FP-POW-AD
Flight Surgeon by Col. (ret.) Adanto A. S. D' Amore
Col. (ret.) D' Amore was born in 1913 and obtained a BA/MD degree from Ohio State University in 1936. He attended the last 3-month AMP course in 1940 before they shortened the class to produce more wartime Flight Surgeons. His unit was captured in the Philippines in 1941 and he spent four years as a prison camp doctor near Tokyo. When the U.S. Air Force was formed from the Army Air Corps in 1947 he transferred over and performed a variety of jobs, eventually commanding several Air Force hospitals. Dr. D' Amore retired from the military in 1968 and settled in Fort Walton Beach, FL where he continues to perform physical exams part-time at the age of 92.
When I first joined the army in 1938 I was assigned as a captain to the
1st Division, 26th Infantry. At that time, a captain in the regular army was
really something. Our ambulance was a Chevrolet delivery wagon with no windows.
And because this was so special, we rode in every local parade in the region.
No event could occur without D' Amore and his ambulance.
In 1940 my AMP class had the last normal three-month series before the
war. We each got 9 hours of flight time in a BT-9 but they wouldn't let us
solo. When I arrived at Fort Benning in February 1941 I bought a Piper. I
eventually got about 75 hours on my own. Then I said to myself, "This is
crazy. Here I am sur- rounded by some of the nation's best pilots. I'll just
let them fly me."
My boss, Major John Hargreaves (later a Major General), knew
, that I was the only bachelor doctor there
and said, "D, I want you to go over and start paratrooper medicine."
So I did.
So 1 was at Benning working on the flying cadet boards as well as
serving as surgeon for thel st Fighter Group. Around that time they were
starting the airborne program there. Out of the first class of IOOjurnp
candidates two died because they didn't pull their rip cord. Infantry at that
time was not assigned a doctor, but this was a high profile program, and they
requested medical help. My boss, Major John Hargreaves (later a Major General),
knew that I was the only bachelor doctor there and said, "0, I want you to
go over and start paratrooper medicine." So I did. I applied aviation
medicine principles to their selection process. I told the infantry officers,
"We aren't just interested in shooting ability. We want to see if your
soldiers are medically fit." We started having all the paratrooper
candidates come for a physical exam before the line looked at their su'itability
for the elite airborne infantry.
In those days
the only way an officer could get promoted was to find a more advanced job. You
couldn't transfer out of your outfit unless there was an opening. Only the 501
st was open so a lot of ambitious young fellows poured into that unit to be
staff officers. Captain Jim Gavin came to be the S~3 and I did his paratrooper
physical. [He later achieved fame as commanding general of the 82nd Airborne
Division in World War II.] I was the first doctor assigned to a provisional parachute
group. As such, I had to become jump qualified. So I got 6 jumps out of a B-18,
the pre~ cursor to the Gooney Bird.
I was assigned as the flight
surgeon to the 19th bomb group. At that time we had "groups" instead
of "wings". I flew over with them from Albuquerque to Bataan in the
Philippines. Six weeks later it turned very bad...the Japanese captured me when
my unit was ordered to surrender. I left the Philippines in the last Japanese
ship to make it to the Inland Sea in Japan. Some American destroyers had
dropped "tin cans" and all of the other ships sank on the way. They
then put 1100 of us on a train with the blinds pulled so we couldn't see the
countryside. They sent us to Camp Omori on a sandbar between Tokyo and
Kawasaki. This was the headquarters for all Japanese prison camps. It was run
by one captain, one lieutenant and one corporal named Watanabi.
Watanabi's-three brothers had gone to fight the war so he was kept near home
with this coveted job. It turned out that his father owned a famous Tokyo
restaurant and the corporal could speak English when he wanted to.
I flew over with them from, Albuquerque to Bataan in the Philippines.
Six weeks later it turned very bad. ..the Japanese captured me when my unit was
ordered to surrender,
There were all nationalities of men at Camp Omori and we slept ten to a tent. Everyone had to work. I was the camp doctor and 1 also tended the garden. I would put human manure from the latrines on the vegetables to fertilize them so we could get more nutrition. I especially recall the big white radishes. One of the officers I got to know in the camp was Capt. William Dyess. He escaped, and later publicized details of the Bataan Death March. Dyess AFB was named for him.
Every time the Allies captured
an island from the Japanese, Corporal Watanabi would get angry ...He would take
me to a shed and beat me. One of his favorite tricks was to cup his hands hard
over a man's ears and rupture the tympanic membranes. I would always evade his
moves so he never was able to break my eardrums. But I was his personal
punching bag.
Everyone had to work. I was the camp doctor and I also tended the garden. I would put human manure from the latrines on the vegetables to fertilize them so we could get more nutrition.
The war dragged on, and by 1945 the B-29s started to bomb Tokyo. I
remember it started on a beautiful day in April. The air aid sirens went off. After that the B-29s
fire-bombed Tokyo regularly. They decided we were too close to the action so
they moved us to a camp on Mt. Fuji. We were up near the tree line and they
used the branches as firewood under red cauldrons they used to make pig iron.
During the summer of 1945 the Japanese were preparing for an invasion by the
Allies. Then on the weekend of the fall harvest festival in August they told us
the emperor would speak ... there had been a "big bang" and the
emperor was being nice and would "save the nation from destruction".
