News & Events

"The ingenuity of an American soldier is something to behold."

“The Medical Officer always has plenty to do. In a theater of operations, I think the M.O. takes on some of the duties performed by home and mother.”

“Making war on a foreign soil is a curious mixture of almost hysterical excitement and mind-dulling boredom.”

“The important thing, I believe, is that we sure are learning fast and there is absolutely no teacher like the real thing. One day in battle is worth two weeks of maneuvers.”

”Some of the “glamour” that has been dished up to us from Hollywood during the last few years fades to superficiality when you are crouched in a foxhole with the earth vibrating to the crash of incoming artillery, and shrapnel is buzzing over your head.”

“. . . I can’t imagine anyone worrying about his job in the good old U.S.A., but I guess it’s all in what you are used to. Believe me, it’ll take a world-shaking catastrophe to even make me turn my head when I get home. I can think of no civilian problem that won’t be duck soup after a couple of night river crossings, for example.

“Near us are several of the quaint little Apennine mountain villages that I’ve told you about. In every village there are one or several churches (as well as many wayside shrines, etc.). Most of the churches have small church bells that chime or ring out on the hours. It’s very touching to look out over a moon-drenched valley (when it isn’t raining!) and hear the church bells ringing and echoing through the hills -- also in your tent at night, or as you creep along some country lane in a blacked-out column of vehicles. You can frequently hear the clear, high notes of the bells, pealing in the shadows. Its pastoral beauty is hardly appropriate as a setting for war. The cheerful bells and the sound of cannon just don’t go together."

“I know that a great many men who are now overseas will be strangers when they return, and their secret need for understanding and companionship will go unheeded. No rough, tough fighting American is going to admit that need, but it’ll be there just the same, and its frustration will come to the surface in a variety of actions, reactions, and behaviors. . . . Darling - I’m going to need you very much when I get home.”

“It’s a cold day and I’m set up in the basement of a large farmhouse. The only source of light is a window that must be left open and my fingers are getting a little stiff from the cold. It’s beautiful outside today. As I stood on a terrace behind the house, beside a green orange tree, I could see for miles across the valley in the sunshine. The mountains in the distance are all snowcapped—very beautiful in their quiet majesty, but hell to fight in.”

“My job is certainly varied enough; from treating and carrying wounded off the field during action, organizing mule trains for medical supplies, confidant and psychiatrist for the boys that have gone through hell and have momentarily cracked, sanitary inspector and hard boiled SOB who makes the boys keep decent and healthy in spite of their lowered incentive to do so, to “inside man” for the higher-ups when they get “stalled” -- and then, occasionally, I practice medicine on the side.”

“I’ve always told my boys to use their heads in regard to drinking. I’ told them when they reached the stage where they thought they “had” to throw a drunk, that they should come to me; that I’d arrange for them to be relieved of all responsibility for 24 hours, arrange for someone to look after them and maybe even provide the liquor. Well, one of the boys just took me up on the deal, so I “issued” his three ounces of the best rye whiskey and detailed a Sgt. to look after him for the day. The only trouble is that now that the ice is broken, I’m afraid there’ll be a line outside the office in the morning. Such is life in the army.”

"Success is doing something you don’t want to do, and doing it well."

“I know that a great many men who are now overseas will be strangers when they return, and their secret need for understanding and companionship will go unheeded.  No rough, tough fighting American is going to admit that need, but it’ll be there just the same, and its frustration will come to the surface in a variety of actions, reactions, and behaviors. Darling - I’m going to need you very much when I get home.”   Italy, 1944 —Lt. Col./Maj. Arthur L. Ludwick, M.D.