Memorandum from Kenneth Hechler to David Lloyd with Attachment

THE WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON May 27, 1952 MEMORANDUM FOR MR. LLOYD Subject: Medical Record of Senator McCarthy Robert Fleming of the Milwaukee Journal talked with me this morning, at the suggestion of Ken Birkhead, regarding a series of articles on Senator McCarthy which the Milwaukee Journal is preparing. One of the points which Fleming is trying to track down is the story which McCarthy has circulated that he was wounded during the war while on a strafing mission as a tail- gunner in the Marines. Fleming has the testimony of a buddy of Captain McCarthy's to the effect that McCarthy's injury (three fractures of the metatarsal bone in one foot) was sustained while McCarthy was being initiated as a "shellback". According to Fleming's informant, this injury was treated, and McCarthy's foot was put in a cast by the physician aboard the seaplane tender U. S. S. Chandeleur on June 22, 1943. Fleming asked whether it would be possible to have someone check the wording of the ship's log, the medical log of the ship's physician, or Captain McCarthy's own medical record to determine whether the phraseology of any of these records indi- cates that McCarthy's injury was indeed sustained in this fashion. I am attaching a possible memorandum for Admiral Dennison on this subject. K.W.T. KENNETH W. HECHLER Attachment