What city . Philadelphia. What were your recollections of the Great Depression . Eating a lot of beans, we were on welfare even back then and we would eat dried beans. We did not have rarely did we have any sort of meat. Sick so heer was could not work. And there were not jobs around at the time until roosevelt started the new deal. Thats one of the big things that sticks in my mind, eating a lot of baked beans. , i had to go out into the woods and cut would to try and i purchased my own close from when i was about 11. 0 to 11 from 10 to my mother made a lot of our close through the depression era. Toerviewer what did you do make extra money . Andrew if a neighbor wanted help planting a garden, i may be made a dime or . 15 or Something Like that. Little jobs. Gentleman whoe cut and sold wood. I would help him and get a few pennies there. Clothes,ld purchase my my shoes, because my parents didnt have the money to do it. What was your dad doing before he got sick . Andrew originally he was a shoe cutter i trade. Mill in thecotton cotton mill was owned by rd rd wood. Already and, it was a cotton mill the cotton got to him and he had heart troubles. They also thought he had tb, but that was not true, he was in a sanatorium for im going to say six months or a year . But it never proved out, never came up positive. But for some reason they figured he had it but he didnt. The cotton mill was the one that you might say really put him out of commission as far as working. Think 68be 608i i think. He did, during the war, work a little bit. He was a timekeeper, he could do wpa had. He jobs the but there was a bomb plan outside of mays landing during the war and he was the timekeeper for a few months or year, he was never there long enough to get social security. My mother went to work as a seamstress im going to say in the early 40s. When the jobs started to come around. I started working steady when i. As about 16 , andked in a Grocery Store there was a gentleman who had an oil business, delivering oil, you would deliver a gallon here or there back in the days. And i was an automobile mechanic for a while. A company a job with out of atlantic city. We were building solid banks, that they could pump the sand behind. My mother and father knew the gentleman was the superintendent of the shop in atlantic city. When he came over to pass one day he said would you like to learn the machinist trade . I said sure. , i went intowork service but when i came back they hired me back and i was there until 1961 or Something Like that. By the end of the depression, it was over. When did you get involved in the army . Physical went for my on august 8, 1942. I passed the physical and went was inducted into the army august 22, 1942. It was a saturday. The 28th we went to agusta, georgia, and on the 29th we went to whats now for gordon fort gordon. April, may,aneuvers i would show it here someplace, june, july i think. There im we left going to say around the eighth or ninth of november, we went to camp kilmer in new jersey. We loaded on a ship which i remember as the 17th of november. Aquitania, was a big british ship. It was a rough riders, it was a rough ride, i think it was the food, it was not the greatest. The weather was calm compared to coming back. , we were in scotland put on a train and went down to a town in southern england called wooden under the edge, its a beautiful town, i went back several years later. On november 26 of 1943. It was thanksgiving day, incidentally. We were there, we went through thereraining, and we were until june the 13th. Another gentleman was supposed there, he had a girlfriend with him and he knew he was coming close to leaving so he asked if i would take over until later on. Later on i got the call, i , thet what the word was code that wethe were going to move out. We moved out that night. We went to the staging area in england, and boarded a ship. Loaded the 15th of june and landed on the 16th of june in normandy. And from then on, i would have to look at the book to tell you what towns, interviewer what beach did you what beach did you andrew omaha. The aviation, the german fighters were still making their presence known around their. You were trained as a medic. Andrew i was trained as a medic, yes. Interviewer what unit were you with . Andrew the 45th evacuation hospital. 40 nurses, 40 doctors, approximately 230 enlisted personnel. Interviewer letter bearers andrew we didnt have to do that. We took care of the patients, they went into receiving, the preop, they went to surgery. Ward and we took care of the patients after they were operated on. We bathed them and got them the penicillin shots, whatever else, help change their bandages and so forth. And i had more than one infantrymen telling me he would not change jobs with me. We were not far behind the front lines. That was our duty, we worked 8 00 at night and late in the morning and 8 00 in the morning and late at night, except when we changed shifts and then we had to split the shifts, if we were working days we had to go off at noon and come back at 8 00. Basically 8 00 to 8 00. Interviewer what units were ahead of you that you are helping take care of . Andrew that i cannot answer. I have not the faintest idea. We were in the first army, so whatever units were there. The one i know was there was a Second Armored Division. I know that because we had an colonel, iernel wont get into that but they transferred him to the Second Armored Division and brought it into our unit. Story, but as i say, politics. Back then, im sure i knew, but today i cant. Can you tell me about when you received your first in howat would be many, i could tell you how many we wound up with if you are interested in that. We were there from june 24, we that wast equipment not with us, so we had to wait for the equipment and so forth but we started the operation on june 24 of 1944 and wound up on total9 of 1944 with a u. S. Army, 1762 patients. Others. And 18 wait a minute, that includes allied personnel, the u. S. Navy, marines, and so forth. From there we went to the town , and we were there from the 20 for the july, until we moved. Because back then we were tentsg up intense in and that was no easy project. Interviewer a fullservice hospital . Andrew fullservice, everything. Interviewer when you treated your first batch of mass casualties, did your training prepare you for what you saw . So. Ew