Keeping Things Cool and More News - The Rattle, Summer 1944
As appeared in The Rattle - Vol. XXXII No. 4 - June 1944
Keeps Things Cool in Hot Climes
One officer in the Southwest Pacific area whom the Army is affording an opportunity of putting into practice ideas and theories evolved during schooling and in his civil profession is Capt. Irving F. LeGrand, Penn State, '34, of Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
He is in a difficult technical job, too, requiring all the ingenuity of modern refrigeration engineering. He is working so that United States soldiers fighting and sweating in the steamy tropical jungles of New Guinea may receive all possible benefits from this science by the proper development and functioning of a practical refrigeration system.
Capt. Irving F. LeGrand, Penn State, '34
Imagine being confronted with the problem of keeping food, medicine, and other essential needs for many thousands of troops, spread out over an area bigger than the whole of the United States, at the proper temperature in places less than 10 degrees away from the equator.
That is the job of Captain LeGrand, for during the past seven months he has supervised the erection, operation, and maintenance of all refrigeration in advanced areas of the Southwest Pacific theatre. This territory includes all of New Guinea and the adjacent islands, where American troops are literally "sweating it out," as the troops themselves say.
Captain LeGrand, who arrived in this area December 1, 1942, worked in a similar capacity for seven months in Australia, prior to undertaking his present assignment. In addition to jobs relating to refrigeration, his work in Australia included air conditioning projects, and involved the design, procurement, and production of both refrigeration and air conditioning equipment.
Perhaps Captain LeGrand's outstanding achievement was the development of a portable engine-driven air conditioning unit which can be flown to advance areas by transport plane.
Other equipment which he has dealt with varies from such things as mobile trailer-mounted refrigerators, and portable prefabricated ice plants to special applications such as air conditioning for parachute storage and bomb sight repair shops and hospital surgeries.
Captain LeGrand is well fitted by civilian training and experience to handle the difficult highly specialized tasks assigned to him. In civil life, he was engaged as a refrigeration engineer by the Power Engineering Corporation, Wilkes-Barre, Pa. He was graduated with a mechanical engineering degree from Pennsylvania State College in 1934; the same year he received his commission as a second lieutenant in the Officers Reserve Corps.
Chapter News
Four resident members started a chapter build-up after house was returned following ASTP withdrawal from Penn State
Wartime Experiences
Those from Omega Chapter (Penn State) overseas include:
Ensign H. H. Alter, Jr., ’46, in New Guinea
Lt. Robert L. Harder, in Africa
Ensign H. B. Wodock, San Francisco
Cpl. Robert C. Williams, '44, San Francisco
Lt. Robert G. Coran, with a fighter squadron in China
Pvt. J. H. Max Kipper, has left New Zealand for Caledonia
Adam C. Fulmer, is with a malaria unit
Pfc. J. H. Flagler, Jr., '40, is with a bomb group in England
Lt. Burton E. Hall, San Francisco
Cpl. George Roth, in Australia
Cpl. William Strickland, San Francisco
George W. Chapman, Jr., Penn State, '46, is in Squad F, Flight 26, 63 C.T.D., University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Major S. Dale Kaufman, Penn State, '33, is in the QMC, Puerto Rico
S/Sgt. Virgil W. Wall, Penn State, '46, is in the signal intelligence service
Lt. Comdr. W. C. Thompson, Penn State, is district legal officer at Great Lakes, Ill. He has had three years of service with the Navy, 16 months of which were in foreign duty
Lt. Gerry Karver, Penn state, who was expected to win first in the mile run at the Penn Relays this year, as he had in the past, was not able to participate. he is attached to the AAF weather station at Florence, S.C.
Ensign Paul Handwerk, Penn State, was wounded in the invasion of Sicily, but recovered successfully and recently visited Omega Chapter.
Dr. C. C. Peters, Penn State, has been given leave from the faculty to serve on the War Manpower Commission
Served in Honor (Chapter Eternal)
George Harkness, ’39 - 1942
Army Navy Air Medals
Lt Wayne Stover, Penn State ’38, for sinking enemy submarine vessel while on costal patrol duty. He later was sent to England with a bomb group.
Misc
I would like to add here my small voice in appreciation of the excellent job that the Grand Chapter is doing to tide over this period of unsettled and uncertain activity forced upon most local chapters. Those of us who have been separated from our chapters and our friends best realize how much this will mean in the immediate aftermath of the war, when we shall all expect to return to our homes and our chapters to "carry on" as before. —Virgil W. Wall, Omega, '46, (S/Sgt.)