Correctionville Pacific Veteran Returns Home
Pfc. Martin Hansen Has 100 Points After 42 Months Overseas
Headquarters Pacific Division, Air Transport Command, Oahu—Pfc. Martin J. R. Hansen, of Correctionville, passed through Hickam field and Honolulu on his way back to the Iowa home he hasn’t seen for five years. He was riding high in an ATC four-engine Skymaster plush job which he declared to be “a wonderful machine.”
The veteran of the Leyte and Okinawa campaigns, in which he worked long hours as a medical corpsman with the 644th medical collecting company, amassed a total of 100 points and has 42 months overseas to his credit, but all Hans wants now is his old pre-war truck driving job. That is he wants it, “if it is available.”
Hansen is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Martin Hansen, of Correctionville, and has eight brothers—two in the Army and one in the Navy—and three sisters. One brother stationed at the neighboring Kaneohe naval air station on Oahu was unable to visit him because of the brief pause Hansen made here before taking off again for Hamilton field, Cal.
Flying home in a C-54 isn’t Hansen’s first experience with the air transport command. One of his many jobs at Okinawa was loading wounded on A. T. C.’s planes for the overwater trip to Stateside hospitals. He was a booster for A. T. C. service then and now, after a hop of his own, says it can’t be beat when you want to get home in a hurry.
Clean sheets and well cooked food almost startled him at Hickam field. “Gosh, it’s been a long time,” was his only comment about those “luxuries.” He likes Honolulu where he was stationed for a short time and thinks a peacetime visit out Waikiki way wouldn’t be a bad idea when he takes a future vacation. After two campaigns, his first vacation—the one that will start when he hits Correctionville—he plans to be an extended one. He wears the meritorious service unit plaque awarded to the 71st medical battalion for outstanding service in the Okinawa campaign.
~Source: The Sioux City Journal, October 21, 1945 (photo included)
