Last June I was in an army camp, up near Corvallis, Oregon. I listened to a young Latter-day Saint army doctor tell of an experience he had down in one of the islands just off the raging battle of Guadalcanal. He said they had established a hospital base back away from the front line where they were receiving the wounded that were now coming from that area. Because of their limited facilities and the great need of medical attention by so many wounded, it was necessary that someone look carefully over the men who were brought in, that those who were most seriously wounded might be attended to first, and his was the task of making the initial examination as the boys came ashore. As he leaned over to these boys who were conscious, he would whisper to them, ask them how they were feeling, and would ask each one, “What church do you belong to?”

On one occasion as he leaned close to the ear of one boy, pretty badly wounded, and asked him what church he belonged to, the boy whispered back, “I am a Mormon.” The doctor said, “Well, I’m a Mormon, too. I’m an elder in the Church. Is there anything you would like me to do for you?” The boy, as he clenched his teeth, with resolute white face, replied, “I’d like you to administer to me.” The doctor said, “I took out my little bottle of consecrated oil, and there before the gaze of all, because there was no chance for privacy, I anointed his head with oil, by the authority of the holy Priesthood. I blessed him that he might be made well. I took him into the hospital tent for the care that he so much needed, and returned back to the other wounded men. By a strange coincidence I found the next boy that I approached was likewise one of our own Latter-day Saint boys, and I asked him the same question, “What would you like me to do?” and he replied, “I’d like a cigaret.” I said, “I think I could get you a cigaret,” and as the boy started to smoke the cigaret I said to him, “Son, are you sure there is nothing else you would like me to do for you now?” Tears filled the boy’s eyes. He said, “Yes, there is, doctor, but I’m afraid I am not entitled to ask for what’s in my heart. I wonder if the Lord would have a blessing for me. Would you administer to me?” I said, “We’ll leave that for our Heavenly Father to judge. If you want a blessing, I shall be his servant in asking the Lord to give you that blessing.”

– Harold B. Lee, October Conference 1943