1928
The biggest class news this month is the fact that 163 of our classmates still in uniform are soon to return to their families and normal civilian pursuits. Of course in no case is the return being accomplished as quickly as desired. In fact some unfortunates like your secretary will still be in uniform until next Spring, but let's think of more cheerful things.
Leading the exodus are:
Hank Leach, Air Corps major, released August 3 after 34 months, 20 of them in Burma and India. He has two stars on his Asiatic-Pacific ribbon for the India-Burma and Central Burma campaigns. He says, "I feel that my fortune has been excellenta trip around the world, half by sea and half by air; the privilege of commanding a squadron in active area; a lot of most memorable experiences; and nothing more serious happened to me than dengue fever and dysentery."
Hank did not return to the U. S. Gypsum Co. he is now doing production and purchasing work in Chicago for Chapman & Smith, manufacturers of food products for bakers.
Champ Webster is back at his old teaching position at the Maiden, Mass., High School after two and a half years as a lieutenant in the Army Air Corps teaching aircraft recognition and navigation.
Jerry Pitts, Army Service Force lieutenant colonel, returned to business in New York in September, after 35 months in uniform.
Lt. Commander Johnny Cronin put aside all his gold braid September 15 and is now back in the New York financial district. He had 41 months of service and 491 A demobilization points.
Lt. Fran Young, on duty since March at the 15th Naval District, Balboa, expects to remain there for some time. He says that Lt. Chuck Bennet recently left the Canal Zone to go on
inactive duty. After three and a half months in hospitals following his injury on Okinawa on L-day, Lt. Cmdr. Jim Gillard is back on full duty. He is in the Out Patient Dept., Naval Training Center, Bainbridge, Md., doing his specialty obstetrics and gynecology, on Navy wives.
Lt. Commander Bob Nespor, senior medical officer of LST Group Staff 47, has been in on several Pacific landings. He is hoping to get back to the States by Christmas, especially as he hasn't seen his second child who was a year old in September. He has 511/4 points but they don't mean a thing as far as doctors are concerned.
The last sizable list of Navy promotions was released in August and rewarded the following deserving '2Bers:
Commander Sam Bassett, Naval Air Station, San Diego; Commander Bill Hunt, Executive Officer of the Neuropsychiatry Branch, Bureau of Medicine & Surgery, and recently elected to Board of Directors of the American Psychological Association; Commander Doc Simonds, navigator on the carrier Rudyerd Bay; Lt. Commander Jack McLaughlin, Executive Officer at the Naval Air Facility, Mayport, Fla.; Lt. Commander Willis Mitchell, medical officer aboard the battleship Arkansas; Lt. Commander Howie Rogers, Discipline Section, Bureau of Personnel, Washington.
Doc Simonds writes from his carrier:
The ship recently completed six weeks availability at San Francisco after 15 months at sea. During our time in port I was able to get 20 days leave so had a couple of weeks in Pelham. Mildred returned to the West Coast with me and we lived in a Quonset hut at the Navy Yard until repairs to the ship were completed.
When the big news about the end of the war arrived we had been back to sea only two weeks I have 55 points and am hopeful of receiving orders to inactive duty soon Haven't seen anyone from the Class out here. When I watched the Bismarck Sea going down off Iwo Jima I didn't know I had a classmate (John Scott) aboard.
Doc hasn't decided whether to go back to teaching or do something else after his release.
Lt. Bill Whaley writes from the carrier Gilbert Islands:
We had an exciting few days out here waiting for the news of the surrender. I have been making a broadcast over the ship's announcing system each morning at General Quarters in order to pass on to the crew the events of the preceding day's operations, and anything else of interest. Consequently, during the period of indecision, I was glued most of the time to the radio monitoring stations broadcasting from the States, Japan, the Philippines, India, Burma, and Australia. I got the news of the surrender over a Tokyo station at the same moment that another radio received it over a U. S. broadcast. Now we are cruising around wondering if we will be sent to Tokyo and how soon we will get home under the point system. Under current regulations it will be another five months before I can get out.
I tried to locate Fred Burleigh in the Philippines but it is a big place and he didn't seem to be where I was. We have by passed Guam so I haven't seen Dan Hatch.
Lt. Red Jenkins is at Naval headquarters in Pearl Harbor doing communications planning for advance bases in Japan.
Shortly before leaving Marseille for the States early in September, Capt. Bill Evans of the Troop Carrier Command wrote, "I am group mess officer and run the officers' club where we just sold out our stock of liquor 10 bottles per officer of scotch, bourbon, gin, benedictine and champagne at 5 francs perone dime a bottle in your money!"
