|
Skeeter Beaters is the little-known story of a small group of soldiers fighting the most dangerous enemy in the South Pacific during WWII—the mosquito. One hundred times as many U.S. servicemen were disabled by disease rather than by guns or bullets from the Japanese. The mosquito was the carrier for one of the deadliest of these diseases, malaria. It is the war against malaria, along with the impact it had on military operations and personnel, that provides the backdrop for the story of Bob Michel and his time with the "Skeeter Beaters"—a small unit of U.S. Navy entomologists, doctors, and Pharmacist Mates whose efforts directly impacted the outcome of the war in the Pacific. Find out how you can help fight today's war against malaria
What The Critics Are Saying:
"The story of how much the Skeeter Beaters did to win the battle—as important to the success as the use of military hardware—should be told."
Dr. Brian Taylor, former entomologist, British Solomon Islands
"Today people get nervous about vector borne diseases like West Nile when it kills one or two horses. On Guadalcanal, 4 out of 10 men were infected—it was a daily occurrence we had to live with and fight against."
"When people ask me about my time in the Navy I tell them about Guadalcanal. They want to know why I don't ever tell them about Iwo Jima and I always have to tell people there were dozens of Iwo Jimas but only one Guadalcanal."
Bm3/c Robert Otto, USS Grayson DD435
About The Author
 |
Dennis Cline, as a child, was held spellbound by his father’s stories of WWII experiences in the Philippines and Japan at the close of the war in the Pacific, and early on developed a passion for stories told by those who “were there.” He spent two years researching and writing Skeeter Beaters and has read over 100 books on the Guadalcanal campaign alone. |
|
