Chance for Leave to the States? (70)

     Gene was promoted to major on April 22nd.  Turn around time for letters must have been about three weeks

May 15, 1945  Received the first letter from Beth addressing me as Maj.!  My but I'm pleased at her being so pleased!

Photo taken by Max Vinicor and sent with a
letter to Beth about Gene's promotion to major

May 17, 1945  All set for a big inspection by 4 star [General] Krueger, an English general and 1 star [General] Haggins of the MC [Medical Corps].   [And they waited!]  Finally Haggins came to see us, just at supper time!

May 21, 1945  No rain last night.  Took pictures from Dominican Hill, and in cemetery (where fighting took place).  I'm starting in with a cold.

May 22, 1945  No rain!  Wonderful weather.  I operated on  F.[Filipina] woman with a grenade fragment in her brain.  She died of pulmonary edema [fluid in the lungs] just after we finished.

Cemetery in Baguio where fighting took place

May 25, 1945  On the point system (for discharge) I have 67 points - not many.

May 26, 1945  I began to observe the art of cystoscopy [before fiberoptics, cystoscopy was a delicate procedure of the urinary bladder that involved insertion of a rigid, lighted instrument into the bladder through the urethra].  Maybe I can learn it in 10 easy lessons!  Weather still dry.  I bought a PX [fountain] pen for P6.50 [$3.25].  Given an Igorot wood carving [the Igorot are a primitive ethnic group living in the mountains around Baguio and other areas, who are still known for their wood carvings].

Igorot women working with the clean up crew

May 27, 1945  A quiet Sunday.  A bit of rain in the late afternoon.  I took the P6.50 [pen] back and got the P12.00 one.  It has a better point, but probably isn't worth $6.

May 29, 1945  We saw a propaganda film, "2 down 1 to go" today, attendance by roster! ...

June 1, 1945  [Col. Paul] Ireland [the Colorado doctor who organized the 92nd Evac Hospital in 1942] here on a visit.  Also heard [4 star General] Stillwell ["Vinegar Joe" Stilwell] is around.  I helped Si [Maj.? Cy? Burroughs who was slightly injured in the attack on the 92nd Evac that left five men dead (see post #44) and the only doctor in the 92nd to receive a Purple Heart, but not a very popular fellow] on a chest-liver diaphragm wounds and a belly case. 

June 4, 1945  Up until 2:30 A.M. working.  Not many cases but lots of waiting.

June 6, 1945  Up until 1 A.M. working.  I had a guerrilla with the symphysis and both pubic rami [the pelvic bones on the opposite side from the spine] fractured and bladder completely opened, urethra cut.

June 7, 1945  Worked on 2 brain cases - one a major shot thru the R. side of the head with Jap rifle.  ...  The rumors of a move are starting.

June 9, 1945  Rumor has it that we'll be alerted for a Sept. 15 operation [invasion of Japan?].  Also, that we may have to move down to the beach near Buang, at a spot the 41st Field Hosp. was to have.

     Several of the doctors were sick: Maj. Ray Nethery had fever, chills and aching, but it was determined not to be malaria; Capt. Joe Davis, Capt. John Yount, Maj. Arnold Neimeyer, Capt. (?) Nigg and possibly Maj. Si Burroughs had potentially life-threatening amoebiasis (in his account for the 92nd Evac reunion, Dr. Davis said McDaniels, Klochner, Varley and Huey were also suffering from it).  Gene said he took salts (probably Epsom salts as a laxative) and his stool was negative.
     A fairly new addition to the 92nd Evac, Maj. (?) Ives, who spent 20 months in Sydney and about 16 in Finschhaven, neither close to the front, got to go home on the rotation plan, much to the annoyance of the doctors who had spent much of their time close to the fighting.  The unpopular head of the 92nd Evac, Col. Free was also scheduled to go home on leave (Gene writes "What a hornet's nest that stirs up.  Personally, I'll bet he doesn't return")

June 17, 1945  Beautiful half day.  Not very busy.  I'm officially on the surgical service as General Surgeon.

June 20, 1945  More excitement - will I get to go home on leave?  Of course that means coming back for 8 months at least.

Gene, as all of the others in the 92nd Evac, is so very hopeful of getting a break after almost two years overseas.

