Manila. Here he listened to complaints as he travelled to various Army installations including Fort William McKinley and Corregidor. Less than six months into his Philippine tour he received a telegram from President Smith renewing his offer of a job at LSU as the dean of administration with a salary of $5,400 per year. Middleton was in the hospital undergoing testing for some heart irregularity when the telegram arrived, and he showed it to two other lieutenant colonels who were visiting him. One of them said he should take the offer, the salary being excellent. The other lieutenant colonel, Dwight Eisenhower, said he should stay in the army. Eisenhower had spent three years in Panama as an aide to General Fox Conner, who knew that the terms of the Treaty of Versailles were being ignored by Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, and who was certain another war was coming soon. Eisenhower reasoned that this was no time for an officer with Middleton's combat experience to be getting out of the Army. To Middleton, as a very junior lieutenant colonel, the prospect of becoming a general officer seemed very remote, and upon giving the matter more thought he ultimately decided to retire from the army. Once his decision was made, he wired President Smith at LSU advising him that he was ready to become a civilian and accept the university post. The Middletons left the Philippines in May 1937, making a long leisurely trip back to the United States. They stopped in Hong Kong, Japan, and China en route to San Francisco. Lieutenant Colonel Middleton officially retired from the army on 31 October 1937, though he began his service at LSU two and a half months earlier. Tenure at Louisiana State University The first year in his new job as administrative dean at Louisiana State University (LSU) went smoothly. The Middletons had a new house built on Highland Road near the campus, and an oil field was discovered under their property, bringing them royalties that would pay for their property many times over. University enrollment began to climb in 1938 and the LSU football team had just finished three outstanding seasons under coach Bernie Moore, winning 27 of their 30 regular season games. Middleton was photographed breaking ground for a new faculty club that year, as the campus grew in many areas. All seemed to be running well when in June