- Title
- Camp Butner: Lightning Strikes Twice
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-
- Date
- December 1942 - January 1944
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-
- Creator
- ["United States--Armed Forces."]
-
- Place
- ["Butner, Granville County, North Carolina, United States"]
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- Local Call Number
- WWII 5
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-
Camp Butner: Lightning Strikes Twice
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_ _ STRIKES TWICE
MERRY CHRISTMAS! + DECEMBER 25, 1942 -*• HAPPY NEW YEAR|j
78th Division To Enjoy Full Yule Program
Special Chapel Devotions, Carols,
Entertainment At Service Club,
And Festive Tables Feature Day
Presenting The Colors
To Colonel Frank Camm, 78th “Lightning” Division Field Artillery, are handed the colors and battle stream¬
ers won in memorable action by "Lightning” Division Artillerymen in World War I. Major Gen. Edwin
P. Parker Jr., commanding general of the 78th, is shown making the presentation which took place during
Reactivation Day ceremonies. J. Melville Broughton, Governor of North Carolina, and other dignitaries
were present and a large civilian crowd was on hand to see the colorful occasion.
Service Club Ever
Popular In 78th
Once upon a war not so long ago,
soldiers bent on entertainment, sol¬
ace, or a quiet nook for meditation,
had only a smoky canteen, their
barracks, or the false gaiety of the
cafes in which to spend their spare
time.
In more ways than one, that war
was a costly lesson, but as much as
anything else, it brought sharply
into focus one vital point . . . “mo¬
rale.” In that word lies the explana¬
tion of the Service Club of today's
Army Camps.
The 78th Lightning Division Serv¬
ice Club is a large, roomy struc¬
ture, well-built and well-heated in
Winter. It contains a restaurant,
soda bar, ping pong room, and li¬
brary, well stocked with current
magazines, old and new reference
books, novels, and treatises on mil¬
itary and vocational sciences.
Furniture in the club, far from
being the crude, rough type you’d
expect, is modernistic and com¬
fortable. Around a huge ballroom
which forms the main hall of the
building runs a balcony on which
ia placed numerous tables and chairs
Sec SERVICE CLUB on Page 4
Events Of The Week
THURSDAY— DECEMBER 24
Christmas Eve Band Concert and Carol Singing; Sports Arena, 24th
Street, between D and E. 9 P. M. to 11 P. M.
Christmas Tree decorating party and singing; Service Club No. 2.
7 P. M.
Midnight Services, Holy Communion (Episcopal), 11:30 P. M. Special
Troops Chapel. All are welcome.
Midnight Mass, 11:30 P. M.; Sports Arena. All are welcome.
FRIDAY — DECEMBER 25
Special Religious Services at all chapels.
78th Division Variety Shows at all Unit Recreation Buildings. For
time, consult your Bulletin Board.
78th Division Christmas Night Dance; Sports Arena, 24th Street, be¬
tween D and E. 8 P. M. to 11 P. M. For tickets, consult your
First Sergeant.
Service Club No. 2— Open House for enlisted men, their families
and friends.
Christmas Buffet Supper and Dance— U. S. O. Club, Durham, 310
East Main Street. 7:30 P. M.
Open House, Y. W. C. A., 515 West Chapel Hill Street, Durham.
All day.
SATURDAY— DECEMBER 26
Opej* House. Service Club No. 2.
Square Dance, Long Meadow Center. Call Soldier's Service Center,
Durham, for details.
Informal Party, Y. W. C. A., Durham. Admission 20 cents.
Feature Movies and Smoker, U. S. O. Club, Durham, 310 East Main
Street.
SUNDAY— DECEMBER 27
Open House, Service Club No. 2.
THURSDAY— DECEMBER 31
New Year’s Eve Dance, Service Club No. 2.
New Year’s Eve Cabaret Dance. Washington Duke Hotel, Durham.
$2.20 per couple. Benefit of Refugee Children from Europe.
10 P. M. to 2 A. M. For reservations, phone Assistant Manager
at Washington Duke Hotel.
FRIDAY— JANUARY 1
New Year's Day Open House, Service Club No. 2.
For the first time in their lives, many men of the 78th
Lightning Division, most of whom a year ago were en¬
gaged in civilian occupations, saw Christmas arrive in mil¬
itary terms.
Santa Claus and his reindeer gave
way to jeeps and command cars.
The familiar streets of home were
displaced by military thoroughfares,
bounded by logs, temporary wooden
sidewalks, and military barracks
and administrative buildings.
