was told by him that he could not tell how the collision in which he was injured occurred, as it took place very suddenly, rendering him unconscious, from which he did not recover until some considerable time thereafter.

Affiant further states that the foregoing statement is according to his best recollection.

D. STUART GILLIS.

Sworn to and subscribed before me this 29th day of November 1943. [SEAL]

My commission expires July 9, 1945.

HARRIET E. ROEBUCK, Notary Public, State of Florida at Large.

To Whom it May Concern:

TALLAHASSEE, FLA., December 14, 1943.

Mr. Edwin H. Taylor, Jr., entered the Johnston's Sanitarium, of Tallahassee, Fla., at 6:20 p. m. on October 4, 1942, via stretcher by ambulance. He had been transferred to Johnston's Sanitarium from the base hospital of Dale Mabry Field as the result of an automobile accident occurring October 2, 1942.

On admission Mr. Taylor's pulse was 88, temperature 101, respiration 26, and blood pressure 138/80. He had a 3-inch laceration across the forehead and a laceration across the bridge of his nose, both of which had been sutured at the Dale Mabry Hospital. The diagnosis of severe cerebral concussion was made and following X-rays a diagnosis of a fracture of the second, third, fourth, and fifth ribs on the right anteriorlateral chest was made. The X-rays also showed a bilateral pneumonia with atelectasis of the right lung. A number of chest taps were necessitated due to the gathering of fluid in the right chest. The patient ran a rather stormy course until the 31st of Otcober when his temperature dropped to normal and remained so for 6 days. However, again on November 7, 1942, he began running intermittent fever although he felt rather well. He developed a right foot drop at this time with some definite muscular weakness in the right leg but no neurological signs could be definitely elicited.

Inasmuch as the patient wished to return home via ambulance and seemed to be in good general condition other than his leg complaint, he was discharged from the hospital to his home on the 12th of November 1942.

During 1 week end while I was out of town, my associate, Dr. E. R. Annis, attended the patient for me.

The hospital records are on file and can be seen at any time with the written permission of Mr. E. H. Taylor, Jr.

HAROLD O. HALLSTRAND, M. D.

STATION HOSPITAL, DALE MABRY FIELD.

The following is a statement of Pvt. (1st cl.) Norman Scogins, Army serial No. 34169112, detailed to Medical Department on special duty at Alligator Point gunnery range, concerning accident of E. H. Taylor, engineer at Camp Carrabelle, Fla.

While returning to the gunnery range on authorized pass from Panacea, Fla., with a truckload of men, driver of truck, Pvt. John H. Martin, Army serial No. 34060792, saw a wrecked car on the wrong side of the road (shell top) about 2 miles from highway. Upon command from Sergeant Shelnutt, truck was stopped.

Sergeant Shelnutt examined the car recognizing it as belonging to one of the inhabitants of Dr. Tuck's house. He took a .45 automatic and an unmailed letter from the car planning to take these to the house.

He was met at the house by Private First Class Williams who asked if there were any of the medical men on the truck, as Mr. Taylor had been injured and was in the house. He said that Private First Class DeKruger and an identified civilian had been sent for a doctor. Private First Class Scogins first saw Taylor at 2200. W. A. Searson, Jr., one of the inhabitants of the house, said that he had given Taylor two drinks of liquor.

Sergeant Shelnutt sent to the gunnery range headquarters for a litter and two sheets which were brought within 30 minutes. Patient and litter were placed on

a 21⁄2-ton Government truck and started for Dale Mabry Field. On the way it was intercepted by Dr. Colson and he gave the patient one-fourth grain of morphine and put on three strips of adhesive because he thought that there were broken ribs. Truck continued on to Dale Mabry Field, dropping Dr. Colson at Crawfordsville, Fla.

Rushing patient to Dale Mabry Field, the truck hit a taxi on Monroe Street near ball park. Taxi was making a left turn when truck hit the rear of same. The taxi immediately burst into flames. Private first class Scogins gave fire extinguisher to Private Bale and he extinguished the flames. There was a fare (male, name unknown) who complained of injuries but refused to go to the station hospital, Dale Mabry Field.

When officer arrived on the scene, he sent the soldiers to Dale Mabry Field station hospital, asking them to stop at police station on the way back. The truck arrived at the hospital at 0025.

