The War Years

Off they went, some of Dartmouth's best, and learned to line up straight, to fly high, and to survive on a hike in the woods. Above, the aviation cadets of the Dartmouth Army Air Corps Squadron stand proud during training in Nashville, Tenn.: first row (from left), Robinson, Daniels, Matthews, Steiner, Hawley, Smith, Thomas, Breed, McLane, and Miskell; second row (from right), Alpert and Porter.

There was no graceful hand-gesture showing how the Red Baron eluded the aces of the Dartmouth Army Air Squadron. Nor was there the shrill "nyaaaauh" of a diving Hellcat as the Dartmouth Naval Air Squadron attacked and sank the Japanese flagship. There wasn't even a bone-chilling description of the 10th Mountain Division's schuss down the Italian Alps to end the war in Italy. But there could have been all of those as veterans of the three military units met in the Tavern Room of the Hanover Inn on June 8.

Although the dinner meeting was planned as a bonus for the reunion classes of 1940, 1944) 1945, and 1946, invitations were also extended to local veterans of the three units from other classes. For a brief moment, 29 men, representing classes from 1938 to 1950, stood in for the 8,500 sons of Dartmouth who had served in World War 11.

Bob Allen '45, a 10th Mountaineer, was master of ceremonies, and the featured speaker was Professor Charles McLane '41, the first man to enter the about-to-be- formed 10th Mountain Division in 1942. He reminded the gathering of the very deep division between isolationists and interventionists that existed on the pre-war Dartmouth campus a campus that by 1944 was to have a civilian enrollment of only 174.

Two segments of a 16mm film one on pre-war Dartmouth and the other showing the post-war college were separated by slide presentations on the three units. The Navy story was told by Fritz Hier '44 with typical Hier-humor and with some fuzziness about names and faces. Bob Huessler '46 commented on the short-lived Army unit. (Coincidentally, Bob has recently written a book, Interlude with the Forties, that tells a story about a group of Dartmouth men who joined the Army Air Force.) Newc Eldredge '50, president of the New England chapter of the 10th Mountain Division, did the honors for the so-called Ski Troopers. A most welcome visitor was Mac MacKenzie, the national president of the 10th Mountain Association.

In addition to the aforementioned participants, the Navy group included: Jim Farley '42; Eric Barradale, Hardwick Caldwell, Bill McElnea, Bob McLaughry, and Bill Marsh, '44s; John Reed '45; and Bob Kimball '46. The Army Air was represented by: Bob Searles '42; Hamilton Bates, Al Densmore, '44s; George Daniels, Charles Matthews, and Tom Murray, '45s; and Bill McDougall and Malcolm McLane, '46s. Former Ski Troopers attending were: John Rand '38; George Boswell '39; Percy Rideout '40; E. H. Lord-Wood '41; John Stephenson '44; and George Barr '45.

It was a pleasant, nostalgic evening, but not without many a somber reflection of the 69 '44s, '45s, and '46s and the many others from earlier and later classes who had lost their lives in the war. Nobody asked the question "why?" but the question was there.

Hardie Caldwell and Rog Chapin cope on a Navy Air Corps "survival" hike.