CHAPTER VIII
Functional Organization inTheater and Minor Commands
At the beginning of the warperiod, the oversea organization of the Army Veterinary Service was dividedbetween the four oversea departments: Hawaiian, Panama Canal, and PhilippineDepartments, and the new Puerto Rican Department which was established on 1 July1939. Each department's headquarters staff included a department surgeon witha veterinary officer as an assistant (that is, the department veterinarian) tosupervise the veterinary affairs within the territorial or departmental area.The duties of these department veterinarians generally paralleled thoseprescribed for corps area veterinarians in the Zone of Interior. Below thelevel of the headquarters, veterinary personnel generally were assigned tovarious provisional veterinary general and station hospital organizationswhich were located at the larger installations, and infrequently a few personnelwere assigned to a tactical unit. There was no sharp line of demarcation betweenthe departmental air, ground, and service forces such as made its appearance inthe war period, and a unified veterinary service organization under thetechnical supervision of the single department veterinarian satisfied all Armyrequirements.
In 1939-40, the overseaveterinary strength totaled 17 to 19 officers; during World War II, 700 Veterinary Corpsofficers were distributed among at least 23 theater commands. The more importantof these commands were as follows:
Minor commands and Americantheater:
Caribbean Defense Command
Panama Canal Department
Antilles Department(superseding Puerto Rican Department)
Bermuda Base Command
Newfoundland Base Command
Greenland Base Command
Iceland Base Command
Northwest Service Command
AlaskanDepartment
U.S. Army Forces, South Atlantic
Middle East, Mediterranean,and European theaters:
U.S. Army Forces, Africa-Middle East theater
U.S. ArmyForces in the Middle East
U.S. Army Forces in Central Africa
Mediterranean(formerly North African) Theater of Operations, U.S. Army
European Theater ofOperations, U.S. Army
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Pacific-Asiatic theaters:
U.S. Army Forces, Pacific Ocean Areas
U.S. Army Forces in CentralPacific Area (superseding Hawaiian Department)
U.S. Army Forces in South PacificArea
U.S. Army Forces in the Far East (superseding Philippine Department)
U.S. Army Forces, Services ofSupply, Southwest Pacific Area
U.S. Army Forces, China-Burma-India, predecessor to-
U.S. Forces, India-Burma Theater
U.S. Forces, China Theater
Technically, there is nodefinition of a theater command that would allow for the proper listing of allfor the war period, because there were some, such as the U.S. Army Forces in Liberiaand the many task forces which were sent to theSouth Pacific Area, that originated as separate War Department-controlledcommands. Eventually, many of these were merged or relegated to control by alarger theater command.
One of the reasons for thisgrouping of the theater commands into three major groups was that it simplifiedthe description of veterinary functional organization by geographic area.However, beyond this, there can be no simple description of a theater'sveterinary service for the war period that would be descriptive for all or mostof the oversea command. Because each was developed separately, rapidly, andconcurrently, none followed any particular organizational pattern. In fact, thehistorical record of oversea veterinary functional organization, itsdevelopment, and its accomplishments comprises an individual study for eachtheater command. There was no typical theater veterinary service organization.The absence of a theater veterinary organization plan may be explained in anumber of ways; there was the general concept in peacetime planning for a singletheater of operations such as existed with the American Expeditionary Forces inFrance during World War I. Also, there was the single General Headquarters (GHQ) about which the War Department had been centering its attention since theearly 1930's, and it was not until 1941 that, for the first time, there was somereal indication that perhaps the single theater plan would not be followed. In that year, U.S. Army Forces in the Far East and U.S. Army Forces in Iceland were created as theater-like commands. Thesegenerally followed the appearance of semitactical base commands and defensecommands that were established in and surrounding the United States and the Western Hemisphere.
Another significant factorresponsible for failure to properly forecast theater requirements for anadequate veterinary service originated with a fundamental concept thatveterinary personnel were to be attached to units (in field service) whoseanimal strength was sufficient to justify their employment (1). This was setforth even in the latest wartime manuals on Medical Department doctrine, thoughanimal strength had long been argued by the Veterinary Division, SurgeonGeneral's Office, as comprising an inadequate basis for determiningveterinary personnel requirements. Further-
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more, there had beenprescribed or recognized since World War I, the duality of the mission of theArmy Veterinary Service to care for sick and wounded animals and to inspectfoods. However, despite this, primary emphasis was placed on the evolution of atheater veterinary organization, made up of detachments and units that wouldoperate a system of animal evacuation and veterinary hospitalization; in theyears just before Pearl Harbor, these detachments and units were only slightlymodified to include provisions for the operation of meat and dairy hygieneservices. Undoubtedly, the very sudden mechanization and motorization of theArmy that took place in 1940-41 saw the nonactivation or conversion ofdetachmentsand units that were identified primarily for veterinary animal service and thusthe complete loss of personnel and units who could otherwise have been divertedfrom animal service to veterinary food inspection within the theater commands.The scarcity of veterinary personnel in the opening days of several theatercommands was amplified by the fact that overall logistic planning had given noindication that the Army overseas would be rationed or subsisted by Alliedgovernments from local resources to the extent that it was and that programs ofmilitary meat and dairy hygiene would have to be set up in such places as India,China, Australia, New Zealand, South and Central America, and on the AfricanContinent.
