The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1918-08-22
AMERICAN "TIN HAT
PROVEN RELIABLE
A Marine Owes His Life to That Protec-
ton, the Hat Having Been Struck
BY Bullet from German Gun.

Paris, Aug. % Correspondence of the
Associated Press THE case of one
American marine who went through a
hail of shrapnel and machine gun fire at
Cantigny and is now convalescing from
wound in the great American military
hospital at Neuilly, in the Paris suburbs
seems to have demonstrated that the
American field helmet, commonly called
by soldiers, the "tin hat" is thoroughly
reliable article when put to the supreme
test.
This marine owed his life to his "tin
hat" and the peculiar qualities of its
steel in giving slightly without shatter.
ing In the midst of the action he went
down with ball striking the top of the
helmet and pressing down to the skull
He was brought back, along with the
helmet, which showed deep indentation
about the size of half baseball. 1t was
this indentation which had pressed down
to the scalp, making wound which re-
quired trepaning. But there it stopped,
and the metal of the tin hat after giving
to the missile until its force was spent,
had stopped it in its deadly fight
straight toward the brain. The trepan-
ing operation was only slight and the
marine was well on the way to recovery.
The indented helmet was preserved,
not as souvenir, but to be forwarded
to the ordnance experts at Washington
to show them the good qualities of their
helmets. 1t is said that hard and brit
tie steel, which would not resisted with
out giving, would have been shattered to
bits by the impact and the ball would
have gone straight through the brain.
In an adjoining ward a stalwart young
marine who had been in the same Can
! tigny fight stood at attention with no
apparent sign of wound. But the sur
geon, feeling the boys throat, nodded
approvingly and then remarked that this
was one of the most remarkable cases
! that had ever come under his observa-
tion, and probably the only case Of the
kind on record A bullet had struck the
soldier in the left side Of the neck and
had gone through to the gullet, where it
stopped, and had then descended or been
swallowed into the stomach.
An X-ray examination clearly showed
the ball in the intestines. But instead
of removing it by an operation the sur
geons decided to await the course Of ma
ture and see ii the soldier would digest
the rife ball. And this he did One of
the surgeons remarked that the chances
of such thing happening were less than
one in million, but colleague added
that the chances were far less than that,
as he could not recall any like case in the
whole range of military surgery.
Many of the Franch poilus under
American care were in the wards of the
Daughters Of the American Confederacy,
with the beds marked with the names
Of the well known southern figures, such
as Stonewal Jackson, Senator Zebulon
Vance, General Joseph Wheeler Of Ala
bama
When the big dietary kitchen was in
spected later there was a savory smell of
American dishes and dainties being pre-
pared for the wounded men, and one of
the surgeons cheered the cooks with the
remark, "Your dishes do more good than
all our medicines" And this is literally
true, for these American wounded do not
want foreign foods, but long for the
simple old-fashioned dishes Of home, like
boiled custard, matted milk, egg nog and
bread and milk So that, even in the
food American cooks are doing their
share, and down to the last detail the