Car Accident

I spent ten days in an Army hospital in Pell City, Alabama as the result of a car accident.  The Army then put me back on leave for ten days with orders to report to The Naval Hospital, Corry Field, Pensacola, Florida.  I had no desire to go on leave with my right (dominant) arm in a complete cast so I caught a bus back to Pensacola.

When I arrived at Corry Field, on a Friday evening, I attempted to check in there, but the Officer Of The Day (OOD) would not accept me.  I was told I had to go to the hospital, there was no hospital on Corry, so I had to report to the hospital at the Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida, some four miles away.  I caught a Navy bus to that station, where I caught a separate on-station bus to the hospital.  The hospital determined my Army orders told me to report to Corry Field so insisted I return there.  I then reversed my route back to the OOD at Corry Field.  He yet did not want to accept me, but I insisted that I was signed aboard, thus terminating my leave.  I then informed the OOD I would be in my rack (bed) across the street in the enlisted men’s barracks.

On Monday morning I went to the personnel office to straighten things out.  They weren’t quite sure what to do with me either.  My right arm had been broken in three places, my right hand in three more places, and my middle finger on that hand was also broken.  My arm was in a cast in a Zee shape.  I obviously couldn’t work on aircraft so there was no sense in sending me back to the Structures Shop.  I was given a set of Navy orders to the Naval Hospital at the Naval Air Station, Pensacola.  Upon my arrival there I was told there was nothing they could do for me until the cast came off some four and a half weeks in the future.  They told me to go back to Corry Field.  For the next month and a half no one cared where I was.  Normally all personnel are mustered at least once a day, but for that purpose I was accounted for in the hospital while physically I was not there.

Finally came the day my cast was cut off.  My arm remained in the same position it had been cast in.  I couldn’t move it.  It was decided I had to place my arm in a hot whirlpool bath so every day I caught the bus to the hospital, endured the whirlpool, and caught the bus back to Corry again.  This went on for several weeks.  I had regained some use of the hand and arm again, so I asked for official transfer back to Corry again which was granted.  No longer attached to the hospital I took it upon myself to go to my former shop Chief Petty Officer and asked to go back to work.  He could tell I was not really fit, and told me so.  He recommended I be placed on some sort of light duty, and so it was that I found my way to a desk job.

Four of us worked at the same pair of desks actually.  A First Class Petty Officer surnamed Barton, myself a Third Class, and two Airmen named Gordon Stancell and Paul Hamm.  We worked nights from 4 pm (1600) until midnight (2400).  Our job was to issue aircraft to pilots learning night flying.  We kept status reports on all aircraft on the base as to their state of flight readiness and physical location at all times.  We then assigned ready aircraft to the pilots and pilot trainees.  When they returned we collected paperwork on them, sent malfunctions to the various maintenance shops, and kept their status ready for the next wave.  I worked in that capacity until I left Corry Field in September of 1957, now age 19 with two years in the Navy.  However in August of 1957, I passed the Navy-wide exam for AM Second Class Petty Officer, and was selected for advancement in November of that year.