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BUSHNELL GENERAL HOSPITAL, Utah —
Pvt. Fred M. Bockman, Nome, Alaska, isn't lotting
anything like a lost leg stop him from being an ath
lete.One of the heroes of the Anzio beachhead
battle, Fred is the situp and pushup champ among
his wounded budies here.
- 4
By Doug Lovelace
(TP) Newsfeatures
BUSHNELL GENERAL HOS- |
PITAL Utah—How’s a guy '
going to swing it in civilian life
when he’s lost a leg or arm at;
Anzio or New Guinea or Leyte?
That’s the question soldiers ask
—the amputees who left a limb
on some foreign battlefield, vic
tims of mine exnlosm^s. mortar
shell fragments, gangreene.
Army doctors can’t give all the
answers; individual soldiers will
react differently when they don
civvies. But doctors believe they
can train and equip these one
armed pand one-legged and even
armless and legless soldiers—phys
ically and mentally—to make the
best possible use of their capaci
ties.
Mass Sports Demonstration.
They gave the answer in a mass j
sports demonstration at Bush
nell’s huge, completely - equipped
gymnasium. One-legged and one
armed men played volleyball and
basketball, climbed ropes, chinned
the bar, handled weights and In
dian clubs, tossing the medicine
b:fll, zipped along the flying rings,
wove intricate patterns on hori- i
zontal and parallel bars, tumbled,
fenced, worked out on punching
bags. They bowled and swam.
Everything they did they did
hard—and well enough to shame
many civilians. Pvt. Fred M.
Bockman of Nome, Alaska, who
lost a leg at the Anzio beachhead
when a mortar shell ripped into
his knee, completed 400 situps—
breaking his own mark by 100—
and a few minutes later set a new
; record of 12 pushups.
Try that you two-legged guys,
1 if you think it’s easy.
Sgt. James Wakefield of Cen
tralia, Wash., air force gunner
who was shot down over
Sehweinfurt on his 13th mission,
spent a year in German hospitals
and prison camps and was re
j patriated a few months ago minus
; a leg, hopped so well on his one
good leg he was clearing the high
; jump bar at well over four feet.
And he had plenty of competition.
That’s the secret—if there is
any — of the newly - developed
Army technique of reconditioning
amputees. Physical exercise is
necessary to develop and train
muscles for extra work to com
pensate for lost arms or legs. Cal
isthenics and apparatus exercises
do much of the job, but competi
tive sports supply the leaven that
makes the otherinteresting.
Soldiers work out an hour or
more daily in Bushnell’s vast field
house. They start off with pre
scribed drills and exercises for
about 15 minutes, then get in a
good fast basketball or volleyball
game or compete in apparatus
work.
"Sui'e, if it wasn’t for the com
petition, we wouldn’t want to
come over here.” S-Sgt. Burke R.
Mowatt of (4 Academy St.) Calais,
Ale., confided with a wide grin.
Mowatt a soldier since 1040—
5
i he was at Pearl Harbor and took
; part as a flying fortress flight en
j gineer in many South Pacific
' scraps before he lost a leg on New
Guinea—showed what he meant
a few minutes later.
With eight one-legged buddies,
j the Jumping Jacks, he won
through to the volleyball finals,
i
Amputees Show Spirit
1 "Now I hope those brassies fof
ficers) win their semi-final,” he
erclaimed, still breathing hard.
"We’ll show ’em.”
That’s the spirit of the ampu
tees. a fighting, competitive spirit
—the old American try. And that
spirit, nurtured by new Army
medical methods, may be the rea
son why they have the highest
morale at the hospital.
Army doctors believe the am
putees, fitted with new arms and
legs, will carry the same spirit
into civilian life.
♦W'Xwv.-.v. .-. ,sw/.WiViV.y.v. • • •
Wounded veterans put on their own
s ?orts show at Bushnell General
Hospital, Utah. At the left they
play volleyball from a sitting pos
i ion. At the right Sgt. Janies
Wakefield, Centralia, Washington,
highjumps. lie lost a leg when
shot down over Germany.
v ii1* t,|rrniii?ri Tt rt' f, £, ifiiii * Y!' 1
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