiron just before the big- gest knockoR of them all.
 There were eleven of them teach ing football up on the plains m those days. Now only four are ielt to carry on the tradition Of the corps. . Col. Moe Daly, the bruising center of the '26-'27 teams, dion'G knoW that he'd be captured on Bataap live through the hell of Japs prison camps and then die when an Amer ican submarine sank the Jap prison ship on which he was chained.
 Col Art Meehan, the backfield coach, was @ cheerful sort. HOW could he know that his number was to be called in the SolomonsP
 Eddie Doyle had no inkling that he'd be killed in the first wave at Casablanca, with the sun glitter ing on his new colonePs eagle.
 Mai. Bob Stillman, happy-go- as they come, didn't know that his plane would go down in flames over Germany. And none of them sus- pected that Maj. Junie burlinganc would be killed in a bomber crash lust as the war started.
 Another of their select numper was Brig Gen. Blondy Saunders, one of West Fonts greater football stars. Blondy Is out Of the army for good now, lying in Walter Reeo hospital with a freshly amputatep leg suffered in @ B-29 crash in 1n- dia. So is Col. Red Reeder, with whom Blondy used to argue iool- ball strategy. Reds minus leg, too' left behind in Normandie.
 The fortunate ones were brlg. Gen, Gar Davidson, their heEo coach up there at West Point; Col Bill Wood, who later was 70 take Cars place; Col: Harry Trap rap, nell, who survived the torpeeoing of the Jap prison ship 'which cost Daly's life, and O'Donnell.
 They all took their chances, eno none took more than Rosie, tne handsome general just back from four years In the Pacific. ODonneh commanded one of the three b-1vs which flew nonstop from Tokyo to Chicago last month and It was A trip well earned. Because ever Since the war started, Rosie mas been in the thick of It. ...
 The one-star fellow with tne ready blush and the graytng nair W9S 1n VktS bAb ~ =. w-sg~aa -IAt. from the outset. That DEC with oak Leaf Cluster came from down. ing four Zeros and two transports along with damage to neavy cruiser and a destroyer in the early days of the war. Later, his planes gone, he and his men fought Wltn Tifles on Bataan, escaped to Java and came back into the fray With new planes. It was Rosie who Ieo the first 1920 raid on Tokyo. .-
 T thanked my lucky stars TOT my football training" Rosie re- called. "I'm convinced that foot. bail did lot for me and tna' it's the real army game"
 "Now want to get pack 70 West Point to see the Kids scrim. maging and to take Q look at tn'S
 But you know that as great as this Army team is, 1t isn't wnat Rosie really wants to see. Ine ses. S. ting is ali he needs, for Rosie nas the inc guys he'n put in it., fellows named Daly, Meehan, Doyle, Bur iineame and stillman-the guys who won't be back.