Being there . . . . suddenly for a startling new book from the Naval Institute Press that exploresand examines the roles our military played in not only controlling diseases and epidemicswherever it went worldwide, but also for transmitting and spreading it. In short, the Annapolis,Maryland, publisher introduces author Jack E. McCallum, author of two books and numerousarticles dealing with both medicine and history, and, in addition, who resurrects the ancienttruth that disease and war, warfare and impaired illness, inevitably work hand in glove. Wholearmies can be affected by microorganisms while only a few in those armies can diminish anddeplete whole population centers. For example, World War I was expected by most combatantto be concluded within a month or two. No one dreamed of the huge number of men, orenormous number of casualties that would be involved. No unit on either side was moreaffected than the medical services responsible for servicing the battle casualties, and, later, theoverwhelming number of civilians and sick soldiers treated side by side. Thus, the need for aserious study of the tendency, nay, centralism, of health-sickness-medicine-and health again tofight successfully while advancing, occupying, or retreating.AN EXCEPTIONAL EXPLORATORY READ WRITTEN BY A CERTIFIED PHYSICIAN IN BOTH ADULTAND PEDIATRIC NEUROSURGERY ON HOW DISEASES AND EPIDEMICS STRIKING OUR MILITARYHAVE KILLED MORE AMERICAN SOLDIERS THAN WEAPONS OF WAR. YES, THE ROLES OFDISEASES AND EPIDEMICS AMONG OF FIGHTING MEN HAVE BEEN CHR0NICLED ANDCATEGORIZED, BUT NEVER TO THE DEGREE DR. JACK McCALLUM HAS. AN UNEQUIVOCALCLEAR AND SINCERE PRESENTATION IS FINALLY AVAILABLE.Reviewed and highly recommended by Don DeNevi“EPIDEMICS AND THE AMERICAN MILITARY – – Five Times Disease Changed the Course of theWar”, by Jack E. McCallum. Naval institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland; 2023, 267 pages, 6 ½” x9 ¼”, hardcover, $35. Visit, www.usni.org.Improvements in the treatment of wounds and disease were amazing, nay, astonishing, inWorld War I, especially for the Allied side. Because the four years saw remarkable growths inpreventions and healing medicines, the experiences of surgeons also improved thus providing avery sound basis for the sick and wounded of World War II. In the early stages of those firstyears of horrific fighting, mortars and grenades accounted for 61% of wounds, while bayonetwounds accounted for only 0.3 %. By the end of the war in 1918, 82% of Allied wounded wereback on the field decimating what was left of the German opposition.Undoubtedly written by Dr. McCallum, the flap of the book jacket reads, via his easy, brilliantnarrative prose, “The U.S. armed forces recruit young people from isolated rural areas anddensely populated cities, many of whom have been exposed to a smorgasbord of germs. Aftertraining and living in close contact with each other for months, troops are shipped acrosscountries and continents where they meet civilians and other troops. I argue that if one set outto design a perfect world for an aggressive pathogen, it would be hard to do better than an
army at war.”
Dr. McCallum then points the way forward by insisting there are four major ways to combatepidemic infectious diseases — quarantine, altering the ecology in which infections spread,medical treatment of infection, and immunization. Through his detailed exploration of theseconflicts, the author demonstrates how diseases can devastate troops during wartime. Each hasplayed a specific but often overlooked role in American wars. A case can be made that GeneralWashington saved the American Revolution when he mandated inoculation of the ContinentalArmy with smallpox. The Union Army might very well have taken Richmond in 1862 had it notbeen for an epidemic of typhoid fever during the famous Peninsular Campaign. Jack goes on topoint out that Yellow Fever was the cause of the American invasion of Cuba in 1898 and itsoccupation allowed a continued U.S. presence there for decades to come.Such is the makeup of the continuing Chapter on World War II and the splendid conclusionwhich emphasizes how epidemic infections continued after World War II but never in thenumbers seen in the South Pacific and the Mediterranean. In his final three pages, Jack admitsthat his “counterfactual history” is a perilous exercise, but the outcomes in the episodes hepresents us to look at and consider might very well been different had the epidemics notturned out as they did. Yet, lest we forget, infectious diseases will remain a major element of
both public health and military strategy.
