Payette enterprise. (Payette, Canyon Co., Idaho) 1909-1935, 1918-07-04

:
: Pat O'Brien and Paul Raney.
the largest of all. Although I never
looked into this swing" of the hospital
I was told that it, too, was filed with
patients lying on beds of straw around
+ on the ground. / do not know whether
they, too were officers or priyates,
The room in which 1 found myself
contained eight beds, three of which
were occupied by wounded German OF.
fcers. The other rooms, l imagined,
had about the same number Of beds as
mine. There were no Red Cross nurses
in attendance, Just orderlies, for this
was only an emergency hospital and
too near the firing line for nurses. The
orderlies were not old men nor very
young boys, as l had expected to find,
but young men in the prime of life,
who evidently had been medical stu
dents. One or two of them. 1 discov-
cred, were able to talk English, but
for some reason they would not talk.
Perhaps they were forbidden by the
officer in charge to do SO.
In addition to the bullet wound in
my mouth / had swelling from my
forehead to the back of my head al
most as big as my shoe-and that is
, saying considerable. 1 couldn't move
an inch without suffering intense pain,
and when the doctor told me that Il
had no bones broken wondered how
a fellow would feel who had.
German officers visited me that |
morning and told me that my machine |
went down in a spinning nose dive
from a height of between 5000 and |
5000 feet, and they had the surprise
of their lives when they discovered
that 1 had not been dashed to pieces,
They had to cut me out of my machine,
which was ,riddled with shots and shat
tered to bits.
A German doctor removed the bullet
from my throat and the first thing he
said to me when came to was, You
are an Americana"
There was no denying It. becauseI
the metal Identification disk on my
w DOlS lilt /
~P. OBJ.
q. S. A.
r. F. c."
Although I was suffering intense
agony, the doctor, who spoke perfect
English, insisted upon conyersing with
me.
you may be all right as sports
man." he declared, "but you are a
ID murderer just the same for be-
Ing here. You Americans who got intol
the war are no better than common
and you ought to be treated ,
The same way!"
The wound in my mouth made II i'm
possible for me to answer him, and l
vas suffering too much pain to be
lurt very much by anything he could !.
Jay.
He asked me If 1 would like an :
lpple! could Just as easily have
aten a brick.
When he got no answers out Of me,
lie walked away disgustedly. :.
"You don't have to worry any more" =
e declared, as parting shot. "For :.
GU the war is over" y
l was given a little broth later In =
he day, and as / began to collect my :,
loughts l wondered what had hap
ened to my comrades In the battle !,
'hich had resulted so disastrously to n
lie. AS l began to realize my plight =
worried less about my physical con- -
tion than the fact that, as the doc -
ID had pointed out, for me the war -
as practically over. l had been in It =,
1t a short time, and now 1 would be Z.
prisoner for the duration of the war ~
The next day some German flying :,
f1cers visited me, and must say they e,
Gated me with great consideration. ~
hey told me of the man l had brought or
'wn. They said he was a Bavarian ~
ID fairly good pilot. They gave me q,
S hat as a souvenir and compliment 20
me on the fight I had put up. ON
My helmet, which was Of soft -
lther, was split from front to back