PERISHABLE RUSH

this is an American boy wounded in action 10,000 miles away from home just seven days ago these are Japanese dead Japanese with speedy attention they might have lived to these enemy mothers their sons have come home in wooden boxes quite wooden boxes filled with ashes yes there's a difference in healing the second wounded of this war and military doctors but high faith and two drugs not found in bottles the first was speed to bring men back to the United States the second was that invisible prescription no druggist can compound well which can only be brought to a bedside by a mother a wife or a child this one for instance like most trips home his starts from the firing line these are the medics the corpsman first aid the guys who gets shot at but never shoot back they fight with morphine and bandages and splints a stretcher Shula the sweat and blood blood pumped to the Pacific by and from the American heart remember when you gave that blood and came back to give it again and again so this boy came back your blood bought his ticket first stop back a firing line was battalion eight where the doctors worked family doctors specialists surgeons from mayose Johns Hopkins from home town and city will transfer their practice to be AK to Borneo to the islands of Japan they set the fractures and sewed the scenes offices open day and night diagnosis compound fracture of the tibia with multiple laceration surgical immediate treatment note the diagram for doctors on the journey home no confusion possible no mistakes permitted name a number date of injury and treatment each man got a scorecard he carried all the way to California from the islands and the warships beachheads mountains halfway around the world for this boy from the jungles of Burma to Bangor Maine in wartime medicine distance was no longer a disease nor time of poison we found the cure air evacuation wherever the wounded lay in the field there was always a doctor a short cloth bank wherever they fell that a plane could land a plane did land and we flew them off by land and by sea and back home by air from China Mindoro from the islands of Japan itself we shipped by air marked urgent priority perishable rush out of the smells and sweat of the battle bond for a cool clean land called home evacuation of our casualties by air was SOP in all theatres of war SOP means standard operating procedure this was our airborne ambulance the c-54 airplane cruising at around 180 flying 3,000 miles non-stop if need be we had over a thousand c-54s crowding the Pacific airfields to fly the wounded home no Argosy of mercy like this was ever launched before or even dreamed of in the history of Wars this c-54 took off from okinawa next stop seven and a half hours south southeast the island of Guam change here for Kwajalein Honolulu San Francisco and points east most of the men landing in this airplane from Okinawa were wounded in action from 12 to 20 hours ago they had flown 1900 miles non-stop over open ocean here each case was reconsidered by the doctors questions asked and answers noted diagnoses double-checked x-rays taken special surgery every GI got a bath the full treatment and here at Guam was raised the all-important question should these boys go home or should they be treated here and then return to combat Barrett's from Texas which was it Texas or back with the Marines in the next task force Anderson corporal John s Dodge City Kansas was it duty or Dodge City the verdict was pronounced a boy who could be well in two months fully recovered and fed to Johnny's outfit stayed here got well and joined it cases requiring two to four months care were hospitalized in Honolulu the rest require more than 120 days of treatment were evacuated to the zone of the Interior zone of the Interior where's that zone of the Interior Zone of the Interior zone of the interior that's an army talk for home these boys got the green light 24 hours or so after they landed they were riding the forklift up into the plane inside the litters stack up for high each strapped and clamped as snug as an old brass bedstead the c-54 will hold 28 men on litters though usually the payload includes some ambulatory cases walking wounded two pilots fly the airplane with the help of a navigator radio man and engineer medical personnel includes a highly trained technician and a guide philosopher and girlfriend the flight nurse so long to Guam Kwajalein next 1800 miles 8 hours more in the cool blue sky to a crescent set in an m/l sea since 1945 a gas stop a place for lunch and a pause for the doctor to make his rounds and are on the ground and they're off again another shot of the potent drug speed speed to span 2,100 miles with a stop to refuel at Johnston Island then Honolulu evening the ocean world wash black by the tides of night up on the flight deck the navigator worked on his charts mileage airspeed altitudes when hour by hour as a night wore on checking the headings keeping them true in the cabin behind a men relaxed used to the sky after 2600 miles sleep was the simplest trade with time and some traded dreams soon to come true back by the tail road the ambulatory is drinking hot java and beating their gums retelling the story of how they got hit and wondering what it'd be like to be home Dinah won't you blow someone's in the kitchen with someone's in the kitchen I know someone's in the kitchen the old banjo Hickam Field it looked different through Japanese bomb sites on 7 December the nosewheel reached out for American soil 70 hours had elapsed and some of these men fell under enemy fire 5,000 miles to the west touchdown on a loo-loo outpost of home I'm loading again for a check in with HoMedics four to six hours on the ground a bath and more beefsteak and then at last final lineup for the stateside special goodbye to the islands the beach heads the jungle farewell to arms make mine America airborne and homeward ho 2100 miles a scant 12 hours if the winds are right the last night out there wasn't much sleep home was a dream they'd held too long eyes at the window staring through the dark trying to hurry the clock alone most of them were happy some of them were scared dawn over California there she is Sun all yours and yours and yours the Golden Gate houses backyard streetcars Hamilton field America home gee looks pretty good smells pretty good feels good yep she sure feels good Hamilton field has its hospital tool not very big nobody stayed there long just long enough for a full examination and final diagnosis a check was made for the Army Hospital nearest each boys home and a telephone call put through your call to cancel is ready but thanks hello hello mom this is Leroy yeah listen mom I'll be in Denver tomorrow see he had tomorrow afternoon will you meet me at the airport meet you tomorrow afternoon yes yes of course um Laroy up do you want anything is there anything I can bring you no no nothing now listen mom you go into Denver and go over to the Red Cross and tell them my call that I was coming and they'll fix it up for you to get out to the airport oh say you might bring me a cake some of the boys preferred not to talk to their people right away or to see them for the first few weeks just a few nights that's not okay but most of them couldn't wait especially if their families live close by hello first chance I call you honey sure I'm fine well I'm feeling great hello honey and now the last left c-47s for San Diego Sioux City Jacksonville Denver the Purple Heart Express you go into Denver and go over to the Red Cross and tell them I call that I was coming for Des Moines in Fargo new bedford new york and they'll fix it up for you to get out to the airport a boy in this airplane was wounded in action ten thousand miles from here on an island of japan just seven days ago he was evacuated by air to the United States where he will convalesce at Fitzsimmons General Hospital Colorado 25 miles from his home it is said that the war is over that we wanted this is not true only for these of our sons and husbands is the world for these they wanted and these the wounded wounded there were over 700,000 it'll cost money to put them back in business a lot of money they're buying victory bars won't you