War! (1)

     The sudden silence woke Gene up.  It was about midnight, and the jackhammers that had been pounding all night repairing the bridge had stopped.  He started to drift off and then suddenly the night erupted in gunfire.  He was a doctor.  Doctors, even during war, are supposed to heal, but he was a soldier, too, and the world was at war.  It was 1944 in New Guinea and Japanese snipers were attacking the 92^nd Evacuation Hospital.

Capt. Eugene Pfile

       Three years earlier the attack of Pearl Harbor had changed Gene’s life forever.  December 7, 1941, was sunny and warm for a winter day in southern Colorado.  Dr. Eugene Pfile, a general practitioner from Trinidad, Colorado, and his wife, Beth, headed into the mountains west of town.  They had attended the early service at Zion’s Lutheran Church just so they could spend most of the day roaming the hills and gathering evergreen branches and kinnikinnik for the upcoming Christmas season. 

      Beth loved Christmas: the candles, the angels, the woodsy smell of pine branches.  She loved the baking, the singing, and the quiet reflection on Christmas Eve of the birth of Christ.  Gene loved it, too, but most of all he loved Beth.  They had been married for four years.

     Soon they had the trunk of Little Jack, a name coined by Beth for their light gray Ford because it would sometimes jump like a jackrabbit when she let up on the clutch, filled with branches.  On the way home they stopped by the ranch of their close friends, Ruthie and Walter West, for a cup of coffee.  Walt’s face was somber as he came out of the house to greet them.

      “It’s started.  The Japs bombed the hell out of Pearl Harbor this morning.  It’s gonna be war!”They all gathered around the radio in the kitchen and listened in horror as the extent of the destruction was revealed.

     The ride home was quiet as Beth snuggled up to Gene and laid her head on his shoulder.  Too many thoughts swirled around in their heads, but speaking those thoughts would make the bleak future more real, as if those words would set that future in reality.  Both Gene and Beth knew that Gene, who had registered for the draft with all 21- to 35-year-old men in 1940, would enter the army and their world would never be the same.

     After a quiet Christmas, Gene wrote the dreaded letter to the War Department, volunteering his services as a doctor.  On March 29, 1942, he received his temporary appointment as Captain Eugene Frederic Pfile, Med-AUS (Army of the United States).  A subsequent letter informed him that he would probably be appointed to the Seventh Corps and ordered to report for duty in Omaha, Nebraska, around August 1, 1942. 

     On June 22, 1942, Capt. Pfile was sent a red-bordered letter stamped “IMMEDIATE ACTION”.  He was ordered to report to Lowery Field, Denver, Colorado on August 1 for his physical, and then to active service at Fort Riley, Kansas.

     The war machine was gearing up.  New training areas were being established.  The orders changed again.  On June 27 he received a telegram: “YOU WILL PROCEED ON JULY THIRD TO DENVER COLORADO REPORTING TO COMMANDING OFFICER FITZSIMONGENERALHOSPITAL FOR COMPLETE PHYSICAL EXAMINATION AND IF PHYSICALLY QUALIFIED THENCE TO FORTORD CALIFORNIA REPORTING TO COMMANDING OFFICER SEVENTH SURGICAL HOSPITAL FOR DUTY = ULIO ADJT GENL WASHN.”

      His waiting at home was just about over.  His waiting in the army would soon begin.

In the following blog, I will tell my father's story through his diaries, letters, and photos. Additional letters, newspaper articles, and comments explaining the situation may  also be included.  All of the photographs were taken by Gene during the 1940’s.

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