Foreword
At the onset of World War II, problems of unprecedented size and scopechallenged the U.S. Army Medical Department simultaneously. These problemsranged from mobilizing and housing personnel to receiving, storing, andshipping supplies and equipment from constructing facilities to activatinginstallations. None was more demanding than the task of training thousandsof men and women to provide the fighting forces with the finest medicalcare in the history of warfare.
Companion volumes in this series set forth in great detail the achievementsof the Medical Department in the fields of personnel, supply, and hospitalizationand evacuation in the Zone of Interior. This volume is a historical accountof the success of the Medical Department in training thousands upon thousandsof civilian soldiers in the practice of field medicine.
The problem began with the mass induction of recruits upon general mobilization.It was aggravated by the need to train personnel for a variety of duties-front-linecombat service, support service in the theaters of operations, specializedand convalescent services in installations in the Zone of Interior-on anaccelerated basis. It was compounded by the need to train medical personnelso they could practice their skills in any climate or environment anywherein the world-from the tundra of Alaska to the jungles of Buna Gona, fromthe sands of North Africa to the swamps of Guadalcanal.
While it is true that the principles of medicine and surgery are thesame in war and in peace, the application of these principles in the practiceof field medicine is vastly different. To perform effectively, the soldier-physicianmust think in terms of treating and caring for masses of patients, learnto make do with what is available, and understand fully his role as a memberof a team charged with the awesome responsibility of conserving the strengthof the fighting forces. No more formidable task faced the Army MedicalDepartment than that of turning a civilian into an effective member ofa military-medical team.
Although there was extensive study and planning for the expansion ofthe Army Medical Department during the period of Limited National Emergency,from the invasion of Poland in August 1939 to Pearl Harbor in December1941, little was actually done. The men who were inducted for 1 year underthe Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 were given combat trainingin preference to specialized or technical training. The Army Medical Departmentwas also handicapped by lack of funds to construct troop housing and classroomsat the training centers and to expand facilities at the technical and advancedtechnical training schools. The shortage of instructors at the trainingcenters and technical schools was a chronic problem. Training equipmenthad to be improvised or simulated. Irregular arrivals and unscheduled transfersof trainees resulted in vast fluctuations in enrollments. During slackperiods, supplies and equipment were underutilized or wasted. In contrast,heavy training loads taxed facilities and faculties and required emergencyshipments of food, supplies, and equipment.
In the initial stages of mobilization, the Army National Guard, theOrganized Reserves, and affiliated medical units from civilian universitiesprovided the trained physicians, nurses, and technical personnel. The rapidbuildup required additional manpower to activate much needed medical units.This was achieved by stripping trained personnel from the medical trainingcenters to make up cadres to activate new units. Unit readiness was acceleratedby conducting advanced individual training in the units along with theunit basic and advanced training. Individual and unit training programshad to be adjusted continually to meet accelerated replacement requirementsand deployment schedules. These problems were compounded by divided responsibilityfor the training of medical personnel after the reorganization of the Armyin 1942. Although The Surgeon General retained technical responsibilityfor all medical training, he lost control of all training except that ofthe few units assigned directly to him.
This volume records the problems of training men and women for an ArmyMedical Department which at peak strength numbered 700,000, or more thanthree times the strength of the entire Regular Army in 1939. It is a tributeto those who were responsible for fulfilling the training requirementsof a Medical Department that had to care for the health of the Army andsimultaneously prepare for its role of providing combat medical support.It describes honestly and frankly the errors and failures as well as theachievements of the dedicated men and women who trained the physicians,dentists, nurses, others in professions allied to medicine, and the enlistedpersonnel, all of whom made up the teams that cared for some 14 millionpatients during the Second World War.
It is hoped that this account of the training of U.S. Army Medical Departmentpersonnel in World War II will be a guide to the planners of the future.
RICHARD R. TAYLOR,
Lieutenant General,
The Surgeon General.
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