Toledo (CA 133) - Naval Cruise Book

Page 70 text:

CDR C. E. THOMLINSON DENTAL OFFICER The DENTAL DEPARTMENT, smallest unit aboard the TOLEDO, is a handy ad- dition to any sea-going vessel as anyone with bicuspid trouble will attest. Though business hours are carried on in the traditional 8:00-4:00 manner, this does not exclude late -callers who register complaints and requests for anything from an extraction to securing a yard of dental floss. The mission of the DENTAL DEPARTMENT is, to the fullest extent possible to treat and prevent disease in the mouth. Participation in ship's drills, department education and other administrative duties are also a part ot the daily routine carried on by the one officer and two en- listed men who make up this group.

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NNN. mxxi E Xa RXYXNQJ X 1 -SJ, 1 . X km, XA. N . .Q NY X N Nt. First Row. D. L. SPIREK. H. N. JEFFRIES, D. PENNY, W. E. SARVER, R. E. WIENDEL. Second Row: J. L. MELTON, I-I. E. WITHERS, G. B. RYE, J. D. MCGLOWN, R. TAYLOR Third Row. W. FLEMING, J. B. HINDMAN, J. A. NORHAWITZ, P. E. VIRGIN.

Page 71 text:

Don't shrink away when that corpsman comes at you with needle in hand. Remember he is not the ogre, the outcast of Dante's inferno that you think he is. His iob is a difficult one of preventive maintenance-keeping llOO men hale and hearty. If you still shudder over that last bout with blunt instruments and shot lines, iust realize that corpsmen take the same medicine. Should you be able to climb out of bed and meet up with the operating room, you'll fine that this is where they 'sew you up after pulling that last good liberty and X-ray your stomach for another glance at those thriving ulcers. The isolation ward next door is iust what the name implies. Find yourself sealed within its confines and you will be absolutely-alone. In the doctor's office iust aft a corpsman pores daily over your health records besides periodically boosting you to the head of the shot list. In the laboratory and pharmacy section, corpsmen are busy counting tomorrow's quota of APC's, rationing out cod-liver oil and liniment and stripping gauztex from band-aids in presage of impending disaster. The motto We cure the sick, lame and lazy hangs over the entrance to the treatment room. Here ci corpsman will patiently listen to your dying pleas for aid until the suffering becomes unbearable then will cheerfully refer you to the Doctor. So if you cannot bring yourself to witness anymore of this organized mayhem, stumble forward to the ward and lie down in plush bunks that are only two high. Here breakfast will be served to you in bed, but you sweep and swab your own spaces, just another reminder that modern medicine demands the patient take up his pallet as soon as it is humanly or otherwise possible. Now what other division could treat you so well with a roster of but nine corpsmen and one doctor, slightly understaffed but far from outmanned. LTJG J H PEARSE MEDICAL OFFICER