id i it i i 6 The Dallas Post Dallas, PA Wednesday, January 23, 1991 Veterans (continued from page 1) \ mel to the Cape Bon Peninsula where he surrendered.” “The desert was similar; sandy, dusty, lots of bugs and lice. The sand in our food was always there. The water was terrible. It was trucked into us in ‘lister’ bags and our food was ‘Iron Rations,’ food in ~ cans. We were issued four ciga- rettes, two sticks of gum and two pieces of hard candy per day. We were also given round biscuits, as hard as dog biscuits. They were so od hard you had to have very good i i i i : t i H 19 I f {3 i ee tS teeth to bite into them,” Lamoreux said. He said the British fought with ~ them in the desert and the first thing they did when they got up was to take a five gallon can, fill it half full of water, then start a fire, and put the water on to boil for tea. The soldiers would thendump ina can full of tea and a handful of sugar and before they did any- thing else drank their tea. ~ As in the current conflict, ac- cess to supplies was of key impor- tance to the victors. “The Germans had better tanks than we did but they didn't have the gas and supplies that the Americans did. We would go along in the desert and every so often see one of their tanks they had de- serted because of the lack of gas or “other supplies.” The World War II veteran said ‘the weather was the same from ‘November until April. He also said the men had some air cover from “as Spitfires, P-38 Lightnings, B-25 ‘and B-26 bombers and when they got into Sicily had P-51's. Lamoreux and the other men with him were stationed close to the Arabs, many times living al- most alongside of them. When he was in Africa, he said the Arabs used salt for money. “Salt and water were two of the most precious items there,” he said. e had noradio or television then, and the mail we sent out or that ame in was censored. One time I wrote home for a pack of gum and “wrote that one stick of the gum would be for the censor. When I got the pack of gum one stick was missing and there was a note on ' thebottom of the letter which read ‘Thank You, the Censor.” “It took seven months from the time I got there before Rommel was defeated. We used to walk 50 miles per 11 hours and one time walked 53 miles.in two and a half days. After Rommel was defeated we went d while was there Iwas i by on: of our Miracle Bombers and t seven months in the hospital, then came back to the states.” Lamoreux said the equipment : then cannot be compared to what ‘the branches of the service have ‘today, that the air power today is remarkable. : “The coalition will win but it will take a long time,” Lamoreux pre- dicted. “Saddam may have poison gas but this country has missiles they can use which will dig him out of the ground. We will win but it is a different kind of war than any of the others we have been in,” he said. On The Home Front Charney was stationed in Sahara John Charney of Ransom Road, Dallas, is not a World War II Vet- eran but a veteran of both the Korean and the Vietnam Conflict. “I was stationed in the Sahara Desert in 1951 doing radar sur- veillance which covered a gap be- tween the Indianapolis Mountain range as a protection range for bomber bases in Morocco, now no longer in existence,” said Charney. He entered the Air Force in 1950 following ' graduation from high school and was trained as an air traffic controller. “My goal was to become a gun- ner on a bomber but for some reason I never made it,” Charney said. During the Korean War he was in Kunson. “We were fighting a regular war in Korea until poli- tics got into the war. In Vietnam, the men described it as fighting with one leg in the air and one behind your back. “We couldn't fight the war the way we should. For example, we were wrapped up. I had a buddy guarding an ammunition dump on a beach. He got up and went be- hind a bush for something. Then he saw a Viet Cong zapper shadow but he had to call the command post to ask what he could do and before he could do anything the ammo dump went up and he went with it. “Many of the veterans in the States were against the Vietnam conflict and a lot of the veterans are ashamed to let the public know they were in Vietnam. In the Ko- rean War we were dependent on the ground forces; we had nothing technical as in this war. We had no air power as there is today. We had nothing like it and no day-to-day publicity as there is now.” “Vietnam was the toughest; you didn't know who your enemy was,” Charney said. “We could figure out the day we were going to get hit because a lot of the Vietnamese wouldn't show up that day. A lot of Americans lost their lives who shouldn't have.” All three wars were different according to Charney. “Korea and Vietnam were jungle wars but when I was in the Sahara there was no place to hide. In the day the temperature was in the 140's, at night it would go down to 90 degrees and we would freeze. “The sand was always in our food and in our equipment. We would walk from the serving line to our eating place and our food would be covered with sand. When I came home from the service my mother didn't know who I was, I was so dark. While in the desert we had to drink water with salt tablets dis- solved in it.” “This war is entirely different than those of the past. There is no comparison,” Charney concluded. Mideast natives say Saddam must be stopped By CHARLOT M. DENMON Staff Writer Two Back Mountain residents with ties to the Middle East strongly support the effort of the United States and its coalition partners to remove Iraqi forces from Kuwait. The also say the destruction of Saddam Hussein's military machine is a critical component of