 Proudly, we hail. How New York City, where the American stage begins, here is another program with a cast of outstanding players. Public service time has been made available by this station to bring you this story. As proudly we hail the United States Army. I've got it made. You could call it the story of a memorial, but it's not the usual kind of memorial. Most memorials are made of granite or marble or gleaming bronze. Our memorial is all these, plus something else. Our first act curtain will rise in just a moment, but first, you know, in the two years that I've been announcing radio and TV shows for the Army Recruiting Service, I've had an awful lot of guys come up to me after a broadcast and say something like, what a deal you have for yourself in the Army. How did you get a job like that? And I can only tell them that in civilian life, I was a radio and TV announcer. When I enlisted in the Army, they put me to work immediately in the same kind of a job, which sort of helps me to put over the point that when you volunteer for service in the United States Army, you can rest assured that your best talents and natural skills will be considered in giving you an assignment to your liking. Now, more than ever before, men with above-average ability are finding better jobs, more important assignments in the United States Army. So men, if you've been wondering what the Army has to offer you, you, the trained technician and specialist, take a tip from me and visit your nearest United States Army Recruiting Station to get all the facts. Believe me, you'll be awfully glad you did. And now your United States Army presents the real production I've got it made. You know, sometimes you acquire a habit late in life or you come across something that's been going on for a long time, but you had always been unaware of it and you act like you're Columbus discovering America. Well, that's me. Recently I've discovered a bunch of guys, a great gang of guys. I've been in the Army 15 years and it wasn't until just a couple of months ago that I finally discovered the medics. I'm here in Walter Reed Hospital in Washington. I've been lying in a bed in the surgical ward for nine weeks now. I really don't know what's the matter with me, except that it can't be too good. But somehow I'm not too worried about it. Oh, wait a minute. Here comes that blonde nurse. Let me see if I can find anything out today. Okay, you can talk now. What's my temperature? Normal. Could you answer a question, Lieutenant? Depends on what the question is. The big question. What's going to happen with my leg? That's going to call for the big answer. We don't have it yet. I noticed I was told to eat a big breakfast as the brass decided on a new plan of attack. We're giving you a special diet. We have to build up your strength and your powers of resistance. Then the major will operate again. We'll send the tissue down to the lab. We'll look at the reports. Then we'll know the score. For the time being, you just have to wait. That's it, huh? You wanted it straight. You got it. Yes, indeed. I got it all right. I, William Lansing Miller, Master Sergeant Infantry, United States Army have got it all the way. Well, Medics, I'm in your hands, and I feel pretty comfortable about the whole thing. I discovered you people in the last couple of months, and it's been a revelation. After all, when I first got into the Army, what were the Medics to me? What's your complaint, Private Miller? I got a headache, sir. No. Don't seem to have any fever. Yes, sir, but I got this headache. I have a headache, too. Corporal, give Private Miller here some APC tablets. Take him into directed soldier. You remember how we used to kid about sick Paul? Well, by looking back on it, I have to admit if a guy was really bad, he got sent up for the top treatment you'd find any place. It wasn't until I got overseas that I began to have a little respect for these guys. Every platoon did. No matter where you were or what was going on, if a guy got hit, somebody yelled Medic, and there the Medic was. But nothing ever happened to me. I saw two years of combat in North Africa, Italy, France, and Germany. I never got a scratch. I wound up in Korea and had a big six months on the line and came out lucky again. But what do you think happened, and why do you think I'm here in the hospital? Well, I was assigned to Washington, D.C., and I'm working in the Pentagon. I'm driving a Jeep on some errand one rainy morning when some meatball in front of me pulls over from the left side to make a right turn. Okay, a traffic cop saw the whole thing. The other guy was drunk. He admitted that. I was absolutely in the right. But that was no consolation to me because I couldn't move my left leg. And so, for the first time since I've been in the Army and to the Medics. You seem to be in a cheerful frame of mind this morning, Sergeant. I'm not cheerful. Just thinking. I got three years of combat under my belt and nothing ever happened. Then I have to come to Washington, D.C. to get piled up by a drunken driver. Well, you're in one of the world's biggest and best hospitals, Walter Reed. Why isn't my leg healing the way it should? We've got some of the biggest medical men in the country trying to figure that one out. You know, Lieutenant, I seem to be getting the special treatment around here. I wouldn't say it's anything special. It's the treatment that your case requires. Well, the way all these big wheeled doctors keep popping in and out of here sometimes, you'd think I was President of the United States. Well, if he ever had to come into this place, he'd get the treatment he needed, too. Hey, Lieutenant, this may sound silly, but who was Walter Reed? Walter Reed? Yeah. This is Walter Reed Hospital. I'd like to