[Granville-Hough] 19 Feb 2009 - Nancy Hough born

[Trustees and Executors for Granville W. Hough]

    Our daughter Nancy Hough was born 19 Feb 1951 at Fort Clayton, 
Canal Zone, now and also then in the Republic of Panama.  Of course, we 
had to go to the US Embassy in Panama City to get her registered as an 
American citizen, but that was after the trauma of the birthday.
    We were stationed at Fort Kobbe, aka Howard Air Force Base, which 
was on the westward side of the Panama Canal.  The only hospital was on 
the eastward side of the Canal at Fort Clayton.  So for births or any 
other emergencies you had to get across the Canal at the only available 
bridge on the ocean side of Miraflores Locks.   This was a drawbridge, 
which was raised for  ships coming in from the Pacific  Ocean to transit 
the Canal.  Of course, these ships had priority, and all land traffic 
stopped while the ships passed through.  (Later the Bridge of the 
Americas was built so land traffic was not affected by sea traffic.)
    All of us with pregnant wives had to worry about that bridge; and 
indeed we did.  One of our master sergeants got to the bridge just as it 
was raised and his wife gave birth, right there, during the time it took 
to get a big ocean freighter from the ocean into the locks.  So we 
learned that you delivered your own baby if you misjudged the ocean traffic.
    So Carol and I made plans.  We arranged for David to go spend time 
with our neighbors, the Wainwrights, when Carol began to feel labor 
pangs.  Then we just hoped and prayed that we could get across the 
bridge before a ship came in.  Carol began to feel those pains on 19 Feb 
and I hurriedly got David's things and took him to the Wainwrights.  
Then we set out from Fort Kobbe to Fort Clayton.  We got to the bridge 
and it was open for traffic.  What a relief!  When we cleared the 
drawbridge, we could see a ship coming up the channel and soon we heard 
the warning whistle blow that the drawbridge would open.  We had made it 
by several minutes.  Then we made out way to Fort Clayton.
    I got Carol checked into the hospital, and it seemed there was only 
one doctor on duty and one nurse in the maternity ward.  Another soldier 
came in with his pregnant wife, and the doctor was sure he would have 
two births that night.  He put the two in adjacent rooms, and Carol was 
first to go into labor.  He and the nurse took care of her, and soon 
Nancy was born.  In the next room, no one was in attendance with the 
soldier's wife, and she  also gave birth, successfully and alone.   Of 
course, there were other nurses on duty in other wards of the hospital, 
and soon there was a flurry of activity taking care of the young mothers 
and the new babies.
    I always suspected there was a typical cover-up as it would have 
looked bad for any young doctor to have a record of someone getting to 
his care and then having to give birth alone.  It may also have appeared 
that he had given preference to the officer's wife and neglected the 
soldier's wife; however, it just happened that Carol started delivery 
first.  It could have been the other way around, and it might have been 
tragic for Carol to give birth alone.
    So that is the way it happened.  Fortunately, Nancy was healthy, 
wiry, and independent from the beginning.