
He passed away in June 1986.
In early 1943, the small village of Gilwern, near Abergavenny, was turned on its head when 450 soldiers and nurses of the US Army Medical Department arrived to take occupation of a newly built general purpose hospital on the edge of the village. For nearly two and a half years these strangers in a strange land carried out their duties to the best of their abilities. Some worked in isolation, but most made an effort to integrate with the local community. This is a chronicle of those times.
I think he would have been a Captain Bligh if he could have been. I just found a request he wrote to the Commanding Officer (Col. Decker) on 21 May 1944, while the unit was still in Wales, requesting the court marshal and reduction in rank of 7 specific enlisted men and the discipline of an (unnamed) officer for mutiny and insubordination for not - well, it isn't clear. The memo uses hilariously bad grammar and misspellings. He also demands the immediate closing of the NCO club for "misappropriation and misuse of Club facilities."
ReplyDeleteHi Mark. Only just seen this comment, I hope you get some sort of notification for my note. I have emailed you but I think you no longer use the email address I have..Richard.
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