Roll inn PX delivers the goods to bed patient at Moore General Hos
pital. (U. S. Army Signal Corps Photo.)
Moore General
II'n a iiiainiiioth hospital at Suan-
nanoa. and thus far more than
20.000 patients, have been s€»nt
there for treatment.
AT Moore General Hospital.
Swannanoa. N. C.. 3.000 of
/
\Unclc Sam's sick and wounded
fighting men have come home
from the wars. Fresh from the
hell of battle they are winning
another battle, the fight back to
health and strength.
Moore General is one of 60 army
general hospitals in the United
States, and one of two specializing
in treatment of tropical diseases.
Its commanding officer is Col.
Frank W. Wilson. Activated in
November, 1942, the first over¬
seas patients were brought to
Moore in December, and since then
more than 20,000 patients have
been received, the majority of
them veterans of overseas service.
Suffering from combat injuries,
disease, or battle fatigue, most of
the 20.000 have recovered and re¬
turned to duty. Others have been
restored to civilian life.
The hospital plant scatters its
118 one-story white buildings
along a hillside, connecting them
with two miles of corridor. Here
is a hospital that smells of freshly
cut grass and new paint, instead
of cither. Here are roomy, cool
wards with wide screened porches,
lawns for sunbaths, and recrea¬
tional areas equipped for exer¬
cises, shuffleboards, volleyball . . .
and a handball that can be played
by men in wheelchairs. Situated
12 miles east of Asheville, 2.300
feet above sea level, the vacation-
land hospital has an ideal location,
especially for the treatment of
tropical diseases.
Moore is an active place. Many
of the hospital's patients are am¬
bulatory (walking) and they
eagerly take advantage of the
recreational facilities.
There are well stocked PX'es
with a juke box pounding in the
background. Here a G1 starved
for ice cream, after two ice cream¬
less years in the South Pacific, can
eat his fill. A rolling PX also visits
the wards, offering soap and ciga¬
rettes and candy to bed patients.
There is the library, with 5,000
volumes, also a rolling library
that is piloted through the wards.
The sport program is fast and full
. . . baseball games, softball games,
with both patient and duty per¬
sonnel teams, and when the duty
personnel play, the bleachers are
full of cheering fellows in maroon
bathrobes. A gymnasium and
swimming pool, now under con-
scruction, will offer still more
sport opportunities.
There is a weekly radio program
broadcast over Asheville’s WWNC
from the hospital. A public ad¬
dress system carries announce¬
ments, news, and music to the
wards. A semi-monthly magazine,
the Moore News, is lively and in¬
formative. The post theater sched¬
ules the latest movies. Protestant,
Catholic, and Jewish services are
held in the post chapel. There is
a bank, post office, telegraph office,
and a special servicemen's tele¬
phone center. Moore General is
a city within itself.
The Red Cross backs up the
natural activities of the hospital
city with a well rounded program
of entertainment . . . parties,
dances, plays, movies, soldier
shows. Then there are the shows
traveling the USO circuit, plus the
extra visits from celebrities, most
recent of whom were Capt. Eddie
Rickenbacker and Miss Helen
Keller.
One interesting project of the
Red Cross are tours of places of
interest in the Asheville area, in¬
cluding the Biltmore Estates and
the Craggy Gardens. These sight¬
seeing trips acquaint the convales¬
cent soldier with the beauties of
Western North Carolina, and the
GI bus is full of appreciative shouts
as it climbs mountain roads into
the "land of the sky."
To keep the patient "thinking”
there arc classes in which current
affairs are explained and discussed;
there are study courses that mav
be taken through the United
States Armed Forces Institute,
offering credits in everything from
English to engineering. The Edu¬
cational Reconditioning depart¬
ment plans a variety of educational
opportunity.
Occupational therapy, through
a craft cart that visits the wards,
offers a chance to keep hands
working during long hours in bed.
In the craft shop men limber up
stiffened muscles as they hammer,
saw, polish, and paint. Salvaged
THE STATE. July 2!. 1945