1929
Down from the Alaskan Highway has just come President Larry Lougee's approval of Duke Barto and Beedie Brisbin's recommendation that our Fifteenth Reunion be observed, pending better days, by small Reunion Dinners to be held in as many locations as two or more classmates can be found to gather together tor an evening. So we shall try to have dinners arranged throughout the month of June on successive dates in order that as many groups as possible can have the Class movies on hand. You can well imagine how the Class organization has been disrupted since the boys have been going off to war. If any of you who are not located in a recognized class or alumni center would like to hold a dinner, just let me know and we'll include you among the groups to whom the movies will be sent and then when the war is over, we'll have a real Reunion, tent and all, in Hanover.
Our Lieutenant Lougee travels fast. He wrote that he had just completed a 41/2 hour non-stop flight that covered 1200 miles at an average of about 260 miles per hour and at that he had time to observe the beautiful Northern Lights.
Captain George Hersam's good annual report has just come in from Montreal. "It seems that during the last six months I have been on the move all the time. I got in early this morning and am notified to be ready to leave again tomorrow so I can only snatch a few moments to send you this check and to say that I am still with the Transport Command of the Royal Air Force. While I am based in Montreal that is only a point of departure and the work takes me to all parts of the Allied World in all types of equipment from the largest to the smallest that can be flown over the oceans, including fighters, bombers of all sizes and flying boats as well as the land plane types. I have been in all the war theaters except the far Pacific and have touched on all the continents but Australia as well as most of the islands now used by the Allies. It is as interesting a job as I could desire and after nearly three years still has increasing numbers of new facets both as to equipment and ports of call and the people found there. Soon I shall be somewhat of an authority on international exchange, I have encountered so many varying types of coinage and am almost able to make accurate change in most of them."
Another recently received epistle is a V-mail letter from that old rollicking salt, Lt. Bill Morgan of the Armed Guard Service who says he's back again visiting "my friends" where he hopes to get in touch with Capt. Jo Murphy and have a reunion. Speaking of reunions, he says he's glad he had such a good time at the 10th since he probably won't be on land for any of the Reunion dinners. He admits that the chow on this trip has been just as good as it was bad on the last one, as a result of which he is regaining his stylish stout again.
Out of the Northwest from Seattle, Washington comes a clipping as follows: JudgeHusband Offers Wife No Leniency—Seattle, Wash., March 23—Police Officers R. W. Waitt and S. J. Dimak handed a woman a jay-walking ticket. "Oh, dear," she said "my husband warned me about this a week ago but I forgot." Her husband, Police Judge James W. Hodson said: "The case will be handled just like any other." Bill McCaw reports':
"Several issues back I was amazed to learn that my true activities during the present administration have not come to light. What or whose administration was referred to—Saltonstall's or am I a Democrat? When I saw you last at our tenth I was in charge of unemployment insurance for the Social Security Board, having previously been coordinator of the U. S. Wage and Hour Division and technical adviser to the Commissioner of Labor in New York State for brief periods. In December 1941 I left the Social Security Board and went to work for the Office of Production Management and was in charge of the requisitioning or commandeering of property required for war purposes in O.P.M. and W.P.B. until last October. After a number of my "clients" decided to contest our awards of "fair and just compensation" in the Court of Claims I decided to let my assistants spend the rest of their lives defending the Government's action and went to work for the Combined Production and Resources Board. Now I work with a group of Britishers, Canadians and Americans whose job is to see that the combined resources of the United Nations are used to the best advantage for the prosecution of the war. It sounds like a big order, doesn't it? As an experiment in international cooperation its success is important. In November I went over to England for the Board and worked closely with Soup Lockwood who has been working for some months in the American Embassy. I saw several other Dartmouth men in London but none from our class. In my brief visit I found life in England pretty grim. The highlight of the trip for me came when I spent a couple of days with the Eagle Squadron and one of our Bomber Commands where I had the privilege of sitting in on the interrogation of the crews of the Flying Forts as they returned from a mission over Europe. My hat is off to those boys who go through Hell on every mission and in between missions too. I came back via Dakar and South America and found that our soldiers and sailors there as well as in England have a consuming desire to get the hell out of wherever they are and come home. Home looked good to me too even if it did mean seeing more of Lt. Com. Swope who looks almost as good in a Navy uniform as he did in a track suit before developing that paunch and slowing up to a walk."
Ray Hedger is a Corporal attached to Base Headquarters Air Base Squadron, Amarillo, Texas. Anticipating an early shipment overseas, he has stayed on for over six months now and still doesn't know when or where he's going. His work in the weather office at the airport is very interesting he says. He reports that while on furlough in November he ran smack into Larry Lougee in New York.
Charlie Dudley, our North Country farmer, keeps busy on his land. Speaking of extra Curricular activities, he complains that the paper work required to get essential materials takes so much of his time that on top of the 12 to 14 hours in the open, he has no time for any fun.
Earl Liberty is living in Oneida and working with the Utioa & Mohawk Cotton Mills, makers of the Utica and Mohawk sheets and pillow cases. He is Chief Cost Accountant for the two mills and also the bleachery, which have a combined normal employment of 2500 people.
When last heard from Herb McCreery had just missed out on OCS after completing all but a week of the course, because of a technical restriction against graduating anyone over 35. He then resumed his former status of Sergeant in the M. P.'s, this time with a combat platoon at Fort Jackson, South Carolina where he has been spending the major part of his time out of camp on maneuvers.
Staff Sergeant Siegesmund's Mother writes that Carl has recently been transferred from Africa to England.
Don McCornack, dutiful father, records the birth some eighteen months ago, of Martha who he says already walks, talks (well. .. .) and reads the Smith Quarterly.
Dick Clark was recently commissioned Lt. j.g. USNR DVS and ordered on active duty at the Naval Training Station, Fort Schuyler, New York. Dick has been practicing law in Gloucester and Salem where he had established a fine business. He has three children; Anne, 8, Dick Jr., 4 and Paul, 4 months.
Will Torbert has been Chief Investigator of the New York District OPA for over a year now. Since he started his original staff of 70 has increased to 280, weathered two major and several minor reorganizations, survived three movings and has accomplished what Washington has deemed the outstanding investigation job in the country, which performance included the collection of over two million dollars in contributions from violators.
Dr. Erwin P. Vollmer is the author of "Can Hormones Help Win the Peace?" which appeared in the December issue of The Scientific Monthly.
Secretary, 75 Federal St., Boston, Mass. Treasurer, Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn 383 Madison Ave., New York, N. Y.
