Bob Peale
angeli ribelli
- Joined
- Sep 4, 1999
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Sometimes I WISH I could make thi sstuff up...
Eugenics victim who became war hero honored
By BILL BASKERVILL
Associated Press Writer
Published May 1, 2002
LYNCHBURG, Va. -- The state that once labeled Raymond W. Hudlow a "mental defective" and sterilized him against his will honored him on Wednesday for his decorated service as a combat soldier in World War II.
On the street where some of Virginia's sterilization victims live, two state legislators presented Hudlow a commendation from the General Assembly praising "his distinguished military career."
The resolution passed by both the Senate and House of Delegates expressed the legislature's "admiration for his courage, determination and patriotism."
It was presented by state Sen. Steve Newman and Del. Kathy Byron, both of Lynchburg.
"I am truly sorry for the pain and suffering you've had to endure," Byron told Hudlow in presenting a framed copy of the resolution. "You are a real true hero."
Virginia, acting under a eugenics law that served as a model for the rest of the nation, tried to purify the white race from 1924 to 1979 by targeting virtually any human shortcoming it believed was a hereditary disease that could be stamped out by involuntary surgical sterilization. Such maladies included mental illness, mental retardation, epilepsy, alcoholism and criminal behavior. Even people deemed to be "ne'er-do-wells" were sometimes targeted.
"Virginia will never make the mistake we made before," Newman told Hudlow.
Hudlow said that he was honored to receive the commendation, but "I hope it never again happens to any other child like I went through.
"It is horrible. You have no children, no family."
Despite all he's gone through, Hudlow said, "I don't hold any grudge against anyone for this."
Eugenics eventually was discredited as a pseudoscience based on political and social prejudice. Neither Virginia nor any of the 29 other states that conducted eugenical sterilizations has ever compensated or officially apologized to the more than 60,000 eugenics victims, though Virginia did offer its "profound regret" last year.
Hudlow's story was first detailed by The Associated Press in February 2001.
In 1941, he was a frightened 16-year-old who became caught up in the eugenics frenzy that led to the forced sterilization of 7,450 Virginians, most of them teen-agers and young adults.
His crime: repeatedly running away from home to avoid beatings by his father.
"I was picked up by the sheriff at home," Hudlow said in an earlier interview. "He handcuffed me and took me" to the Virginia Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded near Lynchburg, where most of Virginia's sterilizations were performed.
Hudlow, now 76, remembers the day the Colony eugenicists came for him.
"They just came and got me before I woke up one morning. They wheeled me and throwed me up on the operating table. They put straps around my waist and chest, spread my legs and put my feet in stirrups.
"There was a nurse holding my arms above my head so I wouldn't move.
"When they grabbed my testicles, they pinched them up. They took a needle and stuck it into my testicles." Hudlow believes this was anesthesia.
"They didn't wait for it to work. They made an incision. I was hollering and crying. I was hurting."
None of the Colony medical staff explained what they were doing to him, Hudlow said. "The only way I found out, an employee on Ward 7 told me I wouldn't be able to father any children.
Hudlow was released from the Colony in October 1943 and drafted into the Army two months later.
He served as a radioman and saw combat in France, Belgium and Holland, where he was wounded in the left knee and captured by the Germans. He was in various prison camps for seven months until he was liberated by the Russians in May 1945. He received the Bronze Star for valor, the Purple Heart and the Prisoner of War Medal, among others.
Hudlow made the military a career, serving 21 years in the Army and Air Force.
Copyright © 2002, Daily Press
Eugenics victim who became war hero honored
By BILL BASKERVILL
Associated Press Writer
Published May 1, 2002
LYNCHBURG, Va. -- The state that once labeled Raymond W. Hudlow a "mental defective" and sterilized him against his will honored him on Wednesday for his decorated service as a combat soldier in World War II.
On the street where some of Virginia's sterilization victims live, two state legislators presented Hudlow a commendation from the General Assembly praising "his distinguished military career."
The resolution passed by both the Senate and House of Delegates expressed the legislature's "admiration for his courage, determination and patriotism."
It was presented by state Sen. Steve Newman and Del. Kathy Byron, both of Lynchburg.
"I am truly sorry for the pain and suffering you've had to endure," Byron told Hudlow in presenting a framed copy of the resolution. "You are a real true hero."
Virginia, acting under a eugenics law that served as a model for the rest of the nation, tried to purify the white race from 1924 to 1979 by targeting virtually any human shortcoming it believed was a hereditary disease that could be stamped out by involuntary surgical sterilization. Such maladies included mental illness, mental retardation, epilepsy, alcoholism and criminal behavior. Even people deemed to be "ne'er-do-wells" were sometimes targeted.
"Virginia will never make the mistake we made before," Newman told Hudlow.
Hudlow said that he was honored to receive the commendation, but "I hope it never again happens to any other child like I went through.
"It is horrible. You have no children, no family."
Despite all he's gone through, Hudlow said, "I don't hold any grudge against anyone for this."
Eugenics eventually was discredited as a pseudoscience based on political and social prejudice. Neither Virginia nor any of the 29 other states that conducted eugenical sterilizations has ever compensated or officially apologized to the more than 60,000 eugenics victims, though Virginia did offer its "profound regret" last year.
Hudlow's story was first detailed by The Associated Press in February 2001.
In 1941, he was a frightened 16-year-old who became caught up in the eugenics frenzy that led to the forced sterilization of 7,450 Virginians, most of them teen-agers and young adults.
His crime: repeatedly running away from home to avoid beatings by his father.
"I was picked up by the sheriff at home," Hudlow said in an earlier interview. "He handcuffed me and took me" to the Virginia Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded near Lynchburg, where most of Virginia's sterilizations were performed.
Hudlow, now 76, remembers the day the Colony eugenicists came for him.
"They just came and got me before I woke up one morning. They wheeled me and throwed me up on the operating table. They put straps around my waist and chest, spread my legs and put my feet in stirrups.
"There was a nurse holding my arms above my head so I wouldn't move.
"When they grabbed my testicles, they pinched them up. They took a needle and stuck it into my testicles." Hudlow believes this was anesthesia.
"They didn't wait for it to work. They made an incision. I was hollering and crying. I was hurting."
None of the Colony medical staff explained what they were doing to him, Hudlow said. "The only way I found out, an employee on Ward 7 told me I wouldn't be able to father any children.
Hudlow was released from the Colony in October 1943 and drafted into the Army two months later.
He served as a radioman and saw combat in France, Belgium and Holland, where he was wounded in the left knee and captured by the Germans. He was in various prison camps for seven months until he was liberated by the Russians in May 1945. He received the Bronze Star for valor, the Purple Heart and the Prisoner of War Medal, among others.
Hudlow made the military a career, serving 21 years in the Army and Air Force.
Copyright © 2002, Daily Press
