The Flash, December 1939

              • THE FLASH*
DECEMBER, 1939
CALEDONIA, MINN. CCC 1720
VoL 4 No. 2
Personnel Will
Strut in Green
NEW  SNAPPY  SPRUCE  GREEN
UNIFORMS TO BE ISSUED
TO ENROLLEES
The personnel of Co. 1720 is about to
''step out" in the new Spruce Green
uniforms, which up to the last few
weeks, we have seen only on the inspectors who have visited our camp.
C. H. Killingsworth, Subaltern has
already received his new uniform and
the other members of the personnel
will have theirs in the near future.
Company Commander, I. J. Weber
will of course have to re-uniform himself as will both Dr. Krupocki, Camp
Surgeon and Mr. Bolkan, Camp Educational Adviser, neither of whom has
had to wear a uniform in the past.
The uniform is,snappy in appearance
and if all the members of the personnel look as well in their new uniforms
as does Mr. Killingsworth, undoubtedly the appearance of our personnel
will be very attractive.
In the future the enrollees of the
■ company will be outfitted in uniforms
of the same color. The first, second and
third Corps Areas have already received their green issue, and the other
Corps Areas will receive theirs as soon
as the uniforms become available. As
we are in the Seventh Corps Area it
is doubtful if we can possibly receive our new issue for, perhaps a
year. Until that time we will have to
"grin and bear it" in the O. D. garments which we now have.
Basketball Squad Looks
Like It May Go Places
Boxing, of course, takes the spotlight
along the sports front today, but as
that sport has been pretty well covered, we hope, on the front page, this
•■column will be devoted to that sport
-which ranks second, as far as limelight is concerned,  namely,  basketball.
Being an old basketball fan ourselves,
-we feel that we are in a position to
criticise, at least with a fair amount of
accuracy, the prospects of our team.
We feel that our team will compare
favorably with almost any team in the
vicinity. Our only competition, to date,
has been a scrimmage with the town
team. The score, at last count, was 21
to 9 in favor of dear old 1720. Of course
-we realize that the members of the
town team can offer the excuse that
they were not in good shape, but then
who can say that we were exactly in
the "pink." Among those who were
decidedly not in the pink were Scharnweber and yours truly (Woodward).
It is with great sorrow that we mention the fact that we have lost the
man, who was probably the most effective ^layer on the squad, '"rink"
McKay, who has gone back to Missouri
to further his education. Still around,
however, are several men who would
be welcome on anybody's basketball
court. Men such as "Babe'' Ruth at
center, Graves, Maxwell and Alexander, at forwards, Scharnweber, Demand, Whitley and Burtin at guards,
with Yours Truly hanging around to
play guard in case some of the good
players get tired.
Any way you look at it, at least in
our opinion, we are pretty good. If
there is anyone to say, us nay, let him
speak or forever hold his peace.
1720 Entrants
Take the Count
LEATHER   SLINGERS   MEET   STIFF
COMPETITION AT REGIONAL
CONTEST
McKay and Waddill
Leave to Enter College
Two of our most popular enrollees,
Emerald "Tink" McKay and Delbert
"Waddle" Waddill have left us to further their education in Missouri. McKay has entered the Northwest Missouri State Teachers' College in Marys-
ville, Mo., and Waddill has entered the
Kirksville State Teachers' College in
Kirksville, Mo.
We regret the leaving of these two
men deeply, as both were very popular and valuable members of the camp.
McKay's loss will be felt most deeply
by the members of the basketball team,
as he was one of its outstanding players. Waddill's duties as Camp Baker
have been taken over by a very able
successor, Virgil Clark.
Both men were allowed to have
school leave and will return to the
company next summer.
 1	
METHODIST  CHURCH  EXTENDS
INVITATION TO CO. 1720
Naughty Word Club
Organized at Office
There has been formed at the office
a new club, which might be called the
"non cursing club." Every time one of
the members hears the other curse, he
is promptly marked up with a penny.
Honestly, you'd be surprsied at the
improvement in language around the
office. It wouldn't be exactly "cricket"
to tell just who is ahead or should we
say behind in the race, but the chart
■ is on the bulletin board for all to see.
