Care to hear my confession? My Air Force father was lucky to draw housing for our family of five in 1954 in what is now a house owned by Mukogawa (Japanese Girls’ School) in Spokane. This is a photo from 1960; I remember bike riding with friends to the backside of this venerable old building and crawling inside through a broken winder to explore the abandoned building. Weren’t we terribly bad and daring?
Thanks to the website Spokane Historicaland the article by Lee Nilsson titled WWII Convalescent Hospital, I learned more about my place of adventure.
“Training for combat at Fort George Wright gave way to recovery and recuperation during the second World War. In 1941, Fort Wright had changed hands and become part of the U.S. Army Air Force. Being used as a base hospital for its first few years, in early 1944 Fort Wright was turned into a full fledged army convalescent center. Soldiers and airmen who had been wounded in action fighting against Japan and Germany found a place of peaceful healing at Fort George Wright. Aside from direct medical care supplied by the Army and Red Cross staff, the Fort was designed to heal the spirit of the wounded warriors as well.”
** There is available more to learn about Fort George Wright and the hospital. Enter the link below….. there is even a short video!
Lee Nilsson, “Welcome to Historic Fort George Wright,” Spokane Historical, accessed September 13, 2023, https://spokanehistorical.org/items/show/173.
Enjoyed your article. I, too, as a child went places I should not have gone (its a wonder we weren’t killed). My brother and friends went into a hole in the old army building near our housing in Honolulu and took wooden rifles and helmets. My mother found out and took Jerry down to the M.P.s. He was sure he was going to jail (at the age of 9). However, the M.P.s praised my mother for turning him in and talked with the other parents. That put Jerry on the straight and narrow path!