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Major David Thomas from Texas was the 508's Medical officer
and he had this to say in an interview conducted ca. 1983 ...
"No matter what the troopers had to put up with, morale was still very
high.
"The morale of the 508 was best exemplified by a young rifleman out of A Company who reported to the dispensary with a complaint of blurred vision.
We shipped him to the hospital which supported us for evaluation, he was checked in a dark room and when he did not respond to voice, he was evaluated and found to be stone deaf.
I called him in, found out he had come the whole route, starting at basic training until now, reading lips. I told him he didn't meet the
standard required for a trooper and would have to leave the regiment.
This trooper said he didn't want to leave the 508 and would stay in any job. I found him a slot as a cooks helper to keep him in. I hope now 39 years later that this trooper is rich and famous running a gourmet restaurant, because to me he had great
patriotic devotion."
Jumpmaster Note: The trooper's name is unknown but
we admire his devotion to duty..
[as shown in David Pike's book "Airborne In
Nottingham", page 13] |
