Battle station sick bay

by Jan K. Herman

In this compelling oral history, Navy medical personnel from World War II recall their experiences and the role Navy medicine played in the great crusade. Physicians, nurses, and corpsmen report the way it was, matter-of-factly, with pride and pathos, but not without humor. These are the veterans whose skills were tested at Pearl Harbor, Corregidor, Guadalcanal, Peleliu, Normandy, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. Readers will appreciate as never before the single-minded purpose to which the men and women of Navy medicine dedicated themselves as they healed the wounded aboard vessels under kamikaze attack, in POW camps, and still other appalling circumstances. Former pharmacist's mate Wheeler Lipes describes the time, mythologized by Hollywood and the press, when he removed a shipmate's appendix while his submarine cruised submerged in enemy waters. Dr. Henry Heimlich reveals how a failed chest surgery performed on a wounded Chinese soldier later inspired the lifesaving maneuver that has made his