Capt. Pete Bennett has just received orders to report to Edgewood Arsenal, Edgewood, Md., after 18 months in the Canal Zone area for the Chemical Warfare Service.
Capt. Jack Phelan expects to fly home from Tinian in September.
Fran Costello says the Colonel is due back from Germany in December with the rest of the Both Division.
After reading "Mission Beyond Darkness," I wrote Lt. Skip Drayton to ask if he was on the carrier Wasp during the action described in the book. He has just replied:
I was aboard the Wasp during the epic of which you speak. It was a tense time of battle for us but the heroes were the lads who took off knowing that they would be short of gas. The attack by the Japs the day before was a real baptism for those aboard the Wasp—it was her first war.
That particular incident is dimmed greatly by recent events. Our ship (not the Wasp I left her in August 1944) was abeam the Franklin on the 18th of March. That morning I saw the hell that broke loose after the hit. Words have been written about her that exceed my ability but none of them have captured the horror of the scene The entire Okinawa campaign was. rough on everyone there are tales we all could tell but censorship says "no."
Lt. Roy Myers is trying to get the German booktrade back on its feet, if any. They put Herb Sensenig (Professor of German) in Paris and Roy (Professor of French) in Germany. Such is Army logic!
Lt. Commander Tom Talbot has been all over the Pacific on his attack transport, the Burleigh, including the invasion of Okinawa. He was there for ten days, the first six of which he spent ashore as a beachmaster. Tom, a master at under-statement, says, "Had a little trouble with snipers, more with suicide planes and a great deal more with fleas." In spite of his 561/2 points, he expects to be landing troops and supplies on Jap islands for awhile because his skipper says no relief, no discharge —and skippers are really boss out there.
Stu Hoagland was in town recently to close up his Interchemical Corporation's Washing, ton office, and Lt. Col. Bob Clark and I assisted in the festivities.
Lt. Colonel Curly Prosser flew back from Europe after completing his part in the U. S. Strategic Bombing Survey. Instead of being released from the Army he finds that he has been ordered to fly to Japan in October to assist in a similar survey there which is expected to take three to four months.
The October award of the Letter of theMonth Club goes to Cpl. Rube Rubin for thisletter from an isolated village near Kunming:
Six weeks ago I was walking along the street in Kunming when I saw a chunky captain of the Armored Force swinging, or rather weaving, his way through traffic. It looked like Bill Monaco, but a stoutish edition. I used the cautious approach, with a "Pardon me, Sir, but—." And sure enough it was Bill, who had come up from Ramgarrh, India. Bill is looking good and like a genooine soldier, which is unusual for an American, who is, after OCS, indoctrination and all the rest, a civilian in uniform. At least they are in this theater.
I'm one of the older geezers and expect to be moved out of the Army one of these days. The bottleneck in transportation for the planes are being used to fly Chinese troops to points where they can disarm the Japs. And plowing through Chinese roads is something the Army is trying to spare us.
But being in China is a wonderful experience. The country is beautiful and the Chinese are grand people. They are friendly, hospitable, anxious to learn, a happy, cheerful Ding Hao people. I've managed to pick up some of the language and in town where G.l.s are a curiosity amuse huge crowds with my stumbling through their verbs and adjectives.
Made quite a few Chinese friends in Kunming, those who were married invited me to their homes to meet the family and to enjoy a good home-cooked meal. They were a Chinese professor (Ph.D., U. of Wisconsin), an engineer, law student and merchants. They had a sound grasp of what's been happening in this little world of ours but were all very optimistic about China's future. They expect to industrialize rapidly and to have a huge trade with us. We'll want to trade, but their poor peasant and farmer has no buying power, and he is the great majority.
Class Agent Phil Orsi and his assistants are to be congratulated on collecting $6,660 for the Fund in the drive ended June 30. This was 95 per cent of the objective and deserves a Wah Hoo Wah for the boys who did the work and for those who gave.
It's hard to realize that President Hopkins will no longer be guiding Dartmouth's affairs. But it is reassuring to learn that the Trustees have selected John Dickey to carry on. His ability and experience fit him admirably for the position. 1928 wishes you well, John.
STILL ON GUAM. Lf. Colonel Dan Hatch '2B is with the 21st Bomber Command whose 829 s bombed Japan with great effectiveness.
Secretary, 3427 South Utah St., Arlington, Va.
Treasurer, Lewis Historical Pub. Cos., Inc. 80-Bth Ave., New York, N. Y.
