July 15: NLM History of Medicine Lecture

 

You are cordially invited to the next NLM History of Medicine lecture, to be held on Tuesday, July 15, from 2pm to 3pm in the Lister Hill Auditorium, Building 38A, National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD.  As its Annual James H. Cassedy Memorial Lecture, we are proud to present Dale Smith, PhD, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, who will speak on "Anatomy Acts and the Shaping of the American Medical Profession's Social Contract."

 

Since the time of the Hippocratics, physicians had been offering society a community of practitioners committed to patient care, high moral values, and lifelong learning, but societies across the ancient world and early modern Europe were reluctant to set physicians apart.  In the early United States, the exceptionalism of physicians was less widely acknowledged because of the Jacksonian emphasis on self-sufficiency.  Colonial licensure laws which tried to register qualified practitioners were repealed. Medical education was voluntary, variable, and completely self-funded; schools were owned by the faculty and operated as proprietary ventures.  The medical sects – botanic, hydropathic, homeopathic – were often accepted but had little in the way of professional discipline.  Physicians wanted to be set apart as a profession, but American society did not accept the offer of professionalization until after the Civil War, when 'regular' physicians reaped the benefits of their wartime service. Ultimately the American system of licensure based on examination was instituted by states and affirmed by the courts. In return for the promise of good medicine today and better medicine tomorrow, the profession of medicine obtained legal protection, subsidized education, and socially supported and separately financed practice venues. As part of this transformation, anatomy acts were passed by the individual states: they were, in many cases, the first move to affirm a "social contract" between physicians and the communities they served.

 

All are welcome.

 

Sign language interpretation is provided. Individuals with disabilities who need reasonable accommodation to participate may contact Stephen Greenberg at 301-435-4995, e-mail greenbes@mail.nih.gov, or the Federal Relay (1-800-877-8339).

 

Due to current security measures at NIH, off-campus visitors are advised to consult the NLM Visitors and Security website:

 

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/about/visitor.html

 

Sponsored by:

NLM's History of Medicine Division

Jeffrey S. Reznick, PhD, Chief

 

Event contact:

Stephen J. Greenberg, MSLS, PhD

Coordinator of Public Services

History of Medicine Division

National Library of Medicine, NIH

301-435-4995

greenbes@mail.nih.gov

 

 

 

My Visit to The National Museum of Health and Medicine article

	My Visit to The National Museum of Health and Medicine Canada Free Press The National Museum of Health and Medicine is housed in its new facility in Silver Springs, Maryland. Originally located in the former Walter Reed ...

New World War 1 resource online

WWI Pamphlets 1913-1920

A collection of WWI Pamphlets 1913-1920 contributed by Columbia University Libraries

https://archive.org/details/butlerlibrarywwipamphlets

430 pamphlets including medical ones.

Burns Archive and new Morbid Anatomy Museum featured in NY Times

The Dark Side Gets Its Due

The Morbid Anatomy Museum Opens in Brooklyn

By JENNIFER SCHUESSLER JUNE 26, 2014

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/27/nyregion/the-morbid-anatomy-museum-opens-in-brooklyn.html 

NLM Planning Blog launches

The U.S. National Library of Medicine will soon be initiating development of its next long-range plan and, in so doing, welcomes public feedback through its recently-launched "Voyaging to the Future" blog, located at:

 

http://nlmvoyagingtothefuture.org/

 

Thank you for your feedback, and for sharing this information with interested colleagues and friends.

 

Sincerely,

 

Steve Greenberg

 

Stephen J. Greenberg, MSLS, PhD

Coordinator of Public Services

History of Medicine Division

National Library of Medicine

National Institutes of Health

Department of Health and Human Services

Bethesda, MD

 

301-435-4995

greenbes@mail.nih.gov

 

Southern California Medical Museum moves to Pomona

	Southern California Medical Museum moves to Pomona Redlands Daily Facts A 1740 microscope will be among the display at the Southern California Medical Museum in Pomona. Jennifer Cappuccio Maher — Staff ...

