Former Bradford resident Michael P. Gabriel has published his fourth book, “Physician Soldier: The South Pacific Letters of Captain Fred Gabriel from the 39th Station Hospital.”
The book is a compilation of over 300 letters that Gabriel’s father wrote to his family in Eldred during World War II. The letters and approximately 50 accompanying photos provide a gold mine of information on the war, although the 39th Station Hospital saw only limited combat and was usually stationed in rear areas.
The correspondence begins in February 1942, when Gabriel was a resident at the Thomas Jefferson Medical College Hospital in Philadelphia, and follows him and his unit’s training at Camp Barkeley and Sheppard Field, Texas, and the Desert Training Center in Yuma, Ariz. The vast majority of the letters and pictures cover from January 1944 to December 1945, when he deployed to the South Pacific and was stationed on Guadalcanal, Angaur, and Saipan.
The letters cover a wide range of topics such as the varied responsibilities of medical officers and female nurses, a Bob Hope USO show, the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the end of the war in Europe, the atomic bomb, and growing frustration with the slow return of troops from the Pacific.
The letters also offer insights into the home front, especially in rural north central Pennsylvania and Western New York, as Gabriel responded to his parents’ and friends’ correspondence. He commented on bond drives, rationing, news from home, and a variety of domestic and international events, such as the San Francisco Conference.
In 1966 Gabriel moved to Bradford, where he headed the Radiology Department at the Bradford Hospital until his retirement in 1981.
His son, Michael, is the chair of the Department of History at Kutztown University. He graduated from Bradford Central Christian and earned his B.S., MA, and Ph.D. at Clarion University, St. Bonaventure, and Penn State, respectively. He conducted part of his research on this book at the Eldred World War II Museum.
