Lieutenant Robert Scott Whitman, Jr. Lt. Whitman, from Binghampton, New York, where he graduated from Central High School, spent only his freshman year at Dickinson and transferred to the United States Naval Academy.  He graduated from Annapolis in 1939.  While at the College as a member of the class of 1938, he still had time to become a member of Phi Delta Theta fraternity and play freshman football. He lost his life on June 4, 1942, while in action as a Navy pilot during the Battle of Midway.

Cadet Calvert Sumner Foote Cadet Foote was born in 1922 in Chester, South Dakota, the son of a  minister who was later the Methodist superintendent of the Scranton area living in Forty Fort, Pennsylvania.  He attended the Wyoming Seminary and enrolled in Dickinson with the class of 1944 on September 19, 1940.  Known as "Jack," he left the College on the outbreak of war and attempted unsuccessfully to enlist in the armed services.  He was accepted to the Merchant Marine Academy by competitive examination, however, and following several months instruction was assigned on April 22, 1942, his twentieth birthday, to his first ship.  His vessel's immediate assignment was the Arctic Convoys and in late July, 1942, his ship was sunk by enemy action somewhere between Iceland and Russia - possibly as a part of the ill-fated convoy "PQ17" which lost 23 of 34 merchant ships during those weeks - and he was declared "missing and presumed lost."  The King's Point Academy often assigned its cadets to sea-duty and is the only Federal academy authorized to carry the Battle Standard Flag, by virtue of its 142 Cadets killed in action.

Lieutenant Gerald Lawrence Darr Lt. Jerry Darr was born in 1917 in Burnside, Pennsylvania.  He graduated from Cherry Tree High School and entered the College in the class of 1940.  An outstanding athlete who later entered the College Sports Hall of Fame, he excelled on several teams.  He was co-captain of football as a running back but was renowned for his performances as a hurdler who was never defeated in either the high or low hurdles during his entire four years at Dickinson.  He was also a member of Beta Theta Phi fraternity and a four year participant in the German Club.  He graduated with a bachelor of Philosophy degree in June, 1940.  He married his classmate, Marion Englander, of Carlisle, on August 17, 1942, eight months after enlisting in the Army Air Corps. He trained in Alabama, Florida, and Mississippi, he received his wings and a commission as second lieutenant in July, 1942.  After bomber training, he was assigned to combat duty in the Solomon Islands area of the South Pacific flying B-24 Liberator bombers.  He flew numerous combat missions, struggled with malaria, and rose to the rank of aircraft commander. On November 14, 1943, his Liberator disappeared over the island of Bougainville most probably after being hit with enemy fire.  No wreckage was sighted during subsequent searches and Darr, along with his crew, was posted as missing.  Two years later, the War Department listed him officially as "killed in action."

 

Captain A. Leonard Hymes Captain Hymes was born in New York City in February 1914 and graduated from the James Madison High School in Brooklyn.  He entered Dickinson in 1932 and graduated Phi Beta Kappa with the class of 1935.  He then studied medicine at New York University and earned his M.D. in June, 1939. While at the College, Hymes was a member of Sigma Tau Phi. A reserve medical officer straight from medical school, he was called to active service  after completing his internship in June 1941 and assigned to the U.S. Army Air Corps.  After service in South Carolina, he left for the South Pacific in January, 1942.  He lost his life on December 31, 1942, when the aircraft in which he was flying from Port Moresby in New Guinea to Australia was shot down into the sea. When Dickinson's Weiss Center for the Arts came in to being with the conversion of the Alumni Gymnasium in the early 1980s, Leopold Cohen '35 donated to the College the funds for the dedication of a lecture hall, to be known as the Hymes Room, in honor of his lost friend and classmate. Note: The captain  was known at Dickinson and in later alumni lists officially as Abe L. Hymowitz but before 1939 he had changed his name to Hymes.

 

Lieutenant David Harold Crosby, Jr. Lt. Crosby was born in Phillipsburg, New Jersey on January 18, 1918.  He prepared for college at the Mercersburg Academy and entered Dickinson with the class of 1940.  Two years into his time at the College, during which he had become a member of Phi Kappa Psi fraternity, he transferred to Juniata College, where he graduated in 1940.  He later took a master's degree in sociology at the University of Southern California and later taught at Juniata during the summer session of 1941. By this time, however, he had already been accepted as a Marine Corps officer candidate.  In October, 1941, he entered training and was commissioned in February, 1942 at Quantico, Virginia.  He was assigned to the Pacific a few months later and, in early November 1942, was killed in action on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands.

