Books

Henri's Story, Memoirs of a Survivor

Front cover of the HENRI's STORY, Memoirs of a Survivor

Henri’s Story, Memoirs of a Survivor, is the autobiography of a strong New England woman who challenged herself in many ways to live with polio and raise of family of six children. Henriette Lajoie shows us her life as one of twelve children and gives us a good picture of this prominent Fall River family. Her father, J. Edward Lajoie, was a distinguished lawyer, district attorney and judge. We meet the noted Trapp Family singers and Maria vonTrapp, who would become Henri’s mother-in-law when she married Rupert vonTrapp. The wedding of Rupert and Henri on September 17, 1947, in St. Ann's Catholic Church in Fall RIver, drew more than 3,000 people. The heart of Henri's story is her battling polio, the dreaded disease, which struck Henri as she started her family. The young mother was confined to an iron lung for almost a year and transferred to several polio hospitals. The soul of the story is how Henri was determined not to allow being bound in a wheelchair for life stop her from becoming a caring mother and good wife. She showed courage to learn to drive with her handicap and was rewarded with new freedoms. There is sadness in her story as Henri survived a divorce and attempted annulment. Throughout her years of trials and disappointments, Henri pressed on to enjoy life to the fullest.

This self-published book by James J. McBride, 2009, has 160 pages and over 127 photos.

Cost $25 includes shipping and handling.

Children of Fort Stanton, second edition

Front cover of the Photo Essay Memoirs of the Children of Fort Stanton, second edition

The Children of Fort Stanton, second edition, is a collection of memories of thirty seven children who grew up at the Public Health Service tuberculosis hospital for merchant seamen in isolated Lincoln County, New Mexico. The time covered in these recollections is from the 1920s to 1953, when the hospital was turned over to the State of New Mexico. Each of the individual stories tells of their personal experiences and quite often gives insight into the many facets of Fort Stanton life. Quite often a different way of telling some experience or event while growing up at the hospital gives us special insights and new perspectives on life there. There may be some secrets revealed by playmates which will amuse the others and readers in general as the stories are read. Two of the children deserve credit for collecting these stories and providing the majority of the photos. Danna Kusianovich Henderson and Claire Boyd Fluharty have been the driving force for this book. The reader must remember many of the children are looking back as far as seventy years ago so there will be inconsistencies in many of the stories.

This self-published book by James J. McBride, 2009, has 212 pages and over 348 photos.

Cost: $20 includes shipping and handling

A Photo Essay History FORT STANTON MARINE HOSPITAL, Public Health Service 1899-1953

Front cover art of A Photo Essay History
Fort Stanton Marine Hospital, Public Health
Service, 1941-1945

Fort Stanton Marine Hospital, established at the old military post in Lincoln Country, New Mexico, 1899, was the first Public Health Service sanatorium devoted to merchant marine seamen suffering from tuberculosis. With the advent of new drugs to control this dreadful disease and the federal reorganization of national health programs, the hospital was closed and transferred to the State of New Mexico in 1953. During its 54 years, Fort Stanton Hospital was a well organized and lively community for the medical staff and employees, their families and the patients. For Lincoln County, the sanatorium was an economic boom.

This self-published book by James J. McBride, 2005, has 159 pages and over 260 photos.

Cost: $25 includes shipping and handling

Review

Author comprises history of Fort Stanton’s hospital days
by Carolyn Schrader

Fort Stanton Marine Hospital was established in 1899 at the old military post in Lincoln County. This hospital was the first Public Health Service sanatorium devoted to merchant marine seamen suffering from tuberculosis. James McBride’s new book Fort Stanton Marine Hospital: Public Health Service 1899-1953 takes the reader through the 54 years of the hospital’s existence. He provides a brief history of the Public Health Service and the creation of the hospital. The history continues through the decades of use, the early war years and the closure in 1953 when tuberculosis was determined to be under control with the advent of new drugs and the government reorganized its departments in post war efforts.

The book is a wealth of information and includes hundreds of pictures. This detailed, well-researched photo essay history high-lights many of the people that worked or lived at the hospital. The “before” and “now” scenes are enlightening to anyone interested in the evolution of a community. McBride’s photo captions include details about the people and location so the reader has an understanding of the event, not just a statement of the subject of the photo.

McBride includes excerpts from semi-official documents such as hospital log books and personal records, providing a unique insight into the operations of the sanatorium. The book also covers the lifestyle of the hospital patients. McBride explains how the hospital strived to be self-sustaining, with the raising of much its own food; how it dealt with the contagious disease; and how the resident patients spent their time. Many were not bed-ridden and needed activities to help regain health and keep them occupied.

The author also discussed the internment camp, comprised of sailors from the German cruise liner SS Columbus. Those interested in an in-depth history of the internment years should read McBride’s first book, Interned, the Internment of the SS Columbus Crew at Fort Stanton, New Mexico, 1941-1945, published in 2003.

Carolyn Schrader, with her husband Bill Martin, owns Southwest Book Roundup in Capitan that focuses on books about the Southwest.

INTERNED; Internment of the SS Columbus Crew at Fort Stanton, New Mexico, 1941-1945

In March 1941, 410 German seamen from the scuttled luxury liner, the SS Columbus, surveyed the bleak, barren and cold landscape of Fort Stanton, New Mexico. They wondered if their 15-month odyssey of detention was over or starting a new phase. They traveled across the country from Ellis Island in New York Harbor to Angel Island in San Francisco Bay in search of a ship to take them home. Unsuccessful in this venture, the US government wanted to move the Germans to a remote, isolated location. An abandoned CCC camp in Lincoln County, New Mexico, fit the bill perfectly. The Border Patrol reluctantly accepted the charge of the 410 distressed seamen. The US Public Health Service Marine Hospital, for merchant marine sailors with tuberculosis, was located across the Rio Bonito River from the camp and was the closest thing to civilization.

