THE ART OF DENTISTRY - School of Dental Medicine - Case ...

ALUMNI PERSPECTIVE:
EDWARD FERRERI ’40
SERVICE WITH THE 4TH GENERAL HOSPITAL—
FIRST IN THE FIRST WAR, FIRST IN WAR AGAIN…
The 4th General Hospital—Lakeside Unit, which served during World War II—was initially
commissioned by the U.S. War Department on October 1, 1933, acknowledging the
sacrifice and professionalism of doctors and nurses from Western Reserve University and
the Cleveland area who had served during World War I at the U.S. Army Base Hospital
No. 4—Lakeside Unit.
The 4th General Hospital was activated
at the dawn of World War II. Approximately
200 members of the Cleveland medical,
dental and nursing community left their
homes at a moment’s notice to answer
their country’s call. The medical/dental
corps sole survivor, Edward Ferreri ’40,
was deployed in early 1942 with his
colleagues.
FERRERI’S SAGA
“The Cleveland doctors were the first in
World War I, and they did such a good
job that the government asked them to
serve in World War II,” explains Dr. Ferreri.
He became involved because “the army
was shy two dentists with hospital training,”
he says. “Hospital training ultimately
saved me from the infantry. I was in the
first military draft, which started in 1939.
I received a deferment for a year because I
was in an oral surgery residency program
at what was then City Hospital in Cleveland.
“I approached the dental reserve corps in
1940, but they weren’t taking applications,”
says Dr. Ferreri. “Then I tried to get into
the Navy. I was deemed six pounds
underweight. I went to a dietitian, who
put me on a high-vitamin, high-caloric
diet. Two weigh-ins later, I was still one
pound underweight. It was looking like
I was going to be a private in the army.”
But, “in August 1941, Dean Wendell
Wylie of the dental school told me of
an opening at the Medical College of
Virginia School of Dentistry in Richmond.
I interviewed there and was hired
immediately.”
On January 17, 1942, Dr. Ferreri received
a telegram from Joseph Wearn, M.D.,
of the WRU medical school. “‘Your
commission has come through as first
lieutenant in the dental corps,’ he told
me. ‘Wire your acceptance to the Surgeon
General.’ Which I did, on a Wednesday.
On Saturday of the same week, I received
a call from the headquarters of the [Army]
in Columbus, Ohio. They told me to report
to the Brooklyn [N.Y.] port of embarkation
by [the next day]. I got a [military] uniform
that afternoon and was at the port by
9:00 am. I was told, ‘Edward Ferreri,
your task force unit number [is] 6414Z.’
I didn’t know where I was going once I left
New York.” He ended up going halfway
around the world, to Melbourne, Australia.
DOWN-UNDER CLINIC
“The Aussies were happy to see us,” says
Dr. Ferreri (who was honorably discharged
as a captain). “Our first Marine division,
after Guadalcanal, came to our hospital—
the brand new Royal Melbourne Hospital—
for medical and dental care. I spent a year
in Melbourne. When we received orders
that someone had to go to Oro Bay, at the
362nd station hospital in New Guinea,
three degrees off the equator, I went.
“The hospital facility was primitive,” says
Dr. Ferreri. “The ward was a slab of
concrete, 200 feet by 30 feet. It was
supported by posts. It had a tin roof, no sides.
The surgery suite was like a MASH unit.
When I got there, we had no electricity to
run the dental drill. I had to have a man
operate a foot treadle while I worked. It
wasn’t too long before we got electricity.”
After about a year in New Guinea, Dr.
Ferreri was sent back to the 4th General
Hospital, which was now in New Guinea,
as a patient (he had a skin infection). “To
the relatives of the members of the 4th
General Hospital I would say that I felt
very fortunate to serve with so many
experts in the fields of medicine, dentistry
and nursing,” he says.
Dr. Ferreri resides in East Cleveland,
Ohio, at the A. M. McGregor Home, an
independent and assisted-living facility on
32 wooded acres where, he says, “I have
no neighbors except wild deer and turkeys.”
He lives with Jeanne, his wife of 58 years.
The couple has seven daughters and one son.
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