The HISTORY CRIER
March 2003
Issue #29

Senac

Continuing a Proud Tradition in Reporting Since 1941
Atterbury Crier-Camp Crier-Cardinal-Wakeman Probe-Caduceus-Twingine Times-Big Times-Splint & Litter- Wardier

Atterbury AAF - Bakalar AFB - Camp Atterbury - Freeman AAF - Freeman Field - Wakeman General Hospital
28th Division - 30th Division - 31st Division - 83rd Division - 92nd Division - 106th Division

'Found' - At the Muscatatuck Wildlife Refuge

While looking through the web site for Freeman Army Air Field,  Mr. Dave Carmichael of Seymour emailed me and asked if I had ever herd of the WW2 plane crash in the Muscatatuck Wildlife Refuge Center, a several-thousand acre nature preserve, located about 10 miles from the former Freeman AAF.  Subsequent emails, revealed that Mr. Carmichael had located the wreckage while hiking in the Center.  He had heard that it crashed there during a training flight from Freeman and that both airmen had died in the crash.

I immediately contacted the Board of Directors of the Freeman Air Museum, asking if they had heard of it.

That question awakened some old memories. 'Yes,' they did remember that.  But the 'crash' story was quickly laid to rest.  Shortly after the end of World War II,  when there were still some derelict aircraft remaining, the Civilian Air Patrol (CAP) had requested help in locating one in the wooded area to serve as an aid in search and rescue training.  So the body of a Army training plane, a PT-19A, was secured and carried by truck to the remote area.  After serving in CAP training missions, the old plane was pretty much forgotten.

On a cold January 25th of this year, myself, my son Christopher, Mr. Carmichael and his son, Mr. Jack Hildreth, a member of the Freeman Air Museum board of directors, and a representative of the Wildlife Center went to locate the plane.  Guided by an earlier GPS reading by Mr. Carmichael, we walked the frozen, rough ground, up one hill and down the other side, crossing frozen streams and skirting the occasional remains of some family's home.  Although it seemed to be about 10 miles,  it was probably closer to one.

But we made it, and found the remains of an Army two-seat trainer.  The original plane, as in the photo above, was cloth-covered with wooden wings.  The years had taken its toll.  All that remains today, is the tubing fuselage, some small metal panels, and the three landing gear assemblies.


At the rear of the plane, looking forward.  Visible are the two sets of rudder pedals and the forward control stick.
Left side, showing the firewall and indentations for the forward position rubber pedals.

General view of the plane's remains and some of the sheet metal, along with one of the archeologists.
Close-up of the rear position rudder pedals and the base of the control stick.

One of the main landing gear assemblies.
Part number of the landing gear.

Even though not much remains of the 1940's airplane, the Freeman Air Museum is trying to get permission from the government to move the remains to the museum where it will be preserved and displayed.

Thanks to Mr. Carmichael for informing us of the plane, and for the use of his photos above.
January 29, 1942
Beats Oil Wells -- $180 a Month Offered for Columbus Room by 6 Camp Workers

The Camp Atterbury construction boom is under way.  Sleeping rooms can bring as high as$180 a month - or at least the application of a little math shows that one such offer amounted to that.

A truckload of construction workers arrived here late last night and began the difficult search for sleeping rooms.  At a home in the south part of Columbus, the owner said he had a room he might rent.  Spokesman for the workers informed him to put in three double beds and the six of them would rent it at $1 a night a head.  That figures $6 a night or $180 a month ! !
February 1942 - Indianapolis News
County May Lose Famous Landmark Through Necessity of Army Needs - Tragedy and Romance Haunt Mill Site Soon To Be Covered by Army Camp

Establishment of an army camp in southern Johnson county will remove one of the county's most familiar landmarks - the Furnas Mill - a historical site that has been touched by romance and tragedy.

A historical marker was recently placed near the site of the mill, one of the earliest grist mills in the county.  The marker is two and a half miles northwest of Edinburgh on the county line running east and west.

The marker, placed near the mill dam, which will be dynamited to make way for a railroad spur leading to the camp, was placed on the site by the Alexander Hamilton Chamber of the D. A. R. in cooperation with O. J. Shuck, Franklin historian.  The marker reads: "Early Mill Site.  Here about 1832, William Simon and James Shaffer erected a sawmill, later added a grist mill which afterward became known as the Furnas mill, acquired by Orlando Furnas in 1875."

