1941*

The first thunder of crisis has thinned into distant echoes from the Phillipines, leaving a comfortable gap of many thousand miles between the front and the front yard. The nation is freed—for now to indulge in such vicarious heroics as licking defense stamps and trying on Civilian Defense uniforms. Under its own power, still unreal and unrealized, the war tramps on.

For the fruit of their first year out of college, the men of 1941 reap the adventure of a uniform, the uneasy routine of a training encampment, foreshadowing of death and the wrack of indecision. However....

The mailbag is filled to overflowing, such a monument of correspondence that Treasurer Keir will have to pass a filing case appropriation to house it. You have over-taxed my previous filing system which resembles a haystack in appearance and which wasn't easy to concentrate on because of scratching noises at the bottom of the pile. Here is the hot dope, without sugar.

Ray Seabury and Wes Harper have both reported engagements. Wes, with the Army at Fort Knox, Ky., is engaged to Jane Guilford, late of Stoneleigh. Ray is affianced to Helen Hamor, of Bar Harbor, Me. Attached to the purchasing and contracting office of the 36th Materiel Squadron, Westover Field, Mass., Ray also reports the marriage of Lee Cone last September to Ellie Baldwin of Cambridge.

"Both his wife and my fiancee," he adds, "were our blind dates one night last spring in Cambridge."

Lin Thompson, long ago, wrote in from the Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., where he is—or was—in the Ordnance Department attending Cadre school, the first time I ever saw cadre outside of a crossword puzzle.

Also long ago, Dick Van Divort's brother-in-law supplied information that Dick had 1) been drafted to Fort Dix 2) been transferred to Camp Croft 3) been accepted in the Air Corps and dispatched to Squadron G at Maxwell Field, Montgomery, Ala.

Gene Stollerman is "swallowed up by two millenia of medical progress in that huge citadel of mass healing, Physicians and Surgeons, alias Columbia Medical School." His description of the grind is graphic but not quite as vivid as that delivered verbally by Bert Gillem, likewise of Columbia, who dropped in over Christmas.

While on the subject of graduate schools—Clif Stratton claims to room with Skip Beck and nine beer steins at Ya-yul Law. Bob Evans is at Western Reserve, contemplating the Army. Reg Nelson is at Wisconsin Law, according to advices from Larry Norton. The '4l denizens of Tuck School are innumerable and Vic Schneider (one of them) puts out a bulletin concerning their exclusive doings. They include, for instance, Don Stillman, Paterson, Bowers, Cotton, Areson, Tepper, Richardson, Cort Young, Bob Hamilton, Van Wie and many, many more. The ALUMNI MAGAZINE has served no ice to save space.

Julian, the long lost, Koenig came back from Mexico, a fact which was long in doubt, and will be classed as in Columbia Law School until he admits otherwise. I haven't heard since mid-years. And Spider Paul's life is being blighted by being forced to defend corporations at Harvard Law.

Speaking of Don Stillman (ii/z paragraphs ago), Don sent a thick letter from Hanover just after last month's deadline which, incidentally, for future reference is the tenth of the month preceding publication. He was then waiting an active duty call with the Naval Reserve and expecting to be stationed here in this groaning and grunting capital of the world. He also mentions:

"Naval Ordnance will get Vinnie Else, Warner Bishop, Dick Hill, and probably John White after their graduation from Tuck the 30th of April.

"Chuck D'Olive took a prolonged vacation and spent a month in California over the holidays visiting Larry Thompson and his charming sister, Barbara. By the way, Larry is now enlisted in V-7, and will leave his job at Vultee very shortly.

"Hank Gunst, now an ensign in the Naval Reserve, has been assigned to duty with the 'Mosquito Fleet', formerly known as a P-T squadron

"Hugh Kenworthy and Stew Steffey have commissions in Naval Intelligence and the last I heard they were to be stationed in Philadelphia. Just heard from White that Joe Kipe is also in the Navy and is stationed at Philadelphia

"Downey Gray was in Hanover on a short vacation before reporting to Abbott Hall in Chicago for V-7 training. Hadley Ward is now on the road working for Proctor and Gamble. Little ol' Bob Thomas, I understand, is now a member of the Naval Reserve. Snuffy Smith is a mechanic in the Air Corps

"Mort McGinley is back in Baltimore again after being in Montana all summer working on a ranch. He is now busy in some shipyard there helping to roll 'em off the ways for the Navy."

It is about time to clean up the romance department for this month. Don also reported the marriage of Lew Johnstone to Carolyn Eberle, of Cincinnati and Skidmore, with Dick Hill as best man and living in Hanover 2) the engagement of Dean Paterson to Jane Clutia, a Smith '4l.

Also married is Bob Sherwin to Doris Hackett, ex of Newport, Vt., and Mary Hitchcock. The Sherwins are located in Kittery, Me., where Bob is involved in construction at Portsmouth Navy Yard. Also engaged is Bill Hartman, of Hartford's Pratt and Whitney, to Mary Stoughton Olds, of Mystic, Conn.

Back to the prosy, Ed Fell and George Middendorf are at Camp Davis, N. C., on the indisputable authority of the latter, who adds that Gil Werner was also until a recent transfer for further gunnery training.

Larry Norton, whose letter was quoted awhile back, is handling the Philadelphia end of the Minnesota and Manufacturing Company, with "an office and access to a secretary."

One other matter. The editors have forwarded copies of a letter from the Office Censorship relative to not mentioning where soldiers and sailors are when they aren't in the U. S. or are in the U. S. at some suggestive embarkation point. Accordingly, the eds interpret, we must not say Joe Doakes is on a ship in the Pacific, but only that Joe Doakes is in the Navy.

Now having assimilated the very best Washington attitude on such agencies and being supported by some very good authority, thority, I do not personally think that Byron Price and his censorious crew are themselves perfectly sure about what they are doing. In fact, I think that such promulgations as "to identify a naval officer to his ship is almost tantamount to indicating the location of his ship" are sheer nonsense.

However, in order to meet the editorial pronouncement I will phrase the following somewhat as follows: "Bob Griffeth and Donald Brown are in the Navy. Guess where!"

Are you listening, you nasty old spies? The news of Naval Air Cadet Fred How-land's tragic death in a Florida plane crasharrived a jew days too late for inclusion inlast month's class notes. I trust that youread the report in the news section of theFebruary issue, which told how his planewent into a spin and crashed as he attempted to land it. A necrology notice ispublished this month.

Secretary, City Room, Washington Post Washington, D. C.