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BY THE SCRIBE Join the Army and be a fireman. Could be. But I never realized it un til just today while I was reading a copy of The Stars and Stripes (Italian edition) sent to me by my friend Cpl. Sal Palumbo of the 2nd Aux. Surg. Go. Now I'm a little scared to pub lish the article for fear that my son will lose his ambition to make good in the Air Corps in order to follow his natural inclination to be a “smoke eater.” But I'll take the chance. He's already signed up for the A.C The Army engineers, who have so many other jobs to do, are also re sponsible for putting out fires. The American fire-fighting outfit in Italy goes under the complicated name of Engineer Composite Platoon, FAFC, the “composite” meaning that there are different groups in the firemen’s platoons, while FAFC stands for “Fire Administration Fire Control.” The soldier smoke-eaters in Naples are headed by Major Kenneth E. En gel, who used to be a San Antonio fire inspection engineer. He’s now fire marshal. The GI firemen are not new at the job. They were organized in the Louisiana maneuvers ,have fought fires in North Africa, and moved into Naples right at the start They say they've had more fires to play around with over here in a week than they used to have in a month over in North Africa Neapolitans, for instance, have a habit of building bon fires in vacant lots ,streets or empty buildings and that makes for greater fire hazards, as you can readily under stand. Right at the start of the oc cupation of Naples the fire fighters had a lot of work subduing the huge fires the Germans had started in coal dumps and big rubbish piles. These big bonfires made nice beacons for Nazi night bombers. Therefore, fire fighting became very important in providing security for soldiers as well as protecting property. The soldier-firemen say that much of their work is due to fires started by careless handling of gasoline, coal or wood stoves. Air raids give them plenty of trouble, too. During an alert, every platoon must be ready to go wherever it might be needed. The pla toons help out their neighboring de partments when more equipment is needed, and also cooperate with Brit ish and Italian units. The Yanks get a great kick out of watching the ci vilian Italians go through their rou tine “When they get a call,” explained Set. Arthur Kleinar of Brooklyn, “they fall in, call the roll, and get on the vehicles according to their num bers. Then they all get out again and start pushing the truck, because the battery is usually dead.” According to Cpl John B. Baker of Edgarton, Minn., American fire trucks are all painted O. Those red weapons carriers that the boys see chasing around iny Naples are used for inspec tion work and not for fires. Off duty the boys play checkers, sleep, read, or sit on benches in front of the fire houses like the Smokey Stovers at home. Quarters for the 10 local platoons range from ancient buildings and modern warehouses to station houses which they had to build for themselves. One outfit is in a building with a high ceiling frescoed with 16th century art. Like firemen all over, they like to recall the fires that burn in their memories. The favorite recollection of S-Set, Luther E. Brown of Antigo, Wisc., goes back to Mers Kebir, near Oran, where they spent all night chasing a fire around in circles. “We first got the report of a fire about 10 miles away, Brown related. “When we got there, it was gone. Then we got another alarm on the same fire in the other direction. When we got there, still no fire. Finally we caught up with it behind us. It was an air plane, limping home, on fire.” Major Engels says his boys have only one worry—that they'll be called upon to put out the one really Naples fire—at Vesuvius. This is off the subject—but we're still in Italy. It seems that a Corpor al standing at a road corner just north of Cassino gave one of the most suc cinct reports, yet heard on the bitters house-to-house fighting for Cassino. Asked how things were going: in. the: town, the corporal summed up the’: af ternoon’s action with the. followi de Sa: official: GI communiaqne:sinçades we captured five living rooms, t) : dining rooms and | ‘have e advanced spe=
Newspaper Details
Bristol Phoenix
Bristol, Rhode Island, US
Fri, Mar 10, 1944
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Brendan M.
AU 21 Aug 2026
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