 

Lieutenant John Farr Campbell Lt. Campbell was born on the fourth of July, 1917, in Hightstown, New Jersey.  The son of a carpet weaver who never finished high school, he attended the Peddie School in his home town and entered Dickinson on September 16, 1937 as a member of the class of 1941.  While at the College, he participated in soccer, baseball, and for four years on the basketball team.  Nicknamed "Soupy," he was also very active in campus organizations, including the Student Senate, the Athletic Association, Microcosm, and Omicron Delta Kappa.  He was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, serving as treasurer and president, and of Raven's Claw. Shortly after graduation, he enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps and after being accepted as a flying cadet was commissioned in the fall of 1942.  He was assigned to North Africa following the landings there and was posted as missing  on March 31, 1943 when a flight he was on did not return. He was later declared as killed in action.

 

Sergeant David E. Hepford A native of the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania area, Sgt. Hepford graduated from Lower Paxton High School and entered Dickinson as a member of the class of 1937 in the fall of 1933.  He participated in a wide range of activities ranging from golf to singing third tenor in the Glee Club.  Above all, he developed to become one of the most outstanding journalists in Dickinson's extra-curricular history.  He edited the Dickinsonian in his senior year, served as president of the Middle Atlantic States Collegiate Newspaper Association, and represented the United States in the League of Youth Conference held at Geneva in Switzerland in the summer of 1937.  During that travel he interviewed various public figures, including Benito Mussolini in Rome. He enlisted in the Army at the outbreak of war and was stationed for two years in Harrisburg at the Selective Service Headquarters.  During this time was extremely active in civic matters and was vice president of the Junior Chamber of Commerce.  He was killed in an automobile accident on April 11, 1943, crossing the street in front of his home.

Second Lieutenant John Edmund Dale, Jr. Lt. Dale was born in Philadelphia in 1919 and graduated from high school in Montclair, New Jersey where is father was president of a coal company.  He entered the College in September 1936 with the class of 1940 but transferred to Amherst College after his freshman year.  He was tapped as a member of Beta Theta Pi during that year. Finishing his degree at Amherst in 1940 he set out for a career in banking but enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps the day after Pearl Harbor.  He won his wings on July 26, 1942 and then trained on B-24 Liberator bombers.  In December, 1942, he joined the 480th Anti-Submarine Group in French Morocco then flying against German submarines in the Battle of the Atlantic with such success as to earn it later the coveted Presidential Unit Citation.  On May 11, 1943, first pilot Dale and five others in his ten man crew were killed when their B-24 crashed on take off from their home base.  Lt. Dale had previously been awarded an Air Medal.

Lieutenant Robert A. Walsh Lt. Walsh spent one year at the College as a member of the class of 1941 between his freshman year at Pennsylvania State University and his graduation from the University of Scranton.  He was born in Plains, Pennsylvania in March, 1920 and graduated from Plains High School in 1937.  While at Dickinson he was a pledge of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps three weeks after Pearl Harbor and trained in Alabama before basic flight school at Shaw Field in South Carolina and advanced training at Marianna Field in Florida, where he was commissioned in December, 1942.  He left the United States for active duty in March, 1943. He became part of the India-China Wing and on May 15, 1943 was posted as missing in action when his aircraft failed to return from a flight between India and China.  Early in the following year, his parents received word that his body had been found with his crew in the wreckage of his aircraft in northern Burma, the victims of Japanese fire, and he was declared killed in action.

Lieutenant Leonard Peter Supulski Lt. Supulski was born in Kingston, Pennsylvania in 1920, the son of a Lithuanian immigrant and one of twelve children.  He graduated from Kingston High School and entered the College with the class of 1942.  He participated in the Commons Club, played basketball, and ran track, but his most popular contribution to campus life was his participation as a star football receiver.  He was a good enough athlete to have played end for the Philadelphia Eagles before enlisting in early 1943.  He was four years at the College but fell short of the credits he needed and did not graduate. He entered the Army Air Corps as a private and completed flight navigation training at Selman Field in Louisiana and received his commission on July 24, 1943.  After a short leave to visit June Lutz Supulski, his wife of a year, in her native Boiling Springs, Pennsylvania, he reported for advanced training in Nebraska and two weeks later was killed along with seven others in the crash of a routine flight  near Kearny, Nebraska on August 31, 1943.

Lieutenant Harry Rees Jones Lieutenant Jones was born in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania in December, 1919 and after high school graduation there he entered Dickinson in the class of 1937.  While at the College, he served on the Student Senate, was a member of Skull and Key, and president of Theta Chi. On June, 9, 1941 he graduated with his class and a month later enlisted in the Army Air Corps as an aviation cadet.  By July, 1942 he had received his wings and his commission and then served as an instructor.  He applied for an assignment as a combat fighter pilot, however, and in late June 1943 joined an operational squadron on the island of Adak in the Aleutian Chain.  On March 13, 1944, Lt. Jones crashed in to the side of Mount Adagak near his base while leading his flight.

