1939
We've got lots of good mail and lots of ground to cover this month, so without any further preamble well hit right into the mail bag.
Without a doubt, the letter of the month was written by Phil Sanborn who described in detail his arduous life as a prisoner of war of the Japs from the time of the fall of Corregidor to the day of liberation, February 4, 1945. I can't describe or in any way do justice to Phil's letter in the limited space of these notes, but the letter is being forwarded to the editors of the ALUMNI MAGAZINE for possible inclusion as a feature article at some later date.
A civilian once more after three and a half years, John R. Graham writes from Villa Nova, Pa., that he is enjoying-his new status pending settlement in an outlying county as a member of the bar Also from the Keystone State, Capt. Ernest H. Heydt Jr. keeps us posted on his last two years in the Medical Corps. He was in the same class of young medical officers as "Moose" Dudis and Bud Pratt. After England and the Normandy Beach, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Holland and Germany, he wound up across the Elbe from the Russians at Magdeburg trying to save as many of the survivors of Belsen as possible. Then to Marseilles from which port he was to sail to the pacific with no leave in the States. At this point, Japan gave up and Ernie came home.
Jim Corner is in Wilmington, Del., at an Experimental Station o£ DuPont. Jim married Doris Hayes last January and they have an eye out to settling down in a custom-made community that's still in blueprints. At the October 6th game with Penn, he reports seeing Tony Hunsicker in the next row. Opinion on all sides seemed to acknowledge Dartmouth's great showing down at Franklin Field. Jim's letter went on, "Bob Schill was in the Pacific on the Wisconsin for about 13 months and has recently returned to his wife and baby. Ernie Smith has been doctoring for the Navy on something called the Zebra. On V-J Day, he Was about to put out again in spite of the lack 0£ potential casualties. His wife has been in England nursing the Army. As Ernie put it, when he was in Iwo Jima and Dorothy was in England, the only way for them to get further apart was to go up in balloons. We heard from Jack Stewart when he was in Baltimore, but failed to get together. Do you know where he is? Cleve Spillers wrote recently as he was leaving Europe to go to Arkansas and be discharged. Cleve's boy is two and he hasn't seen him yet. That's all the news from here."
A news item concerning the sinking o£ a minesweeper off o£ Balikpapan, Borneo, features Lt. Robert M. Sullivan, the Commander. Half the ship's officers and men were blown overboard by the explosion of a Japanese mine. Five men were lost, and the rest were rescued after an hour and a half spent in the water 1500 yards from a Jap held beach. None of the survivors was seriously hurt.
The Louis Bradley's have a third childtheir second girl. Lt. Harold MacGilpin married Jeanne Staples in Scranton, Pa., on October 6th with Duke Lyon and Bob Dickgiesser helping out as ushers. Mac is now living at Newport, R. I., having returned from duty in the Pacific aboard a destroyer. Besides winning himself a wife, Mac was awarded the Bronze Star as a result of his activities against the Japs. Duke Lyon and wife added another prospective Dartmouth man to the family seven weeks ago. Lt. Horton Wainwright was last seen heading for the West Coast for possible Pacific duty. Capt. Don Wheaton expects to be discharged from the Marine Corps early in December and will be back at work at the old job in New York City at the Central Hanover Bank.
Lt. David S. Smith USNR, just returned from active duty for two and one half years in the Pacific and is engaged to June Noble of New York. Victor Whitlock Jr., a veteran of the Canadian army is engaged to Linda Bolte of Greenwich, Conn.
On the calendar this month, your secretary took in the Yale-Dartmouth game at New Haven on November 3. In the stands, Les Graves sat in the row behind us and Bill Goodman was two rows in front of us. Bob Dickgiesser was there and reports he saw Lt. Howie Chivers and John Perry. After the game, Bob was host at a '39 get-together including Duke Lyon, Ted Wolfe, Lou Bradley, Mac MacGilpin, Jack Cathcart, Lt. Walt Darby Jr- and their wives, and Don Wheaton and Bill Cunningham. With four or five years between visits, it must have been some session.
Just after the last column, Jean and I took a weekend oft and made a quick trip to Hanover. It looked pretty much the same, and all In fall colors. The weather was unseasonably balmy. We sought out Wyman Vaughn in the Chemistry building and had a long talk. He mentioned that he heard Ed Hammel was working in Los Alamos presumably on something to do with the atomic bomb. The Inn was crowded, but only one '39'er was under the old sign "Dartmouth's In Town Again," and he had just checked out. That was Lt. Don Reho. We stayed at the Blue Shutter where another 'gg'er was registered—Lt. Com. Kalaidjian. Indications seem to be that Hanover is going to be bulging at the seams with returning vets plus wives and the usual new students. We saw a show in Webster Hall but it wasn't like* the Old Nugget even though Mr. Barwood was there to sell tickets. The Navy hasn't mastered the art of extemporaneous commentary that all undergraduates learned at the Nugget. But Dan RicJferdson '41, was on the porch of the Inn Tanzi's was doing a flourishing business The Bema is starting to grow up again after its exposure in the '37 hurricane. .... Baker still sounds the same The air is the same and not at all like New Jersey. To wind this up here is some advance formation on the status of class reunions. A very ambitious plan for reunions is being worked out by a special committee in Hanover in conjunction with the class reunion chairmen (I've been handling this while vainly trying to determine who our reunion chairman is supposed to be). Preliminary dates have been ar- ranged subject to possible cancellation; how- ever, the probability of cancellation seems slight at the moment. The reunion won't be a sure thing until sometime in March, but lots of plans will have to be made before then. In a nutshell, here are the plans. The so-called sth Reunion Group made up of the Classes '3B, '39, '4O and '4l will have their reunions the weekend of July 12th and 13th. We expect this will be a big affair and any ideas you might have concerning entertainment, banquet, picnic, etc., will be most welcome. You'll all hear lots more about this soon.
By the time most of you read this, it will be Christmas and New Years, so Merry Christmas and let's hope we'll all get together in the New Year.
Secretary, 102 Park Drive, Cranford, N. J.
Treasurer, 50 Fair Oaks, Clayton 17, Mo.
