Winston C. Blevins

Winston Blevins was born to Denzill and Mabel Blevins of Queen Anne, Maryland, in 1917. He attended Washington College in Chestertown, where he played the saxophone and sang First Tenor in the men’s Glee Club. His father, a dentist, may have influenced Winston’s decision to study medicine after joining the Navy; he rose quickly through the ranks to Pharmacist’s Mate, First Class, and joined First Battalion, 24th Marines in the spring of 1943.

As the senior enlisted man of the medical detachment, Blevins was promoted to Chief Pharmacist’s Mate on January 1, 1944. He saw his first combat on the island of Namur, and made the landing on Saipan, where he was injured shortly after the landing on June 15, 1944. His evacuation the following morning was a serious blow to the battalion’s medical staff.

The doctors aboard the USS Sumter  noticed something more serious when they examined Chief Blevins.

“Combat fatigue” was a sterile way of noting that a man’s nerves were shot from the extreme stress of battle, and to those who suffered from it, it was every bit as bad as a physical wound. Blevins had the responsibility of running the battalion’s medical staff, plus the responsibility of treating scores of casualties within hours of landing, and could not handle the strain. He was brought to Naval Hospital #10 on Oahu, and then to Shoemaker, California, where he received further treatment.

After his discharge, Winston and Suzanne Blevins settled in California, where he practiced medicine for many years until his death in 1997.

These pictures were found at the Tumblr “Those Blevins” at 31641 Mar Vista. Please visit for more great photos of Winston Blevins and family after the war.