X-ray, laboratory, pharmacy, dental and ….

X-ray, laboratory, pharmacy, dental and veterinary technicians. Schools were established at general hospitals, military posts, civilian colleges and commercial institutions. In addition, medical soldiers were trained to work as part of a unit or team, ranging from an optical detachment of two enlisted men to a 2,000-bed numbered general hospital with 898 officers, nurses and enlisted men. In short, men had to be trained to perform special duties in a multitude of medical units in a chain of evacuation stretching from the front lines to general hospitals.

Mort became a medical orderly. “I would help nurses and doctors with various jobs, caring for the patient’s needs. During my time there, President Franklin D. Roosevelt came to visit. We all dressed in our best clothes, lined up and saluted him as he drove past.”

Camp Stoneman in Pittsburg, California, was the primary staging point for the Pacific Theater during WWII. “Camp Stoneman was just down river from San Francisco Bay, Mort recalled. “Soon we took a bus to the docks in San Francisco.

“We boarded the MS Klipfontein, a Dutch ship used by the US War Shipping Administration, flying the flag of Holland. It was late 1943. We each had various duties aboard the ship as we did during training,” Mort said. “Our bunks were stacked five high. Traveling without any escort, it took us almost two months to reach Brisbane, Australia. We spent both Thanksgiving and Christmas aboard the ship.”

WWII introduced the United States to global war, exposing personnel to newly encountered foreign diseases. In the South Pacific, heat, incessant rain, insects and vermin frustrated efforts to control disease. Despite medical advances, for every two men lost to battle in the Southwest Pacific theater (Australia, New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Dutch East Indies, Borneo, and the Philippines), five men were lost to disease, according to historial accounts Once the U.S. Marines and the Australians took control of southern New Guinea, Mort was shipped to Finschhafen (French Haven).

It was a on a southeastern tip of the island. “It was nothing but jungle, dirty and full of various living things, animal and insect, which would bite,” remembered Mort. “We cleared the jungle, cut down coconut trees, with the help of the natives. We set up our unit and became the 364th Station Hospital Unit of the 6th Army. Almost immediately our station hospital started to receive wounded. I was doing everything to help the doctors and nurses. As the patients came in, I helped with wheelchairs and gurneys. Cleaning, washing, feeding the wounded was common. It was February of 1944.”

“During the battle of Hollandia, March-May of 1944, which completed the Allied control of New Guinea, we continue to receive sick and wounded daily. We helped with everything: guard duty, kitchen duty, unloading supplies, latrines and anything assigned by our superiors, rarely getting time off.”

He remembers showering with ocean water and that mosquito nets were required for sleep and to fight against malaria. Rain was constant, filling helmets.

The fighting moved toward the Philippines during the late summer of 1944 and would continue through early 1945.

On May 20, 1945, the 364th Station Hospital moved and set up in San Fernando, Luzon, Philippines. Life was the same, with occasional high points. “Close to my birthday, another guy in our unit got a cake from home. There was a bottle of whisky inside the cake. We celebrated,” Mort said.

By early October, the 364th Station Hospital took over a Japanese Hospital in Kyoto. “My duties continued until my service was up and I came back to the U.S. early in 1946. I got back to Ft. Lewis, Washington, and they gave me a train ticket home.”

It was a long time ago, but the memories—and the pride of his service to country—remain.