Dr. Maynard Amelon
Age: 87
Born: Sept. 7, 1922
Hometown: Centralia, Mo.
Residence: Palm Desert
Military branch: U.S. Army — military police
Years served: 1942 - 1945
Rank: Sergeant
Family: Wife Jessie; five daughters, Dr. Cynthia Amelon of San Francisco, Debbie Amelon of Studio City, Peggy Sue Amelon of Whitefish, Mont., Dr. Mitzi Amelon, West Bloomfield, Mich., and Kandi Amelon of Los Angeles; and six grandchildren.
About this series
Staff writer Denise Goolsby will profile desert veterans from World War II through the end of 2010 — the 65th anniversary of the end of the war. Contact her at (760) 778-4587 or via e-mail at denise.goolsby@thedesertsun.com
Coming tomorrow
U.S. Navy veteran Angelo Borzachillo of La Quinta.
LEARN MORE: Read about other Coachella Valley residents who served in World War II at www.mydesert.com/WWII
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U.S. Army veteran Dr. Maynard Amelon — a practicing physician in Michigan for 56 years — endured a rough trip across the Pacific before being assigned to patrol brothels frequented by soldiers during World War II.
“We zigzagged across the Pacific to avoid the Japanese submarine torpedos,” he said. “We hit a storm that lasted three or four days. We had to stand up to eat. We had to chase the food all over the table.”
Stationed in Karachi in what was then British India — Karachi is now part of Pakistan — the young military policeman was assigned to patrol the nearby brothels.
His job was to arrest the servicemen who were seeking the services of prostitutes.
“Here I am, a country farmboy who hadn't seen very much of life,” he said with a laugh.
Amelon, who made nightly rounds pulling men out of the brothels, sometimes hauled as many as 20 guys around in a paddy wagon, a big truck with bars that Amelon described as a “cage.”
The men were arrested and taken to receive preventative treatment for venereal diseases, he said.
Gonorrhea and syphilis were the military medical establishment's biggest concerns during World War II, according to the WW2 US Medical Research Centre.
Amelon said the military police had a right to go into any brothel or any room in the brothel and arrest men — even if they were in the throes of passion.
“Sometimes we'd hit 100 rooms a night,” he said.
Amelon said his job was embarrassing at times, especially, he said, “since I'd never been in the saddle myself.”
After spending a couple of years on brothel patrol, an opportunity for a new assignment came his way.
“They were looking for somebody to ride motorcycle patrol,” Amelon said.
“I held my hand up real fast,” he said.
Amelon got the job.
“I could go any place I wanted to, any time I wanted to and I had a jeep and a motorcycle in my command,” he said. “I had a ball.”
Amelon said the assignment he was most proud of was leading a line of 100 trucks — “heavy-duty trucks with two wheels on the back,” he said — up to the beginning of Ledo Road, where supplies would be carried over the Himalayas in support of Chiang Kai-shek, the political and military leader of China, one of the Allied powers during World War II.
On motorcycle, Amelon led the caravan up the mountain roads, where the trucks, loaded with supplies, would begin their trek to deliver the goods.
One day, Amelon took a drive to Tibet — located about 40 miles from where he was camped.
“I heard you could buy a lot of rubies for just about nothing,” he said.
As soon as he got to the city, he was immediately surrounded with ruby peddlers.
“I bought as many as I could afford, and I took them back to camp,” Amelon said.
The guys took one look at Amelon's pretty, sparkling red bits and said, “You know what those are?” Amelon recalled.
“They're the broken tail lights of GI vehicles,” they told him, Amelon said, laughing at the memory.
