Armstrong – Table of Contents

Armstrong: “Alliance, Ohio.”
The Captain said he was acquainted with the location, used to go through there
often, but never stopped.
Captain: “Are your parents living?”
Armstrong: “Yes.”
Captain: “How long since you saw them?”
Armstrong: “It has been about 2½ years.”
Captain: “I think you need a vacation. I’m going to write your orders that when you get to
New York to leave at your convenience for Alliance, Ohio, you are to take 9 days leave
of absence. At the end of that time, you wire your proper station of the Public Health
Service of your whereabouts and tell them you await orders. Now remember! Nobody
can repeal this order because this is an order from the Navy.”
Dr. Armstrong was very appreciative of this gesture of kindness from the Captain.
Dr. Armstrong remembered roughly the time frame of these events in his
autobiographical interview (13). Official documents from the Navy, the history of the
USS Yankton, and the Public Health Service provide precise times of his leaving the
Seneca, returning to New York and then home (14). He was detached from the Seneca on
August 16, 1918, and he was told to report for duty to the Commanding Officer of the
USS Yankton on August 17, 1918. Upon arrival of the Yankton at a port in the United
States, he was to regard himself detached from temporary duty on board that vessel. He
was to proceed to his home and report by letter to the Surgeon General USPHS. The
Yankton left Gibraltar August 19, 1918 for repairs in the United States. She steamed via
Lisbon, Portugal and Ponta Delgada in the Azores and reached the New York Navy Yard