Burns Archive in New York Magazine 6/9/14

From: Stanley Burns:

Thought you would like to know that I and The Burns Archive have been showcased in the Best Doctors of New York, - Health Issue June 9th of New York Magazine. It's on the newsstands now.

I have enclosed the link to the site. Amazingly --historic medical photographs are highlighted in four full pages.

Its the first time a Medical Humanities topic makes the Best Doctors issue.

To see the article--

New York Magazine:

Cutting-Edge Medicine
http://nymag.com/health/bestdoctors/2014/cutting-edge-medicine-2014-6/

All 6 "Navy Medicine at War" World War II films are online

The US Bureau of Medicine and Surgery's history office produced 6 films about the history of Navy Medicine in World War II. They're all online again at https://archive.org/search.php?query=subject%3A%22Navy+Medicine+at+War+films%22

Navy Medicine at War: Trial by Fire (2010 version)

This installment recounts the "day that will live in infamy" through the stories of Navy medical personnel who witnessed the tragic events at Pearl Harbor.

Navy Medicine at War: Guests Of The Emperor

Pearl Harbor was just the beginning of a Japanese rampage throughout the Pacific.  With nothing to stop their expanding empire, the enemy rolled through the Pacific conquering at will.  This installment of the film series tells the tragic story of those who fought to defend Guam, Bataan, and Corregidor against the Japanese invasion.  Their heroism throughout the following years in brutal captivity, under extremely trying conditions exemplifies the enduring values of Navy Medicine.

Navy Medicine at War: Battle Station Sick Bay

After the battle of Midway, even though the pendulum had swung in favor of the United States, final victory was many campaigns and many, many lives away.  Throughout the next three years, Navy medicine would accompany the carriers, battleships, cruisers, destroyers, submarines, and thousands of other vessels on the long bloody road to Tokyo.  As crewman aboard these ships, physicians, dentists, and hospital corpsmen would man battle stations and sick bays during the battle—and the lulls in between.  And they would do what Navy medical personnel had always done—treating torn, burned, and bleeding bodies, and returning men to duty.

Navy Medicine at War: Navy Medicine At Normandy, D-Day June 6, 1944

Although less well known, Navy medicine made important contributions in the Atlantic, most notably in the Normandy campaign.  The physicians and hospital corpsmen of the 6th Naval Beach Battalion are highlighted in this installment. 

Navy Medicine at War: Stepping Stones To Tokyo

The fifth installment in the six-part Navy Medicine at War film series chronicles the Navy medical experience with the Marine Corps' island-hopping campaign during the first three years of the war.

Navy Medicine at War: Final Victory

"Final Victory" is the last installment of the six-part World War II film series, "Navy Medicine at War." The film tells the story of the war's final campaign and aftermath - the bloody fight to take Okinawa, the dress rehearsal for the invasion of the Japanese home islands, the dropping of the two atomic bombs, Japan's surrender, and the liberation of the prisoners of war.

British mental health museum reopens

Mental Health Museum reopens asylum collection at NHS home in Wakefield

By Culture24 Reporter | 21 May 2014
http://www.culture24.org.uk//science-and-nature/medicine/art482053-Mental-Health-Museum-reopens-asylum-collection-NHS-home-Wakefield

Clyster found in maritime archeology

	Urethral syringe used in 19th century venereal treatment declared best archaeological find Culture24 Alan Humphries, the Librarian of the Thackray Medical Museum in Leeds, identified this as a urethral syringe used to treat ailments in men by injecting ...

BUMED's historians upload 2000th item to Medical Heritage Library

May 19, 2014

After slightly more than a year of uploading material to the Medical
Heritage Library, the US Navy's Bureau of Medicine and Surgery's 2000th
item appeared online today. "A Series of Reports to the Nursing Division
of the activities of the Nurse Corps Officers serving aboard the U.S.
Naval Hospital in the Repose"* is now easily available for research. The
reports from CDRs Angelica Vitillo and M.T. Kovacevich back to Captain
Ruth Erickson, Director of the Navy Nurse Corps, and her successor CAPT
Veronica Bulshefski date from 8 November 1965 to 2 December 1966. They
are in turns informative, chatty and sad.

