Monday, December 26, 2011

What Brings Frank Home

Sometime after Christmas day, the weather clears up around Kansas City and Frank Stevens is able to finish his long journey from somewhere out in the Pacific to the port of San Francisco and across over half the country to finally arrive at his parents' new home in Chicago.

So what brings him home now? To reconstruct what must be happening in Frank's world, I have to rely on some other documents, as I have (at least at this point) no more letters prior to December 1945 from Frank. Come September, however, there is a memorandum issued by the Medical Officer heading up the LCI group which includes Frank’s ship, recommending Frank to the Chief of the Navy’s Bureau of Medicine and Surgery. In this now-postwar world, things are starting to change, but Frank is evidently intending to continue in this military way of life.


 U.S.S. LCI (R) 772
C/o. Fleet Post Office
San Francisco, California

                                                                 6 September, 1945

From       :  Medical Officer LCI (R) Group Forty-Eight.
To           :  The Chief of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, Navy
                  Department, Washington, D.C.

Subject    :  Francis Xavier STEVENS PhM1c USN 300 77 85, 
                  Recommendation of.
 
   1.         Subject named man has served on independent duty under my supervision for 12 months. He has demonstrated unusual devotion to duty and complete competence in the field of general Hospital Corps duties.

   2.          I recommend strongly that subject man be given every consideration, particularly in view of his youth, ambition and excellent record under fire. I believe he is well qualified for the responsibilities involved in aviation.
                                                  R. A. Aldrich. Lieut  (MC) USNR.
 

1 comment:

  1. In aviation? Now that's a plot complication I didn't expect!

    ReplyDelete

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