'Round the Girdled Earth
Letters from Dartmouth Men in the Armed Forces
LIEUT. MILBURN McCARTY JR. '55, USMCR, Combat Correspondent withMarine Aviation, wrote me an interestingletter dated January 2, 1945, from somewhere in the Philippines. I pass it along toyou.
Yesterday, New Year's Day, I received the first DARTMOUTH ALUMNI MAGAZINE I've seen for many a month. The pictures of snowy scenes and football plays brought back many fond memories, contrasted as they were with the pressing humidity and soupy mud-holes of this Philippine countryside.
I've been with Marine Aviation on this second tour, and have covered much more ground than when I was with Marine Inf antry. Have flown some 20,000 miles during the last four months, hitting such spots as Hawaii, Midway, Funafuti, Santos, Guadalcanal, Bougainville, Emirau, Green Island, Manus, Hollandia, Owi, Palau, and here.
We ran into a little trouble just before arriving in the Philippines when we were bracketed by ack-ack from some of our warships, but since being here it hasn't been so tough, at least for our unit. The Japs had a much weaker hold on the Philippines than I had expected, and they are losing ground fast to our tremendously overwhelming power and machinery. They still, however, stage planes from somewhere up above, and bomb our own strips with just enough inaccuracy to keep all the American camps on edge. And we still, of course, haven't run up against the real Jap army.
One pleasant innovation for us Marines is the fact that for the first time in Pacific warfare we are operating within hitchhiker's distance of towns and civilization. Several of us went to a local dance the other night which featured printed formal invitations and the request that we wear neckties! Hardly like Bougainville or Guadalcanal. We even have a WAC company camped nearby, with a commanding officer Captain Blanche Cline who is the sister of Al Cline '35.
The woods are full of war correspondents, generals of from one to five stars, and even a president. The last, President Sergio Osmena of the Philippines, received a group of us at his temporary headquarters the other day.
Our pilots are daily ranging from one end of the Philippines to the other shooting down planes, routing Jap convoys, blowing up airstrips and locomotives, and raising hell with the enemy in general. In oft hours they vary life by hunting crocodiles in Army "ducks," training cocks for local cock fights, adopting baby rhesus monkeys which cling to them with all the affection (and problems) of one-year old babies, and making friends with the families in town. It is not unusual, when visiting a Philippine home, to be introduced to a couple of guerrillas just returned from harrowing missions to Manila.
Dartmouth men, of course, continue to crop up everywhere you go. Attending one of Mac Arthur's press conferences shortly after I arrived I ran into Dick Krolik '41, an Army captain with public relations of GHQ. With Krolik that evening was Major George Rand '19, of the Hanover furniture Rands and now an intelligence major with an Army fighter group. They told me of several other Dartmouth men in this theater: Captain John Twist '41, armament officer with an Army bomb group; First Lieutenant Harvey Yorke '39, an Army PRO with a bomber outfit, and Army Captain Bob Schuette '42, who has been serving with a troop carrier squadron.
Visiting Manus not long ago I stumbled full and unexpectedly into Billy Knibbs '34, who is intelligence officer for a Navy PV squadron. Knibbs, with typical Alpha Delt operational finesse, was in such thorough command of the local situation that he was able to invite me to a cocktail party, get me a date for the evening (Army nurse), and arrange a special ride on a PV the next morning back to my base. Knibbs, last I heard, was en route to the Philippines himself.
While at Bougainville several months back I got together with Al Keenan '35, Paul Guibord '36, Ed Burge '31, and Jim Feeley '39. Keenan is a captain with Army infantry; Guibord a Navy air intelligence officer; Burge a doctor serving with Marine Aviation; and Feeley C.O. of a Marine dive bomber squadron. Lieutenant Henry Charles Whitaker '37, Lt. Louis M. Kraft '38, and Captain Kenelm W. Hershel '38 were also reported to be in or near Bougainville, all with the Marines.
Last time I was in Honolulu, Fitz Donnell '35 and I attended a very pleasant Dartmouth party given by Mr. Jerry Mann, a leading Hawaiian citizen who recently had a son finish at Dartmouth. There were Dartmouths all over the house and adjoining lawns, including Jerry Cooley '37, Jerry Spingarn '35, Doctor A. W. Duryea '21, Judge Frank McLaughlin '30, and Bill Kempf and Bob Stone, both '35.