Corporal Walter H. Marshall Corporal Marshall was born in Philadelphia in 1921 and entered Dickinson after his graduation from Collingwood High School in Collingswood, New Jersey in September, 1939.  As a member of the class of 1943, "Red" was a member of Phi Kappa Psi fraternity, participated in the International Club, and worked on the Microcosm.  He also took advantage of the College's accelerated program, graduated with with his bachelor of Arts degree on January 24, 1943, and joined sixteen other Dickinson men in the first group to leave in a body for the armed services, assigned to Camp Lee, Virginia. Marshall trained at Miami Beach, Florida and then was selected for technical school in photography at Lowry Field, near Denver, Colorado.  He then studied photo topography at Colorado Springs, finished first in his class.  His parents reported that he was offered an assignment as an instructor but rejected this in favor of an overseas assignment.  He was then assigned to the Intelligence Corps and was sent to the Mediterranean theater in April.  On April 20, 1944, the naval transport U.S.S. Hamilton, on which he was traveling to Naples, was sunk by enemy air action off the coast of Algeria with the loss of all on board.

Lieutenant Jack Bright Spangenburg Lt. Spangenberg was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania on August 26, 1918, attended Clarks Summit High School and the Keystone Academy, and entered Dickinson with the class of 1939. Small in stature, but, according to his classmates, not in ideas, he served on the staff of the Dickinsonian and was a member of Phi Delta Theta.  He graduated with his class and went straight on to the Dickinson School of Law.  He was admitted to the bar in November, 1942 but by August, 1943 he had completed Officer Candidate School at Fort Benning, Georgia.  He was sent to Italy with an anti-tank unit in January, 1944, and was slightly wounded at Cassino in April.  He returned to duty and was killed in action in Italy on July 10, 1944.  On August 19, 1944, his son, John Michael, was born at home in Pennsylvania.

Ensign Vincent Yarashes Ensign Yarashes was born in Luzerne, Pennsylvania on August 28, 1920.  He was the son of  Lithuanian immigrants; his father was a coal miner.  He graduated from Luzerne High School and entered the College in September, 1938.  He was at Dickinson for two years and was a track and football participant and a member of the Commons Club. He enlisted in the United States Navy in July, 1942 and trained as a naval aviator.  He died in the South Pacific in a plane crash on July 10, 1944.

Private First Class George Leo Cottrell, Jr. Pfc Cottrell was born in Wilmington, Delaware in August, 1923 but grew up with his grandmother in Ambler, Pennsylvania, where he graduated from high school in 1942.  He entered Dickinson on the accelerated degree plan with the class of 1946 but withdrew after the fall and winter sessions to enlist with the Marine Corps. He trained in basic infantry and at radio school in San Diego.  He departed for the Pacific in April, 1944 and on July 21 was in the communications detail in the first wave of the Marine assault on the island of Guam.  After working for hours under fire to establish and maintain  radio communications on the beachhead, he was struck by mortar fire and was killed, one month shy of his twenty-first birthday.  He was buried on the island the following day.

Lieutenant James E. Taylor Lt. Taylor was born in 1913 and graduated from high school in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania in 1932.  After four sometimes difficult academic years, he graduated from Dickinson on June 8, 1936.  He was a member of Beta Theta Pi. After college, he became a credit analyst with the Pennsylvania Company. The big, red-headed Philadelphian enlisted in the Marine Corps as a private in June, 1942 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant that September.   He went to the Pacific in January, 1944 and served in the Marshalls and on Saipan.  He was leading his platoon on the landings against Tinian on July 23, 1944 when he was hit by a round from a Japanese sniper and died on board a hospital ship the following day.  A very highly regarded officer, he was recommended for the Navy Cross.  He left a wife and four year old son.

Lieutenant Norman C. Watkins, Jr. Lt. Watkins was born in Minersville, Pennsylvania in 1919, the son of a Dickinson Law graduate.  The younger Watkins prepared at Baltimore Polytechnic and entered the College in 1940.  He withdrew in 1942 to attend the Dickinson School of Law but later, in January 1943, enlisted in the United States Army. He received his commission in July, 1943, and in October left for combat duty in Europe as commander of a platoon of Combat Engineers.  His unit participated in the D-Day landings, was rested, and then sent back into action in Normandy.  On July 27, 1944, he was killed in action at the head of his platoon.

Lieutenant Allan Scott Rogers Lt. Rogers was born March 24, 1924 and was from Jenkintown, Pennsylvania. He was a graduate of Abington High School.  He had transferred to Dickinson in 1942 from Duke University but was called to active duty after only the fall and winter sessions at the College.  He had been a pledge of Phi Kappa Psi fraternity. He was trained in Alabama and Arkansas as a pilot and was commissioned in January, 1944.  In June, 1944 he joined the Eighth Air Force in England, flying co-pilot in B-17 bombers.  On July 29, 1944, on his fourteenth mission, his aircraft was one of a group sent to bomb a synthetic oil plant in Germany.  Over Holland, on the way to the target, anti-aircraft fire struck the B-17 and it exploded.  He was initially declared as missing in action but subsequent information gained toward the end of the war stated that the badly injured young officer had been taken to a German military hospital in Holland and did not survive the day.

