John Kerner was born in February 1919 in San Francisco, California. His family moved to Boston, Massachusetts for a short time but returned. He attended the University of California, Berkeley for three years of medical school preparatory classes. He transferred to, and graduated from, University of San Francisco. He was in a medical internship when he received orders to report for duty in the Army on Christmas Eve, 24 December 1943. Kerner went to Basic Training in Pennsylvania. On the trip he met a friend from the university, Orlando Lawrence [Annotator's Note: Ernest Orlando Lawrence, American nuclear scientist; Nobel Prize in Physics, 1939; worked on Manhattan Project], who had been an instructor of theirs in college. His friend was stopping in Chicago and Kerner jokingly asked if he was going to work on the atomic bomb. His friend did not respond, and later that evening an FBI [Annotator's Note: Federal Bureau of Investigation] agent came to interview him. Kerner learned after the war, that his friend was actually working on it. Basic training was tough at Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, near Harrisburg. Kerner had taken ROTC [Annotator's Note: Reserve Officers Training Corp] while at UC Berkeley and in high school. What helped Kerner in boot camp even more than ROTC was his experience in the Boy Scouts. He used his Scout training in Normandy to keep out of the rain in the foxholes. He also preferred to find an abandoned German foxhole to take over as they could really dig them well.

John Kerner heard of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor while he was walking down the street and overheard it. He and his family listened to the news over the radio. It was frightening because they did not know if Japan would invade the West Coast. The more they heard about it, the worse it became. On Christmas Eve, 1943, Kerner was scrubbing up for surgery with his medical school professor and someone came to tell him he had an important telegram. He had received orders to report for duty in the Army on 26 December. He had a friend who took him to get uniforms for his upcoming duty. His family could not believe it. He then boarded a train to Chicago and then on to Pennsylvania. They were not too worried about him though since he was going to be a doctor. They assumed he would be stationed in a hospital somewhere. He learned a lot about the structure of the Army and then went back to finish out his medical internship. He went to Fitzsimons General Hospital in Denver, Colorado, which was a center for military women and soldiers who had tuberculosis, or TB. One of his first patients was a pilot with TB. The pilot gave Kerner his car to use until he got well. He received a surgery schedule right away which had not really done before. He loved it all. He later regretted being there because he was then transferred to the 10th Mountain Division at Camp Hale. He was learning to be a battalion surgeon, doing maneuvers in below zero temperatures. Canadian doctors came in to teach them how to deal with frostbite. He was then transferred to the 35th Infantry Division in North Carolina where he was assigned to a medical collecting company. He still thought he was going to be stationed in the United States, but he was sent to England, where he was taught to use landing craft, rope ladders, and more.

John Kerner thought he would be taking part in the D-Day invasion [Annotator's Note: the invasion of Normandy on 6 June 1944] but a large storm on 5 June changed things and he did not go in. There were many different levels of military medical sections within each regiment and division. Kerner was assigned to a collecting company that took in people from aid stations which were the first level of assistance for wounded soldiers. These procedures were developed in World War 1. After landing in Normandy, Kerner's battalion [Annotator's Note: 110th Medical Battalion, 35th Infantry Division] had aid stations and his collecting company. The 320th Infantry Regiment had two doctors who had been classmates of his in medical school. One was severely wounded, and one became mentally disabled so Kerner was sent to relieve them from duty. They had been trained in World War 1-style procedures which were not working well, so they made changes in the field. They figured out how to put litters on a jeep to get the wounded out more quickly and safely than people carrying them on litters.

John Kerner took a German passenger ship overseas to Europe. He shared a stateroom with five other officers, and they stayed in the bunks in 12-hour shifts. Sleep was difficult. They played a lot of poker and would take turns as medical officer on the ship. The trip was long due to how the convoys zig-zagged [Annotator's Note: a naval anti-submarine maneuver] across the Atlantic. They were attacked more than once. The troop ships were in the middle surrounded by supply ships and then destroyers. He could see explosions in the distance, and they did lose some ships, so they were apprehensive but felt okay overall. He did not get seasick and he won a fair amount of money on cards. Kerner landed on the west coast of England in a port that had just been bombed. English girls had food for them even though it was at night and they were being bombed. He boarded trains and went through beautiful countryside to Bodmin, England. He was assigned to a schoolhouse outside of town. They only had English rations to eat. Eventually they moved into the town to a building where he shared a room. They got American rations there which were better. Kerner would volunteer to go into town to get supplies so he could be somewhat of a tourist. He would buy strawberries and cream. The soldiers could go into town and go to dances. This time was quite pleasant. Kerner thought he would be assigned to a hospital and did not think he was going to go in combat. He found out later that the last guys in get the worst jobs and that would be his experience from then on. Kerner met a woman at a dance in Bodmin. Her family owned a small hotel and her husband had been serving in India for years. They became great friends. Kerner enjoyed it because back when he was in medical school, his social contacts precluded many adult women. This woman in England was his first real adult experience. They did not have much contact after the war.

