1928
The Silver Star was awarded by the President last month to Col. Norm Costello for gallantry in action in Germany on April 14. The citation accompanying the award said, "Colonel Costello, in command of a combat team which was attacking Gera, Germany, accompanied the assault battalion in its fiercely contested drive into the fanatically defended city. By remaining with the forward elements of his regiment, Colonel Costello so inspired and so ably directed his men that they defeated the enemy quickly and decisively despite the concentration of men and fire power opposing them. Colonel Costello's courageous leadership, aggressive tactics and inspiring de- votion to duty exemplified the highest traditions of the armed forces of the United States."
Norm was serving as commander of the 319 th Infantry Regiment of the 80th Division when the action occurred. The 80th is now at Kaufbeuren, Germany, awaiting decision as to its future.
Lt. Cmdr. Jim Gillard, a Navy surgeon serving with the 6th Marines, was wounded on Okinawa on Easter Sunday. He writes from a Navy hospital in Hawaii:
As you know the landing was easy, but before long the going got tough. I made a necessary jump during an air alert and received a straddle injury. Since then I have been taken for a ridejeep ambulance, battalion aid station, amtrac, LST hospital ship, USS hospital ship, a Mariana Army hospital, a flight to Hawaii in a hospital plane. I am getting along fine—am up and about and expect to be evacuated to the States soon. And will that make me mad! To see my wife and three children after all this seems like a dream.
Jim's home is in Muskegon, Michigan.
Capt. Jack Phelan has been awarded the Air Medal as a result of his nine round trips over the Hump between India and China, the first in our class to win this award, which is rare among land-lubbers. Jack wears on his right chest one of those little blue badges indicating that the Bomb Group with which he served in China-India has received the Distinguished Unit Citation for the first B-29 daylight raid on Yamata on August 29, 1944. Jack did the Intelligence briefing for his group on that mission.
He has since been transferred to Tinian, and wrote on June 30.
Your recent list of overseas addresses got almost immediate results in this area. I received a telephone call two days ago from Horace Brown saying that he had seen my name on the list and inviting me to a dinner meeting of the Dartmouth Club of Tinimanhat, as the Dartmouth Club here is called. The meeting was held at the quarters of Commodore Halloran '19 who is the head of the Club. There were twenty men present—from '19 to '42 or so, and it was a real old Dartmouth party with an excellent steak dinner by courtesy of the U. S. Navy.
Dan Hatch, whom I saw a few weeks ago, has received his promotion to lieutenant colonel. He did not get over to the meeting, but we are going to try to induce Dan and George Buckingham and other Dartmouth men in the same area to find some official business which might bring them over here for the next one.
Dan Hatch Sr. says that Mary Alice and Dan's two daughters, Katherine and Becky, are spending the summer at his country place in the Laurentians, at Lac Marois, fifty miles north of Montreal.
S/Sgt. Herm Schnepel wrote from Saalburg, Germany, that he had received and enjoyed the '28 gift box. His division, the 87th, is reported by the newspapers to be on its way to the States.
Bill Williams is a Radarman 3/c on a tanker in the Pacific, and has been at sea for fifteen months. He was at Okinawa during the invasion of that island.
Major Hank Leach is back in the States after twenty-one months in India. He dropped in at the Chicago Ordnance District to see another officer and bumped into Chuck Davis, who has an important job with Army Ordnance in a civilian capacity. At last report Hank and Jean were in Miami Beach awaiting ank's new orders.
An announcement has just arrived from Peru conveying (in Spanish) the information that Harold Pierce and Mari Diez-Conseco, of Lima, were married there on May 27. Hal is working for Sidney Ross Co. in Lima.
Cpl. Iz Rubin is in India, I have discovered. He left the U. S. March 14 and made the entire trip by air.
It's Lt. Fred Burleigh now. He received a field promotion in the" Philippines from sergeant. He has been in an infantry division for three years, and has been through Guadalcanal and many subsequent campaigns. He writes:
I have been to Manila but the city is so devastated and the Filipinos so sharp that there is little pleasure in going there. The first wave of appreciation for their liberation has worn off and as in most other countries, they are out for all they can get.
For the past few months our Special Service section has been deep in putting over a Combat Rest Camp. We bring the men from the front lines for a three day rest, and then they go back to it. Movies, dances, shows, plenty of ice cream, cocacola, and the other luxuries, including sleeping on a cot in a tent, all do wonders for the men. I get a terrific kick out of seeing them get back a little life during the short time they are here. The battalion here now has slept in tents exactly one week since Jan. 9—all the rest of the time in foxholes. Though the campaign is really over, there are plenty of Japs holed up in caves in the mountains.
No matter how important the business of the day may be, everything stops for a discussion of POINTS with every newcomer. To my sorrow I find that I will probably have to put in another year from the date of my commission. I have 85 perfectly good points going to waste.
Lt. Jack Cook writes:
I've been here in the -New Hebrides for fourteen months and my' prospects are not good that I'll be made available for duty elsewhere in the Pacific. It's a comfortable enough spot—I have a nice tent with ice-box, bar and bar goods, jeep, etc., but I joined the Navy to see the World, and this isn't it. ....Larry Kenney dropped in at our mess hall one day last year when his carrier came through. He's the only classmate I've run across, but Ed Vossler '29 is also attached here—and a lot heavier than he was during his basketball days.
Sam Dennis of the National Housing Administration is on loan to the War Department and is in Europe with the U. S. Strategic Bombing Survey. The number of '28ers overseas now stands at a new high of 68.
Cpl. Harold Fields was discharged early in June, after 33 months in uniform. He has been working in Washington doing research for the Office of Strategic Services. At lunch just before he left town he said that he plans to return to Michigan State College in September as professor of history.
Rupe Thompson, president of the Providence National Bank, was elected president of the Rhode Island State Bankers Association in June.
Recent promotions from Lt. (jg) to Lt.: Charley Scott, Larry Kenney, Roy Carpenter, Hank Walker, Budd Maring and Bob Marshall Lt. Art Kneerim USNR is serving with the 10th Army Civil Affairs Group on Okinawa Lt. Cmdr. Norm Nash is at the Naval Training School (Air Combat Intelli- gence), Quonset Point, R. I.
Secretary, 3427 South Utah St., Arlington, Va. Treasurer, Lewis Historical Pub. Co., Inc. 80-8th Ave., New York, N. Y.
