"KEEP OUR NAVY THE STRONGEST IN THE WORLD"

This Is Your NAVY

A Monthly Information Letter

Exclusively for Members of The
NAVY LEAGUE

 

Published by the Regional Office of the Navy League of the United States, 400 West Madison Street, Chicago 6, Illinois

Volume I April 1945 Number 3

AMPHIBIOUS MEDICINE:

Modern warfare brought it into being. Eight corpsmen hit the beach with
each infantry company (one corpsman to every 25 men). They are experts in control
of hemorrhage, splinting, and use of plasma. Two medical officers and eight
corpsmen, with stretcher bearers and jeep ambulances, set up battalion aid stations
as soon as the beachhead is expanded. This unit is followed by the field hospital
of five medical officers and 70 corpsmen with life-saving surgical equipment. It
goes into operation before the area is out of range of enemy guns. All this is
linked to an evacuation program involving landing craft and planes. Result: 98
out of every 100 wounded recover. In the Normandy invasion all but 3/10 of 1%
of the wounded reaching England survived.

SEA GOING CRADLES:

 

The ARD (Auxiliary Repair Dock) is an aesthetic monstrosity, but the ponderous
mobile hull can belly down under a crippled destroyer, pump itself dry and cradle
its ailing occupant until repairs are completed. The ARD, born of the war in the
Pacific, has saved countless ships damaged in battle which otherwise might have
been out of action for months and might not have even stood the strain of a return
trip to the states.

MOPPING UP:

This operation is one of the forgotten but tough jobs of the war. Look at
Guam. Invaded 21 July 1944, declared "Secure", (Navy term for completely in our
possession) in early August 1944. But it wasn't until 17 February 1945 that a
day went by without an armed Jap being killed onthe island. The score to dates:
18,002 dead Japs, 4,242 of these killed after the island was "secure".

QUOTES OF THE MONTH:

Navy Pilot over the Boninss "I've got four already--and 30 more cornered."

Admiral Halsey: "If we let the Japs negotiate a peace now and we do not demand
absolute and unconditional surrender, we will be committing the greatest crime in
the history of our country. They will merely use the peace, as Germany did before
them, to build up for another war."

British pilot to CO of USS SARATOGA after landing on her huge flight deck:
"Sir, I feel as if I had landed in your state of Texas."

 

Material Herein Not for Publication Except with the Express Authority of the Regional Vice-President
of the Navy League (Ninth Naval District).