1928
Col. Norm Costello was promoted to Chief of Staff of General Patton's Third Army in February.
Cpl. Herm Schnepel of the same army sent a picture, which the censor held up three weeks, of himself taken in Luxemburg. He and his assistant have traveled in their jeep across Southern England, northern France, Luxemburg, Belgium, and have been in Germany since January.
Herm, and Lt. Bill Monaco, who is the officer in charge of a training center for tank operators in , India, were the first ones to get their Alumni Fund contributions in this year. If they can get their money up in February, you. ought to be able to mail yours now.
Major Dan Hatch's name was omitted fromthe list of overseas '28ers in last month's notes.I am obliged to Dan Sr. '15, for the information that he is with the Bomber Commandwhich has been strafing Tokio and other Japanese cities so vigorously since last fall.
Lanky Langdell is our eleventh lieutenantcolonel. His promotion on February 1 climaxes a rapid series of promotions since hisinduction as a private thirty-two months earlier. Writing from Headquarters of the Army, then in Holland, Lanky says:
Capt. Clint Goodwin, a JAG officer in an Air Corps installation nearby, dropped in the office recently. Our visit was short but we hope to extend it soon. In all probability Herm Schnepel and I have been within one hundred yards of each other at one time or another without knowing it. I shall try to locate him soon. Life goes on in pretty much routine fashion for me. I haven't changed organizations since I left California in December 1943. We're busy as hell and have been. We have four lawyers in the office doing nothing but prosecuting our cases and I learned the other day that one of them, a lieutenant, was Dartmouth '32. He saw me reading the ALUMNI MAGAZINE. Fortunately we're blessed with some damned good enlisted help, four of whom are capable lawyers.
Life in Holland hasn't been bad, though pretty hum-drum. I have a nice hotel for quarters. We have our own mess at the hotel, with Dutch cooks and waiters, who do a remarkable job with the GI rations. Believe it or not they can maice an omelet with powdered eggs taste fresh, and by now I wouldn't know what milk tasted like, so can consume the powdered variety with some degree of relish.
Bob Reed is now a major and back in this country, stationed at the headquarters of a technical service command in New Jersey, where he represents the Air Transport Command on questions of supply for several theatres of war. He savs:
I spent about two years in India, China and Burma with the ATC, the last year of which was spent at Calcutta, where I was expediting all of the supplies that came into that port for the ATC. Lots of interesting experiences, flying over the Hump and in the various jungle sections of Burma and India which I will be glad to tell you about if we can meet after this war. No special decorations except a Presidential Citation and the usual campaign ribbons.
Lt. Comdr. Al Kitts, just back from the Pacific after thirty-four months with the Marine Division, writes:—
It was good to put on the blue again after thirty-four months with my Marine Division. I went out with the original division in late spring of 1942 and got back in April 1944. They're not only as good as they're cracked up to be—they're better. I'm proud to have been a part of the outfit. The last show I was in was the New Britain campaign. Flew back to New York from Cape Gloucester via hitch-hiking Army bombers (one B-25 named "Philly Philbert" giving the first ride then by obliging Royal Australian Air Force "cobbers" to Brisbane, where an old friend, and reliable agent, thrust a Pan-Am clipper ticket at me and TWA dropped me into New York to make me the "subway commando" that I am today.
Al, a surgeon, is at Headquarters of the 3rd Naval District, 90 Church St., New York.
Lt. Boice Gross is assistant to the Chief of Staff, U. S. Atlantic Fleet, serving on a battleship.
Lt. Bill Whaley is an air combat officer on an escort carrier in the Pacific.
Lt. Comdr. Arnold Van Benschoten is due to graduate in May from the Civil Affairs Training School at the University of Michigan, after a six-months' grind. Marion has been there with him.
After more than two years in Cuba, Lt. George Boughton has been transferred to the Construction Battalion Replacement Depot, Shoemaker, Calif.
Lt. Dick Foote, LCI skipper for almost two years and veteran of the Italian and French invasions, is back in the States for duty at Amphibious Training Atlantic, NOB, Norfolk, Va.
Skip Drayton has been transferred, and his new address is: Lt. C. I. Drayton, (censored) FPO, San Francisco.
I dropped in to see Art Hassell at his new office at the Arlington Annex on March 10, which happened to be the day he learned of his spot promotion to lieutenant commander.
The Bureau of Medicine and Surgery has given me the latest addresses of four '28 surgeons:
Lt. Comd. Sam Bassett is at Fleet Air West Coast, Naval Air Station, San Diego, after a tour of duty on the carrier USS
Lt. Willis Mitchell is at the Naval Dispensary, Long Beach, Calif., after a year in England with a Seabees battalion. Lt. Comdr. Jim Gillard has gone out with a Marine Division, FPO, San Francisco.
Lt. Comdr. Bob Nespor is with LST GroupFPO, New York.
The class is sending a Schrafft's gift box to our sixty members known to be overseas. Twenty boxes have already been sent to the Navy, Coast Guard and Marine '28ers. But before the boxes to the Army men will be accepted at the post office, it will be necessary to have at least a one-sentence request for each man. Each Army man was asked via airmail a month ago to send me such a request. If you haven't received my letter, please write me anyway.
Anyone who can is urged to attend the New York Alumni Dinner at the Hotel Pennsylvania, April 26, at 6:30 P.M. Bruce Lewis is on the class attendance committee.
LOOKS LIKE NEW HAMPSHIRE but it's really a Luxembourg town before which S/Sgt. Herm Schnepel '28 (left), his jeep and interpreter are posed. Schnepel has seen quite a bit of Germany on Patton's tour.
Secretary';. 3427 South Utah St., Arlington, Va.
Treasurer, Lewis Historical Pub. Co., Inc. 80-Bth Ave., New York, N. Y.
