Lists and Final Thoughts (97)

     Gene was a list-keeper.  I am including some of the lists he kept in his diaries, and will end this blog with a few final thoughts, although I plan to post occasional articles from magazines or newspapers that Gene or Beth saved, and more of Gene's photos.




DATES

3 July '42 - Reported to Fitzsimmons, Denver
25 June '43 - Left Camp Stoneman APO 4580
27 June '43 - Left Frisco
13 July '43 - Arrived Brisbane, Camp Ascot APO 4580
22 July '43 - Left Brisbane
23 July '43 - Arrived Rockhampton APO 926
23 March '44 - Left Rockhampton
24 March '44 - Left Gladstone
1 April '44 - Landed at Finschhaven APO 322
19 April '44 - Left Finschhaven
23 April '44 - Landed Hollandia APO 41
27 May '44 - Left Hollandia
28 May '44 - Landed Biak APO 920
12 June '44 - Moved to Owi
24 Dec. '44 - Left Owi & Biak
13 Jan. '45 - Arrived Lingayen Gulf, Luzon
17 Jan. '45 - Landed at San Fabian APO 70
21 Jan. '45 - Moved to Malisiqui
28 Jan. '45 - Moved to Guimba, Nueva Ecija
12 March '45 Moved to Agoo, La Union
3 May '45 - Moved to Baguio, Mountain
1 July '45 - Moved to Caba, La Union
5 Aug. '45 - [Gene to] 120th Gen. Hosp. Manila APO 1011
23 Aug. '45 - back to unit at Caba
25 Sept. '45 - On board APA 90 - the O'Hara
27 Oct. '45 - Landed on Japan at Nagoya APO 713
16 Dec. '45 - [Gene] went to Repl Depot at Okazaki
23 Dec. '45 - Sailed on Adm Rodman
3 Jan. '46 - Landed at San Pedro

ADMISSIONS

Desert, USA - 8 months                                              10,310
Rockhampton, Qsld., Aust. - 7 months                         7,466
Hollandia, Netherlands E.I. - 2 weeks                             760
Biak and Owi, N.E.I. - 6 months                                  11,963
Guimba, Luzon, PI - 6 weeks                                        2,520
Agoo, LaUnion Prov., Luzon - 6 weeks                         3,990
Baguio, Mtn. Prov., Luzon - 2 months                           3,048
Caba, LaUnion Prov., Luzon - 1 1/2 months                 1,800
                                                                                    41,857

BIAK AND OWI, CASES HANDLED [by Gene]:
MORTAR, ARTILLERY, GRENADE, RIFLE, MACHINE GUN)

Head - 60
Ocular [eye] - 19
Face - 41
Chest wall - 37
Chest (intrathoracic) [chest cavity]- 18
Abdominal wall - 17
Abdominal cavity - 22
Shoulder - 60
Arm - 45
Hand - 42
Buttocks - 36
Thigh - 67
Leg - 120
Foot - 29
Neck 31
Back - 36
Scrotum - 6
Misc. - 39
Total - 646

OFFICERS 3 JULY '45 - CABA, LA UNION, LUZON

Niemeyer, Williamson, Varley, Huey, Armstrong, Adams, Latum, Klockman, Coshak, Gentry Donovan, Swartz, Davis, Yount, Mancuso, Herrill, Jensen, Benesette, Vinicor, Dreiling, Nigg, Mihalick, Nethery, Burroughs, Colvin, Bernard, Free, Gray [and Pfile]; attached from general hospital - Connolley and Soll; had returned home in April - Neeb, in June - Ivers
[later] home on leave  in Aug. - Donovan, Dreiling, Adams, Burroughs, Mihalick

OFFICERS [in the desert?]

