The Wilmington morning star., 1947-09-09
AS Pegler Sees 1t
BY WESTBROOK PEGLER
copyright. 1947, BY King Feature Syndi-
cate. Inc.)

cate, 1uC.J
NEW YORK. Sept. 8 - Philip J. Nc
Donald, late PFC in the 24Oth MP. bat
TALON. zone of interior Especially report
ing:
Mr.. Mcdonald reports that he was tap
ped for the honor of guarding the life
and property of the President OF the Unit
ed States and the lives of his loved ones
and of that nasty little mutt Of his, oh.
that sinking little
Listen" Mr.. Mcdonald states, II don't
care what the republicans said about that
Fala, they didn't know the half OF it, the
way he used to bite and snarl and snap.
and the way he would strut around the
thing once and if the people knewsin the
1914 election this dirty little NUT: was
taking nabs out of American soldiers they
probably would have voted for him just
the same, but not me. / was against him.
and anyone who was for him was a phoney
to me, except Dave Shumofsky, the cook.
Dave was for Roosevelt but he was a
good cook. I didn't like Roosevelt and ]
didn't like the job. I heard there was a
lot of lawyers and Wall Street fellows in
the outfit but that is just what I heard.
l don't know where they came from. I
know if you saluted and kept your leggings
white you could stay there until you got
a pension"
Mr.. Mcdonald was one of that crop OF
twenty-year-olds who volunteered for one
yea: in 1910 and were detained for dura-
ton He was not discharged until 1945.
being, by then, a veteran of the Normandy
invasion, which he made with the 458th
amphibious. He was transferred to the
458th amphibious in March, 1912, after the
trouble about the duck.
This was a common butcher-shop duck.
not a wild duck. 1t was an eating duck,
bu. cont try to rush Philip j. Mcdonald.
late of the presidential battalion of foot,
the 240th MP. bn. III. Especially. Before
joining the 240th he was with the 5l8tb
mr.. battalion, LIST Army, Fort Jay, Gov
errors Island.
One day there came to Fort Jay this
Captain James Foley and selected gu men
for the 24Oth. 1t was all supposed to be
husl because nobody was supposed to
battalion, of 384 officers and men at Hyde
Park to guard him when he took a notion
to 20 there, and take a lot Of overbearing
back talk from Fala.
81 guess / told you I kicked that damn
thing once,'' Mr.. Mcdonald said.
81 don't know VIA the qualifications
were to join the presidential guard bat
talion,'' Mr.. Mcdonald said, "but, this
particular day, with Captain Foley, the
QUALIFICATIONS were SIX lSet oAAO q AoA
cut He would say turn around and II you
had a close haircut you were IN. 1t was
my tough luck l had a fresh hair cut
that day. There were already about ~
men at Hyde Park from the 5l8th, but
they were all assorted kinds, five feet
eight, fat guys, some with halr-cufs, some
with not, Just picked to go up and get
the r1ace ready for the 240th. They had
been clearing brush and they were all
packed up and ready to tear out OF there
when we came up. They were restricted
ard couldn't even 60 into Hyde Park for
a few beers and look over the country
h1mss in the taverns because 1t was all a
military secret.
81 think Captain Foley was a West
wav He was strict but he was fair. They
hal their own private bowling alleys on
the Rogers place. Bowling alleys, SWIM
ming pools and the government bought
this all to have a place to keep the Presl-
dents guard. We didn't use them though.
The o~mm handing officer had his own pr.
vate house on the estate. We had a staff
sergeant named Leo T~urmenak.. An old
Army Joe. He used to say, keep on
marching with those white leggings and
you will get the Navy e for efficiency.
He said a lot of mama's boys could stay
here till they got retired for old age and
never know we had a war. One day he
IlIlGuy SOI d I'LL SS-Ooy pass oN
to Dir and some outfit needed a good
sergeant so they hired him to 60 to war.
Eleanor used to come around some
times and you would have to. present
arms. I never presented arms Tor Fala,
though. The old girl was a nuisance com
ing around the barracks when we d1dnt
have any pants on and a lot OF us had
to set dressed and put on those damn
brass whistles. I never knew what good
they were for, anyway. And she told us
how bad the soldiers were oft in Africa
and the English people. Another time
had a date in A tavern but | had to
stand there and listen how proud I should
be, working for the President of the United
States. I had to stand up my date in the
tavern to listen to that. We had to cut
trees and brush and saw logs and make
several miles of corduroy road on his
property.
''This duck came walking around the
corner of Roosevelt's house one day when
he was inside and I was on guard. It got
terribly dull and lonesome up there so I
stopped down to pet the duck and it quack-
ed at me so I step along and the duck
falls in I was afraid he would run away so
7 tied him with a piece of string to his
foot. We weren't ever supposed to be with
out our gun on Guard but with that big
mouth Mike Reilly and all those secret
service mugs loafing around there and
keeping out of the war. too, nobody was
going to take a shot at Roosevelt. So I
put NV run in the shack and that duck
was simply wonderful the way he would,
you know. squads east. right-face, and we
were putting on a review Just the two of
us when around the corner comes that
|Stnw-ell. the new major.
There was Is of us in the draft down
tn Mo'lltrie, S. c.. to ioin the 458th am
phibisn. a great outfit. I never knew where
that duck came from and I never saw
him again h"'+ he was a natural soldier
and a good Joe and I hope he made
sergeant IN the 240th mp. battalion. zone
OF interior. (speciaD. Ten DAYS after D.