Orlando Furnas, a native of Clinton county, operated mills in Marion county, before buying the mill in 1875.  He was at one time employed in the Carlisle mill in Indianapolis.  When it was destroyed by fire in 1917, it was being operated by A. Workman.

The site was an ideal fishing and camping grounds and many Indianapolis citizens owned summer cottages at Furnas'.  In the horse and buggy days many romances blossomed during trips to the old mill.

The camp was not confined to summer cottages, for several pretentious houses were built by outsiders, one of the most attractive being that erected by L. Ert Slack, of Indianapolis.

While the mill was still standing, the Pekus Club, comprised of several Franklin business and professional built a cottage at a point on the north bank of the creek at a point accessible only by boat.  It was at a gathering of the club members on the night of January 22, 1930, that two of the members were drowned when their boat capsized and went over the dam.

Clark Prather, druggist, and Amador Wyrick, merchant, were drowned and R. H. Sellers, editor of the Franklin Evening Star, who died several years later, never recovered from the shock suffered that night.
April 21, 1942
Changes are Many, Varied and Frequent

One month ago, the country side south of Franklin presented a purely agricultural scene.  Today, buildings are taking form over a six-square-mile area in Camp Atterbury.  Building a big camp in a hurry is a marvel of speed in which there is no apparent confusion.

Trucks swarm like ants over the area bringing in materials from a number of Indiana cities.  At the same time other fleets of trucks are distributing materials from 75 railroad cars each and every day.

Visitors are barred from the building section principally because they would be in the way.  But if the farmers who recently moved off these acres could return, the change would bewilder them.

In the heart of the building section is the old Drake house.  This 70-year old brick homestead is being remodeled.  But flanking it are large two-story buildings already under roof.  Late this summer they will be filled with soldiers.  There are signal school buildings.

Across the road from the Drake house (the road has been Schoolhouse Road by the engineers) a temporary hospital, built by the 10 contractors and the insurance companies, is ready for patients.  It has a staff of two doctors and a corps of nurses.

In peace times, first things would come first, water mains, sewers, roads and railroads would be installed before other construction began.  But in this emergency all things start at once.  There is only one concession.  Where land grading is a necessity, it must come first.

Street grades are being made while an asphalt plant is being erected.  The sewage treatment plant is being built while miles of tile are being distributed.

Rising most rapidly are the 60 buildings in the 1,750-bed hospital unit.  Already many of them are ready for inside finishing.  The hospital is of a semi-permanent construction and may be retained for use after the war.  At a distant point the water pumping station is under way and miles of large water mains are in place ready to be sunk.

More than 5,000 are now working on the construction.  It is believed the peak will be in June and then 15,000 will be on the job.

All of the activity is going on 24 hours a day and 7 days a week.  At night the place is ablaze with lights.  Portable toilets are built with floodlights on them.  Other lighting units are on trucks which make their own electricity.

With 1,800 buildings, utilities, roads and railroads all being built at once, there are no traffic jams or confusion.  Each of the 10 prime contractors and some 50 to 60 subcontractors are designated entrances for their trucks and workmen.  Hours of workdays are staggered.

Because of this planning, the $40,000,000 project to house a population of 40,000 is rising like magic with no evidence of strain or hurry.

But back in the National Guard Armory at Franklin planning for the big camp continues day and night.  It is there that the architect-engineer, Charles H. Hurd of Indianapolis has his staff of engineers and clerks.  In this office 120 are at work.

Another 280 professional men on the engineer's staff are in the field and in branch headquarters scattered over the camp area.

This Indianapolis architect-engineering firm is no novice at camp building.  It had charge of construction work at Fort Benjamin Harrison during World War I.  Since the present war effort started it has handled work at Fort Benjamin Harrison, the Jefferson Proving Ground at Madison and at Fort Knox, Kentucky.

Priorities make it necessary to change many plans which were started last May.  To give the right of way for more urgent needs for steel, the two big water storage reservoirs are being built of concrete.  The original design was for steel.  Other changes in plans are made constantly to speed construction.
September 3, 1942
Camp Atterbury Chapel to be Scene of Inaugural Wedding

The first military wedding to be held in Camp Atterbury will take place Thursday evening when Private First Class Ross C. Leffler, 22-year old solider from Los Angeles, Cal., will take as his bride a former schoolmate, Miss Dorothy Holms, 21, also of Los Angeles.

