The wire basket where I put your letters as they come in
is pretty close to full again, and it is time I sent you word.
Since I last wrote, I have heard from a great many of you and
while I think of it, I want to thank those of you who sent me
Xmas cards and New Year's greetings but attached no news. I'll
try to include in the memos that follow any information sent
at that time. During Xmas vacation, about half the females in
college seem to have gotten either married or engaged and after
we got them back here and calmed down from that, we began mid-term
exams and now a new semester begins. One by one the boys who
were here in September seem to be slipping away and fewer and
fewer of my classes have any at all. Out of 200 students last
semester, there were 4 men in a position to collect pearls or
anything that drip from my bitter old lips, but again they weren't
in such a good position. You G.I.'s listen to all this with
envy and drooling a bit at the mouth, but it wasn't nearly as
much fun as you'd expect. As we say in Russian, ÒToo much caviar
is as bad as no caviar at all.Ó (OK, maybe it isn't the Russians.
Maybe it's the Chinese. Maybe Confucius said it. Memo
to Tommy Breen: Check with Confucius.)
Let's see where people are and what they're doing. You'll
notice, and I guess it's not military secret, that a great many
people who have had addresses in the 47 states and Tex. when
I wrote you in Nov., are now getting their mail via Postmaster,
N.Y. or San Francisco. I suppose the next 6 months will bring
a great many more changes. Well, good
old Howie Anderson wrote in
from Italy. Howie says the Jerries took all the good vino, and
the woman situation works out like a parody of a song they're
singing in these parts, ÒThey're either too Young or too Old.Ó
Only in Italy it's ÒThey're either too good or too bad.Ó The
thing I like best about Howie's letter was that he seems to
be in better spirits than he was last summer and that's the
way we want it. A/C Doug
Barnum got my letter of Dec. 2 early in Jan. by which
time I had heard from some of you in such distant points as
India and Alaska. He'd moved to San Marcos, Tex., where he was
or is taking advanced navigation, an 18 week course, whereupon
he should have his commission and wings. Doug is one of the
few fellows who reports really bad food. It has been almost
a constant story from you that the food is reasonably good.
Perhaps the most interesting note on that
came from T. Breen who is somewhere
in China and says, ÒWe have the best cook in China and the best
food.Ó The night he wrote, they had a 6 course affair with such
delicacies as shrimp, etc. They have discovered that if you
mix Chinese white wine (70% alcohol) with orange juice and water,
even that is good. In an earlier letter he tells about studying
Chinese and admits that it has its difficulties. He
and Pete Hart are no longer together.
The day after T. Breen wrote me, I had a letter from Pete himself,
from a tea plantation in India. He says the weather gets plenty
cold at night, but he sleeps under 5 blankets, etc. He's another
one of those to whom even Hendrick's sounds good at that distance.
They get 3 cans of beer every 10 days and Òthey go so fast the
knife opening the cans gets red-hot.Ó Like some of the rest
of you who have settled down in one spot, Pete's taken to reading.
Moving to the Navy, we find Jerry
Amyot an ensign on the USS Cythera. He wants
to be remembered to Walsh, Baker,
Porcino, Bulger,
Ungerer, John
Stromei and Duke Hersh.
He had recently seen Seb Albrecht who has Òa cute wife
and baby.Ó I imagine that probably all the addresses you asked
for are on the list that Myskania published about Xmas. I understand
that it is to be brought up to date form time to time, and if
we have your address, you will get wanted ones from that. Cpl.
Harry Baden sent me a card from
Blythe, Cal. And expected soon to be pulling out for parts unknown.
I have mail form both Norm
and Loiuse (Swire) Baldwin
and had the good fun of seeing them both when they were up here.
Norm is in the Seabees and, I gathered on the whole rather enjoying
it. He's been working on malaria control and some of you know
places where he is needed. From Eng.
comes a V-mail from George Bancroft
who had been seeing my letters second hand thro' Thurston
Paul. He reports the British beer watery. Try a double
shot of scotch as a chaser, George, if you can afford it. My
recollection is nothing seems watery afterward. Thurston Paul
has also been writing me. Both times when he wrote me he was
still signing his mail as major, but down in his hometown of
Castleton, they gave him posted on bulletin board as Lt. Col.