"Our first direct casualty which arrived Saturday, the nineteenth, was
a nineteen year old bilateral mid-thigh amputee who to date has received
over 45 pints of blood." (28 February 1966)

"The improvements we have initiated in our individual staterooms have
contributed to maintaining a high state of moral among the nurses, One
of the base shops at Hunters Point allowed us to misappropriate an
assortment of very colorful and feminine looking bedspreads for our
rooms." (13 December 1965)

"Death claimed the life of a very young man who had extensive chest
wounds on Monday, the seventh and a thirty three year old arm amputee
with other extensive wounds on Tuesday the eighth. Some of our young
nurses are feeling these losses acutely." (9 March 1966)

These letters join a soon-to-be complete set of over 1000 issues of 70
years of Navy Medicine magazine**; oral histories with veterans of World
War 2, Korea and Vietnam;*** a growing collection of audiovisuals
including one on the Navy's humanitarian efforts after the Vietnam
War****; and many other items.

*
https://archive.org/details/USSReposeSeriesOfReportsToTheNursingDivisionOfTheActivitiesOfTheNurseCorpsOffice

**
https://archive.org/search.php?query=collection%3Ausnavybumedhistoryoffi
ce%20AND%20subject%3A%22Navy%20Medicine%20magazine&sort=-publicdate

***
https://archive.org/search.php?query=collection%3Ausnavybumedhistoryoffi
ce%20oral%20history&sort=-publicdate

**** https://archive.org/details/THELUCKYFEWWMV91280x72016x9

A small selection of our photographs may  be found on Flickr at
https://www.flickr.com/photos/navymedicine/

Michael Rhode
Archivist / Curator
US Navy BUMED Office of Medical History

ALHHS Publication award goes to NMHM archivist Eric Boyle

The ALHHS awards committee is proud to announce the recipients of
ALHHS awards for 2014. Winners were recognized at the annual ALHHS
business meeting, held on May 8, 2014 at the American College of
Surgeons in Chicago, IL.

The ALHHS Publication award went to Eric W. Boyle for his book, Quack
Medicine: A History of Combating Health Fraud in Twentieth-Century
America (Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2013). Throughout the 20th
century, anti-quackery crusaders investigated, exposed, and attempted
to regulate allegedly fraudulent therapeutic approaches to health and
healing under the banner of consumer protection and a commitment to
medical science. Boyle's book reveals how efforts to establish an
exact border between quackery and legitimate therapeutic practices and
medications have largely failed, and details the reasons for this
failure.

The AlHHS Online Resource award went to the Waring Historical Library
Curator Susan Hoffius and Digital Archivist Jennifer Welch for their
on-line exhibit of the Porcher Medicinal Garden. The website and its
corresponding physical-location garden serve to increase public
awareness of the holdings of the Earing Historical Library and,
specifically the collection of Dr. F. Peyre Porcher.

The ALHHS Merit Award was given to Dr. and Mrs. Adam G.N. Moore for
their support of the collections of the Center for the History of
Family Medicine (CHFM). In 2012, the Moores donated more than 600
items including rare books, pamphlets, periodicals, and ephemera from
their personal library to create the new Adam G.N. Moore, MD,
collection in the History of Family Medicine at the CHFM.


Please join us in congratulating our award recipients for their
outstanding work.


- The 2014 ALHHS Awards Committee (Eric Luft, Rachel Howell,
and Judith Wiener, chair)

New medical museum in Louisiana

	Willis-Knighton unveils WK Innovation Center Shreveport Times The expansion also includes the Talbot Museum, a medical museum that displays the history of the Willis-Knighton system created in 2004. Created ...