20 June '45
Dear Folks [Beth's sister's family],
     First of all I must give you some disappointing news, Jack.  The Jap helmet won't be in the box when you receive it.  I was unaware of the existing censorship regulations that helmets were forbidden.  I know that once they could be sent, as well as bayonets.  Don't ask me why - it is one of those obscure regulations.  I heard that it is because they want to collect all the helmets, bayonets, guns, etc. for purposes of identification training.  If all they want is Jap helmets, I can show then where dozens and dozens of new ones are!  In some storage caves near here is quite a stock.  Darn their regulations!  I had a bayonet to send but the box wasn't large enough.  Now I'm glad I didn't send it!  So I'll save it until after the war.
     My big news, as possibly Beth will have told you by this time, is that I stand a chance for a leave in the States later on this Summer of Fall.  I'm afraid to build up any hopes, but maybe so I'll be lucky.  At least it is a step in the right direction by the Powers that Be!  I know of instances where men were told they were going home on Rotation, and then were pulled back and sent into battle and killed.  That sort of thing is doubly tragic.
     I received your nice long letter a few days ago, Mary X.  I think you are the one who writes the interesting letters!  I'm glad you had a nice tea with all the folks.
     Maybe it is odd, but in my first burst of enthusiasm, my thoughts keep turning to the chance of leave!  If I do get to go, it will mean returning for at least 8 months longer.  But that doesn't worry me in the least.  With my 67 points, I'll be over here for quite a while anyway.  If I do go, I'll probably sell my camera when I leave, John, and hope that you or I will be able to get hold of one.
     Thanks very much for getting the developer and sending it.  It may still reach here before I get home!  I haven't been taking any pictures lately.
     Our weather continues partly cloudy and cool.  The other evening we had a sustained heavy downpour for several hours.  With a west wind from the ocean, the load of moisture can be dumped in a seemingly endless rain.  Most of our passageways are repaired and our large mess hall is now finished.  And speaking of mess - our food has been much better lately - fresh meat, fresh eggs, fresh butter - very good.

92nd Evac Hospital mess hall at the Philippines Military Academy in Baguio

     I saw a beautiful mass of bougainvillea the other day.  The vines had climbed a fairly tall pine tree and [it] was a brilliant mass of blooms as only a bougainvillea can be.  The house, unfortunately, had been blown flat by a bomb.
     Love, Eugene


Will he or won't he?

Baguio and Camera Discussion (69)

The 92nd Evacuation Hospital is moved to a place recently vacated by a Japanese military hospital.

May 3, 1945  Moved to the P. Military Institute at Baguio [Philippine Military Academy, which was in Baguio].  It took us 3 1/2 hours, we were such a line of trucks.  Officers have cottages.

Aerial view of the Philippine Military Academy in May 1945

May 4, 1945  I was cold as the dickens, especially my feet, last night even with 3 blankets.  Nice quarters.

May 5, 1945  The rainy season must be early!  We've had at least 4" this afternoon.  The buildings all have holes in the roofs from bombing and leak like a sieve.  I have a dry spot.

May 7, 1945  Rained hard this evening about mess time.  We dry out clothes by the fire.  I have a ward - #9 in the farthest building.

"X" marks the cottage that is Gene's quarters in the Philippine Military Academy

May 8, 1945  VE Day, and it scarcely excites us!  Wonder when VJ day will be - this year? ...

May 9, 1945  Althea Williams won the 150 guilders on the day VE [but she told me while I was interviewing her for the Memorial Day post that they took the award away from her because of an international dateline complication!]

14 May '45
Dear Folks [Mary X, Beth's sister, and John; and their teenage son, Jack],
     In about 2 or 3 months, Jack, you can begin expecting a package.  It is all things I've picked up around here.  I tied it up and took it to our local APO, so it should start on its way within the week.  We have to have G2 permits on all Jap equipment, but I was able to get that here.  The box contains the following: Jap helmet, sun helmet, cartridge box (leather) for belt attachment, leather medicinal corps belt box with an ampoule of medicine (probably atabrine [an anti-malaria drug]), clips of 5 - .25 caliber cartridges (powder removed and caps snapped - the censor might possibly remove them), coconut shell dipper and handle (I had to cut off a few inches of the handle), bamboo candle-lantern, toothbrush, and 2 panes of the "window pane clam shell" - this is not a Jap item.  Typical windows here are made from this shell.  I have a number of Jap family and personal photographs, but they can't be mailed.  Also, I have 2 Jap negatives I'll print sometime.  Oh yes - and a pack of 1000 peso Jap notes.  I forgot to list them on the permit, so they may be removed.  However, I have a bundle of them and can send them by letter.  In fact, I'll enclose a few with this.

