Battle Station Sick Bay: Navy Medicine in World War II [Hardcover]

Jan K. Herman (Author), Harold M. Koenig (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1997 | ISBN-10: 1557503613 | ISBN-13: 978-1557503619 | Edition: 1

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 name a household word throughout the world. Cardiologist Dr. Howard Bruenn remembers Franklin D. Roosevelt's last moments at Warm Springs. Stanley Dabrowski recalls the confusion and terror at Iwo Jima as he, a pharmacist's mate, treated his first sucking chest wound under fire. Dr. Ferdinand Berley tells about hearing, while a POW, the Japanese emperor announce the war's end over the radio.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Naval Institute Press; 1 edition (March 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1557503613
• ISBN-13: 978-1557503619
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #606,727 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excelent variety of experiences., March 8, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Battle Station Sick Bay: Navy Medicine in World War II (Hardcover)

If you are looking for an overview of the corpsmans' experiences this book will provide a good snapshot. It covers the experiences of a Medic in the Pacific, on D-Day, in the CBI theater, and in fleet.