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Pages of History
On Monday, Dec. 2, 1946, “Operation Highjump” got underway. The operation included 13 ships, 33 aircraft, and 4700 men. The destination was Antarctica. The mission was to establish a base on the Ross Ice Shelf from which to photograph and map the coastline, collect scientific data, evaluate the performance of men and equipment in Antarctic conditions, and possibly search for valuable resources such as uranium.
The expedition was commanded by Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd who was making the fourth of his five Antarctic expeditions. The first was in 1929, the last in 1955.
One of the 4700 men who participated in the expedition was Francis “Bud“ Paulsen, son of Mr. and Mrs. Gus Paulsen of Laurel. A 1938 graduate of Laurel High School, Paulsen entered the Navy in 1939 and decided to make it his career.
During World War II, Paulsen served nearly five years on the Cruiser Boise which was the lead ship in the first battle of the Solomon Islands. During a battle off the coast of Guadalcanal, the Boise was hit several times which resulted in a number of casualties, including 107 men killed. Paulsen was among the injured.
According to Capt. E.J. Moran, Paulsen was one of the heroic crew members who saved the ship from sinking by stuffing mattresses into a gaping hole and helping fight a fire raging in the compartments below deck.
In 1946 Chief Petty Officer Paulsen was assigned to the “Prinz Eugen,” a captured German ship used as a target in the atomic bomb tests in Bikini Lagoon.
Later that year, Paulsen was assigned to the Byrd expedition to Antarctica. His duty was “chief water tender” on one of the supply ships. The chief water tender was the officer in charge of a ship’s boiler room.
The expedition arrived off the coast of Antarctica in late December. Paulsen said he expected to be gone about eight months but the operation was terminated in late February due to the early arrival of winter. The seasons are reversed south of the equator so winter was not expected to arrive until late March. Paulsen retired in 1962 after serving 23 years in the Navy. He died in 2002 and his ashes were buried in Hull, Iowa. Paulsen was a brother of Charles Paulsen and Elizabeth Norvell of Laurel.
In other news of December 1946: What could have been a tragic accident occurred right after the game when 13-year-old Geraldine Echtencamp, who was about to get into a car in front of the Concord gym, was struck by a truck driven by Martin Koch. The rack on the truck struck the girl in the back of her head, throwing her to the to the ground. Geraldine was badly bruised, but suffered no life-threatening injuries. Her mother, Mrs. Naomi Echtenkamp, was a grade teacher in Laurel.
The American Legion announced that a lot had been purchased from Ed Collin’s on the south side of Main Street several doors east of the post office. Collins said he would tear down the old wooden building by April 1, 1947. The Legion said it planned to build as soon as the lot was cleared. The Legion did build later that year, but in the next block east.
Harold Tuttle filed suit in County Court against Clem and Dolly Casey. Tuttle’s suit charged that two dogs – one owned by Bill Benjamin, the other by the Casey’s —had killed 48 of his lambs and crippled 15 others. The lambs were valued at $1780. Tuttle’s petition noted that Benjamin had paid his half of the damages but the Caseys had not. Judge Edward Hesse awarded Tuttle $891.28 in damages.
Eighteen men and boys from the Logan Center Church gathered to pick corn on “The Lord’s Acre.” The ladies of the church served dinner in the basement at noon and lunch in the field in the afternoon. The corn was then sold and the proceeds deposited in a fund to build a new passage.
Seventy-six Nebraska veterans who had lost limbs in the war, applied for new cars to be provided at government expense. The cars would be equipped so amputees could operate them.
Millard A. Baker of Laurel and Harold E. Carlson of Dixon were among the amputees who applied.
