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Show USOs Help Disabled Vets to Recapture Old Zest in Living "The most important thing which friends and relatives of disabled veterans vet-erans can do is to treat them as normal men. Attention should not be forced upon them. These men are supersensitive. If they have lost an eye, or an arm, or a leg, they may feel that the bottom has dropped out of everything but that isn't true. We all know men and women who have successfully overcome grave disabilities and have lived useful lives." Guided by this statement from Maj. Gen. Norman T. Kirk of the army medical corps, civilians of Martinsburg, W. Va., have all helped to make the USO club in that city a popular center for men from the nearby Newton D. Baker general hospital. This is one of 527 USO clubs, financed by National War fund, which serve ambulatory patients pa-tients in hospitals caring for the wounded. The club, which is directed by Mrs. Sallie Ailes, is always crowded with men in uniform. "These men are wonderful," she smiled. "Their acceptance of all that our club has to offer, and Martinsburg' s acceptance accept-ance of the men is all so perfectly normal that we never think of them as being 'disabled' or 'physically handicapped.' We are all so used to seeing men on crutches, men with arms in casts and slings, or men with a patch over one eye, that we are never conscious of any of these physical marks of war. We see such marked improvement in the men, over such short periods of time, that we can really comfort wives and families before they see their soldiers, sol-diers, when they come to Martinsburg Martins-burg to be near them. "Men come into the club from early ear-ly morning until late at night," she continued. "They come to eat, to read, to dance, or to play ping-pong or billiards. Often they come in just to sit and talk. Nearly all of the young wives who have come to live until their husbands are either discharged dis-charged or returned to duty, use the USO club as their home-away-from-home as freely and as happily as do the men." Typical of the cooperation and the appreciation of military authorities is the following excerpt from a recent re-cent letter from Col. E. L. Cooke, commanding officer of the Baker hospital: "The USO has come to mean a helping hand and a place of warm welcome not only to the men at this hospital, but to all members of the armed forces who may come within its doors.'" |