Away From College, Vets Get Education

In the fall of 1940, the first-year classes of Harvard and Radcliffe filed into Cambridge prepared to embark on a voyage to the frontiers of learning.

Before they were done, most of them would be sent instead to the front lines.

Many would not come back. Those who did, though, say being part of the Allied effort, like being students at Harvard, taught them much about the world--and them-selves.

Harvard Treatment

As educational as the war experience may have been, the transition from college yard to military station was not always an easy one.

Aram H. Hatch Jr. '44-'43 will never forget the greeting his sergeant gave him when he reported for duty to a Texas army base, en route to service in Okinawa, Japan.

"I see on my list that we have two men from Hahvuhd," said the officer, with an exaggerated accent. "It's best that you forget you ever went to that place."

And Alan S. Manne '44-'43 found himself abruptly thrust into a position of responsibility aboard the Baltimore, a cruiser in the Pacific fleet.

"I realized I had a wonderful undergraduate education, and that part enabled me to function just as effectively as the naval officers trained at Annapolis," Manne says.

"I was in charge of a gun turret." Manne says. "Most of the men were older than I was. It was a major responsibility."

Manne, who now lives in Stanford, Calif., says his service was big part of his education.

"I've led a pretty sheltered life. That was one of the few experiences where I got to meet people from all social and economic groups in America," Manne says.

'A Major Change'

For most veterans, the war was both a turning point in their lives and an education.

General Robert C. Davenport '44 joined the Enlisted Reserve Corps at Harvard in June 1942. Thirteen months later he went on active duty in the Army. In 1986, he retired with the rank of major general.

Davenport was sent to join the 27th Division in the Philippines to prepare for the invasion of Japan. But he and others said they were glad the action they planned was unnecessary.

"Before the invasion could be mounted, why,they dropped the atomic bomb, and Japansurrendered," Gen. Davenport says.

The general says the war had a profound effecton a wide cross-section of the nation.

"It made a major change in my life, and it madea major change in the lives of anybody who was inthe military service or who produced anything thatthe military used," Davenport says.

Donald B. Cole '44-'43, a Navy landing craftofficer, took part in landings at Guam, LeyteIsland, the Lingayen Gulf, the Bataan peninsulaand Okinawa.

"Guam has a reef all around it," Cole says. "Myboat got stuck on the reef. I opened the ramp tolet the soldiers out. The water came in, and theboat sank," Cole says. The boat was latersalvaged, he says, because "the water was not verydeep."

That ordeal--and the war overall--more thancompensated for the time Cole lost in college.

"It helped me grow up," Cole says. "It gave ussome opportunity to go out on our own. It wasquite a maturing experience."

Radcliffe at War, Too

Learning from taking part in the war was notlimited to men; Radcliffe students like DartheaPark Stalnaker '44-'47 of Portland, Ore., alsomobilized in America's effort.

In June 1943, Stalnaker enlisted in WomenAccepted for Voluntary Emergency Service (WAVES),the Navy's program for women.

Stalnaker was sent to boot camp at HunterCollege in New York. "It consisted mostly ofmarching," she says.

Stalnaker's interests were not confined to theground, however. "I was fascinated with the ideaof flying," she says. So she was assigned to abase in Atlanta, Ga., where she trained pilotswith flight simulators.

But the training machines were not Stalnaker'sfirst stop. "When I first got there, everyone hadto draw lots. And three of us got two weeks ofkitchen duty before we could begin our training,"she says. "That's where I learned how to sweep."

In Atlanta, Stalnaker was also able to takeprivate flying lessons. Later, she learnedcelestial navigation in Quonset, R.I., and taughtit to sailors in Corpus Christi, Texas.

"One of my happiest memories in the Navy waswhen I was entrusted to fly the plane from Newark,over Philadelphia and Washington, down to SouthCarolina," she says. "It was very beautiful. Allthe lights were coming on, and the sun wassetting. It was very mysterious and beautiful."

Persis Ladd Herold '44 left Radcliffe aftergraduation to work for the Office of StrategicServices (OSS), the predecessor of the CentralIntelligence Agency (CIA).

Herold worked in the counterintelligencesection doing "low-level office work" inWashington, D.C. In November, she was transferredto London, where she remained until July 1945.

"In London, one of my assignments was to gothrough photographs of people in the Germanintelligence service," Herold says. Her job was tofind the best photographs of each suspected agent,she says.

Although women could not fight in combat,Herold says she was still able to experience thethrill of victory.

"I was in London on V-E Day," Herold says. "Thechurch bells rang for the first time since thebeginning of the war." During the war, the ringingof church bells would have been a signal that aninvasion was occurring, Herold says.

"It was extraordinarily moving," she says.

A Role in Support

Support services, such as that which Heroldprovided in intelligence played a crucial role andattracted many Harvard soldiers, partly throughspecial programs.

Bernard Rubin '44-'43, who transported tanksduring the war, joined the Navy through its V-7program, a war-time equivalent of the ReserveOfficer Training Corps (ROTC), which givesfinancial assistance to students. During the war,the naval recruits lived and trained in Eliot andKirkland Houses.

