6 July 1952, Sunday
The first few days of the week were spent in moving our task force up the coast of Labrador to Hopedale, a small village with about 150 Eskimos and a few whites. The weather was beautiful and warm on arrival – with mosquitoes of man-eating size; however it shortly began to rain, and we fought the terrible battle of mud. (We arrived ashore on Thursday). The low, old, tired mountains of granite line the shore – perhaps the oldest in the world. A thin layer of top-soil rests on solid granite covered with mossy vegetation and very rare stubby evergreens.
We soon got our aid station established in one of the construction camp buildings. We are more comfortable here with heat and electric light. Shortly after arrival I was called to see one year old Roland Noggasak who had fever and possibly some nuchal rigidity. Tuberculous meningitis was feared, but he seems to be much improved on penicillin therapy. Tuberculosis is very common among the Eskimos. The people here appear to be a cross between Orientals and Indians, with a dash of Caucasian here and there.
Yesterday four generals, including Brigadier General Whitcomb of the 373rd TMP and Major General. Heilman of the Transportation Corps, made an inspection tour of the camp. We went through the ridiculous maneuvers of cleaning everything, only to have it tracked with mud a moment later.
During the first part of the week we spent much time with the myriad of foolish Army health report forms. Their motto is: "Complication, Above All". Major Maguire is leaving; a Major McShore is our new CO.
12 July 1952, Saturday
Operations continued in full swing on the USS Baylor Victory, and unloading was completed on Thursday. I bought a very nice $11.00 pen and pencil set (Eversharp) in ships stores for only $5.00 early in the week, having bent the point on my Schaeffer pen.
The weather has been very unusual – very warm one day, and a few hours later bitterly cold. I have been called to see about five more patients among the Eskimos on the beach. On was a month old marasmatic infant. The other were older people with various complaints, mostly trivial. Yesterday afternoon I was called to see a young man who had temporarily become amnesic following a traumatic emotional experience. He was improved upon my arrival. Upon returning to the pier, it was found that a DUKW driver had been stabbed in the left forearm while attempting to grease another’s genitals! He bled badly. We rushed him to the ship and spent about three hours with him in the operating room trying to suture the severed ends of the deep diversion of his left radical nerve. The prognosis for return of function of the Mm. Exterior digitorum communis, Ext. poll. Longus et brevi, and Abductor polliicis longus is not overly favourable. A hearing and possibly court martial proceedings may result. – a nasty business.
Having been appointed Army irradiation, biological, and gas warfare officer, I find myself with a lot of work to do. Such a position should have been filled at the outset of the maneuver.
We have another epileptic case.
20 July 1952, Sunday
This has been a week of beer parties and minor brawls among the troops and sailors. The mosquitoes have been fierce. One early morning (there are only about four hours of darkness, with an ever present flow in the north) I climbed to the top of a nearby mountain. The view was beautiful. There are thousands of islands, peninsulas, and inlets along this coast, and many lakes in between the low, tundra – covered mountains inland.
There has been a lot of redtape and paperwork over the stabbing case. As a result of my stand that his injury was due to misconduct (with loss, probably, of disability benefits), a board inquiry was held, and the misconduct line of duty confirmed, making me unpopular with some men. The stabbed man also subsequently had a summary court martial.
It has also been a busy professional week, with many patients on sick call, a special sanitary inspection of the construction camp, and several visits to some 13 patients in the Eskimo village, with everything from corneal ulcers to pneumonia, mostly in children. Captain Charlie Hunter had a very bad ankle sprain with great swelling and discoloration. An Eskimo woman had an acute prepatellar bursitis, from which 20 cc of blood was evacuated by needle, with considerable relief.
Work on the CBR report is nearing completion. We have a vulnerable position because of lack of equipment, and apparently there is no air defence plan ashore.
27 July 1952, Sunday
The first half of the week saw us finishing up work at Hopedale, and packing our medical equipment in the trailer for loading and transit on the LST-601. On Thursday we headed up the coast of Labrador, but were suddenly diverted into Saglek Bay at N-29, presumably to move cargo already discharged by Task Team #1 some 7 miles to another site, since the road from the present storage area is reaching a very difficult area to bypass – a colossal, costly error on someone’s part.
The journey up the coast was uneventful. There was a beautiful sunset, and we saw a giant iceberg in the distance, which appeared to be almost ten stories high.
Friday we came into a fiord with 2000 foot masses of rock rising straight up on either side – a beach being located at the end where the construction camp and storage areas were located. It is cool, but not cold, with some patches of snow and myriads of mosquitoes. There are no trees, there being too little soil, but lakes and wild flowers, grass and tundra are abundant.
A B-25 crashed on the far beach area during the war. Two men paddled away in the rubber life raft, never to be heard from again. The other men were found dead in their sleeping bags, with a log relating their tale of slow starvation, even though not far from the Eskimo village of Hebron.
They are now trying to decide where and what we shall do now.
Updated: July 29, 2002