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“No nation as individuals has appreciated liberties less than we,” said Chaplain Bernard J. Carlin of the Army redistribution station during the Fourth of July program at the Olympic stadium.

“No nation under God,” he continued, “has enjoyed the liberty which we have enjoyed. It is true that in moments of danger the nation has rallied to the flag. But the years in between danger points have only found the flag and those principles for which it stands stored away. Perhaps that is the penalty for the liberty which we enjoy; not to know its sweetness until it has been lost and then it is too late. Our forefathers who penned the document that brought into being this nation knew what the opposites of liberty, equality and fraternity meant. But the inheritance so costly won can be lost or squandered, it being recognized that there is a tremendous difference between having right principles and living up to them.”

T. Sgt. Howard Tupper of Canton, former announcer with WGY, Schenectady, who spent 27 months overseas in the psychological warfare branch, interviewed S. Sgt. Reid J. Vassar of Lake Placid, just returned from overseas.

In relating his story, Sgt. Vassar said he had eight combat stars and was with the 9th Division, part of the 1st Army. He said he landed north of casablanca in November 1942 and after a fight there went to Maknassy, where his outfit was on the line for 27 days, just holding advances. He landed in Sicily on D plus 2 for a period of rugged mountain fighting during which many were lost. Later he went to England to help train the Fourth Division and later to Normandy, where they hit the beachhead on D plus 4, landing on Omaha Beach. He was at St. Lo and after being knocked out by concussion in the Hurtgen Forest was hospitalized for four months.

After returning to his outfit, Sgt. Vassar crossed the Rhine on the Ludendorff Bridge under direct fire. He received the bronze star after volunteering to run food and ammunition to a stranded company. He had to cut through enemy lines under fire of snipers. His group met the Russians at Bitterfeld in Germany on the Elbe River.

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Whiteface road open

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Whiteface Mountain Memorial Highway, closed for the last two years, has been reopened.

There will be special group rates on the toll road for servicemen from the Army rehabilitation station at the Lake Placid Club.

The road, which runs to the summit of the mountain, was reopened primarily for them, in cooperation with the Army recreation director, who wish to arrange bus tours for the veterans.

Civilians may also take the trip, if they have the gas.

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Horse show a success

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Several thousand people attended the Independence Day horse show sponsored by the Army redistribution station.

The show opened with a mounted drill with 15 soldiers participating.

Cpl. Sam Alessi varied the program by singing and strumming a guitar while riding about the rind which was followed by a comedy act by Sgt. Bobby Fay.