Ronnie and Nancy_ Their Path to the White House - Bob Colacello [85]
In July 1942, Loyal had been summoned to Washington by Dr. Fred Rankin, a Lexington, Kentucky, surgeon who had been appointed chief of surgery of the U.S. Army. Rankin asked Loyal to go overseas as a senior consultant in neurological surgery in the European theater of operations. He accepted with alacrity, but panicked on the flight back to Chicago: “I was obsessed with the idea of getting home quickly; my disturbing affliction of nostalgia had recurred in a serious attack. I wondered what I would do in England suffering from homesickness.” After consulting with Edith, Dr.
Pollock, and Dean Cutter, he decided to stick with his decision to accept the appointment.94 “It all happened so fast,” Richard Davis recalled. “He was called to Washington the first week of July ’42, and my God, he was gone six weeks later. But it was a great honor.”95
“The night before Loyal left, Edith had a little party at home,” Davis continued. “It was more like a wake. All of our friends came in and out—
Colleen and Homer, Margaret and Ed Kelly, Dean Cutter—like they were passing the coffin. This thing went on and on. Betty and Les Weinrott and the Pollocks were the last ones to leave. It was a grim night. Jesus, we were upset. I mean, he was going overseas for God knows how long.”96
Before flying to England in September, Loyal spent ten days in Washington being documented, immunized, and fitted for his uniform, helmet, and gas mask. In his memoir, he records being taken to “an unforgettable cocktail party” by Chicago socialite Mrs. Henry “Patsy” Field, who introNancy at Smith: 1939–1944
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duced him to the wife of General Dwight D. Eisenhower: “Mamie Eisenhower quickly realized that the doctor before her was uncomfortable in his strange clothes, ill at ease in the crowd, and awed by the wife of the general whom he was sure he would see at mess daily, and with whom, undoubtedly, he would have the opportunity of talking at table, even though he might well sit at the foot. She graciously steered the conversation so that a rather detailed recital of my life came pouring out. I was convinced that soon I would be living and working close to the commanding general of the European theater of operations when in excusing myself at Patsy’s insistence, Mrs. Eisenhower instructed me to tell Ike she sent her love.”97
Loyal never laid eyes on Eisenhower during the ten months he was stationed in England, mainly in Oxford, where he consulted with American, British, and Canadian surgeons on the treatment of airmen and soldiers with cerebral, spinal, and peripheral nerve injuries. He was eventually credited with designing an improved protective helmet for airplane crewmen, as well as diagnosing high-altitude frostbite in airmen and recommending ways to prevent and treat it, though he had to fight military bureaucrats every step of the way to have his innovations accepted.98 In late 1942 he was nearly court-martialed for sending memorandums of his that had been ignored or rejected to colleagues outside the military, but he found a protector in General Paul R. Hawley, the chief surgeon of the European theater.99
“The trials and tribulations that he had in World War II were extraordinary,” his son told me. “He actually designed plastic headgear for the Eighth Air Force, and he went through all sorts of ballistic tests at Oxford—and they turned that down. Even more devastating to him was that he recognized high-altitude frostbite in the airmen, but the Air Force physicians insisted that the airmen were burned—and of course they were absolutely wrong. For someone at the age of forty-seven who was a very accomplished neurosurgeon—and used to having his own way, too—it was a real blow to him. He simply couldn’t tolerate the bureaucracy. But nevertheless, he was given the Legion of Merit, and he came out a colonel.”100
While her husband was overseas, Edith apparently had difficulty making ends meet. Betty and