Lieutenant Benjamin Franklin Forgach First Lieutenant Forgach was born in May, 1921 in Yeagertown, Pennsylvania and graduated from high school there in 1938.  He entered the College with the class of 1942 but withdrew after one semester.  He re-entered Dickinson in the fall of 1939 but withdrew again in June 1940.  While at the College he was an outstanding football player and a member of Phi Delta Theta fraternity. He enlisted in September, 1942, and trained as an infantry officer at Fort Benning.  He was for some time an instructor but left for Europe in April, 1944.  His unit, Company A, 330th Infantry, 83rd Division, participated in the Normandy campaign and on August 6, 1944, he was killed in action in western France.

Major John Owings Cockey, Jr. Major Cockey was from Glyndon, Maryland and was the 1936 class president of Franklin High School in Reisterstown, Maryland.  He entered Dickinson College that autumn.  While at the College he was a varsity soccer player and a member of Phi Kappa Sigma, Skull and Key, and Raven's Claw.  He graduated with his class in June 1940 and enrolled at Duke University Law School. He enlisted in the Army Air Forces in June, 1941 and a month after  Pearl Harbor he had already earned pilot's wings and a commission at Kelly Field in Texas.  He became a basic flying instructor in Kansas and in Texas as the Air Corps grew quickly.  After sixteen months of this duty, he trained at the heavy bomber school in Fort Worth, Texas, on Liberators.  He was promoted and assigned to the Eight Air Force in England in January, 1944, and promoted again in July, 1944.  By September 7, 1944, when he was killed in a flying accident over the small village of Bodney, a few miles west of Norwich in East Anglia, he was a squadron commander.  Eleven days later, his fellow pledge in the eight man Phi Kapp class of 1940, John Ell, was killed in action in Holland (see below).

Lieutenant John William Ell First Lieutenant Ell spent an outstanding four years at the College after graduating from high school in Nanticoke, Pennsylvania.  He worked on the Dickinsonian, and as photography editor of the Microcosm.   He was a member of Phi Kappa Sigma, pledging with John Cockey (above), and served as president of the Catholic Club and of the Belles Lettres Society.  He graduated Phi Beta Kappa and was the recipient of the Patton Prize for 1940. He was inducted in August, 1941 and volunteered for the newly forming parachute infantry units.  He was commissioned at Fort Benning, Georgia in January 1943 and was posted to England in January, 1944.  On D-Day, 1944, his regiment, the 501st of the 101st Airborne Division, landed before dawn in Normandy.  Ell was later wounded but had returned to his unit in time for the airborne assault into Holland to seize the Rhine bridges.  On September 18, 1944, his platoon was ordered to hold newly seized positions against an enemy counter-attack.  While leading this defense, against superior forces, he was killed by mortar fire.  For this action, he was awarded the Bronze Star posthumously.  He was twenty-six. John Ell was sensitive, dedicated, and intelligent young man. A letter he sent to his parents, now preserved in the Dickinson College Special Collections, from the Normandy battlefields after his baptism of fire, is eloquent testimony to this.

Lieutenant Peter Marco Lt. Marco was born in 1910, in Berks County, Pennsylvania, the son of Italian immigrants.  He graduated from Birdsboro High School in 1929 and entered the College soon after.  He graduated with the class of 1932 and immediately entered the Dickinson School of Law, from which he received his LL.B. in 1935.  While at College, he was a member of Mohler Scientific Club and Theta Chi fraternity. In June, 1936, he became the first Italian American to be admitted to the Berks County Bar.  After practicing law in the county, he was inducted into the Army on June 4, 1941 and assigned to basic training in Georgia.  In October, 1941, he briefly won his release from selective service as he was actually beyond the peacetime age for service.  With the outbreak of war, however, he was soon back in uniform.  He served as a sergeant of military police in Philadelphia during mid 1942 but by December he had graduated from the Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia and had been commissioned.  In June, 1944 he was assigned to a replacement officer unit in England and was soon serving with Company A, 22nd Infantry Regiment of the Fourth Division in the hedgerow fighting through Normandy. On September 20, 1944, near Aachen, in Germany, Peter Marco was first reported missing in action and was later declared to have been killed.

Paul V. Woodward Paul Woodward was born in London on August 2, 1915, where his father, Franklin Woodward '01 was the European patent attorney for an American company.  A fourth generation Dickinsonian, Paul attended high school on Long Island and entered the College in 1932.  He took a bachelor of Science degree, played soccer for three years, ran track, and worked on the Dickinsonian.  He also served as chapter president of his fraternity, Beta Theta Pi. Woodward was a civilian worker with the Standard Oil Company in the Philippine Islands at the outbreak of war.  With the Japanese invasion at a critical point, he volunteered to drive a truck-load of fuel to besieged Bataan, and was captured when Corregidor fell.  Considered a prisoner of war, he was imprisoned in the Philippines until October 1, 1944, when he was to be taken by ship to Hong Kong.  The overcrowded ship was too much for the already weakened Woodward and he died a few days into the voyage.  He was buried at sea.

