Brothers Beyond Blood: A Battalion Surgeon in the South Pacific

From the Inside Cover: "George Sharpe was a young surgeon, not too long our of medical school, when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. After military training, he was sent to the South Pacific, where he spent years as a battalion surgeon. The author tells of the trauma of repairing broken bodies on the battlefield and describes medical treatment under enemy fire. He details many of the tropical diseases, such as one commonly called "jungle rot", and the medication developed during wartime. But Brothers Beyond Blood is different from other battlefield accounts in the author's determination to "capture the spirit of caring for one's fellow man". Recalling a reunion of the 20th Infantry Medical Detachment in 1986, he wrote "My personal scars of the war were open and bleeding again. Tears welled up in my eyes and again the sinking sensation in the pit of my stomach. It was strange. Our beliefs were divergent to one another, but the ties of experiences shared in the nightmare of Munoz, the Shimbu Line, and the Cordilliera Mountains; mutual morning of those close to us, sorrow for the maiming of friends, had palced dormant seeds of brotherhood in our souls surely as strong as the genes of common ancestors. We were another family-brothers beyond blood." "Dr. Sharpe has written a candid and brutally honest account of what it means to be a battalion surgeon in combat. Unsparing of his own feelings, accurate to the smallest details of the tedium, panic, and heroism of front line battle, the author has given us a useful, instructive and unforgettable story of a doctor at war." -Robert J.T.Joy, M.D., F.A.C.P., COL., M.C. USA, Ret. Professor and chairman, Section of Medical History, Uniform Services, University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, Maryland

I was the transcriptionist for Brothers Beyond Blood, by George Sharpe, M.D. When I started to work for him, he only wanted a "hard copy" version of the letters he and his wife, Alison, had written to each other during WW-II. When the work started, I knew there was something that spoke to everyone and encouraged him to "flesh out" the letters into a narrative. The tapes he provided stunned me in their detail and emotion. Two people caught up in the vagaries of war. A baby at home, Jeanette. The single-minded determination to survive and "come home." The boredom, exhilaration, and gut-wrenching fear. New Guinea and its natives. The fall and subsequent rise of the Philippines. The men who served: the "Brothers Beyond Blood." I cannot recommend this book highly enough. If you're a child of a WW-II Vet, you need to read this book. Deb Martin-Bruels