In May, 1946, I was ordered to Oliver General Hospital, at Augusta, Ga. to appear before a Retirement Board.
While a student at the Mounted Service School, at Fort Riley, in 1906, I had been thrown from my horse in the Riding Hall. I had landed on my extended right arm, injuring the bones of my right wrist. The wrist was kept in a splint for three or four months and the injury resulted in stiffening the wrist and in weakening the grip in the right hand. I was kept under treatment in the Hospital for about three months, with large shots of B-12 Vitamin daily, without improvement in the condition of the wrist. I was then ordered before the Retiring Board, which recommended that I be retired physically. This was approved by the War Department, and, on August 14th I was ordered home to await retirement, on November 30, 1946, for physical disability, the War Department having, very considerately, deferred the date of my retirement until the date on which I would have had to be retired for age (64 years old).
It was a rather unusual thing that when I appeared before the Board it had received from the War Department no Medical Record whatever in my case. I had never been in a hospital before and had never been on sick report for more than a few days at a time.
The effect of being retired physically was that I retained my temporary rank of Major General (there had been no permanent promotions to that grade during the War), and my pay was exempted under the Income Tax. Later (in 1950) under the provisions of Public Law 351, 81st Congress, I elected to receive the increased pay provided for by that Law, 50% of which is exempt from the income Tax since the War Department, at that time, determined that I was 50% disabled at the time I was retired. As a result most of the savings that I have made in my lifetime have been made since my retirement.