“Farewell to college joys . . . .”
Anchors Aweigh
There were 14 of us in A6903.
As in many of the old World War II movies, we came from all corners of the US: Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Illinois, Tennessee, Florida, New Jersey, New York, Nevada, Massachusetts, and Oregon.
In an odd precursor to what was to happen to me when I reported on board my ship the following spring, my OCS group also included another Boston College graduate. I had been acquainted with Greg McClure at BC, but I don’t believe we had any sense beforehand that we would be in this group together.
Two in A6903 were attorneys. Don Cockrill had received his law degree from University of Virginia and Bill Peeters was a graduate of Northwestern’s School of Law. Two others had graduate degrees. David Jones had received an MFA from Princeton and Harvey Katz was the holder of an MBA from Harvard Business School. They were obviously a few years older than the rest of us.
Besides the two BC grads, Lenny Borg and Cockrill were both graduates of Vanderbilt. Otherwise, the other undergraduate alma maters were University of Virginia, Coe College, Middle Tennessee State, Princeton, Penn, Florida State, University of Nevada, Notre Dame, Oregon State, and Amherst.
Among the entire 6903 contingent of about 220, the Ivy League was well represented, with about 10 percent of the group. A somewhat cursory scan of the colleges represented, however, found that that largest single group came from Williams.