American soldiers get a visit from a ceramic Dachshund confiscated from the German battlefront

Description

Lt. Jack Bockelman smiles as he lies in a hospital bed at the evacuation hospital in Presque Isle, Maine listening to T/3 George R. Pierson explain the ceramic Dachshund that is sitting on the side of his bed. Also smiling about the story are Pfc Billy E. Dennis, farthest to the left, Mrs. Karl Koch of the Red Cross Gray Ladies to Bockelman's left, Pvt. John Glaub to Koch's left and T/3 George R. Pierson, farthest to the right. Dennis and Glaub are dressed in robes. Pierson has an Airborne 9th patch on his shoulder along with his technical third grade patches and three sleeve bars for overseas service.
No date; likely 1945
Digitizing agency: University of Missouri--Kansas City. Library. Dr. Kenneth J. LaBudde Special Collections.
Typewritten note attached to the back of the photograph, "Public Relations Office, 1380th AAF BU, NAD, ATC, Presque Isle, Maine. Pvt. Adolph Dashund, a former German pet and now the American soldiers' friend, was recently evacuated from the German battlefronts to a general hospital in Paris. He was flown on the trans-Atlantic flight in a C-54 transport plane over the SNOWBALL route with Lt. Jack W. Bockelman to the Air Transport Command's North Atlantic Division evacuation hospital at Presque Isle, Me. Here Lt. Bockelman explains how the toy pet was picked up on the front lines. Shown left to right at Bockelman's bedside are: Pfc Billy E. Dennis of Maplesville, Ala.; Mrs. Karl Koch, a member of the Presque Isle Chapter of the Red Cross Gray Ladies; Pvt. John A. Glaub of Hamilton, Ohio; and T/3 George R. Pierson, a medical technician of Detroit, Mich. Adolph was picked up by the men of an Infantry Division and taken to Paris. He was given the same tag of identification as any human patient and a report of his safe arrival was sent back to the general hospital in France. Lt. Bockelman, care taker of the pet, was inducted into the armed forces in July, 1942. The son of Mr. and Mrs. William Bockelman of Kalamazoo College. Pvt. Dennis, 19-year-old Infantryman, was inducted into the Army on July 18, 1944, was sent to the front on January 1st and was wounded on January 28th. A graduate of the Mapleville High School, he is the husband of Mrs. Blanche Dennis and the son of Mr. and Mrs. I.A. Dennis, all of Mapleville, Ala. Pfc. Glaub, a Hamilton, Ohio, farmer, is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Howard R. Glaub. He was inducted into the Infantry on March 4, 1943. Making his first trans-Atlantic crossing, T/3 Pierson accompanied Bockelman, Dennis, Glaub and a group of other evacuees on the flight from Paris to Presque Isle. He has been overseas for 19-months with a medial air evacuation squadron flying patients between Paris and England. His wife, Lt. Roberta R. Rouse, is a nurse in a general hospital in Paris but he has met her there only once and that was in the line of duty. He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Louis Smith of Detroit. -30-."