MONROE - Military duty in the 1960s was not as dangerous for Army Capt. David Henning as it was for the soldiers whose boots hit the ground in Vietnam, but he worked to help them battle against a second enemy they fought daily in that country - the environment.
The effects of "heat, humidity, and friction" were the first enemy that soldiers encountered in the tropical county, according to Dr. Henning, now living in New Glarus after 30 years of active and reserve duty.
"Climatization was never enough," Henning said. "And then they got infections from the water."
"With no access to sanitation, soldiers were at constant risk for things," he added.
Malaria, ringworm and foot diseases were a few of the aliments soldiers faced in Vietnam, while Henning, with a Ph.D. in microbiology, was stationed at Letterman Army Institute of Research (LAIR) in San Francisco between 1966 and 1968.
Dermatology was not the exciting military career Henning was looking forward to when he was in ROTC at the University of Illinois, or as a grad student at Oregon State. He was hoping to be assigned to United States Army Soldier Systems Center (SSC) in Natick, Mass., where he could put his degrees in dairy science and microbiology to work in research providing healthy battlefield-food for the troops.
"I know people who made a lot more sacrifices than I had to make. But I had my training and skill set. I would have probably gone (to Vietnam), if I were asked or had to, but I was doing what the Army asked me to do, too," Henning said.
Eileen, his wife, does not allow Henning to talk about his "war stories" of diseases and treatments at the dinner table.
But while his stories may ruin an appetite, Henning said, skin conditions accounted for about 23 percent of injuries to troops in 1963 and 1964.
"When I got in, the heavy fighting started and there were more battle injuries," he said.
In addition to Vietnam's 40 to 100 inches of rainfall annually, battles only added to the medical afflictions troops fought daily. Tropical skin diseases were the most common cause of non-effectiveness within the 9th Infantry Division, whose area of operations from 1967 to 1972 was in the rivers and canals of the Mekong Delta, a low-lying coastal region in southwestern Vietnam, according to a memorandum from the division's headquarters dated Oct. 28, 1968.
"Diseases of the foot and boot area developed rapidly after 48 hours of continuous exposure to the rice paddies and swamps, and may affect 35 percent to 50 percent of the combat strength of an infantry unit after 72 hours. With each succeeding exposure, skin infections are more severe and require over three weeks of intensive treatments," the memo stated.
With too much water on their feet, but not enough clean water to sufficiently bathe daily, soldiers got ringworm infections, as often as four or five times a year, Henning said, and skin microflora, the microscopic plants that normally live on the human body, "blossomed" in the hot, humid conditions, creating skin conditions similar to teenage acne, even in 30-year-olds.
"We just called it tropical acne," Henning said.
If the acne became too serious, especially on the back, and so painful that a soldier couldn't carry a web belt and or radio operator couldn't transport his equipment, the unit's effectiveness and safety were jeopardized.
When the condition became so serious that a soldier had to be evacuated, some were sent to LAIR for more study.
Studies showed the soldiers had no atypical microflora on their bodies, nor more than the normal varieties, "same as kids in the U. S.," Henning said. In fact, just leaving Vietnam helped clear the condition.
"Most got cleared up by the time they hit Japan," a first stop on the way to the U.S., he said.
LAIR was just one of the military research centers of the era on the cutting edge of medical knowledge.
With a team of researchers at LAIR and the University of California Medical School, Henning tried to create a "rapid test" for malaria, to be used before the soldiers left Vietnam.
Soldiers hated the taste of their malaria preventative medicine "because it was so bitter," said Henning. "They'd get on the plane coming back and say 'I'm outta here,' and throw those pills out the window."
Unfortunately, some soldier "took up to a month to break down with symptoms" of malaria, but had already been released into the civilian population two weeks earlier, he said.
"Some doctor in North Dakota doesn't know about malaria, or wouldn't know the soldier just got back," so they didn't know how to treat the waxing and waning symptoms malaria produces, he added.
Unfortunately the quick test never panned out.
"We learned the soldier had to have at least one bout of symptoms - chills and fever - to produce enough antibodies for the test," Henning said.
After being discharged from the Army, Henning joined the Reserves, serving at the 801st Combat Support Hospital Army in Chicago before becoming Chief of Staff for the hospital at Fort Sheridan, Ill. In the private sector, he worked for a major cheese company before becoming a professor at South Dakota State University in Brookings, teaching dairy science and microbiology for 16 years.
Henning retired in 2006 to New Glarus, where his wife could have "four seasons, hills and trees," he said.
