About
The traveler started life on an Iowa farm in 1925. He was born at home with the local G.P. in attendance. Although not ill, but in accordance with the practice of the day, his mother remained in bed for about six weeks. A German woman who never learned English, Mrs. Radloff, took charge of the patient and the usual domestic duties. She and her husband and family and the family of the newborn socialized occasionally for years afterwards.
The lad spent his early years helping on the farm and attending a school a mile and one-half away for the first eight years of his education. Then he attended high school four miles distant. He participated in some extra-curricular activities but few sports since he had to be home doing chores at the end of the school day. There were cows to feed and milk, chickens to feed and eggs picked up, and hogs to provide for as well as other jobs either too numerous to mention or simply forgotten.
Like many others the unexpected Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941 altered drastically his preconceived notions of his future activities. Life for the family during the war years was fairly comfortable in spite of rationing of essential items. There was gasoline available for the tractor with enough left over for the family car, another essential vehicle in rural areas. They had to make trips for necessary supplies and doctor visits, for example.
High school graduation took place in May of 1943. The potential inductee knew that the Selective Service would call in due time. He had no plans to seek an exemption, and he parents agreed with his thinking .While awaiting the draft he enrolled in a business training school in Sioux City in September of 1943 and left it in March of 1944 on demand of his draft board. Thus on March 23, 1944 he began a military journey from Camp Dodge, Iowa that went through Texas and parts of Asia and came to a halt in a discharge at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas June 6, 1946.
From Camp Dodge the US Army shipped the recruit to Camp Barkeley, Texas near Abilene for 17 weeks of basic training in the Army Medical Corps including six weeks of specialty school. His 20/200 vision caused by amblyopia prevented training with firearms, but he learned treatment of the wounded in simulated combat. His clerical aptitudes put him in the Army Clerk School for six weeks where he received training in military correspondence and records.
At graduation he was assigned to a unit being organized, the 172nd General Hospital. To learn about military hospitals the Army sent the unit to Bushnell General Hospital, Brigham City, Utah for on-the-job training. Finally, in October ’44 most of the trainees boarded a train for Camp Anza, California where after a few days they embarked in a troop transport, the General John Pope for a 30-day sail to Bombay, India where they arrived about December 11, 1944.
Separate blogs will probably give details of his adventures through India, Burma and China. From letters his mother saved he is able to recount interesting episodes until he boarded a troop transport about May 20, 1946 in Shanghai for the return voyage to San Francisco, the train ride to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, a discharge and back to the Iowa farm.
In September, 1946 he entered the University of South Dakota and emerged in August 1949 with a bachelor’s degree with a major in government and minors in Spanish, French and Education. He resisted his faculty advisor’s suggestion for post graduate work toward a master’s degree in political science at another university. Rather, he opted for the American Institute for Foreign Trade in Arizona which gave what turned out to be a Bachelor of Foreign Trade. He worked in foreign trade in New York City for four years, and went to night school taking business courses at three local universities.
In February 1956 he jointed Hammermill Papers which was bought by International Paper about 1987. In November of 1956 he was transferred to the sales office in Dallas as the district sales manager to replace a retiring employee. In 1991 after 36 tears of service he retired from the company and remained in Dallas. Future blogs will reveal activities past and present in the Lone Star State as well as developments in prior places and years.
He plans also to use his many years of study of Spanish to write in that language on various topics including his travels in China-Burma-India.
Furthermore, the friend reading the blog will also find out that Virgil participates in the senior health care industry by giving two presentations to persuade seniors to get more “glow” in the golden years through activities they already know but may not be doing and to get more “glee” by emphasizing the role of humor and, yes, jokes in mental and physical health.
