1939
It occurs to me' at this writing and upon looking over the files of the class secretary which have accumulated over the past few years, that a tremendous amount of time and energy have been expended in keeping your various secretaries informed. First there was Bob Gibson who carried out the duties of our elected class secretary and then came acting secretaries Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4—Dick Jackson, Bob Dickgiesser, Bob Falconer and now Hirschland. All of us and I'm sure I'm speaking for Moreau Brown too, have depended so heavily on your letters which never failed to arrive in time, often from the remote and battle-torn areas of the world. In true keeping with the Dartmouth family spirit however, I discovered that in addition to your letters there are countless letters from your wives, parents and relatives in our files each enclosing some interesting bit of news concerning you. To these faithful Dartmouth followers, the interested relatives who have done such an exemplary job for Dartmouth and for our class, we express our thanks for having kept us informed and for having forwarded our material to your man of the class of '39. We hope you will continue to write us.
Recently promoted in rank, Lt. Comdr. Herman Funke is stationed at the U.S. Naval Air Facility, Weeksville, Elizabeth City, N. C. Funke who is a veteran of five years' service in the Navy has since 1943 been attached to lighter-than-air service. News was received that Dick Johnson arrived in New York during August from Italy. He was seriously wounded while serving with the 10th Mountain Division and had been in a rest camp for several months. Sam Lawton recently received his majority after having completed two years of overseas duty in the Central Pacific area. Lt. Bob Sullivan, commanding officer of the minesweeper U.S.S. YMS-39 was rescued following destruction of his ship in the Balikpapan area off the coast of Borneo. Bob escaped with minor injuries. Lt. Dick Wyman reported recently for duty at the San Francisco Port of Embarkation. T/5 Herb Furlow should be an officer by now having entered O.C.S. at Fort Sill, Okla., not so long ago.
Pardon the digression but here's a word of explanation as received from Dusty Rohde concerning our all important class dues. As you probably all know, the dues first of all pay for the Alumni Magazine. We need 100% subscription from our entire class in order to get our individual subscriptions to the Alumni Magazine for the reduced rate of $1.25 per year instead of $3. With the balance of the dues we pay all class expenses incurred during the year and equally as important,—add to the class fund which has already been started and will represent our 25th anniversary gift to the College. Our goal for this gift is $25,000. That's the disposition of your $4.
Some news which Dusty sent along con- cerned Bert MacMannis who was seeing lots of action aboard a carrier the last few months of the war; Bill Webster who was still putting Curtiss planes through their spin tests at Columbus, Ohio, having recently qualified for the Caterpillar Club by making his first jump; Hank White who was in the Pacific on a crash boat having been transferred from Florida, and Dusty himself who informed me of the birth of his daughter last February.
Events recently recalled the fact that we saw Jack Field in Akron, Ohio, not too long ago. Jack was working as a rubber chemist for B. F. Goodrich Cos. Also ran into Dud Richards who was working for the Bureau of Mines at the time.
I have received reports of only two trips down the aisle for the class this month. Baibara Campbell was the' September bride 0 Bud Griswold. His wedding took place in ICennebunkport, Maine, a fitting setting for exchanging vows. Capt. Ralph Reynolds of the US Army Medical Corps returned from the European theater the first part of August and married Jean Hill of Alexandria Bay, N. Y., on the 19th o£ August.
The letter of the month came from Lt. Ray Merrick. It was a welcome note after such a Jong delay. The following paragraphs are quoted from Ray's letter:-
This crew just received their first delivery of first class mail in six months; in that huge pile I found two Dartmouth ALUMNI MAGAZINES.
My service has included ten months' duty in the Supply Dept. of Boston Navy Yard, five months at the Supply Corps School, Wellesley Branch, and then received my assignment to put this ship m.S.S. Lubbock APA 197) into commission at Astoria, Oregon. Spent three months waiting for the crew to form at the APA Pre-Commissioning School, Seattle, Wash., and then joined the ship at Astoria in October '44. At that time the Navy was pushing out the APA's as fast as they could gather the crews together. We went to sea with a 95% green crew, and many of the officers were greener than the greenest crew, but a fine group of men, and a brave hard working crew slowly developed. I say slow, but when you consider that we were in action within four months after commissioning, it was really pretty fast.
Our service in the war from the viewpoint of an outsider would be considered varied and interesting. From the inside we could say differently, but I won't go into the gripes and grumbles of a guy that has been out here in this heat and boredom so long. Our first job was to train the sth Marine Division in the Hawiian Islands, and then to carry them to Saipan and from there to Iwo Jima. We were the first group of Attack Transports to land assault troops on the island in the first waves on D-Day. For ten days we were within a stone's throw of the island watching that gigantic show. It was the men from our ship that assaulted the mountain and planted the flag on the summit. My station was battery officer of the forward guns, and I had an unrestricted view of the whole show. During that ten-day period I saw all the amphibious warfare I ever want to see again, even though my job was comparatively safe and simple. We were shelled, bombed, smothered in smoke every night.
Of Dartmouth men I have heard much, but seen very few. Bruce Gillie was at Seattle when I was there, but I never got to see him. I did bump into Carl Lee, and was best man at his wedding in Seattle; a rush affair because he had to go out to sea again. Like all Navy men I can't wait to get out of uniform and back to my family and see what it is like to live as a civilian again.
Incidentally Ray enlisted along with Ed Wakelin and Lou Oldershaw hack in FebruJI7 '43.
Secretary, ] 102 Park Drive, Cranford, N. J Treasurer, : 50 Fair Oaks, Clayton 17, Mo.
