Alan Allen - Souvenirs & Documents

Alan Allen sent this free VA postcard, which also did not require a stamp, to tell his wife he had arrived at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Memphis, TN. In late September of 1968 the hospital was a major VA center for neurological problems, and Allen was there for treatment of his paralysis, which mostly included electrical stimulation of muscle, as well as exercise. A friend named Jackson, along with the others mentioned, Crow, Sgt. Thomas, Jasper, Adams and Withers, were all in the Paraplegic Ward with Allen. And Allen was the only one who walked out. It's almost a certainty that the others still are in wheelchairs or are dead. - add on from Alan: After I'd been in this hospital a few days, I realized all my friends, who'd been with me in San Antonio, were on a lower floor. So, I'd bathe each morning, then go spend the rest of the day with them, returning to my floor only to sleep. After a few weeks of this, my nurses became used to my being gone all the time. Then, my wife moved to Memphis and took an apartment just across the street from the hospital. I really don't even remember thinking about it being against their rules, but I began to get up, bathe, and go across the street to spend time with my wife. Finally I made the mistake of beginning to tell a nurse I was going to see my wife...she threw a fit. I quickly laughed and told her I was kidding, that I was headed downstairs to be with my friends. She relaxed, and I headed across the street to be with my wife. That continued until I harrassed the head doctor so much that he finally let me go home to Texas. I may have left a bit early, because the bullet hole in my back kept spitting stitches, and it didn't heal over completely until I'd been home over a year and a half. Alan Allen

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