Indiana Historical Medical Museum theft

	WRTV Indianapolis Police discover more items in stolen brains investigation WRTV Indianapolis ... brains and other artifacts from the Indiana Historical Medical Museum after police recovered several boxes of allegedly stolen surgical instruments.

May 7: Lecture on wounded Civil War soldiers at Smithsonian

Erin Corrales-Diaz, Joe and Wanda Corn Predoctoral Fellow, University of North Carolina,
Chapel Hill
"Visualizing 'The Real War': Disabled Civil War Veterans and the U.S. Army Surgeon General's Office" 
4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Smithsonian American Art Museum's McEvoy Auditorium, located at 8th and G Streets NW, Washington, D.C.

http://americanart.si.edu/research/fellowslectures/

NMHM mentioned in article on the Corcoran Gallery

The Great Divide

By Kriston Capps • Photographs by Darrow Montgomery 

Washington City Paper April 25, 2014

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/articles/45699/the-great-divide-22-questions-for-the-corcoran/

See the paragraph Where is the art going?

NMHM's embryology collection in Bull. of History of Medicine

Ex Utero: Live Human Fetal Research and the Films of Davenport Hooker

Emily K. Wilson

From: Bulletin of the History of Medicine 
Volume 88, Number 1, Spring 2014 
pp. 132-160 | 10.1353/bhm.2014.0002

Abstract

Summary:

Between 1932 and 1963 University of Pittsburgh anatomist Davenport Hooker, Ph.D., performed and filmed noninvasive studies of reflexive movement on more than 150 surgically aborted human fetuses. The resulting imagery and information would contribute substantially to new visual and biomedical conceptions of fetuses as baby-like, autonomous human entities that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s. Hooker's methods, though broadly conforming to contemporary research practices and views of fetuses, would not have been feasible later. But while Hooker and the 1930s medical and general public viewed live fetuses as acceptable materials for nontherapeutic research, they also shared a regard for fetuses as developing humans with some degree of social value. Hooker's research and the various reactions to his work demonstrate the varied and changing perspectives on fetuses and fetal experimentation, and the influence those views can have on biomedical research.

Last 'Radium Girl' dead?

Mae Keane, Whose Job Brought Radium to Her Lips, Dies at 107

By WILLIAM YARDLEY

Mrs. Keane, one of the so-called radium girls, was employed at the Waterbury Clock Company in the 1920s when a relatively new material, radium, was used.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/14/nyregion/mae-keane-who-painted-watch-dials-with-a-radium-mixture-dies-at-107.html

Heard embryology models at Medical Museum

	Local man's father honored with national embryology exhibition Walla Walla Union-Bulletin ... and to attend an exhibit on Tuesday that celebrates their father's work in research embryology at the National Museum of Health and Medicine.

Army Medical Museum's Shufeldt was an unattractive character

	Beyond this article, which has to be read to be believed, he was a fervent racist.
	Museum Files: Audubon legacy outshines scandal Glens Falls Post-Star In 1882, Shufeldt was named curator in the Army Medical Museum. He retired in 1891 with a disability for heart disease. Shufeldt had a thirst for ...

Dr Damann speaks to students about forensic anthropology

	Scientists share experiences with students to encourage interest in ... Gazette.Net: Maryland Community News Online Franklin Damann, forensic anthropologist at the National Museum of Health and Medicine, Silver Spring, spoke to students at Rockville High School ...

Newly-created digital archives from African-American psychiatric hospital

Digital Archive to House 100 Years of Historical Documents from World's First Black Mental Institution; UT Scholar Tells Forgotten Story of African-American Psychiatric Patients

Released: 1/23/2014 12:00 PM EST
Source Newsroom: University of Texas at Austin

 

 

http://www.newswise.com/articles/digital-archive-to-house-100-years-of-historical-documents-from-world-s-first-black-mental-institution

 

 

Caricature at the Wellcome Library is online

Artists' Caricatures Show The Macabre History Of Medicine

The Huffington Post  |  By Sara GatesPosted: 01/22/2014http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/22/history-of-medicine-photos-wellcome-images_n_4645670.html

Mutter Museum's Civil War exhibit

Stark Reminders of How Uncivil a War It Was

'Broken Bodies, Suffering Spirits' at the Mütter Museum

By DENISE GRADYJAN. 20, 2014

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/21/science/broken-bodies-suffering-spirits-at-the-mutter-museum.html

Indiana Medical History Museum profiled after brain thefts

This is a nice little museum with a great operating theater.

