Wartime Rails
July 6, 1944Dearest Reader,
On Thursday, July 6, 1944, my grandmother sat at her typewriter once again to write to my father. It seems she wrote every day with letters mixed of small local happenings, the weather and some words of advice for her only son. In this letter her daily life intersects with the larger rhythm of a country at war.
She was anxious for news about his discharge, writing: “I am most anxious to know”
She wanted to travel to Boston to say goodbye to a man named Dick but hesitated. She worried that leaving Martinsburg might cause her to miss word of her son’s release. Even more, she was uncertain if she would be permitted to travel at all:
“The government has issued an order to the railroads to dump any civilian off the train or to take over whole train any time they need the facilities to move wounded man, or troops, and of course, that’s as it should be.”
Her words offer a window into wartime America, when even a mother’s wish to visit a friend or relative was bound by the necessities of war.
By mid-1944, the railroads were the arteries of the American war effort. Every major line was mobilized for military use. The Office of Defense Transportation, established in 1942, coordinated this vast system to move troops, supplies and the wounded coming home from overseas.
Train schedules changed without notice with civilians often left behind at stations. My grandmother’s acceptance of this: “and of course, that’s as it should be” reflects both her practicality and her sense of patriotic duty.
Across the country, hospital trains became a familiar sight. These rolling wards carried men to hospitals like the Fort Geroge Wright in Spokane, Washington, where my father was recovering. Converted passenger cars held rows of stretchers instead of seats. Between 1942 and 1945, more than a million wounded servicemen were transported across the United States this way.
My grandmother’s words remind me that even those far from the battlefields lived under the constant presence of war. We know that these trains rolling past would be just one sign of the weight of a nation’s sacrifice.
Dr. Nancy Watson
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Washington
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