1938

Room 4823 Navy Dept., Washington, D. C. Florida suddenly seems to have become a sunnier place, what with things happening. My good wife has resigned from the Navy, realizing finally that my own morale is just as important as Admiral Ingram's—and to me. probably more important. For those of you who fear the postwar position of femalesthrowing a lariat, wrestling bales off a steamer, stoking a blast furnace—l can assure you that in my own small experience, here's one chicken who seems content not to run around 53rd street with a gun in one hand and a list of public enemies in the other, and on the whole she seems to have returned to a com- plete state of femininity. Quelle joie! and also "denks Gott."

Comes from Lt. Dick Sherwin aboard aYMS:

To get _ all the way back—after Dartmouth Indoctrination, the Mine Warfare School and a year in Yorktown on one of the school ships, I came aboard while the ship was at Little Creek, Va. In May we were transferred to the Ist Naval District and we shifted from sweeping oysters to killing codfish. I've had command since late in the summer and received the Navy's periodic award for good attendance as of January 1, in the form of the second-half stripe. This winter has been plenty rugged and any one is at liberty to lock me up if they find me near the N. E. coast after Labor Day in the years ro come. We are living in Winthrop, Mass., and the family was augmented on October 25 by Douglas Atherton, who is now a rugged fifteen pounds. Leslie Ann is my chief source of enjoyment ashore and a lot of fun. She can render "son of a gum for da beard" rather haltingly—and when Mother is out of ear-shot. I hear from Charlie Keyes quite regularly. He's still at BuPers. Harry Conner is back from the Pacific and at Quantico. Any word of Ed White, Hull, Mather and the rest of the Wheelock league? Time to see that we are still aimed approximately at Cape Cod. Never too accurate in this league.

From a "beautiful unmentionable island" comes news from Reno: "I spent Christmas Eve with Heinie Beck. He was in good shape and it was good to see him. Warren Flynn also showed up, and several days after, Wright Mallory. Mai has seen a lot of exciting—and trying—action." And from Jake Carey, "Now in a swell job in the Supply Annex of the plant (Naval Ordnance Plant, Indianapolis). I arrived back on the West Coast in November after fourteen months out, second trip. Patty and I are in some very comfortable government quarters just adjoining the plant."

Lt. (jg) promotions to Herb Bayer and John Kindergan. From a Rome, Italy, blurb, "Capt. John Whelden is serving as chief of section with the Press Section of Allied Force Hq., a unit designed to tell the story of the individual soldier in the Mediterranean Theater." And from another, "First Lieutenant Louis Kraft, radar-radio officer for a Marine aircraft group operating in the S.W. Pacific, has been promoted from the rank of second lieutenant. Lt. Kraft has been overseas since last October. Enlisting in the Marine Corps in January '43, he finish his recruit training at Parris Island, then went to Quantico for officers' training. Having had a background of engineering in civil life, he was chosen to attend radar-radio school at Harvard. From there he went to M. I. T. and to Corpus Christi."

Bill McMurtrie (jg) reports in from theNaval Training School at lowa State College:

Since leaving L. A. two years ago I have been officially entered into an entangling alliance with Joanna Hammond of Des Moines, and we have a two-months-old chum, James Russell, to show for our efforts. Was stationed at Great Lakes for over a year and then was transferred here as Asst. O-in-C of the Electrical & Diesel School. About 2,000 Navy boys cavort on the premises and it's harder to keep track of one of them than it has been to weed out. The school here winds up soon, and I hope to nail an overseas billet for a change, but the Bureau's moves are unpredictable on that score.

Johnny Emerson says:

A belated Happy New Year to you and a cordial greeting for St. Swithin's Day which is fast approaching. Aside from saying that it's still rough in the ETO. there is little that the censor allows us to say, but I can give you some little dope on the dim dead past of last summer. But first I ran into Yankauer (Captain CWS) at a lonely outpost with steam heat not too near the Hun. Since he had just received his liquor ration, we managed to have a satisfactory reunion at the night club his unit was running at the time. Then later on I got delayed on a 2,000mile jeep ride at the place where one Lawrence C. Hull III hangs his helmet in sumptuous surroundings. The Hull hospitality was fairly real, as Brownell used to say, and since he kept receiving official and unofficial rations while I was there, it was quite a time. We spent most of the time planning clambakes on the Cape and weekends of debauchery at my farm in Hanover, mixed with the perpetual question of "why the hell doesn't Ed White write?" As you can see I am with that sometimes mythical and always mysterious organization known variously as Civil Affairs and Military Government, which to all but the initiated looks like a good racket. I spent all summer in Normandy as part of Monty's forces, living with, and what is worse, eating with the British Army. I shan't go into boring detail about it, but we came into Normandy along with some of the earliest arrivals, lived very close to the Hun for weeks, and found him a very undesirable neighbor. Living next to a Canadian OP less than a quarter of a mile from the Germans is not conducive to clean and healthy living and results very frequently in getting a prison pallor from inhabiting the lower parts of houses, namely the cellar. Right now we are very comfortably billeted in Belgium, living in private homes and having sheets on the beds, which is a very pleasant life indeed, especially since right now we aren't doing much more than to make it look good, at which I am now an expert. The only drawback is the universal shortage of coal which huddles us around the stove of an evening and does not lead to late hours and other unhealthy habits. Having supplemented my regular amount of John Haig with a private deal with M. Martell by which I acquired a case of his most excellent brandy in exchange for a paltry sum of francs, I am ready for a long winter. I trust that the recent and erroneous report of my promotion did not cause anyone to get drunk needlessly; as you can see I now have twenty-seven months in grade and am still a junior second lieutenant in spite of six recommendations, several letters of commendation, and no end of bitching. Hoping you are the same.

Here's the bite from Charlie Hathaway (Captain) from Italy:

Our Alumni column looks too meagre. Guess I'll try and help you pad it. Remember that '38 was and still is the biggest class, and we should get more space. The classes of '37 and '39 are crowding us too much. So my good readers, open up with some news even if it is about yourself. Personally I never see another Dartmouth man so I'll quote from letters from '38ers and give some news about myself. Can't see why anyone would be interested, but I'll try to set an example for you others. Capt. George Dana wrote from France. He's with the good General Patton's forces in France. When I last saw him he was a civilian and I was an optimistic T/5. We were both well off and didn't know it. Had a letter from Dick Higbee. He is likewise in Patton's outfit, as an ordnance man. He left school and became an accountant. I left school (Tuck '39) with him, and went to work for Goodrich where I roamed around a service, station selling tires, pumping gasoline, repairing cars, etc. Came the war. I end up in the Finance Dept. and Dick ends up chasing tanks around in Louisiana or somewhere. So now I'm pushing a pencil and he's roaming around repairing tanks and causing someone to pump gas and repair tires. I was around Bizerte and Mateur for a year.

BEAMING AT THE GOOD NEWS of a trip home, Capt. Bob Alpert '39 is shown at his base overseas just before he left for the USA on leave after two years' service in North Africa, Italy and India.

Secretary, CAPT. 41 Fifth Ave., New York, N. Y.

Treasurer,:

ANNUAL NEW YORK DINNER, APRIL 26 HOTEL PENNSYLVANIA AT 6:30 P.M.