Letters from Dartmouth Men in the Armed Forces

NOTE: The Department of Art at DartmouthCollege is interested in getting thenames of men who have done somesketching or painting while in the servicefor a show of war paintings and drawingsafter the war. Will any men whoread this column and are doing somesketching please send me their names?

MAJOR ARTHUR B. NIGHTINGALE '28, of the Medical Corps, writesa fine letter from the Pacific:

I received a letter from you several months ago which I filed, intending to answer it in a few days. I began mulling over what I wanted to say and could never find words to express my thoughts. I was going through the files today and came across that letter and decided the reply had been postponed long enough.

You asked whether I feel that Dartmouth has helped me in my duties as a soldier. The answer is definitely "YES." It taught me how to think. It has helped me realize how this war started, how we failed to prevent it, how powerful our isolationists were—maybe still are—and how we must prevent another such tragedy from occuring in the next generation. Let's make everyone realize that we are not self sufficient unto ourselves. We are part of this world and must use our power and resources to help keep the peace: an economic peace as well as a social one. That is the task for institutions like Dartmouth. Make HISTORY- an unbiased history—not compulsory, but interesting enough that everyone will take the courses. To hell with memorizing the second battle of Bull Run; the causes of the war, the selfish politicians, the destructive reconstructive period—that is important. Likewise let's have more sociology like Professor Holben (I believe that is the name) taught: not sociology like another instructor spewed forth: more interested in whether the daily quizz was punctuated properly. Also, psychology should be stressed. In other words, let's study man in relation to his fellow man. His antisocial instincts as well as his social attributes. I believe that there is only one criterion with which to judge civilization: individual happiness. Let's work for it.

The average man out here well realizes the hazards of the enemy, malaria, dysentery, brush typhus, the weather, and the utter boredom. He faces it calmly. But at the same time he is highly resentful of the John L. Lewis's, the Petrillo's, the Wheelers, the middle of the road politicians. I hope the resentment lasts until we get home.

Perhaps the three semesters a year course would be beneficial—to make up the year of compulsory military training for each and every man that we must have.

I'm no economist, but what will happen when millions of men are demobilized: factories demobilized? Do we continue with the ten-year depression that was interrupted by the war? Those are some of the questions that you people at home will have to solve.

I don't know whether I have expressed myself clearly. But it all sums up: let's have a better world, or let's go back to our native caves, forget about civilization, and hunt with a club until some stronger animal beats the hell out of us.

LIEUTENANT F. STIRLING WILSON '16 USNR sent me an air mail letter from Chile which will interest allDartmouth men:

Your letter of 29 Oct. finally arrived here 26 Nov. exactly 8 months after I arrived here. Our mail in Buenos Aires must wait till one of us can get a reservation on the Argentine air line up to R. A, and back, to carry it, and with all the Punta Arenians who have been coming south to dodge the buenos. aires (which become somewhat heated during the summer) we have had our troubles in getting passage. Otherwise you would have had your reply before.

I haven't seen a Dartmouth man since leaving home, but the boys here hear a lot more about Dartmouth than I let them tell about Princeton and Yale. It seems you can take those colleges or leave them alone, but we can't leave Dartmouth alone.

I organized the Dartmouth Club of Magallanes and Tierra del Fuego, and the officers are Wilson, President; Wilson, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer, and Wilson, Chairman of the Entertainment Committee. We meet daily, and permit the men from the other colleges honorary memberships, including Bus Morelock, Assistant U. S. Consul, who hails from Texas U.

My last mail brought me the ALUMNI MAG. for November, and a flock of Al Dickerson's Bulletins, all of which are read line for line and word for word.

This is the fifth continent I have visited, and I still have the conviction I had when I was a one-continent man—i.e., the U. S. A. is the best possible country of them all, and next to home and family, Dartmouth is the best memory to hold onto when you are away from it.

I share the thrill of the men in other countries who have written about the College, and who have backed up their claims of loyalty by contributing to the Alumni Fund, regardless of where they are. Every time I send in my small contribution I feel I am really doing something effective.

Also, I get a thrill out of visualizing the gleam of pride in President Hopkins' eye when he reads those tributes to the College, which are tributes to him as well. And my hat is off to you fellows who are doing the drudgery of necessary office work so essential to success for the Fund, regardless of how much the alumni help.

I'll be sending in my 1944 contribution in time for it to travel the 8000 miles to Hanover and get there before June go. I only wish I could get in the envelope with it.

Regards to all of you, and my personal Wah-hoo-wah for Mr. Hopkins.

LT. (jg) MORT BERKOWITZ '37,USNR, writes a note from a destroyersomewhere on one of the seven seas.

