Page 92 - Adobe Photoshop PDF

The night of April 23/24, 1943, I walked guard duty around the
post. At 6 a.m., we were released from guard duty and had breakfast.
When I went to the barracks I was told there was a call for me. I found
out Stan had taken Jean to the LDS Hospital in labor. I called my parents
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the LDS Hospital.
Jean spent the morning in labor. She was very brave. When the
pain was at its worst she would simply grit her teeth and remain silent.
She never once cried or screamed like many other women did. I wanted
to stay with her, but near the end of her labor the nurses wouldn’t allow
me to remain; I had to sit in a waiting room at the end of the hall. Several
hours later they informed me that I was the father of a baby girl. Jean
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to bear the family name.
Our baby Janet weighed only 5 pounds 2 ounces and lost weight
initially. Jean was released from the hospital after eight days but baby
Janet had to remain for an additional week. I borrowed the folks’ car
after Jean had been released from the hospital a few days and we went
to see the baby. Jean wasn’t sure if it was the same baby! She couldn’t
get over the fact that this was a baby with black eyes and black hair; in
her family the babies had been blonde. She remarked about this. One
nurse said to her, “Did you ever take a look at your husband?” Baby
Janet was alert at all times and watched the nurses with a bright stare.
They loved her. After two weeks, we were able to bring the baby to the
Lakin’s home. Helen and Stan were very interested in the baby. When I
held that tiny girl in my lap with her feet towards me she stared intently
at me and I at her. I fell in love then and there. It has lasted ever since.
Soon Major Walsh was transferred and the old Colonel com-
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bunch of jackasses. It was a fact that the work could have been done by
the enlisted men, just as well and just as expeditiously, without them.
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camps, and they had failed in their assignments there. To release them
from active duty (back to civilian life) would have created an incentive

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