ZENICK-MANUEL

Manuel C. Zenick

United States Navy

Pharmacist Mate 3rd Class

1944 to 1946

I was inducted into the US navy shortly after my 18th birthday. I had completed my freshman year at the College of the City of New York. Having studied Science that first year of college, I was assigned to the Navy Medical Corps after boot camp in upstate New York. After training in first aid and other medical care procedures, I was assigned to the US Navy Hospital at Charleston, SC. After several months of ward duty, I was assigned to a US Navy special hospital in Palm Beach, FL, where the assignment was to help convert the SPAR (Women's Coast Guard) Training Center to a special hospital. The war in the Pacific ended while I was stationed in Palm Beach.

Thereafter I was assigned to the US Naval Dispensary at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. There, I treated patients who came in at sick call for injuries and other ailments. After two months on duty there, I was assighed to the USS ATR-5 (t had no other name). The ship was a sea-going tugboat and minelayer. It had a crew of 20 some men. I was the Pharmacist Mate, meaning a medical corpsman, and the sole medical person on board ship. The responsibility for the health of the crew was entirely in my hands, a responsibility for which I felt quite unprepared. Luckily for me and even more fortunately for the crew, no one was seriously injured nor became seriously ill.

The ship towed targets on night runs for newly commissioned ships to fire at with their new guns. After several months, we towed some barges up to New York. The ship was decommissioned and I was discharged.

My Navy experience taught me that I had little interest in a science or medical carer. I subsequently pursued a career in international economic development.

As you can see, this was a rather uneventful naval career, but I guess I did my duty as I was assigned. I was eager to join up and happy to complete my service. It took me away from the confines of a parochial life in Brooklyn and contributed to my interest in the international career I later pursued in Latin America and Asia.