1939
HERE AND THERE: Ensign John Mitchell is now touring the Pacific on one of Uncle Sam's newest destroyers, with Dr. Harold MacGilpin Jr. also on board. Lou Highmark is on a destroyer escort . patrolling the Atlantic. Dave Schilling has been promoted to lieutenant colonel. He has many enemy ships to his credit and has devised several mechanical plane innovations. After completing more than fifty missions over Europe, he has won himself a Distinguished Service Cross. Lt. Barvoets, despite seven shrapnel holes in his dive bomber, effectively blasted Jap anti-aircraft guns on Kalombaugara with great success. Walt Darby was fortunate in getting a leave and returned from Alaska to see his new son. Walt's new address must be censored but can be had by writing to me or the Alumni Records Office. While in New York he looked up Bob Hall, who is a doctor at the Roosevelt Hospital.
From Bob Cushman comes news that he is still working for Gulf Oil Co., and was the father of a girl on June 22. He has tried several times to enter the Service without success. First -Lieutenant T. K, Johnson is located in California with the 24th Marines, and has yet to run into any "39ers" in and around Los Angeles. From Larry Gilbert's father we learn that following Larry's fifteen-month sojourn in the Southwest Pacific, he attended Command schools in Boston and Miami Beach and has recently been made commanding officer of a LST craft. He is now enroute to an unknown destination. His new mailing address is also censored, but can be had as stated above. Lt. Frank Perry has been in Texas since the beginning of last year as a platoon leader and instructor in the Medical Administrative Corps, Officer's Candidate School. The only Dartmouth man he saw coming through his class was Bob Bailey. Bob graduated in April and was assigned to Camp Robinson in Arkansas. Jim Powers was in the same corps, although Frank did not see him.
Lt. Gordy King has been located on the West Coast and points in the Southwest Pacific during the major part of last year. In August, however, he was evacuated for medical reasons via the long chain of Naval Hospitals, and finally back to San Diego. Charles Maher was temporarily assigned to working in Guatemala City. Recently he has been all over Central and South America. He tells of running into Hank Waldon in the Canal Zone and also saw quite a lot of Chan Robinson. Working for Pan American's Air Service gets Chuck pretty well around that part of the world. From First Lieutenant Cleve Spillars comes the fine news of a boy on October 27. Cleve is now located in England. He also states that Converse Chellis is with him. Bob Jessup and Howie Jones have finished Med- ical School and are now interning preparatory to entering the Navy. Ensign Bill Carter has been in the South Pacific with a torpedo boat squadron for a long time. Bud Andrews is stationed in San Diego, Calif., after having been in on the Sicilian invasion. He recently visited Ope Richardson at Norman, Okla., where Ope is now lieutenant (jg). Bud was the father of a girl on October 24.
From Cornie Miller I would like to quote part of his letter as follows: "Have followed our class members through the columns of the ALUMNI MAGAZINE and read of the exploits of those in the Armed Forces with envy. Being a 4F arid feeling like lA is a hell of a combination. Decided to leave teaching in March, 1942, and do my bit in a defense plant, so landed here m Hartford. Am now in the Gage Sales Office, having plugged along in the shop and various departments gathering engineering terms and training—a far cry from the generalities of teaching English, to close tolerances of .0001 on special tools and .000001 on certain gages. My address changes every so often, but I can always be reached here at Pratt-Whitney Tool Division. Spent six months living alone on an island in the middle of the Farmington River twelve miles from here, and had a healthy time of it. Among the many episodes involved with such a life was that of digging a cesspool so deep I couldn't get out of the hole!!! Bill Weber, Bob Woodward, and Bill Tomkins were with PW Aircraft until recently. Weber went to Dartmouth on Naval Training, Tomkins (married, and with a daughter, I believe) is somewhere in the Army, and Woody made the Air Corps, leaving his wife and son behind."
SERVICE PROMOTIONS ARE AS FOLLOWS: To first lieutenant—Paul B. DeWitt; to first lieutenant- Robert R. Barvoets; to lieutenant—Henry L. Mills; to lieutenant (jg)—Robert B. Whitcomb; to lieutenant (jg) Orville P. Richardson Jr.; to ensign— Earl J. Dearborn; to major—William H. Parkhill; to major—Lloyd W. Nash; to captain—Robert F. Brown; to lieutenant—H. Foster Clippinger Jr.
I have received the sad and unfortunate news of the death of Herbert Illfelder caused by wounds suffered in Italy. He died on November 14, 1943.
The engagement of Miss Jean Elizabeth Staples to Lt. (jg) Harold MacGilpin is announced. Miss Staples is an assistant supervisor at the Valley Presbyterian Hospital where "Mac" interned. Engagement of Miss Jacqueline Smith of Melrose, Mass., to Dr. H. Taylor Pratt USNR was also announced. Engagement of Synthia Sheftale to Winfred Naylor was announced in Miami, where he is connected with Eastern Airlines. The wedding is scheduled to take place in early January. Miss Alberta Gillette of Duluth, Minn., was married on December 21 to Lt. (jg) Bob Whitcomb.
Secretary,, 37 Trumbull St., New Haven, Conn. Treasurer, c/o J. M. Mathes, Inc. 122 East 42nd St., New York, N. Y.
