The reenacting/living history season, for many of us, begins at Fort Indiantown Gap during the Battle of the Bulge reenactment week. (Last week of the month). This year was no exception, as Linda and I once again were part of the German hospital display hosted by Pete and Kate Gentry. As usual, I portrayed a wounded Volkssturman. This is generally easy duty, since it pretty much involves lying on a gurney while medical staff treat your wounds. Linda had more bureaucratic duties as a civilian volunteer doing largely clerical work.
This year, I had a nasty- looking head wound courtesy of Brian Demory, who does wonders with silicon and fake blood. The other patients were generally in worse shape than I and offered a variety of treatment examples for the living histories.
For anyone attending the Gap, a visit to the hospital is definitely worth the time to check it out. The staff are knowledgeable and give excellent presentations to what is usually a large and appreciative crowd of spectators. After the last public demonstration, we took our leave of the hospital and got in some shopping at as many of the vendors as we could catch before they began packing up.
We topped off the day by attending the 193rd Rifle Division’s winter meeting at the community center, then took in some of the dance with some of our comrades from said unit. As usual, we saw many old friends and renewed some old acquaintances. A good start to the season indeed.
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