Foreword
"DOCTORS AWEIGH" should prove extremely interesting to all members of the Navy Medical Corps and to the general reading public. The author, Rear Admiral Charles M. Oman, Medical Corps, United States Navy, has long been one of the representative officers of the Medical Department of the Navy.
His naval career has been a varied one, professionally and geographically. His first duty took him to the Philippines during the time of the insurrection. He had firsthand information of warfare as practiced by the Igorots and Moros, and so had his first taste of war surgery and tropical diseases in that part of the world. He was present at the tremendous earthquake in Messina in 1908 and did a great deal in the relief work among the wounded in that catastrophe. During World War I he was the commanding officer of the hospital ship Comfort and later commanded the Naval Base Hospital No. 1 at Brest, France. He was awarded the Navy Cross for his services in that war. Other duties took him to China and then back to the continental United States where he was the commanding officer of a number of large naval hospitals. In 1942 he commissioned, and was the first commanding officer of, the National Naval Medical Center at Bethesda, Maryland.
From this rounded service Doctors Aweigh will bring forth events of interest to everyone in the medical profession of this country — young and old, and be of special interest to relatives and friends of members of the armed forces.
Ross T. McIntire
Rear Admiral, Medical Corps, U.S.N.
The Surgeon General of the Navy