The Cordele dispatch. (Cordele, Ga.) 19??-1971, 1918-07-03
RETURNING men
WOUNDS HEALED
UNITED STATES SOLDIERS GO
BACK TO FIGHTING


of casualties from the American Army
fighting in France is now being ba-
lanced by returning convalescents,
whose numbers in the reconstruction
centers fike Walter Reed hospital
here have reached an apprecable
total. seutm9 fa .sr
It is an outstanding fact TO- all OBJ.
servers that an American youth
smashed by a shell, bomb or hand
granada is, notwithstanding, exactly
the same kind Of an individual he was
before he went in, High spirited :; mis-
chievous, all personal loss discounted
and humanity ANXIOUS to resume any
duh round of ciyilien labor they. have.
a tendency to- regard the carefully
planned horspital school for pe-educat-
ing them to usefulness with the same
distaste that healthy youth has for
the training establishments, however
desirable he may know them to be-
So a chance visitor to the hospital
expecting to discover hero is apt
to find a proportion of youths whose
clothes have been taken away from
them to compel them to stay near
their beds They are likely to be cal i
culating intelligently their chances to
Shirk irksome routine Whatever the |
venture and torture they have lived |
is being forgotten while their force |
and evergy are entirely devoted to |
and energy are entirely. devoted to |
Eyes, they are most healthy anu |
normal human beings undepresseo |
and entirely unworried about any.
thing" explained MAJOR Cotton, one |
Of the chiefs of orthopedic surgery at |
~ alter Reed. I'VE find these are not
III people. Their mental and physical
vigor is most astonishing to persons
not familiar with the circumstances.
II 1t requiring continuation OF milf
tary discipline and considerable patti /
enCe ana persistence TO work cut OH I
this material, the far-sighted plans
lCf teaching a manned man new
and productive trade. The massage,
hydrotherapy and electric treatment
en- limb are regarded as splendid
but the schools are lodged most glad
ly. Still, the men are weaving basAeLs,
and demonstrating intelligent interest
in automobile mechanics, and other.
wise submitting to requirements which
are made before they can have liberty
and leisure.
"See German?" responded Maui
rice Becker once private in the 18th
Infantry, who left his left hand in an
army hospital near Toul last January
you bet l saw German. Three OF
them, all at once, one night, patroll-
ing in front of our post. They got my 1
buddy with a rifle bullet, and | was
cutting lose with my automatic and
hand grenades.9Wee got two and one
OF my own grenades got me-"
Becker explained the suspicion ne
had about hand grenades, which is
shared by all soldiers in their first I
meetings with that deadly weapon.
"Yah, they tell you it is timed for
five seconds" he announced scornful-
ly, land then one goes off in three
seconds, and the next goes off in sew
EN- so Fritz can dump it back on you"
They are going to try and teach
Becker to be an automobile expert
before they send him back home to
MiShawaka, Ind.
Sergeant Paul Chamberlain, 22 years
old and with six years military SER
vice behind him, had a new theory.
I'm military failure" he announc-
ed, after it was explained that sharp
mel shell had taken away good sec
ticn of one foot. "A fellow with my
experience could have stepped right |
along, promotion and all, but Fritz
heroic about it. we'd been in 20 days
in trench at Toul, and we're going out
at dawn on March when they tag !
ged me. There's bunch of scrap iron |
in these Dutch shells, and it got me.1 |
Still, maybe I'll be an instructor !
or something with the army yet a
while. Down here, I'm studying poui-
try raising" "3 %sv at
One soldier. mimic, broke up the
discussion by reenacting the scenes
in the base hospital wards, when Eng
fish visitors demanded necessarily
my word, are you really Yank?"
Thus. the one grimness about Wal
ter Reed hospital, where LOO patti
ents now are housed is the head |
quarters map which often adds many
red lines on blueprint to show ex.
tensions buildings, and more yellow
lines to show extensions planned. 1t
does. not extend to the wounded who
are back from "over there"
. They won't let it while they have
joke left.
--I