Miss U

Busy, Busy, Busy.

Mrs J, ever the economist, is teaching me the value of compound interest in the form of a "Honey Do" list.  Somehow it seems as if I accomplish items on that list in a linear fashion, yet new items appear in a multiplicative fashion.  I'm sure that's just an impression, right Dear?

Hello?

In any case, a little excitement occurred in the Chateau Juvat Canine Recreational facility over the weekend.  Said Recreational Facility is shaded by a very large Pecan tree thoughtfully planted by an owner long before Google Earth (and thusly historical pictures of Rancho Juvat) came about.   So absolute minimum age of 35 years, but likely much older.  It got a little windy this weekend and a large branch broke off, which took down another larger branch as gravity did its thing.  Thankfully, no 2 or 4 legged beings were injured, but we've got to get the Tree Doctors out to do some triage.

But...At a minimum, I'll be smoking with Pecan Wood for a while, assuming I can't mill any of it for use in the shop.

Which brings me to Le projet apparemment sans fin.

The desk project has taken a bit of a back burner position due to "Compound Interest".  As such, any woodworker will appreciate the humor, and necessity, of the picture below.

Yes, I have cut on the wrong line before.  I do not intend to make that mistake whenever I resume operations.

One of the items on the "Honey Do" list was to put together the Fall Care package for Little Juvat and LJW.  Those of you that have served overseas, especially where the BX/Commissary are marginally provisioned and the local economy is significantly more expensive than living allowances support, will understand the necessity of regular care packages.

Necessities to include may or may not include things that are actually necessary to sustain life itself, more so to make that life more enjoyable.  So, my task was to load the box with Salt Lick Garlic Dry rub (Grilled Steak isn't the same without it), Liquid Smoke (a gas grill doesn't quite cut it), flavored Coffee Creamer (I believe this is the equivalent of Peanut Butter at Kunsan back in our day, Sarge, the locals seem to use it as currency) and Pumpkin Spice Latte mix, (certain things just CAN'T be lived without).  Oh, and a Shark Chew Toy for the Grand Dog.

Care Package assembled and packed, one must now visit the Postal Service Torture Chamber to endure the agony there prior to being allowed to approach the high priestess and submit to her interrogation of contents of said package.  Somehow, I succeeded in convincing her that we were on the up and up, presumably my thrusting a fairly large amount of paper with pictures of dead presidents on them assisted in that decision.

As I left, I happened to notice a rather attractive plant out front.  No, I don't recognize it, but as this week's quiz.  please submit suggestions in the comments.

Ahem, juvat, you got anything of value to present to our readers this week?

Sí, mi sargento de la Fuerza Aérea increíblemente antiguo, tengo algo muy interesante.

As I was researching last week's post on "The Angels of Bataan", I came across a foot note that lead me to another interesting person.

Source

That person would be Margaret Utinsky.  Born Margaret Doolin, she had met and married Jack Utinsky while visiting the Philippines in the late '20's.  He was a former Army Captain working as a civil engineer for the US government.

Life is good in Manila in the 20's and 30's, but as things start to go sour vis a vis the Japanese, he is recalled to active duty and sent to Bataan, to prepare defenses there.  Mrs Utinsky continues to live in Manila, even to the point of refusing to evacuate when the Army ordered all wives and families back to the US.

When put aboard the evacuation ship, she slips back off and returns to her apartment, spending the next 10 weeks hiding from the Japanese.  She finally gets help and manages to obtain papers describing her as Rena Utinsky, a nurse from Lithuania.  Using these papers, she joins the Red Cross and heads to Bataan to find her husband.

Rough routing of the Bataan Death March.  The yellow line beside the straight one is probably closer to the actual route.

Getting to Bataan, involves going the other way than the Bataan Death March is going, so she gets a pretty good dose of reality.  Finding out that her husband had perished on that March strengthens her resolve to do what she can to assist.

She soon builds a resistance network which provided food, money and medicine to POW's at Camp O'Donell.  Her code name was "Miss U".

She is eventually arrested and held prisoner at Fort Santiago, a fort turned into a POW camp in Manila.  She is beaten daily, had her arms tied behind her back and then suspended from the ceiling by them, while she is interrogated.

Other, not so nice things, happened also.

At one point 5 Filipinos were beheaded outside her cell,  on another night an American POW was tied to her cell gate and beaten to death.  Through this all, she insisted she was a Nurse caring for the sick and wounded.

Finally released after signing a document saying that she'd been treated well (while keeping her fingers crossed), she spends 6 weeks in a Manila hospital.  Some of the wonderful treatment the Japanese had given her caused  her leg to become gangrenous.  The doctors wanted to amputate, but she declined.  In order to treat the gangrene, the Doctors had to cut away the infected tissue.  Because of Japanese spies in the hospital, she would not allow anesthesia to be used as she did not want to be interrogated again while under its effects.

Suspecting she's not out of the woods yet, she leaves the hospital before fully recovered and makes her way back to Bataan where she contacts guerilla forces and works as a Nurse for them until the Americans invade in '45.  At that point, she is taken by Filipinos through the Japanese lines and brought to the Americans.

She then gives them a list of names of soldiers she knew were tortured, who were the torturers and the names of collaborators and spies in the Manila area.

The  source for the above relies heavily on her autobiography published shortly before her death in 1970.  Wikipedia also says that other than that autobiography and her Medal of Freedom awarded in 1946 there is not much substantive evidence to support her story.

Well...you know...it's generally a bad thing to leave substantive evidence around when there are bad guys looking to do extremely bad, painful, disgusting things to you if they find it.

I'm going to give the lady some slack.

Source

Rest in Peace, Warrior!