The Story Of Doctor Wassell

[Sandi Loisel]

RearAdmiral Corydon McAlmont Wassell was one of the first national heroes of World War II. His service for the United States in early 1942 earned him the Navy Cross and praise from President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and his story inspired a movie starring Gary Cooper.

Cory Wassell was born on July 4, 1884, in Little Rock (Pulaski County), the son of Albert and Leona Wassell of Little Rock. He studied medicine at the University of Arkansas Medical School (now the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences), where he obtained a medical degree in 1909. He did postgraduate work at Johns Hopkins University. After graduation, he practiced in Tillar (Desha and Drew counties) for a short time. Wassell married a local woman, Mary Irene Yarnell, on December 27, 1911. They had four children.

Wassell applied for a commission in the U.S. Navy and was made provisional lieutenant in the reserves in 1926 but did not immediately see active duty. In 1927, he and his second wife returned to Arkansas, where Wassell worked in public health at various locations, primarily as a doctor for the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), treating malaria and other diseases among the workers. Then, in 1936, he was called to active duty in the navy and stationed in Key West, Florida.

In October 1941, Wassell received new orders to report to the Philippines. He was to leave San Francisco for this new post on December 7, 1941, but in light of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, his ship was rerouted to Java in the Netherlands East Indies (now Indonesia).

Wassell returned with the men to a hospital near Yogyakarta in East Java, Indonesia, prepared to endure the worst. However, as the Japanese army was closing in, Wassell persuaded a British army convoy to give them transportation to the coast, where he hoped to find a ship that might be willing to take them. Wassell took a vote among the men, and all agreed that they should make the grueling effort. Under extremely hazardous and trying conditions, Wassell transported about a dozen severely injured men approximately 150 miles (200 km) over rough jungle roads to the southern port of Tjilatjap. With only medical skill and limited resources at his command, Wassell undertook to ease the suffering of these men while in the transport and was able to get all but one of the men to the coast for evacuation.

After retiring from the navy with the rank of rear admiral, Wassell worked for a time without pay at a charity hospital in Hawaii. He eventually returned to Key West, Florida. Later, he returned to Arkansas to be near family. He died on May 12, 1958, in Little Rock at the age of seventy-four. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

I saw the movie The Story of Dr. Wassell about the time it was released in 1944. I was greatly impressed with Dr. Wassells service in the U.S. Navy in World War II. Then in the spring of 1949, I had the honor of meeting Dr. and Mrs. Wassell in person. They came through my checkout stand at the Kroger store in DeWitt, Arkansas, after shopping for groceries. Mrs. Wassell wrote a check for their purchase, and I noted the name on the check. I happened to mention that I knew about a naval hero of World War II, and I asked if they were related to that Dr. Wassell. Dr. Wassell replied, I am that Dr. Wassell. That just happened to be the one and only time I had ever met a real American hero and was very excited to say the least. My wife and I were visiting St. Charles, Arkansas, many years later and we located the house where the Wassells had lived in the late 1940s. I now have a copy of the movie The Story of Dr. Wassell and have reviewed it several times. I still am fascinated about that story and remember shaking hands with my hero Dr. Wassell.

His 7 December departure for Manila, however, was canceled after news of Japanese attacks in the Philippines and Hawaii. With his orders changed to duty in the Dutch East Indies, Wassell shipped out in early January 1942, arriving in Java around the first of February.

There, at the Petrinella Hospital, a missionary facility before the Dutch military assumed its administration, the medical staff evaluated the wounded. Many suffered terribly with burn-blackened skin; the heavy, nauseating odor of charred flesh soon permeated the building where they received first-class treatment.

Back in Tjilatjap, there remained a few wounded, including the executive officer of the Marblehead, Commander William Bernard Goggins. Badly burned and in appalling shape, he should have been on the hospital train to Petrinella, but he stubbornly had insisted on remaining with the Marblehead for her voyage back to the States. He was placed in a dispensary until the ship was ready to sail.

The pain-wracked Goggins was medicated immediately and fell into a deep slumber. The next day he was visited by the upbeat Wassell, who made twice-daily rounds to visit each man. After leaving Goggins, he conferred with Dutch doctors. The prognosis was grim: The grievously burned officer could not long survive.

