US Marine Corps - The Black Vault

456 Amphibians Came To Conquer
fear his enemies would get him relieved during a spell of illness. . . . It was
not possible for him to have a proper day-to-day diet.Gl
In support of this opinion in regard to the health of Rear Admiral Turner,
during this 1942–43 period, the following extracts from a recent letter
by the Medical Officer of the PHIBFORSOPAC Staff, Rear Admiral Ralph E.
Fielding (Medical Corps), U. S. Navy, Retired, are pertinent:
Before leaving Noumea for Guadalcanal (and prior to the Rendova landing)
Admiral Turner had a recurrence of malaria and presumably an attack of
dengue. He finally consented (with an affirmative from Jack Lewis) to go to
the hospital ship, Commodore Reifsnider had command of the flotilla going
to Guadalcanal. Admiral Turner told me I could shoot anyone who was caught
without clothing coverage over his entire body [Because of the incidence of
malaria among the troops taken into Guadalcanal, who did not observe antimalarial
discipline].
Admiral Turner had a mild coronary attack at Camp Crocodile. He wouldn’t
be transferred to Mobile 8 hospital, so we got a hospital bed moved from a
nearby Station Hospital, and put it in his tent. But he insisted on seeing every
incoming despatch while being treated.ez
“ Peyton.
“’Rear Admiral Ralph E. Fielding (MC), USN (Ret.) to GCD, letter, 28 Mar. 1969.