Time Capsule: From the archives of local weeklies

Flathead Courrier, April 8, 1943

Lyle L. Vance held as Japanese prisoner in Manila

O.N. Vance, formerly of Polson and now residing at Seattle, received word this week from the U.S. Marine Corps at Washington that his son, Pvt. Lyle L. Vance, was included in a list of American prisoners of war in the Manila Bay area. 

The list was transmitted by the International Red Cross and contained Private Vance's address as a prisoner, making an exchange of letters possible between him and his family 

War Bond sale seeks $176,000 In Lake County

One of the largest bond sales in history will open next Monday, with the government endeavoring to raise $13,000,000,000, of which Lake County has a quota of $176,000 to be raised during the campaign which ends with April 30.

E.C. Fritz of Ronan has been named general chairman for the drive, with H.S. Hanson of Polson, Geo. H. Beckwith of St. Ignatius, G.W. Wamsley of Charlo, and Lambert Demers of Arlee as chairmen in their respective communities.

An intensive sales campaign is being planned to reach every citizen in the county, offering each an opportunity to participate in the war fund drive.

Every person who buys a war bond during the drive will be permitted to sign his name on an "honor roll" which will be flown to the fighting fronts of the world in army bombers. Through co-operation of army officials, arrangements have been made so that two huge two- and four-motored bombers headed for combat areas will carry with them scrolls bearing the autographs of April war bond purchasers.

When they arrive at any one of the dozens of fronts where American soldiers and sailors are fighting, they will be delivered to high officers for display to the fighting men.

Copies of the heroic size scrolls will be displayed in prominent places to show war bond purchasers exactly what is being flown to the fighting fronts.

Special efforts will be made in Lake County to give every citizen a chance to do his or her part in this gigantic sales campaign to furnish money for the equipment needed by fighting men.

Portable hospitals follow U.S. troops through jungle

United States army medical detachments care for the wounded in portable dispensaries and base hospitals amidst the background of jungle warfare in the South Pacific. So trained are the medical personnel to cope with jungle underbrush that soldiers wounded in action can be given first aid, frequently within 10 minutes. Major operations are often performed within thirty minutes of the casualty.

First aid stations are found within 50 to 100 yards of the foremost fighting lines, and litter bearers dart in and out of the underbrush picking up the wounded and carrying them to battalion first aid stations. Jungle fighting knows no curfew, and twenty-four hours of the day doctors with trained helpers are on duty at these first aid stations.