A Doctor in the Pacific War

In August 1942, Malcolm Henry Hawk left a promising post-graduate medical residency in Wisconsin to begin serving his country in the Pacific Theater during World War II. In the Pacific, he served as an anesthesiologist with the 44th General Army Hospital, first in Australia and then in the Philippines. The work was essential and often hard; the medical staff treated frontline casualties and also kept the support troops healthy. Malcolm was fortunate to be seldom in danger, although he mentions being uncomfortably close to a few Japanese attacks in the Philippines. But the hazards of his military life included the frustrations of trying to obtain the equipment and operating facilities that his unit needed, the rigors of tent life, searing heat and monsoon rains, the loneliness of missing his family, endless hours of boredom, and worries about what he would do after the war was over and he came home to resume his career. His letters home paint a vivid picture of what daily life was actually like for one medical doctor during the war.