John Kerner was the head of a group of soldiers and were reviewed by Eisenhower [Annotator's Note: US Army General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe; 34th President of the United States], Churchill [Annotator's Note: British Prime Minister Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill], and Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] as part of the invasion force. The three of them walked down the line and they would stop and talk to some of the soldiers with the exception of Patton, likely due to the trouble Patton had in Sicily. [Annotator's Note: General Patton slapped two US Army soldiers under his command during the Sicily Campaign on 3 and 10 August 1943. He did not believe in shell shock and these men had been hospitalized for it. When word reached General Eisenhower, he ordered Patton to apologize.] Eisenhower stopped at Kerner and asked him where he was from, and they had a pleasant exchange. Kerner liked that a lot. This made Kerner realize they were getting set to go somewhere. He had been moved from Bodmin, England to a really confined area and they had been practicing on landing craft on a beach. Their vehicles had been prepared for landing in water. They were not told anything at all about what was going on. On the day of the invasion [Annotator's Note: the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944] they heard about it. They heard there was a lot of resistance. They were ready to go at any moment but still did not know when. When they did go in a day later, they landed on Omaha beach in an LCT [Annotator’s Note: Landing Craft, Tank]. There was some shelling still going on but there were no major attacks on them by this time. There were military police ordering them to get off the beach as quickly as they could. The engineers had made a roadway under fire which amazed the soldiers.

After landing in Normandy, John Kerner and his unit [Annotator's Note: 110th Medical Battalion, 35th Infantry Division] moved from Omaha Beach to a stone quarry to set up a medical collecting unit. The idea was that the aid stations would send their wounded into this unit. After a very short time, the division was told to attack and go to Saint-Lô. They "took one hell of a beating" as they did not train for fighting the Germans in the hedgerows. The wounded coming in were really in bad shape. Kerner had gotten supplies that he felt would be needed so they were able to do a lot of good work. The aid station doctors became casualties themselves and Kerner was sent up to take their place. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer describes a scene from Kerner's book and asks about it.] Kerner had not been taught about morphine syrettes [Annotator's Note: device for injecting liquid through a needle; similar to a syringe]. He did not know there was a plunger to use with it. From then on, he kept a packet of syrettes in one pocket and a pack of cigarettes in the other for the wounded. Many years after the war, he had a chance to follow up with some of the men he treated and was pleased to know they had done well. In World War 1, they used tourniquets which resulted in a lot of amputations. The men they treated in World War 2 did much better. They learned an awful lot on the job.

Besides morphine and cigarettes, John Kerner also carried along scotch. Back in England, they were worried the Germans would use gas as a weapon at the beach where they [Annotator's Note: the Alied landing force] would be concentrated. Kerner's unit [Annotator's Note: 110th Medical Battalion, 35th Infantry Division] had a big trunk of supplies to counter any gas attack. Once they realized the Germans would not likely use gas, Kerner dumped all but the gas masks. He then went and bought all of the liquor he could pack into the trunk in place of this equipment. The soldiers taking care of the wounded were so shaken by the degree of injuries that Kerner felt they need something to help them with it. The Army had put a chemical in the medical ethyl alcohol to make soldiers sick if they drank it. A soldier in Kerner's unit figured out that if it was filtered through the gas masks, it would purify the ethyl alcohol. They also learned that the Germans had a supply of confiscated alcohol and if they could attack fast, they could get the Germans to leave it behind. Calvados [Annotator's Note: apple or pear brandy from Normandy, France] became very popular and having that instead of water in their canteens was pretty universal. Kerner still drinks it nostalgically. Alcohol was very important to all of the armies.