Lieutenant John T. Och Lt. (j.g.) Och was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in November, 1914.  He graduated from Harrisburg Catholic and entered the College with the class of 1937.  He took the Science degree, competed on the track team, and was a member of Sigma Chi.  Following his course at Dickinson, he gained in 1939 a Master's degree from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science and took work as a drug salesman for a York, Pennsylvania firm. Och entered the Navy in 1942 and was commissioned in October.  From January, 1943, he served seventeen months of sea duty before returning home to be married in June 1944.  On October, 1944, he was serving in a heavy cruiser in enemy waters and was washed overboard and lost.

Private First Class Frank Evans, Jr. Born July 6, 1925, Pfc. Evans was from Brooklyn, New York, where he was outstanding student at P.S. 93, Boys High School, and the Adelphi Academy.  When just turned seventeen, he enrolled at Dickinson with the class of 1946 in September, 1942.  He was studying as a chemistry major when he enlisted in August, 1943. He was trained at Fort Benning, Georgia and left for Europe to join Company E., 405th Infantry, as its youngest member, in August, 1944. A devout member of the Episcopal Church, he wrote to his mother in November that "So far I have felt little fear up here.  God is closer to the front lines than any place else."  Five days later, Frank Evans was killed in action in Germany on November 22, 1944, aged nineteen years and four months.

Private First Class Robert Wayne Fleck, Jr. Pfc. Fleck was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in August, 1924, but lived locally in Carlisle, where his father was an insurance agent. He graduated from Carlisle High School in June, 1942 and entered Dickinson.  He spent only one year at the College before he was drafted into the Army in March, 1943.  He was a member of Kappa Sigma fraternity. He trained in Texas and Louisiana before being assigned to the European Theater and the 84th Infantry Division.  While advancing with his unit into Germany, he was killed in action on November 29, 1944.  He was nineteen years and four months old and is buried in an American Military Cemetery in Holland.

Lieutenant Charles Casper Nickel Lt. Nickel was born in Loysville, Pennsylvania in 1916 and was a Duncannon High School graduate.  He entered Dickinson in 1933 but left after one year of study in the science course.  He was a meber of Theta Chi fraternity.  Eventually, he attended journalism school and became a editor and publisher in Perry County, Pennsylvania. He joined the Army soon after Pearl Harbor and served two years before being commissioned at Fort Eustis, Virginia.  He was assigned to an anti-aircraft battery in the Pacific area.  On December 8, 1944, during a Japanese attack on the Buri Airfield on Leyte Island, he was mortally wounded and died the next day.  He was buried in Dulag Cemetery on Leyte.

Sergeant Donald Ellsworth Parker, Jr. Sgt. Parker was born in New Haven, Connecticut on June, 27, 1920, and graduated from Lyman Hall High School in Wallingford in the spring of 1938.  He entered Dickinson with the class of 1943 on September 21, 1939 but transferred to Wesleyan University where he graduated in 1942. He worked a short time as an accountant until he was inducted into the U.S. Army in November, 1942.  He trained at Fort Riley, Kansas and Camp Polk in Louisiana before shipping to Europe as a tank commander in August, 1944. He joined the 19th Battalion of the Ninth Armored Division and was killed in action in Belgium during the Battle of the Bulge on December 29, 1944.

Lieutenant Thomas Lloyd Rockwell Lt. Rockwell was born in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania in May, 1923 and attended the Carson Long Military Institute.  He entered Colgate University, transferred to Dickinson after a year, but withdrew before the end of his first term in the fall of 1941. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps in December, 1941 but finally trained as an infantry officer at Fort Benning, Georgia, gaining his commission in November, 1943.  He later trained as a paratrooper and toured the country with a group of parachute infantry jumpers promoting war loans. He was assigned to Europe in August, 1944.  He was reported as missing in action on December 24, 1944 and confirmed as killed in action on January 12, 1945.

Lieutenant John Robert Herdic First Lt. Herdic graduated from high school in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. He enlisted in July, 1942 and trained as a bombardier, winning his wings and commission in Texas in June, 1943.  He then trained as a navigator in New Mexico before being assigned to overseas duty in early 1944.  He joined General Claire Chenault's command in the Burma-China theater, flying  in a B-25 as a bombardier-navigator.  On his penultimate mission before completing the fifty which would see him serve out his combat tour, his aircraft was lost in action on January 19, 1945.

