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Unbowed Nov. 14th, 2009 @ 10:21 am

Greatest Generation Nov. 11th, 2009 @ 08:18 am


San Diego has a walkway dedicated to "The Greatest Generation." More pics of that and the adjacent USS Midway here.


November 11 Nov. 11th, 2009 @ 01:46 am


Today would have been the 91st birthday of Victor Fondacaro, had he not been killed in action in the service of his country at the age of 24. He was born the day World War I ended, and named Victor for the allied victory accomplished that day.

Remember him, and all who served.

Photo courtesy of his niece, Judy Fondacaro Brown.

REQUIEM Nov. 11th, 2009 @ 01:30 am

What It's All About Nov. 11th, 2009 @ 01:22 am
Here's an excerpt from my upcoming book HONOR ROLL: The World War II Dead of Amsterdam, NY:

Throughout the year 1943, each of the Eight Wards dedicated an Honor Roll for their men in service. Prayers were said, bands played, patriotic songs sung, flags waved, Veterans marched, Gold Star Mothers were introduced and admired. It was a continuous outpouring of affection, support, defiance and determination.

The last of them, the Second Ward monument on the grounds of the Academy Street School, was unveiled on Sunday, November 21, 1943. The principal speaker was New York Supreme Court Justice Christopher Heffernan, whose namesake son had died in the Bataan Death March. His words carried that burden, and responsibility:

Today the world is gripped by war. We are in the midst of the greatest war of all history. It has been brought on by the personal ambition of wicked and corrupt men. It is not a struggle for national supremacy. Its roots go far deeper. It is in very truth a world revolution that challenges all those principles of personal freedom, equality of right, impartial justice and popular sovereignty that are so dear to the hearts of all free men everywhere. In all the sorry pages of human history never has despotism stood forward more defiantly,never has it more brazenly announced its foul purposes, never have the rights of men and nations been more brutally assailed.

The present war is not merely for markets and territories; it is a struggle for the possession of the human soul. The civilized world is threatened by a sinister power which strikes directly at its moral foundations. Two philosophies of life are involved in deadly combat— the one based upon law, justice and human dignity; the other upon arbitrary will, violence and human slavery.Read more... )




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The Threat of Theocracy Nov. 10th, 2009 @ 10:01 am
The Corner on National Review Online:
Woosley's Threat Against the Bishops [John J. Pitney Jr.]

Representative Lynn Woolsey (D., Calif.), co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, attacks the bishops in a Politico op-ed: “I expect political hardball on any legislation as important as the health care bill. I just didn’t expect it from the United States Council [sic, it’s “Conference”] of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Who elected them to Congress?” She claims that they “seemed to dictate the finer points” of the Stupak amendment, and “managed to bully members of Congress to vote for added restrictions on a perfectly legal surgical procedure.” She concludes: “The IRS is less restrictive about church involvement in efforts to influence legislation than it is about involvement in campaigns and elections. Given the political behavior of USCCB in this case, maybe it shouldn’t be.”



Of course, Representative Woolsey is not the first Democrat to object to legislative advocacy by the clergy. Here is another:

It is an attempt to establish a theocracy to take charge of our politics and our legislation. It is an attempt to make the legislative power of this country subordinate to the church. It is not only to unite Church and State, but it is to put the State in subordination to the dictates of the church.

That was Senator Stephen A. Douglas (D., Ill.), on March 14, 1854. He was talking about an anti-slavery petition.

— John J. Pitney Jr. is the Roy P. Crocker professor of government at Claremont McKenna College. With James Ceaser and Andrew Busch, he is co-author of Epic Journey: The 2008 Elections and American Politics.

Bishop Tobin Says . . . Nov. 10th, 2009 @ 08:57 am

Dear Congressman Kennedy:

“The fact that I disagree with the hierarchy on some issues does not make me any less of a Catholic.” (Congressman Patrick Kennedy)

Since our recent correspondence has been rather public, I hope you don’t mind if I share a few reflections about your practice of the faith in this public forum. I usually wouldn’t do that – that is speak about someone’s faith in a public setting – but in our well-documented exchange of letters about health care and abortion, it has emerged as an issue. I also share these words publicly with the thought that they might be instructive to other Catholics, including those in prominent positions of leadership.

