SAILOR'S EYES HURT IN BLAST
Iowa Seaman Injured During Raid Off Italy
Fertile - Machinist Mate 1/c Stanley Zobel, son of Mrs. Ella Zobel, reached Fertile recently after receiving a medical discharge. The young man was on a patrol ship when he encountered a steam explosion.
The boys were fixing an engine being used to do their washings, near Naples, Italy, when they were notified of an air raid by the enemy so each boy ran to his place of duty and Zobel went to the engine just in time for the explosion which injured his eyes so that he was totally blind for 40 days.
He was taken to a hospital in Naples where he remained for 30 days, then was sent to north Africa for a while. He reached Charleston, S. Car., May 24. Since reaching the states he has been in the hospital in Charleston, S. Car.
Zobel is able to see objects with one eye and the other is about normal.
Source: Mason City Globe Gazette, Saturday, October 21, 1944, pg. 6 (photo included)
