A retired Navy captain, husband, father, musician, historian, author and golf enthusiast is embracing a new chapter in his life with the recent publication of “Leatherneck Physician: The Life and Legacy of Rear Admiral Eugene R. Hering Jr.”
Dr. Eugene “Gene” H. Ginchereau of O’Hara is an expert on the Korean War and the life of Hering, who was known as a “leatherneck physician” for his years of service as a combat surgeon with the Marine Corps.
To this day, the Marines don’t have their own medical doctors and rely on medical support from the Navy Medical Department, Ginchereau said.
Hering spent his entire career with the Marines as a Navy medical doctor. He served in two world wars and was instrumental in serving during the first six months of the Korean War.
Hering was the first naval medical officer to serve as the medical officer of the Marine Corps. Some of his career highlights include organizing and directing medical support for Marines at the Pusan Perimeter, Inchon and the Chosin Reservoir, exemplary leadership during the “Great Hagaru-ri Airlift” that saved thousands of lives and providing medical service at Saipan and other island battles during World War II.
Hering led the way for advancements in field medicine.
Examples of Hering’s pioneering strategic medical contributions was implementing the use of helicopters to rapidly evacuate critically injured Marines from battlefields to hospitals and advocating for mandatory training programs and modernizing equipment.
“I wanted to interview him (Hering), and I called and a Eugene Hering answered the telephone — but it was his son, Eugene R. “Kip” Hering III. Unfortunately, Hering had died in 1987 and had been dead for a few years,” Ginchereau said.
Ginchereau would later travel to meet Hering’s son and interview him and ultimately was gifted with Admiral Hering’s personal papers.
“All his professional papers were kept in two boxes, put in the attic, and no one looked at them. For a writer of history, that was priceless, and his son gave them to me. It was amazing,” Ginchereau said.
Armed with Hering’s treasure trove of medical/service papers — now officially housed in the Navy Medical Bureau of Medicine — Ginchereau decided to write the biography. He embarked on an almost 15-year writing journey honoring Admiral Hering, all the while working full time as an internist. He also is board certified in emergency and occupational medicine.
During the late 1990s, Ginchereau initially wrote a series of articles for Navy Medicine on the history of naval medicine and aspects of the Korean War to commemorate the war’s 50th anniversary in 2000 while on temporary duty in Washington, D.C.
“It was called the Forgotten War for a lot of reasons. It’s not discussed much, that’s why I did this. One of those chapters concerned Eugene Hering. The leatherneck physician term comes from the leather collars on Marine uniforms designed in the 1700s,” Ginchereau said.
“Some say it was protection because of sword fighting or so they could stand erect at attention — there’s some controversy but since that time Marines have been traditionally called leathernecks.”
The book, released in May, is co-authored by André B. Sobocinski of Virgina, a retired Navy physician and historian at the U.S. Bureau of Medicine and Surgery.
On the heels of the book’s publishing, Ginchereau, 83, will present highlights of Hering’s decades of military service with the Marines during a Fox Chapel Rotary Club luncheon at 11:30 a.m. June 17 at the Lauri Ann West Community Center in O’Hara.
The informal PowerPoint presentation will include a lot of photos and a question-and-answer session afterward.
Medical and historical callings
A serious ear infection when Ginchereau was a youngster left an impression and ultimately impacted his choice in careers.
Those were the days when doctors made house calls. Ginchereau recalled the doctor’s visit with awe.
“I was impressed by the fact that a doctor could take someone — and it was the advent of the use of antibiotics — and I was impressed by the miracle and my infection had spread. He gave me a shot and, within hours, I miraculously felt better,” Ginchereau said. “I was having terrible pain and swelling and within hours I felt better, that was profound.”
Ginchereau, who grew up in Massachusetts, graduated in 1964 with a biology degree from Villanova University, where he attended on a Naval ROTC scholarship and, later, took a leave from the Navy to earn a medical degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in 1972.
He married his wife, Carole, in 1965. His first military post was to Rota, Spain where Ginchereau served four years as a medical supply officer.
Other naval assignments included duty on a destroyer escort, carriers Essex and Nimitz, a Polaris submarine tender (USS Holland AS-32) and numerous naval hospitals on the West and East coasts, Charleston, S.C., and Naples, Italy.
He later earned master’s degrees in history from the University of Pittsburgh and Duquesne University.
Ginchereau has taught history at numerous colleges, including at the Penn State New Kensington branch and the University of Pittsburgh.
His published works include “Navy Medicine in the Forgotten War: Korea, 1950-1953,” “The Great Hagaru-ri Airlift: Six Momentous Days in the Korean War” and “The Korean War Doctor Draft: The Politics of Necessity,” which will be published soon in the War Studies Journal.
Ginchereau currently serves as a clinical associate professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and is a fellow of the American College of Physicians and the American Osler Society.
Additionally, he teaches clinical reasoning in the graduate nurse practitioner program at Pitt and still maintains his medical license.
A typical day for Ginchereau is waking up around 5 a.m. eager to write.
“My best time to write is roughly from 6 a.m. to 11 a.m. It seems that is a period of clarity for me. It just seems to flow,” Ginchereau said. “I love writing. I like the idea of crafting sentences and words and so forth. I like research, especially historical research.”
Twice-a-week golf excursions to various public courses, daily naps and workouts are a part of his weekly routine.
A Coke or iced coffee is his go-to drink. He and his wife enjoy dining out at Tepache and Jimmy Wan’s in O’Hara and Pub 333 in Oakmont.
“I don’t want her to have to cook,” he said.
His wife, who grew up in Fox Chapel, is making her way through the book.
“It’s like a story and there’s a lot of detail,” said Carole Ginchereau, noting her husband’s dedication. “He writes every day, and he just loves it so much.
Ginchereau remained in Pittsburgh after 12 years of active duty and then served five years in the U.S. Navy Reserve.
“I love medicine, and I did this all my life. Once a doctor, always a doctor,” Ginchereau said.
The couple raised three children and have six grandchildren.
Ginchereau stays busy with many hobbies, including stamp collecting, tennis, pickleball, playing guitar and piano and spending time at the Fox Chapel Racquet Club, where he is a member.
