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5. The Journey
- State University of New York Press
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5 THE JOURNEY The food improves at Mosbach. Genuine eggs and Swiss cheese enliven the inevitable Spam. But eight dull days pass, while I wander, read, fidget, and watch the clock. Gin rummy, using reichsmarks, now provides the evening excitement. War is a peculiar institution and so is the Army. I do not doubt the importance of victory, but it is difficult to accept the necessity of discipline and obedience during a period of vacuum, even after years of service. Oliver Wendell Holmes called his war, the Civil War, "dull and horrible." So too is this one, and they must all be, except perhaps when knighthood flourished and fighting was a way of life. I know what Holmes said because I have been reading Yankee from Olympus, a fascinating story, except that I think the central character must have been a difficult man to live with because of his endless loquacity. I roam the peaceful, cobblestone streets of Mosbach, avoid the modern buildings, and study the colorful walls of old, possibly medieval buildings, which look as though they were made of garishly iced gingerbread, their sharply pointed roofs all acutely angled. A postcard I find says that the city is 1,200 years old, and that it is the city of old frame houses. At a DP camp with as many as four families in one room, I observe delousing methods using the new miracle powder, DDT. Then I inspect a small French hospital which has some concentration camp survivors and am appalled by what I see. I have watched patients being destroyed by cancer, but now I learn what the term "skin and bones" really means. Their voices surprise me-croaking, indecipherable sounds. I hope that we are not to be assigned to camps with such remnants. Mosbach also has the Division "Exhaustion Center." "Exhaus135 tion" is now the preferred word for what had been called "combat fatigue," "shell shock," or "battle psychoneurosis." This condition develops in some soldiers, regardless of age or rank, who have been exposed to combat for periods of time ranging from one hour to many weeks. These soldiers become pale and incoherent, sweat continuously, are insensitive to suggestion, and react violently to noises with wild muscular spasms and crying spells. In the past I have occasionally handled such patients. After sedating them with large doses of barbiturates , I sent them back to an appropriate treatment center such as this one. Here an Army psychiatrist, using rest and psychotherapy , is able to return most of his patients to active duty after four to seven days of treatment. (Today tranquilizers are used, I presume.) These soldiers are not malingerers. The men with exhaustion are legitimately ill. During combat, one of our young litter bearers developed pain in the region of his appendix, then began to chain smoke and tremble uncontrollably. For one period ofthree days he did not eat or talk to anyone. There were no objective findings to support a diagnosis of appendicitis. After several recurrences he was assigned to noncombat duty. April 12. The electrifying news of the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt is broadcast on Radio Luxembourg in various languages, each announcement followed by the opening bars of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. Mosbach is a somber place. American soldiers are downcast. Everywhere, flags are at halfstaff , including those at the DP camps. Apparently "Roosevelt" was a magic word for the DPs, one that inspired hope during the years when no hope seemed possible. The still-functioning German radio stations continue to vilify Roosevelt, and now Truman. April 18. Orders for our first assignment arrive. Everyone is tired of inactivity, so that packing and filling our vehicles take ten minutes. There are no farewells. Sergeant Morivant and the CO have worked out the route with Division transportation, and we depart immediately for a long drive. Despite our use of portions of the great four-lane superhighway , the Autobahn, the inevitable time-consuming detours harass us and everyone becomes irascible. I overhear one of the en36 I The Beginning listed men making unkind remarks because the CO and some of the other officers have insisted on driving the newly acquired vehicles. In the Army the person who drives a car maintains it, and driving is the job of the men listed as drivers on our orders. I have been guilty of this in the past; it is refreshing to take a vehicle out for a few hours, but I must remember not to do that...