Of course this was the end of the war. They shipped us to Narita Air Base and
flew us to Okinawa for physical exams on a health ship. The x-ray commander
there was a classmate of mine from Ohio State Medical School and my old boss
Major Hargreaves was there too. He took me to his tent in Okinawa. One night I
slept in General Doolittle's bed because he was away in the U.S. After a couple
of amazing steak dinners, I flew on to the Philippines where I was deloused and
got a new uniform.
Every
time the Allies captured an island from the Japanese, Corporal Watanabi would
get angry... He would take me to
a shed
and beat me.
Upon my capture I weighed 185 Ibs. I was in
good shape and it was mostly muscle. Upon leaving Japan I only weighed 115 Ibs,
but I gained another ten pounds the week after that.
I never considered leaving the military. Upon
my return to the U.S. I did refresher training in surgery at Randolph AFB and
there I met-my Bride. There was no ENT surgeon at Brooke Army Medical Center in
San Antonio so I was' assigned there to clean out mastoids and so forth.
At the start of the Korean War I was Chief of
the Department of Surgery. I volunteered to go to the war but my boss (knowing
of my POW time) told me, "D, I know you don't really like Asia. Why don't
we keep you back home this time."
In the late 1940s I worked for M. S. "Sam" White (later a major
general. ) I developed the RAM course and wrote it all up for his signature. He
approved it, and I'm sure today is known for this. That's the way things work,
you know.
Harry Armstrong brought me to the School of
Aviation Medicine at Randolph AFB. I knew him well. He was really nice. A few
months after he recruited me, he left to become surgeon general. Otis 0.
"OOB" Benson replaced him as the head man at Randolph. ...Col. Benson
and Col. Frazier did all the planning for the school to come to Brooks. I ran
the surgical department where I developed an aerosol can of antiseptic to treat
burn patients.
I developed the RAM course and wrote it all up
for his signature. He approved it, and I'm sure today is knownfor this. Thats
the way things work, you know.
In about 1952 I was involved in what must have been one of the first air
evacuation missions. It was really something. I was working at the School of
Aviation Medicine and we got a call that there was a patient with polio in
Mexico City. 1 went down in the school's [C-47] Gooney Bird. When we arrived there the patient was on an
iron lung but our airplane had no electricity source. We went to Sears and
bought a putt-putt (generator) to provide electricity. We drove the patient to
the airfield manually pumping the generator. The Gooney Bird had holes on the
sides, and we stuck the putt-putt's exhaust line out one of those holes. After
that, the School was authorized a C-54 because it had a power plant in it. I
also opened up the training program for independent duty technicians (IDMTs.)
We had a Flight Surgeon/Internist named Downey who taught the course with me.
We started it at the School and then gave it to Gunter AFB...it later moved on
to Sheppard AFB. At the time we planned it to teach 1/3 general medicine, 1/3
aviation medicine and 1/3 administration.
When we arrived there the
patient was on an iron lung but our airplane had no electricity source. We went
to Sears and bought a putt-putt (generator) to provide electricity.
I flew in many Army and Air Force aircraft during my career. There was
the B-17E, the B-25 and the B-18. The B-18 had a big bubble nose on the front.
Of course I flew in the C-47 Gooney Bird and its successor the C-54. I once
flew in a B-36 completely around the world. Later on I flew in the C-5A and the
T-33 to accumulate flight time. Oh, and the A-47. It had a bubble underneath
where the observer dropped bombs.
When Capt.
Curtis LeMay was at Langley he was an ops officer. He used to take me for rides
with his observation squadron. We took regular trips down to North Carolina and
South Carolina. Sometimes his neighbor Dick Bohannon came along. Of course, he
later became Surgeon General when LeMay became Chief of Staff. I guess it helps
to know the right people,
I later worked as a surgeon at Lowry, then at
Vance when they reopened it as a B-25 base. I commanded hospitals at Langley,
then Nouasseur Air Depot in Morocco, then Lakenheath AFB in England. At Walter
Reed I did a six-month course in preventive medicine, then I ran the hospital
at Chanute Field, Illinois for 4 years. In 1961 I was assigned to Rarnstein Air
Base as the 17th Air Force surgeon. I finally retired from active duty in 1968
out of Eglin AFB.
"Listen to the patient.
They'll tell you what is wrong with them.
I guess I have done 30 years in the service and 30 years in civilian
practice. In Florida I opened three nursing homes and built a 200-bed hospital.
I started a detox facility in Fort Walton Beach in 1974, and still do the
physical exams there one hour every weekday.
"I always liked the
saying 'Nil carborundum illegitimi. (Don't let the bastards grind you down.)
My only advice to today's Flight Surgeons is, "Listen to the patient. They'll tell you what is wrong with them." After some prompting from his son, Lt. Col. Bob D' Amore (59MDW/IG and FlightLines Deployment Medicine Editor), the colonel adde’d, "I always liked the saying 'Nil carborundum illegitimi' (Don't let the bastards grind you down..) I had a plaque with this Latin saying over my office door for many years."
This
document was provided by the authors son L/Col Adanto R’Amore 59MDW/IG, who
with his father attended the 19th BG Associations Reunion in San
Antonio 2005. DL