Captain William P. Reckeweg Captain Reckeweg was born in Audubon, New Jersey in September, 1916.  He attended high school there till 1933, then entered the College with the class of 1937.  While at Dickinson he was popular and active student, a football, soccer, and baseball player, and a member of the Glee Club.  He was also a brother of Sigma Chi fraternity. After graduation, he was employed as an insurance agent but by February, 1941, he was enlisted in the United States Army and had been sent to Fort Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania for training.  He completed officer candidate school at Fort Benning, Georgia, in August, 1942.  By August, 1943, he was a captain.  He applied for active duty and became the commander of Company C, 357th Infantry, 90th Division, in time for the D-Day landings.  He was wounded in early July in Normandy and spent six weeks in hospital in England. He was killed in action on February 1, 1945, in northern Luxembourg, when shell fragments struck his company command post as his unit was digging in on newly won high ground.

Lieutenant James Maurice Loenshal  Lt. Loenshal was born in Altoona, Pennsylvania on August 17, 1923 and graduated from Hollidaysburg High School in 1941.  He entered the College in the autumn, with the class of 1945.  He played on the basketball team and was a member of Phi Delta Theta.  He was slated to join Skull and Key at the end of his sophomore year but by then had already withdrawn to enlist in the Army Air Force, in February, 1943. Training as a pilot, he received his commission in Oklahoma in June, 1944 and was posted to Italy and a B-24 squadron soon after.  On a mission to bomb the Korneuburg oil refinery near Vienna, on February 7, 1945, the Liberator that Loenshal was co-piloting received a direct hit from enemy anti-aircraft artillery over Austria.  Though initial reports from the squadron suggested that parachutes has been seen, later official communications changing his status from "missing in action" to "presumed dead" confirmed that the aircraft had been seen to disintegrate in mid-air.

Private First Class Samuel Titus Harvey, Jr. Pfc. Harvey was born in Long Branch, New Jersey in 1923 and grew up in Red Bank, New Jersey graduating from high school there with honors.  He entered Dickinson with the class of 1946 and became a member of Kappa Sigma fraternity.  He was inducted after the fall and winter terms of his freshman year and trained in Texas and Mississippi.  He was assigned to the 301st Infantry Regiment of the 94th Division, Third Army fighting in Europe, serving as runner and interpreter in French.  On February 20, 1945, Sam Harvey was killed in action in Germany.  He is buried in the American Cemetery in Luxembourg.

Frank Thorley Hollinger Franklin Hollinger was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania on March 26, 1925.  He grew up in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania where he was an outstanding student at the local high school, excelling in chemistry, the orchestra, and chess. He entered Dickinson for the winter session in January, 1943, taking the science course.  His ambition was to be a chemist.  He left the College soon after for the armed services. He went overseas in September, 1944 with Company B of the 112th Infantry Regiment of the 28th Division.  He was reported missing in action during the Battle of the Bulge, having been captured on December 20, 1944.  A year later his parents were informed that he had died in a German prisoner of war camp on March 3, 1945.

Lieutenant Val Dysert Sheafer, Jr. Lt. Sheafer was a local man, from Carlisle, Pennsylvania who entered the College with the class of 1943 in September, 1939.  He was a member of Phi Kappa Psi and a senior mathematics major when he left Dickinson to enlist in the Army Air Corps in April, 1943.  With credit assigned from his Army training, he was qualified to graduate at his commencement in late May, 1943, and his father received his diploma on his behalf. He trained at Montgomery, Alabama and at gunnery school in Florida, before completing bombardier school in Texas.  He received his commission and his wings in April, 1944.  He was assigned to England on February 11, 1945 as the bombardier on a B-24 Liberator and was killed five weeks later when his aircraft crashed during a training flight.

Lieutenant Rae Guy DeMatteis Lt. DeMatteis was born and raised in Altoona, Pennsylvania, where he and his older brother, Michael DeMatties '42, attended Altoona High School.  He spent a year and a half at the College, participating with his brother in Dickinson Soccer, before leaving in December, 1942, to train as an aviator. He was assigned to the 15th Air Force in Italy, and was participating in one of the epic 1500 mile round trip flights from Foggia to Berlin on March 22, 1945 when his aircraft was hit by anti-aircraft fire over Ruhland.  A damaged straggler, the plane attempted to reach a crash landing behind advancing Russian lines but was further hit by fighter attack and the crew forced to bail out.  Parachutes were seen to open and some members of the crew survived but Rae was not among them.  He was reported missing in action as of March 22, four months before his twentieth birthday, and later presumed dead.  Despite the best efforts of his family to this day, the full circumstances of Lt. DeMatteis' sacrifice have not been ascertained.

