Company I, 271st <strong>Infantry</strong> <strong>Division</strong> - Camp Shelby, Mississippi August 1943 Submitted By: Douglas Buckstad, 28A Trillium Court, Asheville, <strong>No</strong>rth Carolina 28805-1357 -30- -31 - ') . I
THE PHILADELPHIA ENQUIRER SUNDAY, JANUARY 26, 1997 By Joseph S. Kennedy VALLEY FORGE - In anticipation of large numbers of battle casualties during World War II, the U.S. Army's Medical Department began a hospital construction program throughout the country in the early part of the war. Under this program, the Valley Forge General Hospital was built in Charlestown Township near Phoenixville. It opened on March 12, 1943. And from that date until 19<strong>50</strong>, it treated more than 60,000 GIs. "<strong>The</strong> facilities were excellent, my treatment was outstanding, and the food was good. I received the best care in the world," said Michael Jugan, 72, of Kimberton. Jugan, a combat corpsman whose mouth and jaw were shattered during the Battle of the Bulge, was a patient at Valley Forge General for a year in 1946-47. <strong>The</strong> hospital was situated on a 180-acre site that contained 130 two story semi-permanent brick buildings, according to the Army Medical Corps. All the medical buildings were connected with a total of 7 miles of corridors. <strong>The</strong> hospital had a bed capacity of 2,<strong>50</strong>9. In the beginning, it was staffed by Army personnel. Later in the war, a large staff of civil service employees was added. As WWII progressed, the hospital began to treat some of the most horribly disfigured and disabled soldiers. Thus it specializ"ed in plastic surgery, the blind and psychiatry. "It was really terrible. Some of the boys didn't have any faces at all. You just had to look beyond their disfigurement and see that there was a real person there," said Nell Gautreau, a civilian hospital employee from 1945 to 1955. "I tried to look right at these disfigured men and just not show my emotion. At the end of the day, I was exhausted," said Betty Jeitles, a Gray Lady for the Red Cross who volunteered during three wars. Many accepted techniques of plastic surgery today were developed during the war at hospitals such as Valley Forge, according to the Army Medical Department. One common practice was to make a plaster mask of the soldier's face to serve as a guide for the surgeon doing the reconstructive surgery. "When I was discharged from the Army in 1948, doctors told me that the reconstructive work done on my jaw and mouth would have cost $10,000 in the civilian world," said Jugan. <strong>No</strong>t all of the patients had such happy results. <strong>The</strong>re were a notable number of suicides at the hospital, -32- during and after the war, by those unable to cope with their disfigurement, the loss of their sight, or their mental illness, former patients and volunteers say. Caring for blinded soldiers and teaching them selfsufficiency was one of the programs at Valley Forge General. <strong>The</strong>se soldiers were taught braille, and they developed finger skills by learning weaving and typing. So successful was the program that the hospital was chosen as the location of a Hollywood movie. In August 19<strong>50</strong>, a cast and crew came to the hospital to film Lights Out, starring Arthur Kennedy, Peggy Dow and Richard Eagan. <strong>The</strong> story was about a blinded WWII soldier and his rehabilitation at Valley Forge General. <strong>The</strong> film, now called Bright Victory, premiered in July 1951 in Phoenixville, where much of the filming took place. Local residents were used as extras. Part of the hospital's rehabilitation program centered around a vast recreation and entertainment schedule, aimed at keeping the servicemen's morale high. On the grounds were a number of ball fields and tennis courts. Indoors were a fully equipped gymnasium, a bowling alley and an Olympic-size swimming pool. Teams of administrative staff and patients were organized into intramural leagues as well as intermural hospital teams that competed with other Army hospitals in baseball, basketball, softball, swimming, bowling, boxing and archery. <strong>The</strong> hospital also had its own post office, outdoor amphitheater, newspaper and radio station. Over the years, big names from society, entertainment and sports came to cheer the patients. <strong>The</strong> visitors included the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Rudy Vallee, Eddie Canter, Gene Kelly, Duke Ellington, Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, Ike Williams (the lightweight boxing champion) and Joe Walcott (the heavyweight boxing champion). One of the most popular places was the post chapel, where hundreds of weddings were held. Records from the Chester County Historical Society report weddings between patients and their sweethearts from home, nurses, staff and local women. "<strong>The</strong> hospital joke was that the patients had saved the young, unmarried women of the Phoenixville area from becoming old maids," said Gautreau. Gautreau met her husband, Bob at the hospital, where he was recovering from a land-mine wound. <strong>The</strong>y were married in 1949. <strong>The</strong> hospital had a great impact on the local economy. Monies from jobs at the hospital, spending by patients at local businesses, services rendered by local business, and supply purchases from local stores ran close to $1 million annually, records indicate. This created a bond between the hospital and the surrounding area. (Continued on Page 33)
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