Letters, may 25, 1953

(3 of 4)

AUGUST J. ABRAHAMSON

Brooklyn

—I TIME'S Cinema section, taken in by Hollywood lighting effects, thanks Reader Abrahamson, one of the 512 survivors (1,513 were lost), who was traveling steerage at the time as a 19-year-old Finnish immigrant.—ED.

The Flying Bridgeman (Cont'd)

Sir:

Your April 27 cover article was greatly enjoyed by an ex-squadron mate of Bill Bridge-man's. However, Bill was wounded ... at Puluwat, 120 miles west of Truk. At the time he was flying a low-level bombing mission as copilot for the squadron skipper, "Buzz" Miller. Miller later described the incident: "We were making a low-level bombing run on a radio station when a Jap three-inch shell burst over the cockpit. The explosion of the shell had kicked the blocks out from under the top turret guns and depressed the barrels . . . The -50-caliber bullets from those lethal muzzles came streaming through the greenhouse into the cockpit. Bridgeman and I could do nothing but sit there. The bullets, screaming between us from the turret above, smashed the instrument panel before our eyes and filled the cockpit with flying bits of glass and metal.

The muzzle blast singed the hair on our heads and arms. Both of us bled from scores of small wounds." ROBERT W. CONKEY Lieutenant, U.S.N.R.

Pawtucket, R.I.

Sir: . . . Haven't missed an issue of TIME since I've been in Korea . . . The X-3 coverage was excellent . . . Give the author a cigar.

(PvT.) ALVIN GOLDSTEIN % Postmaster, San Francisco

The Word from Mexico

Sir:

Re TIME'S April 27 article on the Mexican "ants" [wetbacks]: these guys go up there for the good old American dollar, for which they work. They do not go up north to get canned chicken soup, nor pink nylon panties, as these are obtained here . . . For your information Mexican women were using silk panties here long ago, while American women were still using flour-sack-cloth drawers and the "sweet paste (wonder of wonders) for scrubbing the teeth" is not an American "invention" and was obtained in Mexico long before you Americans learned that the mouth should be.washed once in a while.

The northbound Mexican "ants" are not unlike the American southbound "ants" (in lesser quantities), who come here as fugitives from the automatic, monotonous daily grind only known to the American robot . . .'

MIGUEL SAN MIGUEL

Mexico City

Texas' Hobby

Sir:

In the excellent May 4 story on Mrs. Secretary Hobby, TIME slipped up in one statement. She was not the first woman to earn or receive the D.S.M. Evangeline Booth received this award from President Wilson 35 years ago for the services rendered to the armed forces by the Salvation Army.

CHARLES DOWDELL The Salvation Army Athens, Ohio

Sir:

After reading the ... life story of Oveta Hobby, I'm willing to bet anybody that Rita Hayworth has had a heluva lot more fun and will be remembered just as long . . .

R. G. OGLESBY Dallas

The Bishop's Evening (Cont'd)

Sir: