U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Skip to main content
Return to topReturn to top

Books and Documents

MEDICAL DEPARTMENT
UNITED STATES ARMY
IN WORLD WAR II

MEDICAL DEPARTMENT, UNITED STATES ARMY
MEDICAL TRAINING IN WORLD WAR II

Prepared and published under the direction of
Lieutenant General Richard R. Taylor
The Surgeon General, United States Army

Editor in Chief
Colonel William S. Mullins, MSC, USA

Editor for Medical Training
Captain Robert J. Parks, MSC, AUS

OFFICE OF THE SURGEON GENERAL
DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
WASHINGTON, D.C., 1974

MEDICAL TRAINING IN WORLD WAR II

Advisory Editorial Board
Major General THOMAS J. HARTFORD, MC, USA (Ret.), Chairman
Major General GEORGE E. ARMSTRONG, MC, USA (Ret.)
Major General WILLIAM E. SHAMBORA, MC, USA (Ret.)
Major General BYRON L. STEGER, MC, USA (Ret.)
Major General FLOYD L. WERGELAND, MC, USA (Ret.)
Brigadier General GEORGE R. CALLENDER, MC, USA (Ret.)
Brigadier General L. HOLMES GINN, MC, USA (Ret.)
Colonel ROBERT E. PEYTON, MC, USA (Ret.)
Colonel JOSEPH U. WEAVER, MC, USA (Ret.)
Colonel RAYMOND E. DUKE, MC, USA (Ret.)
Colonel FLOYD W. BAKER, MC, USA (ex officio)
Colonel WILLIAM S. MULLINS, MSC, USA (ex officio)

The Historical Unit, United States Army MedicalDepartment

Colonel WILLIAM S. MULLINS, MSC, USA, Director
CHARLES J. SIMPSON, Executive Officer
HAZEL G. HINE, Chief, Administrative Branch
ERNEST ELLIOTT, JR., Chief, Editorial Branch
RODERICK M. ENGERT, Chief, General Reference and Research Branch
ROSE C. ENGELMAN, Ph. D., Chief, Historians Branch
GERALDINE B. SITES, Chief, Information Activities Branch

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 73-600173


Contents

FOREWORD

PREFACE

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I. Preparations for World War II

Training Between the Wars
Preparations for War

II. Medical, Dental, Veterinary, and Sanitary CorpsOfficers

Period of Flux: 1939-41
The War Years: 1941-45
The Army Specialized Training Program
Educational Techniques and Problems

III. The Medical Administrative Corps

Officer Candidate Schools
Advanced Training

IV. The Army Nurse Corps

Prewar Programs
Basic Military Training
Chief Nurses
Nurse Anesthetists
Neuropsychiatric Nursing
Operating Room Nurses
Fever Therapy Nurses
Flight Nurses
The Senior Cadet Nurse Corps

V. Dietitians, Physical Therapists, and OccupationalTherapists

Basic Military Orientation for Newly Appointed Personnel
Professional Training Programs
Acceleration and Emergency Training Plans
Appointments, Classifications, and Salaries of Trainees
Training Performance Reports
Maintenance of Educational and Professional Standards
Schools and Hospitals Conducting Training Courses for the Army
Results of Emergency Training Programs
Training Enlisted Physical Therapy Technicians
Course for Occupational Therapy Assistants

VI. Medical Replacement Training Centers

Training Centers
Mobilization Training Programs
Training Programs for Army Air Forces Enlisted Personnel
Output of Medical Replacement Training Centers
Training Procedures
Cadre and Staff Training

VII. Enlisted Technicians

Prewar Expansion
Wartime Expansion
Medical Department Enlisted Technicians Schools
Program Guides
Technical Training
Enlisted Women
Educational Techniques and Problems
Selection, Quality, and Disposition of Trainees

VIII. Medical Department Field Units

Command and Staff Responsibility for Training Medical Department Units
The Army Service Forces Unit Activation and Training Systems
Army Air Forces Systems
Army Ground Forces Systems
Program Guides and Training Literature
Personnel and Equipment

Illustrations

1 Carlisle Barracks, Pa., home of the Medical FieldService School
2 Members of the 1st Medical Regiment, Medical FieldService School, load simulated patients on an ambulance
3 Four-mule ambulances, Medical Field Service School
4 Army School of Malariology, Fort Clayton, C.Z
5 Class in antimechanized defense, Camp Barkeley,Tex., 1943
6 Officer candidates participate in preventive maintenance,Camp Barkeley, Tex., 1943
7 Class in identification of chemical warfare agents,Camp Barkeley, Tex., 1943
8 Activities at officer candidate school, Camp Barkeley,Tex., 1944
9 Portable public address system, Camp Barkeley,Tex., 1943
10 Miniature battlefield, Camp Barkeley, Tex.,1943
11 Sanitary demonstration area, Camp Barkeley,Tex., 1943
12 Army nurses in training, Camp McCoy, Wis
13 Army nurses in training, Camp McCoy, Wis
14 Senior cadet nurses in training
15 Student dietitian discussing recipe with headcook
16 Enlisted student physical therapist, Fort HuachucaStation Hospital, Ariz
17 Apprentice physical therapists, Fletcher GeneralHospital, Cambridge, Ohio
18 Classes for occupational therapy apprentices,Battey General Hospital, Rome, Ga
19 Trainees from Camp Lee, Va., marching to CampPickett, Va
20 Tent housing used at Camp Pickett, Va
21 Troops at the Camp Pickett, Va., stadium onMemorial Day
22 Camp Barkeley, Tex., December 1941
23 Hutments used to house trainees at Camp Barkeley,Tex
24 Open-air classrooms, Camp Joseph T. Robinson,Ark
25 Trainees set up and operate an aid station,Camp Grant, Ill
26 Class for clerk-typists, Camp Pickett, Va
27 A class for motor mechanics, Camp Barkeley,Tex., 1943
28 Unrated surgical technicians, Fort Lewis, Wash.,1944
29 Trainees negotiating obstacle course, Camp Pickett,Va
30 Trainees at Camp Joseph T. Robinson, Ark., learnto evacuate wounded men from tanks (2nd photo)
31 A Medical Corps officer instructs in anatomy atBrooke General Hospital, 1942
32 Surgical Technicians, Letterman General Hospital,view a demonstration of operating room techniques
33 Dental technicians study full dentures
34 Class in dental hygiene and prophylaxis
35 Practical training in the laboratory
36 Instruction in darkroom technique
37 A Veterinary Corps officer instructs a classat the Army Veterinary School, Army Medical Center
38 Technician practicing use of portable opticalequipment
39 Laboratory procedures
40 School of Aviation Medicine building, RandolphField, Tex
41 Medical Department officers attend courses atthe Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kans

