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| Ft. Lewis, WA:
September 1942 to March 1943 |
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| At Ft. Lewis the unit was assigned a Regular
Army Commanding Officer, Colonel Wendell Weller, who had been a medical
officer captain at Lederman General Hospital in San Francisco until the
start of W.W. II. A cadre of enlisted men, plus additional medical
officers were also assigned to fill out the "T.O." (Table of
Organization) of the 51st Evacuation Hospital. |
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The unit was quartered in barracks at North
Ft. Lewis ... |
| ... where we learned to live without privacy
and ... |
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... become accustomed to Army mess rations.
All of the nurses, and some of the medical officers were assigned to duty
at the Ft. Lewis Station Hospital. |
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| Training for the remainder of the unit
consisted of 5 mile hikes with packs, training in the use of gas masks and
other equipment. |
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| There were night
maneuvers when we would set up the hospital tents in freezing or rainy
weather and admit simulated battle casualties under blackout conditions. |
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| Here are the tents drying after one of the
night exercises. |
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| Just as the weather at Ft. Lewis was
beginning to show signs of spring, we received orders to move to the
Desert Training Center in the Mohave Desert of California to provide
medical support for General Patton’s armored divisions training there. |
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| Here leaving for California are
Lt. Col. Orrin Cook ... |
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| ... Major Dudley Saeltzer and Captain Donald Jones, with
Capts. Soracco and Mendelhof seeing them off. |
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Also leaving are Capt. and
Mrs. Andrew Henderson and Capt. Ken Dufore. |
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