75 years ago
Aug. 13, 1941
A huge mythical enemy fleet theoretically invaded the coast of Washington at dawn today, officially starting the biggest war maneuvers in west coast history.
First enemy troops theoretically landed by parachute from transport planes at Aberdeen and Raymond. The new $12,000,000 McChord field air base was bombed, half its planes destroyed before they could get into the air and its runway blasted to bits.
Four hours after the attack the cities of Port Townsend, Port Angeles, Aberdeen, Hoquiam and Raymond, as well as Seaside, Canby and Warrenton, Ore. had been theoretically captured by the enemy.
Aug. 14, 1941
Four more towns fell to the imaginary invading army today and make-believe defending troops fell back on all fronts as a prelude to actual movement of troops in the west coast war games.
At 8 a.m., the invaders had occupied Centralia, Chehalis, Elma and Shelton. Enemy troops were 25 miles from Olympia.
The current phase of the maneuvers is being maintained on army officers’ desks by shifting pins and blocks on maps. To a civilian it looks like a lot of fun, but it is serious business to a soldier. If an officer doesn’t deploy his defense troops just right, they may be captured by the enemy which the umpires move.
State officials humorously asked army officials if they should theoretically move state records across the Cascades to Yakima.
50 years ago
Aug. 13, 1966
Construction of a nine-hole public golf course will get under way in Westport this fall, E.W. Clocksin, port manager reports. The 67-acre site is located south of the state highway and southeast of the jetty right-of-way in Westport.
Aug. 14, 1966
Sunday, no newspaper published
25 years ago
Aug. 13, 1991
An Aberdeen boy was killed and four other South Side boys were injured Monday at dusk when a pickup truck slammed into them as they stood talking along East Curtis Street.
Ninety minutes of efforts to resuscitate Robert Pflugmacher, 13, failed.
The driver, 41-year-old John Norris of Aberdeen, was booked into the City Jail last night.
Nine-year-old Robert Yucha was listed in stable condition at Community Hospital this morning, but is still under observation. The other two boys, Quentin Blanchard Jr., 9, and Kevin Taylor, 5, were treated for minor injuries and released. A fifth youth, Robert Parker, age unknown, was able to jump out of the pickup’s path, police said.
Aug. 14, 1991
• “Be careful and watch for cars,” was the last thing Donna Parker told her 13-year-old son Monday night.
“I will, Mom!” Robbie Pflugmacher shot back with the tone of a teen-ager who has heard the admonition at least a hundred times.
A short while later he was dead.
A truck driven by John Norris, 41, of Aberdeen, had slammed into Robert and a group of his neighborhood friends as they stood talking off to the side of Curtis Street in South Aberdeen. Prosecutors say the Aberdeen man was high on heroin at the time. He was charged with vehicular homicide and Judge Michael Spencer set bail at $75,000.
• Why urology?
Dirk Sypherd, one of the 11 new doctors recently recruited to the area, admits that is a question he’s often asked.
“It’s a great field — the best kept secret in medicine,” is his reply. “It’s a surgical field that doesn’t have the hectic pace of other specialties. We get called in for emergencies occasionally, but not like the orthopedist or general surgeon,” said Sypherd, 34.
He officially began work July 15, but had three cases the week before while his partner, Craig Whiting, was on vacation.
“We’re going to take advantage of the area,” he said, adding that he, his wife, Catherine and three children had visited Ocean Shores and gone crabbing at Westport. And he’s enjoying the weather here. “The day (we packed up to leave Paradise, Calif.) it was 95 degrees and 95 percent humidity. If it rains here, it rains, but that’s better than a drought.”
Compiled from the archives of The Daily World by Karen Barkstrom