know these things. Back in New York, I lived in a place called the Gerald Tracy Hotel. That's because a guy named Gerald Tracy owned the joint. He used to drive over the Gothel's Bridge because a guy named Gothel's built it. So who was Walter Reed? He was an Army doctor, and this hospital is a memorial to him. So what did he do? He did a lot of things. But most important, he proved a mosquito causes yellow fever. You have just lost me. What is it to the Army if a mosquito causes yellow fever? Everything. Let me think about it for a while, huh? Well, when I get off on a kick, I have to go all the way. And I'm all hopped up on the medics. So I read a little, and I talked to the doctors and nurses a little. Then I thought a little. And then I started thinking about how it was when our country first got started. And for no reason at all, I remember the poem I learned years ago in school. By the rude bridge that arched the flood, their flag to April's breeze unfurled, here the embattled farmers stood and fired the shot heard around the world. Yeah. But what happened to some poor embattled farmer who stopped the slug from a red-coated musket or got trench foot or maybe appendicitis in Valley Forge? Must have been just too bad. I kept thinking about it. And I should admit there may have been an ulterior motive because this blonde nurse sure was a looker, and all this gave us an excuse to chat. In all the wars you ever read about, wars that had great casualties, most of them weren't suffered in combat. No. The average army lost more men to sickness and disease than to enemy bullets. Tell me more, Lieutenant. This is a new line. Well, maybe I just want to get educated. Okay, soldier. You'll ask for it. Well, look at this hospital. It's a general hospital, and the army runs quite a few of them. Look at what we do here. Surgery, general medicine, bacteriology, anything and everything that a good civilian hospital does. We do research. You think you're getting special treatment, Sergeant, but you're not. You're only getting what you need. You'll get what you need, no matter how long it takes, no matter how much it costs. I know that. I guess this is the difference between our side and theirs, because this is what we do for one guy. Just one guy. Just this difference is what all the shooting was about. Funny. I never looked at it that way. I read. Sure, it may have started as a line, because she was a good-looking girl. I don't care if she's a lieutenant. She's still a good-looking girl. But as I listened to her, I could feel that she was talking about something very important to her. And it turned out, in addition to everything else, the story of Walter Reed was also one of the best detective stories I ever heard in my life. You're listening to the proudly-behaved production I've Got It Made. We'll return in just a moment for the second act. High school seniors ensure a secure, well-paying future by preparing for it now. The United States Army's Reserve For You program will guarantee you a classroom seat in an exciting Army technical career course before you enlist. You'll get top-notch training and on-the-job experience while serving side-by-side with America's finest young men and women. The choice is wide open and all yours to make. High school graduates can take their choice from more than 100 interesting courses, everything from atomic technician to welding. The fact-filled booklet Reserve For You tells you all about this program. You'll learn of many other fine Army benefits too, like regular pay increases, promotions, exciting travel assignments, and unbeatable leisure time activities. Get in on the swing. Get your free copy of Reserve For You by visiting or writing your nearest United States Army recruiting station. You're listening too proudly we hail and now we present the second act of I've Got It Made. Sergeant William Miller is a patient in Walter Reed Hospital. Sergeant Miller has gone through combat in Europe and Korea and come out without even a scratch, but he had to injure his leg in an automobile accident in Washington. The leg isn't making the expected surgery in treatment and Miller, who had never had occasion to think about the medics before in his Army career, is amazed at the way every facility of this mammoth medical institution is being brought into action to fight for his recovery. So Miller became interested in the medics and he happened to wonder what this man Walter Reed ever did to have a great hospital named after him. He's finding out. He was a great guy, Walter Reed. His lifetime, which was about 51 years, saw medicine change from ignorance and superstition to a science. When Reed was born, Pasteur hadn't even yet begun to find out about microbes. There were drugs to alleviate pain, but practically no medicine to cure disease. We didn't know about infection. To tell you the truth, we didn't know too much more than old Galen did a couple of thousand years ago. Reed became a doctor and joined the Army as an assistant surgeon. We weren't fighting any wars at the time, but we wanted to do some studying. We knew that the Crimean War in Europe and our own war between the states had more casualties from diseases than bullets. So the Army became interested in disease and Reed was sent to study at hospitals and colleges. Then the real trouble started. The main was blown up in Havana Harbour and we had a war on our hands with Spain. That was kind of a minor league war, though, wasn't it? That was the real storybook type war. We won all the battles in a couple of months. The shooting stopped quickly enough, but... By what? We were still losing hundreds of men every day, not to Spanish bullets, but to Cuban disease. Well, at that time we had a unique situation in the Army, something that