future peace in the region. Dr. Mazen Shahin, a professor at College Misericordia who came to the United States less than two years ago from Kuwait, has been keeping close watch on the crisis in the Mideast. Of Egyptian de- scent, Dr. Shahin taught at a university in Kuwait. “Kuwait is not a dictatorship,” said the professor. “The Kiwaitis are peaceful, nice people and the country is not a dictatorship. Kuwaithas donealot for its people. They have free medicine, free education, and the people are supported even in building houses. Kuwait sends its people to the United States for education. “They have a high standard of living. They have local funds for other countries. They even loaned money to Saddam Hussein when he was at war with Iran,” Dr. Shahin said. He described Saddam as a dic- tator and said the country is ruled by one man, Saddam. He has the Iraqi Parliament under his thumb, according to Dr. Shahin. Dr. Shahin said from the begin- ning he feared that war would break out. He knew chances were slim that a peaceful resolution could be found, but he hoped something might intervene. Dr. Shahin agrees with the aim of the United States; to free Ku- wait and destroy Sadam'’s military machine. “As an Egyptian I want to see it over soon so all the countries will be able to sit down and negotiate. The question of Palestine will be an important issue. I believe if nego- tiations are done properly, that Tel Aviv issue can be settled peacefully. “Most of the Iraquis didn’t want war but they cannot go against Saddam. They know that,” the professor said. Dr. Shahin visited several uni- _versities in America while he was still in Kuwait and he liked the atmosphere, so when he had the opportunity to settle in this area he accepted it. He and his wife, Nina, reside with their two children in Franklin Township. The two girls attend Dallas Schools while his wife is a student at College Misericordia. Dr. Shahin teaches math and computer science at the college. Fahmy sees desperation in Saddam's action Dr. Mahmoud Fahmy, Dean qf the Department of Graduate Stud- ies at Wilkes University, is a native of Egypt but has been in the United States for many years. He has made - numerous trips to the Mideast and to Egypt where his brother was chief of police. Dr. Fahmy has been monitoring the Mideast crisis very closely and hopes something good comes out of it. Since he understands as well as speaks the Arabic language he is able to stay on top of situations other individuals do not under- stand. “It is a grave situation,” said Dr. Fahmy. “It's sad people are being killed. The conflict is engulfing the entire Mideast, not just Saddam, and when this is over the entire problems of the Mideast need to be resolved. “I support President Bush 100 percent,” said Dr. Fahmy. “He is doing the right thing because the issue is of morality and interna- tional law. We cannot allow one country to step in and take another as Saddam did. “Sending missiles into Israel is an act of desperation on Saddam's part. He would like to widen the stage of the war and break up the coalition and is hitting civilians 'DR. MAZEN SHAHIN trying to hurt the coalition. Instead he did Israel a favor throughout the whole world because the people became sympathetic to them. Dr. Fahmy believes Israel has the right to respond to the missile attacks, and that Saddam must be removed from power. “If Israel is attacked they have a right to defend themselves,” he said. “Saddam has to be eliminated. It is important that all of the govern- ments in the world think seriously about supplying arms to others because it could come back to haunt them. Greed, money, intrigue and political favors inspire the arms makers and dealers to supply other countries,” Dr. Fahmy continued. “I am hoping that when the war is over and when it is time for a settlement it will be like a purifica- tion. When I was monitoring the news this moming I heard a pa- thetic tone in the voice of an Arab country for Israel. The first issue on the agenda when this is over is negotiations between Israel and Palestine,” said Dr. Fahmy. “Saddam is like a hoodlum. We have to be careful in our foreign policy about the statements made about other countries. I was in Washington in June and a paper came out in Washington comment- ing on the virtues of Saddam. In August he invaded Kuwait.” Dr. Fahmy also said he is some- what surprised at the people crop- ping up as Middle East experts. One needs to know the language, the places and the politics as well as the indication of tones in the Arab’s language in order to under- stand the region, he said. He cau- tioned that the media should be very carefulin selecting persons as Mideast experts. “When monitoring through Arabic language reports you need to read behind the lines or tones of the voice,” Dr. Fahmy explained. “Israel is not part of the coalition. President Bush proved to be a world statesman and a great politician and a great president. He worked hard to get the coalition and to get the United Nations to cooperate. President Bush was head of the CIA, ambassador to China and knows foreign policy. “Saddam is desperate. He should have listened to Bush and pulled out when he had the opportunity to save face. Saddam is a poor poker player. He gambled that the coalition was going to fail. He is ng®. a maniac. He is clever, ruthlesz and unpredictable, but he blun- ders. He has a bunker mentality.” Dr. Fahmy feels that Iraq has mighty military fortifications and the army is strong and experi- enced after eight years of war with Iran. If the coalition destroys the sensitive points in Iraq he does not believe the war will be a long one. If they don’t destroy them it will be long, he says. “Our air power is the key to the duration of the war,” Fahmy said. “We cannot dismember Iraq but Saddam has to be eliminated. He is very dangerous and he is com- mitting suicide and taking his people with him. I believe we can strengthen the coalition by giving those Iraqis who deserted him an opportunity to mobilize an opposi- tion and establish a government t-.. eliminate Saddam,” Fahmy stated: (continued from page 1) but also causes dismay for families in America who have relatives there. “We are taking this day by day,” said Guy, who spent. 