i think pretty much are in the station hospital, i was in the medical end of it. We have the basic training, and inwent into combat and i was the surgical ward, they did chest and stomach wounds. Stomachs, this one had something else. With the training we had we knew what we were getting into. I did not get it in the hospital, but i knew with the training that we had, that we were going to have wounded patients. Interviewer did you have quite a few patients . Andrew yes. That was something too. I think about this every so often, lets say he went off at 8 00 in the morning lets say you go off at 8 00 in the morning, you come back at 8 00 in the evening and where such and such . He passed away. It wasnt pleasant. It was war but you didnt want to lose anybody. No matter what. It was not great when you came back and the patient wasnt there, one of the patients. You may have lost two or three, you know what im saying . Andrew how did you deal with interviewer how did you deal with that . Andrew you were so busy you didnt have time to really dwell on it. You know what im saying . You were going on constantly, particularly with the dayshift, you are going constantly, taking care of patients. I dont remember how many we had. In the wintertime we were over in buildings, always in buildings, and depending on the layout of how many patients we could put into a room, maybe we. Ad 20, maybe we had 25 some of them you had to catheterize, get them bedpans, do shots of penicillin. We gave penicillin shots like you could not believe. ,n the army we could do that and private life you could not give a shot. But we did. You didnt have time, you do not like it but she did not have time to dwell on it. I still remember, he was not a patient in my ward, but one of , we heard aose by shoulder screaming a soldier screaming because they wanted to take his arm off. I can still hear him screaming at times. You knew it could not be helped. Enough confidence in our doctors that if that arm could not be saved it was not, you know what im saying . It just wasnt possible to save it. I felt that we had some excellent physicians, doctors, surgeons. We had orthopedic surgeons, everything. Plastic surgeons, yes. Backso had medical doctors then we had nasopharyngeal is, pneumonia, basically. Brutal, we had medical drugs medical doctors. Felt that the colonel we went overseas with, he was tough but fair, but you respected him and he built an outfit there. I think we were all proud, you will always have the guy, but basically we were proud of what we were doing and trying to do the job the best we could. Im not bragging, you know what im saying, but thats the way i felt about it and what i feel about it when i step back and reflect on this after its all over. It was a tough deal, but as far as im concerned it made a better person out of me overall. You made she mentioned treating patients who died when you were away, but you had patients who died while you were treating them . Andrew yes, i dont know how many but yes, while we were on duty, yes, definitely. Its not a pleasant thing. Even though you did not know the person, basically, you may know his last name because hes a patient but you were not friends. It still had an effect. Worked iny people your ward . Andrew two on a shift, basically. Along with the nurse. Wardswere a couple of that were being taken care of. Interviewer what was your Maximum Capacity in tents as far as he could treat . Andrew if i remember correctly i believe attend was 20 patient a tent with 20 patients. At a certain point did you have to turn people back because you are overloaded . Andrew i never heard of that being done. I went through this book before , we were loaded at times, we had an overfill, but to my knowledge we never i never heard of it. There are some admissions here and you figure you have 230 of this and 40 doctors, but when you get patients like that and au have to operate, its not 10 or 15 minute operation, you know what im saying . Its a lot of work. Some of those doctors put in all kinds of hours. Dont know me, i cannot remember ever being told that we had to send patients away. I dont remember seeing anything in this book. Rew interviewer tell me more about other experiences you had, you stead you stayed at a specific spot for a bit . There were three or four of us along with the major who was on detached service for couple of months. , but it keep records was the six18 Clearing Company and they made it into a hospital, but it was basically battle fatigue. I dont care what patton said, it happened. , heill remember one soldier was in at least four or five invasions. North africa, sicily, italy, i think southern france, and normandy. Of them he may be let missed. But he did not want to go back to battle and i could understand that. Youre talking about invasions, we went in 10 days later, but im talking about the soldiers who went in there on day one. Onto the beaches. To more it would get than one. Whether they had more of these i dont know, but for the first army as far as i know, this was the only one that was there. They needed rest. There was not anything other than rest and medication. They could take care of themselves, basically. We did not have to bathe them, no wounds, mostly just rest and medication. Did at timesthere used to sodium pen is all in justins injections to get them to talk about things, to relieve them of some of the stuff. But there was not much other than seeing that they got good care. That pretty much ended the time we left that outfit and went back to our own outfit. Near as i could tell. Interviewer and you were there for a few months . Andrew yes. Interviewer how many patients were treated there . Andrew i dont know, i would say several thousand but im only guessing to be honest with you. I would say at least several thousand. Interviewer the soldier you was in a few, who invasions, do you know what happened to him . Andrew i do not. , and to this day i bother it bothers me because i dont know and i have no way of knowing. Interviewer do you know some of the patients you treated that were sent back . Andrew some were sent back to their original units, i know that. Interviewer others discharged . Andrew discharged out of the hospital, if you want to call it that. Thats what i would call it, sent back after they were rested up to their original outfit. Interviewer back to world war ii, battle