75 years ago
September 25, 1942
Howard “Babe” Fleming, former Aberdeen high school basketball player and a sailor aboard the USS Jarvis, was reported “missing in action” today in a Navy telegram to J.W. Fleming, his father, in Aberdeen.
A gun pointer, first class, on the Jarvis, which the Navy yesterday reported missing with all hands following the big Solomon Islands sea fight, Fleming graduated in 1936 from Weatherwax High School and enlisted in the Navy in August 1937.
50 years ago
September 25, 1967
Two boys apprehended by Hoquiam police this weekend have admitted that they stole a total of $125 from Hoquiam business houses last week, Police Chief Burton Forman said this morning.
Chief Foreman said the boys are both from Hoquiam. One is 12 and the other 11. “They also implicated eight other boys in a shoplifting sprees,” he added. “The ages of the other youth range from 12 to 16 years old.”
“The boys also told us that they entered the Washington Elementary School last Thursday and did some vandalism,” Forman said. “We believe they were responsible for numerous other acts of vandalism and car prowlings that have occurred recently.
The boys were turned over to juvenile authorities.
25 years ago
September 25, 1992
This is a test. It is only a test.
As word of a major oil spill on the Columbia River was confirmed, the Coast Guard sprang into action, deploying booms, boats, planes and personnel to protect sensitive areas.
But this was no simple oil spill. The tanker Oregon Venture, carrying 11 million gallons of crude, had suffered ruptures in at least two of his holding tanks while attempting to avoid a collision between two barges. One of the barges, the Chemtrex, was loaded with Chlorate, caustic soda and chlorine. The chemicals were leaking into the river.
The other barge, the BMC 3, was leaking fuel oil.
If that sounds like a nightmare for state and federal environmental protection agencies, it was — sort of.
The scenario was played out in a day-long “Pollution Simulation Drill” at the Ocean Shores Convention Center with hundreds of federal, state and local agencies and private contractors playing along in the elaborate, response to the make-believe spills.
Compiled from the archives of The Daily World by Karen Barkstrom
