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Vol. 8, No. 5
YOUR HOMETOWN WEEKLY NEWSPAPER
Town celebrates community by Ruth Roberts Staff Writer
It was a night of celebration, congratulation and camaraderie as Discovery Bay residents feted their own last weekend during the annual Chamber of Commerce State of the Town gala. The event, emceed by 2009 Chamber President Chris Steele and held at the Discovery Bay Country Club, was an opportunity to honor and thank those who continue to support and improve the community. Awards were handed out in three categories: Citizen of the Year, Business of the Year and Teacher of the Year. Teacher of the Year, Stacie Maslen, was recognized for her unwavering commitment to education and her students. The eighth-grade Excelsior Middle School teacher thanked the community and her district for the honor. “I feel blessed every day,” said Maslen. “I have had many of your
Photo by Rick Lemyre
Rita Caruso, left, vice president of the Discovery Bay Chamber of Commerce, shares a smile and congratulatory moment with newly-honored Citizen of the Year Denise Dimock. children and will have many more of yours in the future; I love what I do. Thank you for honoring me.” A familiar face in the community and especially at Discovery
Bay Elementary School, Denise Dimock was honored as Citizen of the Year, in part for her organization of the school’s popular Booville Halloween event, her work on
the school’s Web site and her ongoing work and organization in planning for the Friends of the Delta Public Library. Chris and Erica Cookson, owners of the Boardwalk Grill, took home honors as Business of the Year not only for their popular cuisine but for their ongoing generosity of time and resources to myriad community events. The evening also offered an opportunity for guests to hear updates on the town from local and county officials who – notwithstanding the economy – remain upbeat and positive. “With all the bad we have seen this year, we will continue to move the chamber forward,” said 2010 Chamber President Greg Spivak. “This is the year we get back on track.” Other speakers echoed the sentiment, as did General Manager Virgil Koehne, who briefed the ausee Community page 18A
The top-secret world of Camp Tracy by Rick Lemyre
Maj. Alex Corbin, right, shares a laugh with 94-year-old Al Nipkow during a presentation on the former POW interrogation center Camp Tracy, where Nipkow worked and about which Corbin has written a book.
Staff Writer About 350 people came together on Sunday for a rare glimpse into the sometimes opulent, sometimes shadowy past of the Byron Hot Springs, also known as the top-secret World War II prisoner interrogation center called Camp Tracy. The occasion was a visit to the former resort by Army Maj. Alex Corbin, author of the book “The History of Camp Tracy: Japanese WWII POWs and the Future of Interrogation.” The guest of the East Contra Costa Historical Society (ECCHS) and the Tracy Historical Society, Corbin reveals how the former resort, whose natural sulfur springs and mud baths attracted celebrities such as Clark Gable, Charlie Chaplin and Mae West in the 1930s, was put to another use in the 1940s: gently wresting military secrets from Japanese soldiers and sailors in an operation so secret that its existence was virtually unknown until just a couple years ago. Corbin, a military intelligence officer whose duties have included helping to clean up Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison following the 2004 prisoner abuse scandal, discovered the existence of the Camp Tracy operation while doing research for
Photo by Richard Wisdom
his master’s thesis. Painstaking research through declassified materials and a nationwide hunt for former soldiers stationed there uncovered the fact that, unlike the harsh coercive tactics used in Iraq, the work at Camp Tracy utilized kindness, friendliness and cultural understanding to glean important information about Japanese morale,
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ship armaments and military installations. “Threats and physical coercion were not necessary,” Corbin told the crowd gathered in the rubble-strewn lobby and peering down from the second-floor balcony. “Courtesy and kindness see Secret page 18A
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January 29, 2010
THIS WEEK
Digging deep for Haiti aid
Opportunities abound for East County residents to join the international effort to relieve the suffering in Haiti.
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Life to get a lift This year’s Relay for Life event will use the theme of birthdays to emphasize the need to wage war on a prime cause of death.
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Power in the paint
Liberty’s big girls asserted their altitude and kept the scrappy Panthers from controlling the backboard and the scoreboard.
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INSIDE Business .............................8A Calendar ..........................19B Classifieds ........................12B Cop Logs ..........................15A Entertainment ................18B Food .................................10B Health & Beauty ............... 8B Milestones ......................... 7B Opinion ...........................14A Sports ................................. 1B WebExtras! ....................... 1B
FOR MOVIE TIMES SEE PAGE 5A