Commissioned as an ensign in May 1943, Rubinwas assigned to a Landing Craft Tank (LCT), whichcarried six Sherman medium tanks in a convoy boundfor Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands.

A few months after arriving in Guadalcanal,Rubin was assigned to the atoll of Ulithi, a tinygroup of islands southwest of Guam, "which wasseized from the Japanese with tremendous loss oflife," he says.

Ulithi became a major supply point for Alliedforces in the Pacific, and was designated a fleetanchorage, Rubin says. Every kind of ship, fromaircraft carriers to transports, came there toreceive new supplies, he says.

The atoll was surrounded by underwater nets tokeep out Japanese submarines.

"My job was to go back and forth and takethings to shore," Rubin says, calling it "a sortof supply service."

Rubin says his most dangerous task wasextracting unexploded shells from Yap Island anddumping them at sea.

"I was scared," Rubin says.

But he adds that I Japanese prisoners-of-warhad to do most of the dangerous work.

Not All Useful

Not all of the knowledge the soldiers gainedduring their service was especially applicableafter the war, however.

Parker D. Wyman "44-'46 was trained in the armyto be vertical control operator for shellingattacks. "I determined what the elevation of ourguns should be," he says.

Wyman's artillery unit went to Europe inFebruary 1945 and took part in the Battle of theRuhr in Germany. Wyman was stationed in the townof Neuss, and helped to fire upon the industrialcity of Dusseldorf.

In early 1946 Wyman was discharged from theArmy in Berlin.

"I arranged it that way because I wanted to gostraight into the Foreign Service, which I coulddo in Berlin because our mission there neededjunior officers immediately," Wyman says.

Ironically, Wyman was later assigned to work atthe U.S. Consulate in Dusseldorf, the very city hehad once attacked.

"It was... a little awkward when some of myGerman friends asked me where I had served duringthe war," Wyman says.

But it they didn't gain knowledge they coulduse later, many veterans at least came out withpermanent friends, bonded buy life-threateningexperiences.

David Benton '44-'47, of Sea Girt, N.J.,enlisted in the Army during Harvard's summer 1942session.

In March, 1944, Benton joined the 401st BombGroup of the Eighth Army Air Force at Sioux City,Iowa, as a Second Lieutenant Bombardier. And aftersome more training, they flew to England in June1944.

Benton's crew took their B-17 bomber on 35daytime missions over Germany in late 1944. Theybombed cities with "oil production facilities orfactories" such as Magdeburg and Schweinfurt, hesays.

"We flew at usually 25 or 26 thousand feet,"Benton says. "We had no heat inside the cabin. Wewore heated suits, because it was 55 degrees belowzero."

"We encountered quite a bit of opposition fromthe Germans, of course," Benton says.

"We encountered a couple of early German jetfighters, which had just been designed," Bentonsays. "They went by us in no time at all," hesays, but "they didn't really do us any harm.

According to Benton, the Eighth Army Air Force,which operated over Germany during daylight hours,had the highest casualty rate of all the Americanunits which served in the war.

"I still see some of my crew members," saysBenton, who will attend a bomb group reunion inEngland this July.Photo Courtesy Harvard ArchivesPart of the training for some futuresoldiers was this "guerrilla drill," pictured inOctober of 1942.

"Before the invasion could be mounted, why,they dropped the atomic bomb, and Japansurrendered," Gen. Davenport says.

The general says the war had a profound effecton a wide cross-section of the nation.

"It made a major change in my life, and it madea major change in the lives of anybody who was inthe military service or who produced anything thatthe military used," Davenport says.

Donald B. Cole '44-'43, a Navy landing craftofficer, took part in landings at Guam, LeyteIsland, the Lingayen Gulf, the Bataan peninsulaand Okinawa.

"Guam has a reef all around it," Cole says. "Myboat got stuck on the reef. I opened the ramp tolet the soldiers out. The water came in, and theboat sank," Cole says. The boat was latersalvaged, he says, because "the water was not verydeep."

That ordeal--and the war overall--more thancompensated for the time Cole lost in college.

"It helped me grow up," Cole says. "It gave ussome opportunity to go out on our own. It wasquite a maturing experience."

Radcliffe at War, Too

Learning from taking part in the war was notlimited to men; Radcliffe students like DartheaPark Stalnaker '44-'47 of Portland, Ore., alsomobilized in America's effort.

In June 1943, Stalnaker enlisted in WomenAccepted for Voluntary Emergency Service (WAVES),the Navy's program for women.

Stalnaker was sent to boot camp at HunterCollege in New York. "It consisted mostly ofmarching," she says.

Stalnaker's interests were not confined to theground, however. "I was fascinated with the ideaof flying," she says. So she was assigned to abase in Atlanta, Ga., where she trained pilotswith flight simulators.

