Preface
This volume is one of a series on the history of the U.S. Army MedicalDepartment in World War II. It deals most fully with the commissioned andenlisted members of the Army`s medical service, less fully with the large numberof civilians, the sizable contingent from the Women`s Army Corps, and thenumerous prisoners of war who were employed in the Department`s work. Othergroups that assisted the medical service but which were comparatively small insize-the body of Red Cross workers, for example-are given much brieferconsideration.
Inevitably, the subject matter of the volume overlaps that of others in thisseries. The uses to which personnel were put can hardly be discussed withouttouching on their employment in hospitals and, thus, entering on a small portionof the field covered by the volume dealing with hospitalization and evacuationin the Zone of Interior. To make clear one way of alleviating personnelshortages, it has been necessary to give certain facts about training, even atthe cost of encroaching on the history of that subject. Similarly, such apparentinadequacies as the relatively superficial coverage of Army Ground Forcesmedical and paramedical personnel are made up in more appropriate contexts inother volumes.
For reasons made clear in the narrative, the volume covers not only the yearsduring which the United States was at war but a space of time before andafterward-roughly the years 1939 through 1946. In a few instances, the accountof some train of events begins at a considerably earlier or concludes at arather later date if such a departure makes for a better understanding of thesubject.
Most of the actions and decisions on personnel mattersrecorded in this volume emanated from the higher authorities of the WarDepartment, particularly the Surgeon General`s Office, the General Staff, theAir Surgeon`s Office, the headquarters of Army Service Forces, and the officesof the commanding generals of service commands and theaters of operations ortheir surgeons. The actions that figure most prominently in the account arethose of the Surgeon General`s Office, since it had comprehensive responsibilityfor-though not equally full power over-the Army`s Medical Department. Thatpower, as regards personnel, was shared by other agencies, not only inside butoutside the War Department. Of great influence in this respect were Congress andits committees, certain civilian branches of the Executive-the SelectiveService System, the War Manpower Commission, and the latter`s Procurement andAssignment Service-and nongovernmental agencies such as the American NationalRed Cross, professional organizations in the field of medicine and theirjournals, other groups intent on promoting special interests, and finally
unorganized public opinion in its various forms of expression. The influenceof all these agencies, so far as it was brought to bear on the personneladministration of the Army`s medical service, is therefore also taken intoaccount.
Statistics have been used extensively in this volume, not only to record inquantitative terms personnel developments in the Medical Department but also tocompare them with developments in the Army as a whole. For these purposes, theauthors have, as a rule, used the statistical source which gives the mostdetailed and comprehensive data on the particular point under discussion. Anumber of agencies produced these data. However, most of the time seriescompiled for the volume are based on data assembled by the Office of TheAdjutant General, the chief agency of the Army for preparing personnel actionsand maintaining records of them.
The Adjutant General`s summaries of Army strength (including distributionaccording to race, rank, branch of service, and losses of personnel) deriveadded authority from the fact that they are compiled from information entered oneach unit`s morning report, which "is a permanent, statistical, andhistorical record" (AR 345-400, 7 May 1943, 1 May 1944, 3 January 1945).Each month, the information in these reports was consolidated for a particularcutoff date, a summary being made first on an area level and then by TheAdjutant General, for all areas combined. The most important time series usedwhich do not entirely follow The Adjutant General`s figures are the worldwidestrength of the Medical Department and its individual components from PearlHarbor to mid-1946. These series were supplied to the authors in 1950 by theResources Analysis Division, Office of The Surgeon General. They incorporatemany of The Adjutant General`s figures but for the most part differ, often verysubstantially, from them. The differences result primarily from using summariesof orders for accessions and separations of personnel instead of The AdjutantGeneral`s summaries of head counts based on the morning reports. The authorshave made use of these series both in stating Medical Department strengths andin computing ratios and percentages involving them. One reason for doing so isthat the Resources Analysis Division in the latter part of the war and for someyears afterward was The Surgeon General`s chief authority on statistics ofMedical Department personnel; the series may therefore be regarded as virtuallythe official statement of the Medical Department on its strength and, as such,appropriate for use in this volume. The series are also somewhat morecomprehensive than those of The Adjutant General. The reader may compare the twosets of figures for himself as they are reproduced in table 1.
The statistical approach proved to be particularly useful in the discussionof oversea matters. It lent itself to a treatment of the oversea personnelsituation as a whole, rather than by individual theaters, and at the same timefacilitated comparisons among different areas, thus enabling the demands ofspace to be more readily met than would otherwise have been possible.Nevertheless, much attention is focused on the European theater, not merelybecause it gave rise to more comprehensive personnel statistics than any othertheater,
but because it was the largest theater in terms of both medical and generalArmy strength.
Max Levin is responsible for the sections on overseadevelopments and for most of the statistical compilations. For all other partsof the volume, John H. McMinn is responsible. The entire manuscript was preparedin the first instance under the direction of Donald O. Wagner, Ph. D., whosecontributions extended to various changes in organization and a number oftextual revisions. After both the authors and the original editor had left TheHistorical Unit, the volume was further reorganized and substantially reduced inlength by Dr. Charles M. Wiltse, assisted by Mrs. Lucy W. Lazarou. The basiccontent of the volume and much of its language, however, is still that of Dr.McMinn and Mr. Levin, whose names appear on the title page as coauthors.
The bibliographical note mentions the most importantdocuments, types of recorded material, and file collections used in preparingthe volume. Much information also came from personal interviews andcorrespondence with officers and civilians familiar with the MedicalDepartment`s personnel operations during the war and from comments on chaptersof the manuscript which a rather large number of them were kind enough toreview. The names of reviewers are listed under "Acknowledgments."Without their willing cooperation, many valuable facts would not have come tothe writers` attention, and many official documents could hardly have beenproperly interpreted. Singled out for particular mention here must be Maj. Gen.George F. Lull, USA (Ret.), and Dr. Durward G. Hall, Colonel, MC, USAR, bothwartime chiefs of the Personnel Service, Office of The Surgeon General; and MissAnna E. Carey, whose long and intimate connection with the personnel servicemakes her authority preeminent in all matters concerning it. These threeindividuals reviewed all of the manuscript in each of its revisions and actedcollectively as an ad hoc advisory editorial board in the finalization of thetext. The writers are also indebted to Mr. Joseph A. Logan of the Office of theComptroller of the Army, whose advice and assistance as a statistical expertcould always be counted upon, and to the former Chief Historian, Dr. Kent R.Greenfield, his successor, Dr. Stetson Conn, and other members of the Office ofthe Chief of Military History, Department of the Army, who made many usefulsuggestions as to form and content. Finally, they wish to acknowledge thecontributions made by the Director of The Historical Unit, U.S. Army MedicalService, Col. John Boyd Coates, Jr., MC; by Mrs. Josephine P. Kyle, former Chiefof the General Reference and Research Branch; by Miss Rebecca L. Duberstein, whoperformed the final publications editing and prepared the index; and by theircoworkers in all branches of The Historical Unit.
CHARLES M. WILTSE
