Palmew, Alaska Dorothy M* Bellj, Editor,
Published every Friday at Primer, Alaska) for the *“athnuska valley
Farmers1 Cooperating Association for the purpose of giving nev/s of the
Associations Work, Problems, and.Accomplishment^*
SUBSCRIPTION BY MATL #1.75 BOX $1400 • SINGLE COPY 10^
A PEEK IN TO ONE OF OUR HOSPITALS
This letteb was handed to the Editor by Mrs. Victor Johnson to be
published so that others might get a glimpse of what is happening in
oiir Army Hospitals4
' Dear Friends, # (
I have just returned from the Baxter General Hospital In Spokane,
where I spent a week with my son# The Baxter hospital is one of sixty
army hospitals In the United utates where our boys who have been wound
ed in the various, theater s of the war are being cared for, upon their ».
* return to this countr y..
< >
There are 2500 boys (and a few girls) in the ^axter hospital.There
are seven miles of , corridors and more, wards than I was able to count.
Baxter specializes in bone and theracic surgery.
I saw hundreds of wounded soldiers there. I s»w them on crutches, in
casts, in wheel chairs,.with their arms in slings (as my own son's was)
with disfiguring wounds on face and body, ^ome of them'had beon shot
with high-powered rifles, some had shrapnel wounds, some had been in
jured by mines or cleverly constructed booby traps. Most of them face
months of hospitalization, since their injuries call for bone grafting
•with nerve repair work, to follow. There are lines of suffering deeply
etched on the faces of these boys# They have known, and in many in
stances they still know, the agony of physical pain, the uncertainty
of their own fate, the worry over possible permanent disfigurement or
health impairment#
I talked to dozens of them# I jiid not find any gripers in the lot.
I did not find any disgruntlement# They had a job to do and they did it#
Pretty generally they are a happy bunch. 'They have a lot of fun in
spite of the crutches, the wheel chaiars, the body casts and whnt have
y®u. There is:the usual amount of h®rse play, of kidding and joshing.
Their sense of humor-has not deserted them. They talk of the lighter
phases of srmy life, but they tell you, too, of.the more horrible ex
periences of war, - fv .• .
- • w ■■ t
I was#at the Baxter Hospital on V-E day. There was profound thank
fulness but no hilarity. The boys who fought the war for us and came
back to tell us about it have no illusions about the difficulty of the
task that lies ahead. They expect to have a p®rfc fcn that task also.
They expect to do it thoroughly so thoroughly that' their sons won't
have to f inish-the. job. 26 years from now. They are counting on us to
back them up on the home front*»-to keep safe at home for !them, ;the
things they are' fighting for-# They want us to buy War bonds, to -back
the Red Cross, to help the starving, suffering pe ople they have seen
in .Italy,, in Belgium, in France, in Poland in almost all the countries
of the world, 'They w ant *us, in short/ to keep on plugging away, Just as
we'ye been doing for the past four years. They know the job isn't *•
finished. They ,wm t U£ to realize it also.
You're going to be proud of Johnny when finally he comes marching
home. And I think*he's going to be proud of you, too..
. . . \ *' , Sincerely yours,
, •. ’ Mildred R, Hermann