	Brain thefts boost attendance at tiny museum USA TODAY - The medical museum had an exhibit in 2010 called "The Resurrectionists: Body Snatching in Indiana," which recalled a string of grave robberies in ...

National Library of Medicine's World War I digitization

National Library of Medicine appears to be scanning World War I books and putting them on the Medical Heritage Library. As of now, 32 are cataloged and tagged. There's some obscure-looking material there.

Newly found dissection photo

My good friend Jim Edmonson put together a book of dissection photographs a couple of years ago. Since then, I've been keeping my eyes open for them. Here's one from a collection recently transferred to BUMED's Office of Medical History. Alexander Lyle, one of the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery graduates won a Medal of Honor in World War I.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/navymedicine/12000032284/

Jan 22: Drawing History: Telling the Stories of Science through Comics and Graphic Novels

On January 22 the Chemical Heritage Foundation will present a live webcast exploring how graphic novels, comic books, and animation are used to tell true stories about science. Titled "Drawing History: Telling the Stories of Science through Comics and Graphic Novels," the webcast will feature graphic novelist Jonathan Fetter-Vorm and historian of science Bert Hansen. Our guests will discuss the power of visual media in telling history.

Jonathan Fetter-Vorm is the author of Trinity: A Graphic History of the First Atomic Bomb, which merges text and imagery to vividly detail the race to build and the decision to drop the first atomic bombs.

Bert Hansen is professor of history of science and medicine at Baruch College of The City University of New York. His book, Picturing Medical Progress from Pasteur to Polio, shows how mass-media images both shaped and reflected popular attitudes to medicine from the late 19th to the mid-20th century. Professor Hansen has also contributed to Chemical Heritage magazine.

 

You are invited to watch this discussion via webcast. "Drawing History: Telling the Stories of Science through Comics and Graphic Novels" will air at 6:30 p.m. EST at chemheritage.org/histchem.

 

For further information contact Michal Meyer via e-mail at MMeyer@chemheritage.org or call her at 215 873-8217.

West Virginia medical museum proposed

Doctor hopes to bring children's medical museum to the city Huntington Herald Dispatch Dr. Ali Oliashirazi laid out his plans for the Huntington Children's Medical Museum during his inaugural presidential address at the society's first ...

Mutter Museum specimen used to track cholera dna

With Help of Victims From 1849, Scientists Decode Early Strain of Cholera

By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.

JAN. 8, 2014

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/09/science/with-help-of-victims-from-1849-scientists-decode-early-strain-of-cholera.html

Turkish medical museum to open

cal museum"

EXHIBITIONS > Seljuk Museum set to open in central Anatolian ... Hurriyet Daily News Some parts of the museum will focus on the Seljuk civilization and other parts have been organized as a medical museum, which highlights the ...	Hurriyet Daily News

Brain samples stolen from Indiana medical museum

Brain samples stolen from Indiana medical museum nwitimes.com INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Authorities say a man stole brain samples of long-dead mental patients from the Indiana Medical History Museum that were ...

Philly.com

Daily Heller blog on French medical packaging.

