The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-08-03


 incident in a shirtsleeves reunion with members of his family here at the home of his white-haired maternal aunt, Mrs. Helen Pinch, with whom his widowed mother, Myrta, has been living for the past year. Mitscher explained that he had approved the proposal of his executive officers not to send out the night patrol planes which con- stitute the far-seeing "eyes" of the fleet until a. m.
 T knew that our battleship com manders were disappointed because we hadn't been able to get the Japs within range of their guns," Mitscher said. 50 we decided to keep the night patrol planes down in the hope that we could close with the Jap fleet at gun range in the morning."
 Enemy fleets that get within 20 to 25 miles of each other are "chum- my" enough for battle, Mitscher explained. On this occasion the American fleet had stolen up pretty close to the Japs and didn't wish to betray its position.
 Japs Clear Out
 However, an unforeseen develop ment in the American Fleet resulted in sending up the night patrol. The next morning more than 100 miles separated the American and Jap fleets instead of the 25 miles which the previous nights calculations had indicated.
 ''The Japs, of course, spotted our night patrol and got out of there," Adm. Mitscher explained.
 He spoke of the incident as but another of many which have dem- onstrated how the fleets striking arm must be heightened by the 250-mile shooting" range of car- rier-based bombers and torpedo planes. The battleship's biggest guns, he pointed out will shoot only 25 miles. He thought that battle ships should be given re spectacle retirement as they become too old for service.
 We shouldn't scrap them" he said; they cost too much money. But we ought to retire them as they get old and not build any more. They're not effective in mod ern warfare, and they last for 30 years or more."
 Excepting the three silver stars, joined by a straight bar, pinned to his fatigue cap, there was little to indicate the vice-admiral's rank when he stopped here July 12 and B enroute in a mud spattered Chevrolet sedan from Coronado, Calf, to Washington. D. c. where he was to be assigned new duties as deputy chief of naval operations for air. Completely democratic among the longtime friends and neighbors of his 86-year-old aunt, Mttscher slowed his gold braid and wore a gray-green uniform.
 Farmers Listen In
 HillSboro, where Mitscher was born and lived for the first two years of his life, extended him a homespun welcome. The telephone switchboard operator, Mrs. Earl Wadleigh gave one long ring with all of the rural lines plugged in and then announced as receivers went up in farm homes ali over the surrounding countryside that Adm. Mitscher would ride in an open automobile through the five block downtown section.
 Principal V. V. Goss and Agricul- ture Teacher Carl Johnson put out l minute man" call to get to- gether members of the Hillsboro High School band. Farm mothers called their sons out of the hay fields and got their daughters out of aprons and into blue band uni forms to toot horns and beat drums at the head of half-dozen auto mobiles bearing Adm. Mitscher. his mother, wife and the members of an honorary reception committee.
 It looked for a few moments as though, in addition to having two flag ships blown up under him in the Pacific, Mitscher might have an automobile blow up in his face | on the main street of his birth | place. An overheated anti-freeze solution erupted from the radiator and the vapors rolled from under the hood.
 But Mitscher was returned safely to his aunts rambling two-storv frame home and later visited in his Shirtsleeves on the screened porch with Publisher Walter O. Shear of the weekly Hillsboro Sentry-Enterprise, his son, Editor Edwin W. Shear, and their fam lilies.
 Rates Marines First
 He told them that he considered the American marine the best inn gle fighter in the world. He rated the New zealanders second best and the Australians about on a par with the New zealanders.
 The Shears are distant relatives of the admiral, having imparted the strain of "New York Dutch" in his makeup from the maternal side. His paternal side was Ger nan.
 Mrs. Pinchs son, Sam, three daughters. Imogene, Esther and Nanny, and the latter's husband. Vesnard Sherman, were completely at ease with, the admiral. address ing him as Marc and inviting him enthusiastically to meet all of their irlends: One of them asked him the inevitable question:
 Mare, how much do you weighp"
 Mitscher recalled that he used to Wrestle as a youth in the navy and that he always had to take of" about a pound to make the 129-pound weight classification.
 T still weigh abo,,t tba sor