1937

503 Concord Avenue, Lexington, Mass. Lt. (jg) Les and Cel Barrett announce the arrival of Jane Frances on September 12. ....A son, Henry, has arrived at the JackDevlin household.

Dr. Richard E. Woods and Dr. Helen E. Haury of New Haven, Conn., were married on July x. They are residing in Nashville, Tenn., where Dick is a resident surgeon and Helen a member of the staff of the Vander- bilt University Hospital Lt. RobertTreve Maynard and Margaret Van de Velde Fiek of Washington, D. C., have announced their engagement.

H. Douglas Cochran has been promoted from first lieutenant to captain at the Scott Field Army Air Forces Training Command Radio School where he is assistant statistical officer Hugh Harley Jr. has been trans- ferred to Bridgeport, Conn., as a field organizer for the United Electrical Radio and Machine Workers of America.

Ens. Bill Falion wrote a very interesting letter from the South Pacific:

I got out of Harvard Supply School in March with orders to the Fleet. However, there was about ten days leave which Mary Lou and I spent very happily in Los Angeles—a wonderful part of the country, and I thought at the time I'd like to live there some day. But from out here things look different—the palms have lost their allure, and a radical change in seasons seems even more attractive now.

The cruise out was a nifty—l'd never been to sea before, and as passenger officers we had lots of time for sun-bathing and relaxing. The ships took me only part way. I flew the rest of the way— including a trip in and out of Henderson Field. This of course was a thrill, as I'd never flown before, and the islands, atolls, and shallow aquamarine water were beautiful from the air.

I'm now one of the assistants to the supply officer at the Navy Base on the island and feel I have one of the best and most interesting jobs in the Supply Corps. As ship's store officer, I have twenty-five good men working for me—many of them storekeeping petty officers. They were well trained when I got here, and so are of great assistance in keeping me on the right track. Our end of the shop encompasses the ship's store (P-X supplies), clothing, the barber shop, the cobbler shop, the laundry, and the soda fountain, where we make (and where I daily eat) ice cream that is practically stateside. In addition, as we are the Naval Supply Base for the other activities on the island, we also handle a wholesale ship's store and clothing business for Seabees and other Naval units.

We live, eat and drink well. We live in decked, screened-in tents—two officers to a tent. The wardroom is right on the water and screened in on four sides—no bulkheads. There's a beer-bar there complete with rail, and we get a case or more of beer a month—also a few cokes. A few weeks ago the mess treasurer made a good deal with the supply officer of a ship out in the stream —he got three bottles of Australian gin apiece for us at 60$ per bottle—no tax. This went nicely with the fruit juice we had in stock.

The uniform of the day is khaki shirty (no ties), trousers, sun helmets, and field shoes-:—as an alternative, we can, and I do, wear khaki shorts. The climate is not too wet—although it never drizzles—it is. either clear or comes down in torrential gushes. It's hot during the day, but I sleep under a-blanket every night which is more tha:n I can say about New York. At noon I generally manage to siesta a bit in the sun and so am acquiring a good bronzing.

We have a tremendous movie area here with a different flick each night and comfortable seats out under the stars, palms, and bats. WE've had several good USO shows lately:

1. Bob Hope, Jerry Colonna, Frances Langford (Yum-yum), and Patty Thomas (double Yum- yum). Hope's best line concerned thg Army nurses that he'd seen at the Canal(Guadal)—as far as the Servicemen were concerned, he said he "had never seen so many chasing so few, so long, for so little."

2. Jack Benny, Larry Adler, Carole Landis, and Martha Tilton who at one time blues-ed it for Benny Goodman. Benny's best line concerned a man who was classified 7-G (single man with a boy friend). As a transport roared overhead he shouted, "Goodby, Eleanor," which was good for Bingo on the applause-and-laugh meters.

3. A New Zealand band which appeared in summer dinner jackets and got a better reception than the Hope show—they played symphony, military airs, and swing that could rival anything in the states.

Major Phil Conti used an old football principle of "socking Tojo when he pulled out his first string," which enabled his Jolly Roger squadron of Liberator bombers to blast three Japanese freighters into oblivion. "Blasting those three freighters in Wewak harbor was just a case of socking Tojo when he had pulled out his first string—the Zeros that were attacking the formation of Liberators which had preceded us—to fuel them up. That left the freighters in the harbor unprotected for a couple of minutes and that is when we came in. We made one run over a 4000-ton freighter and down she went. Another pass over a second freighter and our bombs beached her. On our way home, we spotted a third freighter, 10 miles out of the harbor. We had no more bombs so we let fly with our ma- chine guns. The flaming beacon left behind was proof we had scored again."

Phil was decorated with the Silver Star for the freighter sinking exploit and the Purple Heart for bullet wounds suffered in a later aerial skirmish with 20 Zeros.

Secretary, c/o Cutler Farm