More French Medical Fun

By: Steven Heller | January 2, 2014

Vintage medical and medicinal products in France are designed second to none. The typographic flair and aesthetic joie de vivre are apparent in all the sundries and druggist's wares. Here are a few I just picked up.

http://www.printmag.com/daily-heller/more-french-medical-fun/

BUMED's 1500th item uploaded to Medical Heritage Library is WW2 POW journal

Today we've uploaded our 1500th item to the Medical Heritage Library. It's a journal kept by a Pharmacists Mate in a Japanese prison throughout World War II.  Our main page is at https://archive.org/details/usnavybumedhistoryoffice and includes Navy Medicine magazine and other publications, ephemera and a few manuscripts.  Robert Kentner's journal information follows.

https://archive.org/details/KentnersJournal
Kentner's Journal.
Bilibid Prison, Manila, P.I. from 12-8-41 to 2-5-45.

A Daily Journal of Events Connected with the Personnel of the U. S. NAVAL HOSPITAL, CANACAO, P. I . From the Outbreak of the War in the Philippine Islands 12-8-41 Until the Liberation of Bilibid Prison
2-8-45.
By Robert W. Kentner, PhM1c USN
A Prisoner in Bilibid
*****
This journal was presented to the Hospital Corps Archives Unit, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, by the Author, on 21 April, 1945, after his arrival as a repatriated prisoner of war at the U.S. Naval Hospital, Bethesda, Md.



Michael Rhode
Archivist / Curator
US Navy BUMED Office of Medical History
703-681-2539
michael.rhode@med.navy.mil

mailing address:
7700 Arlington Blvd
Falls Church, VA 22042

physical address:
BUMED Detachment, Falls Church.
Four Skyline Place, Suite 602,
5113 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church, VA

Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh gets new funding

I really enjoyed this museum when I was there a few years back.

Historical medical museum to get multi-million pound upgrade stv.tv An Edinburgh museum - home to one of the UK's largest and most historic collection of surgical pathology artefacts - is to be transformed with the help of a £2.7 ... See all stories on this topic »	Stornoway Gazette
The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh's museum to get £2.7 ... BBC News Open to the public since 1832, it is Scotland's oldest medical museum. The museum charts the transition of medicine from witchcraft through to science.

Nice "found" bit of history on artificial legs, ca. 1885.

Ghosts of DC at http://ghostsofdc.org/2013/12/02/amazingly-detailed-fords-theatre-photo-1870s/ discusses a picture of Ford's Theatre in Washington, DC, but also notes that an artificial limb store can be seen in the photo, and then quotes an 1886 Wash. Post article w/ the owner.

The Army Medical Museum & Library would have been in Ford's at this time, as was the Records and Pension Office (which did the research on Civil War pension claims).

Mike Rhode

NMHM's Resolved exhibit gets second life

Katy woman remembers her dad who never came home from Vietnam Houston Chronicle Who: The Health Museum, in cooperation with the Texas Capital Vietnam Veterans Monument and the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Silver Spring ...

NMHM exhibit reviewed in Journal of American History

Journal of American History

Dec 2013

 

National Museum of Health and Medicine

National Museum of Health and Medicine, U.S. Army Fort Detrick Forest Glen Annex, Silver Spring, Md. http://www.medicalmuseum.mil/.

 

Permanent exhibition, opened May 2012. 5,000 sq. ft. Adrienne Noe, museum director; Gallagher & Associates, exhibit planning and design; KlingStubbins in coordination with the Baltimore district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, architecture and engineering.

 

by Ashley Bowen-Murphy

Brown University
Providence, Rhode Island

Nov 19: NLM History of Medicine Lecture features Smithsonian

You are cordially invited to the next NLM History of Medicine lecture, to
be held on Tuesday, November 19, from 2pm to 3pm in the Lister Hill
Auditorium, Building 38A, National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD.
Diane Wendt, Associate Curator, National Museum of American History, will
speak on "Vessels, Tubes and Tanks: Historic Biotechnologies at the
Smithsonian," which marks the opening of the new NLM exhibition "From DNA
to Beer: Harnessing Nature in Medicine and Industry." The exhibition will
be on display in the History of Medicine Division from November 2013 to
May 2014 and have an online presence to reach a wide public audience.

