PACIFIC ISLAND 43 shows the construction of U.S. Naval Base Hospital No. 3, at Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides, and the activities of the men who work there. Some of the work in this island paradise includes clearing coconuts, dealing with local pigs, and fighting the island’s numerous flies. At 5:12, the U.S. Naval Hospital at Bethesda, Maryland is shown — headquarters for all Navy hospitals around the world. Here laboratory and care techniques and theory are taught to doctors and technicians and corpsmen in training. Corpsman are seen dealing with mosquitoes which carry malaria at 6:30, including the application of diesel oil and creosote on exposed water. Patient recuperation is shown and surgery as well at the 7:00 mark. At 8:28, the steady rain and crippling mud of the Pacific is seen, with insecticide being spread to combat malaria.
At 9:00, an aerial ambulance is seen arriving at the base, with the patient taken care of in the air and given a blood transfusion on the way in. At 10:24, sulfa drugs are seen being applied. At 10:45, surgeons scrub up prior to surgery. At 11:35, brain surgery is seen at the island outpost. Dentists are also seen at work, as well as physical therapists. At 13:44, recuperating men are shown swimming in the ocean and playing baseball as part of their convalescence. Beer is served at 15:00. At 15:30, men begin the voyage back to home or to their posts.
At 15:45, Japanese prisoners are seen in a detention camp being administered medical care. LCI’s are seen being loaded as an ambulance at 16;15.
Espiritu Santo is the largest island in the nation of Vanuatu, with an area of 3,955.5 km2 (1,527.2 sq mi) and a population of around 40,000 according to the 2009 census.
During World War II, particularly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the island was used by Allied forces as a military supply and support base, naval harbor, and airfield. In highly fictionalized form, it is the locale of James Michener’s Tales of the South Pacific and the subsequent Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, South Pacific. The presence of the Allies later contributed to the island’s diving tourism, as the United States dumped most of their equipment and refuse at what is now known as ‘Million Dollar Point’. Another wreck off Espiritu Santo, the SS President Coolidge, is also a popular diving spot. The SS President Coolidge was a converted luxury liner that hit a mine during the war.
It belongs to the archipelago of the New Hebrides in the Pacific region of Melanesia. It is in the Sanma Province of Vanuatu. The town of Luganville, on Espiritu Santo’s southeast coast, is Vanuatu’s second-largest settlement and the provincial capital. Roads run north and west from Luganville but most of the island is far from the limited road network.
Vanuatu’s highest peak is the 1879 metre (6165 foot) Mount Tabwemasana in west-central Espiritu Santo.
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