"My dad got the same thing, in the same area. He ended up losing most of his hair as a result (at least that's what the doctors told him)"
Will it turn your hair white? I knew a GI that was a Ranger in the Philippines who was with the group that went behind the Jap lines to liberate that POW camp. I can't remember the commanders name but it is featured on TV once in a while. "Bill" told me he got the white hair because of that raid.
Will it turn your hair white? Pyrimethamine, one of the anti-malarial drugs, has that side effect. If Bill was taking that drug, it is certainly possible. My father's hair (what little there was of it) was jet black until the day he died, so it didn't turn his hair white.