The Circle of Honor

You don't know the name of this street in Dublin.  You would not know its name because there is no street sign.  No one who goes to work on it or lives near it knows.  Some of us have traveled along it thousands of times.  The street got its name in World War II.  You will not find it on any GPS device or on Google Maps. Now, I will tell you its name, the man for whom it is named, and why the government named this light-bulb-shaped street in his memory.

Gendreau Circle is located at the entrance to the Carl Vinson V.A. Medical Center on Veteran's Boulevard in Dublin, Georgia.  The hospital, formerly a United States Naval Hospital, was laid out on the drawing board in 1944.  Through the aid of long-term and highly influential Congressman Carl Vinson, of Milledgeville, the Navy built a research hospital in Dublin, his sister's hometown.  

United States Navy Captain Elphege Alfred Mailliot Gendreau was born in eastern Canada on June 19, 1888.  In the summer of 1915, Gendreau was commissioned as an Assistant Surgeon, in the Medical Reserve Corps, with the rank of Lt. (j.g.). He served in Glacier in Mexican waters during political unrest in that neighboring country and in Charleston during World War I.

After a long and distinguished career in many assignments afloat and ashore, Gendreau was commissioned Captain on 20 September 1939. During the years 1940 and 1941, he served as Force Surgeon of Battle Force and subsequently on the staff of Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet.

After the devastating attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese on December 7, 1941, Dr. Gendreau was charged with the gruesome, gut-wrenching task of compiling a report on the number of casualties the Navy sustained during the attack. 

Gendreau once said, “The bodies of the dead men wrapped in canvas placed in wooden caskets, and were buried in two plots for this purpose and having a national cemetery at a later date.  A great number of the men are missing.  Captain Gendreau and  Rear Admiral Ross T. McIntire, Surgeon General of the U.S. Navy, published the chilling report back to the Navy, the President, and Congress.  It shall be remembered that Admiral McIntire was a driving force in the establishment of the U.S. Naval Hospital in Dublin in 1945.

As a result of the efforts of  Capt. Gendreau and others, the Navy established the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (also known as Punchbowl Cemetery located at Punchbowl Crater in Honolulu, Hawaii. It serves as a memorial to honor those men and women who served in the United States Armed Forces, and those who have been killed in doing so.

“During his early years of serving in the Pacific, Captain Gendreau became close friends with Many evenings Nimitz had guests in for dinner at his living quarters, which he shared with Spruance, once he had joined his staff, and the fleet medical officer, Captain Elphege Alfred M. Gendreau. Included frequently were officers newly arrived from the United States or from forward operations, or civilians at Pearl Harbor on official business.

At the table, serious talk, with Nimitz contributing and also listening carefully, was mingled with laughter. After dinner, Captain Gendreau usually suggested a walk. When the party returned to Nimitz’s quarters, there were handshakes and good nights at the door, and the visitors departed.” @ U.S. Naval Institute. 

    Admiral Nimitz (center) and Captain Gendreau (left) having fun on the beach during a break in the war. 

Chester William Nimitz was the   Commander in Chief of the US Pacific Fleet, and Commander in Chief, of the Pacific Ocean Area.

Nimitz was the leading US Navy authority on submarines. Qualified in submarines during his early years, he later oversaw the conversion of these vessels' propulsion from gasoline to diesel, and then later was key in acquiring approval to build the world's first nuclear-powered submarine,

Admiral Nimitz asked Gendreau to conduct a study into the consequences of submarine duty. was made of the effects of submarine duty on the sailors serving aboard submarines. personnel.  Detailed analysis dealing with the psychology of sailors was prepared under the direction of Captain Gendreau, the fleet medical officer.

Captain Gendreau was the most senior medical officer killed in World War II. From 1940 to 1941, he served as Fleet Surgeon of the Navy’s Battle Fleet and staff of Admiral Nimitz, Commander in Chief, of the Pacific Fleet. In the summer of 1943, while on temporary assignment to inspect medical facilities in the South Pacific, he volunteered for duty aboard LST-343 to assist in the evacuation of the sick and wounded on Rendova. On July 21, 1943, Gendreau was killed in a dive-bombing attack.

In the summer of 1943, Gendreau, a 55-year-old linguistic expert,  was temporarily assigned to duty in the South Pacific inspecting medical facilities to improve the treatment and care of battle casualties. He voluntarily embarked on LST-343 to assist in the evacuation of the sick and wounded in Rendova. He was killed while inspecting forward areas during a Japanese air raid near New Georgia Island, in the Solomons chain of island.

Admiral Nimitz lamented,  “His loss was keenly felt by myself and all members of the staff by whom he was held in the highest esteem.”   

His dedication to duty led Admiral Nimitz to recommend that a destroyer escort be named in his memory. USS Gendreau (DE-639) was commissioned on March 17, 1944. The U.S.S. Gendreau (Destroyer Escort DE-639) as launched just before Christmas 1943.  The new, destroyer escort, was sponsored by Mrs. Gendreau and Mrs. Chester Nimitz.  The ship’s crew served in the South Pacific until the ship was decommissioned on March 13, 1948.

Captain Gendreau’s body is buried in the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial

Manila, Philippines in Plot A Row 14 Grave 123.

The next time you circle the entranceway into the Carl Vinson VA Medical Center’s main entrance, remember the sacrifices of United States Navy Captain Elphege Alfred Mailliot Gendreau and hundreds of thousands of the men and women of the United States Armed Forces before, during, and after World War II.