1951
The grand old bells of Christmas are still jingling very faintly in some of our ears as Uncle Sam's March 15 knock becomes louder and louder. This Christmas brought many swell messages from all of you which we appreciate very much. It's impossible to mention them all here but let us begin by mentioning a few of the servicemen in the Minneapolis area home for the holidays.
Bob McCraney and wife Betty pulled in from the West Coast for Christmas, as did Dick McFarland from the Air Force in Texas. Unfortunately, we didn't see either of these lads although heard much about them from Bill McFadden, with the Marines, who has just returned from Korea. Bill looks swell and told of many of the fellows he had seen along the way. He says Mo Monahan was wounded; however, not seriously, and is now recuperating with a few football exercises in Hawaii. There were many more from all the surrounding classes, from '04 to '54, at the wonderful Holiday get-together. To complete the hottest news of the moment in this area, Walter (theWhale) Bush, takes the spotlight along with
his wife, who just bore an 8 lb. baby boy. Congratulations, Walter and Mary. Before we ramble too far afield, let's give a toast to Bob Hirschman, who has taken up Frank Smallwood's post as Newsletter editor, and has just come up with a fine first edition. Before we get too departmentalized and go into the routines of engagements, marriages, servicemen and the like, let's just ramble. George Biggs hits us in both eyes this month, as George, we note, was fortunate enough to be in Hanover just before Christmas, and also has been recently awarded his Master of Music degree or should we say Master of Music and Theory, at the University of Rochester. It is rumored that George will be leading the Banjo Chorus at the fifth reunion at any rate, we hope so. Billy Leshure knew he could one day reach football fame even though he had to journey to Stuttgart, Germany, to do so. Bill has just completed a full season as regular halfback on the Military Post football team in Stuttgart. He is a technician. Once in awhile we get a letter from one of our service crew who has been out on the high seas and just returned to five or six issues of the MAGAZINE and who can actually plow through all this "material." The most recent came in November from Sturdy Heifer who participated in Main Brace and later, as he puts it, "dawdled" around the Mediterranean, Sicily, Gibraltar, Turkey, Greece, Trieste (terrific liberty) Naples and the Riviera a couple of times. Sturdy offered to sell his little black book with telephone numbers and addresses, for a very small price. Do we have any bids? He has run into plenty of fine looking gals on his travels; however, the only '51 he had seen up to that date was Ensign Bill Rugg much earlier in Norfolk, Va. He said he expected to make Hanover toward the tail-end of the ski season and we certainly hope you do, Sturdy, for a short rest and recuperation from your Mediterranean travels. Incidentally, Sturdy is in the Navy.
We feel slightly tardy in mentioning BuckScott's nice note of October, telling of his marriage a year ago this February 16. Buck forgot to mention his wife's name, but we believe it is Mrs. Scott. However, he did inform us of the fact that he was about to undergo "the pangs of paternal joy." We know that bundle of joy must have arrived by now. Since graduation, Buck has been to Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, for basic training as reported earlier, Fort Belvoir for OCS, and to Fort Ward in Washington as a second jack-in-the-box in the Amphibian Engineers.
Word just received from Snafu, Japan, tells us of Private Charlie Blood's recent graduation from the Far East Command Chemical School at Camp Gifu, Japan. Charlie was involved in this two-week course which included instruction in defenses against chemical bacteriological and radiological warfare. Charlie must now be considering himself an old Army man as he has been with the services since October 1951, and overseas since October 1952. Also, we have received our bi-centennial letter from Ensign Pete Henderson who, as you will remember, absconded two years ago with most of the fame and all of the fortune of the Class of '51. Hendy is still aboard the U. S. S. Bache and word just in from the Naval Department in Washington tells us that things are still badly botched up on the Bache. Let's dwindle now up into the higher strata of:
Married or Almost So
Charlotte Olsen and Jock Mclntyre head off the list of "Happily Marrieds" this month with their wedding of December 13. The wedding took place in Hanover where Charlotte's father is with the Tuck School and many Hanoverian friends were standing by for the pleasant event, including John Mitchell as usher. Jock and Charlotte journeyed to Bermuda for a honeymoon, and then back to army life in which John is Second Lieutenant.
In November, Thelma Roy, of Medford, Mass., announced her engagement to Second Lieutenant Joe Morelli. Since Joe is from Medford, also, we visualize a long-time childhood romance culminating, which we think is wonderful. Dick Sampson and Nancy Lou Adams became Mr. and Mrs. in October at the base chapel at the Quonset Naval Air Base, R. I. Dick, of course, is an Ensign with the Navy and Nancy Lou hails from East Greenwich, R. I. Steve Wolf stood by deck in case of fire. Steve is also with the Navy. The last we heard, the couple were on a honeymoon trip to California and perhaps further service there, we are not sure.
Billy Dow will jump into marital bliss with Barbara Birt in the spring. Our ship's into port now so let's go down the gang plank for another month. Drop us a note if you aren't under the boards.
Secretary, 500 South 3rd Street, Minneapolis 15, Minn. Treasurer,USS Bache (DDE-470), c/o FPO, New York