Drawing from the collections of the National Library of Medicine and the
National Museum of American History, From DNA to Beer will help to promote
public understanding of the dynamic relationship between microbes,
technology, and science and medicine.

All are welcome.

Sign language interpretation is provided. Individuals with disabilities
who need reasonable accommodation to participate may contact Stephen
Greenberg at 301-435-4995, e-mail
greenbes@mail.nih.gov<mailto:greenbes@mail.nih.gov>, or the Federal Relay
(1-800-877-8339).

Due to current security measures at NIH, off-campus visitors are advised
to consult the NLM Visitors and Security website:

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/about/visitor.html

Sponsored by:
NLM's History of Medicine Division
Jeffrey S. Reznick, PhD, Chief

Event contact:
Stephen J. Greenberg, MSLS, PhD
Coordinator of Public Services
History of Medicine Division
National Library of Medicine, NIH
301-435-4995
greenbes@mail.nih.gov<mailto:greenbes@mail.nih.gov>

The Nazi Anatomists article on Slate

The Nazi Anatomists

How the corpses of Hitler's victims are still haunting modern science—and American abortion politics.

By Emily Bazelon

November 6 2013

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/history/2013/11/nazi_anatomy_history_the_origins_of_conservatives_anti_abortion_claims_that.html

New book: THE LUCKY FEW: The Fall of Saigon and the Rescue Mission of the USS Kirk

THE LUCKY FEW

The Fall of Saigon and the Rescue Mission of the USS Kirk

by Jan K. Herman

Published by Naval Institute Press

Binding: Hardcover & eBook Available at Publication Date

Number of Pages: 192

Subject: Vietnam War

Date Available: November 15, 2013

_______________________________________________________________________

As the Vietnam War reached its tragic climax in the last days of April 1975, a task force of U.S. Navy ships cruised off South Vietnam’s coast. Their mission was to support the evacuation of American embassy personnel and military advisers. But the task force was also assigned to secure the safety of South Vietnamese who had “sensitive” military information in their possession and whose lives would be in danger once the North Vietnamese consolidated their inevitable victory.

The magnitude of a nation’s final collapse had suddenly become tangible. For days prior to the fall of Saigon, the by-products of the North Vietnamese army’s relentless conquest included thousands of panicked refugees trying to flee the country in anything that would float or fly.

“It was Dunkirk in reverse,” observed Paul Jacobs, commanding officer of USS Kirk during Frequent Wind, the operation that turned the destroyer escort into a haven for refugees escaping South Vietnam. Kirk’s officers and enlisted personnel—trained as warriors—instantly transformed their man-of-war into a humanitarian assistance ship. Desperation and suffering gave way to reassurance as crew members fed their unexpected and anguished guests, dispensed medical care, diapered infants, and provided hope to a dispirited people.

The Lucky Few focuses on one small U.S. Navy warship from that task force. Kirk took part in the rescue of not only the remnants of the South Vietnamese fleet, but also dealt with 32,000 refugees on board those ships. Although the Vietnam War ended in chaos and shame, the epic story of USS Kirk and her success in rendering humanitarian assistance under inconceivable circumstances reflects one of America’s few shining moments during this military withdrawal. Almost forty years later The Lucky Few brings to light this relatively unknown heroic tale in the South China Sea of a people caught up in the death throes of a nation and their subsequent passage to freedom.

~ Advance Praise for The Lucky Few

“Operation Frequent Wind and the last days of the Vietnam War have remained largely absent from the public eye—until now. What an irony that such a catastrophic war comes to a close with one of the U.S. military’s greatest humanitarian efforts of the twentieth century. Jan Herman has conducted tremendous research in The Lucky Few to illustrate the immense courage displayed by the men of the USS Kirk (FF-1087), which led to the successful rescue of over 32,000 South Vietnamese. Congratulations to the men of the USS Kirk and to all of CTF 76-1.”