Major A. P. Donnelly, the assistant division chaplain for the 83rd Infantry Division, will officiate at a full military wedding ceremony at 7 o'clock in the 331st Infantry Regiment chapel.

Leffler and Miss Holms had originally planned to be married last spring - on Easter Sunday, to be specific - but the war, resulting in his induction into the Army in February, forced them to postpone plans.

Since then the couple have worked out plans for their exchange of nuptial vows and the 83rd Division is proudly awaiting the first wedding to be held since Camp Atterbury was established.

Miss Holms has already arrived at Camp Atterbury.  She traveled alone from Los Angeles and neither her parents nor the parents of Leffler will be present for the wedding.

The couple attended high school together at James A. Garfield high school in Los Angeles.  Best man will be Pvt. Duane Jenson, a soldier pal of Leffler.

The "society department" of the 83rd Division press office revealed that another wedding will take place Saturday in the new Army camp.

Entertainment at Camp Atterbury -- March, 1943
WAR DEPARTMENT THEATER No. 1
Fairbanks St. between 7th and 8th Sts.
Shows start at 1830 and 2030 (6:30 and 8:30 p.m.)
Sunday matinee at 1400 (2 p.m.)

WAR DEPARTMENT THEATER No. 2
Corner of Gatling St. and Rd. 252
Shows start at 1800 and 2000 (6 and 8 p.m.)
Sunday Matinee at 1400 (2 p.m.)

WAR DEPARTMENT THEATER No. 3
Division and Clark Sts.
Shows start at 1915 and 2115 (7:15 and 9:15 p.m.)

WAR DEPARTMENT THEATER No. 4
On Clark St., near North St.
Shows start at 1815 and 2015 (6:15 and 8:15 p.m.)
Sunday matinee at 1400 (2 p.m.)

WAR DEPARTMENT THEATER No. 5
Block No. 13 on Gatling St.
Shows start at 1900 and 2100 (7 and 9 p.m.)
Sunday Matinee at 1500 (3 p.m.)

Admission - Adults, 15c; children,10c.
Admitted: soldiers, their families and civilians residing on the Reservation.

Theater No. 1

Fri, Mar 5, 1943
"SOMETHING TO SHOUT ABOUT", Jack Oakie, Don Ameche and Janet Blair.

Sat, Mar 6, 1943
"LUCKY JORDAN", Alan Ladd and Helen Walker & "AT THE FRONT IN NORTH AFRICA".

Sun, Mar 7, 1943
"TENNESSEE JOHNSON", Van Heflin, Lionel Barrymore and Ruth Hussey & "AT THE FRONT IN NORTH AFRICA".

Mon & Tues, Mar 8 & 9, 1943
"RANDOM HARVEST", Greer Garson and Ronald Coleman.

Wed, Mar 10, 1943
"LET'S HAVE FUN", Bert Gordon and Jinx Falkenberg & "THE MYSTERIOUS DOCTOR", John Lader and Eleanor Parker.

Thurs & Fri, Mar 11 & 12, 1943
"HIT PARADE OF 1943", with John Carroll, Susan Hayward and Freddie Martin's Orchestra.

Susan Haywood in "Hit Parade of 1943"
Ronald Coleman
"The Man with the Velvet Voice"

MARCH Timeline
For the entire Timeline, visit the site at www.IndianaMilitary.org