John Kerner was assigned close to the front in a battalion aid station [Annotator's Note: 110th Medical Battalion, 35th Infantry Division]. He had been there only a number of hours when mortar shells began landing on them. He dove for cover and he had never been that close to an explosion before. He will never forget one of the aid men was standing with a bottle of plasma that he was administering to a wounded soldier. This man had not taken cover during the mortar attack. This made Kerner realize he would not take cover over the life of a wounded soldier ever again. There was a group of Allied soldiers nearby and one of them was severely wounded. This was the first time Kerner had seen someone in that condition. When they had landed on Omaha beach after D-Day [Annotator's Note: the Normandy landings 6 June 1944], they noticed that people were looking for the wounded. They had painted red crosses on their uniforms because they had noticed that the wounded who had been marked with red crosses had not drawn direct fire. Kerner believes it was Göring's [Annotator's Note: German Reichsmarschall Hermann Wilhelm Göring] division of Germans that respected the red cross. This is what prompted the red cross armbands on medics. In Mortain [Annotator's Note: Operation Lüttich, German counter-attack during Battle of Normandy, Mortain, France, 7 to 13 August 1944], the SS [Annotator's Note: Schutzstaffel, the German paramilitary organization] put an end to that and seemed to be using the red crosses for targets at this stage.

As the Germans retreated, they laid mines along the roads. John Kerner put sandbags on the floors of the jeeps. They would watch for suspicious areas and Kerner would put gauze around any place that might have a mine. It was frightening as mines cause a major percentage of injuries in war. Kerner made it to a spot where there was a man who had hit a mine lying in a field wounded. Kerner could see that he was alive. He decided to go alone and crawled out to him. The soldier had lost part of his leg. Kerner got him out with the help of some of his men. Many years after the war, Kerner received a call from the man. He had been looking for him for years to thank him for saving his life. Kerner says that his decision in this situation was when he learned that you cannot ask anyone to do something you would not do yourself.

John Kerner was still in Normandy, when he was told of injured civilians nearby. He took a jeep and some men and went to a building where they were. It was a horrible sight. There were severely injured people in the courtyard with blood everywhere. The Germans dropped mortars into the courtyard as they retreated. He told his men to look for anyone alive. Kerner picked out a young girl who likely had collapsed lungs. It was very difficult to start the IV and the girl died. He had three nieces her age and the absurdity of it all really shook him. He still can picture a man sitting in a chair who was dead and missing a leg. They managed to do what they could, but it was very shocking and gave them one more reason to hate the Germans. His aid men were furious that they would have to take care of wounded German soldiers. Kerner thought they should though. The SS [Annotator's Note: Schutzstaffel, the German paramilitary organization] had started targeting the medic's red crosses at Mortain [Annotator's Note: Operation Lüttich, German counterattack during Battle of Normandy, Mortain, France, 7 to 13 August 1944]. Kerner's commanding officer said that since the Germans were not following the rules of the Geneva Conventions [Annotator's Note: standards for humanitarian treatment in war] now, it would be okay for Kerner to carry a weapon. Kerner was an expert marksman but he did not want to kill anyone, and he did not carry a weapon.

Receiving mail was very important to John Kerner. He came under attack while in Normandy and a guy crawled up to him and gave him some mail. He got more mail than almost anybody. They would often be short of ammunition, yet they would still get mail. Once, when Kerner had taken over an aid station, there was a Catholic priest assigned to it. This chaplain left his typewriter behind so Kerner used it. His letters became background for a book he would write later. "Gangster" was his driver's nickname and he kept their jeep in great shape. Gangster had a been a rum runner during Prohibition and knew how to drive. Gangster never wanted to be promoted over anyone else.

John Kerner was around the city of Mortain, France in heavy battle [Annotator's Note: Operation Lüttich, German counterattack during Battle of Normandy, Mortain, France, 7 to 13 August 1944] trying to get out of Normandy, France. In the midst of the battle, a couple of men brought in a pregnant woman in great distress. She was in labor so Kerner put her into a pup tent he used to block out light at night. She had a complicated breech so Kerner got a French speaker and another aid to help him. Breech deliveries are complicated, and babies often die in the process, but his delivery was successful. They put the mother and her baby in an ambulance and got them out of the battle zone. They did make it to an evacuation hospital but that is all he heard of them. He did try very hard to locate them later on in life with no success. His men were super impressed by what they had done.