But the training machines were not Stalnaker'sfirst stop. "When I first got there, everyone hadto draw lots. And three of us got two weeks ofkitchen duty before we could begin our training,"she says. "That's where I learned how to sweep."

In Atlanta, Stalnaker was also able to takeprivate flying lessons. Later, she learnedcelestial navigation in Quonset, R.I., and taughtit to sailors in Corpus Christi, Texas.

"One of my happiest memories in the Navy waswhen I was entrusted to fly the plane from Newark,over Philadelphia and Washington, down to SouthCarolina," she says. "It was very beautiful. Allthe lights were coming on, and the sun wassetting. It was very mysterious and beautiful."

Persis Ladd Herold '44 left Radcliffe aftergraduation to work for the Office of StrategicServices (OSS), the predecessor of the CentralIntelligence Agency (CIA).

Herold worked in the counterintelligencesection doing "low-level office work" inWashington, D.C. In November, she was transferredto London, where she remained until July 1945.

"In London, one of my assignments was to gothrough photographs of people in the Germanintelligence service," Herold says. Her job was tofind the best photographs of each suspected agent,she says.

Although women could not fight in combat,Herold says she was still able to experience thethrill of victory.

"I was in London on V-E Day," Herold says. "Thechurch bells rang for the first time since thebeginning of the war." During the war, the ringingof church bells would have been a signal that aninvasion was occurring, Herold says.

"It was extraordinarily moving," she says.

A Role in Support

Support services, such as that which Heroldprovided in intelligence played a crucial role andattracted many Harvard soldiers, partly throughspecial programs.

Bernard Rubin '44-'43, who transported tanksduring the war, joined the Navy through its V-7program, a war-time equivalent of the ReserveOfficer Training Corps (ROTC), which givesfinancial assistance to students. During the war,the naval recruits lived and trained in Eliot andKirkland Houses.

Commissioned as an ensign in May 1943, Rubinwas assigned to a Landing Craft Tank (LCT), whichcarried six Sherman medium tanks in a convoy boundfor Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands.

A few months after arriving in Guadalcanal,Rubin was assigned to the atoll of Ulithi, a tinygroup of islands southwest of Guam, "which wasseized from the Japanese with tremendous loss oflife," he says.

Ulithi became a major supply point for Alliedforces in the Pacific, and was designated a fleetanchorage, Rubin says. Every kind of ship, fromaircraft carriers to transports, came there toreceive new supplies, he says.

The atoll was surrounded by underwater nets tokeep out Japanese submarines.

"My job was to go back and forth and takethings to shore," Rubin says, calling it "a sortof supply service."

Rubin says his most dangerous task wasextracting unexploded shells from Yap Island anddumping them at sea.

"I was scared," Rubin says.

But he adds that I Japanese prisoners-of-warhad to do most of the dangerous work.

Not All Useful

Not all of the knowledge the soldiers gainedduring their service was especially applicableafter the war, however.

Parker D. Wyman "44-'46 was trained in the armyto be vertical control operator for shellingattacks. "I determined what the elevation of ourguns should be," he says.

Wyman's artillery unit went to Europe inFebruary 1945 and took part in the Battle of theRuhr in Germany. Wyman was stationed in the townof Neuss, and helped to fire upon the industrialcity of Dusseldorf.

In early 1946 Wyman was discharged from theArmy in Berlin.

"I arranged it that way because I wanted to gostraight into the Foreign Service, which I coulddo in Berlin because our mission there neededjunior officers immediately," Wyman says.

Ironically, Wyman was later assigned to work atthe U.S. Consulate in Dusseldorf, the very city hehad once attacked.

"It was... a little awkward when some of myGerman friends asked me where I had served duringthe war," Wyman says.

But it they didn't gain knowledge they coulduse later, many veterans at least came out withpermanent friends, bonded buy life-threateningexperiences.

David Benton '44-'47, of Sea Girt, N.J.,enlisted in the Army during Harvard's summer 1942session.

In March, 1944, Benton joined the 401st BombGroup of the Eighth Army Air Force at Sioux City,Iowa, as a Second Lieutenant Bombardier. And aftersome more training, they flew to England in June1944.

Benton's crew took their B-17 bomber on 35daytime missions over Germany in late 1944. Theybombed cities with "oil production facilities orfactories" such as Magdeburg and Schweinfurt, hesays.

"We flew at usually 25 or 26 thousand feet,"Benton says. "We had no heat inside the cabin. Wewore heated suits, because it was 55 degrees belowzero."

"We encountered quite a bit of opposition fromthe Germans, of course," Benton says.

"We encountered a couple of early German jetfighters, which had just been designed," Bentonsays. "They went by us in no time at all," hesays, but "they didn't really do us any harm.

According to Benton, the Eighth Army Air Force,which operated over Germany during daylight hours,had the highest casualty rate of all the Americanunits which served in the war.

"I still see some of my crew members," saysBenton, who will attend a bomb group reunion inEngland this July.Photo Courtesy Harvard ArchivesPart of the training for some futuresoldiers was this "guerrilla drill," pictured inOctober of 1942.