FUNERAL DELAYED 14 YEARS
ST. LOUIS, Taps was sounded last week
and 34 persons, widows*..children..•
parents...a white-haired mother in a
wheel chair choked back sobs and wip
ed away tears.
They had come from 13 states to
attend a brief funeral service for 18
Americans who perished 14 years ago
in a military plane crash in a hidden
valley of New Guinea.
Their remains,in three flag-cover
ed caskets, were buried in a common
grave in Jefferson barracks National
cemetery, 15 miles south of St. Louis
This was the second funeral service
for the air crash victims.
The first service was held in a
jungle clearing near the cloud-cover
ed orange mountains where the Army
Air Force C47 had crashed.
After Mil authorities decided not
to attempt to' reach the remote area
because the hazards involved would
threaten the lives of a rescue team.
Then' last October Dutch officials
looking for another plane discovered
the 'wreckage of the C47.
An Hawaii-based Army search crew
helped they said by amazing accurate
directions furnished by a survivor
recovering the remains. First Lt .
Frank J. Riley led the 31-man exped
ition which included Dutch officials.
12 YEAR OLD INDICTED FOR ASSAULT
NASHVILLE, 'TENN., The Davidson County
gra$d.. juhy last week' indicted James
T. 'Westmoreland, 12-year-old Negro,on
charges of raping a 7-y^ar-old white
girl
Ho is accused of raping the girl
last Sunday after threatening herwlth
a knife, maximum penalty upon convic
tion in Tennessee is electrocution.
THREE TIME CRASH SURVIVOR LIVES
ON DESPITE HEART STOPPAGE
BREMERTON, WASH., Gerlando P. Ilardi,
32, veteran Navy enlisted man who was
the sole survivor of three pland
crashes continued to battle for life
at a Naval hospital here last week.
Ilardi*s heart stepped five days
ago during anesthesia for a sking*aft
to erase scars cf burns suffered in
the crash of a patrol bomber at the
nearby Whidbey xsland Naval Air Sta
tion May 11.
Doctors cut into his chest and re
vived him with heart massage, but his
condition since then has been criti
cal.
Eighteen Navy men died in the thr
, ee crashes since 19a6 in which Ilardi
was the only survivor.- His home is in
Bath, N, Y._________
BOEING 7c7 SETS SPEED RECORD
HONOLULU, A boeing 707 jet airliner
of Quantfas airways set -a new 'commer
cial speed mark last week by flying
here from San Francisco in four hours
and 49 minutes.
The plane1s average speed for the
2,200 mile flight was 518 MPH. It ca
rried Quantas personnel in route to
Sydney^jUistralia*___
6.1.HOUSING INTEREST RAISED
WASHINGTON, D.C., President Eisen
hower signed a bill authorizing the
Veteran Administration to raise the
maximum interest rate on G.I. housing
mortgages from 4-3/4 per cent to a
record high of 5-1/4 per cent.
The bill also increased by $100,
000,000 funds available to the VA for
direct government loans to veterans
in small towns and rural areas who
are unable to obtain privately-finan
ced G.I. mcrtages. The president op
posed spending this additional money.
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DESTROY AFTER IT HaS SERVED ITS PURPOSE.
THIS PRESS MUST HOT FALL INTO UNAUTHORIZED HANDS*