Bravo! There was another gold eagle around
here a while ago whom I didn't know. He turned out to be Lt.
Col. Herbert Hornung who, the
Dean tells me, taught him how to use a slide rule back in the
dim past, and how that man has used it ever since. A/C Paul
Barselou: Gee, Paul, I'm sorry I missed you when you were
here in the fall. You certainly tried your best. Glad you like
bombardiering, and tell me what in thunder flexible gunnery
is. Paul seems to have been pretty well around the country since
he left State. Recently saluted an officer who was wearing Muriel
Scovell on his arm, and I shouldn't wonder if that was her husband.
At least she has one in [illegible]. Of course you never know.
Gordon Baskin,
who is a PFC in the Army Air Corps, sends me ÒhelloÓ from Kearns,
Utah. Don
Benedict, whom I didn't know in college but who was
the assistant principle in my son's school, wrote in from Will
Roger's Field in Olka. I think, Don, that this letter will contain
word from more of the people here in your day. Hope so, anyway.
Sent me a clipping about Lt. Angelo
Zannieri who finished up at State in Ô38. Angelo is
apparently in charge of processing and classifying the men as
they come into W. Rogers Field. Looks like a big job well done.
Capt. Bob Benedict
has a bad memory, or else a willful one, because he thinks he
won money in the poker game I referred to in the last letter.
Like Hell he did, and I got men to prove it. It seems the old
boy got licked again when he played recently with a couple of
Lt. Col.'s pay who play for keeps. I ran into his wife last
week on the street and she thought he was probably moving around
somewhere and perhaps had left Hawaii by this time. Harry
Bergstein has left the engineers and is now playing
in the band for the infantry. Says Lt.
Harry Karchmer is somewhere
in Alaska. God help him. Well, it would be nice to hear you
tooting again, Harry. Second letter told about the Xmas Eve
show that was put on over the local GI radio, and it looks like
the boys enjoyed it. Speaking of calypsos, anything you can
get for me in that line I shall appreciate, especially anything
that is normally censored by the record people. Interesting
stuff. Paul Bulger
is now in Washington, Pa in an army administration school, or
at least was in Dec. Rienow,
by the way, has been shipped off to what looked like an embarkation
point on the West Coast. I missed him when he was here for a
day or so. A/C Harry
Bora sent in a card from Santa Anna Calif. From
Hondo, Tex. comes a good a lengthy letter from H.
P. Cahn. He saw Dave
Smith at Aberdeen some while back and of all things
he borrowed 5 bucks and returned it. I wish the guys I lent
5 $ to would return even part of same. Let nobody take offense.
Connors was completing his navigation training when I
heard from him. I have passed on your word
to Decker, Hastings and Bill
Hardy. Mac Cappon wrote
me from Salt Lake City, Utah, and I guess it requires personal
attention, which I'll try to give it shortly. Mike
Capuno is up at Hamilton with the rest of the gang--Slavin,
Porcino, Griffin. From
Johnny Caramia in Eng. Johnny,
you forget that the last time I was in Eng. My wife was along,
and the addresses I had in 1930 wouldn't be very useful to you.
Unless memory fails me, you never had any serious trouble getting
either addresses or phone numbers when you were here. I doubt
that you, of all people, have lost the knack. A/C
Bob Combs is at Shaw Field, Sumter,
SC. He reminds me of the times he and
Forrest, McCabe
and Marsland used to sit in
the back of one of my classes and exchange the low-down on local
wenches. I knew they were not listening to me. Should have smelled
the wolf scent. He was expecting to leave for advance school
in mid-Jan., so this may reach him after bouncing around army
post-offices for a while. I'm glad you like my Xmas memorandum,
Bob. As a matter of fact, I was really very touched by the number
of you who mentioned it. It seems to me there is a great deal
of drivel being written about the war, and I hope that whatever
faults my piece may have had, it didn't drool. Clyde
Corson is down at moster Stewart Field, Newburgh. He's
a technician but the rest of what he's doing is in the realm
of much military secrecy. I immediately went to the News and
told you to be sure to find you a red-headed correspondent.
There were 2 lassies who filled that bill standing around, so
there is no telling what may have happened to your mail by now.
Lt. (jg) Freddy Day
says he is on a milk run, apparently somewhere in the Mediterranean.