The ambulatory rode in a coach, the bedridden in a hospital car. Always concerned for their morale, Wassell kept secret that the non-ambulatory might be refused shipboard passage. That afternoon, the train arrived in Tjilatjap and the resourceful doctor found lodging for his men in a house already quartering some U.S. Navy servicemen. Room was made for the ambulatory inside, while the stretcher-bound slept on cots out on the cooler porch. With his patients secured, the doctor headed for the port.

The next morning, 26 February, ordered to return his stretcher patients to the Jogjakarta hospital, Wassell broke the news. They were loaded aboard a freight car, a hospital car being unavailable, and their wounds prohibitive of a coach seat. The train arrived in the mountain town in mid-afternoon, and the exhausted men were returned to their hospital ward, trusting that the doctor would do all he could to evacuate them.

Their vulnerability was exposed during the course of the next morning. With each of the multiple air-raid alerts the men could only be moved under their beds by the hospital staff, because the shelter was too far away. Those episodes made Commander Goggins realize he would never escape Java unless he could walk. Determined to survive, he forced himself to his feet and made it for a few very painful steps, then collapsed. He kept at it, trying again and again over the next few days. His amazing determination allowed the brief, excruciating walks to stretch the seared and shriveled skin of his legs. As his endurance and distances slightly improved, his gritty courage and resolve encouraged others to also try. No doubt also inspired by Goggins, the untiring Wassell remained relentless in his pursuit of any and all means of evacuation.

Dawn of 2 March was heralded with the terrifying wail of air-raid sirens. Within a short time, Japanese aircraft flew over Tjilatjap but dropped no bombs. Meanwhile, Wassell spent a futile morning at the docks searching for an evacuation ship. He learned that two evacuee-packed vessels had been torpedoed overnight with heavy loss of life. Lurking enemy submarines presented unpleasant possibilities even if a ship were found for his patients.

But no enemy spotted the Janssens. By the third day at sea, 5 March, she was nearly 500 miles south of Java. With no sign as yet of the Japanese, a general buoyant feeling rose among refugees and crew. Then the steering gear broke and the ship, with no rudder control, began circling. Repairs were attempted over an agonizing two-hour period, while the ship continued her aimless steaming. Ultimately, repairs proved futile, and the captain ordered hand steering below.

Mr. Stankovich, a lifelong naval and military history enthusiast, is a U.S. Marine veteran of the early 1970s. Having made a career in procurement in the metals recycling industry, he now lives in Georgetown, Texas, and devotes his time to the pursuit of his historical interests.

Based on the true story of Dr. Corydon M. Wassell: This film presents a dramatization of the wartime heroics of naval doctor Corydon M. Wassell (Gary Cooper), who is stationed in the East Indies during a Japanese attack on the USS Marblehead. After the less seriously wounded soldiers are evacuated to Australia, Wassell stays in Java to save those left behind. As the Japanese advance, he risks his life and defies orders in an attempt to rescue as many as possible. His actions are later recognized in a radio address given by President Roosevelt. Delivered sealed in case with artwork as shown on our page.

As the Japanese sweep through the East Indies during World War II, Dr. Wassell is determined to escape from Java with some crewmen of the cruiser Marblehead. Based on a true story of how Dr. Wassell saved a dozen or so wounded sailors who were left behind when able bodied men were evacuated to Australia.

Gary Cooper Laraine Day Signe Hasso Dennis O'Keefe Carol Thurston Carl Esmond Paul Kelly Elliott Reid Laurette Luez Stanley Ridges Renny McEvoy Oliver Thorndike Philip Ahn Barbara Britton William Severn Richard Loo Douglas Fowley Ann Doran Yvonne De Carlo Cecil B. DeMille Irving Bacon Milton Kibbee Gavin Muir Jack Norton Philip Van Zandt Amzie Strickland George Macready

War epic where "Doctor" Gary Cooper (yes, because a intelligent Doctor is the first thing that comes to mind when you see Gary Cooper) saves a bunch of wounded soldiers as Japan go on their bombing spree around Asia. The film is positive enough as a moral booster, but they really made this too long. There is not enough variety or special moments to warrant 2+ hour color movie, regardless of how much Gary Cooper was Gary Cooper.

This was one of my favorite discoveries of 2019 and I still love it.

I'm a Cecil B. DeMille fan, and outside of directing this, he was instrumental to getting this story to screen after hearing about Dr. Wassell.

The Technicolor is gorgeous. There are so many lovely/heartbreaking touches. The long kiss between Signe Hasso and Carl Esmond when she knows he's going to his death.

The blind patient always asking questions about what's going on.

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