1940

Another killed-in-action obituary appears in this issue. They pile up on us, and make us feel, more deeply than ever, the responsibilities and the futilities of so-called home front work. I didn't know John O'Neill in college beyond the casual hello of every Dartmouth man for every other, so I asked Ed Fritz, who went to English Graduate School at Harvard with him, to write something for the record. I think Ed's job is an exceptional one. He has caught a bit of the things that made John a fine man, of whom the class may well be proud.

This month's notes, of necessity, will have to be shortened, due primarily to my forgetfulness in bringing my notes with me. I'm shortly off for Beantown on a trip for OPA, then to the induction center for a pre-induction physical, and by then it will be well past deadline. My excuses are poor, but my apologies are sincere.

Perhaps we can make it up to you within the next month. If all goes well, the first Indian Drum should be in the mail about the time the MAGAZINE goes out. Jack Rourke is, to the class's benefit, sticking with the editorship. On his behalf, and on behalf of the rest of the class who want to know where you are, what you are doing, thinking, and hoping, why don't you sit down in the next couple of hours and write to Jack or to me. You parents who get the MAGAZINE should read that as applying to you as well. Let's hear about your boy.

A good letter from Jim McElroy, somewhere in England, attached to a bomber squadron, asks if something can't be done to get the members of the class who are in England together, for correspondence, or, I should think, for a possible beer or two once in a while. I know of no way that I can get this information to you of the class who are also somewhere in England, unless you write to me and say so. After that it will be up to you.

News from Servicemen—Ray Dau and his many decorations are now holding down the job of Base Operations Officer at Fairmont, Neb., which, Ray says, is an unmentionable burg twenty-two miles from anything civilized. Clint Clad is still engineer officer aboard the net tender U.S.S. (Censored). Chal Carothers, upped to Ist looie, is reported again from Philadelphia. George Mahoney, as he says, East for the winter season, is on to Washington with OSS. Captain Bud Smith is also reported in Washington, and also Scott Field, Ill. and Ft. Monmouth, N. J. Bud is a meteorologist. Howie Marshall was last seen in June heading India-ward navigating a transport. Dan Rectanus is an assistant Operations Officer at an Alaskan Air Base, Lee Bassett is a Ist looie with the cavalry at Santa Rosa, Calif., and Joe Christopher was last heard from in July from North Africa. All the foregoing came in in one lump from Bud Hewitt, who has been conducting one of the healthiest and most comprehensive correspondences I know of in the class. Bud himself has been adjutant for headquarters, 18th Replacement Wing, in Salt Lake City, since September, replacing a lieutenant colonel on the job.

Another news job turned up this month from D wight Meader, who's working himself to death for GE down in Lynn, and just recently got back on his feet from his second nervous breakdown in a year. He reports Lt. Fred Johnson on supply problems with a hospital unit in California; Art Christensen still tied up with a base hospital in North Africa, finding the French (probably spelled with a final e) very friendly and the wine excellent; Lt. Bob Varney navigating out of England; Ted Lewitt in the Army and probably in Italy. On the civilian side, Dwight uncovered Henry Stokes as a designing engineer with the Foxboro Instrument Co., Foxboro, Mass.; Dick Seidman engineering for Poloroid in Cambridge; and Coleman Ross in cost work with GE at Everett.

We're slacking off in the marriages department, there being only that of Lt. Larry Cate USNR and Mary Glass on November 4 at Balboa, Canal Zone. Nineteen-forty progeny seem to be at the inbetween stage, too, either not yet arrived, or fully launched. These are restricted to my own announcement of a son, Howard, on December 18. That makes a gal and a '65er, and, as wife Lois says, that's all the variety there is. I'm proud, though, and quite boastful, since the rest of the class seems to have concentrated on females, a situation which should be corrected as rapidly as conditions may permit.

Acting Secretary, 1 Terrace St., Montpeiier, Vt.