McGonigle
Among our wounded soldiers was a man named McGonigle who had made the first overseas trip with the first batch of troops the Leviathan carried across. We landed them in Liverpool.
McGonigle belonged to a bombing squad and was wounded. His squad was in a shell hole hurling bombs into the enemy trenches for thirty-six hours. The men were tired and hungry. The Sergeant in charge was giving instructions to the men when a bomb held in the hands of McGonigle exploded blowing off both of his hands and inflicting other minor wounds including the amputation of the great toe of his left foot. Four of his comrades, including the sergeant, were killed by this explosion.
During our westbound trip an entertainment was given for the benefit of the wounded. During a lull between acts McGonigle stood up, and holding up both remaining parts of his arms said he would give a short stump speech. He then told of his accident and was glad to be going back on the ship that took him over, and on which ship he, with sixty other members of his company had volunteered to help the firemen in the fire room. He said he was one of us, a “gob,” for he had helped “deliver the goods.”
July 25th, at nine o’clock we passed Ambrose Light Ship and by 11:30 we were tied to our pier.