Frank Miles Has a Long Visit With Col, Pride and Maurice Needham
By Frank Miles
(Iowa Daily Press War Correspondent)
Cairo, Egypt, Dec 30, (IDPA) -- Six husky Iowans are military policemen at the headquarters here of the U.S. Army forces in the middle east. They are Sgt. Louis Gustafson, Mediaoplis; Cpls. Robert I. Carhoff, Burlington, and Dale Ireland, Packwood; T-5. Sjoerd Van Weelden, Oskaloosa; Pfc. Albert Kosmach, Albia, and Pvt. Lloyd Necker, Dubuque.
Gustafson, a farmer before he entered service, is 6 feel 4 inches tall, weighs 200 pounds, and has never been "swung on" his comrades say. He smiles easily and talks pleasantly. Whether to return to the farm after he is discharged, he has not decided because he is considering federal civil service employment. He is 29, single and has been in uniform two years and five months.
Carhoof, dynamic and of Irish extraction, was a railroad switchman before he was inducted. He has been in the army two years and was at Ft. Riley, Fort Custer and Stoneman, Calif., before he left the states, then passed through the Society Islands, Wellington, New Zealand, Fremental; Australia, Colombo, Solon, and Suez enroute to Cairo. Married, he has a son Robert, Jr., a year old, whom he has never seen.
3 Years' Service
Van Weelden will have been a soldier three years in January. He came from a farm, to which he intends to return, and has a daughter, Donna Joyce, two years old, whom he hopes to soon see for the first time.
Kosmach, Ireland and Necker have all been in Cairo 18 months. Gustafson and Carhoff, though residents of Des Moines county, never met until they came here but Carhoff knew Gustafson's girl back in Iowa.
Richard High, Montezuma, a navy yeoman first class, is another Iowan on duty here.
Cpl. Harold E Pride, Ames, alumni secretary of Iowa State college before he returned to active duty, took me to a reception at the American University. There I met the Rev. E.E. Elder, head of the American mission in Cairo, and Miss Sarah Meloy, born in Davenport, who is an instructor at the American Junior College here. Dr. Elder was born Albia. He left there 35 years ago.
Through Colonel Pride I renewed acquaintance with Maurice Needham, a noted Iowa product. Needham, assistant public relations director of the middle east supply center, in Cairo, is the son of Sherm Needham, Iowa state printer and a former Ames publisher. He was born at Sigourney but lives now at Falls Church, Va. He expects to live in Iowa after the war.
Colonel Pride took me to an officers' dinner. At our table was Mrs. Henry Borland, nee Virginia Carr, daughter of Hubert Carr of Manchester. Her husband is a lieutenant colonel in the British army. The have lived in Cairo more than 15 years. Doris Duke Cromwell was among widely known guests.
Visits Tombs
Through Colonel Pride I was escorted on a trip to Sakaara, where I went through the tomb of Io prime minister of Egypt about 2850 B.C., the toms of the scared bulls of Egypt, and saw a huge statue of King Ramses.
Both Colonel Pride and Needham are interested in the problems, which may arise from the middle east in post-war discussion.
"Human selfishness has caused all wars and may cause another after this one," Needham said. "Christ with the Golden Rule gave the best answer ever uttered how peace may preserved."
I attended a party for correspondents by the Associate Press.
Source: Mason City Globe-Gazette, January 2, 1945
