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Camille Gives Seabees War Zone Similarities
By YN2 JIM YOUNa , With the memory of a de-ploymait to the Republic of Vietnam fresh in the minds cf many Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 121 Seabees, similarities were evident between ti at and hurricane-disaster recovery work at Pass Christian.
MCB-121 was assigned to clearing roads, repairing lines of communication, and aiding area citizens after Hurricane Camille ravaged the Mississippi Coast on Aug. 17. The 121st Seabees returned in June from an eight-month deployment to Gia Le, Vietnam.
Long work days and tighc deadlines were but two of the similarities Seabees noted between their current mission in Pass Christian and Vietnam. As in Vietnam, Seabees moved their equipment in convoys; this time they carried no weapons or ammunition. Armed guards checked passes and directed traffic at vital checkpoints along convoy routes, and
a curfew was enforced along the Gulf Coast. These were similar to the Vietnam situation.
Road work, communications maintenance, and civil action were old hat for the Seabees who utilized the same skills they had employed while overseas. Blistering sunshine, rain .and plenty of mud were much "like the weather in that wartorn country. The rubble and unpleasant odors which followed Camille were but another reminder of that little Asian country in which every G.I. counts his days and prays for a safe trip home.____________	'
Homeless Dogs And Cats Being PutTo Death
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) —■ The crack of a rifle sounds repeatedly along the hurricane ravaged Gulf coast as man offers the mercy of death . to injured and starving animals.
Miss Emily Gloeckler, president of the Florida Association of Humane Societies, said Hurricane Camille left untold thousands of dogs, cats and other pets hurt and homeless along the coastal areas of Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida.
Navy Seabees and Army National Guardsmen cooperating with the Humane Societies are destroying the animals, she said.
“It’s so sad,” MLss Gloeckler said, “but there is nothing else to do. We have been criticized (for killing these animals, but *many of them..were too badly injured to save and we just can’t find the space or food we need
to care for the others.”-
More than one big, husky Seabee or soldier fought back tears as he placed the muzzle of his rifle between the trusting eyes of an injured dog and pulled the trigger, she said.
Donations coming from across the country are being used to care for some animals in areas that were not so badly damaged and to rebuild the Gulfport Animal Shelter, which was destroyed by the storm.
“Money is the thing we need most right now,” Miss Gloeckler said. Some people are sending gifts of dog.food, but we
have no way to handle it. Food < supplies for humans come I first.”
She said representatives from the American Humane Aissocia- j tion in Denver, the Humane So-. cieties of the United Stales in j Washington, D.C., and the Humane Society of Pensacola, . Fla., are in the Gulfport -area, searching the rubble for injured . animals and looking for itheir ’• owners.' '


Hurricane Camille Camille-Aftermath-Media (073)
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