By Land and By Air 
     
    
   
   
    
     without even a headache, let alone with his life, still makes 
     
     me wonder. After knowing this man and seeing him 
     
     thousands of times in the past years, I can state that he has 
     
     never complained of his wounds. 
     
    

    
     Another man had a shallow wound on the thigh 
     
     which caused a small muscle hernia no bigger than the size 
     
     of one of the old coppers. To hear him giving his history, 
     
     you would wonder how he could walk. 
     
    

    
     Some other veterans exaggerated their symptoms. I 
     
     often wondered if they thought I was blind or stupid. 
     
    

    
     Some cases were difficult to assess when one had 
     
     poor c00peration from the veteran, or if he was trying to 
     
     exaggerate his disability. This was evident in hearing loss. 
     
     They turned their back to me, and I repeated numbers as 
     
     I stepped back and measured the distance of hearing loss. 
     
     One man could not hear my voice at one foot with both 
     
     ears uncovered, yet as I walked down the hall with him, 
     
     keeping about a foot behind, where it would be impossible 
     
     for him to lip read, he had no trouble hearing my voice. 
     
    

    
     There were methods in really finding out their 
     
     disabilities, especially in back disorders which are really 
     
     difficult to assess. They were asked to bend down and 
     
     touch the floor. Some of them could not put their fingers 
     
     within three or four inches from the floor, but as I had 
     
     previously asked them to take off their pants in the middle 
     
     of the floor, when they were getting dressed I would be 
     
     writing down my findings, but keeping an eye on them. 
     
     They would quickly bend to the floor, pick up their pants, 
     
     and have no trouble putting them on in the middle of the 
     
     floor. They thought that with a sore back, they would lie 
     
     on the examining table and try to straighten their legs. 
     
     They would claim that they could allow me to lift their legs 
     
     no more than a few inches off the table, while they would 
     
     grimace with pain. Yet when I asked them to sit up, there 
     
    
   
   
    
     172