I was glad to hear from him about Kluge
because I didn't know what he was up to in Eng. Sorry I have
no telephone numbers in Africa but the war is young yet and
we try to improve the service all the time. Once there was a
girl in the casbhad of Alfiers, but that was along time ago.
Doug Dillenbeck
a bridegroom as of Dec. is gold-bricking at Camp Stewart. Curiously
enough, Doug seems to approve of honeymoons. That institution
I have always considered highly overrated, but that's every
man to his choice, as the old lady said when she kissed the
cow. At Whiting Field, Pensacola, Fla.
A/C Pete Danoda (Navy) is working
on twin-engine planes. Last time I saw Pete he dropped in on
me almost by accident out at the farm with if I recall, an auto
full of bee-u-tiful women. Such a life, such a life. That was
a couple of years ago, though. Maybe things have changed, even
for a smart guy like Pete. Lt. Mike
Digioia is up at the Army Airbase in Kearns, Utah. He
was trained as a weather forecaster, but has been doing some
other things since. Though, by this time, he may well be trying
to figure out the weather that comes off one of the oceans because
he sounded to me as tho' he were headed for something more exciting
than Utah. Capt. Dennis
Dole is the base adjutant at Drew Field, Tampa. I was
very interested to find out what an adjutant does. It sounds
like a combination of being Dean, Dean of Women and head janitor...
calls himself a Òparatrooper of the chair-born command.Ó He
says that Cpl. Bob McKenzie
was at Drew in the signal corps but has gone overseas. From
Johnny Alden at Foster Field
Tex. comes a characteristically amusing letter. I'm glad Betty
can be with you, and that ought to make even Tex. endurable.
Your feeling for the natives seems to be shared by a good many
York staters. After all, when you come from the state in the
Union that has the best scenery, the handsomest women and the
smartest men, it's damn irritating if somebody else pretends
they invented all those things. Sometimes I think that maybe
they do all that talking about it just to convince themselves.
We, on the other hand, don't have to talk--we know. Regards
to the missus, and a bonny lass she is. Cpl.
Sig Baldowski sends in word
from the 8th AF in Eng. I feel much as you do about Edinburgh,
Sig. it's quite different from London and somehow an American
feels more at home there more quickly, I think. Those Scotch
are not much better cooks than the British. I hope that you
do go to West Wycombe and try the Old Apple Orchard Inn. I am
sure that if you or any of the rest of the gang in Eng. tell
Miss Donald, who runs it, that you're friends of mine, she'll
make you welcome. I repeat what I said in my first letter that
if there is any good cooking being done at all under wartime
conditions, she will be doing it. I might also repeat that a
former member of summer school faculties, Prof. John Bradbury,
is on the English faculty at Liverpool University. A good friend
of the Dean's and Prof. Powes and a great many of the rest of
us. A good fellow and he'd be delighted to hear from any State
man. Apparently, Sig, the Red Cross is doing a swell job everywhere,
from the reports from the various theaters. When I write to
my sister I'll mention you to her. I have also sent you request
on to the registrar's office. Let's hear from you again. From
Lt. Max Edelstein, USNR,
came word to the alumni association. He had met Capt. Charles
Ettinger, USMC in San Diego. He also says that Ed
Tomasian is married. I hope the malarkey in my bulletin
didn't get Ed in trouble. Fingers crossed. Got to be careful
in this job, I can see that. Max himself is forecasting weather
on a Pacific aircraft carrier. Down at Camp Rucker, Ala. Ed
Erwin (Lt.) says he was at Edgewood Arsenal for 2 years
and is now parked behind a desk. I gather Ed could use a little
mail. From Fred
Ferris, just a day or so ago, came a letter apparently
started at sea and finished somewhere in Italy. Fred was special
service officer on board ship and, there being no chaplain,
conducted the Catholic services, supervised the Hebrew and Protestant
services. He had kind of a tough assignment, it seems to me,
organizing Xmas eve service under what must have been pretty
difficult circumstance. On the other hand, this is one more
instance where the army has been smart in finding the right
man for the right job, for certainly Fred is the kind of person
that others could go to in trouble and find a sympathetic ear.
The brothers Flax
are in the field artillery, mail going out from Nashville. Art
says they picked up the battle of Tenn. where Chapell
left off. He makes the provoking statement that to his traitorous
eyes the hills of Tenn. are handsomer than the Helderbergs.
