1959

Last month we visited with several classmates who had military careers. Here are some more.

Ask Kirk Walters Jr. what he enjoyed most in the Navy for 30 years and he tells you that it was the challenging assignments. Each time Kirk got close to the end of an enlistment, he says, the Navy challenged him with an assignment that looked so interesting that he "just had to extend and take it." Examples were service on an icebreaker, a destroyer, intelligence school, submarine school, commander of the missile submarine Robert E. Lee and commander of the San Diego submarine base. He also enjoyed living in Honolulu and Seattle.

Kirk retired in 1989 wanting to do something entirely different and outside the military environment, looked into real estate and joined Century 21 in Annandale, Virginia, where, he says, we can find him today and for at least another couple of years. Current hobbies include music appreciation, especially opera.

Warren Huse says much the same, that the Army repeatedly offered him interesting jobs that motivated him to reenlist, including airborne duty on Okinawa, cunterinsurgency, a staff job in Germany that allowed for several years of marvelous European travel and then command of headquarters companies, initially with the 82nd Airborne at Fort Bragg in North Carolina and later in Can Tho, South Vietnam. After serving in Texas and Europe as a battalion executive officer Warren retired in 1981. Since then this former editor of The Dartmouth writes for the daily newspaper of Laconia, New Hampshire. Extracurriculars include being stage manager of the New Hampshire Music Festival, a summer classical music orchestra. Like our other classmates with military careers, Warren is intensely but quietly proud of the service and complimentary of the people with whom he served.

Jack Wells entered the Air Force wanting to fly but his eyes gave out. Jack's Thayer engineering degree then qualified him for duty with the National Security Agency in Washington, D.C., which led to one of his more interesting experiences. Says Jack, "One midnight I was installing a top secret item in the White House basement and met Jackie Kennedy, who was hanging out down there for some reason! We had a nice chat."

Jack went from NSA to a career in missiles, first launching satellites from Cape Kennedy for seven years and then being responsible for installing Minutemen Ill's in silos all over the American West. After service in Kuala Lumpur as military attache of our embassy and a tour helping to engineer our largest ICBM, Jack returned to Bozeman, Montana, to retire, attracted by the hunting and fishing. He then ran for the Montana legislature and was elected six times!

Classmates who I believe had military careers but whom I could not reach in time to interview for this column include Jay Butterfield, Dick Geary, John Haynes, Ray Johnson and Bob Young. If you know of others, please forward their names for recognition. After all, we owe something to these fellows who stood on guard for the rest of us.

172 Oenoke Lane, New Canaan, CT 06840; (203) 966-1252; paul.a.stein.59@alum.dartmouth.org