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"The Lawe street house has porch with a roof and a front walkway. Between them are five steps. Arthur sits in a wheel chair below the steps. He is wearing his army uniform. One trouser leg is folded under his knee and thigh and the other dangles below the knee. Arthur is wearing dark leather driving gloves and a garrison cap. An armrest supports each forearm. He looks comfortable albeit inconvenienced.
He was coming back from the Percy Jones hospital..."
This is a biography Arthur W. Helander based in statistical documents and a family archive with a theme of citizenship. In Europe, Helander was 1/Sgt. PH of “B” Battery in the 274th Armored Field Artillery Battalion of the 405th Field Artillery group.
He lost his feet in Trier, rehabilitated in Battle Creek at Percy Jones. Using Public Law 16 he studied at Badger Business College where he trained for a career in the Brown County (WI) Clerk of Courts.
This is one of many American stories that coincide with Dr. Sarah Rose's historical research about labor, disability and idleness.
image credit: "Arthur W. Helander, 1023 Lawe St. Green Bay, WI (c. 1946)" Schussler Family Archive (digitized by hominidmedia., 2023). [PD-No Restrictions; attribute-"hominidmedia.us"].
Sarah Rose. No Right to Be Idle Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2017.
--- ---. "The Right to a College Education? The G.I. Bill, Public Law 16, and Disabled Veterans." Journal of Policy History Vol. 24 Iss. 1 (1 February 2012) pp. 26-52.
wrb. citizenship. Woodruff, Wisconsin: hominidmedia., rev. 7 March 2024. pg. 8. [available here].