1954
It's about time to unleash that raccoon coat and shuffle down the field to watch the Big Green rumble into action. There should be quite a few '54s in the stands this fall as the two-year men made quite a scramble to escape from Uncle Sam last June.
Hope that everyone had a good summer. Because your correspondent had a successful summer our news will be a bit belated this month. At the time of writing I am garbed touristy with camera and B-4 bag in Zermatt, Switzerland, overlooking the Matterhorn, poised for a barbaric descent upon the former Roman Empire. Upon release from active naval duty I greedily gathered my musteringout pay and leaped a freighter for the Continent. Thus far have traversed the Low Countries, Scandinavia, Germany, and Austria, with Italy, France and Great Britain still to go. As a result we have not kept abreast of summer happenings, though we have plenty of news.
We crossed paths with one of the tribesmen in late August, catching Mead Metcalf frantically dashing through the rain in Berchtesgaden, Germany. The civvy-clad G.I. (he works with the entertainment branch of Special Services at the Army Recreation Center there) had just deposited his new Volkswagen convertible on the boat prior to his departure for home and discharge.
For the past year and a few months Mead arranged music and directed shows at the Bavarian Recreation Center, carrying out operations from one of the Nazis' plushest hotel hangouts. The following evening Mead was hauled out of the welter to deliver a few Tom ("The Old Dope Peddler") Lehrer scores for a battalion of Army brass and their spouses. (Reunion planners Weymouth and Heston: this, is a must for the program.) A couple of the old Army wives gargled their champagne when warned to exercise their "ability" while they still had the "facility" and "agility."
At departure time Mead was pondering future plans. Whether to return to a music offer or continue with a previous St. Louis advertising program was the question. Then there was a girl....
A few days before release from active duty date we saw Art Patterson preparing to pack his seabag and head home to Williamsport, Pa. Pat had just returned from a Mediterranean cruise and was busily "gun-decking" his gunnery records prior to a final inspection.
Also spent a pleasant evening with Don and Joy Keller and daughter Patricia Ann in their Norfolk apartment. Patricia Ann was a January 30 arrival. Don is Supply Officer on the destroyer "New" and at the time was expecting to depart on a six-month cruise touching three continents.
Dick Rubin, gleefully clutching his release papers, with visions of his forthcoming marriage and civilian employment in the New York City garment industry, preceded me out of the Discharge Center. Dick had been serving on the USS Wright, and, later, doing Shore Fire Control work at Quantico. While browsing through the log of navy releases in Norfolk we spied the appellations of Sinny Hitchings and Barry Levin.
We also understand that Central Avenuers in Woodmere, N. Y., are hoping that the naval experience is a once-in-a-lifetime for Dick Davidoff. Two months prior to Dick's expected homecoming a bevy of Orientally decorated cards had been dispatched announcing the "coming out party of Dick Davidoff" on July 14. Indications were that it would be the slam-bangingest shindig of the Long Island summer ' socials, though unfortunately, detailed reports are not available at this writing.
After a whirlwind tour of the USMC, George Murdoch eased into Marion, lowa, for a summer session as Assistant Director of the Murdoch Funeral Homes. George comes close to being the most moved-about of our service personnel. After his June 26, 1954 wedding to Marlyne Anderson, a Coe College grad, he headed for Quantico, Va. Six months later he was in Cherry Point, N. C., and thence to Camp Lejeune, N. C., Tyndall AFB, Lejeune again, and finally an island-hopping campaign in the Caribbean. There must have been a stop somewhere along the line, because on September 13, 1955 a son, Kenneth William, joined the barnstorming couple. Before getting down to business permanently George expects to take another year of professional training at either lowa or Minnesota University.
Prior to his service release George reported seeing Lt. and Mrs. Tony Lukeman and Bill and Carrie Petty at Camp Lejeune. The Pettys wound up their Marine Corps stint in June shortly after a son, Brent William, arrived May 10. In Operation Deep Freeze II on the USS Wyandot, we heard, was Bill Pitney.
As you can see, our biggest weather hazard this year is baby showers followed by squalls. We don't have space for forecasts but we have a list of areas already inundated. Stephen Alfred washed in with Hap and Pat Winslow, and on March 1 Peter Enlund took up residence with Tom and Bigs Myers. A daughter Dana Lee was an October 1955 arrival to Lt. Lee and Marjorie Harris, and on May 26 Phil and Kaye Kaiser greeted their first, a daughter Linda Lou.
