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Web Exclusives:
Under the Ivy July
7, 2004: The 60th anniversary of D-Day brought a parade of reminiscences and recreations to television, everything from a made-for-A&E movie starring Tom Selleck (!) as General Dwight Eisenhower to a rebroadcast of a 1964 interview with the real deal, conducted by Walter Cronkite (and voiced-over, if I’m not mistaken, by Dan Rather) in such places as the London Allied headquarters and the beaches of Normandy. Two years prior to D-Day, on June 5, 1942, the class notes section of PAW buzzed with news of marching orders and boot camp assignments. Even the oldest alumni wrote of war; the Class of 1893 included a letter regarding “my brother, Rev. Dr. Henry G. C. Hallock, missionary in Shanghai, China. You may have been wondering why you did not get word from him. Shanghai is under Japanese control and they do not permit letters of Americans to go out or come in. But this week I have reliable information that my brother is well.” The Class of 1906 reported that classmate Ensign Edward Gerhard Jr., “who was on duty in the Manila Bay area when that station capitulated, is missing.” There are funny stories, too. Robert Burgher ’21, naval attaché and lieutenant commander posted at the American Embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina, wrote: “This is a good one — too good to keep from you people up North. Last night I had some people in to dinner. Ed Reed, Counselor of the Embassy, said he had a friend in town and I said bring him on out, especially as he was a Navy officer. I don’t know how it came up but I mentioned something about Princeton. The Navy guest asked me what was my Class. I said ’21. “Me too,” said Jack Whelan. Proving, I suppose, that one should get back to reunion once in a while.” Mr. Whelan himself scrawled a postscript to the letter, writing, “The story is absolutely true, believe it or not. I’m sure we would have recognized each other at our 20th reunion with the old pictures of ourselves on our lapels.” Among the classes of the ’30s the war’s profound impact on and interruption of alumni lives becomes more apparent. Young men marry and ship out weeks, or sometimes days, later. “The stork and the postman arrived the same day” for Lloyd Saltus ’31, whose son Lloyd was born the day he received his orders to report for active duty. He was lucky; Jake Herzog ’32 wrote, “On December 10, 1941, Madelon Paterson Herzog was born and as yet I’ve seen only pictures of her.” Another war note of interest came in the Letters section of the
same PAW issue. The cofounders of the epic Princeton prank, Veterans
of Future Wars, who demanded payment of bonuses from the government
for wars they were sure they would fight in, did indeed join up
when their time came. Thomas Riggs 1894 wrote to say that his son,
VFW man Thomas Jr., was in combat service along with cohort Lewis
Gorin Jr. A PAW editor’s note added that Newsweek magazine’s
May 4 issue included this bit on Gorin: “Lewis Gorin Jr.,
who in 1936 as a 22-year-old Princeton University senior founded
the Veterans of Future Wars, is now a second lieutenant at Camp
Chaffee, Ark. He left behind a Louisville, Ky., law practice and
a bride of five months.” Jane Martin ’89 is PAW's former editor-in-chief. You can reach her at paw@princeton.edu
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