Stitches were taken in the 2 lacerations of skull (frontal) by Captain Unger who was medical officer of the day. All surface wounds were given proper treatment.

Private first class Tallant, detailed medical department, Army serial No. 34168897, and Private Bale, Forty-second Base Headquarters and Air Base Squadron, Army serial No. 32317634, were also in the truck that brought Taylor to the station hospital.

Taken by Pvt. (1st cl.) Meyer Steinberg, 35243656, medical detachment.

STATEMENT OF W. A. SEARSON, JR.

To Whom It May Concern:

I am making this statement at the request of Edwin H. Taylor, Jr., concerning his automobile accident while living at my home on Alligator Point, Carrabelle Fla. I made and signed a statement to the provost marshall at Camp Carrabelle. Fla, a few days following the accident, which has been more than a year ago and I cannot state the exact date.

Mr. Taylor left my home about 6:30 p. m. the night of the accident and I can state that he was perfectly normal and had not had a drink of any intoxicants, as I had been with him all afternoon; however, after he was brought back to my house by another lodger, Mr. Louie Ezell, Abbeville, Ala., who had picked him up in an unconscious condition beside his wrecked car about 21⁄2 hours after he had laft my house, I forced two drinks of whisky down him to try to ease his pain until I could get an ambulance to take him to a hospital. In the meantime, two soldiers from the small camp stationed on Alligator Point were at my home, (can't recall their names but had them in my original statement) and were present when Mr. Ezell brought Mr. Taylor in and they sumomned the first-aid man from their camp, with an ambulance. Mr. Ezell went for a doctor at a nearby town; when the doctor arrived, he administered an opiate and ordered Mr. Taylor to be taken to a hospital. We then placed him in the Army ambulance and he was taken to the hospital at Dale Mabry Field, Tallahassee, Fla. I then drove to Camp Carrabelle and reported the accident to the provost marshal, as the wreck had happened on a Government reservation and from what I could learn from Mr. Taylor, he was hit by a G. I. truck. The provost marshal, captain Yundt, his chauffeur, and I drove to the road turning off the main highway for Alligator Point; this road is a white crushed-sea-shell road. We stopped the car at the edge of the pavement and shone the lights on this road and could see fresh tracks where a big truck had turned in this road at a high rate of speed. Captain Yundt ordered his chauffeur to follow these tracks. Four or five times between the highway and the scene of the wreck, captain Yundt had to stop his driver to keep us from completely running off the road. The truck tracks were zigzagging from one side of the road to the other and sometimes off the road. When we got to Mr. Taylor's car, which was about 2 miles from the highway, the truck tracks were on the left-hand side of the road, head-on, in the front of Mr. Taylor's car. Mr. Taylor's car tracks showed that he had applied his brakes and must have been at a standstill when the vehicles collided. We then drove on past my home to the camp stationed on the point. The provost marshall questioned the sentries and a sergeant who was in charge and learned that a Negro soldier had been driving the truck and was drunk and had not even reported the accident and did not come in by the regular road, but left the road and drove up the beach. We investigated the truck and found the headlights broken and

other marks where it had hit Mr. Taylor's car. I then went home and left the rest of investigation to the Army. I learned later from the soldiers at the camp that the Negro was transferred and nothing done about it.

I went to Dale Mabry Field Hospital the following day and was not permitted to see Mr. Taylor. However, several days later, I was allowed to see him for a few minutes and he was so under the influence of dope and shock that I was unable to talk to him. Afterward, he was removed to the city hospital in Tallahassee, Fla. I made several trips to see him before I was ever able to converse with him. The last time that I went to see him, which was several weeks after the accident, I was told by his special nurse that his heart was in a very dangerous condition and that his wife was allowed to see him only a few minutes each day. At that time his nurse was not sure of his recovery.

Captain Yundt made a statement at the same time that I did and I don't know what happened to them.

I certify that the foregoing statements are correct to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Certified before me this January 17, 1944. [SEAL]

My commission expires October 15, 1947.

Mr. E. H. TAYLOR,

Chickasaw, Ala.

W. A. SEARSON, Jr.

E. D. SMITH,
Notary Public.

MOBILE, ALA., March 2, 1943.

