SPIRIT LAKE SOLDIER RECOVERING FROM WOUNDS
THE 155TH GENERAL HOSPITAL ENGLAND—Wounded near St. Vith, Belgium, Private Donald L. Farmer, 19, of Spirit Lake, Iowa is recovering at this United States Army General Hospital in England. He has been awarded a Purple Heart.
While Pvt. Farmer’s infantry unit was attacking a Belgian farm house which had been fortified by the enemy as a strong-point, they were subjected to a mortar barrage. One of the mortar shells burst near Pvt. Farmer and shrapnel struck him in the chest.
After receiving emergency treatment at an aid station, Pvt. Farmer was taken to an evacuation hospital. Later he was flown to England from France.
Pvt. Farmer is recovering rapidly. Under skilled treatment in the thoracic center of this hospital his wounds have healed enough to permit him to participate in the sports program which has been especially devised to recondition injured muscles. His ward surgeon, Captain James W. S. Hartshorn of Springfield, Massachusetts, said, “Pvt. Farmer is making excellent progress. After a period of convalescences, he will be able to return to duty.”
Before entering the Army in June, 1944, Pvt. Farmer was a student at Spirit Lake High School. His father, Mr. Elwin L. Farmer, lives in Spirit Lake. A brother, Kenneth Farmer, is serving with the Navy.
Don has written his parents that he expects to be coming home soon. Most of the men in his ward had already left for the States.
Source: Spirit Lake Beacon, May 31, 1945
Donald Landsden Farmer was born Aug. 2, 1925 to Elwin Leroy and Ida Fern Hunt Farmer. He died July 6, 2018 and is buried in Calvary Cemetery, Tacoma, WA.
Source: ancestry.com
