FRED EVANS
Age: 87
Residence: Palm Desert
Military branch: U.S. Army, 3rd Army, Medical Corps, 115th Station Hospital, European Theater of Operations.
Years served: 1943-1946
Rank: Sergeant
About this series
Staff writer Denise Goolsby will profile desert veterans from World War II daily through Nov. 22 and on a regular basis through the end of 2010 — the 65th anniversary of the end of the war. Contact her at (760) 778-4587 or via e-mail at denise.goolsby@thedesertsun.com
Coming tomorrow
Marine Corps veteran Ray Schum of Cathedral City.
More
Fred Evans' first experience with a firearm knocked him off his feet.
The 20-year-old Army recruit from Fort Worth, Texas, was attending basic training at Fort Pickett in Virginia when he and his fellow soldiers were ordered out to the range.
“They gave me this big rifle,” Evans said. “I'd never pulled the trigger on a gun before.”
The instructor pointed to a target, and Evans fired.
“The first shot knocked me over,” he said. “I was still shooting when I was on my back. Bullets were going all over the place.”
After that episode, he was put into the medical corps, where, “‘he'll never have to handle guns again,'” said Evans, laughing while recalling the reaction of his superiors.
Evans was assigned to the 115th Station Hospital Medical Corps and was sent by ship across the Atlantic, bound for England, in early March 1943.
“We zigzagged across the ocean,” mindful that German U-boats were still patrolling the high seas, he said.
The 400-person corps — which included 60 doctors and 60 nurses — were sent to the south of England to get ready for the Normandy invasion.
The Army chaplain — looking for a “Texas boy” to assist him with his duties — selected Evans to be his assistant.
“I was in charge of Sunday services for the chaplain,” Evans said.
Evans handed out the hymn books, ushered officers into the church and led the singing. He accompanied the chaplain to the wards to check on the injured soldiers and wrote letters home to the families to let them know their loved ones were OK. He was also the chaplain's driver.
The corps became part of Gen. George Patton's 3rd Army and followed Patton into Augsburg, near Munich, to set up a hospital. The 115th was supposed to be shipped-off to Japan, but by that time, the war had ended.
Evans said he was one of four gay soldiers in the 400-person medical corps.
“Being gay meant nothing,” he said. “It was never an issue in the Army. Everybody knew, but nobody said anything. There was no hanky-panky,” between the U.S. soldiers.
He said the issue of being gay in the military is overblown today. It should be a nonissue.
“I think people were nicer to each other in those days. In Europe, homosexuals are just like other people.”