fatigue and posttraumatic stress, that was common. Andrew it was. How do i say this . Involved never really in seeing what people had to go through. As i say, to me, patton was wrong, his thoughts on this stuff. To me theres a limit on what some people can take. Theres a breaking point. I dont care what they say, and some of these guys, what happened to any of them i cant remember at this point whether some of them were either send home were discharged or sent to other outfits or something of lesser duty, i dont know this. Someone positive that back to their original outfits. And what happened to them after that, i cant say. The gentleman who went through at least four invasions, i cant even remember his name. This is hindsight, i should have carried a book. Back in those days you werent thinking of that. Interviewer you were a kid. Andrew this guy wound up living in randall town, maryland, he went back to the War Department and got this information. I think he had some and went back and got a lot of it and wrote this book. Interviewer did you have some severe cases of soldiers who were you had seem to have lost it completely . I had one, but that was not from war, that was from fort gordon. They brought them into the ward and we put him in a private room and he got out of the bed and i followed him down and he was going to take a chair to one of the patients. He threw the chair, came up, missed me, and hit the water cooler. That was from alcohol. Themt remember any of that way at the mp hospitals. I hate to use that word, they were basically psychiatric, battle fatigue, back then that was the word they used. How many people in that facility . Andrew in that outfit, im taking a guess, probably 125 total officers in all. Left,iewer after you where did you meet up with your regular unit . Andrew i met up with them in belgium, across from germany. Thats in the fall, i believe. Things have changed around the bed, i went back to a war. Back then the rooms were small, they could not have many, there was a two and a two a, i believe i was in two a, chest and stomach wounds i took care of. Over on, after the war was , you do not have the casualties, it was mostly medical. Operations up until , letse in september see, september the fifth. We were in operation and we got ready to head home. Somewhere after that. Happened to what your unit during the battle of the bulge . Over andhe bomb went landed in our courtyard at 5 30 in the morning. No one got hurt. Interviewer a shell or a bomb . Andrew shell is a better word for it, some kind of shell, came off of a tank or something. We survived that all right. Say, we were in building, andhool even though we had a big red cross out in the field next to the hospital, the germans came the ordinancebed. Epot i was walking out of the room. Asically into the hall there were a couple of nurses, we did not get hurt by the glass. We moved 200 some patients down. There was a bomb shelter in shorter, everyone as far as i could remember was removed properly and we took care of them down there. There whenus out of the battle was going on. I think we went to the town of n, we went toi or somethingy, like that. Days. E back after two we started operations, and if i , we went back and almost immediately turned back and came back. Again set up the hospital , we were not gone long. I sort of remember that we did. T and basically made a uturn we started the operations again, on the 21st of december and we ceased operations on the 26th of december. The 25th of december is christmas and i was working the day shift. We were able to spit around a little bit. Sitting in a Church Service you could hear the germans a scraping not far from us. Nothing hit us, often the distance, but you could hear it. And our planes were up there, and i did at one time see a dogfight while we were there. We got them. Too close for comfort. Andrew yes. Thats what took place there. Interviewer during the bottom of the the battle of the bulge, did you have supplies did you have the problem with supplies . Andrew we sent some of our trucks to the fourth army medical depot. And they had to move that out. Some of them got trapped, but they said they came back and they would never criticize an infantry man again, if ever. They said they stood right up and fired at the germans so they could get out of there. Now, one of the trucks i think was lost, but all of the personnel got back. Lost one truck out of the deal. They just got the truck. Oncenk what i read, every in a while i go through the book , for something i think about. Did they pick up wounded . Andrew no, it was to move the , im assuming they supplied us with the medical supplies, bandages and whatever else was needed. But they got it out of there. Tough to go little for a while. If i remember right, there were a couple of the officers, i dont think they were doctors, i think there were other personnel, Company Commanders and those sorts of things. But im sure we did not send any doctors, i would bet on that. Interviewer [indiscernible] andrew they came back and they said if they did not have any respect before, they did when they got back because they stood right up and fired at the germans so they could get out. And i would say we were not behind the lines on that deal, we never were, but that deal was very close. Very close. Did you have any more close calls with shells or shells. our own , some of thepened shrapnel went through a tent. It did not hit anybody, somehow they got off track a little bit and there were some fragments and shells close by. To close for comfort. Too close for comfort. Interviewer that was very early andrew in arielle, i believe. , butld have to go back shrapnel. Frappe no i am almost certain it was arielle. I was on detached service and i was not involved in that part. So after that, you continued onward going to germany. Arielle went from interviewer to belgium. , we went toelgium saint severe, france. And then we went to upin, and belgium. To , thene went ash weiler. We were the first in back you a hospital across the rhine. Andent across on a pontoon we got to the bridge. Wife ony with my vacation 25 years later. Part of the deal, they say you are going down the rhine, find going north im going up, but we went by that. There, the are still gentleman who was the guide said people want to take them down and sell them for souvenirs and build monuments. And what