The Daily Alaska empire., 1945-08-09
THE OLD REFRAIN

| fellows and the girls who nave been identified a long while with the USO? You frequently naen- tion and that's a good thing. But there may be reaCrrs of the column who no | longer are stationed in Juneau and who would get a big kick from even the mere reading of the names of old friends, although there might not happen to be any, thing particularly recent to report concerning them"
 We can't think of single valid reason for not writing such an item, nor more appropriate mo- ment than the present for doing it. And it pleases us a lot to be told that probably the column has many readers who would like to find in it the names of their we'll remembered friends still enjoying this vrll-remembered spot.
 And so let's have a look over the club lounge and into the canteen right now At that card table there's certainly group of familiar faces, seen over many hand dur ing the past Is months,-they're playing casino now, those fellows from the Sub Port, Gerry Krog- man, Nick Castiglione and John "Deac" Trella, all from Chicago, while Gordon Doc" Stewart and Bob Hollander also from Chicago, and Bob Kessenich, of Madison, Wis, look on.
 Farther down the room. are four more good friends of ours, in the Coast Guard, the crew of the co 50007, who get into the club only occasionally nowadays,-highly re- garded Harold Hi" Lee, the skip per. whose. home is in Petersburg, together with Roy Hansen, from Spokane, Wash, Steve Kudabeck, of Chicago, and Bob Smith, who halls from Eugene, Ore. .
 But of coursr there aren't just men in the clubhouse. Across the room we can see popular Mary "Muggsy' Vending, who is telling several members of a Coast Guard cutter about the grand time she had on her recent trip to Skag- way (but, then, isn't Muggsy always having a grand time wherever she isD And, speaking of Coast Guard cutters, that certainly was a pleasant surprise for all of us when the "McLane" made its un- expected reappearance ftre the other day, incidentally with one of our oldest friends aboard her in the person of red-haired Johnny Gilmartin, of Los Angeles. (Heres hoping for an carly repeat per-
 Maybe you're wondering whether Sgt. William Weaver, of the Sub Port Company, from Chicago, still is stationed ip Juneau? Yes, Bill of the golden voice continues to bless us with his singing and with that no-less engaging personality of his-h,es over there at the piano right now. Among the memories of Juneal and it's USO which we personally expect to tre asur 0 longest is sure to be our good friends singing of the ore and only Annie LaurieO.
 Coming through the door at this moment is another old friend of long standing, Coast Guardsman John Gionfreddo, from Connecti- cut and Washington, D. C., who has long been identified promi- nently in number of the clubs activities, but who (to our keen lrgret0 expects to be stationed in Juneau only a short while longer
 Now we're slipping out to the canteen to see whether we can report to you on the presence there of at least a couple of the oldest inhabitants" among the servicemen stationed in Juneau. As we pass the bulletin board we note the cartoon cut from the New Yorker" in honor of the home town of one of those old inhabitants, Sgt. Leslie Swanson, by name. The picture
 
 shows a desk in the national head quarters of the OPA, one official is rushing up to another with a telegram, saying Red Wing, Minn., reports fall of mama, and wishes to know what the ceiling price is" Yes, the genial Leslie is still on hand, and much delighted with that cartoon. ...
 At the canteen, sure enough, are half-dozen of the other old timers hereabouts, fellows who have paid the USO the compliment of almost daily attendance since it opened nearly 32 months ago. Headquarters Company members Dudley James, Joe McShane and Jesse Leithe, the latter two from Detroit, Mich; M. c. Mike" Mickln, of Nashville, Tenn; Johnny Roviscanic, of Warren, Ohio; Art Suminski, hailing from Detroit; and Tony Grelle. who comes from St. Louis, Mo. These men, our staff feels, are to be numbered among the most loyal of all the clubs