In the Flash Ranging Service: Observations of an American Soldier During His Service With the A.E.F. in FranceTrueblood, Edward Alva
History
In the Flash Ranging Service: Observations of an American Soldier During His Service With the A.E.F. in France
Trueblood, Edward Alva
World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, American
After being gassed and wounded, I was taken immediately to a dressing
station, where the wound in my leg was carefully, but hurriedly
dressed and my throat was swabbed with a preparation used in all
hospitals to relieve the severe burning in the throat caused by gas.
Of all the unpleasant experiences that I had at war, this throat
swabbing was the worst. It seemed to me like the surgeon who performed
this act had found in my throat a bottomless pit, and as the swab went
up and down my burning esophagus, I suffered great agony. Although I
knew this treatment was necessary, if I was to recover speedily from
the gas burns, I could scarcely endure it.
As soon as the wound in my leg was dressed and my throat doctored, I
was examined as to my physical condition by a Major, who labeled me
with a tag upon which was written, "tuberculosis." This, of course,
was very annoying and caused me considerable worry. It was certainly
not a pleasant word for one to receive when lying in the condition
that I then was. But I afterwards learned, much to the relief of my
mind, that this tag had been put on me by the Major as a warning to
the next surgeon into whose hands I should fall, against tuberculosis.
In other words, in my condition, it was necessary to take precautions
against the white plague.
I experienced great pains in my throat and lungs from the gas and
seemed to be choking. My strength was entirely gone, and I was about
as miserable as one could be. I could not utter a sound and any
attempt to speak only increased my pain. I relate these facts about
the agony that I suffered simply to show what a terrible weapon of war
this deadly phosgene gas is, and to emphasize the villainy of the Hun
government in using it after having agreed with other nations years
before not to do so.
I was placed on a cot and made as comfortable as possible under the
circumstances and was awaiting a motor truck to take me to a base
hospital. On all sides of me were other wounded and gassed boys. Some
of them were exceedingly jolly and talkative, notwithstanding their
pitiable condition. I remember one boy in particular, who was about my
own age. He was going over on a raid and was shot through the temple.
The bullet entered on one side an inch or two above the eye, and went
straight through, passing out the other side at about the same
distance above the eye. It passed through apparently, without striking
the brain, and the boy was fully conscious while the wound was
dressed and seemed to be quite jolly. I watched the surgeon shave both
sides of his head around the wound to prevent infection, and then
carefully dress his head, without administering any anesthetic. I
marveled at the boy's condition, with such a nasty wound, but what
surprised me still more was several months later when I was on board
ship on my way home, there was this same boy with his wound entirely
healed. Two little white scars, one on each temple, were the only
marks that told of his awful experience.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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