Leutnant Gerstenberg was a hard-luck fighter pilot. He began his service on the Eastern Front as a Cavalry officer. It was there that he met Manfred von Richthofen. Both transferred to the German Air Service and served again on the Russian Front in observation aircraft. After a short period of time, Richthofen was sent to the Western Front.
Gerstenberg was appointed to the Richthofen Squadron on 31 August 1917. Two months later, on 20 October 1917, during a dogfight at noon near Vassenmolen, Belgium, he suffered a wound through the lung. He made a forced landing behind his own lines near Rolleghemkapelle where he was hospitalized. He returned to the squadron as a non-flying officer nearly a year later in November of 1918.
During World War II, Gerstenberg served as the Commandant of the Poelesti Oil Fields, which were destroyed by American bombers in 1944. Gerstenberg was captured by the Russians and remained in prison until 1965 when he was returned to Germany, dying of tuberculosis. He died in Bad Tolz, Germany, in 1968.
Dr. Parks saw Gerstenberg as a patient, while Parks was teaching medicine at the University of Munich in 1968.
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