Enaineer Memoirs
families in Texas City were given priority. My return to the States was delayed indefinitely until
those evacuations had been completed. As it happened, I left Japan in late April and began the
trip home. In Hawaii we changed aircraft for the last leg into San Francisco. As soon as we landed
in San Francisco, our whole crew and passengers were put in quarantine because there had been
evidence that a rat had gotten into the baggage on the leg from Tokyo to Hawaii. That took two
more days
So time was getting very short, and transportation from the West Coast to the East Coast was
spotty, so I ended up hitchhiking by air from Travis Field near San Francisco to Craig Field in
Alabama in a twin-engine C-45 aircraft, unpressurized. Having arrived in Craig, I had to get to
Washington, which took an extra day. Finally, I was able to get my feet on the ground in my home
in Princess Anne, Maryland, and begin to make the arrangements to get to North Carolina, which
I did immediately, around the 3d or 4th of May. So, thanks to Gerry's hard work and good
planning, the wedding came off on schedule. However, there was a period of some concern when
our invitations, having already been sent out, might have to be changed.
Shortly after our marriage we headed west in a 1947 Ford sedan, which my father had won in a
raffle. My orders said I'd report to Fifth Army Headquarters. Being as naive as I was in the
in Chicago, which turned out to `be
peacetime Army, we drove to the Fifth Army I
unnecessary, but we were soon on our way to Iowa. Our classmate and best man, Dutch
Ingwersen, had already arranged an apartment for us to rent, and I do remember that the rent took
0 out of a base pay of 3 a month. We started our married life and an academic career in
Iowa City. Also, we soon found out we were going to become parents.
I also was asked if I would be interested in competing in the 1948 Olympics in London, based on
my track successes at the Military Academy. Having not participated seriously since graduation,
or five years approximately, and also the burdens of trying to acquire a master's degree at the
University of Iowa, combined with prospective parenthood, I decided to pass up this opportunity.
I've reflected on it from time to time and have never been concerned that I made the wrong
decision.
The year was successful in several ways. Our daughter Susan arrived in February, and we
graduated in June. Having gone through West Point in three years instead of four because of the
war, the University of Iowa powers-that-be decided that those of us in our class of 15 Army
personnel who had only had three years of undergraduate studies were not qualified to get a
master's degree, even though we had completed the course in good order and competed quite
successfully with our peers, both in and out of the Army.
It was a very competitive group. The Army people included Colonels J.C.H. Lee, Jr., Bill Van
Allen, Ed Jennings, nine classmates from the Military Academy, and Art Grace [January
We were all quite high in the order of graduates of the course in civil engineering. The University
of Iowa ultimately decided to award master's degrees to those of us who had only three years of
undergraduate work after eval.uating the courses of instruction that we had taken during our three
years at the Military Academy.
Q:
Why did you choose Iowa?
A
I didn't choose Iowa.
Q:
You didn't choose Iowa?
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