Private First Class Robert S. Grissinger Pfc. Grissinger lost his life exactly one month before the end of the fighting in Europe and four months after his nineteenth birthday.  He had been born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania but grew up in York Springs and attended Dillsburg High School, graduating with honors.  His brief time at the College saw him as a pre-medical student and a member of Theta Chi fraternity before he was drafted and inducted in January, 1944. After his air training program was canceled, he was prepared as an infantryman and embarked for the European Theater in October.  On November 19, 1944, he was wounded in action and was not able to return to his unit - Company G of the 397th Infantry - till after Christmas.  On April 7, 1945, at Heilbrom in western Germany, he was killed by a sniper while repairing his radio during combat in an advance patrol.  He was buried at the U.S. military cemetery nearby.  For his part in the action in which he lost his life, he was awarded the Silver Star.  This decoration and his two Purple Hearts were sent to his parents.

Lieutenant James Herbert Dieffenderfer Second Lt. Dieffenderfer was a native of Easton, Pennsylvania and graduated from Wilson High School there in 1941.  He entered Dickinson in the autumn of 1941 and enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in 1942.  He was a participant in the unprecedented accelerated degree program and when he enlisted he was assigned to Franklin and Marshall College and completed his Dickinson degree there on February 29, 1944.  In his time between the two colleges, he became a member of Phi Kappa Sigma fraternity. Upon graduation, he was trained at Parris Island and completed officer candidate school at Camp Le Jeune, North Carolina in October, 1944.  He was assigned to the Pacific in December, 1944 and joined the 1st Battalion, 1st Marine Division for the invasion of Okinawa in April, 1945.  On May 2, 1945, Lt. Dieffenderfer was killed in action on the island, becoming one of more than 12,500 Americans, and three Dickinsonians lost in the securing of what was intended to be the main staging area for the final invasion of the Japanese home islands.

Corporal John E. Martin III Corporal Martin was born in Philadelphia in 1920 and grew up in nearby Camp Hill, Pennsylvania.  He graduated from Camp Hill High School in 1938 after three years of varsity football and editing the first yearbook in the high school's history.  He entered Dickinson and continued his football career at half-back.  He also followed his father, John E. Martin '17, a first world war veteran, into Beta Theta Pi fraternity. He finished the requirements for the degree in 1943 and was already a United States Marine when diplomas were awarded.  The Dickinson Alumnus of September 1945 believed that Martin may have been the first graduate never to see the diploma he had earned.  He had never been able to have a home leave before shipping to the Pacific.  He joined Company H, 3 rd Battalion, 29th Regiment, in the 6th Marine Division in the invasion of Okinawa.  On May 15, 1944, at a place called Sugar Loaf Hill, during the bloody battle for the island's main town of Naha, Jack Martin was killed in action.  He was buried on Okinawa in the the Marine cemetery.

Lieutenant John F.Hart Lt. Hart was born in Syracuse, New York, on October 20, 1916.  He entered Dickinson in 1934, was a member of Phi Kappa Sigma but did not complete his degree. He enlisted in the peacetime Naval Reserve in early 1941 and trained as an aviator in Jacksonville, Florida, earning his wings and an ensign's commission in April, 1942.  He flew anti-submarine PBYs in the Caribbean and the South Atlantic before being assigned to North Africa in November, 1942.  In April, 1943, he suffered fearsome injuries when his aircraft crashed and burned in Morocco.  He then embarked on a thirteen month battle for, first, life, and then recovery at hospitals in Boston and St. Albans, New York.  On May 6, 1944 he was able to walk out of his ward and report to duty at the Naval Air Station in New York.  He was then assigned to Pearl Harbor. On May 19, 1945, Jack Hart lost his life in the crash of an aircraft on a routine flight from Oahu.

Lieutenant Milton Howard Fussell III Second Lieutenant Fussell was born on April 20, 1923 and grew up in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania.  After graduating from Swarthmore High School he entered Dickinson for the fateful fall term of 1941.  He became a member of Phi Kappa Psi fraternity but enlisted in the Marines and was assigned, with James Dieffenderfer, to the V-12 unit at Franklin  and Marshall and finished his degree in March, 1944. He trained at Parris Island and at Camp Le Jeune and was commissioned with Dieffenderfer on October 1, 1944.  Following his fellow Dickinsonian to staging on Guadalcanal in late December, and then into the attack on Okinawa, he was killed in action twenty-five days after his fellow alumnus, on May 27, 1945.

Lieutenant Theodore Clarion Strouse First Lt. Strouse was born in Harrisburg in 1922 and graduated from John Harris High School in 1940.  He then entered the College with the class of 1944.  He was editor-in-chief of the Dickinsonian and a member of Phi Delta Theta fraternity.  He left his studies during his last semester of senior year, in February, 1943, to enlist in the Army Air Force. He trained as bombardier/navigator in Texas and New Mexico, earning his commission in February, 1944.  He was assigned to the China-India theater, where he flew forty-one missions in B-25 bombers with the 10th Air Force, winning a Bronze Star and two Air Medals in the process.  When flying to a rest area as a passenger over India, his transport aircraft crashed on July 11, 1945, and he was killed.

