Physician Soldier
"Frederick R. Gabriel graduated from medical school in 1942, entered the US Army, and was assigned to the newly created 39th Station Hospital. His letters from the Pacific theater -- especially from Guadalcanal, Angaur, and Saipan -- capture the everyday life of a soldier physician. His son, Michael P. Gabriel, a professional historian, has faithfully preserved, edited, and annotated that correspondence to add a new dimension to our understanding of the social history of World War II. Like most wartime hospitals, the 39th Station Hospital was positioned in a rear area and saw limited direct combat. And like most wartime hospitals, the 39th Station Hospital spent each day confronting the injuries and casualties of frontline combat. Gabriel supervised a ward and oversaw the unit's laboratory, serving a hospital that had provided care to four hundred patients at a time. Gabriel's letters home captured this experience and more, providing a revealing look into day-to-day life in the Pacific theater. He discusses the training of medical officers and female nurses, recreational activities such as Bob Hope's USO show, and even his thoughts on the death of FDR, the end of the war in Europe, and ultimately the horrors of the atomic bomb"--