Men In Service
Corporal Thomas M. Dougherty of the infantry has returned to Camp Barkeley, Texas, after spending a 10-day furlough with his mother, Mrs. Elizabeth Dougherty, 1020 Pierce Street.
Source: The Sioux City Journal, November 25, 1942
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Spirits High, Battle-Maimed Veteran Is Home from France
Wounded Want Chance to Forget Handicaps and Go to Work
Already skilled in the use of prosthetic devices which replace the hands he lost in battle, S. Sgt. Thomas Miles Dougherty, 1020 Pierce Street, soon will return to his former job in a Sioux City packing plant, to achieve independence and self support. Many months of patient practice were necessary before Sgt. Dougherty learned even such simple tricks as holding and lighting a cigarette and feeding himself.
Sgt. Thomas Miles Dougherty, 29-year-old veteran of the invasion of Europe and the battle for France, is one of hundreds of American soldiers who are readjusting their lives after suffering maiming wounds in battle.
Sgt. Dougherty lost both hands and suffered other serious wounds when a burst of shrapnel caught a machinegun crew which he headed about a month after American troops landed on the coast of Europe. Several members of the crew were killed.
Now, thanks to surgery and prosthetic devices, with which the army is equipping all battle maimed soldiers, he is overcoming the handicap and is on his way back to normal living. Within a short time, he expects to try his skill at his former job in a Sioux City packing plant, and he is confident that he can hold his own with men who have the full use of both hands.
Want Rehabilitation
Now on furlough from the army hospital at Battle Creek, Michigan, where battle maimed soldiers begin their readjustments to normal living, Sgt. Dougherty states that most men who have lost hands, arms or legs in battle want, more than anything else, to get back to their homes and to civilian jobs.
“We want to do useful work and an opportunity to make a living,” he says. “There are many jobs which we can handle, and all we need is a chance.”
Sgt. Dougherty has been in the army about three years. He was an instructor at several camps in this country before he was sent overseas April 9, 1943. He took part in the invasion of continental Europe in June 1944 and was in the steady push of American forces until the following month.
Wounded July 5
“I got it July 5,” he says, “Our machinegun crew was in an advanced position, and we were pouring our fire into the Germans defense line when the shrapnel shell exploded in the air over our position. The flying chucks of steel caught my hands, which were exposed on the gun handles. Several members of the crew were killed outright.”
Sgt. Dougherty was hospitalized briefly in France, and later sent to an American Hospital in England, where he stayed until about the middle of September.
His mother, Mrs. Elizabeth Dougherty, was notified that he had been wounded, but was not informed as to the nature of his wounds. Later letters from the war department told her that he was recovering. The sergeant arrived at the Battle Creek Hospital September 24.
Learn Many Tricks
Mrs. Dougherty first learned that her son had lost his hands from a letter which he wrote himself, after several weeks of practicing with the “hooks” which the army provided.
“Learning to hold a pencil and write was a long, tedious job,” the sergeant admits. “I’m still not very good at it, and don’t expect to take any prizes for penmanship, but I’m improving all the time.”
The “hooks” with which he is learning laboriously to do many of the tasks which his hands and fingers formerly did almost automatically, are controlled by stout rubber bands and cables, which are attached to the opposite shoulders.
He has already trained them to hold eating utensils, hold and light cigarets and perform many other tasks. He can dress himself with little assistance and can drive an automobile.
“All I need is a little more practice,” he says optimistically, “and I can do just about everything.”
Don’t Want Pity
At her son’s request, Mrs. Dougherty did not meet the train when he came home on furlough from the hospital.
“He said he did not want to see me cry,” she explains. “And I didn’t. Not when he first came home or since. After the first shock, we find that these things are not as bad as we expected them to be. Miles is so full of courage and determination that it seems foolish for me to be otherwise.”
Miles, as he was known to most of his friends before he went into the army, is determined to surmount the handicap of the loss of his hands.
“Coming home was one of the ordeals we all dreaded in the hospital,” he says. “We wonder how our relatives and friends are going to react when they first see us. I think the one thing most of us dread more than anything else is pity.
“We want our families to take us back on the same basis that they would if we were physically perfect,” he says. “Most of us can forget our handicap if other people will let us.”
Sgt. Dougherty has another appointment with the army doctors in Battle Creek. Then he will ask for his discharge from the army and will try to take up civilian life just as though that burst of shrapnel had not caught him and robbed him of his hands.
Source: The Sioux City Journal, December 3, 1944 (photo included)
Sioux City Veteran Who Suffered Loss of Both Hands Granted Drivers License
S. Sgt. Dougherty and Another Disabled Iowan Qualify
Des Moines.—(AP)—Loss of both arms below the elbow in the war isn’t going to keep Sgt. Thomas M. Dougherty of Sioux City from driving a car.
The Iowa Public Safety Department reported Monday that the 29-year-old Dougherty has been approved by the Michigan state police as a capable driver despite the double amputation.
Clarence Shirer, superintendent of the Iowa driver’s license division, said Dougherty would be allowed to maintain an Iowa drivers license on the basis of the Michigan recommendation.
Dougherty has been a patient in a government hospital in Michigan.
The examining officer in Michigan told the Iowa department that Dougherty “has an artificial left hand and a hook device on the right hand.”
Shirer said the state department is preparing a program that will assist the returning disabled veteran “in every way possible to learn to handle a car.”
Sgt. Dougherty, 29, is the son of Mrs. Elizabeth Dougherty, 1020 Pierce street. He was wounded July 5, 1944, while serving with the American forces in the invasion of continental Europe. According to an interview he gave a Journal reporter last December, the veteran lost his hands when a German shrapnel shell exploded over a machine gun crew nest.
Source: The Sioux City Journal, January 23, 1945
Thomas Myles Dougherty was born Sept. 29, 1915 to John Joseph and Elizabeth Mary Ryan Dougherty.
Source: ancestry.com
