On June 18, 1917, Benjamin Edward Shove submitted an application to be an orderly with the Yale Mobile Hospital Unit 39, which would accompany American forces to the battlefront in France.
Shove, a 25-year-old Yale graduate, noted on the enrollment form that he was “slightly nearsighted.”
“I must serve in some way and that as quickly as possible,” he wrote. “Because of eyes, I fear that I can’t be a soldier.”
http://news.yale.edu/2017/02/03/exhibit-highlights-yale-medicine-s-role-wwi?utm_source=YNemail&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ynpublic-02-06-17