—The Honorable Richard L. Armitage, 13th U.S. Deputy Secretary of State

“Jan Herman’s thoroughly researched and beautifully written account of the USS Kirk and her crew’s participation in the final days of the Vietnam War, the fall of Saigon, and the evacuation at sea of thousands of Vietnamese refugees underscores both the tragedy and the triumph of war. This book illustrates the dual purpose of our Navy—a weapon of war and also an instrument to provide humanitarian assistance and care anywhere and anytime. This story, lost until this writing, needs to be read by every American sailor and citizen. They will see first hand our Navy in action. They will also see the courage, compassion, and the stellar leadership of Captain Jacobs and his brilliant USS Kirk crew.”

—Vice Adm. Adam M. Robinson Jr., MC, USN (Ret.), 36th Surgeon General of the U.S. Navy

“Jan Herman’s extensively researched and meticulously detailed account of the USS Kirk during the final weeks of the Vietnam War is a riveting portrait of heroic men in unheroic circumstances; it provides a fresh and essential perspective on this troubled chapter in American history.”

—Rory Kennedy, filmmaker

The Author

Jan K. Herman served as the historian of the Navy Medical Department and as special assistant to the Surgeon General for thirty-three years. He also produced an hour-long documentary, The Lucky Few, which has gained international acclaim since its premiere at the Smithsonian in 2010.

He is the author of Battle Station Sick Bay, Frozen in Memory, Navy Medicine in Vietnam, Murray’s Ark and Other Stories, and lives in Takoma Park, MD.

Famous Tumors on Radiolab

http://www.radiolab.org/story/update-famous-tumors/

When we first released Famous Tumors, Rebecca Skloot's book about the life and legacy of Henrietta Lacks (and her famous cells) had just hit the shelves. Since then, some interesting things have happened to both Henrietta's cells and her family. So, 4 years later, we have a newly updated show!

• Podcasts

  More

• RECOMMENDED LINKS

  • Famous Tumors Check out the full episode details here (including more links and guest names)
  • 1956 video of HeLa cells in the lab

This hour, we poke and prod at the good, bad, and ugly sides of tumors -- from the growth that killed Ulysses S. Grant, to mushy lumps leaping from the faces of infected Tasmanian Devils, to a mass that awakened a new (though pretty strange) kind of euphoria for one man. Plus, the updated story of one woman's medically miraculous cancer cells, and how they changed modern science and, eventually, her family's understanding of itself.

History of medicine articles in today's Washington Post

Washington museums' hidden treasures

By Roger Catlin, 

Washington Post October 13 2013

http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/museums/washington-museums-hidden-treasures/2013/10/10/ee9a9e4c-29f5-11e3-97a3-ff2758228523_story.html

Three of these are medical and Judy Chelnick and Diane Wendt are quoted -

Jarvik-7 artificial heart

National Museum of American History

Marie Curie's radium

National Museum of American History

White Eagle's Indian Rattle Snake Oil Liniment

National Museum of American History

and this wirestory is making the rounds -

Einstein's brain a wonder of  connectedness

By Melissa Healy, 

Washington Post October 13 2013

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/einsteins-brain-a-wonder-of-connectedness/2013/10/12/09e2e532-32ad-11e3-8627-c5d7de0a046b_story.html

Other Civil War legs in DC besides Daniel Sickles

The Leg of Ulric Dahlgren

Tim K
Oct 01, 2013
http://ghostsofdc.org/2013/10/01/the-leg-of-ulric-dahlgren/

NATIONAL Museum of Health and Medicine open in spite of government shutdown.

Who needs the Smithsonian and National Gallery when there's the Medical Museum?

By John Kelly,

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/who-needs-the-smithsonian-and-national-gallery-when-theres-the-medical-museum/2013/10/02/2f31e8f6-2b8c-11e3-97a3-ff2758228523_story.html

Since it's a federal government museum, and I don't see how it can be open during a government shutdown. The Museum director is a GS government employee. Especially if the contractors have no federal employees to supervise them. Unless they've added a uniformed military presence to their supervisory chain...