Many days I am searching and searching for something interesting to post to you all about Laurent Clerc.
I do not know whom I am kidding, there is so much and I should not worry myself. There are days though when I stumble upon really cool and interesting items related to Laurent and this is one of those days.
So, I had gotten a subscription to...
and when it automatically billed me for the second month, despite my not using it, I was regretting it. So this morning I decided to go through the Clerc results before I cancelled it. Boy, I am I glad I did. Tucked away deep in some database was this French Deaf magazine...
So you can see that it is from 1918, at the end of the Great War or the 1st World War. It is an absolute hot mess in France at the time and the only good news is that it will all end in about 4 months. We can assume that the dead and wounded are still piling up and there was great need for new ambulances to carry all these soldiers to relative safety.
If Laurent had been around to enlist I am sure he would have returned to France, the nation of his birth, to fight the "Huns" along side his French compatriots. Viva La France!
But back to real life for a moment, it appears that the Deaf of the United States were concerned enough about these soldiers that they had started a campaign to donate ambulances to the war effort. Now it is common for humans to name their ships, but I was not aware that they were naming their ambulances. Yes, there was a Laurent Clerc ambulance driving around France in 1918.
Now we would assume that Americans would buy American ambulances and probably made in America. And if Laurent had lived for 45 years longer he would have been standing next to Private Ray Kroc (yep, McDonald's Ray Kroc) in the combat theatre.
Hey, some cool facts about the Laurent Clerc ambulance and the American Ambulance Service. "Each section was composed of approximately 45 men, 20 Ford ambulances, 1 Ford touring car, 1 truck, and a kitchen trailer.The number of officers peaked at 209 officers in November 1918. In the course of demobilization, the number was reduced to three by July 1920.[2] It was organized into 160 sections, each called Sanitary Squad Units. The Sanitary Squad Unit typically supported a division, or about 10,000 soldiers." Wikipedia
So, we are so glad we stumbled across this fact and very proud of the American Deaf community in 1918 for their concern and contribution to the war effort.
-Laurent-
Comments