John Kerner was in the Battle of Mortain [Annotator's Note: Operation Lüttich, German counterattack during Battle of Normandy, Mortain, France, 7 to 13 August 1944] when one division was accidentally hit by Allied bombs. Part of the division got separated from the rest and was surrounded by Germans. Kerner knew they needed supplies and were under fire by an SS Division [Annotator's Note: Schutzstaffel, the German paramilitary organization], so it was hard getting to them. The command tried air drops but most of that ended up in German hands. The surrounded division radioed out that they had no medical supplies or doctor. Kerner's driver, nicknamed Gangster, thought he could make it through with his jeep and get supplies to them. Kerner thought he should go along since they did not have a doctor. He and Gangster collected all of the supplies they could gather without telling anyone what they were planning. They took off at full speed early on a beautiful sunny morning. Kerner will never forget that he saw a dead American soldier in a foxhole who had flaming red hair. The Germans were surprised by Kerner and Gangster, so they got through without getting shot. They made it into a stone quarry where Kerner saw a field of wounded that reminded him of scenes from the American Civil War. He and Gangster worked all day and into the night. Kerner fell and passed out sometime in the night but Gangster kept working. The following day the Division broke through and relieved them. After that they just flew across France with Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.].

John Kerner was with Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] as he crossed France. They went as far north as Nancy, France. They encountered some fighting. In Châteaudun, France, the Germans were firing down the road with antiaircraft guns. Some soldiers fell near Kerner's jeep. One soldier had the worst chest wound he had seen, but he was able to save him. It was frightening as the guns were firing straight down the road. Kerner set up an aid station in the middle of the town. The French were celebrating them being there and were giving them wine and food. He set up his men in a hotel but then an officer made them leave the town. They moved through France very quickly and did not encounter much opposition. They took a lot of prisoners. They were held up in Nancy, France in order to send supplies to Montgomery [Annotator's Note: British Field Marshall Sir Bernard Law Montgomery]. There, Kerner thought he had hepatitis and was running an awful fever. He was hospitalized but left as soon as he felt somewhat okay because he wanted to stay with his unit [Annotator's Note: 110th Medical Battalion, 35th Infantry Division] who he had grown attached to. They traveled from there to Metz, France, where they planned on spending Christmas, but were sent to Bastogne, Belgium to take part in the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or Ardennes Counteroffensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945, Ardennes Forest, Belgium]. The Army reorganized how they set up aid stations while there. Kerner stayed near the front but the larger aid units were moved farther away from the lines. In Bastogne, Kerner had the only aid station and he had volunteered to go in.

John Kerner was in Nancy, France and there was a lot of fighting going on. Not far from the front line, there was a USO [Annotator's Note: United Service Organizations] show that Marlene Dietrich [Annotator's Note: Marie Magdalene Marlene Dietrich] was part of. They could not believe she was that close to the front. She was singing in a German accent which was something to Kerner. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks him about a story from his book titled "Combat Medic: World War II"]. Kerner went from Nancy to Metz, France. They did not know the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or Ardennes Counteroffensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945, Ardennes Forest, Belgium] was starting. He had a top-secret letter that said the 3rd Army was going in. They moved very quickly in horrible weather to make it in. Kerner had to treat several people for frostbite because they had no winter gear. Going into Bastogne, Belgium, the enlisted men had only regular clothing and very few had dry socks. Kerner acquired a fur-lined cap and wore two pairs of the rest of his clothing. He taught the troops to make sleds for transporting the wounded. He had a small coal stove on the fender of the jeep and had a pipe to warm up the frostbite victims. Sometimes they would move into the cellars of abandoned homes.