Even V-mail isn't fast enough to catch up with this fast-moving bucket and as a result I was unable to fulfill your request of October 29th in time to meet the January issue.

However I thought I'd take a moment to answer and tell you a little about how I've changed from a landlubber to something resembling a sailor. (I thought I was one until the other night when a merchant mariner I met on a dark street of a foreign port challenged me to throw a clove hitch over a street sign!) I've had over a year and a half of duty on the above illustrated ship and the major part of that time has been on the water. From being the junior officer of fifteen August of '42, I'm now second senior not counting the skipper and exec, and doing all sorts of jobs from being deck officer, ship's janitor, navigating, etc. Only one Dartmouth man has been aboard, and he only made one trip with us—lrv Naitove of '39. Originally we had an all-Ivy League wardroom with Yale, Harvard, Penn, and Navy represented, but now it's more like a representation of schools at the Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl, and various other such. I have seen very few of the boys of '37, but recently who walked on board but Bill Cash who is on the USS . Dave Cam I haven't seen in a good long time but I spoke to his family not long ago and he's still in the Dakotas or some such forlorn spot.

It's a day after Xmas and I wish you and all my Hanover friends the best for the holiday season. Our Christmas was pleasant as it could be away from home, what with turkeys and we even brought along our own tree, setting it up on the main deck!

CAPTAIN CHARLES W. MILLS '34MC writes from North Africa: We have been in North Africa for six months, now, and I fear we shall be here equally as long or longer. I hope not. It would be much nicer to be stationed in Italy, or some place in Europe.

However, I have seen many interesting places, strange sights, and different customs. Now that I have seen the Roman ruins in Carthage, Tunis, and Dougga, I shall have to re-open books on Ancient History.

I have met only two fellows from Dartmouth in North Africa. One was a classmate of mine, Harry Mellon. We met several months ago in Oran.

Fortunately, for the fellows, casualties have been fewer than anticipated, and so far we have not been too busy. Part of that is undoubtedly due to our being rather inaccessible in comparison to other hospitals.

The nearest we have been to combat was last summer when we watched several air raids quite a safe distance from us. From this vantage point, the flash and war of exploding bombs, the brilliant illumination of the flares, the ack-ack bursts, streams of tracer bullets, and the path of a plane falling in flames is truly a beautiful pyrotechnical display. I doubt if that emotion is shared by many.

We are located at a point that seemed to be the region where the ferrys made their turn to fly in on their bomb run. We could hear them overhead, then as the sound diminished, could see the searchlights and anti-aircraft pick up the planes, as the latter approached their targets.

We have had none of that for many weeks, now, and listen to stories the boys bring back with them. Many make Holly, wood thrillers quite pale. It hardly seems possible that some of them live to recount their experiences.

I have had a few German prisoners as patients. None of mine have been the arrogant, cocky, superior type. In fact, they are quite the opposite, and all believe that Germany will be defeated by spring at the latest.

Upon arrival my series of three patients, have all been quite frightened, which in about two weeks time, we learn is because they feared they were to be killed. They are quite astonished at the care, kindness, and food they receive. Also, Jrey are quite appreciative.

LT. (jg) WALT KELLEY '40 USNRalways writes extremely thoughtful letters.Here is a recent one from the West Coast.

I appreciated your last letter which reached me in Florida. I don't know where you find the time to write as much as you do and must blame my lack of organization for my failure to write sooner.

I was naturally pleased to see the letter we sent to you included in the last issue of the ALUMNI MAGAZINE. Although it's effect will probably be slight it afforded me considerable emotional satisfaction. I get too worked up over some of the things in which I believe strongly and probably attach undue importance to matters which seem unimportant to others. On the other hand, I think we could stand a little more enthusiasm and crusading spirit in this world for the ideals in which we believe.

I was sent out here after six weeks in Miami for additional training in Antisubmarine Warfare, and will be an A.S.W. officer on a destroyer-escort or a destroyer. That is the way things look at this point, anyway. I don't know whether I'll get my assignment on this coast or go back to the east coast. Personally, I'd like to be operating in the Atlantic for a while at least. My sister is with the Red Cross in England and we are planning a reunion in London some time before the war is over.

I have just finished a good book by Lin Yutang, "Between Tears and Laughter." It is one of the best books on the war that I've read. It's pretty cynical in spots and not too encouraging, but it is as logical and clear-thinking as anything I've read in a long time

I'm now reading Howard Fast's "Citizen Tom Paine" which is enjoyable reading and the subject matter is interesting to me, but I don't think it's especially well written. He's supposed to be an up and coming new writer, however, and I haven't read enough of that sort of book to be a good judge. A story dealing with the thinking of Revolutionary days is especially interesting at this time I find.

