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| Joined: | Fri Mar 2nd, 2007 |
| Location: | Florida USA |
| Posts: | 144 |
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No knife ? No need. Problem snipped.
A TIME magzine article reprinted earlier this year
told of a harrowing incident in a North Korean
POW camp. The story was headlined "Penknife
Surgery."
A young American GI, while guarding the
convoy of wounded men in a breakout attempt
from the Chosin Reservoir, was shot in both legs
and captured by the Chinese. He was sent to
a POW camp where his frostbitten feet became
black and useless. So, without anesthesia or
medicine, fellow pows amputated both feet with a
"penknife," according to the 1953 article.
But TIME didn't have it quite right. After the story
s published in the Army Chapter newsletter, a letter
came to the editor with additional and firsthand in
formation. Three men, not two, were involved in the
amputation, the letter said. The "surgical instrument"
was a pair of rusty scissors, not a penknife. And the
patient suffered no pain; his feet were already dead.
As best they could, the POW "medical team"
dressed the stubs with bandages torn from a light-
weight GI parka. The prognosis was grim at best.
But the patient was determined: he would not die
in a prison camp. His spirit went far in helping him
survive more than 30 months imprisonment - on his
hands and knees.
PFC Grant McMillin HQ/57FN7, who wrote
the letter, was the third man in that crude and filthy
"operat- ing room." He'd given up his parka for the ban-
dages.
Continued from page one
And, McMillin adds, "I know the penknife did not exist.
The scissors finally did the job, as slow as it was."
So, with a huge helping of guts and ingenuity, the
17 -year-old soldier reached his goal.
Today he is a proud 77-year-old who retired in1980 after
30 years in the electronics field. He's still full of life despite the
constant pain of spinal stenosis, even after two surgeries.
He also enjoys having periodic visits in his Alabama home
with McMillin who lives in Wisconsin. There is a bond between
the two since they were POWs for the same length of time.
Both were released in August 1953. The amputee received
prosthetics soon afterward. He's worn them without problems
throughout his life.
(A/though he is not a member of the Army Chapter, in the
interest of persona/ privacy the "patient" asked that he not be
identified .. - Editor)
____________________
Not Racist; Not Violent; Not
Silent Anymore.
GO GATORS!!!!!!!!!!!!
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