"When I wrote you about getting married five days after I come home, I was more stating what I would like if there were no other considerations. I realize there are certain plans & arrangements to be made ... How about one month at the most?" Letter to Jean-Marie, September 9, 1945

Denton W. Crocker

Denton Crocker within a group photo of Bug-chasers in training in New Orleans [detail] War: World War II, 1939-1946 Branch: Army Unit: 31st Malaria Survey Unit, Medical Department Service Location: New Guinea; Morotai Island (Moluccas); Philippines; Okinawa Island (Ryukyu Islands); Japan Highest Rank: Technician Four Place of Birth: Salem, MA

When malaria severely disabled troops in the South Pacific, the Army formed several units headed by scientists and science students to identify disease-carrying mosquitoes and to educate servicemen on preventive measures. Biologist Denton Crocker's memoir, My War on Mosquitos, contains letters he wrote to his parents and his fiancee Jean Marie, evocative photos, and a journal kept by comrade Robert Roecker. Crocker and Roecker spent the war exploring the jungles of New Guinea, the Dutch East Indies, and the Philippines in search of an enemy as deadly as the Japanese.