17.

_ Major Neal Wherry, of Washington, De. Ce, a former Governor of Rotary
District #123,was principal of the Lawrence high school’and served on our
Selective Service Board here before entering the service at Washington. Upon
his last visit to Lawrence Major Neal told me about Tom Bennett. I asked him
to write mo because I wanted to use it in ow Jayhawk Rebounds. Before coming
to Lawrence, Neal was superintendent of schools at Holton, Kansas. It was
doubtless while he lived in Holton that he became close friends with Mr. and
Mrs. Walter Bennott. Walter Bennett is a Rotarian, It is a pleasure for me
to print Major Neal Wherry's eulogy to Tom Bennett, a real, loyal Jayhawker:

"First Lieut. Thomas E, Bennett, of Holton, severely wounded by a mine
explosion near Metz, France, last October where he was serving with the Seventh
Army 163rd Engineers, died March 29, 1945, in the Army Hospital at Brighan,
Utah. Tom spent two years in the K. U. School of Architecture and was sworn
into the United States Army as an inductee on October 18, 1942. He always
plamned and expected to return to Mt. Oread to finish his education, but over
and above this he was always a loyal Jayhawker as is shown by many personal
remembrances which are prized possessions of his family. For instance there |
is the picture of his jeep taken in Paris with its name 'Jayhawker" plainly
visible on its side. But even more significant are the contents of his per-
sonal notebook which he always carried in his pocket. In this book, next only
to the data which he kept on all of tho men in his platoon, appear in his own
handwriting the complete words to I'lf A JAYHAWKER ond CRIMSON. AND THE’ BLUE.
Truly Tom Bennett was a loyal son of Kansas as well as a faithful and brave
soldier." a. |

Thank you, Pvt. James R. Cushing (APO 629, New York) for your message
which was written along the Ledo Road, Assam, India, Look up one of our old
varsity baseball men, s/Set. Ae George Hulteen. George was playing varsity
baseball when you were in school, He would be glad to see you and chew the
fat. Or am I asking you to do something similar to the boys who, when they
know I am from Kansas, ask if I know Boots Adams, the president of Phillips
Petroleum Company of Bartlesville, Oklahom.? George is jrmy Mail Clerk at
APO 495, and I know he would be tickled to death to see you

Vee James Cushing writes: "You probably don't remember me at all. I was
ons of your freshman basketball players in 1932 and worked on the stadium crew.
Big Bill Johnson, from Oklahoma, was at that time your first string center, and
my idol, so to speak," You bet, James, I remember you now as well as when you
enrolled as a freshman, You had great promise and you. were a swell ball hand-
ler. I want to thank you for the sketch of your practice-passing board. You
certainly are a thirty-third degree confirmed basketball student and fan. I

_ will write you about it a little later, .

Capt. Alfred Pfitsch, MC, Camp Fannin, Texas, writes concerning his
illustrious son, Capt. John A. Pfitsch, the "Pfleugerville Pflash": "John's
flair for publicity seems to continue. I am enclosing a clipping, copies of
which have come in from various sources including one in German from the N.Y.
Staats' Zeitung."

The clipping which he enclosed is as followsy "Texans Give Aid to Con=
version of German Plant. -- Two sports=minded Americam officers have started re=
converting one small portion of Germany's erstwhile wear industrye Capt. John
Pfitsch of Tyler, Texas, and Lt, Cassius I!. Lea of Fen'ton, Mich., are using 4
former German 88-mm. shell factory for production of batseball bats. In the
small town of Tungerhutte the two officors of the 35th Mivision were walking
through the factory when they saw a number of woodworking; machines and a sizable
stockpile of hardwood, Their 448th /mtiairoraft Warning Battalion needed baser
ball equipment, now that the shooting is over, Soon a makeshift production