DEAR MR. TAYLOR: The following is a report of the findings in your case when you were examined in this office on February 22, 1943:

Physical examination: The patient is a white male, age 28, tall and thin, weighing 156 pounds. According to the history the patient had an accident October 2, 1942. As a result of this the patient had a severe cerebral concussion and four fractured ribs on the right side, one of the ribs later puncturing the right lung, giving artificial pneumothorax. The patient was probably unconscious for a period of 15 or 16 hours. Approximately 15 days after the accident he had a phlebitis in the left femural vein. A few days later the patient began to have a pricking sensation in the right leg with the foot feeling numb, which has continued to be numb from that time.

The area just below

Chest: The chest is well developed, of the square type. the right clavicle is more depressed than the corresponding area on the left side. Temperature is 98°. Expansion is equal, right and left. Breath sounds come through as well on the right as on the left, except in the right base. My opinion is that the right lung has completely, or practically, reexpanded.

Heart: All heart sounds are clear and distinct. Blood pressure 115/70; pulse

s 80, and regular. There are no murmurs and no irregularies.

Abdomen: The abdomen is flat. The anterior abdominal muscles are relaxed. There is no abdominal tenderness, no masses or evidence of fluid. There is no postoperative scar.

Extremities: The left foot is definitely colder than the right foot. Dorsalis pedis artery is not made out in either foot. The arches are poorly supported. There is no evidence of paralysis. The supination and pronation of both feet are normal. The left leg, extending from the ankle to the thigh, is considerably larger than the right. This is a hard nonpitting edema, the result of a phlebitis of the femural vein of the left leg. The patient uses a stick in walking due to the disability in the right foot. He feels that the right foot and ankle do not have enough stability to support him. Standing on the right foot causes him considerable pain.

H. Repts., 78-2, vol 2—3

Laboratory report: Hemoglobin 86 percent; red blood corpuscles, 4,460,000; white blood corpuscles 8,900; polys, 53; lymphs, 44; eos, 3; urinalysis, negative; Wassermann, negative.

X-ray of the chest shows the right lung to be completely expanded. There is no enlargement of the heart or other pathology in the chest. Anterioposterior and lateral X-ray of the lateral and pelvic spine showed no abnormalities.

Discussion: In my opinion the swelling in the right leg is due to a phlebitis and the numbness and other disability in the right leg is due to an embolus in the arteries of the right leg, probably in the popliteal space. In my opinion the phlebitis in the left leg constitutes a permanent partial disability and that lack of circulation in the right foot due to a probable embolus will in time take care of itself and constitute no permanent disability.

Respectfully submitted.

о

G. O. SEGREST. M. D.

78TH CONGRESS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 2d Session

DONALD J. MUNSON

{

REPORT No. 1180

FEBRUARY 23, 1944.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House and ordered to be printed

Mr. JENNINGS, from the Committee on Claims, submitted the following

REPORT

[To accompany H. R. 2288]

The Committee on Claims, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 2288) for the relief of Donald J. Munson, having considered the same, report favorably thereon with an amendment and recommend that the bill as amended do pass.

The amendment is as follows:

At the end of the bill strike out the period and insert in lieu thereof: : Provided, That no part of the amount appropriated in this Act in excess of 10 per centum thereof shall be paid or delivered to or received by any agent or attorney on account of services rendered in connection with this claim, and the same shall be unlawful, any contract to the contrary notwithstanding. Any person violating the provisions of this Act shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof shall be fined in any sum not exceeding $1,000.

The purpose of the proposed legislation is to appropriate the sum of $1,708.32 to Donald J. Munson, of Anderson, Ind., in full settlement of all claims against the United States for damages to his aircraft in a forced landing on January 15, 1942, while on the return trip to Anderson, Ind., from Washington, D. C., and traveling expenses incident thereto.

STATEMENT OF FACTS

It appears that on January 13, 1942, Mr. Munson was called on the telephone at his home in Anderson, Ind., from Washington, D. C., upon the direction of the commanding officer of the Ferrying Command and requested to fly his privately owned Beechcraft E17B No. 209 airplane to Washington, D. C., for instructions preparatory to a proposed 30-day survey trip to the Caribbean area. During the telephone conversation Mr. Munson was told that it would be necessary to have a pilot having over 400 flying hours to his credit. As Mr. Munson did not have the sufficient credits, he contacted Mr. George W. Hoppus, now a lieutenant in the United States Army Air Corps, to accompany him to Washington as requested by the War Department.