Keeping our July 4th recognition going a bit longer, this week’s blog has a letter written by a Davidson alumnus during World War II and a memoir from a student who spent a few months at Davidson as part of the Aviation Cadet Training Program.
The letter comes from a donation we received earlier this year from the family of Daniel Iverson, class of 1938.
Iverson participated in the Battle of the Midway and the letter was written while he was on Midway Island. Written on Valentine’s Day– February 14, 1942– it describes the joy of finally receiving his Christmas mail from family.
He begins: On a February day, a cold morning, I awoke in my dugout, feeling the icy fingered zephyrs tickling both the base and tender extremities of my bony backbone, where and when protruded from beneath the doubtful warmth of my blanket. It was really cold, and I was anxious to see what magic wonders the weather had done to this small portion of mother earth, Midway Island. Sure enough, outside there was a beautiful expanse of white, broken only by delightful shakes of green (Seaveola) to you and the charging steeds of the misty mane cavorting over the gale-swept expanse of the emerald Pacific. Yes, the coral was beautiful that morning. Even the raucous clattering and lovemakings of the “gooneys” conveyed to tingling ears a carol. Believe it or not, it was Christmas. The ship arrived without the cold kiss of the enemy torpedo. Yes sir – it was the finest Christmas a fellow ever had and it came on February 14, 1942 – what a memorable day.
Almost four years after Iverson’s graduation and a little over a year after his letter, Leo R. Kubeska came to the Davidson campus as part of the Aviation Cadet Training program. From March 1943 to June 1944, the college hosted a government training camp. They lived on campus – in what was then East and West dorms (since renovated and renamed Sentelle and Cannon). They experience the same isolation and on at least one occasion the same thrill of a joint dance with young ladies of Queens College. Read his account here.
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