The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1943-04-22
CHAPTER III

we got there they told US that beautl-
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. I 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
The next I remember was down
IN the tunnel in the army hospital
under Corregidor, the army doctor
asking me what treatment I'd had
as ne cut the shirt off my back-it
wouldn't come off over my hand any
more. When he found out hadn't
had any sulfa pills, he gave me
big moUthful of them to chew. He
said I'd probably lose the whole arm
because blood poisoning had set in
solid clear to the shoulder, but he'd
do what he could, and in a few min
Utes more I was fat on my back
with my arm packed tight In hot
water bags.
But the thing that impressed me
most-eVen then-was the army
nurses. There were fourteen Of them
on the Rock, and remember, hadn't
talked to a white woman since we
sailed from the States. Heretofore,
hadn't paid much attention to won-
en-, but somehow the war and every
thing made a big difference.
''Or maybe it was Peggy herself,
because she was a very cute kid.
a brunette about medium height and
very trim, but mostly it was her
green eyes, I 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
1t. She started right in bossing me
around while she helped cut off my
shirt.
But don't think I didn't have COM
petition. The Rock was built to &C.
commodate four thousand men, but
eleven thousand were already
damned in there, each of whom
would have given his right ear for
even a look from one of those four
teen girls. So if later on she got to
like me pretty well, Peggy can't
ever say she didn't have a selection
to choose from. Competition was
pretty stiff.
BY the time I left that hospital,
think almost all of those fourteen
girls were engaged.
Because was the only naval Of
fcer In this army hospital, I got to
be kind of pet with the nurses-I
was their curiosity. Another reason
might have been that was always
trying to cheer them up. The doc
tors were all reservists, going around
with long faces, singing the blues
about the way the war was going. I
kept saying he'll no, we weren't
licked yet, and then what did they
mean, the folks at home had for
gotten us-of course they hadn't.
Didn't they hear the radio from the
States and what it was saying about
our fight? I always had a cheerful
angle on anything for the girls, and
they began calling me their one
man morale officer"
1.-The whole army was listening
in" said Bulkeley. 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"
1T came at eleven at night"
Buckley went on. 81 had my three
boats out there by 1870. Funny
thing, that old ship had been n
aircraft carrier IN the battle of
Jutland-frst boat ever to launch a
plane in actual battle She survives
the whole German Imperial feet 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 1876. 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, heard
someone whistling tuneI I 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 a 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"
.aThey began bringing them into