100 years ago: 1918

General Pershing’s troops continued their drive against the German position between the Argonne Forest and the river Meuse. The Americans increased their total of prisoners to 8,000. They also captured guns and other war material, but these have not yet been enumerated. The prisoners belonged to various units and included a number of officers. Certain divisions opposing the Americans were identified. They included the famous Guards units which Americans fought at Belleau Wood last June and another top famous Saxon division.

50 years ago: 1968

A young missionary, wife of the son of a former local pastor, narrowly escaped serious injury or death in Vietnam recently. The home of the Richard Taylors, missionaries in Saigon, under the Christian and Missionary Alliance, has been struck by bullets more than a dozen times. In a letter dated Sept. 18, sent to Rev. Stanton Gavitt, pastor of the Stevens Mills’ Church, Auburn, they write of one such incident. “Over a dozen bullets have struck our house and one bullet passed right through the place Dot (Mrs. Taylor) should have been standing washing dishes,” the letter reads. “We had had no electricity for 13 days and with no electricity, we could not pump water up. Thus, in trying to conserve water, Dot washed dishes once a day instead of after every meal. This was why she was not standing there when the bullet passed through the house. Every day people are blown up by mines as they travel the side roads nearby. And the people here in Saigon never know whether rockets and mortars will fall among them before another day dawns. These are the real victims of the war more and more they are becoming conscious of the heartlessness and cruelty of those who call themselves the friends of the people. Out here life is cheap and can be very short.” 

25 years ago: 1993

For the first time, Medicare will pay for flu shots for people 65 or older. Medicare also pays for a lifetime pneumonia shot to avoid septicemia — or blood poisoning — the 10th leading cause of death among older Americans. The U.S. Public Health Service is publicizing the free shots in a national campaign to get seniors vaccinated before the onset of the flu season, which experts say may already have started this year. Only about 30 percent of people over 65 get the yearly shots. Some 10,000 to 20,000 people, mostly older people, die each year of the flu. Deaths could be three to five times higher this flu season, the health service predicts, because this year’s strain is the harsher Type A, or Beijing, flu.

The material used in Looking Back is reproduced exactly as it originally appeared, although misspelling and errors may be corrected.