March 18, 1939 - Germany and Italy form the Axis.
March 13, 1940 - Finland signs peace treaty with Soviet Union.
March 1, 1941 - Bulgaria joins the axis powers.
March 7, 1941 - British forces arrive in Greece.
March 11, 1941 - President Roosevelt signs the Lend-Lease Act.
March 24, 1941 - Rommel pushes British out of El Agheila.
March 25, 1941 - Yugoslavia joins the axis powers.
March 27, 1941 - A coup in Yugoslavia overthrows the pro-Axis government.
March 5, 1942 - Flood lights speed work on camp site. 24 acres taken for new water wells.
March 6, 1942 - Camp named in honor of General Will Wallace Atterbury.  General Order No. 12.
March 7, 1942 - Camp workers warned about drinking unapproved water.  Half of camp wells condemned. Labeled unsafe for use by workmen.
March 8, 1942 - Japanese troops capture Rangoon, Burma.
March 9, 1942 - Japanese troops capture Java.
March 12, 1942 - US Marines land on New Caledonia.
March 18, 1942 - Army to close building area to traffic. Sightseeing motorists to be banned effective Saturday. Road 252 and others barricaded.
March 20, 1942 - First use of the gas chambers in Auschwitz-Birkenau.
March 23, 1942 - Negotiations for other camp land to get under way. Ready to buy territory in Kansas and below Ohio Ridge Road. New men for contacts. All negotiators except Chief from outside Bartholomew County.
March 24, 1942 - Prepare to Move 500 Graves from Camps Site.  Original layout of all graves will be maintained.
March 25, 1942 - START RAZING FIRST HOUSE IN CAMP AREA. Number of Homes, Barns and Silos to Be Offered for Sale.  --  Beats Oil Well. $180 a month offered for Columbus room by 6 camp workers.
March 30, 1942 - Army taking bids for grave removal.
March 1, 1943 - $ 2,370,176 is paid for Camp land.
March 2, 1943 - Germans begin a withdrawal from Tunisia, Africa.
March 3, 1943 - Advanced Flying School at Seymour will be named Freeman Army Air Field in memory of Hoosier Capt. Richard S. Freeman.  General Order #10.
March 7, 1943 - 44th WAC Company arrives at Camp Atterbury.  First WAC's on Post.
March 11, 1943 - Solider killed by blast while on maneuvers.
March 12. 1943 - Ada Leonard and her All-Girl Band at Camp Atterbury.  Atterbury welcomes 44th WAAC Headquarters Co.
March 15, 1943 -106th Division activated.  Germans re-capture Kharkov.  Army Finally Clears Story of Austrians. Formation of Battalion at Atterbury, Known Since December, Announced. 3 DUKES BUCK PRIVATES. Brothers of Otto, Hapsburg Pretender to Throne, in Camp Atterbury.
March 19, 1943 - Solider drowns during field problem.
March 20, 1943 - Ranger training begins at Camp Atterbury.
March 24, 1943 - Ink Spots and Lucky Millinder's Band scheduled to broadcast from Freeman AAF but cancel at last minute.  Workers Get the Works with 83rd Division at Camp Atterbury.  Let Top Executives See It, Too, is Suggestion of U. A. W.'s Reuther. Visit Termed a Success. Guns Roar as Tanks and Doughboys Battle for Atterbury's Onlookers.
March 26, 1943 - Freeman AAF weekly newspaper named 'Twingine Times'.
March 3, 1944 - The patients at the Post Hospital now have their own weekly newspaper, the "Wardier". It will not publish any war news, but rather hospital news and rumors.
March 4, 1944 -   Glider pilots practicing at Atterbury AAF.  Soviet troops begin an offensive on the Belorussian front; First major daylight bombing raid on Berlin by the Allies.
March 7, 1944 35 Transfer of 106 Pro-Fascist Italian Prisoners of War from Camp Atterbury to POW at Monticello, Arkansas.
March 8, 1944 - Record 2,000 plane raid on Berlin.
March 12, 1944 - Class 44-C graduates at Freeman AAF.
March 15, 1944 - Second Allied attempt to capture Monte Cassino begins.
March 16-20 - Battle of Atlantic climaxes with 27 merchant ships sunk by German U-boats.
March 18, 1944 - British drop 3000 tons of bombs during an air raid on Hamburg, Germany.
March 20-28, 1944 - Montgomery's Eighth Army breaks through the Mareth Line in Tunisia.
March 27, 1944 - 106th Division leaves Tennessee for Camp Atterbury.
March 31, 1944 - Col Conner heads newly designated General Hospital at Camp Atterbury.
March, 1945 - Radio Station W.A.K.E. begins operations at Wakeman General Hospital.
March 1, 1945 - 477th Bomber Group (all Black) moves to Freeman AAF. 
March 2, 1945 - 83rd Wins Race to Rhine - Spearheads Ninth Army Break-through to River, Rattles Dusseldorf Gates.  The Rhine River in front of Dusseldorf was officially reached at 1000 Friday morning by doughboys of Major General Robert C. Macon's 83rd Division, and the main highway bridge into Dusseldorf from Neuss was reached at 1500 in the afternoon.  By midnight the center of the city was taken by the 330th under Col. Robert T. Foster, while the 329th Infantry under Col. Edwin B. Crabill forged through the southern section of the city.  The 331st Infantry, commanded by Col. Robert H. York working north along the Erft Canal on the Division's right flank, pushed ahead rapidly and was a thousand yards from the Rhine at daybreak Friday morning and on the Rhine by 1000.  Company E of the 331st Infantry is credited officially with being the first unit to reach the Rhine.
March 3, 1945 - Camp Atterbury's Reception Center now 3rd largest in nation.  Camp Atterbury Reception Station Is Crossroads of World.
Veterans Returning to Atterbury Wear Shoulder Patches of Every Outfit.
March 6, 1945 - Last German offensive of the war begins to defend oil fields in Hungary.
March 7, 1945 -   Medical Detachment at Wakeman General Hospital goes from 500 to 1,600.  Allies take Cologne and establish a bridge across the Rhine at Remagen.  US troops reached the Rhine, and found one of the bridges across the Rhine, at Remagen, still standing. As American troops attempted to cross the bridge, the Germans set off a charge, but it failed to destroy the bridge, and soon the Americans were across the Rhine.
March 10. 1945 - Fourteen Black officers of the 477th Bombardment Squadron were refused service at Freeman AAF when they entered the all-white officer's club.
March 14, 1945 - BUILDING PLAN AT WAKEMAN IS AUTHORIZED.  Wilson Says Expenditures of $1,483,293 Are Given Approval.
March 17, 1945 - 3,000 of Camp Atterbury's acres to be leased to farmers.  106th Division gets revenge on Nazis.  Edinburg declared 'off-limits' to all military personnel until water supply isn't decontaminated.
March 22, 1945 - General Patton crosses the Rhine at Nierstein.  Produces classic photo of him urinating in the Rhine River.
March 24, 1945 - For the part played by the 83rd in the liberation of France, Major General Robert C. Macon, Division Commander, received the Croix de Guerre with Palms and the Legion of Honor, grade of officer, from General Louis Koeltz, chief of the French liaison mission.  As an officer of the Legion of Honor, General Macon holds the highest French military award.
March 28, 1945 - Wakeman Hospital to have closed radion station W.A.K.E.  30th Division leads Rhine attack.  Soviet troops reach Austrian border. -- Glider lands on Hill farm. Soldier occupants unhurt in forced landing Wednesday. Un-scheduled landing also made north of Flat Rock.
March 29, 1945 - German city of Frankfurt falls to Allies. -- WAKEMAN GETS RADIO SYSTEM.  Will Bring Entertainment To All Wards. Is Gift Of Muncie Women.
March 30, 1945 - Soviet troops capture Danzig.
March 20, 1946 - Atterbury officer one of victims of plane crash.
March 5, 1947 - 38th Division Headquarters federally recognized.
March 12, 1947 - Pres. Truman outlined the Truman Doctrine of economic and military aid to nations threatened by Communism. The doctrine was intended to speed recovery of Mediterranean countries He specifically requested aid for Greece and Turkey to resist Communism.
March 14, 1947 - The U.S. signed a 99-year lease on naval bases in the Philippines.
March 21, 1947 - Pres. Truman signed Executive Order 9835 requiring all federal employees to swear allegiance to the United States.
March 24, 1947 - John D. Rockefeller Jr. donated a NYC East River site to the UN.
March12, 1948 - US House approve Marshall Plan, 318-75; Senate 69-17.
March 18, 1948 - Philips began experimental TV broadcasting.
 
