The Ghost Mountain Boys - James E. Campbell [62]
In addition to malaria, New Guinea served as a breeding ground for a variety of other nasty diseases: dengue or breakbone fever, which was carried by the aedes mosquito (the same breed that causes yellow fever) and was accompanied by terrific headaches and throbbing body pains; and the dreaded scrub typhus, which brought on high fevers, hallucinations, and severe, sometimes fatal hemorrhaging. The culprit, in the case of scrub typhus, was not the mosquito, but a tiny chigger. Just as dangerous for the men of the 2nd Battalion were jungle rot and leishmaniasis (caused by the bite of sandflies), both of which were characterized by open sores. Because they could lead to serious complications, and because most soliders tended to ignore the sores, jungle rot and leishmaniasis scared the hell out of the medics. Then there was beriberi, directly linked to the soldiers’ diet of polished white rice. Caused by a thiamine deficiency, beriberi presented a whole assortment of debilitating symptoms, including vomiting, confusion, loss of sensation in the hands and feet, edema, and rapid heart rate.
The U.S. Army in New Guinea forfeited huge numbers of men to disease. This raises the question: How could MacArthur have failed to give sufficient consideration to the effects of fatigue, climate, landscape, and the ravages of jungle-borne pathogens on a physically depleted army? In September 1942 he told the head surgeon in the G-4 Section at his General Headquarters that malaria had played such an important part in his defeat in the Philippines that he wanted to keep it under control in New Guinea. Despite this, General Headquarters never implemented a determined plan to deal with disease in New Guinea. This omission would prove to be ruinous for the entire 32nd Division.
The medics of the 19th Portable Hospital, who accompanied the 2nd Battalion across the mountains, bore the brunt of this oversight. After the dysentery epidemic struck, they divided into four teams, established way stations along the trail, and treated the men as best they could given their limited resources. All the while they were cursing General Headquarters because even when medical supplies did make it to Australia, they often did not make it north to New Guinea.
Although the medics were seemingly working miracles, they could do nothing for Lieutenant Colonel Henry Geerds, the 2nd Battalion’s commander, who suffered a heart attack outside of Strinimu. Geerds was an “old-timer,” a veteran of World War I. The march across the Papuan Peninsula was simply too much for him.
Stutterin’ Smith, who was running a radio detail at the trailhead at the time, received the news of the battalion commander’s heart attack that evening. Using the landline, Smith notified regimental headquarters. The following day, Colonel Quinn ordered him to catch up with and take command of the battalion. Smith had not been pleased about being left behind at the trailhead in some rear echelon job while the men that he had helped to train trudged off to fight the Japanese. But now he must have wondered: Could he lead a battalion across New Guinea?
Smith may have experienced a moment of doubt, but Colonel Quinn had no such reservations. Smith had no airs about him. He was a rough, likable straight shooter, an “enlisted man’s officer.”
Late on the second day, Smith and his small team, which included Captain John Boet, an accomplished doctor whom Warmenhoven had instructed to accompany Smith, reached Strinimu. Smith and Boet were “lame and tired,” and if initially Smith underestimated the difficulty of the hike, he did not anymore. The following morning, he recruited a local guide. Romee was a slender, athletic-looking native man, who soon rendered himself indispensable to Smith. Romee could speak and read and write English, and became the group’s chief cook, translator, and fire builder, too. Romee’s greatest gift, though, was as a trader. At villages along the trail, Romee