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