For the moment I’d like to set aside the discussion of health care reform, as important and relevant as it is, and focus on one statement contained in your letter of October 29, 2009, in which you write, “The fact that I disagree with the hierarchy on some issues does not make me any less of a Catholic.” That sentence certainly caught my attention and deserves a public response, lest it go unchallenged and lead others to believe it’s true. And it raises an important question: What does it mean to be a Catholic?

“The fact that I disagree with the hierarchy on some issues does not make me any less of a Catholic.” Well, in fact, Congressman, in a way it does. Although I wouldn’t choose those particular words, when someone rejects the teachings of the Church, especially on a grave matter, a life-and-death issue like abortion, it certainly does diminish their ecclesial communion, their unity with the Church. This principle is based on the Sacred Scripture and Tradition of the Church and is made more explicit in recent documents.

For example, the “Code of Canon Law” says, “Lay persons are bound by an obligation and possess the right to acquire a knowledge of Christian doctrine adapted to their capacity and condition so that they can live in accord with that doctrine.” (Canon 229, #1)

The “Catechism of the Catholic Church” says this: “Mindful of Christ’s words to his apostles, ‘He who hears you, hears me,’ the faithful receive with docility the teaching and directives that their pastors give them in different forms.” (#87)

Or consider this statement of the Church: “It would be a mistake to confuse the proper autonomy exercised by Catholics in political life with the claim of a principle that prescinds from the moral and social teaching of the Church.” (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, 2002)

There’s lots of canonical and theological verbiage there, Congressman, but what it means is that if you don’t accept the teachings of the Church your communion with the Church is flawed, or in your own words, makes you “less of a Catholic.”

But let’s get down to a more practical question; let’s approach it this way: What does it mean, really, to be a Catholic? After all, being a Catholic has to mean something, right?

Well, in simple terms – and here I refer only to those more visible, structural elements of Church membership – being a Catholic means that you’re part of a faith community that possesses a clearly defined authority and doctrine, obligations and expectations. It means that you believe and accept the teachings of the Church, especially on essential matters of faith and morals; that you belong to a local Catholic community, a parish; that you attend Mass on Sundays and receive the sacraments regularly; that you support the Church, personally, publicly, spiritually and financially.

Congressman, I’m not sure whether or not you fulfill the basic requirements of being a Catholic, so let me ask: Do you accept the teachings of the Church on essential matters of faith and morals, including our stance on abortion? Do you belong to a local Catholic community, a parish? Do you attend Mass on Sundays and receive the sacraments regularly? Do you support the Church, personally, publicly, spiritually and financially?

In your letter you say that you “embrace your faith.” Terrific. But if you don’t fulfill the basic requirements of membership, what is it exactly that makes you a Catholic? Your baptism as an infant? Your family ties? Your cultural heritage?

Your letter also says that your faith “acknowledges the existence of an imperfect humanity.” Absolutely true. But in confronting your rejection of the Church’s teaching, we’re not dealing just with “an imperfect humanity” – as we do when we wrestle with sins such as anger, pride, greed, impurity or dishonesty. We all struggle with those things, and often fail.

Your rejection of the Church’s teaching on abortion falls into a different category – it’s a deliberate and obstinate act of the will; a conscious decision that you’ve re-affirmed on many occasions. Sorry, you can’t chalk it up to an “imperfect humanity.” Your position is unacceptable to the Church and scandalous to many of our members. It absolutely diminishes your communion with the Church.

Congressman Kennedy, I write these words not to embarrass you or to judge the state of your conscience or soul. That’s ultimately between you and God. But your description of your relationship with the Church is now a matter of public record, and it needs to be challenged. I invite you, as your bishop and brother in Christ, to enter into a sincere process of discernment, conversion and repentance. It’s not too late for you to repair your relationship with the Church, redeem your public image, and emerge as an authentic “profile in courage,” especially by defending the sanctity of human life for all people, including unborn children. And if I can ever be of assistance as you travel the road of faith, I would be honored and happy to do so.

Sincerely yours,

Thomas J. Tobin

Bishop of Providence
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A Night to Remember Nov. 9th, 2009 @ 10:18 am
I had been in a hard-fought re-election campaign in 1989 and had told Mary that no matter what the outcome, when it was over I would be packing my back-pack and going into the woods for a couple of days, something I had not done in the previous fifteen years or so.

