Show mimmi E s I 1 M 0 MAJOR ROYAL E WIGHT 4 0 mention was made in our last weeks issue of the brief visit made to his old home in park city by major royal E wight because of 0 the hie brief time before wo we went to press we were unable to give our readers an account ot of his services luring during the war probably no man from rom utah had so wide an all experience doctor wight is a veteran ot of the spanish american war as well as of 0 tile the greatest war ot of history and his record is one in which his friends feel a degree of 0 pride commissioned a first lieutenant on september ath 1919 ills his first ser vice was at fort douglas for or the interned germans or german sympathizers confined there then he was ordered to camp lewis washington and assigned to duty as oral surgeon for the sixty thousand americans then in ili training there in november 1917 he was ordered to rumania and sailed from seattle for russia where he was to travel through siberia and european ads russia to what was then the eastern front aront recalled from mid ocean by wireless his boat returned to seattie and he again took up his work at camp lewis in march 1918 he was ordered to report to hoboken went from there to washing ton where he was commissioned captain and sailed from hoboken on the Levia thian for brest france early in april at tl that lat time the german submarine was a real menace the american army had not at that time begun to take any con sid erable part in the fighting and tor for some weeks capt wight visited the french english and american hospitals traveling to all the larger cities of 0 france not occupied by the enemy and then reported for or service at the croydon jaw hospital london the largest hospital devoted I 1 entirely to jaw injuries in the world for three months he did bone and plastic surgery for the I 1 britsch at that and king georges hospital croyden is on the south side of j london and located there near the jaw hospital was a division da of 0 the royal flying corps for the defense I 1 of the city against german air raids ra id capt wight was there and wl witness tu ed the air battle when ge germany rm any made her greatest raid on london lorld oil the antiaircraft anti aircraft guns were station ed near by and the english flyers were up and engaging the german zeppelins zeppelina zepp elins and planes some thirty in number and shells exploding from the ground batteries making a wonderful and tearful fearful sight in the night german bombs dropped in great numbers and great damage wrought but the germans were finally driven off with losses one zeppelin talling falling in flames ironi from an altitude ot of about three miles major description ot of the dismembered and maimed women and children picked up after that raid recalls afresh the horrors we were accustomed to read about at that time it was at croydon that major wight had his first flight in an airplane and when ordered to france again he lew flew across the english channel in a hanley paige battle plane making the flight on july esth to near the battle front in one hour 1 and fifty three minutes ile he was at red cross hospital no 1 in paris when the americans stopped tile the german drive on parts paris at Chat chanteau thierry and saw the eight thousand beds and the halls and corridors of that hospital filled with american soldiers wounded in that battle and fifteen hundred more cots likewise filled on the sidewalk in the street then he took up his work at base hospital lo spital no where his work was mainly on reconstruction for or soldiers who had received dis als figuring wounds in the face ile he kept a photographic record of many ot of his patients which make a gruesome history but a most wonderful erfil record of 0 what can be done to save a man from rom death or a late fate far ar worse than death a life with the most repulsive disfigurement at capt wight was court officer ot fleer acting as judge in all cases of minor offenses tenses ot ills his Ns ork its as oral surgeon burgeon took him to various other and flying fields trips which were frequently made by air craft A surgeon at the front having I 1 lieen been killed by shell fire capt wight secured permission to fill the position so made vacant and in ili october went to the argonne as surgeon serving with the famous division when that division was taking a leading port part in the drive on sedan there lie he got a piece of 0 shell in tho the light fight leg but insists that lie he did not know when he got it and he still has it in telling 0 of it he claims that he was too to mind anything but the total loss ot of a leg and it was there that lie he left four other surgeons in a dugout dug out to go and dress a patient pa tieni and during his absence a shell killed all 1 four our of ills his companions on january this year on the recommendation of general john A pershing Por shing doctor wight was commissioned a alador but the order tor for his advancement did not reach him until he had returned to america landing at philadelphia he was given a ten day furlough to visit his family in salt lake city and then ordered to report at U S hospital no 40 at st louis on his hie elevation to a dr wight was placed in command of the hospital at st louis but resigned his commission to return to salt lake city to resume his practice where he has opened offices in the boston building major dwigth tallis interestingly of the english and french and has great admiration tor for them as soldiers ills his residence in both countries gave him an unusual opportunity to form impressions of the manners and customs ot of the people but his observations have only strengthened his belief that the american Is the greatest soldier in the world nothing could stop him when he got ready to go the low marsh land I 1 along the chesapeake Che speake hay bay was he I 1 says in the snow storm then raging the finest sight he had seen since he left home when the olal old northland sailed in oft off the allan adan j tic america |