European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 13, 1945, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Home by Saul Levitt yank staff correspondent on May Joseph a redheaded doctor from walked into the anteroom of the 6th Field Hospital at carrying a Little list of another one of the smooth North Atlantic air passages that at had been provid ing for the wounded since june 1944 was getting under Stone checked off the and t4 John Mckim of Elwood chalked up another departure on his minutes later the big ramp was pulled up to the open Bays of the and 20 men were carried half an hour after Stone had read the names off his a wide winged plane was climb ing North out of aboard As flight nurse for the first leg of the trip to Iceland was Sylvia Roth of Phila she had made five trips across the Atlantic and had earned lots of flight time flying Over the continent when we were moving wounded men from advanced Fields behind the front lines to hospitals in the the 20 comfortably set up in tiers of four included a Ranger a to battalion lieutenant who had been shot three times at close Range by a German and a 20yearold platoon of the 20 patients aboard 16 had been prisoners of the All of them represented the tailed of the War in Europe and they proved that the last bullets were As dangerous As the other and on veday they were in hospitals celebrating with thermometers and they had been hit with plenty of trouble in service most of them Lay in their litters very quietly now As if not to break the spell of this magic that was taking them this Day there was lots of sunlight Over the broken Clouds and bits of Bleak water showing Roth spread a comforter on the floor and some of the men clambered Down from the the nurse and the soldiers played James who had commanded a platoon of tank destroyers in the 821st to Bat wanted Only to which was exactly the one thing he  do aboard the outside of that he didst mind he was a levelheaded Guy who didst look like hed Ever feel sorry for he had charged a Tiger tank in a not because he was looking for a posthumous medal of but what the hell could we do you cant drive a jeep away from a Tiger tank so my Driver and i just drove Down to pulled up alongside and climbed on we had a carbine and a Between we banged on the Turret until it opened and we had them after that i yelled Kummen Raus or some Damn thing to every German who might be and by god it seemed like hundreds of them came out of houses and i told them there were lots of americans around and to they kept looking at us but no other americans finally they had it figured out that there was just the two of us and they jumped this one Guy grabbed my he shot me three times from a distance of about 10 the first time it was through the Chest and i remember going Down on one knee and saying to myself to never going i was shot three times but i guess none of the shots hit anything the one through the Chest didst touch my lungs and just grazed a the second one through the neck didst touch the jugular the last one smashed up my right Arm a bit and that about All that bothering me see said flexing his he  make a tight fist because the nerves in his upper right Arm haunt thoroughly healed and would carry his purple heart around with him the rest of his life in the form of a Little White scar in his who was sitting at a window with the Sun suddenly blazing through into the tapped Pollitt on the shoulder and you sit Down and feel that Sun on your you keep sitting its All said you sit just sit Down and feel that till be wonderful on your Pollitt sat rubbed his stubble of Black and gazed out on Fluffy White Clouds that moved to the the Clouds made a bed the size of the he said he was going Home to where he had a Pollitt left the states before the baby was he the kid want Well at now he was coming Home after his 5monthold whom hed never had the navigator came Back for a minute to say that we had a Good Tail wind and the flight would Only be four hours somebody asked the nurse if High ranking officer patients acted any differently than the enlisted men on these Roth thought about that one for a moment and then i  they All seem the same in generals Are usually the Meek est and Mildest of the said Donald the flight and traffic clerk whose Home town is has been making these transatlantic flights for nearly a Tell a general that Hes gotta Stop and he Al most Breaks a leg putting out that Meeks Field was clean and Bare and full of sunlight when the plane it want too cold in Iceland that the forts on the Field looked Nice and peaceful with their guns sheathed in and the searchlights which used to watch for the big Focke Wolfe 200s that bombed Long ago As far North As Iceland looked As if they haunt been used for some May two years ago in Iceland saw the forts and the b26s lined up nose by nose As if sniffing the cold Grey skies for the takeoffs to eng land and but this May was be month and even Iceland looked when the gangplank was pulled alongside the the fuselage be came As Busy As grand Central but the move ments up and Down the gangplank were purpose Ful and a new red Cross orderlies and an other Crew came there were tureens of hot fresh milk and ice Pollitt and the Young Ranger Douglas Campbell of yank the army weekly july 1945 who had been wounded on the Saar while with the 5th Ranger went off the plane for a Quick Roth and the new nurse took their hair Down just before Takeoff and had a shoptalk powder room they talked about the last pass in new York before grabbing an eastward flight and Roth thought her flight uniform at Prestwick would probably be out of the cleaners when she got Back then Roth made a neat Little speech and the men looked at each other As if they were losing a very old the second leg from Iceland to Newfoundland was the Long eight and a half hours and go ing from sunlight into the navigator came Back for a very satisfied with the he talked about the Trade the old winds of Columbus and the Clipper ships across the men fell they stirred on their litters and rubbed their eyes in the night Over a Clear the mountains below showed streaks of Snow and jagged edges but it was All Remote from this Hospital Ward in the Landing in Newfoundland was to feel already the american current of Pollitt and Campbell went Over to the terminal building and tried out their new currency in the Nickels and dimes that could buy Tomato Coffee and it was very All you had to do was to drop some of these Little pieces of Metal on the counter and say hamburgers and Coffee and there they were in front of a copy of today new York times Lay on a Bench and you could look Over Box score at the Polo on the plane itself they had run up a big can Vas pipe which fed warm air into the Waist of the plane while the doors remained another piece of american the last leg of the flight from Newfoundland to Mitchel Field saw nobody daring to get openly restless at the idea of it was a conspiracy of silence like watching a Norun game in the four hours later the showed be Low us in enormous patches of electric the Black magic of this flight was coming to an the flaps came Down for the last the plane turned off the base the electric lights came up big and the Landing was magic to the very they lowered the litters from the plane by Means of a portable lift pow ered by a motor that chugged up to the the Guy that had charged a Tiger tank with a jeep because he had to the Gay and Lively Young Ranger and the baby faced platoon sergeant who was going to try out school came Down on the lift and were carried Over to waiting Amu it was 0400 in the United states of Amer Ica at Mitchel Long Twenty wounded soldiers were Home for whatever was in and there was a Fine Cool wind blowing the Way you remember it used to be in new York City years Cool night wind after a Long hot