Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1943-06-11
CHAPTER III

WHeH bulkeley got DICK ne tooh
one look at me and ordered me to
the hospital at Corregidor But when
we got there they told us that beauti-
full big modern one-thousand-bed hos
pital had been abandoned. There it
was, don't know how much it had
cost, as useless to US as Buddhist
monastery. The patients had all
been moved down into one hundred
beds in one of the tunnels in the
Rock. wasn't so delirious that I
couldn't figure out why. Because
with no aircraft or anti-aircraft pro-
lection, that big expensive topside
hospital was just an unprotected tar
get.
1.-THE next l remember was down
in the tunnel in the army hospital
under Corregidor, the army doctor
asking me what treatment I'd had
as he cut the shirt off my back-it
wouldn't come off over my hand any
more.
"But the thing that impressed me
moSt-even then-Was the army
nurses. There were fourteen of them
on the Rock, and remember, l hadn't
talked to a white woman since we
sailed from the States. Heretofore,
hadn't paid much attention to wom-
en-, but somehow the war and every
thing made big difference.
"Or maybe it was Peggy herself,
because she was a very cute kid.
A brunette about medium height and
trim hut Il hor
green eyes, guess, and cute way
she had of telling you very firmly
what you had to do, so that you
grinned, but just the same you did
it. She started right in bossing me
around while she helped cut off my
shirt.
1.-THE whole army was listening
in" said Buckley. Don Bell, that
Manila radio announcer who they
say was shot by the Japs the first
day they entered the city, was al
ways encouraging. And even more
so was KGEI from the American
west coast, telling us we wouldn't
be forgotten, that the people knew
we were putting up a magnificent
fight"
ct came at eleven at night, :"
Buckley went on. II had my three
boats out there by 11:30. Funny
thing, that old ship had been an
aircraft carrier in the battle of
Jutland-frst boat ever to launch a
plane in actual battle. She survives
the whole German Imperial fleet and
more than twenty years later ends
up on an American mine halfway
round the world.
"When we got there, survivors
were so thick we didn't have to zig
gag to pick them up-just went
straight ahead and we got all we
could handle, although there were
cries coming out of the darkness all
around. Finally our shoulders got
so weak pulling them up the sea lad
der that we couldn't lift them. So
we'd throw lines out into the dark
it was like casting for trout-and
haul them back with a dozen people
hanging on. We'd just pull them on
in-scraping off a few ears, and now
and then a nose and plenty of skin,
on the side of our boat-but they
were drowning every minute and it
was the only way. Our boat man.
aged to rescue as many as 1856. Had
'em lying and standing every place.
But the queerest thing came at
the end. The cries out in the dark
ness had almost stopped, and we
were cruising for the crumbs when
suddenly, out over the water, l heard
someone WhiStling tune! l couldn't
believe it. But we changed course,
and presently came alongside an avi-
ator. He'd been blown way out there
along with three life belts. He'd put
one of them under his feet, another
under his head like pillow, and the
third under his behind. Had his
hands comfortably folded on his
stomach. He thanked us, said he
couldn't swim, so he'd been whistling
lust to kill time until someone came
along. Asked if there was anything
he could do. That guy had plenty
CUTS.
"Six of the survivors died before
we could land them-exposure and
burns"
"They began bringing them into
my hospital before dawn" said KEEL
ly. Zone of them was a Filipino
boy who'd been second engineer.
He'd been burned all over except
where his shorts had been, and he
screamed horribly when they
sprayed his burns. They'd put him
in the stiff wagon, but an army doc
tor felt his pulse and said, Hell,
that mans not Dead so they sent
him here. 1t hurt so bad to touch
him when they had to turn him for
spraying that he finally persuaded
the nurses to lift him by the hair on
his head.
meanwhile gloomy talk was get
ting me worried about the whole pic
ture, and the next day the skipper
here came in to see me-" said