March 30, 1950 - President Truman denounced Senator Joe McCarthy as a saboteur of U.S. foreign policy.
March 23, 1951 - U.S. paratroopers descended from flying boxcars in a surprise attack in Korea.
March 29, 1951 - Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage.
March 7, 1952 - Fighting VI Corps Lt. Col. O. M. Barsanti Has DSC, Three Silver Stars, Six Purple Hearts.  The young battle-scarred Colonel (he’s only 34) is Camp Atterbury’s most decorated officer.  In all, he has been awarded 44 decorations - most of them for heroism in combat. The include the Distinguished Service Cross, the nation’s second highest military award; three Silver Stars, America’s third highest award for bravery; eight Bronze Stars for valor, six Purple Hearts and many others.  In Korea, he was the Army’s youngest regimental commander.  He was also one of the first 12 Americans to arrive in Korea after the surprise North Korean invasion on June 25, 1950.
March 8, 1952 - A Cardinal reader asked the PIO staff what the initials A S stand for.  These initials are carved into a boulder in front of the Judge Advocate’s office on Division Street at Milroy.  The staff racked their brains and searched the Camp Atterbury background and information file.  No answer could be found.  Can any of our readers tell us ?  Please phone PIO at 689 if you know the answer.  No prizes are offered, naturally.
March 3, 1953 - Russian Premier Joseph Stalin died at age 73 after 29 years in power. After his death the Chechens were allowed to return home.
March 6, 1953 - A blinding snowstorm was blamed for the crash of a C-46 cargo plane enroute to Atterbury Air Base from Lowry Air Base at Denver, Colorado.  The plane's three crewmen and eight passengers parachuted to safety in the midst of the blizzard as the plane, on autopilot, circled overhead at 3,000 feet.  An engine failed on the C-46 and it crashed and burned on a farm near Avon, Indiana.
March 10, 1953 - North Korean gunners at Wonsan fired on the USS Missouri, the ship responds by firing 998 rounds at the enemy position.
March 26, 1953 - Dr. Jonas Salk of the University of Pittsburgh announced that a vaccine against polio had been successfully tested in a small group of adults and children. By April 1955, the vaccine had undergone further testing and gained federal approval for public use. Salk's polio vaccine was so successful that by 1961 the incidence of polio had decreased by 95 percent. Dr. Salk visited Camp Atterbury POW camp during WW2.
March 31, 1954 - Camp Atterbury placed in inactive status by General Order No. 4.  Last meal served.  Remaining personnel fed by 5015th Mess after that date.

