1939

Plenty of history has been made between the last column and the one that follows below. The war is over and from around the world you men who have been so far for so long will be returning home. Welcome back! Perhaps it won't be long before we can have a mass '39 bull session. No doubt there will be enough stories to swap.

With the good news of the war's end we still, unfortunately, have to mix some of the bad news. Captain John Newman was killed while piloting his plane in action June 26 over Luzon. Pfc. Charles Palmer died in Rome, Italy, on June 30 from infantile paralysis. Pfc. Palmer had been recommended for the Soldier's Medal for heroism as an Army photographer during the Bari, Italy, disaster in April. Second Lieutenant Philip W. Hiden Jr. was reported missing in March, 1943, and since the surrender of Germany has now been reported killed in action over Germany March 8, 1943. He was co-pilot of a B-17.

News about Lt. Richard C. Dunham says that while flying a Harpoon attack bomber recently he had the great thrill of being able to bring back the report of white surrender crosses on the runway of the Island of Truk. In six months of action from Okinawa to Japan's Inland Sea, Bob Field, veteran of many Pacific campaigns has been serving on the U.SS. Guam, the American version of the pocket battleship. Lt. (jg) Ed Wakelin has been awarded the Silver Star Medal at Melville, R. I., P.T. boat training center, for courageous action in the Southwest Pacific. In addition he has the Bronze Star, Philippine Liberation ribbon and Asiatic Pacific ribbon with six stars.

Two letters came from Lt. Richard Monahon. Dick is commander of Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 9 in the Philippines. The biggest news he had was the arrival of his second son, Grant, who was a solid nine and a half pounds. Dick writes:

I receive glowing accounts of Grant almost daily, and particularly of Rick and Grant who apparently are going to be good friends. It would be wonderful to say the war is over, but the Japs haven't answered so we are all sweating it out even as you are at home. Mentally, however, I've considered the war over since last Friday and after celebrating riotously three nights in a row I've settled down to bridge, gin rummy and a short beer.

Heard that Scott Taylor married a girl from Thermopolis, Wyoming, but haven't had any answers to my letters in months. Bob Howe wrote that he is coming home and out of the service.

Dick expects to stay in the Pacific for another six months at least. Major Bob Howephoned the other day on his way through toWashington and just back from ETO. Nodoubt he took a quick look at son DavidWinslow Howe, three-months-old husky prospect for Dartmouth '66. Bob's plans are indefinite.

Lt. George Boswell was in a hospital recovering from an arm wound he got while crosses the Po River, Italy. He was with the 10thfountain Division along with Keith AndersonJim Anderson, Kenny Mac Donald andDick White. Jim, Dick, and George wentthrough O.C.S. together at Benning. Jim waswith George in action and received citations0r action on Mt. Belvedere. Master Sgt. Bob Elkins, with the 834 th Eng. Aviation Battalion in Germany received the Croix de Guerre with Gold Star for reconnaissance work in France, and three Bronze Stars to his ETO ribbon for similar work in Germany. Capt. John Litchfield placed fourth in the first Inter-Allied Ski Meet held in Europe since the start of the war. He is also in the 10th Mountain Division.

Bill Remington has been loaned to the Navy Department for special duty as Assistant to the U. S. Minister of Economics in London. What's up, Bill? You majored in sociology!!!

Dick Hobbs was recently commissioned second lieutenant in the Signal Corps O.C.S. at Fort Monmouth. Dick enlisted three years ago and studied radar. Curtis Anderson is also wrestling with the intricacies of radar, having formed his own company, which helped supply the Navy with the "now it can be told" indispensable radar. Curtis is the proud papa of Curtis Charles, now five months old. Haven't any of you fellows had daughters recently? They are getting to be a rarity.

Moreau Brown, as if we didn't know, seems to have been cut out to be an educator. He is now officially Director of Admissions and Publicity at St. Lawrence University.

In the lovelife department, Walt Magee married Phyllis Warren of Maplewood, N. J., on June 30. Bob North, lieutenant in the AAF, married Virginia Williams Dougles of Glenn Brook, Conn., on May 26. Pete Salom, discharged from the Army, is engaged to Colleen Keller of Germantown, Pa. Al Lansberg is engaged to Marion Betts Goodwin of Bloomfield, Conn. Alis a C.P.A., secretary and treasurer of the Hartford Electric and Steel Corporation.

Bob Clymer writes the following interesting letter from France where he is a lieutenant in the Army Medical Corps:

My last bevy of letters arrived in early June and as I was considering answers it was announced that we were going home for a leave before going to the Pacific. With such prospects letter writing was relegated to the past tense, for the flesh is better than the shadow and the voice transcends the pen.

We came out of Germany the usual de luxe way on the forty and eights, and I may say that any difference Between French and German horses is apparent only to the eye. In Rheims we weathered the paper storms attending an army movement and moved to a camp called "Lucky Strike" near Le Havre. A more ill-favored place for vegetating could scarcely be imagined; dust and wind, rain and mud, tents and bugs, waiting and waiting. After three weeks of this, which was to have taken three days, on the day before we were to leave, twelve of us were pulled out; one other and myself to stay here and the rest to units going to CBI.

This is the showplace of the Army Medical Corps in France. Formerly the Hopital Beaujon, it boasts of twelve stories and luxury similar to our best stateside hospitals. It was here that Hitler stayed when in Paris.

I suddenly find myself a gastroenterologist, thereby proving once again the adaptability of the Army. At that, I think we have a pretty crack medical service.

Paris is still the same. In America we have racketeers who quarrel with the police and each other and even on occasion with citizens. Here, everyone has a racket, a concession, some little thing outside his regular work which accounts for a major part of his income. From the maid in the Opera who salvages the long three-quarter burned cigarettes crazy Americans throw away, to the porter in the railway station who deals in hard to get tickets, from the bicycle taxis who charge 700f. for two miles when in good humor, to the hotel keepers who have a well known side-line .... none of them fight each other or the police or the civilians. It's give and take and may the best crook win.

I don't know now when I'll get home. We were supposed to sail from here in October, but now with the whole business about over, the snafus will be too common to mention.

How about giving your new secretary a break by flooding the place with good up-to the-minute news? Falconer turned over a tidy pile of old mail but it's no longer news. Even some of my old standbys have let me down recently. How about that, Daley? Let's hear from you. This is nostalgia season for Hanover and the Big Green.

Note new address for that flood of mail: 102 Park Drive, Cranford, N. J.

One last word about class dues You've all gotten Dusty Rohde's letter so you know what our dues mean. Don't delay, send your four dollars to Dusty as soon as you can.

Secretary, 102 Park Drive, Cranford, N. J.

Treasurer, 50 Fair Oaks, Clayton 17, Mo..