Re: Trouble with hands

[James Robert Dennis III <jrdennis@earthlink.net>]

My uncle, William W. Dennis, was with the Signal Battalion supporting 
10th Corps '51-'53 (and I can't think where he was at the moment, Camp 
Steele (Chunchon?, upper bend of the Han Tan) was there...  He was a RATT 
Rig operator, the new ones that had been developed in WWII but issued too 
late.  When it got cold in North Texas, near 35 and at times colder, his 
hands would become numb and you could see him rubbing his hands and 
staying indoors.  He would also be wearing several layers of clothes.  It 
was always curious to me when I was younger (he came home in June 1953 
after spending his entire tour including basic and advanced training 
overseas).  After a few winters in Germany with Tanks and then a winter 
in Korea (Bde S-2), I totally understood his problems.

Had he registered in Jack County, instead of Lubbock, he would not have 
been drafted.  There was a lot of hard feelings over the way the local 
boys were treated by the Koreans in WWII.
Still is for that matter.  Cavasos, of "This Kind Of War" fame and later 
Commander of Forces Command lived in the same boarding house as he and my 
other Uncle (Rogers) did.  Bill was drafted and sent to Hawaii (Schofield 
Barracks) for basic training (considered overseas) and then to Japan 
(former Naval Academy) for signal training and then to Korea.  Because he 
wouldn't volunteer for Infantry OCS, he wound up staying in Korea until 
his enlistment was up.  Even Lyndon Johnson who had offered to do Dad any 
favor for his political support couldn't (wouldn't?) get him home sooner.

>
>          Do any of you have a lot of trouble with Num fingers ? I live in 
>South Texas and it doesn't get very cold here but at any thing close to 40 
>--35 degrees 
> my fingers turn white and the nails blue and go Num
>  to the point I cant feel a thing . really troublesome
>               Jerry          K W   51-52
> 
>