 
March 24, 1958 - Elvis Presley was inducted into the Army in Memphis, Tenn.
March 27, 1958 - Nikita Khrushchev became Soviet premier in addition to First Secretary of the Communist Party.
 
May 1, 1960 Gary Francis Powers was shot down by the Soviets over Sverdlovsk in the Ural Mountains. Forced to bail out at 15,000 feet, he survived the parachute jump but was promptly arrested by Soviet authorities.
May 11, 1960 - Israeli soldiers captured Adolf Eichmann in Buenos Aires. Adolph Eichmann, the Nazi war criminal, was nabbed in Argentina by Peter Malkin. Eichmann was taken to Israel where he was tried, found guilty and hung in 1962.
 
March 1, 1969 - All eighteen AC-119G gunships of Bakalar AFB's 71st SOS are now in South Vietnam
 
March 28, 1979 - America's worst commercial nuclear accident occurred inside the Unit Two reactor at the Three Mile Island plant near Middletown, Pa., almost to meltdown. Thousands living near the plant left the area before the 12-day crisis ended, during which time some radioactive water and gases were released. A combination of mechanical and human factors allowed the Unit 2 reactor to lose cooling water. It cost more than $1 billion and more than a decade to remove the damaged nuclear fuel. A 1997 study indicated increased cancer rates for people living downwind.
March 15, 1980 - Thomas "Sarge" Johnson, internationally known boxing coach of  Job Corps Center, dies with his team of American Amateur boxers in a plane crash in Poland.
March 21, 1980 - President Carter announced to the U.S. Olympic Team that they would not participate in the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow as a boycott against Soviet intervention in Afghanistan.
March 31, 1980 - President Carter deregulated the banking industry.
March 30, 1981 - John W. Hinckley Jr. shot and wounded Pres. Ronald Reagan outside a Washington, D.C., hotel. Press Sec. James Brady took a bullet as did Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy and a District of Columbia police officer.
March 16, 1982 - Indiana Department of Corrections plans work release center on Department of Natural Resources land at former Camp Atterbury grounds.
March 26, 1982 - The Vietnam War Memorial in Washington D.C., designed by Maya Lin of Yale, was dedicated. Ground was broken in Washington D.C. for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
 
March 3, 1991 - American General H. Norman Schwarzkopf and Saudi Lt. Gen. Prince Khalid discussed cease-fire terms with Iraqi commanders Lt. Gen. Mohammed Abdez Rahman al-Dagitistani and Lt. Gen. Sabin Abdel-Aziz al Douri. The Iraqis' astonishment at the disparity involved in the prisoner exchange demonstrated how ignorant they still were of the magnitude of their own defeat.
 
