Devotedly Gwin Letters and Drawings from a World War II Surgeon in the Pacific

Dr. Gwin Mounger, the author of the letters included in this collection, grew up in Mississippi and received his Doctor of Medicine degree from Tulane University in New Orleans. He married Katharine Davis, had two children, and was practicing medicine as a physician and surgeon in Yazoo City, Mississippi, when he joined thousands of other Americans in volunteering for service in World War II. He was sent first to New Guinea and then to the Philippines, where he was part of a team of surgeons who operated a Portable Surgical Hospital. He was awarded a Bronze Star for his service under fire. After the Japanese surrender, he and his unit went to Japan and were eventually evacuated back to the United States at the end of 1945. The letters he wrote home and the drawings and photographs that accompanied the letters were saved by his family and are what constitute "Devotedly, Gwin." The editor of this volume, Katharine Mounger Jones, is his daughter; her previous work as editor, "The Diary of a Southern Lady," was published in 2011. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English in 1961 and currently lives in Winchester, Virginia, with her husband Bill, who also contributed to this book.