The USS Solace arrvied in Pearl Harbor just three weeks prior to the Japanese attack.  He and my mother were living at Pearl Harbor while my Dad was on the USS Solace AH-5.  The USS Solace was anchored near the USS Arizona BB-39, but managed to get underway and escaped any hits during the Japanese attack on December 7, 1941.  For the next week Dad tended to wounded sailors on the hospital ship.  Most of the injuries were what they then called shell shock, and burns (for which there was no effective treatment - they used sulfa drugs).

He was on the Solace later when it was positioned in Tongatabu for the battle for the Coral Sea, before being assigned to the States for a variety of duty stations.  He returned to the Pacific late in the war, serving at the 103rd Fleet Hospital on Guam, where he was in charge of treating all the officers who had been prisoners of the Japanese before they were repatriated to the U.S.

He was discharged from the Navy late in 1945.  He served the community of Worcester, MA as a primary care physician in private practice for over 45 years.

Provided by Bill Carleton, Son