Francis J. Jennik, a Milwaukee, Wisconsin native, discusses his experiences as an Army medical administrative officer in the Pacific Theater of World War II and as part of the Army of Occupation in Japan. Jennik speaks of enlisting in the Army Enlisted Reserve Corps while attending Marquette University, being called to active duty in 1943, and basic training with the Army Air Corps in Atlantic City (New Jersey). After attending Signal Corps school at Camp Crowder (Missouri), he touches on spending some time in the Army Specialized Training Program at the University of Missouri before it was ended and the "disgruntled college kids and Army Air Corps cadets" were sent to infantry training. Jennik states he became first gunner on a 60-mm mortar squad in the 66th Infantry Division, attended Medical Administrative Corps Officer Candidate School at Camp Barkley (Texas), and was commissioned a second lieutenant in December of 1944. Assigned to Nichol General Hospital (Louisville, Kentucky) as an assistant medical supply officer, he mentions inventorying narcotics, working with patients returning from Europe, and seeing doctors allow patients two ounces of whiskey a day. Sent to the Philippines as a replacement, Jennik discusses being seasick aboard the troop ship and his first impressions of Manila. He describes duty as transportation officer and acting engineer at the 251st Station Hospital. Jennik reports that most of his time went towards the digging of latrines due to a low water table and the patients' all having gastrointestinal problems. After the atomic bomb was dropped, he recalls his unit being blacklisted to go to Japan, packing thirty days of supplies into an LST, and seeing all the ships turn their lights on after the surrender of Japan. He describes arriving in Yokohama as part of the occupation force, getting his first flu shot, and seeing men get sick from the vaccination. Assigned to a Japanese Naval Medical Hospital in Tsukiji (Tokyo), he portrays the devastation from Allied bombings and the disappearance and eventual return of Japanese civilians. Jennik comments on censoring mail, being jealous of Navy food, and packing up the Philippine hospital equipment in custom-made crates. He tells anecdotes about requisitioning a motorized hand saw and about a frightened guard posted alone in the morgue. Jennik describes the medical problems his hospital handled: "odds and ends, hemorrhoids and circumcisions," appendectomies, and venereal diseases. He relates sightseeing in the Philippines and Japan and noticing the Southern Cross constellation. Jennik talks about the female head nurse demanding the installation of some western-style commodes, and he tells of duty as fire marshal and getting water everywhere while testing a rotten hose. He mentions giving his whiskey allotment to his motor pool drivers and being Trial Judge Advocate in a court martial against a soldier who had sold Army sugar to Filipino civilians. Returned to the United States in March of 1946, Jennik touches on staying in the Reserves and returning to Marquette University under the GI Bill. He recalls discovering, years after the war, that the men of the infantry company he had been in were drowned when their ship sank in 1944; if he had not left for OCS he would have been with them. Jennik talks about his civilian career as a salesman and real estate assessor and his career as an instructor in the Army Reserves, teaching National Guard and Reserve officer courses. He touches on getting access to secret information during the Vietnam War about how the targets were being picked from Washington, D.C. rather than by soldiers in the field. Jennik speaks of involvement in the American Legion and VFW, the poppy fundraiser for VA hospitals, and attending 251st Station Hospital reunions.