Lt. Col. Mathewes (Stanley W.) - Regular Army
Lt. Col. J. Sims Norman - Pueblo
Lt. Col. James F. Mason
Maj. Robert Sterling - Pueblo
Maj. Omer Rathman _ Billlings, Mont.
Maj. Paul M. Ireland - Pueblo
Maj. Merrill W. Michaels - Pueblo
Maj. Albert M. Tipple - Pueblo
Maj. Edwin W. Varley, Jr. - Pueblo
Capt. Hiram E. Armstrong - Pueblo
Capt.Edward A. Hagmann - Billings, Mont.
Capt.Conrad A. Lochmer - Oregon
Capt.Arthur H. Meade
Capt.Ernest A. Born - Prescott, Ariz.
Capt.Leland M. Evans - Sierra Madrea (Pasadena), Calif.
Capt.John Mihalick - Colo. Springs
Capt.Irwin I. Schatz - Pueblo
Capt.Richard H. McIlroy - Pueblo
Capt.Ward C. Fenton - Lamar
Capt.George C. Christie Canyon [sic] City
Capt. Harold J. Beck - Pueblo
Capt. Francis S. Adams - Pueblo
Capt. Arnold C. Niemeyer - Pueblo
Capt. Alton S. Hansen - LaJunta
Capt. John F. Terstegge - San Francisco
[Capt. Eugene F. Pfile - Trinidad]
Lt.William N. Baker - Pueblo
Lt. Monte N. Black - Seattle
Lt. Harold F. Harper - Ft. Riley, Kans.
Lt. Fergus R. Pingrey - Durango
Lt. James D. Salmon - Chicago
Lt. Joseph H. Davis - San Francisco
Lt. Edward S. Powers - Los Angeles, Cal.
Lt. Harley S. Fremming - San Francisco, Cal.
Lt. Walter S. Johnston - Pueblo
Lt. Carl W. Swartz, Jr. - Pueblo
Lt. Louis A. Motchan - Hollywood, Cal.
Lt. Raymond A. Nethery = Pueblo
Lt. A.L. Swanson - Pueblo
Lt. John Dykstra
2nd Lt. MAC Tatun
2nd Lt. MAC Klockner
2nd Lt. MAC Farmer
Lt. Gatauer [?Glautauer] MC - Swiss??
Lt. Lessner D.C. - Brooklyn
Lt. Mancuso MC - New Orleans

Gene on the beach at Owi

     Doctors are supposed to heal, and the doctors of the 92nd evacuation Hospital worked long and hard to fulfill that obligation.  Ed Gray, a supply officer with the 92nd Evac., recalled a scene at the 50th reunion: "In the tent, Black Jack was wrapping the broken body in plaster.  He was wearing a surgical hat and mask, dog tags, jock strap and GI boots.  Sweat was running down his back and around the sores from skin disease and jungle rot.  Brown streaks ran down his legs as it washed the residue of diarrhea from his backside.  The lights flickered and he swore at me and I resolved that we would never have lousy equipment again." 
     They worked hard and saved many whose descendents are alive today because of their dedication.  But they could not save all.
     Father Kilian Dreiling was the chaplain for the 92nd Evacuation Hospital for much of their time in combat.  Joseph S. Smith, son of  an enlisted man with the 92nd Evac., wrote a book about Fr. Dreiling (2004), Our Padre: the Inspiring Life and Stories of Fr. Kilian Dreiling, C.PP.S WWII Army Chaplain.  One job of Fr. Dreiling was to comfort the soldiers the doctors were trying to save.  Another was to prepare the dead, those they were unable to save, for burial.  In a sermon later in his life, he related "...the gory task became a holy task. ... Often the blood of my comrades  reached all the way to my shoulders.  As I carefully washed the sacrificial blood into the ocean, a tremendous flood of sadness and compassion  encompassed my entire body ... The blood now mingled with the eternal ocean, became the ultimate and total sacrifice my dead soldier would, and did, give me and his country.  It signified his life, the whole of it, offered in conjunction with the terrible sorrow of his mother, relatives and friends, it identified totally and completely with our Lord's saying 'Greater love than this no man hath than to lay down his life for his friends.'  It beautifully summed up : compassion, love and sacrifice."
     I dedicate this blog to the Greatest Generation.  May we learn from their lessons and sacrifices.  May we try to do what is right and good.  May God bless us all!

Sunset on Owi