The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-01-26
DIR. GASTON ROGERS
 WRITES OF WORK AS
 SURGEON IN FRANCE
Birmingham Man, in Letter to Uncle, Gives Intimate Glimpse of Work in Army Hospitals During
 Fighting

Dr. Gaston w. Rogers, captain medical corps, United States army, has written an intedesting letter to his uncle, pr. W. H. Wilder, regarding his work in France. Dr. Rogers is so well known in
 Birmingham, where he practiced for number of years. that his letter will be read with much interest, especially by the medical fraternity. It is as follows: Mines, France, December 90, 1918. Dear Uncle Billie: I have been want ing to write you and tell you something of my work over here but up to the last week or so, between nosing around and l working, 1 have had little time or con- veniences for writing.
 But to begin with, let me wish you and Aunt Rosie a happy New Year and hope the holiday season has been pleas | ant.
 ! My work, until the signing ot fhe armistice, was all surgical and no paper | work or executive work at all. l was
 assigned as assistant to pr. (Col) Ar
 thur w. Biting of Albany, N. Y. He is | a friend and clasSmate of Dr. Lupton
 and a friend of Dr. Norris He is a
 man of the type of Dr. Prince and 1 i judge just such a man from a profess
 sional point of view.
 ! Our first work was near Verdun, where we were stationed for the now famous | St. Mihiel drive, or show as 1t IS called in army slang. Then we were
 at the same place for the opening Of me ! Argonne drive and were very busy there | for the first few days when our team was moved to another hospital at La
 Verne, about 5 miles north of Chalons Sur Marne. The Americans went in there | with the French just east of Rheims, and after a successful drive dislodged the 1 boche and were then moved out. At this | hospital Col. (DrD Dean Lewis of Chi cago was the chief of surgical service
 and we did lot of work
 After this drive we remained with the
 same shospital and the entire organiza- | tion was moved to Staden, Belgium, | about eight miles west of Roulers. we were with the Thirty seventh (Ohio) and Ninety first (Western) divisions up here, and the boys did good work but were very badly shot up Dr. Drennen joined
 the hospital here and was there two or
 three weeks when he was ordered to base hospital 15. We were here in Bel
 gium where the armistice was signed and
 remained there until November 26. It
 was interesting to see the French, who had a hospital adjoining us and their
 German prisoners, as laborers, all cele- Ibrating the armistice together and drink
 ing Win Rouge," or red wine, together.
 Our surgical team was composed Of the operator, dSSiStdHt, dHdoo'h0'i'e' [" A~AN and two orderles.
 | We did more operations than any other team, $40 in all, from the time we went up until the end and, of course, we had
 to work only when the boys went "oves
 the top," then it was work like fighting
 fire until we caught up.
 In Belgium it was five days in some
 cases from the time of injury until we
 could get to them to operate on them
 We took the badly injured first and ths last ones were the slightly wounded. All cases of wounds, practically. arc operated on and especially wounds froE high explosives.
 We had men wounded in absolutely every region of the body from "brair cases" to only scratches and many many severe fractures. all being com pound communicated, and as you say '.counfound" ones, too. l have had q ! wonderful experience and this was jus 1.-the work I wanted and l enjoyed the experience very much
 Can YOU imagine long tent with | operating tables in it and all absolutely | free at all times for three or four day: ! and longer at a stretch and five team' working at a time?
 And too, can you imagine the feellns | at about or 10 p. m. when you arr ! busy under such conditions and have case opened up when someone rushes II and wells flights out! and the light are put out and you can hear the hun of boche airplane overhead and vol | standing there all sterile, not knowing what second a bomb is coming througi the tent and end it for all in the tent | don't think anyone can know this feel ing that hasn't been through it as w | did at La Verne once or twice. After November 26 I was sent bac for reassignment and this time was as sgend as attending surgeon to nev leave area at Mines, in the extreme soutl | of France and just east of the Rhine riv | CT. It is beautiful town one of tn II old Roman cities and there is an ol
 Roman arena, temple of Diana, Romal