Dear Everybody: Letters from a United States Naval Surgeon in The Orient

During WWII, Robert Gilmore Pontius enlisted in the Navy’s V-12 College Training program, which sent him through Haverford College and then to medical school at the University of Pennsylvania. After WWII, as part of the Navy Reserve, he was called to service during the Korean War. Dear Everybody is a collection of letters that Robert wrote to his family in 1952 while serving as a surgeon at the Naval base in Yokosuka Japan, on the USS Mahoning (LST-914), and in a prisoner war camp in Pusan Korea. The good natured and lively letters document his interesting experiences during his service, and also his passion for surgery. The letters are accompanied with photographs as well as footnotes and a foreword by his daughter Joan Pontius.