A male tax exemption named David Hunter dropped in on Phil and Carol Christophe on May 12, and on March 28 a son, Michael, arrived at the Ron Stillmans.
From Big Springs, Texas, in early May we heard the prognostication: "It looks like a boy from out here." Sure enough, on May 29 William Robert joined Dave and Judy McLauglin. And Ben and Lorna Bowden and daughter of February 12, Linda Kathryn, are quietly settled finishing an Air Force sentence in Southern Pines, N. C. Ben, we're informed, "at length does cross the old golf course." Hitting the bottle in the home of Pete and Cynthia Liebman is son Andrew Peter, born April 13.
Air Force Bombing School student Tom Sayles and wife Pat were recipients of a little missile, daughter Lynn, born March 8. Tom is at Sacramento, Calif., at Mather AFB, along with Jim Miller, who is undergoing a 32-week course in advanced observer aircraft performance engineering, or something like that. Jim and Pete Ankeny, who was working in his dad's San Francisco Hamm Breweries, were skiing at Squaw Valley where they caught a glimpse of Tom Corcoran flashing by on the boards.
In the overseas delivery basket, Bob and Diana Collins in Oxford, England, made out a custom's declaration May 9 for a priceless article, daughter Catherine Louise. Oakie has received a Ford Foundation grant for a year's research in Anglo-Egyptian Sudan — three months' work in England and nine in the Sudan. Colonel Nasser will doubtless have something to say about the Collins' attempt at "collective colonialism."
Briefly scanning the economic picture, we find Freddy Alpert in the old whaling village of New Bedford, Mass., retailing it — not the whale. District Manager of Kemper Insurance Co. Dave Bartlett is still operating out of Bean Town, and Insurance Underwriter Norm Ross of State Mutual manipulates his Underwood in Worcester, Mass.
If you are in the vicinity of Littleton, N. H., pitch your tent across the street from the Baker Brook Motel just to see what sort of reaction you get out of Court Manager Don Miller. Or if you should be looking for just plain hotel and restaurant equipment in the Washington, D.C.,area, contact anAdam-Burch Inc. salesman named Hank Offterdinger. In East Orange, N. J., look for a Burger named Bill. He's a glass merchant.
Though a regiment of '54s slipped out of military togs recently, Newport's OCS added Ens. Tom Malcolm to the Navy's active duty list. Permanently stationed at Hialeah, Fla., was Marine Lt. Booge Tayntor. Luke AFB in Glendale, Ariz., is the home of Lt. Donn Hill and family.
Air Force Lts. Clark Murphy and Kev Sullivan and families are the only active members of the "Dartmouth Club of Northern Aroostook County." Kev is at Loring AFB, Limestone, Maine, and Murph is located nearby. Taking a sort of postman's holiday from travel, Lt. (jg) Pete Geithner landed his aircraft at Cecil Field, Jacksonville, Fla., long enough last spring to pilot his new car 4,000 jet-like miles from Pensacola to Hanover and back. Stops on the way enabled Pete to seek out the story of Stan and Charlon Clark's celebration of the big fellow's return from ten months' duty on Eniwetok Atoll. After a Fort Devens' tour Stan goes back to the Windy City and Ryerson Steel. Off the record, we heard that Stan was boasting the loss of over thirty pounds. This, of course, was prior to the arrival festivities.
Hugh and Deborah Nolin are residing in Frenchtown, Pa., while Hugh works with Regal Paper, and Lt. (jg) Jack Christie, in be- tween his tennis, skiing and sailing trips, finds time to do a bit of flying at NAS Miramar, Calif.
None of the old pros and Scott AFB, Ill., plays for drinks with Lt. Skip Weymouth. Seems the old skipper has improved the swing and is king of the links out there.
Lt. Don Swanson finished a spin at Fighter Armament School at Lowry AFB, Colo., but we missed his orders so he may be in Thule for all we know. Kent Klineman was also at Lowry after a year at Harvard Law, and Ace Taylor is an instructor in the Special Weapon School at the Colorado base.
The only "man overboard" we have this month is the USS Beatty's Bill Garland. Standard pick-up procedure — the precise "Williamson Turn" — was exactly what Bill wanted. Helen Williamson took her turn announcing her engagement to the destroyerman. Helen is an East Orange, N. J., product, now in designing and interior decorating in New York, after study at Florida University and Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. Barring opposition from Arleigh Burke, Bill and Helen expect to take a voyage to the altar in a few months.
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