The Flies Have It! (4)

Gene continues:
     We had 2 latrines - each a "twin-8"!  The cracks in the floor and the screws were only slight obstacles to the flies.  If all of the flies there at any one time would have grabbed a fellow, they could have flown off with him.  Now of course there are fly shooters in charge and the flies have a much tougher time of it.

     One day they told us we had changed from the 7th Surgical Hosp. to the 92nd Evacuation Hosp. (motorized).  Everyone conjectured about that.  We figured that the 64th [which they had been told would be their designation] would therefore die in utero and be just another miscarriage (abortion, technically).  You could certainly tell the 7th and 64th were dead - it smelled like it around here and still does.  We have our own latrine and only "officer flies" use it.  The "enlisted flies" use the other.

Flies were indeed a problem.  The Desert Training Area, which was about the size of Connecticut, was overrun with them, and the flies carried dysentary.  More soldiers suffered with diarrhea than any other malady.  General C. H. White, commanding officer for the Ninth Army Corps and the DTA, first considered the heat and water supply, but finally realized the dysentary was caused by the flies.  He declared war, and everyone started eradicating the flies.

Surrounding towns took their garbage to open dumps in the desert, assuming the heat and the sun made incineration unnecessary.  Slaughter houses and stockmen assumed the same and just hauled off and dumped carcasses into the desert.  The general pointed out the fallacy of their assumptions and asked the towns and citizens to bury their garbage.
Commanding officers of various training units were told to clean up their areas by screening the latrines and making them fly-proof, and burying their kitchen waste.  Dish water was poured into deep dump pits.  Cooks were warned to keep their kitchens spotless.  The soldiers were taught how to keep themselves and their surrounding areas clean.  Everyone was ordered to swat as many flies as possible.  It worked!  The epidemic of dysentary was over.