Engineer Memoirs
also had a couple of other
dash people, but they didn't have any quarter-milers. So I
ended up running the 220 and the quarter mile. In the 1943 Navy meet, I ran the 100, the 220, the
quarter mile and the mile relay. The fellow who won the
ran second-still has the record
for the Army-Navy game. I beat him in the 220, set an Academy record. We also set records in
the mile relay and the 440 run.
Later, Glen Davis of football fame, after playing nine innings of baseball, joined the track meet
and broke the 220 record that I set several years before.
Q .. I imagine the people back home were pleased to see the results?
A .. Oh, yes, sure. We ran Navy at Annapolis one year, and many came over there to see that.
Fortunately I did well, but that was just part of it. I was involved at West Point. I guess I didn't
put as much time in academics as maybe I should have. For example, I was a Sunday school
teacher and later became superintendent of Sunday schools. Cadets teach Sunday school to
dependents-children of the officers and enlisted people. So after two years, I ended up in charge
of all the Sunday school teachers. That was a very good experience and a diversion.
I joined other activities which are listed in the yearbook. My idea was, you could kill yourself
studying. I had one roommate who was brilliant, Frank Dirkes. He was a star man. I had another
roommate who had some troubles-Philips. I was sort of in the middle. I never had many worries
about not passing.
I enjoyed cadet life because of diversified activities. That was one of the learning points after I'd
gotten up there, trying to figure out how to make life at West Point enjoyable.
Q .. In line with what you were saying earlier about what makes the successful cadet, as far as coping
with beast barracks and all that, it sounds like that was one way of doing it.
A ..
Well, it was. Without being smart enough to figure it all out, it was a rather successful
arrangement. I ended up getting in the Corps of Engineers-albeit from way down on the list. I
was a senior cadet officer on the military side and did well in athletics. I wasn't outstanding in
anything except maybe the quarter mile, but I did a lot of other things and seemed to get along
pretty well with them.
Q .. As the war went on, how did you at the Academy react to it?
A .. We were anxious to get out and get in it. We did, incidentally. I managed to make the activities
on Guam. Our class had the largest number killed in combat of any class in West Point history,
and we were second historically in percentage killed. Our class graduated and went right off to
war.
I think my company alone lost out of 32. Practically everybody got into the war. Our class
graduated in June of 1943. There were two years of war left, and you could be in combat in six
months. Ours was one of the few classes which was provided flight training for those wanting
the air corps. About 40 percent of our class entered the air corps on graduation day as qualified
pilots. Three had been killed in training exercises while still cadets.
On the other hand, I don't know how much of wanting to get to war was a real and honest
emotion or how much of it was invigorated by our environment. You know, it's just hard to
envision until it happens. I didn't go to one of the most exotic, hotly contested areas; but it was
hot enough for me once I found out what it was all about.
Q .. What about your getting into the engineers? You started out, you said, with not much idea what
you wanted to do. Then you were interested in the coast artillery.
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