The Unpublished Journals of Embedded World War I Medical Observer James Robb Church, With Photographs and Important Observations on the Use of Gas in Combat (An incredibly early American witness, predating US involvement by nearly 2 years)

James Robb Church

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"Gas questions are crowding in and I can see that before long I shall live and inhabit in an atmosphere charged and tinctured with all the foul odors and deadly results that belong to that grisly arm of war. It is a big subject and stretches its devastating arm far and away thru many different spheres: Chemistry of course and primarily, and ordnance, and tactics and all the ramifications there are in the manufacture of prevention against this Hun made method of war."?Church included many of his photos and wrote of the practices and methods of French and Belgian surgeons on the wounded from the Verdun front and elsewhere?He was witness to great events, including the official American arrival in France, by which time he had been there more than a year?"General Pershing from the balcony bowed his introduction to the people with whom he - and our own country - is now linked in the struggle against the Prussian enemy. I was moved and touched by the spirit displayed and I could well realize what it means to the French to have the moral support of our coming and the promise that we will put not only money into this cause but our own men."?James Robb Church graduated from Princeton University in the class of 1888. He became an Assistant Surgeon in the U.S. Army, and in 1898 joined the legendary Rough Riders regiment. Church received the Medal of Honor for his actions during the Battle of Las Guasimas on June 24, 1898 during the Spanish-American War. As an officer in the Rough Riders, he knew Theodore Roosevelt well, and when Church received his Medal of Honor on January 10, 1906, he did so directly from President Theodore Roosevelt himself. It was the first time that a Medal of Honor had ever been presented in person by a president of the United States. Church?s Medal of Honor citation said, ?In addition to performing gallantly the duties pertaining to his position, voluntarily and unaided carried several seriously wounded men from the firing line to a secure position in the rear, in each instance being subjected to a very heavy fire and great exposure and danger.? Church also served in World War I, and wrote about the effects of poison gas and his experiences as a wartime doctor.In fact, Church was one of the first Americans to go into a war zone in official capacity, although since the US was not in the war in any declared fashion, he did so as a neutral, sent to observe the state of the French medical units there.As the Defense Visual Information Service writes on Church, "On 15 November 1915, Major Church was ordered to leave his station at Fort Crockett, Texas, and report for duty as a military observer to the French Army. He was instructed to gather intelligence on French hospitals, ambulance routes, and medical outposts. Church departed the United States for England on 15 January 1916 and then traveled by ferry to France, arriving in Paris on 29 January. Church discovered the French Sanitary Services, the organizations in place for caring for the sick and wounded, had been significantly overhauled over the previous year to meet the needs of the war?s increasing casualties. Church indicated the problems facing the French health system between 1915?1916 represented a valuable opportunity to plan for American medical needs should the U.S. join the war effort. He wrote, ?We must understand that it is not only the question of caring for the wounded man?Transportation, supply, records, construction, feeding, preventative medicine and many other things fall in line to make up the perplexing whole.? Church?s medical intelligence aided preparations for the implementation of the Army Medical Corps in Europe. Between 1915?1917, chemical weapons were being used with increasing regularity on the battlefield by both the Allied and Central Powers. Church?s early reports highlighted the medical needs for treating soldiers exposed to poisonous gases and were some of the first American medical observations about the effects of chemical warfare o.

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Unpublished Journals of Embedded World War I Medical Observer James Robb Church, With Photographs and Important Observations on the Use of Gas in Combat (An incredibly early American witness, predating US involvement by nearly 2 years)
• Binding: Soft cover