1929
. There were three visitors this month. Lt. Bill White, recently transferred to Boston after fifteen months' duty as Officer in Charge ( of Naval Air Transport Service at Port of Spain, Trinidad, is now performing the same function at the East Boston Airport, and living in Boston. While in Trinidad, he became engaged to Miss Edith Moira Green whom he hopes to marry soon, immigration officials willing.
The second one was that old gray fox of Wilmington, Delaware, Jack Gunther, Associate General Counsel of Hercules Powder Co., -who spent two days in Boston exercising his charms on the Regional War Labor Board. There is no apparent change to Gunther other than a handsome head of graying hair which, as usual, needed trimming. Back in Wilmington he has, in addition to his charming wife, a lovely daughter and a rambunctious son.
And the third was Lt. Paul Woodbridge, who is on a special assignment in connection with the making of educational films for use in the Navy's training program. Woody came out to the house for dinner and we managed to miss the last train back to town. His Naval career started with his induction into the Seabees' boot camp to within one or two days of its completion, commission and transfer to AVS Indoctrination Training at Quonset, and because of his past experience, transfer to the educational program. And there's a fellow who hasn't changed in physical appearance at all.
A long telephone conversation was the closest we got to Squeek Redding on his last liberty. He was just in from a tour of duty on a DE, aboard which he is a quartermaster 3/c. After boot training at Newport and seventeen weeks at Quartermaster School, Squeek reported for duty at Norfolk on January 15. Sailing the winter seas aboard a DE is some fun, he says, provided you have a good stout line to strap yourself into your bunk.
It was Squeek who passed on the information that Boston's most eligible bachelor, Lt. Bartlett Stoodley, has finally been trapped. The engagement officially announced reveals that Miss Helen Virginia Stark of Arlington will wed the lieutenant some day after the wars are over. Bart has been in the Navy since early 1942 and has for some months now been on active duty in the Pacific. It is believed that he is aboard one of the newest and largest battleships. The last time I saw Bart was in the summer of 1942 aboard the Boston-Chicago train. He was on his way to the Great Lakes Naval Station to complete his training. Here's hoping he is as well and as fit now as he was then.
They've really got good old Eddie Walsh working these days, so he says, traveling around in the interests of the Containers Section in the Bureau of Supplies and Accounts. Ed has been a lieutenant in the Navy since May of 1943 and is enjoying the work, even though, as he puts it, he is in the "chair borne troops." In Washington he sees Art Rydstrom, Ginter Pratt, Stan Johnson, Brad Bradley and Paul Woodbridge. Out in Chicago he swapped yarns with Lt. Comdr. Dick Johnson.
Joe O'Leary, when last heard from, was in New Orleans waiting further assignment. He reported there on October 16 after six months' schooling at Harvard. He tells of meeting up with Hal Leich in the local officers' town house.
The following letter, just received from Wat Spangler, is too good to cut up: "The carton of cigarettes from the class was received on January 25th. I did appreciate them, as they arrived with other Xmas things and I was able to celebrate the day just one month late. I will try to give you a little history of my Naval career thus far in as few words as possible. My efforts to obtain gold braid were all in vain at the time when I first started to work on it. I was too short; the Navy needed most anything but accountants; I was too old to be trained for sea duty as an officer etc. Perhaps it is well for the class to have a few non-coms in the ranks too, and I noted from the MAGAZINE that there are a few. I still felt partial to the Navy, however, and when the draft did catch up with me about the first of September it was still my choice—and also theirs. Much to my surprise and dismay I was shipped to Great Lakes for boot training, even though most of the recruits around Pittsburgh had been going to Sampson. I arrived there on September 18, and put in a very different but interesting training period. My life as company clerk made it a little easier for me, and it is probably just as well for an old man of thirty-six to have it easier. I survived it somehow or other, and they graduated me on November 10. From that point on I put in a couple of months of great uncertainty, wondering just what the Navy would do with me. I had been given my rating of Storekeeper 3/c, but didn't know what it might get me into. I went back to Great Lakes and spent a couple of weeks there waiting for some action. They finally shipped me, along with about 45 other SK's, to Camp Shoemaker, Calif., which is about 35 miles inland from San Francisco. Two weeks there, and we were then put aboard ship, but didn't sail until after the first of the year. We were permitted frequent liberties and they were put to good advantage. We arrived here in Hawaii on January 7 and after another period of uncertainty of about two-weeks' duration, I was given an assignment right here on the Island. I have felt that perhaps some of our classmates may be in this vicinity, but haven't seen any of them yet. My contacts with gold braid are rather limited—in fact all contacts are that way by the nature of this business. If there are any over here, I would be glad to see them. In fact, the absence of any sort of a Dartmouth reunion has made this life more difficult than it otherwise might be. My wife has told me that she has sent me about three copies of the MAGAZINE, and I am anxiously looking forward to receiving them to find out what is going on so far as the class is concerned, and also the College. I certainly have been out of touch with those affairs for a long time, and I miss it."
From "somewhere in England" came this good letter from Pvt. Jack Dearth: "This money order covers my subscription to the Dartmouth ALUMNI MAGAZINE, class group plan. I am coming to consider the MAGAZINE as an integral part of my life now, and miss it when circumstances delay it. Since being inducted into the Army last May and and up to my present situation in England I have not had much chance to bring my personal history up to date by writing. Millicent and I flew back to the States about a year ago after almost three years of teaching at Santiago College in Chile. It was a great experience meeting and working side by side with those friendly Chileans; I hope some of them are enrolled at Dartmouth now, or soon will be. It was through Dartmouth that I became interested and aware of South America. I remember especially the lectures that Dr. S. G. Inman gave on his visit to Hanoverduring our freshman year, I think it was. Since induction last May my time has been taken up with learning my job as a GI Joe in the Chemical Warfare Service, although enduring the stresses of the Alabama sun at Camp Sibert was no small part of it. At present, however, fate or the T. O. has me enlisted in the Ordnance branch where I am a private—my present status. I have not run across any Dartmouth men yet, but have exchanged letters with Johnnie McNamara '3O (ex '29), and a Reed Hall initiate like me who is stationed here in England. I will be waiting eagerly for my batch of Dartmouth magazines."
Secretary, 75 Federal St., Boston, Mass. T reasnrer, Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn 383 Madison Ave., New York, N. Y.