He serves as County Commander of the Green County Council of the American Legion, and is a member of Stuessy-Kuenzi American Legion Post 141. Henning also chairs the American Legion's Constitutional Oratorical contest, a scholarship program for high school students.
The effects of "heat, humidity, and friction" were the first enemy that soldiers encountered in the tropical county, according to Dr. Henning, now living in New Glarus after 30 years of active and reserve duty.
"Climatization was never enough," Henning said. "And then they got infections from the water."
"With no access to sanitation, soldiers were at constant risk for things," he added.
Malaria, ringworm and foot diseases were a few of the aliments soldiers faced in Vietnam, while Henning, with a Ph.D. in microbiology, was stationed at Letterman Army Institute of Research (LAIR) in San Francisco between 1966 and 1968.
Dermatology was not the exciting military career Henning was looking forward to when he was in ROTC at the University of Illinois, or as a grad student at Oregon State. He was hoping to be assigned to United States Army Soldier Systems Center (SSC) in Natick, Mass., where he could put his degrees in dairy science and microbiology to work in research providing healthy battlefield-food for the troops.
"I know people who made a lot more sacrifices than I had to make. But I had my training and skill set. I would have probably gone (to Vietnam), if I were asked or had to, but I was doing what the Army asked me to do, too," Henning said.
Eileen, his wife, does not allow Henning to talk about his "war stories" of diseases and treatments at the dinner table.
But while his stories may ruin an appetite, Henning said, skin conditions accounted for about 23 percent of injuries to troops in 1963 and 1964.
"When I got in, the heavy fighting started and there were more battle injuries," he said.
In addition to Vietnam's 40 to 100 inches of rainfall annually, battles only added to the medical afflictions troops fought daily. Tropical skin diseases were the most common cause of non-effectiveness within the 9th Infantry Division, whose area of operations from 1967 to 1972 was in the rivers and canals of the Mekong Delta, a low-lying coastal region in southwestern Vietnam, according to a memorandum from the division's headquarters dated Oct. 28, 1968.
"Diseases of the foot and boot area developed rapidly after 48 hours of continuous exposure to the rice paddies and swamps, and may affect 35 percent to 50 percent of the combat strength of an infantry unit after 72 hours. With each succeeding exposure, skin infections are more severe and require over three weeks of intensive treatments," the memo stated.
With too much water on their feet, but not enough clean water to sufficiently bathe daily, soldiers got ringworm infections, as often as four or five times a year, Henning said, and skin microflora, the microscopic plants that normally live on the human body, "blossomed" in the hot, humid conditions, creating skin conditions similar to teenage acne, even in 30-year-olds.
"We just called it tropical acne," Henning said.
If the acne became too serious, especially on the back, and so painful that a soldier couldn't carry a web belt and or radio operator couldn't transport his equipment, the unit's effectiveness and safety were jeopardized.
When the condition became so serious that a soldier had to be evacuated, some were sent to LAIR for more study.
Studies showed the soldiers had no atypical microflora on their bodies, nor more than the normal varieties, "same as kids in the U. S.," Henning said. In fact, just leaving Vietnam helped clear the condition.
"Most got cleared up by the time they hit Japan," a first stop on the way to the U.S., he said.
LAIR was just one of the military research centers of the era on the cutting edge of medical knowledge.
With a team of researchers at LAIR and the University of California Medical School, Henning tried to create a "rapid test" for malaria, to be used before the soldiers left Vietnam.
Soldiers hated the taste of their malaria preventative medicine "because it was so bitter," said Henning. "They'd get on the plane coming back and say 'I'm outta here,' and throw those pills out the window."
Unfortunately, some soldier "took up to a month to break down with symptoms" of malaria, but had already been released into the civilian population two weeks earlier, he said.
"Some doctor in North Dakota doesn't know about malaria, or wouldn't know the soldier just got back," so they didn't know how to treat the waxing and waning symptoms malaria produces, he added.
Unfortunately the quick test never panned out.
"We learned the soldier had to have at least one bout of symptoms - chills and fever - to produce enough antibodies for the test," Henning said.
After being discharged from the Army, Henning joined the Reserves, serving at the 801st Combat Support Hospital Army in Chicago before becoming Chief of Staff for the hospital at Fort Sheridan, Ill. In the private sector, he worked for a major cheese company before becoming a professor at South Dakota State University in Brookings, teaching dairy science and microbiology for 16 years.
Henning retired in 2006 to New Glarus, where his wife could have "four seasons, hills and trees," he said.
He serves as County Commander of the Green County Council of the American Legion, and is a member of Stuessy-Kuenzi American Legion Post 141. Henning also chairs the American Legion's Constitutional Oratorical contest, a scholarship program for high school students.