Blood Brothers: A Medic's Sketch Book Part 20

Toward dark arrived at Kunming, the capital of Yunan Province and the northern terminus of the Burtq a Road, some 6000 feet above sea level.

Transferred to the 172nd General Hospital for a medical survey. Good meals! Plenty of food! Soft sheets on the beds! Magazines to read!

Went through many examinations. Had gained 11bs. in 10 days. Wt. 138 lbs.

Aug. 29, 45: Met Col. George Armstrong, the C.O. of the 172nd. I had known George when we were captains at Walter Reed Army Hospital in the early thirties. We had a very pleasant visit. (I felt very shabby in the presence of George's "spit and polish." He later became the Surgeon General of the Army).

Aug. 30, 45: Discharged from the Hospital. Wrote to Judy, telling her I would soon be coming home.

Sep. 2, 45: Sunday-V.J. Day. Big Chinese parades; many dragons occupying the streets; much noise, like the banging of pots and pans.

It was very difficult for our ambulances to get through the streets to the Kunming airport.

Sept. 3, 45: We boarded a big Douglas C-54. About 2100 in a rain storm, we took off into the Wild Black Yonder. When it would lightning, we could see mountains on every side, the Himalaya Range.

We circled up and up, to get out of the cup.

Sept. 4, 45: The Philippines! Near daybreak we came down low so we could see the badly damaged barracks of Topside of Corregidor, and soon landed at Nichol's Field-near my Garden Court home of 1940-41.

(Parangue).

We were driven to 29th Reple Depot (a tent city in Los Banos. There were letters from Judy, mother and sister Ruth, the first in many months-all thrilled that I was coming home. It was good to learn that things were normal back home.

Generals Liberated from Mukden.

While we were waiting transportation home, the generals were flown from Mukden to Yokohama, j.a.pan-to be greeted by General MacArthur.

On September 2, 1945, on the deck of the U.S. Battles.h.i.+p Missouri in Tokyo Bay, Generals Jonathan Wainwright and Sir Arthur Percival stood behind General MacArthur as he accepted the Surrender of the j.a.panese Empire. The following day, General Wainwright was flown to Baguio on Northern Luzon, to accept the surrender of the Philippines from j.a.panese General Tomoyuki Yamas.h.i.+ta in the High Commissioner's Mansion at Camp John Hay, ending World War II.

Sept. 5, 45 - Wednesday: Many papers filled out. In the afternoon I was taken for a ride through Manila. Many of the buildings along Taft and Dewey Blvds. were in shambles. There were some two hundred damaged s.h.i.+ps in the harbor, many a.s.suming bizarre positions.

Sept. 6, 45 - Thursday: Mother's birthday and I had no way to communicate with her. Edna Miller, a former school teacher at Brent School in Baguio, near Camp John Hay, called. She and her boy friend, Col. Jim Darrah, took me for a ride and dinner. Manila was a wreck!

Sept. 7, 45: I was able to make arrangements to obtain a small Army plane to fly back to Cabanatuan to look for the sketches I had buried there.

Sept. 8, 45: Lt. George Armstrong, from Utah, picked me up at 0800 and flew me in a Piper Cub to Cabanatuan, landing on an airport we POWs had built by hand - rock by rock (See poem, "The Pilot," by Gen.

Brougher).

All of the prison camp buildings made of wood and swali were gone. I found where building #12 had been and dug in the area I had buried the drawings, but found nothing. The U.S. Army Engineers at the airport furnished a bulldozer, and still we found nothing. Arrived back at Reple Depot 29 about 1700 hours to find more letters from Judy, Mother and Ruth. It was fun to get reacquainted with activities in the States.

Sept. 9 - Sunday: Lt. Col. Ryle Radke, a cla.s.smate at Army Medical School, '36, came to the Reple Depot to take me to Manila, where we had a pleasant day discussing war experiences. Back in Camp at 2300, where I found orders promoting me to Lt. Col. as of August 20, 1945.

Sept. 10, 45: Alerted at 0800. At 1130 hrs we left for Nichols Field, and at 1445 we took off in a B-24 (Liberator) with bucket seats. Had a very smooth flight through heavy rains; could see two complete rainbows, one inside the other, as we looked down toward the earth. At 2230 we sat down on Guam; enjoyed a fine steak dinner.

Sept. 11, 45: Arrived on Kwajalein, a large atoll in the Marshall Group. Time was changed from 1000 hrs to noon. A Capt. Andrews, U.S.A.

