Dear Ginny

About the Book

“Dear Ginny” is a collection of letters and commentaries written by Colonel Verne R. Mason, MD to his wife, Lucy M. Ginn, RN during WW I, WW II, and the Hiroshima investigations of 1945, also included are photographs from the World Wars. Ginny believed that Verne was the finest physician that she had ever known and dedicated her life to him. Ginny was a surgical nurse and worked for many of the surgeons now considered the founders of modern surgery. Ginny and Verne first met at Johns Hopkins in 1916 when Verne was doing rounds with Dr. Thayer, head of internal medicine. These commentaries and letters sharply contrast the differences between Verne the twenty-eight-year-old physician of WW I whose thoughts were more concerned with the treatment of casualties and Verne the fifty-three-year-old physician consultant in internal medicine in WW II charged with restaffings and updating antiquated army medical facilities in the corps areas where he was stationed. His medical training was prior to WW I when there were few treatments of communicable diseases and a patient’s survival was dependent on early diagnosis and excellent nursing. This book begins on the 3rd of May 1917 with the activation of the army medical reserves that included many of the medical staff of Johns Hopkins Medical School including Verne, the author of the commentaries, letters, and photographs that are the subject of the “Dear Ginny” letters. Many of the Hopkins 3rd year medical students enlisted with the provision that they would receive their medical degree while in France. On the 14th of June of 1917 the Johns Hopkins Unit left New York harbor in a large convoy bound for France. This convoy carried the first American medical unit and troops to go to France. They landed at St. Nazaire sur Loire, France on the 28th of June. The Hopkins Unit received eleven weeks of additional training and orientation at Savenay. The first American hospital in France was formed on the 5th of July and was designated Base Hospital #101 and was located in a former high school in St. Nazaire. The French used it during the first three years of the war as a military hospital. The facility was transferred to the American Army and within a few days the Hopkins Unit had re-staffed the hospital with thirty-five casual nurses, thirty enlisted men and doctors Boggs, Stone, Bernheim, Mason, Sydenstricker, King, Happ, Shaw, Wharton, and Lankford. The hospital was already treating two hundred and ninety American soldiers and civilian employees, many of whom were in urgent need of prompt medical and surgical attention, most suffered from acute infectious diseases. The Hopkins Unit received orders at the end of August to proceed to Bazoilles sur Meuse, France and their personnel at BH #101 returned to the unit. New medical personnel filled the positions vacated at BH #101 and they packed and left St. Nazaire for Bazoilles sur Meuse on the 20th of Sept of 1917. The Unit now became officially designated BH #18. Bazoilles is located in the northeastern part of France close to the Swiss boarder. Their ordeals, problems, and thoughts are documented in these commentaries and show what intellect, hard work, and careful nursing can accomplish: 17,000 casualties were admitted to BH #18 during WW I and the mortality rate was only 1.3%. The “war to end all wars” ended on the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month, of 1918. BH #18 departed France from St. Nazaire on the 31st of January of 1919 on the same ship that brought them to France, the S. S. Finland. They arrived in New York harbor on the 14th of February 1919, exactly twenty months from the day they had left for France. Verne returned to Johns Hopkins in 1919 for three years, teaching, holding clinics, training interns and residents, and doing research. Ginny and Verne were married in August 1921 near Winchester, Virginia. Their honeymoon brought them to Los Angeles where Verne went into private practice. He was a

About the Author

Verne R. Mason, M.D. was a noted diagnostician who served as clinical professor of medicine at USC. He initiated resident training at the Los Angeles County Hospital. He served 20 months in the USAMC in France in WWI, 64 months in WW II, & was head of the Hiroshima medical investigations in 1945. He retired from teaching and the practice of medicine in 1956. He was first chairman of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s advisory board from 1955 until his death in 1965. The Institute in recognition of his contributions to medicine and education dedicated two lecture halls at USC.