March 1, 1999 - A US report on policy with North Korea indicated that North Korea was involved in the production and distribution of narcotics. An area 10-17 thousand acres was estimated to be under poppy cultivation with opium production at 30-44 annual metric tons.
March 4, 1999 - In North Carolina a military jury acquitted Captain Richard J. Ashby of all charges in the 1998 death of 20 people, who died when his jet cut the cable of their ski gondola in the Italian Alps. Italian authorities were outraged.
March 11, 1999 - The US Rodman naval base in Panama was transferred to Panama.
March 12, 1999 - Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic formally joined NATO in a ceremony at Independence, Mo., where Pres. Truman announced in 1949 the formation of the Atlantic alliance for defense against the Soviet bloc.
March 16, 1999 - A railroad car, formerly the "Indian Song", retired by the railroad and converted into a McDonald's Restaurant Dining Room in Greenwood, Indiana, was donated to Camp Atterbury by the McDonald's owner. The car was moved to the Military Display Area of the Camp Atterbury Museum. It will be converted in a gift shop and will contain displays concerning the railroad system at the former Army base. --  North Korea agreed to allow US inspectors to visit a suspected nuclear weapons site in exchange for assistance to increase potato yields.
March 17, 1999 - Franklin Star Journal - Camp Atterbury website worth the visit.  www.IndianaMilitary.org
March 20, 1999 - Balloonists Bertrand Piccard of Switzerland and Brian Jones of Britain established an around the world record after floating over Mauritania at 1:54 a.m. PST. This won them a $1 million prize from Anheuser-Busch as the first aviators to fly a hot-air balloon around the world nonstop.
March 24, 1999 - In Serbia NATO forces sent a broad wave of air attacks against Yugoslav forces in an attempt to halt the Serbian offensive in Kosovo. Cruise missiles and planes targeted military sites near Belgrade and some 40 sites in total. Initial reports said 10 people were killed and 38 wounded in the bombing. The air strikes marked the first time in its 50-year existence that NATO had ever attacked a sovereign country.
 
March 12, 2002 - The Bush administration announced a 5-color code system to alert Americans on the danger level posed by terrorists.
 
The History Crier is published independently by the Indiana Military Org.anization and is in no way connected with the Department of the Army, the Indiana National Guard, or any other military or civilian organization. Unless otherwise noted, all content has been previously published during WW2 and the Korean War.

Editor—James D. West, Veteran, Sgt, Co. B 138th Armor, Co. C 151st Mechanized Infantry, INARNG and MSgt, 71st Special Operations Squadron, USAFRes.  Email: JimWest@IndianaMilitary.org
 

Visit the web site dedicated to south-central Indiana Military history and join the new Discussion—Message board. Ask a question—Answer a question. All are invited.  www.IndianaMilitary.org

—– Own A Piece of Local Military History —–

Now available — PC and Mac computer CD-ROMS containing photographic images of the original weekly published newspapers of the Army and Air Force bases represented by this paper. Not re-typed, but images of the actual papers.

Camp Atterbury WW2 CAMP CRIER. Every page of every issue. 184 weekly issues of either 8 or 12 pages. $21.00
Freeman Army Air Field’s TWINGINE TIMES. All issues. Perhaps 6 pages missing. $21.00
Wakeman General Hospital, THE PROBE. All known issues plus detailed Annual Reports. $10.50
Freeman AAF DOCUMENTS. More than 1,500 pages of the official history compiled in 1946. $21.00
Camp Atterbury—Korean War era -THE CARDINAL. Approximately 1/2 of all issues. $10.50
Hurd Report — The report that convinced Congress to build Camp Atterbury. 86 pages, maps, specifications, costs, etc. $10.50
Federal Court Summons to the Original Landowners — Lists more than 525 individuals with property surveys. Gives each 60 days to vacate. $10.50

All prices include taxes and shipping. Proceeds go towards the operational costs of
www.IndianaMilitary.org   Read details of the offer on that web site or email

Editor@IndianaMilitary.org


See Where Heroes Were Made…
Visit and Support the museums dedicated to preserving the memories
of those men and women who made today’s freedoms possible.

Atterbury-Bakalar Air Museum—located on the site of the former Atterbury AAF and Bakalar AFB, North of Columbus, Indiana.
Camp Atterbury Museum—located in Camp Atterbury, West of Edinburgh, Indiana. Open Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday, 1 to 4 pm.
Freeman AAF Museum—located on the site of the former Freeman Army Air Field, West of Seymour, Indiana. Just South of State Road 50.   Open Monday thru Friday, 8 to 4 pm. Inquire at the Airport Director’s office for admittance.

Visit all the above historic sites at www.IndianaMilitary.org