the army medical department the army medical department

667 Pages·2010·14.19 MB·English

T
he
A
rmy
m
edicAl
d
epArTmenT
1917–1941
Mary C. Gillett
The
Army medicAl depArTmenT
1917–1941

ARMY HISTORICAL SERIES
The
Army medicAl depArTmenT
1917–1941
by
Mary C. Gillett
CENTER OF MILITARY HISTORY
UNITED STATES ARMY
WASHINGTON, D.C., 2009
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gillett, Mary C.
The Army Medical Department, 1917–1941 / by Mary C. Gillett
p. cm. — (Army historical series)
Includes bibliographical references and index
1. United States. Army Medical Dept.—History—20th century. 2. Medicine,
Military—United States—History—20th century. 3. World War, 1914–1918—
Medical care—United States. I. Title.
UH223.G545 2009
355.3'45097309041—dc22
2008053316
First Printing––CMH Pub 30–10–1
ARMY HISTORICAL SERIES
Richard W. Stewart, General Editor
Advisory Committee
(As of August 2009)
Reina J. Pennington (Chair) Michael S. Neiberg
Norwich University University of Southern Mississippi
William T. Allison Mark P. Parillo
Georgia Southern University Kansas State University
Lt. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV Larry Stubblefield
U.S. Army Combined Arms Center Deputy Administrative Assistant
to the
James J. Carafano Secretary of the Army
The Heritage Foundation
Col. Thomas G. Torrance
Brig. Gen. Edward C. Cardon U.S. Army War College
U.S. Army Command and
General Staff College Lt. Gen. David P. Valcourt
U.S. Army Training
Brig. Gen. Patrick Finnegan and
U.S. Military Academy Doctrine Command
John F. Guilmartin Jr. Stephen F. Vogel
Ohio State University The Washington Post
Paul Wester Jr.
National Archives and Records Administration
U.S. Army Center of Military History
Jeffrey J. Clarke, Chief of Military History
Chief Historian Richard W. Stewart
Chief, Histories Division Joel D. Meyerson
Chief, Publishing Division Keith R. Tidman

contents
Page
FOREWORD. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii
THE AUTHOR. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xviii
PREFACE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix
PROLOGUE: THE POSSIBILITY OF WAR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Chapter
1. THE DAY HAS COME . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
The First Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
The Surgeon General. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Organizing the Surgeon General’s Office . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Base Hospitals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Medical Supply. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Preparing To Prevent Disease . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Preparing for Gas Warfare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
The Yanks Are Coming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
2. ORGANIZATIONAL TURMOIL. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Surgeon General’s Role . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Personnel Division . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Division of Sanitation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Finance and Supply and Administrative Divisions . . . . . . . . . . 55
Museum and Library Division . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Hospital Division. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Division of Special Hospitals and Physical Reconstruction . . . . . . 64
Professional Services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Division of Roentgenology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Division of Gas Defense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Division of Food and Nutrition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Air Service Medical . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
3. TRAINING FOR WAR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Medical Officers Training Camps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Training Camp Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Specialty Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Army Medical School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Other Special Schools and Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Focus on Flight Surgeons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
vii
Chapter Page
4. MOBILIZATION CAMPS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Preparatory Stage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Camp Medical Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Medical Supply. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Medical Screening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Medical Personnel Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
5. COMMUNICABLE DISEASES ON THE RISE . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Preventive Medicine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Hospitalization and Treatment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
The Influenza Epidemic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
6. EMBARKATION CHALLENGES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Organizing the System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
New York City Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Newport News Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
On the Transports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
7. THEATER CHIEF SURGEON’S OFFICE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Command and Control. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
The Promotion Dilemma. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
Gas Warfare Division . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Hospitalization Division . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Personnel Division . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
Sanitation Division. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
Division of Laboratories and Infectious Diseases . . . . . . . . . . . 237
Supply Division . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
Records and Correspondence Division . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
Veterinary Division. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
8. SERVICES OF SUPPLY MEDICAL ACTIVITIES . . . . . . . . . . 251
Managing Port Congestion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
Establishing Hospitals and Laboratories. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260
Organizing Medical Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
Educating Medical Personnel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
9. ZONE OF THE ARMIES MEDICAL ACTIVITIES . . . . . . . . . . 279
Divisional Medical Organization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
Advance Section Training Camps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
Trench Warfare Lessons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
Poison Gas Attacks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304
viii
Chapter Page
10. ON THE EVE OF NEW BATTLES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
Organizational Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
St. Mihiel Medical Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
Meuse-Argonne Medical Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
11. MEDICAL BURDENS OF HARD FIGHTING. . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
Hospitalization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
Evacuation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
Health of Aviators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367
Medical Supply. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369
Field Instruction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371
Preventive Medicine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373
12. CHALLENGES IN OTHER THEATERS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381
In North Russia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381
In Siberia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390
In Germany. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396
In Poland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408
In the Caribbean and the Pacific . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415
13. GOING HOME. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417
The Demobilization Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417
Transporting the Disabled . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429
The Hospital System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434
Specialized Care and Reconstruction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442
14. THE PEACETIME FORM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 457
Impact of New Legislation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 457
The Surgeon General. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 460
The Surgeon General’s Office . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 462
Personnel Shortages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 470
Promotion, Rank, and Status. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477
Medical Reserve Corps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 480
15. THE PEACETIME FUNCTION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 483
Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 483
Care of the Sick and Wounded. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 492
Aviation Medicine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496
Preventive Medicine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499
Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 503
In Retrospect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 504
ix