John Kerner was having Christmas Eve dinner in Metz, France. He thought they would get to take a day off to reorganize and get supplies. They had started unloading gear when they were told to load back up. They went through heavy snow and cold to get to Bastogne, Belgium. Their vehicles did not have doors so some of the soldiers would improvise doors to help them stay warm. Kerner traded in his jeep for a three-quarter-ton truck. The Army was not prepared for cold weather. The 101st Airborne Division had their medical support cut off when they went into Bastogne [Annotator's Note: during the Battle of the Bulge or Ardennes Counteroffensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945, Ardennes Forest, Belgium]. Kerner was asked if he could provide supplies and a doctor to them. He put on as much clothing as possible and went and set up an aid station in an old railroad station. One of his most horrible experiences of the war was when another doctor who had been stationed in the rear, came up to help out. Within 24 hours this doctor was carried in with the top of his head blown off, exposing his brains. It made Kerner very sad. New recruits had a life expectancy of about 24 hours. The older GIs had learned to look after themselves and many survived. He feels he did a lot of good work in Bastogne, treating the wounded. Once his unit [Annotator's Note: 110th Medical Battalion, 35th Infantry Division] broke through to join them, they were better equipped to help the soldiers.

After the Bulge [Annotator’s Note: Battle of the Bulge or Ardennes Counteroffensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945, Ardennes Forest, Belgium], John Kerner and his unit [Annotator's Note: 110th Medical Battalion, 35th Infantry Division] went into the Ruhr, which was very bad in both weather and number of wounded. He got to go to Paris, France on leave. He really enjoyed Paris, but it was hard to get used to not being at war. He was invited to a party by a curator from the Louvre Museum with the upper class. They were telling him that life in Paris was better under the Germans because they catered to the upper classes. Kerner was happy to leave there. Back in the Ruhr, they were to cross the Rhine River over a pontoon bridge. There was some fighting on the far side of the Rhine. He received an order to get on the road and not stop until they met the Russians. He went with about 5,000 men and some tanks, not a big unit. They came across Gardelegen [Annotator's Note: Gardelegen, Germany; not an actual concentration camp site, 1,016 prisoners gathered there from other camps; massacred by locals and SS 13 April 1945]. There had been a fire and their commander sent scouts to find out what it was. The scene was terrible as the Germans had put concentration camp prisoners in a building and set it on fire. Some inside had tried to escape by tunneling under the walls and were shot by the Germans outside. Despite being ordered not to stop for anything, the commander sent troops into the town to get the locals to wrap the dead and bury them. The townspeople denied knowing what had happened.

John Kerner crossed the Elbe River where his unit [Annotator's Note: 110th Medical Battalion, 35th Infantry Division] came in contact with Russians. They had a big celebration. A delegation of German officers wanted to surrender to the Americans. The American commander radioed for instructions and was instructed to cross back over the Elbe to let the Russians take Berlin, Germany. As they were crossing back, his men saw a fire and went to check it out. They discovered it was a storehouse of stolen French alcohol. They found a shot-up German truck, painted "GI" on it, and loaded it up with the alcohol. They took it with them into the occupation and rationed out the booze to the enlisted men while keeping it all pretty secret. On VE-Day [Annotator's Note: Victory in Europe Day, 8 May 1945], they gave one bottle to each enlisted men who made a huge racket until a general came to tell them to not do it. They gave him some alcohol and he left them alone. Kerner never drank bourbon again due to how sick he became from it. After they became occupiers, Kerner had an aid station where he deloused freed prisoners and returning soldiers. Kerner became friends with a German nurse who worked for him and who had been jailed for feeding French prisoners. This was in the Moselle Valley area of France and Germany, which was very lovely. He then went to Rheims, France to prepare for the invasion of Japan. There was not much to do and Kerner was only working for a half a day a week. He heard the atomic bomb had been dropped on Hiroshima, Japan and he was afraid of how the radiation had moved from the area. He was on a date in Paris at an officer's club and they announced that the Japanese had surrendered.

John Kerner was in London, England for about ten days. He was on leave and only had to report back when the ship was to leave port. He had a great time and then boarded the RMS Queen Mary to the United States. He was sent home to San Francisco, California by airplane on his first flight ever. He was depressed after the war. He did some duty as a plastic surgeon. On his last leave in San Francisco, he met his wife who helped with his depression. While still on leave he was given an appointment to the University of California. He continued his life in San Francisco, had three children, and became Chief of Obstetrics and Gynecology as well as Chief of Staff at one of his hospitals. After he retired, he received the Legion of Honour from the President of France, honored in the 35th Infantry Division Hall of Fame, and has written books. He changed his name to Kerner from Kapstein due to the anti-Semitism he experienced in the Army. He wanted his children to be appraised by who they were and not by what their names are.