Whoever has the smallest number of
marks chalked against him at the end
of the month wins the pot, and if the
fellows at the office live up to their
past reputations, it should be quite a
"tidy" sum.
Rueben, "Hey Rube" Knouse and
Carl "Red" Burgess, lone 1720 entrants
in the CCC Regional Finals at Rochester, both lost their battles by virtue of
technical knockouts. Knouse's fight
was stopped in the second round, and
Burgess' in the first. Knouse fought at
137 pounds and Burgess at 112.
Both men became eligible for the
finals by virtue of victories, earlier in
the month, in the preliminary entanglements, also held at Rochester.
Knouse scored two first round knockouts, one technical. Burgess, although
he was actually defeated, was awarded
the decision, because his opponent was
overweight.
1720 was also represented in the
earlier matches by seven other men,
who fell by the wayside. Of these only
Henspn, fighting at 154 pounds, was
able to salvage one of his fights, but a
technical knockout in his second encounter put an end to his chances of
entering the final tournament. Bartlett,
at 128, Matthews at 122, and Woods at
138, all went out the "quick and easy
way," while Haley, at 132, Garrett, at
142 and Lashley, at 146, dropped decisions to their opponents.
We, here at the camp, were notified
of the preliminary tournament only
ten days before it was held, consequently our boys had a much shorter
training period than did many of the
other fighters. The condition of the
boys, undoubtedly had much to do
with their losing so many fights.
Bartlett and Knouse expect to enter
the Golden Gloves Competition at Des
Moines, Iowa, in February.
The Methodist church of Caledonia
has asked us to extend to all members
of Co. 1720 a kind invitation to attend
its Sunday school and church services,
and its Epworth League services in the
evening.
There are, at present, about 18 men
from 1720 enrolled in the Young Men's
class of the Sunday school and about
the same number attend the Epworth
League meetings. The Methodist
church appreciates the attendance of
these men, and hopes that any others
who wish to attend will not hesitate to
DISTRICT COMMANDER
VISITS COMPANY 1720
Lt. Col. E. J. Dwan, Iowa District
Commander, made a short visit to Co.
1720, just in time to have his visit
recorded in the "Flash." It was Col.
Dwan's second visit to the camp since
he assumed command of the Iowa District in September.
Although he made no comments as
to his reaction toward the appearance
of the camp, we trust that he was as
pleased with our camp as we have
been with his regime.
Says We--
This publication represents a
sort of an in-between the holiday's effort on the part of the
staff of the Flash.
We, therefore wish to take this
opportunity of wishing every
one a Very Merry Christmas and
a Happy New Year.
It is also appropriate that we
offer our belated, but none the
less sincere, thanks, for the
bountiful dinner we received on
Thanksgiving Day. The turkey
was superb, the linen spotless,
and the less said about the conditions of our stomachs afterwards, the better. We trust that
the several guests, among the
most welcome of whom was
Reverend Hynes of the Methodist church, were as well pleased
with the meal as we were.
Our thoughts now stray toward Christmas and toward the
excellent meal that we know
that we shall receive. We do not
believe for one minute that those
who go home for Christmas will
fare any better, if as well, over
the dinner table than will those
of us who remain in camp.
Educational Facilities
are Much Improved
In our last edition we stated that a
new library and reading room had
been constructed. Since that time, the
plans have  been  changed.
The building, which was to have
been a reading room has been converted into a woodworking shop, and the
old shop room at the south end of the
school house has been transformed into
a reading room and library, with space
enough provided to house the educational office.
Moving the library and office from its
old position in the north room, which
is also the meeting place of the typing
;and  journalism  classes,   is  proving  to
■ be of unbounded benefit to the educational program. It not only has furnished a new class room, but also has
taken the library and office from their
present noisy quarters to a much more
! suitable locale.
| The new shop is a much more desirable place to work thjn was the old
one. It is 20x40 and gives twice as
much room to those enrolled in the
woodworking classes as did the old
shop. The boys can now Kfork without fear of hitting each other in the
head every time they swing a hammer.
The "new*' room has been ceiled
with ply-wood and celotex. Its appearance is much more pleasant than was
that of the old library and office, with
its tar paper walls. The remainder of
the school house will be ceiled in the
near future. > ?