1929
"Many thanks to the class for the Christmas carton of cigarettes. There are quite a few sergeants who were on night duty with one around Christmas who also feel grateful to Dartmouth '29."
"The cigarettes arrived today and were most welcome. Please accept my thanks and extend them to the rest of the class responsible for the contribution. It was a swell idea."
"While I haven't given up nearly as much as the boys who have gone to camps and overseas to the fighting fronts, I certainly appreciated the fact that those who were still in civilian life do think of us, so I can just imagine how the others felt. It was a great idea. The person who thought of it certainly deserves congratulations. And thanks again."
That's the way a great many more acknowledgments have read, all expressing appreciation for '29s Christmas remem- brance to its men in the services. It was originally Bill Bunn's idea that the class send cigarettes or the like to the boys in the service. Mo Heath, not realizing that he would soon be in the Army and be a recipient, promoted the project, and I had the fun of ordering the cigarettes and arranging for their distribution. They were Old Golds because Brother Ken Page works for P. Lorillard and vouched for the class credit. Ninety-four cartons were given and they're all paid for out of voluntary contributions to the '251 Service Fund, a fund which, it is hoped, will continue on as a source of funds for the benefit of our men in the services. To date $232.30 has been contributed, $115.78 spent, leaving a balance of $116.52 upon which to build up a fund which may grow into a substantial amount.
Another good thing that has happened to the class is the appointment of Duke Barto as class agent to succeed Van Jamieson (It. (j.g.) USNR). The Duke is one of the busiest men in Washington, but one of the sanest, and the class is extremely fortunate in securing his services. All of us will soon have an opportunity to show our appreciation by supporting him and his assistant agents in the Alumni Fund drive which will get under way somewhat earlier than usual this year. That Duke is in the right frame of mind to lead the class to another outstanding fund achievement may be gathered from the tone of the letter received from him this morning which, among other things, says, "Well anyway you and a guy named Schicklegruber got me into this" and which ends with the endearing closing, "Love, Duke."
Not so very long ago, between ships, Lt. (j.g.) Dick Johnson visited Boston and entertained the Andres family with illustrated stories and salty ditties which do credit to the Navy's Armed Guard Service as well as to the Lieutenant himself. Dick was fit, happy and sunburned, though thinner than usual, which is perhaps a natural condition after three months at sea in charge of a gun crew on an armed merchantman.
By the time you read this Bill Morgan may be out on convoy too, but on December 30 he was, of all places, in Hanover, a lieutenant (j.g.) attending the Navy indoctrination school and enjoying it. "Dartmouth Navy life is something and quite a change from our undergraduate days. I am in Cabin 418 on the S.S. "Topliff." Six of us are in the room bunked in double deckers. We have three double desks and six damned hard chairs plus a hell of a lot of books. That is all-period. One of our greatest luxuries is getting some place where we can plank our fannies in a soft chair and that doesn't happen too often. We march to chow and we march to and from class, in fact, we march everywhere. Also up at 0600 and to bed at 2200. In between, we really work. All of my roommates are Southerners and love the weather up here. Have no idea where my next tour of duty will be. One thing you learn quickly in the Navy is that you do as you're told, when you're told. There is no boss around with a sympathetic ear to get a raise from or a day off. It's awfully good fun tho' and outside of missing my family', as who does not, I wouldn't have missed this experience, come what may, for anything."
Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Navy, Gerry Swope, is flying all over the country negotiating contracts with colleges for indoctrination courses and similar arrangements. We bumped into one another recently on the train to Washington, and Gerry's only complaint was that his eyes prevented him from getting into active service for sea duty.
A postcard, picturing a beautiful sunset over the Mississippi River at St. Louis, has just come in from Larry Lougee, Lt. USA.
"My orders, came through yesterday sending me back to the ski troops again so here I am at St. Louis on my way to Camp Hale in Colorado (mountain training center), and believe me I am glad to be transferred from the South. This talk about the sunny South must be Chamber of Commerce advertising because it rained nearly the entire three months I was there and the cold was bitter. Now for some real cold and snow in the Rockies."
Shep Stone is another to be congratulated upon a promotion. He is now a captain stationed at Headquarters, Eastern Defense Command and First Army, Governors Island, New York. He writes,
"Good luck was with me the other day. I was promoted. Now I am hoping that I will be sent over. If I ever get to Berlin, my second Alma Mater, I'll steal something to send back to Baker Library."
Herb McCreery is with the 704 th MP Bn. stationed at North Reading, Massachusetts. He has recently been before a board on an OCS application but doesn't know the outcome as yet. The prospect, however, is the Infantry School at Fort Benning.
A 1 Rosenthal, Lieutenant, Air Corps writes:
"I have been stationed at Chanute Field since I was commissioned from civilian life the end of May, 1942. With the exception of a three week orientation course in Miami, I have spent most of my time at Chanute as Personnel Officer under S-l. My life is in many ways much closer to Dartmouth and Hanover than to Wall Street and New York."
Jack McQuiston, lieut. (j.g.), is at the Naval Air Station, Quonset Point, Rhode Island, but expects to be assigned for permanent duty at N.A.S., Squantum, Massachusetts, during February.
A 1 Bellerose is stationed at Majors Army Air Field, Greenville, Texas.
Captain A 1 Miller, whose official address is now Headquarters, Alaska Wing, Air Transport Command, APO 462 c/o Postmaster, Minneapolis, Minn., reports that he is the military police and regular staff officer 011 the staff of a Wing General. The unit is already 2500 miles in the northwest and going a lot further, before he can catch up with it. He says there is another promotion in the offing but that the boys don't count them until they get paid on that basis. Isn't army life making Miller conservative?
Jack Irving writes from 1202 SCSU, Jefferson Street Armory, Syracuse:
"Being 1-B, Limited Service, I was sent back to Syracuse, where I have been living for the past two years, to work on the induction team. Up to the present, my work has consisted of about fifty per cent drilling and fifty per cent typing, so you can see it's nothing to get thrilled about. Of course, there's always the chance that I'll get shipped out to a camp, but unless things get a lost worse, I'm not likely to be put in a combat unit or to be shipped overseas, so the ultimate feeling of real danger is not going to be "present for some time, if ever. Compared to what the other boys are doing, one gets a feeling of uselessness in spite of the fact that the work we are doing has to be done by someone. That's what we keep telling ourselves, but as far as I'm concerned, it's wearing pretty thin. Outside of the Army there isn't much to say. Just before induction I was making inspections for the purpose of enforcing the Federal Wage and Hour Law (Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938), which certainly isn't conducive to popularity with our rising and risen young capitalists. I found that work very interesting and I believe, in spite of the chorus of 'no's' in the background, of great social benefit."
Lieutenant Bill Wieler is with Company A, 6th Regiment, 18th Tng. Bn. at Fort McClellan, Alabama. Reflecting upon the crowded events of 1942:
"The heavy teaching schedules at Hunter and Columbia, the research at the latter, Army enlistment to help preserve a way of living I wished perpetuated, Camp Livingston, Ft. Benning, the commission, troop training here at Ft. McClellan. It's a pace which makes civilian life, even in N.Y.C., look wan and anemic indeed. One hopes now that foreign service is not too far in the offing, for there is no fun in sitting along the Army sidelines, so to speak, when you know all the while that in the far corners of the world one's fellows are having a chance at even a brief moment of selffulfillment, no matter the outcome."
The class will receive with great sorrow news of the death of Red Hein on December 15 last and of the death of Steve Fuld. Full reports appear in the necrology section of this issue.
Secretary, 75 Federal St., Boston, Mass.
