Class of 1940

John 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 his 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.

Cockey was killed in a flying accident over the small village of Bodney, a few miles west of Norwich in East Anglia on September 7, 1944, when he was a squadron commander and a major. Eleven days later, his fellow pledge in the eight man Phi Kappa class of 1940, John Ell, was killed in action in Holland.

David 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 earned a master's degree in sociology at the University of Southern California and returned to teach 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.

John Dale was born in Philadelphia in 1919 and graduated from high school in Montclair, New Jersey where his 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. He was twenty four years old.

Gerald "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 in 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 Pi fraternity and a four year participant in the German Club. He graduated with a bachelor of philosophy degree in June, 1940.

Darr 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, and despite struggles with malaria, Darr rose to the rank of aircraft commander.

On November 14, 1943, his Liberator disappeared over the island of Bougainville, most probably after being hit by 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 officially listed Gerald Darr as "killed in action."

John Ell spent four years at the College after graduating from high school in Nanticoke, Pennsylvania. He worked on the Dickinsonian, and was a photography editor of the Microcosm. He was a member of Phi Kappa Sigma, pledging with John Cockey, 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.

Ell entered the Army in August 1941 and soon after volunteered for the newly-formed parachute infantry units. He was commissioned at Fort Benning, Georgia in January 1943 and a year later was posted in England. On D-Day, 1944, his regiment, the 501st of the 101st Airborne Division, landed in Normandy before dawn. Ell was later wounded but 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 defend newly-seized positions against an enemy counter-attack. While leading this defense against superior forces, John Ell was killed by mortar fire. For this action, he was awarded the Bronze Star posthumously; he was twenty-six. Prior to his death, Ell sent an eloquent letter to his parents from Normandy, trying to prepare them for the possibility that he may not return.