Nonsense, nonsense. Leo Flax was a very serious casualty, with
1/2 of his thigh shot away and close to bleeding to death during
maneuvers--at any rate, that's the sign the umpire put on him,
and Leo, I always believe in signs. The lurid story Flax tells
about how he and a bunch of trucks got lost with all the food
for the battalion, how they had T-bone steaks while others starved,
should go down with other epics of this war. A/C
Paul Ferencik is down at Selman
Field, Monreo, La. That letter came in Dec. and probably by
this time he's doing aerial gunnery somewhere in Fla. after
which he goes back to Selman. He ran into Lou
Greenspan, who was characteristically doing some fast
talking to a comely brunette, wouldn't you know? Dave
Bittman shipped out recently to aerial gunnery school,
but ought to be back at Selman about the same time Zollie
Privett is. Tom
O'Connor is in the class following Ferencik. Paul
Skeritt, according to Ferencik, is at Camp Blanding,
Fla. Lou Neubauer
is down in the canal Zone and tells Ferencik about the air-conditioned
bar in these parts, of all things. Lt. Ed
Foley is in Africa. More I do not know. From
Sgt. Bill Forrest in the Marine
Corps--no word as to weather Oksala and Keeler are parents,
Bill. If someone has the low-down on this, let me know. [Illegible]
McCabe is still at Love Field
as far as I know. Nice name, anyway. Bill Forrest, doesn't say
where he's been. It's pretty obvious it's some nasty little
island in the mid-Pacific. it's probably easier to see why taking
and holding those islands is necessary from this distance than
when you are in the midst of them. The pattern of advance in
your area, Bill, makes a great deal of sense when you add up
each day's complete news bulletin and can check it on the maps.
but I can well imagine how you feel. Pete
Fox came in to see me this week, and, I am sorry to
say, I was rushing to a class. He sent me some nice Sad Sack
pictures that I enjoyed. He's still teaching at Boca Raton,
tho' he might be doing a little traveling soon. At
the same time in walked Len Friedlander
(Lt. Infantry) who's been down in Tex. and is in the process
of moving around. Maj. B. J. Gaffney wrote in Feb. that
he was on his way to the school of applied tactics at Orlando,
Fla. He has just returned from a temporary assignment overseas
and is glad to get into an overseas group again. Saw something...
[page missing]
... training as navigator on the B-24's. A Xmas card came
from Len Varmette
with a picture of some Australian gum trees on it. I gather
he is not in Italy. Sgt. George
Taylor is using his law school training in the Provost
Marshall General's Office in Wash. Ray
Walters wrote thro' a cloud of hashheesh, opium, tobacco
smoke from the heart of Iran. I searched the pictures of the
Teheran conference for some sight of Ray, and while I didn't
see him, I would be willing to bet to he was standing right
next to the photographer. Gordon
Hastings has been joined by his brand new wife for this
semester and he is studying Reotgenology, Memphis. Harry
Passow is [at?] AAFTC Technical School, Yale. Round
him are Ken Schultze, Brook
Roberts & Bob Wesselman.
Erwin Steinberg
is at Lester Field, Mo. Of course Passow totally neglects to
tell me what he's doing, but it's pretty ruggfed. Rich
Young has his wings. Mike
(Loma Powell) sent me change in Mike's address which she said
was temporary, but I have heard nothing new from her. That was
Ft. Mead, Md. She says that the Bulls have moved to Alexandria,
La. I still can't get a full and complete address for them.
Dick Margison
is Eng. Just where is a deep secret. Having a good time, seeing
lots of things he'd never see on a school teacher's salary.
Even getting used to pounds and pence and driving on the left
side of the road. Roy
Sommers in the medical detachment at Camp Hale, Col.
is a ski trooper. His job is to bring wounded down mt. sides
on skis and toboggans. As one might expect, Roy is finding time
to read some books and learning a little Greek and Portuguese.
