Father Duffy's story : $b a tale of humor and heroism, of life and death with the Fighting Sixty-ninthDuffy, Francis Patrick
History
Father Duffy's story : $b a tale of humor and heroism, of life and death with the Fighting Sixty-ninth
Duffy, Francis Patrick
United States. Army. Infantry Regiment, 165th; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, American
At last we have located the gassed members of our 3rd Battalion in
the hospitals at Vittel and Contrexéville; and today, as Lieutenant
Knowles had the kindly thought of bringing their pay to them,
Donovan, Mangan and myself took advantage of the opportunity to go
and see them. The hospitals were formerly hotels in these summer
resorts and serve excellently for their present purpose. Many of the
men are still in bed, lying with wet cloths over their poor eyes, and
many of them have been terribly burned about the body, especially
those whose duties called upon them to make exertions which used
perspiration. Among these is John McGuire of the Supply Company
and many of the sanitary detachment, such as Sergeant Lokker, Ed.
McSherry, James Butler, Michael Corbett and John J. Tierney, who have
been recommended for the Croix de Guerre for courage and devotion
in saving the wounded. Sergeant Russell, with Corporals Beall and
Brochon of the Headquarters Company are also suffering for their zeal
in maintaining liaison.
But it is Company K that had to bear the brunt of it. Of the
officers, Lieutenant Crane is in the most critical condition, and
it was a touching thing as I went through the ward to hear every
single man in his platoon forget his own pain to inquire about the
Lieutenant. Some of the men are still in very bad shape, Richard
O’Gorman, George Sicklick, Val Prang, Sergeant Gleason, Bernard
Leavy, Francis Meade, James Mullin and also Mortimer Lynch,
Christopher Byrne, Daniel Dooley, Gerard Buckley, Harold Benham,
Harold Broe, Kilner McLaughlin, and Buglers Nye and Rice. The
cooks did not escape—Pat Boland, William Mulcahy, Moriarty, Thomas
O’Donnell and Michael O’Rourke, who, by the way, is one of those
Czecho-Slovaks who has chosen to fight under a martial name. The
Wisconsins also have been hard hit, and two of their men here,
Corporal John Sullivan and Leo Moquin, are painfully burned on
account of their exertions in carrying others. I have turned the
names of these two in with a recommendation for citation, with those
of Staber, Farrell, Ross, Van Yorx, Montross, Beall, Brochon, McCabe
and the medicos mentioned. Sergeant Leo Bonnard, in liaison with the
French, has received his cross on their recommendation. Lieutenant
Tom Martin and Dr. Patton also received the same decoration.
Apart from Lieutenant Crane, none of the officers is in serious
condition, though more than half of the officers in the battalion
are in the hospital, including Major Moynahan, Captains Hurley,
Merle-Smith, and Meaney, Lieutenants Leslie, Stevens, and Rerat,
with nearly all the lieutenants of Company K and M, and also Major
Lawrence with Lieutenants Patton and Arthur Martin of the Sanitary
Detachment, who deserve high praise for their handling of a difficult
situation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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