Indians Scout for the Fleet
Dartmouth Men Are Numerous and Prominent in the Vast Expansion Program for Naval Aviation
AT THE REQUEST of the editors Lt. Plank has written this account of the role played by alumniof the College in the great NavalAviation training program that isgetting under way. He is aviationmember of the Navy Flight SelectionBoard for New England and is nowon temporary additional duty at theNaval Air Station, Quonset Point,R. I.-ED.
DARTMOUTH MEN MADE AN ENVIABLE record as flying officers in the Navy and Marine Corps during World War I. Today, another generation of Dartmouth men is following in their footsteps; they are exchanging football helmets for Navy helmets and goggles; they are forsaking the diamond and the campus for the gold wings of a Naval Aviator.
Dartmouth Indians are scouting for the Fleet; they are being launched in scouting and observation planes, by catapult, from our battleships and cruisers; they are taking off in fighting, bombing, scouting and torpedo-bombing planes from the flight decks of our aircraft carriers; they are flying the giant flying boats or patrol bombers from shore stations and advanced bases; or they may have been assigned temporarily to duty as flight instructors at Naval Air Stations or Naval Reserve Aviation Bases such as Squantum; or they may be student flight officers headed for Navy wings and commissions as Ensigns in the Naval Reserve or Second Lieutenants in the Marine Corps Reserve.
What Dartmouth man or sports follower generally will fail to remember Bob MacLeod, All-America halfback and captain in '3B; Jim Feeley '39, a grand tackle and hockey captain, now a Marine Corps flying officer; Howie Nopper '39, former backfield star; Pidge Hughes '4l, southpaw pitcher; Don Blount '4l, star performer as a high-jumper and broadjumper; Roy Merchant '4O, cross country captain; Johnny Lendo '4l, pitcher and shortstop; Phil Conti '37, speedy halfback; and Albert "Bud" Foster '39, hockey starto mention just a few Indian athletes who are either flying officers in the Navy or Marine Corps or well on their way to commissions. Bob MacLeod, incidentally, played on and Jim Feeley helped coach the Pensacola Naval Air Station team, which lost but one game all season and defeated, among others, a star-studded team from the Jacksonville Naval Air Station. Coach McLaughry's son, Bob, is one of the many Dartmouth undergraduates who have applied for Navy flight training and are expected to report at the Squantum Naval Air Station this month or at the end of the current college year. Some of Dartmouth's outstanding athletes are among those who will train at Squantum, in Indian Units, this year.
A roster of Dartmouth men who are serving in the Naval Air Force today would include Carl Shumway 'l3, Ted Lonnquest 'l7, A 1 Rice 'lB, E. Clarke Ingraham 'l9, A. W. Gorton '2O, A 1 Lake '2O, Larry Waite '22, Vernon Hagenbuckle '24, Julien Ryan '3O, Fred Ashworth '32, W. Earle Draper '34, Carl Fischer '35, Adolf Siegener '35, Jim Atwill '36, G. Everett Bottjer '36, Mario Guerrieri '36, Joe Jayne '36, Addison Page Jr. '36, J. Norman Anderson '37, Bill Cole '37, Phil Conti '37, John Gray '37, Bill Pettengill '37, Bill Shevlin '37, J, Clark Barrett '3B, Jim McGovern '3B, John McGreevy '3B, Bob Stix '3B, Charley Walkley '3B, Don Wilson '3B, Everett Wood '3B, Dick Woodman '3B, A 1 Balboni '39, Bob Barvoets '39, Harold Finck '39, Albert "Bud" Foster '39, Bob Gibson '39, Frank Holland '39, Barton Jones '39, Bob MacLeod '39, Bill Mason Jr. '39, Howie Nopper '39, Paul O'Brien '39, Tom Allen '4O, Bob Bedell '4O, Cal Bowie '4O, Dick Campbell '4O, Ham Dawes Jr. '4O, Bill Hayes '4O, Dick Kenney '4O, Bob Marshall '4O, Dick Mather '4O, Roy Merchant '4O, Thurston Perry '4O, Bill Squier '4O, Gerald Sullivan Jr. '4O, Jim Thomas Jr. '4O, Harold Webster Jr. '4O, Paul Wessells '4O, Bill Bailey '4l, Don Blount '4l, Frank Boutin '4l, Harry Brubaker '4l, John Delander '4l, John Eckhoff Jr. '4l, Charley Frantz '4l, Ed Gage 2nd '4l, Bill Galbraith '4l, Lee Grace Jr. '4l, Edward "Pidge" Hughes '4l, Tom Jardine '4l, Wallace Jones 3rd '4l, John McAllister '4l, Bert Mauro '4l, Ashley Pace Jr. '4l, George Seel '4l, Charley Soule '4l, John Brewer '42, Jim Crotty Jr. '42, Charley Kingsley '42, Joe Nason '42, Don Patterson Jr. '42, Wallace Sigler '42, John Lawson Jr. '43, John Valkevich '43 and Daniel Winters '43.
This list, impressive as it is, does not include the names of Dartmouth graduates and undergraduates who have been enlisted since the list was prepared and who have reported or who are to report at Squantum this month or at the end of the current college year. Neither does it include the names of Dartmouth alumni such as Don Mix 'si, and Fred Laird 'l9, Naval Aviators of World War I, who are rendering yeoman service to this country in a civilian capacity as Associate Members of the Navy's Flight Selection Board for New England in their respective com- munities, as are Professor Francis J. A. Neef and Whitey Fuller in Hanover.
