Ashford General Hospital

The Greenbrier Resort at White Sulfur Springs, West Virginia was owned by the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad and frequented by the “best families.” It was the playground of the rich and famous. It was commandeered by the United States government and became Ashford General Hospital. I arrived there on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Four patients occupied each room. With me was Bob Zamaria, married from Meadville, Pennsylvania; Leo, street smart from Detroit and I do not remember the other patient. I was not completely ambulatory and spent much time sitting on the bed with playing cards. There were no televisions or computers. We were free to use the facilities of the resort. Tennis, golf and horseback riding were available. The grounds were immaculately kept by German Prisoners of War. They wore fatigues with a big POW stenciled on the back. We had no contact with them. There was entertainment every evening; movies and USO entertainers. Those of us who were not ambulatory were pushed in wheel chairs. There were many amputees and paraplegics. I can remember only one entertainer. He came out with a straw hat and a cane and did a soft shoe tap dance. When he finished, he sat on a chair, pulled up a pants leg and removed the lower part of his leg. He hopped off with the device over his shoulder. You could almost hear the amputees thinking, “If he can dance with that thing, I can sure as hell walk with it!” I suppose that is why he performed there.

Ambulatory patients were required to do calisthenics and/or work. When it was discovered that I went to Pharmacy School for a year, I was sent to the Pharmacy. I was put to work making cod liver oil capsules. Drugs did not come like they do now. They were made in the Pharmacy from powders and liquids. Some drugs were ground into powder in a mortar with a pestle. I had a bowl of this evil smelling cod liver oil, an eye dropper (small syringe) and a box of empty capsules. I took apart the capsule, filled the syringe with cod liver oil, put it in one part of the capsule and then “put the lid on.” I had to be very careful because it was difficult to wash away the smell.

One day we were given the choice of calisthenics or picking apples for a farmer. Those of us who chose apple picking were driven to a farm. We wore our pajamas and robes. I fear that we ate more apples than we picked. We were all under twenty years of age.

I got along very well with the Pharmacist and he invited me to spend Christmas, 1944 with him and his family in Selma, West Virginia. We took the train on Christmas Eve to the large town just outside of Selma and rode a bus to Selma. It was a biter cold night and the snow made seeing the road difficult. We went up a winding road to Selma. Had I seen the road, I never would have gotten into that bus. We came back several days later during the day and I discovered that the road ran along a mountain with a sheer drop on one side of the road. I was a city boy and amazed to find livestock wandering in the streets of Selma; not the suburbs but downtown.

Two lumbar sympathectomies were performed. The lumbar nerves which controlled the flow of blood to the lower extremities were cut. Trench foot causes the contracting of blood vessels in the feet. It was thought that gravity would pull more blood through the blood vessels. This procedure made my feet warm and dry and allowed me to be ambulatory. I was transferred to the Medical Corps and put to work in the Hospital. Bob Zamaria and I were assigned to the admitting office, four to midnight shift. We were assigned quarters in the employee’s quarters, two to a room. Bob and I would report to the Admitting Office at 4:00 P.M. When patients arrived we would do the paperwork to admit them and send them to their assigned room. If there were no admittees, we played cribbage. At six o’clock, one of us went to the movie. At eight o’clock, the other one went to the movie. At eleven o’clock we went to the mess hall for dinner. At midnight we went to our quarters. We were free until four o’clock the next day. And we had few admittees during our shift. It was a good life.

This good life ended with VE Day. Planning for the invasion of Japan was beginning and hordes of infantrymen were needed. I was transferred to the Infantry and sent to Fort Jackson for advanced infantry training. I found the training physically impossible and the Army agreed. After a stay in the Fort Jackson Hospital, I was transferred to Camp Atterbury, Indiana, for a Medical Discharge. I was discharged on August 2, 1945. I was 20 years, 4 months old.