Print from Japanese negative Gene found:
former hospital staff members

          Your V mails came a few days ago, Mary X, and your letter, John, at the same time.  I appreciate your data on the cameras, John.  I'll be darned if I know what I want!  The Contax II [a professional-quality, German camera], which will take a telephoto lens, is about $225 and that is more than I want to pay at present.  I know how difficult it is for you to get a line on cameras.  I read the ads.  Today I had a letter from my former tent mate, George Christie from Canon City.  He expects to go home for a month's leave, this month.  He could bring it back and get it to me.  So I have to make a decision, even though it may not be possible for you to act on it at such short notice.  This is it - a [Kodak] Bantam Special (f 2) or anything similar in your judgement.  Probably you won't be able to find one quickly.  If not, just let it go, and in that case maybe you could send me some descriptive literature on the various Eastman [Kodak] cameras (miniature class), and Leica and Contax for I don't know much about them.  I don't care especially about a range finder, for I've tried lately to use the depth-of-focus data and remember it, and focus is usually sharp.  One fellow's wife purchased an Argus [a low-cost American camera] for him at the Gary Camera Company, 619 Washington, Gary, Indiana, without trouble.  Possible they might have something.  (No, I wouldn't want an Argus, or any off-brand.)  It took 6 months to reach him!  Maybe you could get me some DK 20 (1 gallon size or other five grain [photographic] developer).  Beth hasn't been able to get it.  I'll enclose a request, both for a camera, and for mailing any developer you could get me.  Beth will reimburse you.
     Our weather continues cool and rainy.  No doubt it will be that for the next 4 or 5 months if we stay here.  But how I enjoy the coolness.  We don't have to be out in the rain very much, fortunately.  As soon as we have electricity in our cottage, I'm going to make a "dry cabinet" with a light going continuously.  Fortunately things don't seem to mold very much.  I've seen several cameras in which the lens was etched by mold.
     Thanks for the offer about the typing.  Next time we move and I have some new territory to describe, I'll take you up on it.  It would save Beth a lot of trouble.
     About the machete.  I meant that you ought to get one after the war, because they are such a handy item.  It isn't a knife.  It is bigger than that.  It is about 2 feet long and 2 1/2 inches wide at the widest part.  All the fellows here seem to have knives but I'll keep it in mind about your knife.  I'm enclosing some duplicate negatives for you.  Beth has similar ones.  Most of these are of out present area.  2 are of buildings down town.
     We haven't been very busy since we came up here.  There'd be a lot of time for pictures if the weather were right.  As it is, there is rarely more than about 1/2 hour of good conditions, every 5 or 6 days.  And later there will probably be none.  In spite of the cool climate, I've had a bit of trouble with fungus infection of my feet.  We are sitting around the fire, with a gasoline lantern for light and blankets across the windows.  Very cosy!  Now and then a few shells go overhead, just to remind us that the war is still going on.
     Love, Eugene

Enclosures (evidently not used because they were with the letter!):
14 May '45
Subject: Purchase of a camera
To: Camera Dealer
     I am stationed in the SWPA, in an Evacuation Hospital.  I would like to purchase a camera for general use, including that of photographing clinical cases for scientific purposes.
                                                                                    E.F. Pfile, Maj. M.C.
                                                                                    0-45677
                                                                                    92nd Evac. Hosp. (SM)

Postmaster,
     Please allow Mr. Barrett to send me some photo chemicals.
                                                                                   Maj. E.F. Pfile
[This was stamped Freeport Ill. May 28, 1945]

Last Days in Agoo (68)

Cub ambulance service in Agoo

     The fight for Baguio continued.  According to an A.P. newspaper article, the Japanese were determined to hold on.  "A civilian who came thru the lines reported the American bombing of the area was so intense that on one occasion explosions kept up for five hours with only one twenty-minute break."  With such intense fighting, the 92nd Evac and all of the other nearby hospitals were kept very busy trying to patch up the casualties.  Some of the casualties were brought in by private aircraft.  Animals were also occasionally treated at the 92nd.

K-9 Corps member who had been brought in for an x-ray of a jaw
fractured by a Japanese grenade

Then abruptly, the tide turned.

April 27, 1945  Our first light night.  I went to bed at 10:30.  We amputated a thigh for gas gangrene but the fellow died on the table.

April 28, 1945  Another quiet night!  We'll probably move to Baguio in a few days.  A lot of hosp. outfits have been angling for that spot!

28 April '45
Dear Jack [the son of Beth's sister, Mary X]
     A change in censorship regulations now permits me to send you these cancelled stamps.  Providing I make no comments.  I will say, however, that you should notice the inked-out portion of the old stamps.  Evidently the Japs continued the use of the original U.S. stamps, with the only change being the removal of the "United States".  Practical people, these Nips!
      But our side is being just as practical in that we are repairing captured Jap artillery and using captured shells, to shoot them with.  After all, why waste our ammo when theirs will kill them just as dead!  I was taking some pictures yesterday at an ordnance outfit here in out town, where they were repairing some of the Jap guns.  I saw one huge brass shell casing for a 12" gun [the diameter of the shell is 12"].  Is it ever a whopper!  Men who have heard the projectile from such a gun going overhead say it really makes a roar.
     Love, Gene

April 29, 1945  If that isn't the damnedest injustice!  MacArthur announced that the 33rd Div. took Baguio.  Actually it was the 37th! [This is the first instance Gene used "damn" instead of "darn" in his diary, and he used it because "his" men were not given proper credit.]    

