In Response to: Disturbing memories

I reluctantly respond to Garth Stevenson *71’s letter (Jan. 13). Of my World War II experience published in PAW (Perspective, Nov. 4), may I add:

My companion on that unforgettable day was one of a handful of GIs left from the New Guinea campaign and onward; he was jaundiced; he had malaria in spite of the Atabrine tablets we swallowed; he wore a steel helmet with a bullet hole showing its ingress and egress until he was told that wearing it was bad for morale; he was by my side during a night of terror; he had a souvenir pistol with a large dent in it from a GI bayonet.

Further, round about 1955, 10 years after the war, a companion at work, a veteran of our WWII Italian campaign, suddenly said to me something like this: “I was told by my officer to take some German prisoners to a place a mile or so behind the front line and be back in 10 minutes.”

Malmedy, anybody?

As Kurt Vonnegut has written: “And so it goes."


Frank Bailey ’48