Lt. Lawson Reichard’s WWII Diary – April 16, 1943 by Lt.Reichard (04/16/09).
Lt. Reichard’s WWII Diary Project : On January 1, 2009, WorthPoint began a three year project following the life of a WWII soldier through the daily pages of his diary.To read about the inception of this project, or to add your own comments, click here.
Friday, April 16, 1943
April 16, 1943 Diary Page
Chicago – En route to Boise
Last night at 11:45 I pulled out for the west. Already I’m sick of this blame train. I’m in the station at Chicago killing time between trains. Two more days on a train especially a chair car is not going to be pleasant. Well we stopped for fifteen minutes this morning in Pittsburgh and I called Marie. It was too early for her to come out so I hadn’t wired her ahead of time. About nine we went up in the club car and met a kid of 21, a week back, and he has just gotten a leave from Walter Reed hospital to go home. He has spent five months in the hospital recouperating from 5 machine gun wounds in his leg and the effect of a mortar explosive that nearly took off his hip. He walks with his leg in a brace and uses a cane. He says he will be alright in about a year when the nerves that were destroyed grow out again. I wonder. He was a machine gunner on a landing boat when they took Casablanca. He took his gun ashore and was on a mopping up detail when a “Messerschmitt “109″ dove down and strafed the beach. He lay wounded in the sand for two days and two nights before he was brought in. It’s not a pretty story. He said most of the time he thought he was going to die and didn’t give a damn. The Arabs would walk up and look at him but wouldn’t touch him. Some day I’ll try to tell the whole story. I met a lovely girl on the train but she was taking the streamliner from Chicago on. Too bad. I had a nasty spill running for the train and messed up my clothes. Almost didn’t get a seat.
• The Royal Navy’s destroyer, Pakenham, and two Italian destroyers were sunk in naval engagements in the Strait of Sicily. (http://www.worldwar-2.net/timelines/war-at-sea/mediterranean/mediterranean-index-1943.htm)
• Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman felt the first rush of LSD when a tiny amount of the substance seeped onto his finger during a laboratory experiment. (http://timelines.ws/20thcent/1943.HTML
Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman accidentally discovered the psychedelic drug LSD on this day in 1943.
1943 Diary Recaps
January 1943 Recap: We first met Lt. Reichard in January, stationed at McClellan Air Base in Sacramento, where he was in charge of a motor pool unit. Expecting to be sent overseas, their orders were changed and they became restless to see action. Lt. Reichard’s sweetheart, Ginnie, would write frequently, and he would go to dinner and movies with local girls – Dorothy, in Sacramento, and Marie, when the unit moved to Gowen Field in Boise, Idaho. The men have spent their days in lectures, and physical demonstrations to try to keep sharp mentally and physically. But they are getting increasingly restless.
February 1943 Recap: The unit continues to be restless as they still haven’t any orders for overseas. The days are kept busy with lectures, physical demonstrations, and frequent hikes in the mountains above Boise. Lt. Reichard receives a promotion to Lieutenant First Class and continues to write to Ginnie back home, though her letters are becoming more infrequent. February 1943 comes to an end with the unit still feeling bored and discouraged.
March 1943 Recap: March brings uncertainties in weather and daily life to Gowen Field. Still no word about overseas orders, the outfit must now share quarters with another unit. There is now time to begin a photo album, collecting pictures from times with the outfit. Letters from Ginnie are becoming more infrequent but there is no shortage of dates with the local girls in Boise. March comes to an end with everyone in the outfit anxiously awaiting word of upcoming furloughs.
Production Credits:
Diary transcription: Kathleen Long
Diary photos: Claudia Forbes
Video production: Alison Harder
Narration: Mountain Vista H.S. Theater Department
Jeremy Goldson, Department Chair; Bryan Smith – voice of Lt. Reichard
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