An important function of the Navy nurse is to instruct hospital corpsmen. Here one nurse supervises the administration of an anesthetic, Pentothal Sodium, which is being given intravenously preparatory to resetting a patient's leg. On the man's thigh is a Roger Anderson fracture device, having pins to hold the bone in place. This patient, a Marine raider under treatment in a Navy mobile hospital unit in New Caledonia, was hit by a Japanese bullet that pierced both legs, fracturing the left thigh, and severing a nerve in his right leg.