Draft registration, discharge document and grave marker for Louis
E. Duran in Fairmont Cemetery, Raton (Colfax county), New Mexico.
Louis enlisted in the Army art Santa
Fe, NM on 1 December 1942 and was assigned to Co H, 508th PIR.
Pvt Duran was listed as Missing In
Action on 6 June 1944 but rejoined the unit on 11 June.
On 7 July 1944, Pvt Duran, a rifleman
in the 2nd Platoon, 1st Squad, suffered a compound fracture of the femur
with nerve involvement due from an artillery shell blast, and had a
secondary diagnosis of gangrene which set in afterward causing the need
to amputate the leg. He was released from the field hospital after
180 days of treatment with a directive that he would be discharged from
the Army.
On
7 August 1944 he arrived at Mitchel Field, NY, on an Air Transport
Command flight from Prestwick, Scotland. The aircraft number reveals
that the plane was a Constructed as a C-54A-DO built by Douglas Aircraft
Company at Santa Monica, CA..
Lewis underwent further
hospitalization and treatment until he was discharged at the Bushnell
General Hospital, Brigham City, UT on 7 June 1945.
Louis
was one of two veterans reported in this news article to be the first
recipients of cards from the Veterans Administration entitling them to
repairs on artificial limbs at government expense.
[Albuquerque Journal, Albuquerque, NM, Thursday,
August 1, 1946, Page 2] |