Baguio, April 29 - (A.P.) - Yanks observed Japanese Emperor Hirohito's birthday by raising the American and Philippines flags over captured Baguio yesterday and by launching a new offensive northward from this summer capital.
     Contrary to Tokyo broadcasts, no Japanese counterattack was launched and the flags went up in an unmolested ceremony.
     Civilians in rags, some gaunt and sick, watched amid the war's ravages and the heavy odor of death as the American flag, which city custodian Juan Arenella hid from Japanese three years, was hoisted aloft.
     The Philippine flag followed and then both were lowered to half staff in honor of the late President Roosevelt.

May 1, 1945  We did 547 cases in surgery during April and had 17 deaths [about 3%].

May 2, 1945  Getting ready to move to Baguio tomorrow.  I'm on the forward echelon.

Majority! (67)

     Capt. Pfile continues to catalog and analyze his cases: gas gangrene in a man's leg (he says he and Capt. Nigg didn't debride (remove all of the dead or infected tissue) enough of the wounds (4 perforating (bullet passes through) and 3 penetrating (bullet remains inside)) so they had to amputate); a combined scrotal and pelvic wound; and a lacerated (torn) kidney.  Then almost out of the blue came the long awaited promotion to major.

Newly promoted: Maj. Raymond Nethery, Maj. John Mihalick, 2nd Lt. Herrill (possibly with the Medical Administrative Corp) and Maj. Eugene Pfile

April 22, 1945  Up until 3 A.M. [he was officer of the day the night before, so had to treat any casualties that came in during the night].  Today (4 P.M.) the Col. handed Mihalick, Nethery and me our promotions.  Amazing.

April 23, 1945  Troops getting closer to Baguio.

April 24, 1945  Up until 1 A.M.  Large wound of abd. [abdominal] wall, not into peritoneum though it was bared for 6 inches! [In other words, it was long but shallow.]

April 25, 1945  Up until 3:30 A.M.  Did brain case - defect in temporal area [this part of the brain is involved with hearing, and I would assume it was an injury rather than a birth defect].  160 patients admitted.  Troops reached Baguio.  None win the European war pool this month [most of the 92nd bet on the date the war in Europe would be over]!

25 April '45
Dear Jack [son of Beth's sister],
     If the war in Europe doesn't end today, I won't win the 150 guilder [about $60] "pot"!  And it doesn't look as though I will.

Zeke the monkey who for a short while was an honorary member of the 92nd Evac

     Jack, you'd certainly enjoy the antics of Zeke, the pet monkey of one of our officers.  He certainly does the most amazing things.  There are 2 pups in the area also, and of all the rough and tumble scrambles they have.  The term "monkey business" takes on a new meaning after seeing Zeke perform. [More about Zeke later!]
     Every now and then some P-51's will buzz the hospital on their way to and from "work".  I can imagine what it would be like if they were strafing us.  The bullets would be the first indication of the planes, they fly so low and so fast.
     We continue to be busy, especially at night.  But the Japs are gradually being driven back.  Jap prisoners say they really fear our artillery and planes.  They are becoming discouraged, too, because none of their own planes show up in spite of promises.  I see quite a few Illinois men [Jack and his family live in Freeport, Illinois].
     Love, Eugene

From a newspaper:
AMERICANS GET READY FOR FINAL PUSH INTO BAGUIO
     Manila, April 25 - (A.P.) - Americans consolidated their Baguio positions Wednesday for a final push into the ruined summer capital of the Philippines while far to the south, on Mindanao island, other Yanks pressed on towards the Japanese stronghold of Davao.  Maj. Gen. Percy W. Clarkson's Thirty-third division held commanding positions in the pine-covered hills to the northwest, west and southwest of mile-high Baguio.  One column, moving down highway 9 from the northwest, was little more than a mile from the city center.
     A section of the road blown up by the defending Japanese was being repaired by engineers for the movement of heavy equipment.  ...
     Gen. Douglas MacArthur reported in Wednesday's communiqué that "the enemy has as yet been unable to concentrate his forces in effective resistance."  ...
    
April 26, 1945  Up to [until] 2:30 A.M.  We did 60 odd [i.e. 60 - 70] cases

Memories of the 92nd Evac (66)

     In 1974, 28 years after the 92nd Evacuation Hospital had been disbanded, almost half of the original members of that august group met again at a reunion in Wakeeney, Kansas, organized by their second chaplain, Father Kilian Dreiling.  They continued to meet every two or three years in Kansas, Colorado, Indiana, North Dakota, Kentucky, and Florida.  At each reunion there were fewer and fewer left, and dementia claimed of some of the remaining ones.  The last reunion was held in 2002 in Montana, and 11 veterans were able to attend.  Now no doctors or other officers are alive, only four nurses, and probably fewer than 10 enlisted men, according to nurse Althea Williams, or Little Willie as she was called in the 92nd.  I asked Little Willie for some of her recollections.

