I'm Ken Harbaugh, host of Warriors in Their Own Words. In partnership with the

Honor Project, we've brought this podcast back at a time when our nation needs

these stories more than ever. Warriors, in their own words, is our attempt to present an

unvarnished, unsanitized truth of what we have asked of those who defend this nation.

Thank you for listening, and by doing so honoring those who have served.

Today, we hear from James E.T. Hopkins, a thoracic surgeon tasked with treating wounds on the battlefield.

Hopkins was a member of Merrill's Marauders, a famous deep penetration unit that served in Burma in World War II.

The 1962 film Merrill's Marauders is based on their experiences.

Well, actually, I was on New Georgia Island, having just been through a very severe infantry campaign, and I was sitting in a little lean-to, which was the aid station up in the jungle,

and we got a telephone message over the wire that President Roosevelt

warned volunteers for a dangerous and hazardous mission.

I was rather unhappy because I felt that we'd lost many more men than we should have

because of very poor judgments from superiors.

We had several aid men killed because they were sent out

to pick up a dead man in an area that wasn't safe. And I said, I think I'd like to go. They wanted

all categories for an infantry battalion, including a physician. And most of my aid men said, I'd like to go two.

Unfortunately, they only took one, and he had trouble getting away, but they were very happy to

get rid of me. It was not until after the campaign was over that I found out why President

Roosevelt wanted volunteers. In August of 1943, which of course was later, he met in

Quebec with Lord Mountbatten and Winston Churchill and a general named Wingate, who had been in

Burma the year before and had lost approximately half of his command, but the British realized that

they were actually doing something and could

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