David Nafe Kerr, a 1941 graduate of the Washington University School of Medicine, was among the original group of officers activated to serve with the 21st General Hospital in January 1942. By the following January, the 21st was just settling into its first overseas assignment in Bou Hanifia and Kerr felt too far removed from the war. On January 5, 1943, Kerr "took the fatal plunge" and requested a transfer to "a more forward echelon of the combat set-up." He wrote in his diary, "I don't just exactly [know] how to explain it. It's my conscience. I feel my place is at the front with others of my generation."Kerr was assigned to a forward aid station in the First Infantry Division, which participated in the Tunisian Campaign and Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily in July-August 1943. Of his return visit to the 21st General Hospital after his first tour at the front, Kerr wrote in his diary, "I busted down to the 21st, dirt and all ... when they saw me I was really mobbed. I could have cried, so many and all sincere. [I] felt like a conquering hero and was treated like one."
From the description of David Nafe Kerr papers, 1942-1993 1942-1993 (Washington University in St. Louis). WorldCat record id: 182523933
