Eastern Pennsylvania
YOUR SECRETARY RECEIVED a swell letter from our president, Lt. (jg) Bud Erdman '37, now in the Far East. We quote portions of the letter as follows:
Here we are on a long voyage across the Pacific to Guam with a load of Marines and Navy personnel. We had the good fortune to get back to the West Coast early in August for about twenty days during which time I managed to get six days leave. I took a chance and with good cooperation on the part of TWA made a flying trip to Reading for three days. It was great to be with my family again for even that short time after having been gone eleven months.
When I left home I packed half a dozen ALUMNI MAGAZINES in my bag, and now have been having fun reading them from cover to cover. I'm glad to see that you are keeping the news flowing from Eastern Penna. to Hanover. Also saw Andy Marshall's picture in his class notes of one of the issues. Now that gas rationing has finally ceased, meetings will be a possibility again. I hope that my release will come through around the first of the year and that I'll soon be attending a meeting of our Alumni Association, perhaps in the Duck Room where we have had some mighty good times. We are all going to miss Johnny Mullen, a great fellow. I hope there aren't any more from our group.
This ship I'm serving on as Communications Officer is an Attack Transport of 12,000 tons which carries troops, cargo, and twenty-six landing craft. It is very good duty and I feel lucky to have Sotten this billet. Since being commissioned (the ship) last November we have traveled over 50,000 miles covering most of the Pacific.
Have met Dartmouth men in such places as Milne_ Bay, New Guinea, Pearl Harbor, and Tulagi in the Solomon Islands. We were in at Okinawa on April 1 and landed some of the Sixth Marine Division on Green Beach 2. I've never seen so many ships as were concentrated there during the first few days of the operation, jhe size of the Pacific fleet is tremendous. I have no doubts that if the Japs hadn't given up when they did we would soon be landing troops right near Tokyo. We are all glad that the operation is never going to take place, for you never know when a Kamikaze will drop down out of a cloud and give you a KO before you get a shot at him.
The meeting Bud mentioned is still in our thoughts only, but we hope something concrete will materialize within the next two months.