Thanks for the addresses, Roy. John
Sussina is a paratrooper at Camp Mccall, N.C. Oh,
George Kunz came in, bless his
heart, and we bulled a while. Did quite a job unmasking a fake
Marine hero who'd escaped from a psychopathic ward and was busy
impressing the college. Al
Parker's in Africa and is hereby elected to the Statesmen
in Africa club. Right in the middle of a paragraph telling how
a letter from Len Varmette
had been censored, the censors got busy and blacked out sentences
in Al's letter. You ask about Jack
Ryan Al. Well, Jack was around here for several wks.
having gotten back from Eng. and having escaped from the continent
where he landed when his plane cracked. He's now a major and
has been sent to the air force proving grounds, Elgin, Fla.
fully equipped with his wife and a chest full of decorations.
The story of his continental tour, I understand
from Bill Allard is really something.
Bill, by the way, while the Army won't take him is going into
highly confidential army service as research analyst. Much hush-hush.
Pvt. Babe Kaplan says the things he misses most, exclusive
of his wife, are ice skating, ice cream, ice anything. Pvt.
John Rogers is over at Mass.
where he's a chaplain's assistant. Bill
Mott is at Poloma College, Claremont, Cal. Capt.
Lloyd Kelly reports that teaching at Bryan Field, Tex. is
the ideal setup--got everything. It's a center instructors school
interested in instrument instruction. Lloyd reports a rumor
that those seeing foreign duty in Tex. will be awarded the purple
shaft with the busted cluster. Capt.
Bob Margison wrote from Ft.
Leavenworth where he was at general staff school, but advised
me to hang onto the Los A. address. Dec. was a great month for
the old boy. He became a papa & captain within 31 days. Says
his datter Susan is going to be as pretty as her mama. Mere
congratulations are absurd. When I see you we'll celebrate;
give my love to Eleanor. Ensign Jerry
Saddlemire keeps an APO San Fran. When he wrote in Nov.
was on special assignment in Hawaii. Reports the Hawaiian mosquito
is adept at getting his entire person into your epidermis. Lt.
John McAuliff wrote me from
Camp Stoneman, Cal. The poor fellow had been living for a whole
mo. on nothing but food and water. Furthermore, he ways he's
living Òthe simple and celibate life characteristic of all KDR
men.Ó I'm putting that in quotes so no one'll think I wrote
it. Sgt. Al Oetkin
didn't get my letter of Nov. until early Jan. Herb
Lown has a APO San Fran. All I know about him as that
there's no snow where he is. From Cpl..
George Bennett at Camp Pickett,
Va. Been in 7 mo. anti-aircraft, but since he's in personnel
section, he has yet to see a 90 mm gun go off. Rog
Moran, navigator AAF has completed 25 missions over
Europe. Lt. H. B.
Klaus is busy predicting British weather; looking at
photographs of wife and new daughter. A
lot of you will remember Prof. Tom Bergin.
Now Maj. Bergin is to be found somewhere south of Rome. Announcement
from Albany, Ga. that Nick Morsillo
is Lt. Mim Newell is still teaching the small fry of Cohoes
but she sends a memo about a member of the gang. Grattan,
she says is back from Trinidad, went to OCS for a few wks, and
said to Hell with being a general. Is in Tenn. 1st
Lt. Jim Quinn had an operation
but is better except for hangovers that develop when he & Walrath
have reunions in KY. Larry
Balog has been to Bowne Mem. Hosp. Poughkeepsie, since
last May and expects to be there longer. Had
a letter from Lt. (jg) Carol Lester
at Xmas and on Xmas day was delighted to get a phone call
from Pvt. Ralph Baker. My family was sick in bed on Xmas;
we all felt grim. Ralph's call was a bright spot. Lt.
Pete Marcheta USMC and ditto
Gryzwacz all go to Havana [illegible].
8 Potter men had held a wartime meeting
in shadow of White House Glen, Howie
Lynch, John Mould, Art
& Bill Cornwall, Bud Wyler,
Chuck Blanchard. Pete got together for what started out
to be a respectable dinner. Before the night was over a sorority
banquet was invaded and ---. oh well, have heard this before.