But when the night before the day came, I suddenly received a phone call from my old friend, principal and hiking partner Father Anselment. While he was asking me if I'd like to join his hiking group that Thursday, Mary appeared in the doorway with a new bright orange jacket and warm athletic socks and I figured the whole thing out. The master conspirator got her way again. She wouldn't have to worry about me out camping alone, and I got essentially what I wanted, some outdoor respite after the miserable tension of politics. (I had won, by the way, but since I had a joint party with all my friends who lost, there wasn't a whole lot of hoopla tension release).

The itinerary was a "rainy day" hike up near Putnam Pond state campground, off the road to Ticonderoga. The choice proved an apt one, weather-wise. As we passed through a valley on the way to a lean-to, the heavens opened up and for the next twenty minutes it felt like walking through a waterfall. No amount of plastic covering could keep the icy November downpour from soaking into my heavy courderoy pants. And my "dry" spare clothes were in my wet backpack.

By the time I got back to my car, I was frozen to the bone. I jacked up the heat all the way for the whole two hour drive home, eagerly awaiting the joys of my warm, toasty house.

There was a sign on the back door.

"Rob, the boiler is out and they can't come until tomorrow. Meet us at the Super 8 Motel."

Though the house was ice, the hot water still worked and I took a loooong hot shower, plunged into the frosty air, put on some warm clothes and headed to the west end of town to perform a wedding ceremony.

Finally, I joined the family in a room for four accommodating six. We crawled over each othe a bit, but all things considered, not too bad.

The next morning I turned on the television and rubbed my eyes in disbelief, and then rubbed them again, then sat bolt upright.

People were dancing on the Berlin Wall.

By the end of the day, people with hammers and chisels and concrete saws and chains and sheer will power tore it apart and the walls came a-tumbling down.



***********

Ten years later we sat around the dining room table as I poured a jigger full of beer and handed it to our foreign exchange student from Perleberg, in the former East Germany. I told him we were violating the rules for one night, because this was a very special anniversary.

"Yes," he said excitedly. "I remember this night.

"I was seven years old and sleeping in my bed. My mother woke me up. 'Christian! Christian!' she said. 'Look! Your father is on television!' and he was there, my father dancing on top of the wall!"

Today, thank God, the wall exists only in museums and in the fading memories of the peoples it divided. Sometime later this week I hope to touch a section of it, which stands on the grounds of the presidential library of the man who willed it down.







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USMC Birthday Ball Nov. 8th, 2009 @ 07:35 pm

Father Rutler Says . . . Nov. 7th, 2009 @ 12:09 pm
FROM THE PASTOR
November 8, 2009
by Fr. George W. Rutler

One assumes that The New York Times would have been glad to receive an Op-Ed article from the new Archbishop of New York. The Archdiocese of New York is responsible for a very important part of the city’s educational, medical, and charitable life. The newspaper refused to print it. Such censorship only whets the appetite to know what was thought not fit to print. There are many items that the Times, which claims to publish everything that’s fit to print, has printed although they were not fit. There were, for instance, its mockery in 1920 of Goddard’s hypothesis that rocket propulsion can take place in a vacuum, a denial of Stalin’s forced famine in Ukraine and a whitewash of his show trials by its Moscow bureau chief Walter Duranty, its advocacy of Fidel Castro, and its benign regard for the Soviet spy Alger Hiss. So there had to be some journalistic equivalent of a cerebral stroke to make the editors of the Times unable to print Archbishop Dolan’s words.

     The cause of the apoplexy was the Archbishop’s imputation of bigotry to the newspaper. His charge was not self-indulgent whining. He did not have to go back farther than a couple of weeks for examples. First, in reporting widespread child abuse in Brooklyn’s community of Orthodox Jews, there was not the “selective outrage” which animates The New York Times against criminous Catholic clerics, whose numbers are in fact proportionally much smaller than other religious and professional groups.

     Then there was the sensational front-page publicity of a paternity suit involving a Franciscan friar, going back twenty-five years, and getting more space than the war in Afghanistan and genocide in Sudan. Headlines also claimed that the Pope was seeking to “lure” Anglicans into his fold, when in fact he was responding to a petition. Then a columnist invoked the Inquisition, portrayed the theology of priesthood as neurotic sexism, and even mocked the Pope’s haberdashery. The Archbishop said that her prejudice, “while maybe appropriate for the Know-Nothing newspaper of the 1850’s, the Menace, has no place in a major publication today.” While a free press is free to criticize, said the Archbishop, such criticism should be “fair, rational, and accurate.”