Air Corps from Danville, Virginia, took us to dinner at the Officers'

Club and then for a ride around the island which was one half by two miles. Nearly every barracks

had its was.h.i.+ng machine on the beach, powered by its own windmill, and closely observed by goony birds. Departed at 1530.

Sept. 11, '45: Arrived at Hickham Field in Hawaii about 0350; time changed to 0650. Just had time for a shower and a good American breakfast. Departed at 0930.

Chapter XIV

THE GOOD OLD U.S.A.

Arrived at Hamilton Field, North of San Francisco, at 2130; time changed to midnight. Had a fine steak dinner and off to bed.

Sept. 12, '45: After breakfast we were transferred to the Letterman General Hospital at the Presidio in San Francisco for a P.O.W. Survey.

About 1500, I was hurriedly routed out of my room and driven back to Hamilton Field. Judy was arriving from Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C. on the first Constellation ever to make a non-stop flight to the Pacific Coast; it took eleven hours and one box lunch.

At 1600, the big plane, carrying my precious cargo, gently sat down on the runway. In a few minutes, I had my lovely wife, Judy, in my arms-a moment that I prayed would never end.

Vivian Raulston, John's wife, had come from Was.h.i.+ngton with Judy. I was able to tell her that John wanted her to bake him some brownies.

John came home about three weeks later by s.h.i.+p.

The Army took us to the Saint Francis Hotel, where they had made reservations. The room, 1123, was beautiful, considering the price - $6.50. Mr. London, the manager, brought fresh flowers frequently.

Each day I had to return to Letterman Hospital for my survey. Wt. 140 lbs.

Judy came to the hospital each afternoon to take me to dinner. We tried a different restaurant every evening: Lamps of China; Sam's Fish House; Julian's Steak House; the Manger Upstairs; the Blue Fox; and Alfred & Segunda.

Many wives were coming to see me to get any possible information about their husbands, sons and brothers. A few I knew: Illa Gillespie, Tempie Williams, Jean Manning, and Crystal White. '

Sept. 13, '45: I spent the day in a telephone booth at the

Hospital sending some two hundred messages to families of prisoners, courtesy of the American Red Cross and the American Telephone Co.

About a dozen generals arrived at the hospital from Manchuria; immediately they wanted to know how I got Judy to the West Coast, when they couldn't even get commercial travel. I had to let them guess.

Actually, Vivian's sister, Vera, was the girl friend of Col. Dudley Fay, the Chief of Army Air Transportation, and he had a son who had been a prisoner of the Germans. He was sympathetic and repeatedly told Vivian and Judy, "When your husbands, John and Gene, are liberated, I'm going to see that you girls get a ride to the West Coast." So Vivian and Judy arrived at Hamilton Field on time, but actually without any official orders. Of course, I couldn't tell the generals that; they would have court-martialed me.

Sept. 15, 45: "Pappy Boynton" and his men arrived at the St. Francis.

I thanked G.o.d for that fearless aviator who had been awarded the Medal of Honor.

We were now getting daily calls from Colonels Dudley Fay and Larry Smith in Was.h.i.+ngton, wanting to make arrangements to fly us to Walter Reed Army Hospital. Our answers were always "NO!" Now we were in no hurry! "We'll come by slow train with stops in Lincoln, Nebraska, and River Forest, Illinois, to see our families."

Sept. 17, 45: We started east in our bedroom aboard the Union Pacific, through the gorgeous Rocky Mountains. When the train stopped at stations, I was amazed to see husky young women, balancing themselves along the tops of freight cars, brake persons, no less. It had taken many dedicated people, doing many strange and often hazardous jobs, to bring the war to an end. I felt grateful to each and every one of them.

We spent a couple of happy days with Judy's family in Lincoln and two more in River Forest, before proceeding on to Was.h.i.+ngton, where I became a patient on Wards 1 and 4 at Walter Reed General Hospital.

Judy lived in an efficiency apartment at 906 at 2000 Connecticut Ave., near Holton Arms School, where she taught during the war.

About the second week we were in Was.h.i.+ngton, one of Judy's teacher friends, Peggy Snow, arranged for us to get invitations

to her father's c.o.c.ktail party for the top bra.s.s in Was.h.i.+ngton.

General Snow, the Chief of Engineers in the Army, sat me in the center of the party, where I was a curiosity and subject to much questioning.