Henry Powers'
FACES YOU SHOULD KNOW!

FACES YOU SHOULD KNOW!

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As in any organization, there are the faces you will see often and should know. Here are a few that most everyone assigned to the 24th would see frequently!

Major Jerry Allgood, Exec. Officer

LEAD Technologies Inc. V1.01Bob Galacz, Anesthesiologist

Don Buser, Anesthesiologist; Wyatt Beasley, Surgeon; John Payne, Orthopedist

Don Patrick, Neurosurgeon

LEAD Technologies Inc. V1.01And now, a crowd scene, all of whom were inmates in Adams Hut #2!!

Front Row, Left to Right: Art Gross, John Adams, "Jack" Brown, Gordon Dean, Henry Powers

Back Row, Left to Right: Scott Gale, David Averbach, George Kling, Lou Mengoli, Floyd Robinson

Ahhh, what a crew they were!! A tremendous pool of talent!
Picture taken January, 1968

VISITORS

One thing about being a hospital in a combat zone, you always get a lot of visitors. The ones I liked the best were the celebrity visitors, they could be a lot of fun occasionally. The one who was the most fun was Bob Denver. After giving him a tour of the hospital and his cheering up the patients, we finished the tour in our little Officers Club with a few minutes to spare until he was to be picked up by the officials who were taking him from place to place. When a new customer would come in and start to walk past where we were sitting, he would hop off the stool and introduce himself. Many of the staff were familiar with him from seeing him on television. It was after the deadline time that he was supposed to leave and I reminded him of the time. He said they could just wait, he was having a good time visiting with the staff and wasn 't ready to leave yet, besides, they were just gonna take him to a cocktail party with some of the big brass. He said to hell with their cocktail party, he was having a party with our staff, we were more fun! It was 1.5 hours later that he finally left.

Then there was a couple of characters from the McHale's Navy TV series, the ones who played the part of the captain, and the buttkissing officer. They were no fun at all. They were very up-tight about being in a real combat zone. I got the impression that if someone had popped a balloon, they would have messed their britches.

LEAD Technologies Inc. V1.01And then, there was Arthur O'Connel

Now, he was a good guy. On every ward, except the VC ward, he would ask the patients if they wanted him to call their wives, parents, whom ever when he got back to the states, and give them any message they wanted to send. The ones who did, and there were quite a few, Arthur would write down their names, who he was to call, phone number and message and the date and time he talked with the patient. He made a good impression on the patients and they liked him, the staff liked him also.

LEAD Technologies Inc. V1.01 LEAD Technologies Inc. V1.01

She would never let me put my arm around her, I'm jealous!!

LEAD Technologies Inc. V1.01Taint the same, wanna swap places in the previous photo!!

We did get feedback….Arthur did indeed make all those calls, at his own expense!

LEAD Technologies Inc. V1.01Then there was my favorite!!

No, Raquel Welch didn't visit the hospital but, she did meet the ambulance busses when we arrived at the Bob Hope Christmas Show. I was the person in charge of getting the patients to the performance and was the first person off the first bus. What a greeting…she gave me a king sized kiss, and it wasn't on my cheek either!!! I wouldn't even wash my face for a week after that!! Yes, she did autograph that picture right in front of me!! Hells bells, Charlie could have killed me at that moment and I would have sworn I was already in heaven!!
Henry Powers
July 8, 2003


Updated: August 17, 2003