1929
Phil Mayher, Lt. USNR, attached to an Air Support Control Unit of the Pacific Fleet wrote November 17:
Just before we all shoved off for Leyte I was aboard a CVE and ran smack into Bob Lyle standing rigidly at attention awaiting the departure of his Admiral from the ship. I finally caught on not too quickly and after this ceremony had been dispensed with, Bob relaxed and called Norm Bankart, who is a squadron ACI officer on the same ship. Bob is flag lieutenant for the Admiral aboard and also has several collateral duties which I gathered keeps him out of mischief. They are the first 29ers I have seen out here and fortunately we were all able to have dinner together aboard our ship and then on to a staff party we were having at the Officers' Club that night. Odd as it may seem after a few rounds we had a bit of singing and discovered a dark horse in Bankart who apparently had been kept under wraps at Hanover. Both Bob and Norm are looking fit and although we were all a bit worse for wear as the result of the evening's activity, we had a hell of a lot of fun together. The operation at Leyte was some- what more rugged for those of us afloat than previous operations because of larger and more frequent air attacks and the first major sea action uncomparably close to our amphibious landing operations. When our part of the job had been completed and we cleared out, we were all very, very thankful.
From Carl Norden on the letterhead of United States-Political Adviser, Allied Force Headquarters, dated November 20, 1944:
I was assigned to Algiers last April, on the staff of 'Bob' Murphy at AFHQ, and after a pleasant and interesting month in that then crowded metropolis went on to Bari, Italy, to try to keep tabs on events in Southeastern Europe and to represent Ambassador Murphy at the Balkan Air Force H.Q., which controls operations the other side of the Adriatic, especially such matters as "dropping" of supplies to the various resistance movements. My doings were somewhat handicapped by a siege of amoebic dysentery during the summer, but it has been as interesting an assignment as one can hope for on the civilian side of the war, with opportunity to meet many of the daring and fast thinking people.
The following ten lines or so were deleted by the censor.
From Staff Sergeant Ben Scales under date of December 27, 1944:
Somewhere Along the Ledo Road, Assam, India This is to thank you and the class for the splendid photograph case which I received on schedule for Christmas. The man who made the choice knew his stuff. It is compact, copiously compartmented and commensurate to the space available. There is not a GI here who has not eyed it with envy. It is a good feeling we have when we know that we are not forgotten out here on this so-called "forgotten front" at the end of the line. Christmas was not so bad here,, although that empty feeling, in the pit of the stomach, the twanging of the heartstrings (in the key of B Flat, I think mine were) and the tightness of the throat as the old carols were sung was hardly avoidable. We managed a reasonably' exact facsimile of Christmas here with a ,wet (inside and out) Christmas Eve with the monthly beer ration saved for the occasion, aided and abetted by Bull Fight Brandy, Fighter Brand Whiskey and Lily Brand Gin, all products of the Assam Distilling Co., specialists in importable beverages. Many is the toast tossed to next year in Shangri-La, knowing full well that we are here for a hell of a longer time than that. Decorating the Mess Hall with local natural growths and Woolworth Special. Service paper dinguses,, visiting the hospital to cheer our lads a bit and a presentable Christmas meal of canned turkey and all the fixings all contributed to a good day. Give my regards to any of the lads who show in your vicinity and tell them that I had to come all the way to India for an American Indian to tell me the bawdy meaning of Wah-Hoo-Wah in the Indian translation. To repeat it here would mean censorship for the use of obscene language. If the students only knew what they were saying when they gave forth from the 30-yard line. Wow!!
Art Rydstrom, Commander USNR who has been chairman of the Maritime Commission Price Adjustment Board has recently returned to civilian status after a serious break in his health from which he has now recovered. Returning to his first love, the Bankers Trust, he has just been elected a vice president.
Lt. Levon Nahigian reports that he has been moving around quite a bit, having travelled 10,000 miles in the last three months, in connection with his assignment in the Prisoner-of-War branch of the Army.
Charlie Goldsmith writes: Am still with OWI plugging away. The interest in the job is always sustained and there is now no doubt what a powerful job motion pictures can do when properly used. Our work has had some mighty good results abroad and American pictures have been most welcome and extremely useful in those liberated countries which have been blacked out from the outside world these past few years. Our specially edited newsreels and news reviews are devoured by those news-hungry peoples, anxious to see what has been going on in civilization since their own doors were locked in their faces—with them on the inside in a vacuum. This is all part of psychological warfare as well as an informational operation and its effectiveness has been terrific. The Army and Navy even think so and that's a high compliment.
Trunkie Brittan received a letter recentlyfrom Bill Keyes telling him that he wasaboard the USS , a baby flat-top whichtook part in the Philippine battle.
Ed Phelps, Lt. USNR, has been revelling inthe joys of a thirty-day leave at home inQuechee, Vt. For the past year he has beenserving as communication officer on freightersin the North Atlantic with many trips toEngland and several to the Mediterranean.
Jim Hodson has just been appointed by theGovernor of Washington to fill a vacancy onthe Kings County Superior Court Bench. Being a Judge is nothing new for Jim, however. having been Judge of the Seattle Municipal Traffic Court for several years. Just before Jim's elevation to the Superior Courtwas announced, came a letter from his Honor:
I went East for the conventions of the American Bar Association and the National Safety Council, both of which were held in Chicago, and, during the two weeks intervening, had a chance to visit municipal courts in Kansas City, Detroit, Cleveland, and a number of other cities in an effort to pick up ideas that would be helpful to me in handling my job. In Chicago, John and Mildred Clements entertained me most royally and I also saw Blyth Adams, now an investigator for the U. S. Treasury Department in San Francisco, who happened to be visiting his parents for a few days in Evanston. This particular gathering was known as the "Convention of former Roommates of John Clements." In Cleveland a memorable evening was spent with George and Kay Case and with Chilcote, Fisher and Sprankle, the latter three being members of the clan which we licked so decisively (or does memory fail me) in the 1926 football rush. A day or two later, at the Dartmouth Club in New York, I had lunch with Weidenmayer, Hodge, Stokes, Hubbard and Blair, and in Detroit, on the return trip, had a great time with Nelson and Margaret Ranney, '3O. Dick Robin was in town recently. His company has done so well in supplying the armed forces with hypodermic needles, syringes, and sundry other instruments of torture, that he is now a salesman again, his company having returned to production for civilian use (adv.). For the last couple of years Dick's time has been spent apologizing to civilian customers for not being able to supply them and he says his selling technique has suffered as- a result. Me, I doubt it. Helen Parrott is living with her parents in Seattle while Polly serves as an air combat intelligence officer on a carrier in the Pacific. She reports that he was recently flown from his carrier to another on some kind of mission and when he landed on the deck he was greeted by Bob Lyle. He has also had a small reunion somewhere in the Pacific with Norm Bankart. Small World.
ABOUT TO TAKE OFF in his jeep, Lt. Richard Barnard '30 pauses to have his picture taken at Head- quarters, Army Service Forces Training Center, Camp Ellis, Ill
Secretary, 75 Federal St., Boston, Mass.
Treasurer, Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn 383 Madison Ave., New York, N. Y.
