Dentists at War: 12 Who Went Beyond the Call of Duty

Book excerpt: In Dentists at War—12 Who Went Beyond the Call of Duty, author Norman Wahl has attempted to show how the dentist, so often envisioned by the public as the staid, methodical “tooth carpenter,” is capable of heroic deeds when called upon to do so, especially during wartime. Herein, Wahl presents 12 ordinarily peace-loving men whose lives were transformed by the circumstances in which they found themselves. Ever since dental officers became an integral part of the military (occurring in 1911 in the US Army), thousands of men and women of all nations have served both their profession and their country, under usually trying circumstances, diligently, and some heroically. Some lost their lives. Some were captured by the enemy and became prisoners of war (POWs), enduring beatings, starvation, and humiliation—and sometimes torture. Others volunteered for dangerous missions behind enemy lines. Dr Wahl has divided his account into more or less three sections: (1) history of military dentistry (Chapters I through IV), (2) prisoners of war through the ages (Chapters V through VII), and (3) the 12 selectees—their exploits (Chapters VIII through XII). Within these chapters you will meet an orthodontist who performed ferrying and guerrilla activities behind enemy lines, a Scottish POW who spied for M19, and an American captain who, manning a machine gun, killed 98 Japanese attackers on Saigon before succumbing to 76 bullet wounds as well as bayonet stabs, and nine others—all dentists.