17 years in Israel. “We are very worried and very nervous.” His wife said that the war Has caused a change in the families lifestyle. “There are times when it's hard to get on with our lives, but we have to,” she Karen. “We always have the thought in the back of our minds that something could hap- pen to them, but we just try to keep on going.” The couple says that the worst part of handling the situation is that no one knows what will hap- pen next. “We keep close tabs on what is happening and try to keep good spirits but itis hard when you don’t know what to expect,” said Karen, who spent four years in Israel. Savings XXV _Don’ t Sit On The Sidelines! uper Bowl 1991" 2) $19 rm ————y Su By —— 4 Large Cheese Pies & 2 Liter Soda 91 No Extra Cheese ¢ Expires 2/5/91 Dallas Country Club Only tadalafil 4 Small 1 Topping Pies & 2 Medium Cheese Pies ©) $19.91 No Extra Cheese * Expires 2/5/91 Dallas Country Club Only 2 Large le ie ie ey, Medium 2 Topping Pies & 2 Liter Soda No Extra Cheese Expires 2/5/91 Dallas Country Club Only Cheese Pies & 2 1 Country Club Shopping Center ONLY 675-6998 “It's hard to keep tensions low in the house,” she added. “We have a two-year-old daughter who doesn't understand ‘what is going on but she knows there is something wrong.” Guy said that the family is rely- ing on each other to remain strong. “There is tension in the house but we go on day-by-day praying and hoping everything will be all right.” Not only do they worry about the missile attacks but also about the possibility that the missiles are armed with chemical warheads. “That is one of the screwiest things,” said Karen. “If you get some of the chemicals in your system that's it.” They said they know their rela- tives are taking all precautions against a chemical war but say that the threat alone causes great anxi- ety. Friends offer comfort The high spirits of the family also lifts the Guy and Karen's spirits. But their rideonanemotional roller coaster begins again when reports of missile attacks against Israel hit the airwaves. Karen said she was shocked when she first heard of the missile attacks. “It's ironic that was teach- ing a relaxation group when Guy called me and told me about it,” she said. “I didn't immediately act in a relaxed manner,” she chuckled. Karen did say that many friends have been on hand to help them cope with the situation. “After the first attacks some of my patients called to see if I was O.K.,” she stated. “I though this was a very touching thing that they called to see how I was doing.” Thinks action was necessary Despite the fact the war is put- Dallas Auto Parts CLT RUI (=T gC g P= 1 o \TVAVARE DF] FT 675-2143 MAKE IT NAPA BRAND NEW Booster Cables $9.99 Try "Better Than DELI & CATERING "Catering for any Occasion" 659 Memorial Hwy., Dallas, PA « 675-6139 (Owned & Operated by Jim & Jan Wertman) Call Now For Your Superbowl Party Our Famous Cheese Steaks Homemade Pasties, Soups Salads & Macaroni and Cheese Philadelphia” ‘ting family members in danger, the couple feels that the United Na- tions and United States are doing the right thing in trying to stop Saddam Hussein. “I was for this action all alongts. said Guy. “Right now I think that things are coming back to haunt America because this situation wa not handled correctly to begik with.” Guy said that the problems in the Middle East have been going on for such a long time that some- one had to finally step in and take action. “Someone has to deal with Pe it; I only wish it would have hap pened sooner,” he said. Guy said that he is also pleasel] to see that Israel has not taken action against Iraq for the missile attacks. “I hope they stay out of ft because it will cause great probs’ lems if they don’t,” he said. “I don't think Israel can afford to get in- volved in a full-scale war and that is what might happen it they at: tack Iraq.” Hoping for the best As the battles continue over: seas they and other families with relations their continue a battle of their own. . “We just try to keep on going and praying for the best,” said Guy. “We are very concerned and scared, but we are hopeful things will turn out for the better.” & “We not only have family over there but many friends who we worry about also,” Karen added. “There is nothing we can do but keep hoping and praying.” Dallas Twp. planners hear ° building plans By CHARLOT M. DENMON Staff Writer [5 | - Dallas Township supervisors met January 15, to approve thé payment of bills after which the planning commission met to ac: cept petitions for two projects. Glenn Johnson, representing Encon at Fernbrook Industrial Park off Lower Demunds Road, re: quested approval for squaring off a lot with points on it which was approved in 1978. Approval was granted. Atty. William Higgs and Thomng O'Neill, representing College Mis" ericordia, submitted preliminary plans for additional construction of townhouses but the planning commission took it under advise~ ment and passed it on to Pasonick Engineers for their review and evaluation.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers