Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1918-08-22
American Marine
Owes Life to Good
Quality of Tin" Hat

correspondence Associated fress.l
Paris. July 1s.-The case OF one
American marine who went thru nail
of shrapnel and machine gun fire at
Cantigny and is now convalesclng
from a wound in the great American
military hospital at Neuilly, In the
Paris suburbs, seems TO have demon
strated 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 10 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 bali striking the top OF the
helmet and pressing down to the Skull.
He was brought back, along with the
helmet which showed a deep indenta-
ton about the size of half a oasepaA.
1t was this indentation which had
pressed down to the scalp, making
wound which required trepaning. But
there it stopped and the metal OF the
tin hat after giving to the missile I'M
til its force was spent, had stopped II
in its deadly fight straight toward the
brain. The trepaning operation was
only slight and the marine was well on
the way 10 recovery.
The indented helmet was preserved.
not as souvenir, but to be forwarded
to the ordinance experts at Washing
ton 10 show them the good qualities OF
their helmets. 1t is said that hard
and brittle steel. which would have re-
sisted without giving, would have been
shattered TO bits by the impact and
the bali would have gone straight thru
the brain.
In an adjoining ward a stalwart
young marine who had been in the
same Cantigny fight stood at attention
with no apparent sign of wound. But
the surgeon. feeling the boys throat
nodded approvingly and then remarked
that this Was one of the most remark
able cases that had ever come under
his observation. 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 thru 10 the gull
let. where it stopped, and had then de-
scended 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
nature and see if the soldier would di-
gest the rife ball And this he did.
One of the surgeons remarked that the
chances of such a thing happening were
less than one in a million, but col
league added that the chances were for
less than that as he could not recall
any like case in the whole range OF
military surgery.
Many of the French poilus under
American care were in the wards OF
the Daughters of the American Con-
federacy, with the beds marked with
the names of the well-known southern
figures. such as Stonewan jackson,
Senator Zebulon Vance, and Joseph
Wheeler, Of Alabama.
When the big dietary kitchen was in
spected later there was a savory smell
of American dishes and daintfes being
prepared for the wounded men and one
of the surgeons cheered the cooks with
the remark, Your dishes dosnore 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 Americanism OF the big
military hospital is proving blessing
to the American MANNED and wounded
who have come back from the front