Enaineer Memoirs
Carolyn Coffman, John and Wanda Bell, and Bill and Miriam Roos made a fine class. Many were
newly married. The Roos, Bells, and Morrises started their families at Iowa. We were all kind of
strapped financially, but we enjoyed each other. Our friends were our recreation, and the
Universi ty of Iowa was a very decent place to be. There was no crime, and the student body was
friendly and open, you know, and it was a good, Big Ten school with good athletic programs. So
1947-48 stands out as one of the best years that we had.
Of course, all the circumstances for making a good year were present. We did work hard-we
but it was productive, and all of us
didn't have a whole lot else to do except work I
recognized that our effort would be rewarded by knowledge.
Iowa had an ROTC [Reserve Officer Training Corps] group. Colonel [William W.] Jenna was
the ROTC unit commander. He and Colonel Frank Skidmore, an active-duty engineer colonel
there for advanced work, were helpful to all of the engineer
ts. They taught our families,
and the new wives especially, a lot about the
had a small advantage
and its cu stoms.
simply because she'd been in the
herself.
Q:
Let me go back for just a second. You were married in North Carolina. Is your wife's family from
North Carolina?
A
Yes. That's my wife's home. I mentioned earlier the best man at the wedding was Dutch
Ingwersen. We were commissioned from West Point in class standing order. We sat together and
became special friends. We were together all during the war, and when I was married he came
to Wilmington, North Carolina, from his home in Clinton, Iowa, to be our best man. A high
school friend had become a priest and helped perform the ceremony. The Morris clan came down
en masse and practically tore up the Cape Fear Hotel during the bachelor party and with the other
festivities. My wife's home has become our second home. We have property down there.
Q:
So she was a nurse?
A:
Yes, Gerry graduated from James Walker Memorial Hospital in Wilmington. She married a
lieutenant in the Air Force who went to Italy, earned a Silver Star in that theater, and was killed.
As a result of those events, she decided that she would join the
as a nurse and m
get into the flight nurse program. She spent most of her time in the States training to fly and take
care of patients in the air and so forth. In early 1945 her unit of nurses moved to the Philippines
to handle the casualties from the invasion of Tokyo, which didn't happen, of course, but that's
why they were sent to Fort McKinley. I was stationedthere. General Whitehead, the command ing
general, had a reception for these young ladies and i nvited some of the bachelor men who w ere
available. I was one of those people, and as the evening went on Gerry gravitated to Jim
a friend of mine, and joined our table. That's how the whole thing began.
So she was a nurse and a very good one. From Tachikawa, 25 miles from Tokyo, she flew to
Kimpo Air Base in Korea to evacuate sick servicemen. While her base was at Tachikawa, on her
off days she would stay at Army Hall, an officers billet in Tokyo. The females lived on the top
and the men on the first three floors. I was on the first floor. The place was very well managed
and proved to me that men and women could live in the same barracks with no problem. In any
event, I found the arrangement very nice since we could be together for meals and free time.
Q:
You said you were well received by the civilian students at Iowa. Their experience had probably
been somewhat similar to yours. They were probably veterans going back to school?
A:
Some of them were, yes.
There was a real community there?
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