Springfield South Dakota Veterans
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Nazis and Drugs

12/15/2019

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By Dick Martin
Picture
Did you ever wonder how the German Wehrmacht kept its blitzkrieg pace going across Poland and Northern Europe?   Drugs!  More specifically Crystal Methadone (Pervitin.) 
 
In addition, at the start of the war, Hitler suffered from gas, for which he was soon taking a cocktail of morphine, crystal meth, and laxatives.  Cocaine and morphine were a favorite of the Germans and could be easily and cheaply obtained at dreary German night clubs.
 
When the Nazis rose to power, illegal drug consumption fell.  Suddenly, drugs were regarded as toxic to the German body and addicts were looked at as undesirable social elements. 
 
However, Pervitin, was distributed by the millions to Wehrmacht troop before the successful invasion of France in 1940.  Before that, Pervitin was initially marketed in the 1930’s as a recreational pick-me-up.  It was initially experimented with to see how long student users could stay awake and still perform well on exams.
 
As the Wehrmacht rolled across Europe, something was needed to keep the blitzkrieg’s “war on exhaustion” going.  With the use of Pervitin, soldiers could keep going for days.  Nazi medical officials who were increasingly aware of Pervitin’s risks, i.e. critical thinking skills, declined the longer use as two thirds of those taking the drug suffered from psychosis after a few years.  The risks were thought to be worth it since twenty minutes after ingesting Pervitin, the nerve cells in the soldiers’ brains started releasing neurotransmitters, putting the soldiers in an alert state allowing them to continue functioning.  When it came to Nazi leaders, research suggests they all favored their own particular drugs of choice. 
 
The allies inadvertently found Pervitin in a downed German plane.  As the war dragged on, the allies discovered the risks of taking Chrystal Meth and took Benzedrine as a substitute, another topic.


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Final Resting Spot

12/8/2019

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Submitted by Laura Genant Martin from the 12/07/19 issue of the Sioux City Journal
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Thanksgiving WW II

12/1/2019

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Submitted by Laura Martin from CriticalPast, an archive of historic footage.
Even before WW II, through great lengths and dire circumstances, our government has provided Thanksgiving dinner for our troops.  The following is an unedited video of US soldiers receiving their turkey and all the trimmings.
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This web page is a work in progress. It has been created through the donated efforts of Laura Genant Martin, Dick Martin, and Jim Hornstra. When Laura was made aware of what we needed, she took the initiative to research and educate herself on how to create a web site to identify, respect and honor the military veterans in Springfield. The web site had to be easy to navigate and had to provide the viewer a method of providing feedback. Most of the written material has been provided by Dick Martin over the past couple of years with some important contributions from others, i.e. Jim Kirk.  Jim Hornstra has been the reliable source as he has been the collector of information concerning Springfield Veterans and has provided Laura much of what has gone into the web site.
  • World War I
    • Veteran Photos
    • Veteran Photos
    • Biographies >
      • Edwin Dwight Wood
  • World War II
    • The Rest of the Story >
      • Lawrence Namminga
      • Fred C Hornstra
      • Chuck Dawes
      • Grover DeLong
      • John Palsma
      • Clarence Ludens
      • Jack Martin
      • Bob Slade
      • Joe Uken Jr
    • Springfield Was There
    • Biographies A-H >
      • Walter Babcock
      • Wayne Barham
      • Charles "Chuck" Dawes
      • Grover DeLong
      • Jake DenOuden
      • Biographies K-Ma >
        • Bernard Kastein
        • James Kirk
        • Leonard Lange
        • Ted Lindeman
        • Clarence Ludens
        • John C. Ludens
        • John "Jack" Martin
        • Richard "Darby" Martin
      • Robert DeRoos
      • Shorty Halsey
      • Nanno Hiemstra
      • Fred C Hornstra
    • Biographies Mi-O >
      • Floyd Mitchell
      • Jacob Namminga
      • Lawrence Namminga Sr
      • Ode Odens
      • Lawrence Owens
    • Biographies P-S >
      • Allen Palsma
      • John Palsma
      • Virgil Rauch
      • Jack Rich
      • Robert Slade
    • Biographies Th-U >
      • Clark Thomas
      • Neil Thomas
      • Merle Toyne
      • Joe Uken
  • Korean War
    • Veteran Photos
    • The Rest of the Story >
      • Robert "Bob" Ludens
    • Biographies >
      • Donald Dempster
      • Gelvin "Gil" DeRoos
      • Robert "Bob" Ludens
      • Virginia McClure
      • Donald McMillan
      • Peter Monfore
      • Wilbert Renner
      • Clarence Vanderlei
  • Cold War
    • Veteran Photos
    • Biographies >
      • Robert McCollum
  • Vietnam War
    • Veteran Photos
    • The Rest of the Story >
      • Daryl Heusinkveld
      • Harvey Kastein
      • Dan Mejstrik
      • Lee Merchen
      • Larry Talsma
    • My Week in Hue City
    • Biographies >
      • Daryl Heusinkveld
      • Harvey Kastein
      • Perry Lundin
      • Dan Mejstrik
      • Lee Merchen
      • Robert Monfore
      • Larry Talsma
  • Middle East Wars
    • Veteran Photos
    • Biographies >
      • James "Uke" Uken
  • Army National Guard
    • Veteran Photos
    • Rapid City Flood
    • Japanese Internment