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22. My Week in a MASH Unit -- 1951 - Page 2
Some Evil Men
While I waited for evacuation I closed my eyes and just rested. I was dead
tired from working on the station and hadn't had much sleep. While I was
lying there two men came in and saw me. I could hear them talking but just
kept my eyes closed because I was so tired. One said, "He has a watch, I get
it." The other said, "I want his fur-lined parka." I opened my eyes and said
they would have to wait until I was dead. They fled in haste. I reported the
event to an officer and I later learned they had been arrested for looting the
dead and wounded. How low can a man get?
At a MASH Unit Eventually I ended up at a MASH Unit where I recovered after a week or two. After I recovered, I was sent to a Repo Depot. That is where soldiers are sent after they recover and then are sent back into the line. In most units such as Infantry, they send you back for hospitalization with your personal gear and keep all the rest, which they put into their quartermaster for reissue. At the Repo Depot they then issue you a complete outfit of clothes, weapons and gear. They issued me a complete outfit. I knew that my team would keep my gear so I just mailed the entire duffle bag full of gear home. Stuck at the Repo Depot Every day trucks would arrive from the various Infantry Divisions to pick up men to take back to their division. They would call out what unit they were picking up and those men would get on the truck and off they would go. Because my team was only five men I eventually figured out that no one was coming just for me and they didn't even know where I was if they wanted to come. I really didn't know where I was for that matter or where my relay site was either. |