     Hostility raised to such a pitch that journalistic standards are abandoned, is provoked by an awareness that the Catholic Church continues to be the substantial voice for classical moral standards and supernatural confidence amid the noise of a disintegrating behaviorist culture. A tabloid is still a tabloid even if its editors dress in tweeds. Churchill said, “No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism.” Not to worry. Christ promised that the gates of Hell will not prevail against his Church. He did not include The New York Times, 30% of whose work force has been laid off in the last year and a half.


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San Diego Nov. 7th, 2009 @ 12:00 pm


Having a wonderful time, thank you very much. More pics here. Check back periodically, as we should have others, including wedding pics up, as the days drift placidly by.

Many thanks to old chum Bruce Conover for a delightful lunch and harbor walk yesterday, and to Tim and Rose for a marvelous rehearsal dinner. More to come, but right now it's time to head out to Point Loma for a spectacular view. Also the U.S.S. Ronald Reagan may be in port, so we'll give the old guy a salute as long as we're here.



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Dear Fans: Nov. 4th, 2009 @ 10:13 pm
I'll be away from my usual post for the next ten days at the end of which I will be trying to come up with a reason to come home from Southern California. Good thing Laura and Anna are here.

So, discuss the troubles of the world and Amsterdam among yourselves, be supportive of Judge and Michael Radio, and I'll be checking in periodically.

The series on the World War II dead is being suspended until my return. Physical damage to one of my hard drives prevents access to the photos, so I'll be rescanning when I get back.

And now, to get four hours of sleep!

Judge and Michael Radio Nov. 3rd, 2009 @ 10:05 pm
We've invited ourselves on as guests of Rebecca and Ann on their show tomorrow in our/their  usual 11 am time slot. Remember: next week we go back to 10 am permanently, or as permanently as we do things. Of course, I won't be there next week due to prior commitments on the west coast where I'll be making several appearances.

Election Day Nov. 2nd, 2009 @ 07:50 pm
Those of you residing in Manhattan's Upper West Side, please remember to vote on Tuesday for Joshua Goldberg for City Council. He has the unconditional endorsement of The Judge Report!


Father Rutler Says . . . Oct. 31st, 2009 @ 10:29 pm
FROM THE PASTOR
November 1, 2009
by Fr. George W. Rutler

The expression "a living saint" can be misleading. Certainly, we have encountered people in our own lives who fit that description, as best as we can judge. The Holy Church makes the final decision about saints. We celebrate them especially on All Saints' Day, and on All Souls' Day, we pray for our loved ones who are drawing more closely into the aura of holiness. The saints on the calendar are only the tip of the iceberg, and most of the saints who have ever existed are known to God alone. Perhaps churches should have a shrine to "The Unknown Saint" quite as we have a Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. All Saints' Day is rather like that.

     My point, though, is that there is no such thing as a dead saint. There are saints alive now, and there are saints who have physically died, but all are alive in Christ and they are "busy" in heaven, to use a temporal metaphor. Some saints capture the popular imagination more in one generation than in another. For instance, St. Simon Stylites was admired in Syria in the fifth century for spending most of his life seated on top of a pillar. That is not a useful model for our day, although some may still remember Flagpole Kelly, and not long ago thousands of New Yorkers went to watch a man spend a week on top of a column up the street in Bryant Park.

     Millions are drawn to Padre Pio, and some are compelled by an unmeasured fascination with his miraculous spiritual gifts, which were blessings indeed, rather than emulating his heroic humility and discipline. There remains an astonishing cult of St. Thérèse of Lisieux. She was almost the reverse of St. Pio: totally unknown in her earthly lifetime, and accomplishing nothing conspicuous to her contemporaries. She would have remained such had not her spiritual writings been discovered and published. Perhaps she fascinates precisely because in just barely 24 years on earth, she did the most ordinary things with most extraordinary joy. Whenever her relics are taken on pilgrimage to foreign lands (not to mention the one that was taken on a space shuttle), hundreds of thousands pour out to pray by them. This happened most recently in England, where the media were confounded by the huge crowds.