Readers of the Dartmouth ALUMNI MAGAZINE may wonder—as they read this article—of what this Navy flight training consists, and whether or not they have the necessary qualifications. The idea seems to be quite prevalent that one must be a "superman" to qualify for enlistment in Class V-5 (aviation cadet class) of the Naval Reserve. Such is definitely not the case.
Any Dartmouth man between the ages of 19 and 26, inclusive, who has been an American citizen for at least ten years, who has acquired—or who will acquire by this May or June—one-half the credit for his degree, who is unmarried, who is in good physical condition (e.g. no serious physical defects) with 20/20 vision in both eyes, is eligible to apply for Navy flight training right now. The procedure is simple. Apply in person or by mail to the Naval Aviation Cadet Selection Board, 150 Causeway St., Boston, to its associate members in your community, to Professor Neef or to Whitey Fuller on the Dartmouth campus. You will be given a preliminary application blank to fill out and mail or hand to the Board aforesaid, with a notation—three convenient dates—when you can go to Boston for a flight physical examination. The Board will choose the most convenient of those dates and will advise you accordingly, enclosing a list of the papers required to support your application. You will report on the date appointed, with your papers complete and in order (you will be given the examination in any event). Once you have passed the examination (it is thorough and complete but not "tough" or rigorous), an appointment will be made for your enlistment. Then you will be scheduled for preliminary flight training at Squantum, in the first class or flight m which you can be accommodated or, if students prefer, upon completion of the current college year, ending in May, 1942.
The scene of air meets and flight operations for more than 30 years, Squantum today is a modern airport with hard-surfaced runways and good approaches, ideally suited for student training. It is there that Indian Units receive their primary flight training of 27 hours (15 dual and 12 solo) and, at present, their preliminary ground school training in such subjects as radio, navigation, review mathematics, engines and airplane structure. The course lasts about two months. All flight instruction is given by flying officers in the Navy or Marine Corps and no instructor is assigned more than four or five cadets at a time. This standardized instruction by Navy and Marine Corps personnel only makes for more individual instruction in the air and on the ground. It also accounts in part at least for the extremely low attrition or "wash out" rate at both the primary and advanced training centers.
Once a cadet has completed the course at Squantum, he is ordered to Atlanta, Dallas, or New Orleans for about a month of intermediate training. Then he is transferred to one of the three principal training centers, Pensacola, Jacksonville or Corpus Christi, for about seven months of advanced flight training, consisting of basic and specialized training, in both seaplanes and landplanes. Ground school classes run concurrently with flight school for several weeks; then they are over and a cadet can concentrate on his flying almost exclusively.
Organized sports and recreational activities take up a part of each day; they are coached and supervised by Lt. Comdrs. J. J. "Gene" Tunney and Eddie Mahan. We have already spoken of the Pensacola team coached by Lt. Jim Feeley, and by Ensigns Russ Allen and Bill Stack (Head Coach), former Harvard guard and Yale center, each of whom was captain of his college team. We should mention also the team of college stars at Jacksonville coached by Eddie Mahan, Harvard immortal. His line-up includes Stan Stancyzk, former Columbia halfback, who is the standout on the team, Hilary Renz and Fred Kidd of Holy Cross, Hank Gustafson and Bill Shinn of Pennsylvania and Bill Barry and Johnny Wedemeyer of Boston University. In addition to football, each of the advanced bases has baseball, basketball, swimming, tennis, golf, and polo teams. Such other sports as fishing, sailing and hunting also are available the year around. Dances are held once a week.
The months fly by and soon the day is at hand when Dartmouth Naval Aviation Cadets are awarded the coveted gold wings of a Naval Aviator and are commissioned as Ensigns in the Naval Reserve or as Second Lieutenants in the Marine Corps Reserve, with pay and allowances of $245.00 a month ($205 if Government quarters are furnished) instead of the $105.00 a month they receive as cadets. Following 15 days' leave, to visit homes and college campus, they are ordered to active duty as pilots in the Aeronautic Organization of the Navy. Eighteen months of commissioned service make them eligible for a commission in the Regular Navy or Marine Corps; three years of such service and they are in line for promotion to Lieutenant (junior grade) or First Lieutenant, with pay and allowances of $346.00 a month. A lump sum of $500.00 is given for each complete year of commissioned service in the Reserve, upon release from active duty which has been continuous for one year or more. A career in commercial aviation also is open to them, upon termination of their enlistment. It is said that 95% of Pan American Airways' pilots are Navytrained.
The Navy Department's plans for turning out go,ooo pilots a year calls for the leasing of the facilities of four large universities for the duration of the war, and for the induction of 2,500 aviation cadets a month, 625 a month at each of these induction centers. Once a cadet has completed the three months' ground school and conditioning course at one of these four centers or universities, he will be sent to one of 16 Naval Reserve Aviation Bases for primary flight training. Then he will go to one of the Navy's advanced flying schools. The entire course will take about a year, with less time necessary in exceptional cases. This expanded Naval Aviation training program will be in operation by May 1, or sooner. Lt. Comdr. Thomas Hamilton, former head football coach at the Naval Academy and himself a Navy flier, will be director of physical training, with Lt. Comdr. Gene Tunney, director of physical training for all Navy personnel. Other leading college athletic coaches and sports figures will be inducted into the Naval Reserve to conduct the physical phases of this training. It is the greatest aviation training program in naval history.
NEW "INDIAN UNIT" FORMS AT SQUANTUM Three members of the latest group of Dartmouth men starting their naval aviation training at the Massachusetts base shown above, left to right: John TV. Kenney '37, Robert F.Shedden '42, and David M. Davis '42.
