Alan W. Layton, Salt Lake City, Utah: an interview by Winston P. Erickson, August 29, 2000: Saving the Legacy tape nos. 94 & 95

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L W.L YTO 29 2000 We re going to have to open you up." So I aid, "Fine." He took an edl ab ut tw 1 inches long, and he blocked off my che t (with a local ane thetic) and he aid 'I'll giv you a mirror o you can watch." He deadened my che t. There were two fragment in there. They looked like pieces of tin can with cloth from my combat jacket wrapped around the fragment . That's why my chest wouldn't heal up. If it had just been the metal, it would have healed. See there in my finger right there? There's a little fragment of metal still in my finger. People say, "Why don't you get a doctor to cut that out?" I said, "No, when they lay me out, they can put some red magic marker around that and give them something to talk about." But back in about November of '44, my wife, Mona, had sent me a lovely Sheaffer pen and pencil set that I carried in my combat jacket. When those fragments hit me in that location, of course it destroyed the pen and pencil set. But that pen and pencil set might have saved my life, because that's where your heart is, right there. WPE: It could have slowed down those fragments. AWL: Yes. But as soon as he cleaned those two fragments with that cloth out of there, my chest healed up just like that. I've got two bad scars on me right there. WPE: So you were in Bushnell Hospital in Brigham City for how long? AWL: Well, I was released from Bushnell in the end of October or first of November ('45). WPE: You were on the ship in May and probably got to Bushnell in June or the end of May and spent from then until October or November in Bushnell. You were released from the hospital in late '45. Were you separated from the Army then, too? [Editor's note: Officers, like Mr. Layton, were "separated" from the military. Enlisted men are "discharged".] 55