Memoirs of 2dLt W. B. Jackson, USMC
DISCHARGE AND HOME,
October 1919
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Early in October I received word from Headquarters that they President of the United States had approved my retirement and that as of September 29, 1919 I was a retired shave tail in the U.S. Marine Corps. I immediately turned myself over to my civilian doctors who placed me in St. Luke's Hospital and about the middle of October they operated. They took out several pieces of ununited bone fragments, scraped the femur and returned me to my hospital bed. After some days I was released from the hospital and went home to recuperate. I visited my doctor every other day for his follow up work on the wound. It began healing and I enjoyed what one might say was the remainder of that 90 day sick leave. When I got the doctor's bill, I cleared it with the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery of the Navy who replied that regulations did not authorize their payment of the bill. When I told my doctors that and asked for the privilege of making a time settlement they asked if I was going to have to pay the bill myself. When I answered yes they marked my bill, "Paid in Full" and handed it to me with the statement that it was part of their contribution to licking the Kaiser. The officers of the bank were wonderful to me. They picked me up for auto trips about the state when they had business calls to make. One friend, Dinty Moore, who had been a shave tail in the company while I was a corporal was particularly free to use his car to accommodate me. Suffice to say time passed fairly rapidly and around Christmas time I went back to the Bank. My old job as an individual accounts bookkeeper required me to be on my feet most of the day and my leg objected. The Bank opened a receiving teller's cage and promoted me to teller with another $25 step in pay. Here I was able to function satisfactorily from a stool at the window which pleased my leg very much.
This about terminates my World War I memoirs. My civilian experiences from then on were the usual everybody has. My leg healed and with the exception of two or three abscessing experiences has been a very serviceable leg ever since.
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Here Ends the
War Memoirs
of
2dLt W.B. Jackson, USMC
1917-1919 | |
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