had never happened before, or since. What was that? The General, who was Army Chief of Staff, happened to be a doctor. A doctor? His name was General Leonard Wood. His medical approach to the problem was in order. General Wood said... I want this whole island cleaned up. I want to get the kind of scrubbing up an Army barracks gets the night before a general inspection. Dirt breeds disease. And if you don't clean up this whole city of Havana, we won't have an American soldier left alive by the first of the year. I want this cleanup to take precedence over any and all other military details. I want this order sent to all unit commanders for the full proof. And I want it followed to the letter. General Wood wasn't fooling. He wasn't talking just to hear the sound of his voice. And as I said, he was a doctor, too. And he knew how a place should be cleaned. And don't think he didn't leave his desk at headquarters and personally inspect every barracks, every installation. That city of Havana shown like sterling silver on a banquet table. It's sparkle like diamonds in the sunlight. If scarcity makes something valuable, it's been more precious than gold. Well, I guess that should have fixed everything. Nope. Just as many soldiers kept getting sick and dying every day. Well, didn't they know why? All they knew was that they were up against a disease called yellow fever. Sit down, Major. You're here. You're here because I've been burning up the cable of Washington, begging for a competent specialist. The man who can find out what causes yellow fever. He's losing a war. And the enemy is yellow fever. Are you the man who can lead the fight? I'll try to be that man, sir. You're in command, Major Reed. You need only report to me. You can have whatever you want. Set up a staff, requisition facilities. Whatever you need, we'll give you. The only thing we can supply you with are the answers. Major Reed created a staff. It consisted of Reed himself, assistant army surgeon Jim Carroll, Dr. Jess Lazir, and Dr. Aristides Agrimonte. Four men against yellow fever. Gentlemen, we start at the very beginning. This is all we have to go on. Yellow fever is a disease. Therefore, it's caused by a bacillus. Our problem is find that bacillus. What a problem. They worked on yellow fever cases. They examined blood. They made coffee. They examined blood. They made cultures. They performed autopsies. They examined the clothes, the bedding of yellow fever victims. It sounds like they were looking for a needle in a haystack. That's right. And what they were doing was to remove one straw at a time. Well, it's like a murder case. One day the detectives run out of clues. There are no more places to search. No more questions to ask. Reed and his men couldn't find the bacillus. Well, when you reach that point in an investigation, you begin to listen to anybody. Even to people who sound as though they might be crazy. There was a doctor in Havana. And he really had a weird idea. His name was Carlos Finlay. Dr. Finlay, I don't believe I understand the last part of that statement. I tell you, I know the criminal. Dagomaya. It's a very pretty little mosquito with silver lines on its back. A mosquito? Well, Dr. Finlay, we're trying to isolate a bacillus. You can isolate till you dry up and blow away. You can test laboratory samples of blood to doomsday. You can examine clothing till you drop. Just answer one question. Why don't the medical personnel in your army hospitals who are in direct contact with yellow fever patients contract a disease? And you, Major Reed, you've been wading around hip deep in yellow fever. Why haven't you caught it? Well, why haven't you become infected? Well, because I... Well, what? Major, I have no actual proof. But I'll stake my life on it. You have to look for a mosquito. I've lost track of a day by now. Come across anything today? No, Major. We're back where we started the first day. I spoke to a doctor by the name of Finlay. He certainly had a strange idea. Oh, I get those all the time. He has an idea that we should get to work on a breed of local mosquito named Stegomaya. Yeah? Well, that's about in the class with the suggestions I get, too. I do wish we could find some sort of approach. Crazy as it sounds. Let's stay with this mosquito theory. Why not? What else are we going to do? I'll tell you what. Let me see the report of cases within the past month. I've just been looking through it myself. Here's a man in A company who got yellow fever. He was the only one in his company. The same night another man across the street in battalion headquarters comes down with yellow fever, too. Does that suggest a method of transmission? Could those men have been in contact with each other? Find out right now. I'm sure there couldn't have been any contact between the man in A company and the man in battalion. The man in battalion had been in contact with each other. The man in battalion had been confined to quarters for a week with a cold. So now I wonder, how could one have caught the disease from the other? An airborne carrier. That could be the answer. While you were gone, Carol, I've studied this report again. The man in A company was the only one who had the disease in the unit at first. Two weeks later, five other cases broke out in A company. Could we be looking for a virus that needs time to incubate in some insect? Well made to read. We keep coming back to that mosquito, don't we? That's how it goes in medicine. A problem can have the doctors beat for hundreds of years. Suddenly, there's a ray of light and then things began to happen fast. About the mosquito. Well, you never know till you try. The only animal in the world that's susceptible to yellow fever is a human being. So it's very simple. Have this mosquito