LCDR Wheeler B. Lipes Burial on 28 June 2005 at Arlington

Since 06-20-05

Sailor Rest Your Oar
 

From: Bill Decker [mailto:bdecker@shentel.net]
Sent: Monday, June 20, 2005 2:10 PM
To: Undisclosed-Recipient:;
Subject: Fw: LCDR Lipes Burial on 28 June at Arlington

FOR YOUR INFOMRATION

From: "Riethmeier Mark J NSSC" <RiethmeierMJ@NAVSEA.NAVY.MIL>
Sent: Monday, June 20, 2005 9:04 AM
Subject: LCDR Lipes Burial on 28 June at Arlington

To NOVA Base Membership, this information is being passed on regarding LCDR Wheeler B. Lipes burial with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery on 28 June, 2005 at 1300.

Regards, Mark Riethmeier USSVI NOVA Base Secretary

From: Jeanine & Lorie Allen [mailto:tritnmia@erols.com]
Sent: Wednesday, June 15, 2005 2:46 PM
To: Peggy Williams Cc: SUBLEAGUE Subject: Information for USSVI Northern Virginia Base

Dear Peggy,

Here is the information that I promised you for USSVI Northern Virginia Base:

"LCDR Wheeler B. Lipes, USN (Ret.) Dies: Did Emergency Surgery While on Submarine War Patrol" Wheeler "Johnny" Lipes, 84, the Navy Pharmacist's Mate (PH1), who performed a remarkable improvised appendectomy during a World War II submarine war patrol aboard USS SEADRAGON, SS-194, passed away on 17 April 2005 in New Bern, NC.

Lipes, who later retired from the U.S. Navy as a Lieutenant Commander, at the time of his surgical feat in 1942, was a 22-year-old Depression era high school dropout and a veteran of the "Asiatic Fleet" in the Philippines.

 The legend of Wheeler Lipes was chronicled in a Pulitzer Prize-winning news account, provided a surge of badly needed morale during a period of desperately bad news from the Pacific, in 1942, and helped inspire a wartime action film starring Cary Grant. (Some excerpts taken from Adam Bernstein's column in the "Washington Post" of Tuesday, April 19, 2005, Page B06).

PH1 Lipes was the only medical professional aboard the SEADRAGON, on September 11, 1942, when Seaman Darrell Rector, 19, began complaining about a pain in his stomach and asked for laxatives. Lipes determined that Rector's appendix was about to burst, but he was reluctant to work on him.

SEADRAGON's Commanding Officer, knowing they were in the hostile South China Sea and days from port in Fremantle, Australia, ordered Lipes to operate. Lipes collected a team of helpers and used whatever supplies he could find. He converted a dining table in the Ward Room into an operating table. Bent tablespoon handles became retractors to hold open the incision and abdominal muscles. Aides poured ether on gauze and placed the gauze over a tea strainer to act as an anesthesia mask over Rector's face.

Sterilized instruments were boiled in "torpedo juice", alcohol usually reserved for fueling the SEADRAGON's torpedoes. After the successful appendectomy, Lipes was ostracized by Navy Medical Corps physicians for performing the operation under battle conditions; there was even talk at the time of a court-martial by an outraged U.S. Surgeon General who was forced to set protocols for appendectomies on Navy submarines.

On February 20, 2005, after sixty-three years, Vice Admiral Michael Cowan, Medical Corps, U.S. Navy (Ret.), awarded LCDR Wheeler B. Lipes, USN (Ret.) the U.S. Navy COMMENDATION MEDAL, for his 1942 actions, during a ceremony at the U.S. Naval Hospital, Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base.

Seaman 1/c Rector recovered from the emergency appendectomy which saved his life. GM3 Darrell Rector, would later be lost while serving aboard USS TANG, SS-306, on October 24, 1944.

LCDR Lipes will be buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery on 28 June, 2005. The ceremony is scheduled to commence at 1300 hours. The Northern Virginia Base and submarine community of World War II Submarine Veterans is welcome to attend the ceremony.

Perhaps Mickey might pass this on to N-77 should they like to know about it.


Thanks,

Lorie