Battalion Surgeon

William M. McConahey, Jr., was born on May 7, 1916, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He received the B.A. degree in 1938 from Washington and Jefferson College and the M.D. degree in 1942 from Harvard University. He was an intern at Philadelphia General Hospital from 1942 to 1943. During World War II, Dr. McConahey entered active duty on July 17, 1943, and served as a battalion surgeon in the Medical Corps of the U.S. Army, which is the subject of this book. Assigned to the 90thInfantry Division, he landed in the Allied assault against Nazi-held Fortress Europe on D-Day Plus 2: Thursday, June 8, 1944. Dr. McConahey served in France, Germany and Czechoslovakia and attained the rank of captain.Battalion Surgeonconcludes with his honorable discharge on September 28,1945. Dr. McConahey entered Mayo School of Graduate Medical Education in 1946 and received the M.S. degree in medicine from the University of Minnesota in 1948. He was appointed a Mayo Clinic consultant in medicine in 1949 and served as chair of the Division of Endocrinology from 1968 to1974. Dr. McConahey advanced through the academic ranks to become professor of medicine at Mayo School of Graduate Medical Education, University of Minnesota,in 1966 and Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in 1973. He had a special interest in diseases of metabolism and the endocrine system and published extensively in medical journals and textbooks. He received the Distinguished Service Award from the American Thyroid Association in 1973 and the Alumni Association of Washington and Jefferson College in 1978. Dr. McConahey retired from Mayo Clinic in December 1985 and died on April 22, 2004.