FLIGHT TO NOUMEA

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 79, 10 January 1944, Page 4

FLIGHT TO NOUMEA

BADLY WOUNDED SOLDIER CHRISTMAS BROADCAST TO US. Auckland, Jan. 9. A badly wounded American soldier, P.F.C. Charles E. Oats, was flown from New Zealand to New Caledonia to be featured in a Christmas broadcast from Noumea to the United States. Private Oats had had 31 blood plasma transfusions in the last year, the number being a record for the 39th General Hospital in New where he is a patient, and perhaps a record for one person anywhere. Private Oats was wounded on Guadalcanal- on 16th January, 1943, when a Japanese shell killed his friends. It was necessary to amputate an arm and; a leg, and for some months he was in an unfavourable condition and did not want to live. However, he found that others were in the same plight and slowly changed his attitude. To-day he has a reputation among his fellows of not thinking about himself, but of always trying to help somebody else. The broadcast in New Caledonia was from a ward in an Army hospital It was held on Christmas Eve After the broadcast he was flown back to New Zealand.—P.A.