The Gallaghers of Ballinrobe

earned the American Service Medal, the European-African-
Middle Eastern Service Medal, a Good Conduct Medal and
a Victory Medal. He arrived back in the U.S. on July 23,
1945. There is a ticket in his possessions showing that
Uncle Tom spent at least one evening (Oct. 5, 1945) after
returning to the States at the Victory Service Club in Los
Angeles. It was a spot run by a Christian organization that
offered servicemen a free bed for the night. But the ticket
warns: “Watch your valuables; there are thieves abroad.”
Uncle Tom eventually received an honorable
discharge on Feb. 13, 1946, from Fort Dix, N.J.
AFTER THE WAR
Uncle Tom’s separation papers from the military
were among the possessions he held onto that are now kept
by his nephew Pat, Uncle Jim’s son. His “Report of
Separation” says he left the Army at the “convenience of
the government” during demobilization from the war. It
indicates he had received the first $100 of a total of $300
“muster out pay.”
The form also lists “none” under the heading
“wounds received in action.” But not long after his military
service, Uncle Tom had trouble with one of his eyes. There
are no specific records about the problem (it may have been
a detached retina) or whether it was related to his time in
the Army.
Uncle Tom was treated at Will’s Eye Hospital in
Philadelphia. He spent time recovering at a veterans facility
in Delaware. A discharge card indicates he entered the VA
Hospital on Oct. 16, 1947, and was released Feb. 13, 1948.
President Truman had approved a temporary Veterans
Administration hospital in May 1946 at what is now the
New Castle County Airport. The first patients were
admitted that August. Construction of a permanent building
began in March 1948, with formal dedication of the
Elsmere facility in April 1950.
It was at the first VA facility that Patsy DeAscanis
remembers a happy visit around Thanksgiving. She recalls
Uncle Tom in a wheelchair coming into the large
auditorium filled with cornstalks and other decorations that
for her were an introduction to a modern America to which
she hadn’t previously been exposed. Patsy and her brother,
Johnny, were there at the same time as their cousins Pete
and Mary. They had a great time running around, laughing
and having fun. Mary remembers a ping-pong table in the
room. Patsy said the cousins were playing with an abandon
they would never have shown anywhere else; she suspects
Uncle Tom would have encouraged their parents to “let
them go, let them go.”
A visit to Ballinrobe in 1970 provided the opportunity
for a reunion with Uncle Owen, top right, and Aunt
Nora and her husband Pat Murphy. Aunt Ann and
Aunt Mary were also there.
Patsy fondly recalls her uncle accompanying her
as a girl to Wilmington’s Memorial Day parade along
Delaware Avenue. He would point out the groups marching
from the different wars, including veterans in the distinctive
hats of the Spanish-American War. Patsy had been to the
parades before and never even considered asking to buy
any of the flags, balloons or other souvenirs being hawked.
So it was a treat when Uncle Tom offered to buy her
whichever one she wanted. She chose a stick you could
wave around to make the toy bird on the end fly. Uncle
Tom never marched in the parades, himself. He was always
a little skeptical of people he would refer to as “flag
wavers.”
One souvenir Uncle Tom brought home from the
war was a German Luger he had somehow obtained. His
nephew Pat Gallagher remembers Uncle Tom showing the
pistol to him. It was stored away in the rafters of the
basement of the home on Champlain Avenue. Uncle Tom
also brought with him some knowledge of the German
language, but he apparently wished he could have learned
more. Years later, Uncle Tom found it hard to understand
how his nephew Pete could take two years of German in
high school at Archmere Academy and not be able to hold a
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