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NAMRU-2 VETERANS REUNITE ONE LAST TIME --
NAMRU-2's
chief objective throughout the war was the
study of
infectious diseases, which threatened and
oftentimes
claimed more lives of troops than combat.
John Skorupa works in NAMRU-2 in the New
Hebrides during WWII.
For a previous story about NAMRU-2, go to this
page...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/old%
20newsflashes%20SEP%200
6/newsflash09-15-2006-5.htm
Today's story
here...
http://www.newbury
portnews.com/punews/loca
l_story_274094001
Story below:
-------------------------
Veterans reunite one last time
By Katie Curley , Staff writer
Daily News of Newburyport
NEWBURYPORT - Though some were barely able to make the trip due to
illness and inability to walk, the Naval Medical Research Unit No. 2
from World War II got together one last time this weekend.
The group has gone to great lengths to reunite each year to honor
friendships and memories.
"We do this for camaraderie," said John Galles, whose daughter, Josie
Dow of West Newbury, helped to organize this year's reunion and bring it
to Newburyport. "We were part of the greatest generation. We survived
depression, war and many hardships, and we are still alive."
The men, now in their middle to late 80s, was part of a 300-person unit
stationed in Guam. An elite group, some were bound for medical school or
already doctors whose careers were interrupted, while others ranked
highly on assessment exams and were drafted into the unit.
The memories of their service still vivid, the reunions are the only
bridge from their past to the present, and they travel to a different
city each year to meet and reminisce about and discuss the atrocities of
war and sickness, and to laugh about their own fleeting histories so
many years later.
"It's just great to see all the guys you haven't seen in a year,"said
Linwood McElroy, who served as a researcher in the unit. He added,
sarcastically, "It's a chance to get together and tell lies and see who
is crippled up worse than I."
Bill Hedgecock, an accountant for the unit during the war, said the
memories have not faded.
"I have fond memories of the war," he said. "I remember it like it was
yesterday."
NAMRU-2's chief objective throughout the war was the study of infectious
diseases, which threatened and oftentimes claimed more lives of troops
than combat.
First established at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, the
NAMRU-2 assembled doctors and scientists then at the top of their field
to study such infectious diseases as malaria, prickly heat, diarrhea and
hookworm.
Though first sent to Iwo Jima, the Solomon Islands, Guadalcanal and New
Guinea, the unit was eventually stationed at an established headquarters
in Guam under the direction of renowned doctors of the time.
"We lost more men to malaria than anything else," Galles said.
Galles was drafted into the unit with no medical background to work in
the administrative offices assisting the researchers in the labs.
"I was 18 and still wet behind the ears," Galles said. "By a stroke of
luck I landed in the unit and it changed my whole life."
The small 10-bed hospital in Guam was where a lot of what scientists
know about infectious diseases today was found. The NAMRU-2 was among
the first to use DDT in containing and treating diseases, Galles said.
Chuck Davinson, a pathologist during the war, often hunted in the jungle
for fruit bats, rats and other small rodents that could help him
understand what diseases the men were coming in contact with. The
animals used for study were later stuffed and put in the Smithsonian
Museum of Natural History, where many are still on display.
For the men who served in Guam, their lives diverged after they returned
home. Though Davinson did study veterinary sciences for a short time,
most of the men did not continue on with their medical studies.
Galles, 83, works full time at a sporting goods store he owns in Aurora,
Ill. McElroy continued his career with the Navy after leaving Guam and
now teaches at a university in North Carolina, leading hikers through
the N.C. Sea Trail, part of the Smoky Mountain Trail that he helped
build while he was in the reserves. Hedgecock worked in upper management
of the Cincinnati Bengals for many years before retiring.
Davinson now serves as the NAMRU-2 historian, collecting stories and
pictures from the war and sending information out in monthly newsletters
he types himself on a typewriter left over from the war.
Over the years, the men have said goodbye to many of their comrades - it
is estimated that more than 1,200 World War II veterans die each day -
so some widows and family members of the veterans now attend the NAMRU-2
reunions in their place.
"I could not let the unit down," Davinson said. "It's important to stay
in touch with the men that helped win the war in the Pacific."
The weekend reunion included a banquet at David's Restaurant in
Newburyport and a day of sightseeing in Boston, culminating in a visit
to the USS Constitution and a tour of Fenway Park.
Originally Davinson thought there would be no reunion this year, but he
teamed up with Dow to make it happen for what most likely will be the
last time.
"It's seeing all your old friends each year," Hedgcock said. "We've been
through thick and thin, and now we can get together and see how our
lives have changed."
-------------------------
Larry Scott --
