We explore the Christmas Dinner menus from Bruns General Hospital in 1943 and 1944. Colonel Earl Harvey Bruns Hospital opened in April of 1943. Colonel Bruns was an Army doctor whose expertise was in treating tuberculosis. The science of the day recommended the high-altitude dry climates of the American Southwest of which Santa Fe, sat ideally posed.
Bruns General Hospital had a 1,575 bed capacity. It treated the military and civilian personal from the then, top secret, Los Alamos Lab. The Los Alamos lab was ill-equipped with very limited infirmary beds for both military and civilian personal, making Bruns General Hospital an ideal option for the families and employees at the Lab.
At the onset of World War II Bruns General Hospital reinterpreted its mission and set its primary goal of treating the injured and infirmed returning from the pacific theater, most specifically and notably returning survivors of the Bataan Death March. As a moral boost to the gravely injured and infirmed the hospital hosted celebrity guests such as Groucho Marx, famous American comedian of the era.
The 1943 Christmas dinner boasted comforts and extravagances, stuffed celery, roast turkey, ice cream, fresh fruit, and of course cigarettes to complete the meal. The 1944 Christmas dinner was similar in menu, offering an icecream egg nogg variant. The men, families, doctors, infirmed, were grateful for the temporary reprise and the chance to escape the realities of the war they were enduring. A night to be thankful for their lives and to honor their sacrifices. Hoffman Archive Collection of The New Mexico Military Museum.
The love note written to his sweetheart inside the 1943 menu reads:
“Darling,
You can see that Santa Clause in these parts is strictly Spanish-American. It was drawn by one of our Captains who is quite an artist.
Even so he is pretty well laden both in his pack and from his expression and gesture, with tequila, in himself.”
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