You may wonder how I find any time at all to read going to these Navy schools preparatory to a career at sea. I find that I have to have a certain amount of concentration in other fields in order not to get stale on all of this technical and scientific training. And at most of the Navy schools one has considerable time for one's own interests when the school work is done. When I get to sea I probably will have very little time to read the books I'd like to read and to write the letters I'd like to write.

I've promised several people that I would write to them about what the boys I meet in the Navy are thinking about and what their ideas on the war and peace are, but so far I've been at a loss to know what to write, for one hears very little said about such subjects. It is much harder to think about the ideological aspects of the war when one is busy every day learning the mechanical techniques of fighting or actually engaging in battle, than when one can stand off objectively and view the thing from the sideline. Most fellow's thoughts are filled with memories of their families and good times at home or at college or with plans for some future week-end or leave. Those who do speak of the war from a political or economic point of view usually express considerable cynicism and pessimism. At least outwardly they show little confidence that we can build a better world out of this maelstrom. References are often made, more or less in a joking manner, to the Next War, as though it were a certainty. It is quite possible that inwardly all of them are hoping that this time we can find the right pattern of peace and do a more thorough job of restoring civilization to its sanity, but remembering how they were raised in the belief that war was impossible and then had been disillusioned, they hesitate to express any confidence or optimism fearing that they will be laughed at twenty years from now, and thus they speak only in terms of sophisticated "realism." I know, as I read this over, that my generalizations don't hold true, for some of the letters printed in the ALUMNI MAGAZINE are filled with hope and confidence in the future and are certainly examples of the depth of thinking often engendered in a man who is facing death constantly. And I should be stilled by the deep meaning of some of the letters, for as yet I have little right to talk. But I am disturbed at times by the tendency of so many fellows to write of materialistic values, the comforts which they have known and long for, rather than of human values, and freedoms, and the advance of civilization for which I feel we may be fighting. Our modern world has been built on materialism and material values have been put above human val- ues; a tendency which I believe is respon- sible for most of our present day ills. So I long to see, in discussions of the post- war world and in discussions of interna- tional relations, more evidence of under- standing and consideration and love among men, rather than the oft-repeated descriptions of the wonderful material comforts we are to be given or the cold "realism" of future imperialism and power politics. I hope I haven't tried to include too much in that sentence. Anyway, I feel that the success of this war will' depend upon the extent to which men understand each other and appreciate human values, no matter how lowly, rather than upon any one system or procedure or organization. In this respect, the Moscow agreement looks on the surface to be a long step forward because men with varied interests "agreed to agree" as has so often been said, and attempted to understand one another.

CAPTAIN JOHN I. FITZGERALDJR., '40 USMCR has seen a lot of servicein the Southern Pacific and always answers my letters promptly. Here is one ofhis more recent letters which expressessome interesting ideas on Dartmouth education:

As I sit here at my field desk looking over some maps of these islands, my mind can not help but wander back to Hanover. I do not know if I have answered your last letter or not.

Even today in the midst of things, I can not realize how much these jungle wastes mean to us. I know they are the base of our future existence. Therefore, we have to accept all our hardships with an easy mind. I hope the days of the provincial pacifists are ended.

As for myself, I am quite well. I am situated at the foot of a mountain which has a beautiful waterfall on it. I have sent my men into the jungle to bring out some tropical plants. As a result, I have a very beautiful display around my command post. I have learned more about botany out here, in my own way, than I did at school.

From my experience, I see no value to compulsory science courses. When I think how much more beneficial the arts are, I feel very sorry for every lad that has to struggle through such junk. The majority of our technical trained men have been a failure. I have seen divinity students improvise things to put captured equipment in order that has baffled our specialists. They are trained to think beyond a smug formula. I hope someday the colleges become liberal enough to allow students to pick their entire course without any hitches. To my mind, colleges have compulsory courses to keep old and unqualified men in their positions. I admire their social security sense for those that trained themselves to give service for those who desire a scientific education.

I will cease my "bitching" as they call it in the service. The sweat is pouring off me like rain off a roof. I am working quite hard. This heat takes its toll.

I would really enjoy a good old New England winter once again. I miss the snow and ice. It is three years since I went through a winter. The tropics have their beauties and fine points. Under peaceful conditions one could have an ideal life in these islands.

MAJOR ARTHUR B. NIGHTINGALE '28, M.C., writes this month an interesting letter from somewhere in New Guinea.