John H. Ebersole

Captain John H. Ebersole M.D., MC USN
Nickname(s)	“Jack”
Born	January 26, 1925 Sterling, Illinois
Died	September 23, 1993 (aged 68) Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Buried at	Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia (Section: 8, Row: Site: 9473)
Allegiance	United States of America
Service/branch	United States Navy
Years of service	1948-1970
Rank	Captain
Unit	United States Navy Deep-Sea Diving School Officer's Submarine School U.S. Navy Medical Corps USS Nautilus (SSN-571) USS Seawolf (SSN-575) Bethesda Naval Medical Center NASA, Project Mercury Army Air Force
Awards	U.S. Navy Presidential Unit Citation - Nautilus U.S. Navy Unit Commendation – Seawolf Gorgas Medal
Spouse(s)	Marion E. Sherwood (1927 - 2004)
Relations	Catherine E. Walker, (daughter) Richard J. Ebersole (son) Michael J. Ebersole (son) William P. Ebersole (son) John H. Ebersole (son) Joseph E. Ebersole (son)

Captain John H. Ebersole, M.D., MC USN (26 January 1925 – 23 September 1993) a pioneer in submarine medicine and radiation oncology. Ebersole was the radiologist responsible for the x-rays taken during the autopsy of John F. Kennedy on 22 November 1963 at Bethesda Naval Medical Center. He was a radiologist for NASA that screened the Mercury Seven astronauts for Project Mercury.

Biography

Ebersole was born in 1925 at Sterling, Illinois. He grew up in northwestern Illinois. On 21 October 1948, John H. Ebersole, physician applied for a marriage license to wed Marion E. Sherwood, nurse. The couple were married on 30 October 1948 at St. Vincent de Paul church by Reverend M.J. Rouck in Bedford, Indiana. Ebersole was the son of Noah Ebersole, auto mechanic and Geraldine Kathryn McCormick, housewife. Marion was the daughter of Samuel J. Sherwood, estimator and Maybelle Elizabeth Lehay.^[1]

In 1993, Ebersole died at home after a brief illness at Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, in plot: Sec: 8, Site: 9473.^[2]

Education

Ebersole completed his undergraduate studies at Saint Ambrose College in Davenport, Iowa. In 2013, he was posthumously inducted into the Newman Central Catholic High School Hall of Fame at Sterling, Illinois.^[3] He attended the Indiana University and graduated in 1948. He received the M.D. from Indiana University at the age 23.^[4][5]

U.S. Navy Career

Ebersole entered the U.S. Navy in July 1948 and trained in undersea medicine.

From 1949 to 1959, Ebersole was associated with nuclear submarines and had special training in nuclear physics at Duke University and at Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Ebersole was commissioned in the U.S. Navy and served on the USS Nautilus (SSN-571) and the USS Seawolf (SSN-575), the first two nuclear submarines. Ebersole was selected by Admiral Rickover as the medical officer for the USS Nautilus, the first nuclear-powered submarine. Ebersole was a member of the launching crew for the USS Nautilus.^[6][7] He went on to serve as medical officer aboard the USS Seawolf (SSN-575), the second nuclear submarine for the U.S. Navy.

When the USS Seawolf was decommissioned, he started a residency in radiology at Bethesda Naval Hospital. In July 1963, he completed residency. He then became Chief of Radiation Therapy in the Medicine Section at Bethesda Naval Hospital.

NASA

From 1958 to 1961, Ebersole worked with NASA during the training phase of the Project Mercury.^[8] Ebersole was part of the committee that evaluated the candidates selected for Project Mercury, the NASA Special Committee on Life Sciences. The committee included: Dr. William Randolph Lovelace II Captain Norman L. Barr, LtCdr John H. Ebersole, Brigadier General Donald D. Flickinger, LtCol Robert H. Holmes, Dr. Wright Haskell Langham, Dr. Robert Burr Livingston, Dr. Orr Reynolds, and Boyd C. Myers II, committee secretary.^[9]

John F. Kennedy autopsy

At the time of the JFK autopsy, Ebersole was Commander, United States Navy, Assistant Chief of Radiology and head of the Radiology Division at Bethesda Naval Medical Center.^[10][11][12] After the JFK assassination, Ebersole remained at Bethesda Naval Medical Center. In 1968, he was promoted to chairman of the radiology department and retired in 1970.

