Enaineer Memoirs
A ..
Jewett. Well, he had graduated earlier, in 1940 believe, and was gone by the time I got to West
Point.
Q .. He wasn't there as an instructor, as you remember, at that point? He wouldn't have been an
upperclass instructor?
A ..
No, but I knew him later. Colonel Richard L. Jewett became my boss when we were in Germany
in the 1950s.
Q .. I was just going to ask you about some of your classmates. Who in your class did you become
closest with at the time that you were there?
A ..
Well, let's see. My company classmates as a group, then there was my roommate, Frank [Francis]
Dirkes. He was an engineer. He became deputy engineer in Hawaii. While transferring to
Savannah he had a heart attack and died. Dutch [Glenn] Ingwersen was an engineer who retired
as a deputy division engineer, South Atlantic Division. He was from Iowa and captain of the
wrestling team and later my best man and closest friend. Jim Phillips, an artilleryman,
another roommate of mine and remains a close, respected friend.
Then there were those who were killed, and whom I knew well as a cadet. Ned Almond, whose
father was a general, Bill
Johnny Hummell -they were company mates of mine. Over
the years Bob
whom you've probably heard of, and I have become friends.
I knew many classmates as athletes. General [Bernard] Rogers and I were very close throughout
our cadet career. We were on the track team together. He was our first captain. Lee Hogan, class
president, was also on the track team.
I knew most of the class, but the ones I was closest to would certainly be my roommates and my
company mates. Howard Coffman, now in Dallas, later became my deputy in Vietnam.
Q ..
How about Glasgow?
A ..
Bill Glasgow was in another company, so I only came to know him well later.
Q ..
Parfitt?
A ..
Hal Parfitt, very close friend. Hal was on the track team. Hal and I had almost similar careers, up
until the time I became Chief and he went to Panama. He was the first member of our class to
make colonel.
Bob
was the first member of our class to make general, regardless of branch. Parfitt got
a battlefield promotion in Korea, and he made colonel in
or 1956, 1957 at the latest. He did
very well. As it turned out, the class of June 1943 produced many engineer generals-Mathe,
Parfitt, Glasgow, [Kenneth] Sawyer, [Charles] Reed to name several.
Q .. So the track team was your basic athletic activity?
A
at first. I was doing very well with basketball until in the gym one
Basketball was high on the
day, I hit the back end of a long-horse and busted my knee.
8
Previous Page
