Author: Paul Goddard

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Remembering Ike Hall (2)

Paul Goddard

Eventually, Ike was evacuated to a military hospital in Great Britain. The doctors treated his chest wound, inflated his collapsed lung, and removed many briar thorns from his body. They also treated two wounds, which he had received before arriving at the hedgerow.

Earlier in the battle, his head and arm were creased by rifle fire. Because of the serious nature of his spinal injury, the War Department told his family that he would not live. Knowing that this would worry his mother, Ike had a medic write home saying that he was fine, and he was receiving good care. Once in stable condition, he was then loaded onto a plane to make his long journey back to the United States. Continue reading “Remembering Ike Hall (2)”

Articles, Up for the TaskLeave a comment

Remembering Ike Hall (1)

Paul Goddard

“You turkey-birds stop running in the hallway!” Those were the first words I heard out of the mouth of Isaiah Hall.

Being a veteran teacher, “Ike” was one of my mentors when I arrived at Memphis Harding Academy. If you were on campus between 1966 and 1988, you will remember him wheeling up and down the ramp outside the Guidance Office. Perhaps what you do not know is how he ended up in that wheelchair.

One month and four days after D-Day, at dawn on July 10, 1944, eight men of the U.S. 121st Infantry, cautiously approached a field in rural occupied France. As the noise of battle increased, Pfc. Ike Hall ordered these men forward into the field. Still thirty miles short of their objective, the squad slowly crawled toward a thorny hedgerow. Stopping to take a break at the hedge, they waited for the 1st U.S. Tank Division to cut an opening in the vegetation. Continue reading “Remembering Ike Hall (1)”