Capt. Eugene Pfile and 2nd Lt. Althea Williams on Owi

     Little Willie grew up in Colorado the youngest of three brothers and a sister.  She received her R.N in 1941 from Beth-El School of Nursing in Colorado Springs (now it is affiliated with Colorado University Colorado Springs), and shortly thereafter joined the Army Nurse Corps when the call came for volunteers.  She joined the group that later became the 92nd Evacuation Hospital while they were in the Desert Training Center.  She had a
connection with
Capt. Pfile: he had delivered her nephew in Trinidad, Colorado a couple of years earlier.  Later she had a connection with me: when I was pregnant with my daughter, I exercised in the swimming pool with Althea at her condominium.  After WWII she used the GI Bill to get her masters in Hospital Administration, rejoined the army, served in the Korean and Vietnam Wars, and at one time was one of the highest ranking women in the army, attaining the rank of Colonel.  Little Willie was a much-sought-after umpire during the softball games organized while the 92nd Evac was in Australia.  She maintained impartiality like all good umps (although Fr. Dreiling at the first reunion claimed she cheated for the enlisted men), so when Lt. Col. Robert Sterling, a good-looking young doctor with a good-sized ego, ignored a ball in the strike zone, she called it his third strike and he was out.  He was pretty upset.  A few years later an enlisted man with the 41st Infantry who had been watching the game recalled the incident to Little Willie and the soldiers around him with much glee. 
     Some doctors were moved around by the army, such as Gene's good friend, George Christie, who had made the mistake of taking some extra training in medical administration to fend off boredom at the Desert Training Center, and was sent to Hollandia when the others went to the Philippines.  The body of the hospital, though, was able to remain intact (the head was changed several times!), which led to a cohesiveness and loyalty that some of the other units never knew. 

Here are a few stories that were recorded in the booklet compiled by Ed Gray (Medical Administration Corps) for the 50th reunion of the 92nd Evac.  About twenty-five 92nd veterans attended.  My father, Gene Pfile, had regrettably passed away three years earlier, or some of his stories could have been included.

Gene Pfile and Ed Gray at the 1974 Reunion of the 92nd
Evacuation Hospital in Wakeeney, Kansas

     Some recollections of Dr. Joe Davis, who joined the 92nd as a 1st Lieutenant:
Speaking of being obnoxious, our Commanding Officer [while at the Desert Center] was a Lieutenant Colonel Matthews, a regular Army Officer, who did not particularly endear himself with the rest of us.  Many of the officers had wives in the Indio-Palm Springs area.  Once a week, on Friday mornings, we were allowed to ride into Indio in the 92nd's Carry-all, where we had two hours free time before the vehicle came back to camp.  Of course, the Colonel would go into town whenever he pleased to see his wife.  When we received our orders to go overseas, the Colonel developed an acute case of "Gangplank Fever" and turned himself into Tourney general Hospital in Palm Springs and we never heard of him again.  ...
     I served as receiving officer, in charge of admitting and discharging the patients.  One morning , we admitted a big black soldier from the Laundry Battalion at Fort Huachuka, Arizona.  Soon after he was admitted, he returned to the receiving tent, asking for a pass to go back to his outfit.  We told him that no passes were issued from our hospital, but he kept insisting that it was urgent that he be allowed to return for a short period.  He explained, "When I left this morning, I left all of my gear on my bunk.  If I don't go right back there, there will be nothing left.  Those guys back there are SOLDIERS man, they're SOLDIERS!  I gotta go!"  I gave him his pass. ...
     I remember Ed Gray making Jap flags by painting red circles on bed sheets with Mercurochrome and bartering these for meat on the liberty ships that came into our harbor. ...
     One day, we admitted a dark-skinned young man in fatigue clothing.  The Filipino ward lady who was undressing him and helping him into bed tried to speak to him in Tagalog dialect, but he did not respond.  Thinking that he was from a different area, she called over to one of out Filipino ward men , and said, "Joe - Ilocarno!"  Joe came over and spoke Ilocarno to the soldier, again with no response.  I looked at the soldier's dog-tag.  He was an American Indian from Montana.

