1929
Our two best V-mail correspondents continue their excellent reporting. From Capt. Larry Lougee in France, member of a Claims Team, Judge Advocate's Office:
A lot has happened since I saw you last in Boston. The trip across in convoy was something to remember and then the three weeks in London with its nightly buzz bomb attacks. I did manage to do a little sightseeing on my free time. Then across the channel and wading ashore on one of the Normandy beaches. The Nazi cement wall along the coast and other fortifications were certainly blasted on D-day. It seems like old times to roll up in a blanket at night and sleep oh the ground—yes and to live on K rations. I've been in most of the towns where the hard fighting took place including Avranches, St. Souveur, Periero, Rennes, Coutances, Carentan, Granville, Autrain and others. Periero has hardly a wall left standing but the church tower remains even there is a shell hole through it. Civilians are digging for friends and personal belongings in the ruins and they always give the V for victory sign as we pass by- All the roads are lined with burned-out German tanks and overturned farm vehicles that were commandeered for the retreat. At Avranches the orchards are full of destroyed vehicles, tanks, dead animals and foxholes. It was there that only a few days back the German attempt to cut the American troops in two was stopped. At present I am sleeping in a badly shelled building that has no windows and shell holes in the sides. It gives us plenty of fresh air. At night we can hear the continuous artillery fire at the front where the Germans are entrapped and occasionally the crack of a German sniper's rifle here in town. Many were by-passed in the fast advance. The news seems very good and we are all hoping this is the beginning of the end.
The other is from Lt. Bill Morgan, somewhere in England, who- relates that he was detached from Armed Guard Service in June and shipped right out.
He tells of being buzz bombed regularly here and there for a while, which he admits was not much fun. He was also nice enough to say that he wanted to be sure his MAGAZINE went to his home address first so that his wife and oldest son could enjoy it before it was sent on to him. He has now had more than twenty months of duty outside the United States and although he does not know how long his present tour of duty will last, he is looking forward to that deferred Reunion with a gleam in the Morgan eye which, as we all remember, means some sort of deviltry or to say the least, a bit of heckling at the Reunion dinner, all of which will be quite welcome."
A note from Lt. Tommy Phelps confirms that he is aboard the U.S.S. , where Lt. Bart Stoodley has been stationed and in the thick of things for many, many months.
Lt. Nivy Nivison went up the hard way. He enlisted in the good old Infantry, took basic training at Camp Croft, South Carolina, made OCS and came out of Fort Benning a second lieutenant. He was then assigned to the Infantry school at Fort Benning as adjutant of one of the battalions of the regiment which is in charge of student officers and advanced officers courses at Benning. Nivy is as proud, also, of the fact that he has a candidate for Dartmouth along about 1960 by the name of Robert S. Nivison.
Too late to get into the last MAGAZINE came Bob Drake's report of the Chicago Class Dinner. At the Racquet Club foregathered John Brown Cook, Hal Ripley (Cook's business associate), Jack Meany, salesman for Jones and Laughlin, John Clements, Allen Benjamin and the Drake. Ripley ran the projector for the movies, Cook did sleight- of-hand tricks as only Cook can do, and Meany won all the arguments. Bob also reported that he and his wife entertained Van Jamieson at dinner one evening around the first of July when Van was on his way to a shipyard where his new LST was about to be launched. Van, says Bob, was full of good stories about foreign ports and travel.
A good letter from Lt. Phil Mayher at sea in the Pacific' reports: "For the first time in four months we can write where we have been (without dates, or order). We have covered quite an area from Guadalcanal, Talagi, Purvis Bay, the Bussels, Crowetal, Kwaijalin, Hawaii to Guam and Saipan. We have had an opportunity to go ashore at all these islands and spend enough time to get a fair lay of the land. It, of course, has been extremely interesting and although we have not slept ashore since we left the States we have had some recreation and have bent the elbow at Officers' Clubs on all these islands except of course Saipan and Guam. On Guam I was investigating a case and ran into Pete Lilliard who is with a communications team on the island. He was wearing shorts and an African big game hunter's hat and was brown as a berry. He looks fine and seems happy in his job."
A short while ago I had dinner with Dud Orr and John Dickey in Washington and telephone visits with Frank Foster and Jerry Swope. As Director of the Office of Public Information of the State Department, John is in the inner councils and doing a real job which, however, is keeping him leaner than ever. Dud is on termination work which, according to Washington news releases is about to avalanche upon industry. Uncle Frank is temporarily in Washington attending the Army Medical School at the Medical Center at Bethesda. Following special courses in tropical medicine he will resume his post in charge of the Army Air' Force hospital at Denver.
Saw Herm Liss for a few minutes at the Navy Price Adjustment Board in New York recently. He continues to find the work extremely interesting and manages to maintain the old Liss form by regular games of tennis.
Steve Nordblom was married on July 8 to Miss Gertrude Ramcke of Philadelphia. They are living at 4205 Sampson St., Philadelphia. Steve is still with Ditmar and Company, Inc., in Philadelphia.
At a marriage ceremony performed August 12 in the Episcopal Chapel at Naumea, New Caledonia, Miss Lois LaTrobe, daughter of Mrs. W. S. LaTrobe of Auckland,: New Zealand, became the bride of Capt. Edward F. Cogswell, United States Army. Miss LaTrobe was educated in New Zealand at Marsden School, Wellington, and studied three years in Hungary and France. Before taking a secretarial position with the services of supply, United States Army, she was engaged in radio station and script work in Wellington. Capt. Cogs- well was engaged in the real estate business with Street & Co., Inc. in Boston. He entered the Army in 1941 and is now stationed in New Caledonia.
On June 3 Miss Beverly Brown, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur W. Brown of Bronxville, N. Y., was married to George Frank McGarrett of New York. Mrs. McGarrett attended Stephens College and was graduated from the Katharine Gibbs School, New York. Mr. McGarrett is affiliated with the advertising firm of Young and Rubicam, New York.
The engagement of Miss Margaret Ann Downs Clark of Boston to Mr. Joseph Neal Lovell has been announced. Miss Clark is a graduate of Northfield Seminary and attended Smith College and Boston University.
Walter Kong has an article entitled "Name Calling" in the June Issue of the Survey Graphic, expressing the thought that it is not big differences in language and customs but small thoughtless social errors which create barriers between Chinese and Americans here and in the Far East.
It is with great regret that we have to report the death of Lt. John L. Gill who died in New Caledonia on July 31 of wounds sustained in action. An obituary will appear in the In Memoriam section of next issue.
Secretary, 75 Federal St., Boston, Mass. Treasurer, Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn 383 Madison Ave., New York, N. Y.
