Group of 14, Capt Lindsay Getzen, Hospital Executive Officer, USHS Repose

Group of 14 to Captain Lindsay C. Getzen, US Navy, Hospital Executive Officer, USHS Repose: Bronze Star, slot brooch, unnamed; Navy Good Conduct Medal, with slide-on “Second Award” bar, impressed “Lindsay/Clonts/Getzen/1944″; American Defense Service Medal, clasp “Base”; American Campaign Medal; Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal; World War II Victory Medal; Navy Occupation Medal, clasp “Asia”; National Defense Service Medal; Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal; Vietnam Service Medal; Philippine Liberation Medal (US-made); Vietnam Armed Forces Honor Medal, first class (Vietnamese-made); Vietnam Gallantry Cross, with silver star (Vietnamese-made); Vietnam Campaign Medal, with “1960 – “ device (US-made). With a matching ribbon bar set; a mounted unit citation ribbon bar set (Vietnam Presidential Unit Citation and Philippines Presidential Unit Citation; two sets of dog tags; a pair of captain’s eagles; a 1969-1970 cruise book for USS Repose (AH-16), showing Captain Getzen as the Executive Officer of the ship’s hospital; pair of Medical Corps captain’s shoulder boards.

Captain Getzen enlisted in the Navy in Tampa, Florida, in June 1941 (at the age of 17), rising to Chief Pharmacists’ Mate by 1946. Attending college and medical school on the GI Bill, Getzen received his medical degree in 1953. As a Navy surgeon, he served in Japan and various naval hospitals in the United States. In 1954, he was part of the evacuation of Vietnamese refugees from Haiphong to Saigon. Captain Getzen died in 1989 and rests in the columbarium at Arlington National Cemetery.