1941

I held out to the last ditch this month in hopes I would be flooded with some last minute news, but alas, no letters, so I wired the Alumni Office that I would try and squeeze out one thousand words for this month's issue. How about hearing from some of you men next month? Makes writing these notes much more enjoyable when the dope flows in in abundance. So much for that.

First Lieutenant Harold H. Neale received the Air Medal in a ceremony held on a newly won base on the French Riviera. A pacemaker in the Mediterranean theater, the group to which Harold belongs was the first AAF Air unit to fly from the beachhead, and recently celebrated the completion of two thousand missions against the enemy. Harold has made seventy-seven of these slashing divebombing and strafing attacks on German communications and supply concentrations.

Lt. (jg) Peter Keir was married to Miss Audrey Prior of Scarsdale, N. Y., on the 19th of August and they are planning to live in Washington, D. C., for the time being. Audrey is an alumna of Chevy Chase Junior College and also attended Mount Holyoke College. Pete- has served a year in the Aleutians and recently returned from England to take his marriage vows.

Capt. Richard Oughton USMC just returned home from the South Pacific where, as a dive- bomber pilot operating from Munda, he blasted numerous Jap-held bases. His final two tours of combat flying, before returning home, were with the "Hell Hounds" fighter squadron based on Bougainville and Green Island. He took part in fifty'two missions and has one hundred and eighty hours of combat flying in raids on airfields, installations and supply areas in the Northern Solomons and New Britain.

Grant Hesser, now a lieutenant in the U. S. Naval Reserve wed Miss Betty Maescher on Friday, September 22, at Saint Andrews Chapel of the Naval Academy, Annapolis, Md.

Got a nice note from Bob Hess who is a lieutenant in the Army and who just (eturned to Greenland after a twenty-five day leave in the Good Ole U. S. A. He has already put in eleven months of duty over there. On his leave he managed to get up to Hanover for "one grand day." The most exciting moment of his leave was when he said, "Will you marry me?" to Miss Maurine Van Meter; or maybe he was more excited when she said, "Yes!!" He writes, "Maurine is also a Bronxville, N. Y., native and is blonde, 23 years old, 5 feet 6 inches tall and terrific.' " Glad to see such enthusiasm. She's a 1943 graduate of Principia, College and works now for I. B. M. in New York City. Come Bob's next leave (he hopes in May) they will be married.

First Lieutenant James W. Keating is serving as an executive officer with the veteran Infantry company that stood guard over "Old Glory" as it was raised at reveille in the Piazza Venezia, Rome, the morning of the 4th of July. Men of his company have been with the Fifth Army throughout its advance into Northern Italy and they have been credited with more than two hundred German prisoners. They formed their company before Major General Harry H. Johnson, Rome Area Commander, in tribute to the flag that was flown over our Capitol when the U. S. declared war on Japan and Germany. Later that day the same men traveled to the railroad station to form a guard of honor for the Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson. They escorted him to the Piazza Venezia, where Mussolini formerly made his speeches. Mr. Stimson attended retreat ceremonies there.

Werner H. Saenger, who was in our class for a time and was on an LST during the invasion of France, predicts that "Germany's seven-year plague in Europe will be over before Christmas." It appears now as though he may have been a little optimistic, however; at the time he based his prediction on the firsthand information he had gotten out of scores of German prisoners that he questioned on the way back to England. He says, "Most of the prisoners I talked with are convinced the German cause is lost. All of them seem genuinely glad to be out of the war. Only the SS troops and officers seem to cling to a half-hearted belief in the Nazi party and its supreme doctrine that Germany cannot be defeated. The rest admit that they are beaten and feel the war will be over soon In many cases the prisoners cursed the Luftwaffe.

With a final admonition that more dope will be much appreciated by your humble secretary, I'll close with some of the latest promotions: 2nd Lt. Alfred D. Becker Jr.; Capt. James G. Curtis; Lt. (jg) S. Lloyd Fishman; Lt. (sg) Joseph J. Guidrey; Capt. Henry S. Hibbard; Lt. (sg) Clarence B. Higgins; Ist Lt. Richard O. Horn; Lt. (jg) H. Charles Kazaross; Lt. (sg) John H. Lendo; Lt. Roscoe V. Lewis; Lt. (jg) Morton McGinley; Capt. William J. Morrow; Ist Lt. Eugene M. Valentine; Lt. (jg) James R. Whitman Jr.; and Capt. Robert J. Dixon.

HONOR MAN of his company, Donald C. Schott '40 graduated last summer from the Great Lakes U. S. Naval Training Center.

Secretary, James Buchanan Apt., B 12 Presidential Gardens, Alexandria, Va. Treasurer, 17 N. Park St., Hanover, N. H.