bite a man who has yellow fever. Then have him bite a man who's healthy. You get the idea? Then if the healthy man comes down with yellow fever, yes. But who is going to let himself catch yellow fever on purpose? Is it that yellow fever is carried by a mosquito major read? General, all we have is a feeling, a hunch. I'm asking for permission to set up an experiment. I speak for myself and my three associates. Naturally, we'll take the risk first. We have no right to ask others to take their lives on our theory. You have my authorization to set up your experiment major on the condition that you do not act as a guinea pig yourself. Oh, sir, I feel... Instruct Carol, Lazir, and Agromante on the method of the experiment which will be conducted during your absence. My absence? How can I be absent? I'll lead to Washington where you will deliver a full report on your work here in medicine. General Wood, I'll not leave my men here during a hazardous experiment. Major read. You will. Because that's an order. What happened? Walter Reed went to Washington. Carol and Lazir let themselves be bitten by special mosquitoes. Both of them got yellow fever. Lazir died. Well, that should have been the ballgame. No, because did it prove that the mosquito was the only way yellow fever could be transmitted? Reed hurried back to Cuba. Carol, do you feel that one test is conclusive? No, sir. Are we be absolutely sure yellow fever is transmitted through contact? I wouldn't swant to it. Well, let's get rid of it once and for all. Take a small house, fill it up with clothes and bedding from yellow fever patients. Let's have volunteers wear the clothes, keep them isolated in the house for two weeks. I'll volunteer to be one of the men. Oh, no. You were bitten by the mosquito. You've already taken your chance. Now I'm going to take my turn. No doubt about it, Major. The experiment should be tried. If these men don't come down with yellow fever, then we'll know the mosquito is our exclusive carrier. And I have your permission, sir. Tell me what you'll need and you'll get it. Two men, General. I should think three would be a better idea. I meant two men beside myself. Major Reed, I will not permit you to take personal part in the experiment. We've been through all this before. And let me tell you something, General. I don't approve of... Go ahead. Blow off, Steve. I won't hold it against you. But you will not take part in the experiment. Why not? Why can't I do what I'm asking other men to do? Your job is to discover and to evaluate. Your job is to be a doctor, not a hero. You're an officer whose duty is to send men out on patrols. Not go out on patrols yourself. My place is inside the experiment. Not quite. You must ask another man to be brave. But you'll be even braver because you have to accept the responsibility. It's hard to be an officer, isn't it? At a time like this, it's much harder to be a doctor. Well, you and I can swear to that, Reed. Because we happen to be both. Did Reed get his volunteers? Free men. Their names were Cook, Folk and Jernigan. They shut themselves up in a little house for 20 days. Wearing clothes and sleeping on bedding that was contaminated with yellow fever. Reed sweated it out all that time. Did they get yellow fever? Nope. Not one of them. So, Reed had it made. He was right about the mosquito. He should have been happy. But he wasn't. Why not? Because he wasn't sure. How sure can you get? Didn't that prove that only the mosquito could carry yellow fever? Well, you see, there was one little detail that haunted Reed. Suppose, just suppose, that the three men who volunteered just happened to be three guys who might be naturally immune to yellow fever. You see? This guy must have been the living end. So, he had to prove scientifically that those three men could get the disease. And there was only one way to do it. Tell you men why I sent for you. You volunteered to live surrounded by the filth of yellow fever for 20 days. You escaped the disease. But it doesn't quite prove that yellow fever can't be caused by contact. I have to ask you if you'd volunteer again. I hate to do it. You've already done more than any men should be asked to do. I have to ask you to allow yourselves to get bitten by mosquitoes. I, uh... I wish there was some other way out of it. I can't order any of you to go through it. No reflection on your bravery or anything else if you refuse. Sir, what time and where do we show up to get bitten? They showed up, they were bitten, and they caught yellow fever. And that was the ball game. They recovered and then Reed and everyone else had to be convinced that only the mosquito carries yellow fever. From then on it was downhill. They drained the swamps and destroyed the mosquitoes. And nobody is scared of yellow fever today. And that's why this hospital is named after Walter Reed. That's right. He was an army officer and a doctor. And more, he was a scientist. He was, I guess you could say, a symbol of what the army is trying to do in medicine. How did he make feel? Ask me tomorrow after they finish operating. You nervous? Just a little. After all, why should I be scared? I'm in Walter Reed Hospital. I got it made. Attention high school graduates, get on the freedom team today by volunteering for enlistment in the United States Army. You can help America save the peace and save freedom too by enlisting today. Full details at your nearest station. This has been another program on Proudly We Hail, presented transcribed in cooperation with this station. Proudly We Hail is produced by the Recruiting Publicity Center in New York for the United States Army. And this is Mark Hamilton speaking, inviting you to tune in this same station next week for another interesting story on Proudly We Hail.