     Concurrent with that phenomenon, there were astonishing developments in long-moribund Christian life there, not least of which was the announcement of the first papal state visit to Britain and the expected beatification of John Henry Newman, who predicted a "Second Spring" of Faith in England. Then came news of an Apostolic Constitution, which will provide a unique canonical structure to welcome those desiring union with the Catholic Church. Pope Benedict XVI, who well deserves the title "The Pope of Unity," has shown the power of the intercessions of the saints.


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My Lady Bugs and Bug Hunter Oct. 31st, 2009 @ 02:48 pm




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Private Fred L. Morse Oct. 31st, 2009 @ 02:43 pm
 [Continuing my sharing with you of some of the raw research for the book I am writing of the 176 Amsterdam area men who died in World War II. Anyone having newspaper clippings, telegrams, letters, anecdotes and/or good quality photos of these men, kindly comment here or email me at the address in the left column]



Recorder, July 3, 1942

Late Marine Private Is Given Military Funeral

The funeral of Private Fred L. Morse, who died Sunday at the Navy Hospital at the Marine training station, Parris Island, S. C, was held Thursday at 2 P. M. at the funeral house of Johnson-Lindsay, with the Rev. M. C. T. Andreae officiating.

Impressive military rites were conducted at the Green Hill Cemetery where interment was made. A firing squad of the James T. Bergen Post, 39, American Legion, under the command of William J. Orth, fired a salute at the grave. Members of the squad were Earl E. Smith, Harry D. Putnam, Alden Wickham, Joseph P. Hand, William McCune, Arch D. Anderson, Frank Gigilio and Edward Briggs. "Taps" was sounded by Michael D. Fratangelo, bugler.

Acting as an honorary escort were Sergeant Miles K. Arnett, Sergeant-Frederick R. Silvers and Sergeant James F. Gabriel of the local recruiting station of the United States Marine Corps, Corporal H. H. Whitney, William Siegle and John Turkowski, representing the U.S. Army.

The services were largely attended and among the many floral tributes were pieces from Buddies Platoon, J-l, U. S. Marine Corps, co-workers of Building 81 of the General Electric Co., Transmitter Department of General Electric Co., production followers of Radio Transmitter Department of General Electric Co., employees of Montgomery Ward and neighbors.

Acting as bearers were Edward Shuttleworth, George Peters, Frank Spannbauer, Stewart Young, William Meyers and Harold Brown. Attending from out of town were Mr. and Mrs. William Cramer, Schenectady; Mrs. Clarence D. Mosher, Gloversville; Mrs. Ella Earley, Fort Plain; William Myers, Scotia, and Harold Brown, Troy.



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M/M Fred M. Mitchell Oct. 31st, 2009 @ 02:35 pm
 [Continuing my sharing with you of some of the raw research for the book I am writing of the 176 Amsterdam area men who died in World War II. Anyone having newspaper clippings, telegrams, letters, anecdotes and/or good quality photos of these men, kindly comment here or email me at the address in the left column]



Recorder, April 9, 1945

Killed in Action With Navy And Buried at Sea With Full Military Honors, Wife Hears

Mrs. Fred M. Mitchell, 229 Clizbe Avenue, has been notified by the Navy Department that her husband, Machinist's Mate,1st Class, Fred M. Mitchell, 27, was killed in action while serving with the U. S. Navy and was buried at sea with full military honors. No date was given but it is believed that the gallant young man, whose name is now added to the nation's honor roll of heroes, met death aboard his ship while engaged in action at sea.

Telegram Brings Word
The following telegram to Mrs. Mitchell contained the sad news:
"The Navy Department deeply regrets to inform you that your husband, Fred Mortimer Mitchell, machinist's mate, first class, USNR, was killed in action while in the service of his country. The department extends to you its sincerest sympathy in your great loss. His remains were buried at sea with full military honors. If further details are received you will be informed.
"VICE ADMIRAL
"RANDALL JACOBS.
"Chief of Naval Personnel"
Machinist's Mate Mitchell was born in Hagaman September 16, 1917, a son of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Mitchell. He came to Amsterdam with his parents in boyhood and attended school here, graduating from the Amsterdam High School in the Class of 1937. He attended Wentworth Institute in Boston, Mass. for a  two-year course and graduated in 1939. After that he held positions with the Standard Oil Company and the New York Power & Light Corporation, and later with the General Electric Company in Schenectady. He was employed at the latter place when he enlisted In the U. S. Navy at Albany, December 13, 1942, leaving the following January 5 to take his "boot" training at Sampson, N. Y.