Captain John Warren Long, Jr. Captain Long was from Manheim , Pennsylvania and, after high school at East Hempfield, entered Dickinson in September, 1937.  He graduated four years later with the class of 1941.  A popular student, he was amember of the Mohler Scientific, the Glee Club, the German Club, and Sigma Chi fraternity.  He was also a manager for the varsity soccer team. He entered the Air Corps in July, 1941 and trained as a navigator, gaining his wings and his commission on May 2, 1942.  He became an instructor for more than two years at Hondo Field in Texas before being assigned to combat duty in the Pacific in late 1944.  He served as group navigator for the 38th Bomb Group of the 5th Air Force stationed in the Lingayen Gulf, winning the Air Medal.  On August 9, 1945, in an attack on Kyushu, Japan, his bomber crashed and he was killed in action.  This was five days before the Japanese surrender and eight days before John Long's twenty-sixth birthday.

Lieutenant John B. Care Lt. Care was born in Linglestown, Pennsylvania on June 22, 1915.  He attended high school in Lower Paxton and entered the College with the class of 1936.  His ambition was to become a teacher - he had done practice teaching while at Dickinson at Boiling Springs High School - but was mostly employed as a clerk, first with the U.S. Treasury and then with the Pennsylvania Supply Company. He enlisted in the Army in April, 1942, became an officer in November, 1942, and was sent to Europe in late 1944.  He served in across Europe with the advance as a member of the 468th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Automatic Weapons Battalion attached to the Ninth and Third Armies. On February 10, 1946, while serving with the Army of Occupation in Austria, he died of gunshot wounds.

Captain Donald W. Liggitt Captain Liggett was from York, Pennsylvania, where he graduated from William Penn High School.  He entered the College in 1941 but enlisted in the Army Air Corps in the autumn of 1942.  He attended officier candidate school in Florida and after service in North Carolina, served in Europe during the march on Berlin.  He returned to the United States in October, 1945 and was stationed at Randolph Field in Texas as an assistant judge advocate.  On May 7, 1946, he was among five men killed in the crash of a bomber in Louisiana.

John Verban, Jr. John Verban, Jr. was born on July 21, 1911, the son of John and Mary Fliszar Verban of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.  He attended Allentown Preparatory School before entering Dickinson College in September 1931 as a member of the Class of 1935. During his time at the College he was a member of Theta Chi fraternity.  However, Verban withdrew from Dickinson in June 1933 following the death of his father.   He took a job in an insurance company, and in October 1939 he married Matilda Borda of Bethlehem.  The couple had a son, John Borda Verban, in 1943. Verban served his country during the Second World War as a private in Company F of the 337th Infantry.  Fighting in Italy in October 1944, he was seriously wounded in combat.  Family records indicate that Verban died in an Italian hospital near Castello Fiorentino on October 16, 1944, and was buried there.  Some years later the body was exhumed and buried in Bethlehem.  Further details of his sacrifice are unknown.

Captain Sydney Charles Novell Captain Novell was from Norristown, Pennsylvania, where he graduated from high school.  He spent two years at Dickinson on the Ph.B course as a member of the class of 1939 but withdrew before his junior year.  He was a member of Phi Epsilon Phi. Details of his sacrifice are, sadly, for the moment, not available for this memorial

Jurgen von Oertzen Von Oertzen was a German student who attended Dickinson in 1933-34 and earned the bachelor's degree with the class of 1934 at commencement on June 11, 1934. From Mecklenburg in northern Germany, he was a student at the University of Rostock and was participating in the Institute of International Education's exchange program.  (The following year, William Woodward '34, brother of Paul Woodward '37 studied physics and chemistry at the university in Munich)  "Ekky" was a popular student who concentrated his studies in history and economics with the goal of entering the German civil service.  He also participated in the varsity soccer team. When the call for the fifteenth reunion of his class went out in 1949, relatives sent information that on August 21, 1941, Jurgen von Oertzen had been killed in action serving in the German Army involved in the battle for the Latvian capital of Riga.  Latvia had been independent till 1940 when it came under Soviet domination; the German attack was part of the general advance in Hitler's invasion of Russia.

Egloff von Tippelskirch Von Tippelskirch was another German exchange student who spent the year at the College and received a degree with the class of 1933.  Born in Charlottenburg on June 5, 1913 in Brandenburg in northern Germany, he attended boarding school at Dahlen, outside of Berlin.  He went on to the Universities of Berlin and Freiburg, where he took his law examinations, before arriving in Carlisle.  In the words of the Dickinsonian, "a tall and unassuming boy," he studied American Criminal Law and History while at the College.  He returned to Berlin and ultimately earned his doctorate. He served in the German Army on the Eastern Front where he was captured and died on February, 1946 in a Russian prisoner of war camp.