A letter from Sgt. Vince
Miller, an MP at Hearne, Tex. Hopes he'll end up with
occupational police. Vince was here a while back, but I missed
him. Being out of town a good deal this fall, I have missed
a number of you, to my regret. Art
Sonderlind sends with that he's been in N. Africa 8
or 9 mo. Busy using his high school French and trying to keep
warm in the mt. To all his friends he sends greetings. From
Lt. John Neuhs I had word in
Nov. out of Maxwell Field, Ala. He married Mary Pasko from the
class of Ô40 and they have one son 8 mo. old. Art wants to know
what I was doing while Pop Nelso was whistling and Doc Dorwalt
was ÒcontactingÓ freshmen girls. The big bullies kept me back
in the shadows for fear I'd scare them off, and to this day
I don't think either of them realized that I was not alone there.
Johnny's another who complains about Glen
Ungerer not writing any letters and just for good measure
he wants to know about Bill Mollenkoph
putting pen to paper. Lt. Bill
Nagengast writes in from the S. Pacific. He's been out
of the county for better than 2 years. Impressed, as I think
all of us must be, by what a globetrotting bunch Statesmen have
become. When I was talking about Ralph
Baker I should have mentioned Santi
Porcino who's in the same outfit, teaching illiterates
how to use English. A/C Ed
Perretz is digging sand out of his ears near San Antonio,
Tex. Like Pete Hart,
Sgt. Jack Shapiro is in India.
Lt. Andy Takas
was in to see me. Gave me a long discourse on war marriages.
Very absurd, sez he. Bad business, sez he. Yesterday came word
that he & Jane Heath are exchanging wedding rings as we go to
press. Andy's working on communications at Ft. Benning. Joe
Tassoni is on ASTU at Logan, Utah. They bounce Joe around
from one thing to another and he says ASTP is considerable more
rugged that [sic] his bomb group was. Ralph
Tibbetts, who was married in Dec. has been classified
as a navigator and is being kept busy at Nashville, Tenn. Seems
to approve of both flying and marriage. Rog
Wall, USNR is studying at Tufts College, Medford, Mass.
having been a good Eng. major they're now making an engineer
out of him. Reports that course definitely stiffer than any
he knew on this campus. Glad to hear from him and sorry that
he missed my earlier letter but there are 2 or 300 folks whose
addresses I still don't have, and would be glad to include in
our list if I had them. Will pass the
question on to Ackerman as
to whether he has read anything since the G-string murders.
Probably, Rhona Ryan's letters are as far as he can get. You
ask how many Statesmen are in service. I am not sure, but the
number of men on our flag is 629 with 4 gold stars. There are
probably a lot more of whom we have no record. There are about
500 on my mailing list which means that there are 125 whose
whereabouts we don't have. Furthermore we keep losing track
of people. Everytime I send out a letter, some come back, sometimes
with 4 or 5 army post offices marks on them. My address list
is now the key list for both the Myskania sheet and these scandal
sheets.
The censor very kindly cut the place
off Cpl. Roland Waterman's
letter, leaving only the APO, N.Y.C. He's somewhere in the land
of palm trees, sunshine and cool ocean breezes, and it looks
like he's got a nice gold brick job working in his base photo
section. Cpl. J.
Mould, I understand has the interesting task of making
the daily report on air activities for General Arnold. Butch
Walker & Bobby Kerlin were married in Dec. and the underground
reports that Earle Snow and bright-eyed
Jeannie Chapman middle-aisled it while my back was turned. The
old man's blessing on them. Capt. Jimmie
Chapell married Dec. 11 to Ruth Sands of Bergen. He's
now in England and sends memo on that front today. That brings
me down to the bottom of the bag and it's Dante Zaccagnini
who's at Buckley Field, Col. One thing I think we all have to
remember, Zac, is that the college is changing very rapidly.
That those of you who are coming back will have to make it into
a different place than what you find it, and that you'll find
it a very different place that [sic] when you left it.
That's gone and will never be again. Today, for all essential
purposes the college is a world without men and when you fellows
come back you'll find many things changed and many things needing
change. Don't think, Zac, that you can reproduce the world that
was, here or anywhere else. The people who spend their lives
wishing for the good old days are sticking their necks out and
looking for a miserable kind of life. It's my general theory
that the good old days wherever or whenever were greatly exaggerated.
I'm indebted for the cost of a good share of the postage
for this issue to the Alumni Association who recently gave me
a check to cover it and hereby state my thanks. Well, until
you fellows fill up the wire basket again, I think that's all
the news.
So long, good lick [sic], and I'll be writing in
another 6 weeks or so.
Lou Jones.