Since all of us around here seem to be headed towards Manila, we can hope, before long, to have a fair-sized Hanover representation in the Philippine capital city. Maybe, after things are secured in that area, we can get together and have a tropical version of a Dartmouth Winter Carnival somewhere along the beaches around Manila Harbor.
LIEUTENANT JOHN W. COOK '43,army fighter pilot, writes a cheerful letteron January 12 from the South Pacific.
It has been quite some time since I last wrote you and I've done a lot of travelling since that time. I find that George Rand is now a Major in the 49th Fighter Group, which happens to be Major Bong's outfit.
I ve run into quite a few Dartmouth men the last few months in various places. I was in the hospital from the end of September, until about a week ago, resulting from a crash I was in. However, during that time I spent over a month in Australia on leave. In the hospital I met a Van Antwerp '36 of Milwaukee and a Richard Lane '36 KKK (I think that Richard is his name). He was a medical officer with the 503 rd Parachute Infantry, but he has been sent home since. Then down in Brisbane I ran into Lt. (jg) Jack Tobin '42, Lt (jg) Jim "Gutz" Curtis '43, Lt. Joe Palamountain '42, Capt. Chet Ray '42, and Lt. (jg) Larry Thompson '41. Tobin and Curtis are both on subs and I had a great time with them. It certainly is a great feeling to see fellows you knew back in the States.
On returning to the hospital up in the Dutch East Indies I contracted a sinus infection which kept me hospitalized until a week ago, when I flew on up here "somewhere in the Philippines" to rejoin the squadron. I am going to start flying again, so I think.
Things have cooled down a lot around here and as we have a good camp area, we are fairly well off. The weather is much cooler so far than it was down in New Guinea, although it seems to rain quite a bit. The Filipinos are rather 'clean and more intelligent than the natives of New Guinea. They do our laundry and odd jobs around the camp area.
The squadron has done great work in shooting down planes, sinking ships, and causing general destruction. We've got over 140 planes now which is fairly good.
I am enclosing a Jap invasion bill which you may be interested in seeing. The resemblance to our money is marked.
LIEUTENANT CHARLES H. SEWALL '35, USNR, writes again from theSouth Pacific.
I was most pleased to receive your letter written Christmas Eve, and rather touched that you took time out on that night to write. I think, more than anyone else who has written, you knew how we felt. I haven't had time to go to church services since July, but on Christmas Sunday I made the time, and went twice. A Quonset Hut had been converted rather attractively into a chapel—complete with altar, kneeling rail, and small steeple, and over 400 men crowded into the building at both services. A fine, down-to-earth sermon and carols in the morning, and in the evening a special candle-light carol service with communion. One of the most impressive sights I've ever seen was that of 400 men singing carols so that the rafters shook and again when every man present waited two hours for communion. We don't talk much about the things that we feel, but the loneliness and homesickness were evident that evening. There was a reverence and a solemnity that somehow couldn't be reached by the same men back in the states. Some of the officers and men at this air base tried to by-pass Christmas entirely with the help of mountain dew, but I feel that they missed something, for the spirit of Christmas did not skip the men that looked for it. Christmas Day there was no let-up in work, but there was a fine (for this island) dinner—roast turkey with all the fixins, two kinds of pie, and ice cream. It wasn't quite like the dinners at home, but it made a lot of men happier.
An interesting and humorous letter from my good friend, Doc Meneely, came yesterday. It seems that most of the letters he has received about his new job as president of Wheaton came from the classes of '35 and '36. Upon hearing this fact, Al Foley remarked that the Doc must have reached the peak of his career then, and has been going downhill ever since. That convinces me Foley hasn't changed. He must be quite a Dartmouth legend by now —I chuckle every time I think of his imitations of the old librarian and the Mississippi steamboat captain. And of course as long as Foley draws breath Dean Craven will still live.
My operations division of 4 officers and over a hundred men has settled down to routine except for the usual emergencies, and quite a few of us are getting bored. I'm ready and almost eager for a new campaign in spite of the accompanying hell. In a couple of days I'm flying down to an island south of here to see if a few strings can be tugged slightly.
Again, Herb, thanks for writing. I'd give a lot to be able to roll around in some snow, but would no doubt die of pneumonia my blood is as thin as a wartime steak from nearly two years in hot weather.
