George F Shiels
George was born on the 13th of April, 1863, in San Francisco, California, and he had not only graduated from the Military College in Ossing, New York, but also had a Bachelor of Medicine and a Master of Surgery from the University of Edinburg. George joined the US Army as a Surgeon on the 8th of July, 1898, and he deployed to the Philippines with the Volunteer Medical Corps. It was on the 25th of March, 1899, that George would display actions that would earn him the Medal of Honor. The citation reads:
Voluntarily exposed himself to the fire of the enemy and went with 4 men to the relief of 2 native Filipinos lying wounded about 150 yards in front of the lines and personally carried one of them to a place of safety.
George served in the Army for another fifteen months and he received his Medal from President Theodore Roosevelt on the 22nd of November, 1906. Now known as the Fighting Doctor, George had been discharged at the rank of Major and he reenlisted at the beginning of World War 1. He received a special order to serve in Major General Pershing’s forces in France, where he served with the 369th Infantry, known as the Harlem Hell Fighters. His actions on the 27th through the 30th of September, 1918, earned him the French Croix de Guerre and the Distinguished Service Cross.
George was discharged in October of 1919 and went on to become the professor of clinical surgery at the University of California San Francisco and at Fordham University of New York. He married twice, first to Emily, and last to Grace (whom had been married twice before with one child), and had no children with either wife. George Franklin Shiels died on the 26th of October, 1943, at the age of 80 and he is buried with Grace in the Cypress Lawn Memorial Park in Colma, California: Section C, Garden East Side, Lot 7, Division ½ South.
