The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-06-25

war. For it is at the evacuation hos pltals that wounded men are placed either to pull through or die. It Is at these tent hospitals that shat tered and torn soldiers are strengthened by blood plasma and blood, treated with sulpha drugs, and penicillin against infection, un- dergo shock treatment, removal of shrapnel. and operations. Surgeons, working under all kinds of makeshift conditions, perform delicate opera tions when life, reduced to a fine thread. is about to snap.
 Capt. Dionne, brain surgeon with the 10lst, removed shattered skull bones and mended bruised and lacerated brain. Two such operations, each extending over four-hour period, were performed daily. However, during the battles of the Belgium Bulge, when the 10lst wss located six miles from Bastog- ne. Capt. Dionne often performed three operations, working beyond his l2-hour shift to relieve men with head wounds.
 The surgeon spoke again and again of the fortitude of the men who fought valiantly with death under the canvas roofs of the 101st.
 We doctors were constantly amazed when we compared the en- durance, and yes, guts, of the Amer tcan soldier with that of wounded German prisoners. Hitlers super men were whimpering babies. The slightest pain, such as that caused by the hypo needle, would make them demanding, arrogant, and un- cooperative. We were very much aware of the sharp contrast which existed between the German, trained from childhood under the miltarist NaZl regime. and our own boys, who grew up in peace-loving American homes. Only year or two preyi- ously, we often recalled. they had been the drugstore cowboys who had never indulged in more rugged activity than football"
 Far more amazing, Capt. Dionne said, was the sincere desire of the men who had been through the hell of battle for months to rejoin their units.
 Spirit Of America
 The captain recalled a nineteen year-old infantryman whose both arms and legs had been badly shat tered. They tried hard but they didn't get me. they missed my heart, he said as the anesthesia was being administered. 50 fix me up good, Doc, so I can get back and get that guy that got me-"
 When the men had gained suffi- cient strength they were removed to general hospitals to the rear, mostly in Paris and England.
 Over 90 per cent of the seriously wounded men who were deposited in the admittance tent of the 101st re- covered. A great deal of credit, Capt. Dionne asserted, for the splendid record achieved by the evac hospital was due to the corps of nurses who tended the dangerously ill men, seven days a week. So dif- ficult were their tasks, that many of the doctors were astounded at their endurance. The one factor that kept them going throughout the gruelling months, when they saw little else but pain and blood and open wounds was the realization there was an important job to be done and no one else to do it, the doctor said.
 The staff of the 101st often blessed the Red Cross and the American public, too, Capt. Dionne said, for producing vitally essen- tial blood plasma and dressings. The local medical officer declared he experienced a feeling of great pride when he viewed packages of crossings with the markings, Wa terbury, Conn.,"
 The 101st Evacuation hospital, like a circus, packed up at a mo-