Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1942-12-09
Flyers Aching Teeth
Provide Big Job for
Dentist in New Guinea
OkIuhomun Has Had
Fingers in Mouths Of Many
People Of Importance
BY GEORGE WELLER,

| Foreign Correspondent of The Star and
Chicago Daily News.
SOMEWHERE IN NEW GUINEA,
Dec. eff anybody ever writes
war book called Front Line Dentist"
and why shouldn't he?-you'n be
able to tell who it is about without
opening the cover. 1t will be about
Capt. Charles McCracken, middle
sized, plumpish tooth and gum man
from Tulsa, Okla, who has settled
down among the American fighter
pilots and has had his fingers in the
mouth of practically everybody of
Importance who is septic in Papua
And that is a lot of people.
Flyers. especially fighter pilots, are
at their prime in cloud warfare at
the age when their wisdom teeth
are just emerging. They get both
metophyorical and real wisdom
teeth at the same time. And teeth
are very susceptible to high alti-
tudeS where our Airacobras and
KittyhaWks lock with Jap Zeros.
Wisdom teeth, especially, begin to
give pain above 10000 feet. Conse-
quently, when a pilots need for
vigilance is greatest he may sud-
denly be stabbed with a toothache.
DR.. McCracken, who is 90 and a
graduate of Loyola University, New
Orleans, started his front-line life
when the Jap posts could practically
be seen from his revolving chair. He
was then quartered in a pyramidal
tent on ground sloping downhill.
Whenever he said open please" his
left foot was on ground several
inches lower than his right. From
the other side he looked downhill
into the patients widened mouth.
Screw Driver Became Chisel.
Lacking a bone chisel in those
days, DR.. McCracken made one from
screw driver His motor for his
drill was purloined from a refriger-
ator. He worked nine hours daily.
Now, with the Japs driven across
the Owen Stanley Range DR.. Nc
Cracker has two chairs instead of
one and he often works from 10 to
IL hours daily instead of nine. He
has two assistants, Wilbur Nichols
of Peoria, Ill, who once worked In
dental laboratory there, and Virgil
Dockery of Nashville, Tenn.
DR.. cC.racken now has
screened-in aboratory with a
matched roof and hip-high matched
walls built by bushy headed Papu-
anas without single nail, Every
thing is tied together with grass
and bamboo thongs. He has even
been able to get screening against
the ever-present flies and mosqui-
toes.
These quarters, DR.. McCracken
shares with Maj. Reynolds Smith of
Oakland, Calf, flight surgeon OF
the Airacobras under 1t. Col Rich
ard Legg, a West Pointer from
Ala, Nepr. Both doctors have bam-
boo tables with bamboo weights.
This American dispensary is the
only qualified Office in New Guinea
where six-four eyesight tests for
flyers can be given.
Works Without Shirt.
In humid New Guinea, DR.. Nc
Cracker works shirtless, with only
a white tunic over his torso. He
dusts with sulfanilamide powder in
all his treatments as an infection
preventive. Teeth are filled with
a concrete and metal alloy overlay,
because this seems to give better
results in the tropics. One ground
crew man, fresh from the United
States, needed 16 such filings.
Any Army dentist has only his
conscience as his guide and he can
be as energetic about his job as
his duty tells him. DR.. McCracken's
energy may be judged by the fact
that he is now reminding them Of
their appointments after New York.
(Copyrisht. 1912 Chicago Daily News. Inc)