     A recollection of Ken Rattle, an enlisted man from Wisconsin:  There was one time that one of the nurses caused me a little inconvenience.  This particular incident happened while I was in charge of sanitation at Rockhampton, Australia.  We used honey buckets there in the latrines.  We had both male and female latrines.  Also, nurses and male showers.  The nurses had their own, and the enlisted men and officers had theirs.  It took five or six enlisted men each day on this detail.  The nurses shower area was a wooden-framed building covered with canvas, with shower heads inside, of course.  It was my duty to check all latrines and showers each morning, for the necessary supplies.  If I remember, the nurses had to be done with the shower room at a certain time each morning, so I could do my duties.  I don't know if I jumped the gun, or my watch was wrong.  Whatever happened, I walked into the shower room and low and behold, there was a nurse in there showering.  I froze for a second, then I quietly backed out of the door hoping that she did not see me.  I don't think she did, as she was pretty well soaped up.  It was in sort of a wooded area, so I quietly tip-toed away.  After I came to my senses, I realized that I did not recognize her all soaped up.  So, I had to make myself scarce, yet stay in the area so I could identify her when she went back to her quarters.  It worked.  I knew who she was.  I probably felt as embarrassed as she.

     A recollection of Jim Colvin, (called "Wogee" (for warrant officer, junior grade) by Little Willie): We settled down in some cottages in Bagio and went about establishing our hospital.  While there, about the first or second night I created a situation which could have led to my demise by my fellow officers but cooler heads prevailed and my brains were preserved.  I was sleeping, safely ensconced in my cot enclosed by a net, when I was awakened by a squeaking sound.  I immediately turned on my flashlight and lo and behold, there was a rat - a very large rat - boldly sitting on top of a rocking chair swaying back and forth.  His eyes looked like balls of fire and his teeth were bared in a grin that sent shivers up and down my spine.  I hastily put out my flashlight - to let him do his thing - I'd stayed quietly and safely under the net.  No more than five minutes later, while in semi-stupor, I felt an animal - a rat specifically - tripping the light fantastic through my hair, which is quite a feat considering that I was then, as now, practically bald.  I let out a whoop that could have been heard for miles and the battle was on as to whether the rat or myself made it out of the bed first.  Naturally everyone in the cottage, burst furiously out of their beds, grabbing any kind of weapon, shouting and screaming "Who's attacking us?"  When it was ascertained that I was the "attacker" there was almost an on-the-spot execution, but fortunately cooler heads prevailed.

     Dr. Richard McIlroy recounted a funny story about Dr. Ray Nethery: We had with us a much-loved Captain, a very brave man, but also a great actor.  His bravery shone in New Guinea, but his acting surfaced in Rockhampton where we were stationed next to the 5th station Hospital which had a hypnotizing dentist.  We also had with us one Pete, a rump sprung stumpy who was always a day late and a dollar short.  He had seen the dentist at work and was sure he could emulate him and was proclaiming it, loudly, to our group. 
     "Okay," said the Captain, "hypnotize me."
     Pete went to work with incantations and fluttering hands.  In a moment, the captain, fixed in a stony stare, got up and strode out to his tent.  Once inside, he grabbed a tube of toothpaste and came out frothing at the mouth, waving a stick and yelling, "I've got to kill some body!"
     Down the street he ran with Pete after him shouting, "Captain!  Captain!  Wake up!" to no avail.  Finally the Captain fell to the ground, tripped by a tent rope into a believable convulsion.  Frantically Pete cried, "Baldy, speak to me!"
     Tiring from the convulsions, Baldy lay still while sweat ran off Pete's brow.  Then, loving hands picked him up to put him on his cot where he slowly awakened.  Pete brought him his breakfast in bed for a week.

Ed Gray, mentioned by Dr. Davies, modestly gave someone else the credit for making flags: At Biak Jake was the creator of the Jap flag operation in which we painted with mecurochrome red circles on pieces of silk parachute and traded them to the Navy.  Jake was the chief food scrounger and was a firm believer that any method which produced the desired result was perfectly okay.  He was unbeatable in bartering, stealing and was not above blackmail - if required.  He secured more material and food for the 92nd than any other person, and at no time did he do so for his personal benefit.  In the end he was busted and sent home.  I have tried, but have not been able to find him.

     Nurse "Griffie" McCully remembered the untiring work of the ward men on Owi during the scrub typhus outbreak: One very important thing I remember was the ward men who took such good care of the very, very sick patients with Typhus, carrying water from the bay to soak the sheets put around the patients to bring their temps down.  This is just one of the many, many chores they performed with such grace and energy.  ...  I remember with love, the people of the 92nd Evacuation Hospital Unit of WWII.