On every side, in place of the
colorful, contrastingly dressed
throngs of Christmas shoppers, the
riotous shop windows, and the
softly gleaming, holly-bedecked
windows of home-town, village, or
city, were disciplined groups of
men . . . always men . . . uni¬
formly garbed and oddly anony¬
mous. No laughing children, no gay
feminine groups of choristers, no
bell-ringing Santa Clauses.
But still there has been good
cheer in abundance. Each evening,
over a public address system, the
familiar, centuries-old carol tunes
have come over the division area,
sung by .the famous Lyn Murray
singers.
The tall pines, powdered with
snow, the holly-hung Service Club,
chapels and Field House, the bright¬
ly painted windows, gay with
Christmas scenes and symbols, all
have recreated the age-old spirit of
Yuletide in the midst of what a
year ago was a raw, pine-grown
wilderness.
For that is the American way,
dating from Pilgrim Days when
“the dim aisles of the forest rang
with the anthem of the free.”
In this second year of war, Light¬
ning Division men, from Major Gen.
Edwin P. Parker Jr., commanding
general, down through the ranks,
have cheerfully improvised to fol¬
low the ancient customs.
In the chapels, 78th soldier chap¬
lains have brought the spirit of
Noel into their holy domains with
pine, holly, and candlelight. For
all denominations, there have been
traditional Yuletide observances.
"King of Kings,” a religious pic¬
ture, has been showing in all divi¬
sion chapels and will continue
throughout Yule week. Greeting
you, as you enter each chapel, are
twin Christmas trees, one on either
side of the entrance.
In a lighter vein, a special sol¬
dier-talent show was to make seven
appearances in recreation ' halls
around the division Christmas Day,
"Emcee'd” by Corporal Ted Cook,
ex-orchestra leader and comedian
on Mid-west stage shows and radio
program. The show was concocted
by Corporals Cook and Sam Ful¬
ler.
And do you remember how your
school teacher, or maybe your
mother, back home when you were
a kid, used to gather a group
around her knee to read Dickens’
immortal “Christmas Carol”?
Christmas Day, at Camp Butner,
Marley's ghost and Scrooge’s greed
again leap into vivid life through
the interpretation of Dr. Frederick
Koch, dramatic coach of the nation¬
ally known “Playmakers” of the
University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill.
There was to be laughter and
dancing and Christmas frolic, too,
on Christmas night, as men of the
division gather at the Field House.
Three hundred girls from surround¬
ing towns, dressed in their prettiest,
arrived by bus to join the festivi¬
ties under the direction of Mrs.
Frances W. McDonald, senior host¬
ess of the Division Service Club.
The All-American custom of
Christmas dinner was not slighted.
With pride and loving care, Army
cooks have prepared a wondrous
repast which includes all the good
things without which no Christmas
is complete.
Parents, wives, and friends of
men in camp this Christmas will
be anxious for them, wondering
whether they can possibly have a
happy Christmas away from home.
To them, it can be sai'd, with the
kindliest assurance, that every ef¬
fort was made to care for each
man’s needs.
Of entertainment there is no
dearth, with merry carol sings,
Christmas shows, and nightly en¬
tertainment at the home-like Serv¬
ice Club.
The soldier’s third, and most im¬
portant need — the spiritual — has
been assiduously cared for by Army
chaplains who, in full and sincere
realization of the shortcomings of
an Army Christmas, bent every ef¬
fort to administer with full cere¬
mony, the timeless religious rite*
attendant on the date of Christ’s
birth.
It has been truly a Merry Christ¬
mas. True, it will be a vastly dif¬
ferent kind of Christmas than most
of the men of the 78th have ever
known.
But in their observances of thia
anniversary will be a new note of
excitement, and a graver under¬
tone of faith and determination.
Knit Shirts Now G.
/.
The Quartermaster Corps is pro¬
curing more than 100,000 light¬
weight, pull-over knit shirts. The
shirt has long sleeves and a high
collar neck, with an opening in the
front from the neck down, and four
buttons, one on the collar and the
others two and a half inches apart
below the collar button.
"■»
<£•:-
General Parker's Christmas Message
Soldiers of the 78th Division:
You have every right to be happy and joyful this Christmas. For
you are doing for your country what every real man wants to do
— training yourselves to fight for it and its freedom. And you are
doing this well.
Thousands of your brother soldiers are overseas already, fighting
the battles for America and keeping the enemy at bay until you ar¬
rive. These men cannot come home for Christmas.
So, be not unhappy should you be far from home, but take up the
real spirit of Christmas. Be of good cheer over the thought that dur¬
ing the coming year you will have the opportunity of fighting for
your country and bringing “peace on earth” to the Christmases of
the future.
EDWIN P. PARKER JR.,
Major Gen., U. S. A.