124. Photograph. Outside a Corpsman’s tent. “File No: MS-56-44144-MHC-64730. December 30, 1943. Never saw leg amputation—corpsman performs one under [illegible]. Demonstrating his courage and an innate surgical skill, Pharmacist’s Mate Second Class Rex H. Gregor, 21, of Rochester, Minnesota, climbed aboard a blazing landing barge on which ignited ammunition was exploding, helped remove wounded men, and then performed a leg amputation on one of the casualties. . . though Gregor had never ever seen such an operation. The action occurred during a Japanese air raid on Marine forces on Vella Lavella in the central Solomons. Also active in the moving of the wounded were Sergeant Harold G. Hanson, of Kenosha, Wisconsin, who led the caring group, and Corporal Kenneth A. McIntyre, USMC, of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Pharmacist’s Mate Second Class Rex H. Gregor bandages the wrist of Corporal Kenneth A. McIntyre, who assisted him in removing wounded men from a blazing ammunition filled ship at Lavella during a bomb raid.” 30 December 1943

Rex Gregor (1922)