Joseph S. Smith, son of 92nd Evac veteran, Joseph T. Smith or Smitty, wrote a book about the chaplain who was with the 92nd Evac for much of their time overseas (and who organized the first reunions) entitled Our Padre: the Inspiring Life and Stories of Fr. Kilian Dreiling, C.PP.S WWII Army Chaplain.  His last chapter tells about the first reunion.  "It soon became apparent that there was a beautiful spirit being rekindled among the 92nd veterans.  This same spirit, which had been present 30 years ago, had gone almost unnoticed until now.  Only now, with hindsight filtered by time, could they really recognize it and appreciate it.  They had not just survived the war, they had labored together in miserable conditions to save thousands of lives.  Together, they had made their corner of the world a better place."

May God bless all of the people who have served our country, and their families, on this Memorial Day!

Casualties Pour In (65)

     At first, there isn't a lot of activity for the 92nd Evacuation Hospital, but that soon changes.  Easter is all but forgotten in the flurry.


March 19, 1945

Boats in Dagupan harbor

     To Dagupan shopping.  2 winnowing baskets for P 1.00 [$0.50].
     Yesterday I operated [on] a severe chest wound - 4, 5 and 6 ribs fract. [three of the middle ribs were fractured] by a tangential bullet wound [the bullet did not penetrate the chest], and a 4" rent in the pleura [the membrane surrounding the lungs].  Wired the ribs, sutured about half the pleura, closed 2 layers of muscle and fascia [fibrous tissue] to make it air tight.

March 20, 1945  Chest case fine.

March 21, 1945
     The guerrillas took San Fernando.  We are getting a few more casualties.  They are pushing the Japs in toward Baguio.  I wish we'd set up there - after it is safe!

March 22, 1945
     An ammo dump between Damortis and San Fabian was hit by Jap bombs and burned from 4 P.M. until morning. [According to a newspaper article, a Tokyo broadcast claimed Japanese planes had started 11 fires in the area]. We saw the planes.

Modified Rand McNally map showing Agoo (92nd Evac stationed) Dagupan (Gene visited), Damortis and San Fabian (ammo dump bombed) and Galiano (heavy fighting)

March 24, 1945  O.D. [officer of the day in charge of the hospital] last night.  Patton across the Rhine!

March 26, 1945  Palm Sunday - quiet day.  My chest case of a week ago up and walking around today!

March 29, 1945  More casualties.  The fighting for Baguio is no cinch!  Most casualties taken care of by clearing co.'s [clearing companies were sometimes links between the first aid stations and the evacuation hospitals, but they weren't set up for surgery].

30 March '45
Dear Folks [Beth's sister and brother-in-law, Mary X and John],
     My correspondence has been piling up on me, for I've been quite busy.  Things are a bit tough on the front we're near.  We haven't had so many fresh casualties as we have those who have been taken care of at the clearing stations, and then sent to us.  And we've had more of the fool Filipinos - kids and adults - who insist on monkeying with dud shells and fuses!
     Your [Christmas] Bulletin is most interesting and clever, though you make me blush!  I'll be darned if I see how all of you can keep up such a whirl of activities - it leaves me dizzy to think of it.  I'm certainly proud of Jim [the brother of Beth and Mary X] and his Bronze Star [awarded for meritorious service, the fourth-highest combat award in the armed services]!  The way things sound, he may get home for a while this year [Jim was in the Quartermaster Corp, which dealt in supplies for the whole army, in the European Theater].  I'm very much afraid I won't.  Probably I'll see China and maybe even Japan before this thing is over.  Except for a cold (the second in 6 weeks) I'm doing O.K.  Our food is good, for army life.  Food and mail are certainly better this war.
     Love, Eugene

Gene continues to briefly catalog his days in his diary:

March 31, 1945  [Holy Saturday] Fiesta day in Agoo!  I saw the feeble parade. Received a birthday card mailed Sept. 20 [Gene's birthday was October 15th].

April 1, 1945 [Easter]  Removed a fragment the size of a corn kernel from the Rt. temporal region - just thru the dura [the tough membrane surrounding the brain] into the brain.

April 2, 1945  Very busy.  Census 750.  Many casualties from 123 Reg. near Galiano.

April 3, 1945  Brain case rational and doing well.  I have 75 patients!  Not many casualties today.  Heavy rain last night.

April 4, 1945 Some Christmas packages - 6 months on the way!  Census 812

     Gene continues to catalog some of his cases: a lieutenant had a clip of cartridges explode against his left thigh; a guerrilla had a sucking wound in his chest; a little girl was full of grenade holes, probably from unwisely picking it up; a hole deflated his air mattress.  He fixes them all up.

April 11, 1945  Hot rumor.  We start closing this A.M., out of a clear sky.  Our census is 805!  But we received 115, evacuated 400!

April 12, 1945  Up at 1:45 to do a laparotomy [incision through the abdominal wall] - one hole in ileum [last part of the small intestine], couldn't find one in the rectum though blood by proctoscopic [exam] [looking up the rectum using an instrument like a hollow tube].  To bed at 5:30.