Professional Service

• American Medical Association, member
• Society of Nuclear Medicine, member
• Health Physics Society, member
• Association of Military Surgeons of the United States, member
• American College of Radiology, diplomat and fellow
• American Board of Radiology, guest examiner, 1967, 1970- 1971.
• Illinois State Medical Society, Award of Merit, 1959

Awards and Honors

• U.S. Navy Presidential Unit Citation - USS Nautilus SSN-571
• U.S. Navy Unit Commendation - Seawolf SSN-575
• Royal Naval Society of Sweden, Merit Citation
• Gorgas Medal, 1958

Publications

• Ebersole, John H. (1957). Radiation Hygiene: Aboard Nuclear Submarines. American Industrial Hygiene Association Quarterly. 18(4): 305-311.
• Ebersole, J. H. (1957). Radiation exposure patterns aboard the USS Nautilus. New England Journal of Medicine. 256(2): 67-74.
• Ebersole, J. H. (1958). Submarine medicine on USS Nautilus and USS Seawolf. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine. 51(2): 63.
• Ebersole, J. H. (1959). Occupational health problems in space flight as experienced with nuclear power plants. Military medicine. 124: 711-716.
• Ebersole, J. H. (1960). The new dimensions of submarine medicine. The New England journal of medicine. 262: 599-610.
• Bottomley, William K., & Ebersole, J. H. (1966). Guidelines for dental care when patients receive radiation therapy to the head and neck. Oral Surgery, Oral Medicine, Oral Pathology. 22(2): 252-256.
• Royster, R. L., King, E. R., Ebersole, J., DeGiorgi, L. S., & Levitt, S. H. (1972). High dose, preoperative supervoltage irradiation for osteogenic sarcoma. American Journal of Roentgenology. 114(3): 536-543.

References

1. Indiana Marriages, 1811-2007. Database with images. FamilySearch. John H Ebersole and Marian E Sherwood. 30 Oct 1948. Citing Bedford, Lawrence, Indiana, County Clerk offices, Indiana.
2. United States Social Security Death Index. Database. FamilySearch. John H Ebersole. 25 Sep 1993. Citing U.S. Social Security Administration. Death Master File. Database. Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service.
3. Editor. (March 2013). John Ebersole '44, MD. 40, The Forties. Class Notes. News & Events. St. Ambrose University. Davenport, IA.
4. Anderson, Amy. (1993). John H. Ebersole, 68. “E”. Obituaries For Whiteside County Illinois.
5. Herman, Jan Kenneth. Editor. (January–February 1994). Capt. J.H. Ebersole, MC, USN (Ret.). In Memoriam. Navy Medicine: A Look Back. U.S. Government Printing Office. Philadelphia, PA. Navy Medicine. 85(1): 34-35.
6. Charette, Al (NAAI Historian). (21 January 1954). Members of the Launching Crew. The Day. New London, CT.
7. http://www.ussnautilus.us/files/launching_crew.pdf
8. Link, Mae Mills. NASA. (15 May 2015). Space Medicine in Project Mercury. Biological Requirements. NASA Special Committee on Life Sciences. NASA. NASA SP-4003. Washington, D.C.
9. NASA. (9 April 1959). Mercury Astronaut Selection Fact Sheet. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Washington, D.C. NASA Release No. 59-113.
10. Report of the President’s Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy [Warren Report]. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. 1964.
11. Breo D. (27 May 1992). JFK’s death: The plain truth from the MDs who did the autopsy. JAMA. 267(20): 2794–2803.
12. Aguilar, Gary L.; Wecht, Cyril H.; Bradford, Rex. (September 2005). A Neuroforensic Analysis of the Wounds of President John F. Kennedy: Part 2—A Study of the Available Evidence, Eyewitness Correlations, Analysis, and Conclusions. Neurosurgery. 57(3): E601.