Front cover art of Interned; Internment of the
SS Columbus Crew at Fort Stanton,
New Mexico, 1941-1945

The stranded German seamen were not discouraged for long. Captain Daehne, their skipper, used his crews’ energy, ambition and obedience to make the first American internment camp a showcase of German pride and accomplishment. Maritime trades were quickly adapted to the high desert to build and beautify the camp. The ship’s barbers, tailors and maintenance teams set up trade shops while the Columbus cooks and stewards organized the kitchen and mess hall to serve the hard working men. Sports fields for tennis and soccer were laid out. A large swimming pool was built in two months by scores of volunteer seamen. In July the men celebrated their efforts with a four-day event, the Fort Stanton Olympics.

America’s neutrality and the sailors’ status as guests of the government gave the men the freedom to hike the hills around the camp, visit the nearby village of Capitan, operate a driving training course and construct private huts along the river and within the camp December 7, 1941, changed all this. With the United States at war with Germany, the Columbus seamen became alien enemies.

By March 1942, a high fence with guard towers and lights enclosed the camp. The next three years witnessed the transfer of other German merchant seamen into the camp and parole of some Columbus internees. The camp grew in population and new buildings were constructed. In the summer of 1945, with the defeat of Germany, the internees finally went home. Photographs from many sources tell this remarkable story of these 410 interned German sailors.

Review

by Marc Simmons

In the book, the author has rescued a slide of 20th-century New Mexico history that had completely slipped from view.

The story begins with the sculling of the SS Columbus, a German luxury liner in the Atlantic 400 miles east of New York, Dec. 19, 1939. The Columbus captain, Wilhelm Daehne, took that extreme action to keep his vessel from being captured by a British destroyer.

The 410-man German crew was rescued by an American ship and taken to Ellis Island, N.Y. The seamen were eventually interned at Fort Stanton, N.M., where they remained for the duration of the war.

The stranded foreigners were not discouraged. According to McBride, “Capt. Daehne used his crews’ energy, ambition and obedience to make the first American internment camp a showcase of German pride and accomplishment.” The book relates how the men dealt with confinement-for recreation, they built their own swimming pool and held mini-rodeos-and how they got along with their New Mexican neighbors. Upon the surrender of Germany in midsummer of 1945, the Columbus crew was finally free to go home.

The author retired from the U.S. Navy and with a graduate history degree from the University of New Mexico, spent eight years assembling the materials for this extraordinary photo-essay book. It contains 230 photographs, including dramatic images of the Columbus and her sinking.

McBride obtained many of the pictures along with reminiscences from surviving internees or their families, and from Lincoln County residents. He has made an important contribution toward understanding this obscure chapter in the history of World War II. Highly recommended.

Simmons is a New Mexico and Santa Fe historian who writes the Trail Dust column that appears Saturdays in The New Mexican.

Shang Log 1970 WestPac (Vietnam) Cruise - USS Shangri-La

Front cover art Shang Log
1970 WestPac (Vietnam) Cruise
USS Shangri-La

SHANG LOG is the story of the Clincher pilots of Attack Squadron 12 who made the last cruise of the USS Shangri-La (CVS-38) to WestPac and the Vietnam War in 1970. During the six line periods on Yankee Station, the attack pilots found the weather with monsoon rains and the aircraft availability problems worse enemies than the antiaircraft gunners protecting the supply routes they went to bomb in Laos and Vietnam. Lcdr J. J. McBride, USN, (Retired), built this autobiographic memoir from his daily diary or log entries. He Included in his research for the book were interviews with fellow squadron pilots and official records, orders and award citations. The 464 page, self-published book has 159 photos.

Cost: $25 includes shipping and handling

Review

THE HOOK –Journal of Carrier Aviation, Fall 2002, Volume 30 Number 3
by Lcdr. Rick Morgan, USN (Retired)

Ok, JOs, you think you have it rough because the auto-dog is out on your nuke? How ‘bout a nine-month cruise, 120 days of which were in combat, flying tired attack aircraft that are ground one entire line period because two birds went in the watch on launch. Consider the loss of six air wing aircraft and two pilots during the trip, only one of which was combat related. Add into this mix a ship that is on almost continuous watch hours, suffers frequent systems causalities (little things like the ACLS, radar, cats and steering) and has berthing areas pushing temps in excess of 120 degrees. What you end up with is the infamous “CasRep-70” Vietnam deployment of USS Shangri-La (CVS-38).

Lcdr. J. J. McBride was the safety officer for the A-4C Skyhawk-quipped Clinchers of VA-12. McBride kept a meticulous cruise diary which, when combined with some excellent historical research, has been turned into a fascinating book that details the entire deployment on a day-to-day basic.

Shang was a World War II-era 27-Charlie Essex-class carrier that, despite its “anti-submarine” designation, was making its last deployment with Attack Carrier Air Wing Eight embarked. CVW-8 was an East Coast outfit with three quarters of its squadrons coming from AirAltant, in this case “old” Crusaders, Skyhawks and Fudds and not the then-glamorous Phantoms, Intruders and Corsairs. To cap things off, the ship was scheduled to be decommissioned and three of its squadrons disestablished immediately after its return home.

Yankee Station operations involved a lot of combat missions in lousy conditions. The pilots were flying their aircraft into South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, frequently at night against an elusive and indistinct enemy. There’s no system bombing here-just pilots using the old iron bombsight and carrying only three to five Mk-82s on most missions.

The SHANG LOG is about a close-knit squadron of men who did their best with what they were handed. The book offers a fascination first-person glimpse into what was certainly one of the more obscure carrier deployments of the Vietnam War.