He was transferred to the Naval Air Station at Richmond, Fla., where he remained until November, 1943, when he was assigned to duty aboard ship. Machinist's Mate Mitchell participated in the Battle of the Philippine Sea in October, 1944, and he saw much other action during the nine consecutive months his ship was at sea. His last leave at home was in December of the past year.

November 19, 1942, he married Maureen Kernahan of this city who survives together with one daughter, Patricia, eight months old; his mother; two sisters, Mrs. Walter Barbin and Miss Ruthmarie Mitchell, both of Amsterdam, and a brother, K. Graydon Mitchell, Fultonville.

Machinist's Mate Mitchell was a member of Welcome Lodge, 829, F. and A. M., the Alumni Association of Wentworth Institute, and the Second Presbyterian Church.



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Private Lloyal J. Miller, Jr. Oct. 31st, 2009 @ 01:22 pm
[Continuing my sharing with you of some of the raw research for the book I am writing of the 176 Amsterdam area men who died in World War II. Anyone having newspaper clippings, telegrams, letters, anecdotes and/or good quality photos of these men, kindly comment here or email me at the address in the left column]



Recorder, March 19, 1945

Private Lloyal J. Miller. Jr., Perth, was killed in action in Germany on February 27, according to a telegram received by his wife, Mrs. Eleanor Miller, of the Amsterdam-Perth road from the War Department. A confirming letter will follow, the official announcement from the Department states.

Private Miller was an Infantryman in the Third Army. He was born in Perth June 9, 1922, and attended school there. He entered service April 11, 1944, and received basic training at Camp Croft, S.C. He went overseas to England in December, and entered the combat area in January of this year.

The last letter received from him was dated February 24 from the front lines in Germany. Surviving are his wife; a daughter Eileen; his parents, Mr and Mrs. Lloyal Miller. Sr.; two sisters, Mrs. Kenneth Merry and Mrs.  John Lynch and his grandparents Mr. and Mrs. William Adams and his grandmother, Mrs. Cora Miller, all of Perth.



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Sgt. Edward J. Michalowski Oct. 31st, 2009 @ 01:18 pm
 [Continuing my sharing with you of some of the raw research for the book I am writing of the 176 Amsterdam area men who died in World War II. Anyone having newspaper clippings, telegrams, letters, anecdotes and/or good quality photos of these men, kindly comment here or email me at the address in the left column]



Recorder, December 11, 1945

Previously Reported Missing Now Officially Declared Dead

Staff Sergeant Edward J. Michalowski, previously reported as missing, lost his life on July 5, 1945, when the Flying Fortress in which he was returning to this country from Europe became ablaze and crashed into the ocean about 200 miles off the Azores, according to an official announcement of the War Department, received by his wife, Mrs. E. J. Michalowski, 19 Milton Avenue. The announcement ends hope that the local radio-radar technician of the Air Force might have been a survivor of the post-war tragedy.
              
 Staff Sergeant Michalowski, 29, was a native of this city and had always lived here. He was a weaver in the Bigelow-Sanford carpet plant before entering service.                    

He entered the Army September 1, 1942, and was first assigned to Atlantic City and then to Madison, Wis., where he studied radio. In December of that year he was sent to Boca-Raton, Fla., where he studied advanced radio and radar and upon completing the course was sent to Clovis, N. M.. Air Base and was assigned to a B-17 bomber. Later experience in this work was  received at Chatham Field, Ga.

Sergeant Michalowski left for overseas in July 1944 and was attached to the 862nd Bombardment Squadron of the 8th Air Force in England. His service ribbon bore the stars of four major campaigns. The squadron was returning to this country when the sea disaster occurred.

 Surviving, in addition to his wife and their 10-months-old son, Edward,  Jr., whom be had never seen, are his parents, Mr. and Mis. Michael  Niemczyk, Perth; a brother  Raymond; three sisters, Cecelia Reinig, Scotia and Helen and Amelia Niemczyk, Amsterdam; and the maternal grandparents. Mr. and Mis Albert Bogdan. also of this city.

He was a member of St, John the Baptist Church, where a requiem mass will be sung for the repose of his soul on Wednesday, December 19 at 7 30 o'clock.



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