Conversion To Epidemiological Disease Control Ship
When the Navy relinquished its administrative duties to the U.S. Department of the Interior, Whidbey's role changed; her operations took on a different complexion in light of the Korean War that had broken out in the summer of 1950.
Whidbey, the value of her past service as a mini-hospital ship proved by experience in the Trust Territories, was overhauled at Yokosuka and converted from a medical survey vessel to a Fleet epidemiological disease control ship, becoming, in effect, a modern floating laboratory, with equipment and trained technicians capable of analyzing the most minute organism.
Deployed to Yokosuka, Japan, a port through which United States Marines were being rotated back to the United States from the combat zones in Korea, Whidbey's embarked Fleet Epidemiological Disease Control Unit No. 2 processed the homeward-bound marines for dysentery, malaria, or any other parasites contracted at the front. After the ship's medical team had obtained the samples, the marines sailed for the United States.
Working almost 24-hour shifts to obtain the results in minimum time, Whidbey's technicians then dispatched a report of results to the port of embarkation for each individual processed. As each transport arrived at her destination, quarantine officials there would thus be ready to treat whatever parasitical disease any marine had brought back from Korea. That process enabled those who had contracted malaria or any dormant infections to be cured before they returned to stateside posts or civilian life.
Read more about this topic: USS Whidbey (AG-141)
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