     Pretty worthless "hot rumor"!  The 92nd continues to receive casualties - 108 on April 15th, 182 on April 16th.  In the five weeks they have been in Agoo, 2501 patients have been admitted.  Two days later they worked on 46 cases between 5 P.M. and 2 A.M.


      None of the doctors from the 92nd Evac are alive, and not many of the nurses and ward men.  One outstanding exception is nurse "Little Willie", Althea Williams.  Her memories and some of the memories from the 92nd Evac Reunions will make up my next post, which will be on Memorial Day.

The Honorable John and Film Developing (64)

The 92nd Evacuation Hospital is once again close to the front lines.


14 March '45
Dear Folks [Beth's sister and brother-in-law, Mary X and John],
     Now I'm at a new place.  We are something like the old gambling houses (and such) of frontier days - following the crowd.  Our set of school buildings isn't as large this time, but good enough.  We aren't busy as yet, but no doubt will be.

Headquarters for the 92nd Evacuation Hospital in Agoo, Philippines

     The knife you sent me certainly takes a fine edge.  I spent about an hour on it, and it is very nearly razor sharp.  But I hope I won't have to use it on a Jap.  I did "spill" Jap blood you know - technically that is!  On our first campaign I amputated a Jap's leg.
     John, I've discovered that I can use regular 35 mm film in my camera by covering the "window" on the back and winding the film on a bare spool.  The resulting negative is 2 mm less wide, is the only difference.  My film is perforated only at intervals, and along only one side.  Buy counting "clicks" I can space the frames properly.  And the best of it is my tent mate has several hundred feet of the film!  I've started developing my own film, too.  Beth is sending me some DK20 [a high contrast film developer for black and white film].  I can use x-ray hypo [hypo sulfate, used as a fixer in film processing] .  Thanks a lot for the booklet!  It looks good.
     Love, Eugene

14 March '45
Dear Folks [Mary X and John],
     This is a continuation - I didn't get to tell you all I wanted!
     Beth may have written you that I went to see the sights in a city [Manila, but the censors wouldn't let him write that].  It was something to see large modern buildings burned and blasted to pieces.  We went thru a hotel [see post #63] where I'm certain Uncle John must have stayed at one time (or its predecessor) ["Uncle John" was the paternal uncle of Gene's brother-in-law John, the Honorable John W. Barrett, a larger-than-life diplomat and Dartmouth grad, who was the Minister to Siam under President Cleveland (when the little prince, Chulalongkorn, in The King and I was king), and a war correspondent and advisor to Admiral Dewey during the Spanish-American War in the Philippines; he later was involved in South American relations under President Theodore Roosevelt and served as the first Director-General of the Pan-American Union; he attended Beth and Gene's wedding in 1937 and died a year later].  The Japs had used it as a strong point, so you can imagine what it looked like.  I took 3 rolls of color.  Hope they turn out well.  ...

Gene on an overturned tank on the road to Manila

    Jack [the son of Mary X and John], in a box I'm sending Beth, there is a large numeral "3" on fabric from the tail of a Jap 2 motor fighter-bomber.  Also, a large thin metal plate [from an anti aircraft gun] with some ack-ack projectile plotting data on it, that I picked up along the waterfront.
     They were still gathering Jap bodies!  What a mess.  ...
     Love, Eugene

March 15, 1945  No wards assigned to me.  Little work.

March 16, 1945 
     Not busy as yet.  When the push up the coast for San Fernando starts, we will be.  Planes of all sorts go over every day.  Later we may move there.
     I'm developing my own [black and white] film now.

March 17, 1945  To Aringay, 10 km up the coast to see the sights.  The troops are 2 miles beyond.

What was happening just beyond Aringay:

YANKS WITHIN GUN RANGE OF BAGUIO, LUZON: 33rd Division Tightens Squeeze on Former Summer Capitol
     Manila, March 17 - (A.P.) - The Thirty-third division has rolled its heavy artillery to within eight miles of Baguio and can drop shells into the former Philippine commonwealth's summer capitol.
     The Thirty-third - a former Illinois national guard division - has tightened its nutcracker by pushing toward the famed mountain city from both west and south.
     Gen. Douglas MacArthur's communiqué reports that the Thirty-second division is probing the mountains from the southeast.
    ...  Installations around Baguio, Lieut. Gen. Tomoyuki Yamashita's headquarters, have been bombed and shelled heavily.  As yet the city has been spared.
     The advance of the Thirty-third has been slow - thirteen miles in a month - but the methodical gain has been made thru difficult mountain terrain filled with Japanese ambush parties.  The going has been made more difficult by the systematic blowing up of bridges although the 300-foot steel and concrete Aringay span was captured by a surprise night move.  ...