Iowa Old Press
The Daily Times - Davenport, Iowa — Friday, March 16, 1945
Gernandt, Freed From Japs, Gains Back 42 Pounds.
Sgt. Paul Gernandt of Davenport has regained 42 pounds, and largely recovered from the efforts of Japanese imprisonment on Luzon, it is indicated in a letter received by his aunt, Mrs. Mary Andersen, 1535 West Third street. It was written from Letterman general hospital, San Francisco, but he indicated he was expecting a transfer, and said he hopes to be home soon.
Sgt. Gernandt—he has been promoted from the corporally he held when captured on Bataan—revealed he weighted 108 pounds when freed from Cabanatuan prison camp by American Rangers and guerrillas in mid-January. Now he’s back to 150. Standing five feet, 10 inches, he normally weighed about 160 pounds.
“I feel like every day is Christmas,” he said, in expressing his joy at being back in the United States. Referring to the liberation of the Bataan and Corregidor veterans at Cabanatuan, he praised the Rangers and guerrillas as “a wonderful bunch of soldiers, and entitled to all the honors they got.” Sgt. Gernandt also told of his amazement at the equipment of the liberating forces. He had seen nothing like it during his service in the Philippines after having enlisted in 1941.
[transcribed by L.Z., January 2023]
Quad-City Times, Tuesday, March 27, 1945
Sergt. Paul Gernandt, First Davenport Home from Jap Prison, Mum on Experiences.
“Swell,” was the answer given by Serge. Paul Gernandt, 27, rescued from a Japanese prison camp on Jan. 30, and who retired to Davenport late Monday, when asked how it felt to be back in the United States again. Sergt. Gernandt, Davenport’s first solider to return from Corregidor, said that during the entire time that he was a prisoner of the Japs, entered at the Cabantuan prison camp on Luzon from May 6, 1942, to Jan. 30 of this year, that he never gave up hope of being rescued by the Yanks, altho when he first saw the American Rangers, who liberated them, he could hardly believe his eyes.
“When the realization came that it really was American troops, I let out a yell, and joined in the wild celebration which was staged by all of the prisoners in the camp,” Sergt. Gernandt, said. An information on his experiences while in the prison camp, or any of the campaigns in which he took part, could not be divulged because of military censorship. However, Sergt. Gernandt said that he weighed only 108 pounds upon his rescue from the prison camp, while his weight at the time entering the army was 170 pounds. At the present time he is almost back to normal, tipping the scales at 166 pounds now.
Sharing Sergt. Gernandt’s happiness in being returned to the United States, is his aunt, Mrs. Mary Andersen, 1535 West Third street, with whom he is seeing a 10-day stop over while enroute to Schick general hospital at Clinton where he will report for a physical examination.
Mrs. Andersen assumed the care of her nephew at the death of his parents when he was only eight years of age, and reared him as her own son.
Maj. Dallas P. Vinette, another Davenporter, was in the prison camp with Sergt. Gernandt, and the two spent considerable time together. Major Vinette has also been returned to the United States, according to Gernandt, and was in good health the last time he saw him in San Francisco.
Sergt. Gernandt enlisted in the army March 19, 1940, and was stationed at the Rock Island arsenal prior to being sent to the Philippines in April of 1941. Previous to his enlistment, he was engaged in farm work. He was the with the 60th coast artillery at Corregidor when he was taken prisoner on May 6, 1942. The sergeant was returned to the United States by ship, and said that the rescued prisoners received the best of food and care from the navy. He said that he was very impressed by the welcome given them when they arrived at San Francisco on March 8, and told of the throngs of people that participated in the celebration while they were being taken to Letterman general hospital there.
After spending his 10-day stop over in Davenport, he will report to Schick hospital for examination, after which he will be given a 60-day furloughs before reporting for duty.
[transcribed by L.Z., January 2023]