Page 72 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2022 - Online Magazine
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Leland Flyger
“Battle Fatigue” Medic
by Larry Williams
training and, to his was an experimental company,
surprise, was assigned which came about because
as a medic. He went to of battle fatigue (also called
Brook Army Hospital, shell shock and later PTSD).
Ft. Sam Houston, in San Our doctors were trained in
Antonio for medical Psychiatry, and troops suffering
training in the Neuro- from battle fatigue were sent to
Psychiatric ward. us.”
In September 1952,
he was transferred Lessons learned about battle
to Fitzsimons Army fatigue during WWII helped
Hospital in Denver. when the Korean War broke
out in 1950. “We had a good
“On September 12, reputation for returning soldiers
1952, I received new to their units,” said Leland. “It
orders. On September was my job to take care of them.
26, I boarded a While not in direct combat, we
troopship for Korea. were still in a war zone. We had
The ship held 3000 sentries and guards at night.”
ven though he had troops, 300 officers and The North Koreans would
no previous medical the ship crew. We stopped at send small prop planes called
Eexperience, 21-year-old Camp Drake near Tokyo, Japan “Bedcheck Charlies” to drop
Leland Flyger was trained as a on October 10, 1952, where we incendiary bombs on U.N. targets
medic during the Korean War. boarded the USS General Howze at night. Leland recalled, “One
It was certainly not what he and went to Inchon, Korea. The of the Navy pilots went up in
expected after completing basic sky to the north was lit up like a Corsair looking for them. We
training. a summer thunderstorm due to heard he [shot down] five of
the artillery barrage—my first them.” Flyger later found out
Leland was born in 1930 to indoctrination to war. We went in that that Navy pilot was Lt. Guy
Linden and Veona Flyger in on a landing craft Bordelon.
Glendale, California. After at night. It was Bordelon,
his grandfather, an early very dark, and we flying from
homesteader in Southeast South were in a blackout the USS
Dakota, left a half section of land situation. We Princeton, did
to each of his children, Linden boarded box cars in fact shoot
moved his family to a farm close and headed east of down five
to Hurley, South Dakota. Young Inchon (21 miles). enemy planes
Leland attended a one-room I was assigned to and became
country schoolhouse for eight the 123rd Medical the Navy’s
years, then Hurley High School Holding Company, first prop
for three years before the family then moved north ace in Korea.
moved to Lincoln, Nebraska, of Seoul, close to Later in his
where he graduated in 1948. the front lines, 27-year career,
where we lived Bordelon was
After high school, Leland worked in tents. We were involved in
on the family farm until he close enough to the recovery
was drafted into the Army on hear the heavy of Apollo
December 17, 1951. He arrived at artillery. The 123rd astronauts.
Camp Pickett, Virginia for basic
72 Lubbock Senior Link
