MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE

2000 Regular Session

To: Rules

By: Senator(s) Michel

A RESOLUTION COMMENDING AND RECOGNIZING THE DISTINGUISHED MILITARY SERVICE OF DR. GEORGE REYNOLDS OF JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI.

WHEREAS, Dr. George Marshall Reynolds finished dental training at Loyola in New Orleans in May of 1941, and began a dental practice in Jackson that summer which lasted only a few months, because the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor intervened; and

WHEREAS, he volunteered for active duty, but was told there was no immediate need for his dental services, discovering that had he shown up a few days earlier, he would have been quickly signed up and on his way to participate in the United States landing in North Africa; and

WHEREAS, instead, he spent almost three years in the South Pacific and did not return home until January 1946: on August 25, 1942, be became a Captain, United States Army Medical Corps, Dentist, and was sent to Macon, Georgia, then Spokane, Washington, and Great Falls, Montana, to spend the winter he says was "the coldest weather in United States history"; he would remember that when he was sweating in the jungles of the South Pacific; his onward voyage into the combat zone was in early June 1943, aboard the luxury liner Lurline to Hawaii, then on to Orel Bay, New Guinea, in late August, to the "North Australian Defense Allied Base (NADZAB)" in an isolated and unoccupied area recently freed from Japanese control by the Australians; at NADZAB, Reynolds was assigned to the 63rd Air Service Group in the Markham Valley of New Guinea, serving with the United States Fifth Air Force Service command; this airfield became one of the biggest in the Western Pacific, including four huge runways to accommodate several bomber and fighter groups as well as numerous transient aircraft, with about 4,000 people in uniform and later 40,000 and he was the only dentist; and

WHEREAS, his sparse dental equipment was a metal chair with no arms, no footrest, and for many weeks, no electric power, no roof for the dentistry except a pole-supported canvas over the armless, lightweight dental chair; Reynolds wanted a proper professional dentistry, but did not have priority for materials; and

WHEREAS, he traded little gin bottles one-at-a-time for lumber wire, nails, even electrical wire for a drill, found an electric motor for his drill in a Swedish ship anchored at Lae, built a shack which was screened to control the multitudes of mosquitoes, added arms to the dental chair and soon had a very muggy but rainproof roof; and

WHEREAS, for his dental supplies, Reynolds had to sometimes drive across the steepest and highest mountains to Lae, New Guinea, the road distance from NADZAB to Lae was a full-day trip by jeep, sometimes impossible; trucks often could not make the trip in the almost constant rain and around the hairpin turns; and

WHEREAS, there were other significant events for Reynolds: he saw General Douglas McArthur in Brisbane as he walked through the lobby of a hotel to an elevator, and after the Japanese surrendered following President Truman's order to drop two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Reynolds witnessed an airplane carrying several Japanese ministers headed for Tokyo Bay to board USS Missouri for the surrender; and

WHEREAS, he felt strongly then, and even more strongly today, that had not Emperor Hirohito been retained, the loss of both Japanese and American lives to land on and capture Japan would have exceeded the losses caused by the two A-bombs; and

WHEREAS, Dr. Reynold's experiences during World War II reflect the true importance of the events surrounding the war, and characterize these veterans as the defenders of our nation, and it is with great pride that we recognize the service of this Mississippian who brought honor to his community, his state and to the United States of America:

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI, That we do hereby commend and recognize the distinguished military service of Dr. George Reynolds of Jackson, Mississippi, and wish him success in his future endeavors.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That copies of this resolution be presented to Dr. Reynolds and his family and be made available to the Capitol Press Corps.