Tables

1 Approximate strength of peacetime componentsof the U.S. Army Medical Department, 1939
2 Summary of Army Specialized Training Programdemands, by arms and services, January 1943-July 1944
3 The Army Specialized Training Program: Studentsof medicine, dentistry, and veterinary medicine assigned, separated, discharged,and transferred through curtailment of the program
4 Average monthly cost of professional trainingper trainee
5 Number of enrollees and graduates, MAC officercandidate schools, by month, July 1941-October 1945
6 Attrition rates of trainees for OfficerCandidate Schools, Camp Barkeley, Tex., 1944
7 Attrition rates of trainees for OfficerCandidate Schools, Carlisle Barracks, Pa., 1944
8 Number and percentage of candidates whoenrolled, and graduated or who failed to complete the MAC Officer CandidateCourse, Camp Barkeley, Tex., classes 1-40, inclusive, by Army component,age, race, source, and education
9 Basic training centers for Army nurses
10 Output of Medical Replacement TrainingCenters, 1942-45
11 Capacity of Medical Department EnlistedTechnicians Schools, 1 July 1941
12 Capacity of Medical Department EnlistedTechnicians Schools, 1 July 1942
13 Capacity of Medical Department EnlistedTechnicians Schools, 1 July 1943
14 Annual capacity, Medical Department EnlistedTechnicians Schools, 1942 and 1943
15 Medical Department Enlisted TechniciansSchools operated during World War II
16 Women`s Army Corps technicians trainedin Medical Department Enlisted Technicians Schools, 1 July 1943-30 June1944
17 Enlisted women trained in Medical DepartmentEnlisted Technicians Schools, 1 July 1944-30 June 1945

Charts

1 Organization of the Medical Administrative CorpsOfficer Candidate School, Carlisle Barracks, Pa., 1942
2 Organization of the Medical Administrative CorpsOfficer Candidate School, Camp Barkeley, Tex., 1942-43
3 Periods of training, Medical Replacement TrainingCenters, 1941-46
4 Length of training cycles, Medical ReplacementTraining Centers, 1940-46
5 Typical organization of a Medical DepartmentEnlisted Technicians School, 1944


MEDICAL TRAINING IN WORLD WAR II
by
Captain ROBERT J. PARKS, MSC, AUS
MEDICAL DEPARTMENT, UNITED STATES ARMY

The volumes comprising the official history of the Medical Departmentof the United States Army in World War II are prepared by The HistoricalUnit, U.S. Army Medical Department, and published under the direction ofThe Surgeon General, U.S. Army. These volumes are divided into two series:(1) The administrative or operational series; and (2) the professional,or clinical and technical, series. This is one of the volumes publishedin the former series.

VOLUMES PUBLISHED

ADMINISTRATIVE SERIES

Hospitalization and Evacuation, Zone of Interior
Medical Service in the Mediterranean and Minor Theaters
Medical Supply in World War II
Organization and Administration in World War II
Personnel in World War II

CLINICAL SERIES

Internal Medicine in World War II:

Vol. I. Activities of Medical Consultants
Vol. II. Infectious Diseases
Vol. III. Infectious Diseases and General Medicine

Neuropsychiatry in World War II:

Vol. I. Zone of Interior

Preventive Medicine in World War II:

Vol. II. Environmental Hygiene
Vol. III. Personal Health Measures and Immunization
Vol. IV. Communicable Diseases Transmitted Chiefly Through Respiratoryand Alimentary Tracts
Vol. V. Communicable Diseases Transmitted Through Contact or by UnknownMeans
Vol. VI. Communicable Diseases: Malaria
Vol. VII. Communicable Diseases: Arthropodborne Diseases Other Than Malaria
Vol. IX. Special Fields

Surgery in World War II:

Activities of Surgical Consultants, vol. I
Activities of Surgical Consultants, vol. II
General Surgery, vol. II
Hand Surgery
Neurosurgery, vol. I
Neurosurgery, vol. II
Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology
Orthopedic Surgery in the European Theater of Operations
Orthopedic Surgery in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations
Orthopedic Surgery in the Zone of Interior
The Physiologic Effects of Wounds
Thoracic Surgery, vol. I
Thoracic Surgery, vol. II
Vascular Surgery

Miscellaneous:

Blood Program in World War II
Cold Injury, Ground Type
Dental Service in World War II
Physical Standards in World War II
Radiology in World War II
Veterinary Service in World War II
Wound Ballistics