Of course, there were manyother factors that would account for the varied developments of the ArmyVeterinary Service among the wartime theater commands. For example, as in theZone of Interior, there were three separate Army entities: Air Forces, GroundForces, and Service Forces. The theaters' air forces-particularly the veryheavy, long-range, or strategic bombing commands and the Air Transport Command-usually exempted themselves from jurisdiction of the theaters as beingWar Department, or global commands; these had their own assigned veterinarypersonnel. Then, too, in most major theaters, the Army ground combat forces withtheir veterinary service organization came under the operational control of an Allied command or ajoint Army-Navy headquarters, and it was unreasonablefor the U.S. Army theater command to exert any real effective administrativecontrol over matters such as veterinary affairs in the U.S. Army field armiesand other tactical forces that were part of such a senior Allied or jointcommand. Of course, such senior commands frequently had but little concept ofmilitary veterinary medicine. Another factor was that the Army theater commandsshowed an overwhelming tendency to subordinate the nominal chief or theaterveterinarian to the theater's services of supply headquarters organization-astatus comparable to that set forth in the War Department reorganization of1942, which had reduced the standing of The Surgeon General and his chief ofVeterinary Corps under the jurisdiction of Headquarters, Army Services ofSupply. That this was improper was clearly seen in the actions orreorganizations during the last year of the war
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period when most overseacommands restored the position of chief veterinarian to the respective theater headquarters' medical section.
VETERINARY SERVICE OF FIELDUNITS
Preliminary to thedescription of the veterinary service organization in theater commands, anunderstanding of the various types of military organizations or units isnecessary. Units, as the term is used here, refer to standard militaryformations which were manned and equipped in conformity with War DepartmentT/O&E's (tables of organization and equipment). Each T/O unit wasperiodically reviewed by the Veterinary Division, Surgeon General's Office,as to its composition, equipment, and mission, as described in the pertinentT/O&E's, particularly if such table provided for, or should have includedprovisions for, veterinary personnel. Also, the Veterinary Division, SurgeonGeneral's Office, sometimes following a suggestion of the Medical FieldService School at Carlisle Barracks, Pa., or of a theater veterinarian,initiated procedures for War Department approval of tables for new types ofveterinary units. In contrast to the units, there were the various militaryorganizations or provisional organizations which were developed locally withinthe theater commands to satisfy temporary needs. Theater headquarters staffsand base command headquarters were the more common examples of such militaryorganizations, but sometimes a T/O unit-like organization was improvisedlocally. The number and size of provisional organizations was limited only bythe personnel space vacancies (so-called overhead allotment) granted by the WarDepartment to each theater command. There was no central veterinary controlfrom the Surgeon General's Office over what share of the overhead allotment,or grades, should be set aside for veterinary personnel, and each theatercommander retained a perogative to indicate, or change, such of the allotment aspertained to the theater's veterinary service. The importance of this isindicated by the fact that personnel space authorizations and grades forveterinary officers in the theater headquarters staff were part of this theateroverhead allotment, and the Surgeon General's Office had no regulatory oradministrative control over theater commanders or theater surgeons to sponsor atheater veterinarian in the grade of colonel, for example.
At the start of the warperiod, T/O's (later T/O&E) providing for veterinary units and units havingtheir own or organically assigned veterinary personnel were 24 in number (2).During the war, this number was increased to 65 or 70, including some fewwhich were canceled (such as that for the veterinary convalescent hospital), notutilized in organizing a unit, or changed with the resultant discontinuance ofthe veterinary component (such as that for the headquarters, infantrydivision). At least 550 War Department-activated units had veterinary officersand enlisted personnel assigned to them pursuant to the pertinent T/O's duringWorld War II.
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The following tabulationshows the number of such assignments in units known to have veterinarypersonnel assigned:
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Headquarters, Army and Corps
The senior theater commandheadquarters to be described in T/O's was general headquarters. One such tablepertaining to its initial organization included provisions for two veterinaryofficers, one in the grade of colonel and the other in the grade of captain orfirst lieutenant, who were to be a part of the headquarters medical section (of13 Medical Department officers) (3, 4). Actually, no such headquarters unitwas deployed that included Veterinary Corps officers. Mention must also be madeof another command staff that was described; namely, headquarters, medicalservice, communications zone (5, 6). This set forth a veterinary section of fiveofficers, which approximated a fifth of the total number of Medical Departmentofficers authorized, including one each in the grades of colonel, lieutenant,and major, and two in the grade of captain, and five veterinary enlistedpersonnel. The other sections of this medical headquarters staff wereadministrative, hospitalization, supply, personnel, evacuation, sanitation,vital statistics, consultant, and dental.
The senior, and active,echelon of tactical command headquarters staff unit in the theater commandsduring World War II was headquarters, army. Its T/O included provisions for twoveterinary officers, one in the grade of colonel and the other in the grade ofcaptain, and two veterinary enlisted personnel (7, 8, 9). At the beginning ofthe war, four such army headquarters (First, Second, Third, and Fourth) hadbeen established in the Zone of Interior to organize the defense of continental United States,but later two of these were deployed overseas,as were seven other army headquarters. Army veterinarians accompanied theFirst, Third, Seventh, Ninth, and Fifteenth U.S. Armies in the European theater,the Fifth U.S. Army which fought on the Italian peninsula, the Sixth and EighthU.S. Armies in the Southwest Pacific Area, and the Tenth U.S. Army which foughtthe last battle of World War II, on Okinawa. The composition of each field
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army varied considerably,but so far as the active field army's veterinary service was concerned, noneincluded a large number of veterinary units.
The army veterinarian was normallythe assistant to the army surgeon, who reported on veterinary affairs to thearmy commander only indirectly or through the army's G-4 section of the generalstaff. During the war period, a new general staff section, or G-5, wasestablished within these army headquarters specially to supervise civil affairsand military government activities during the periods of combat in liberatedAllied and occupied countries. Some few armies in the European theater thusgained the attachment of veterinary civil affairs officers in theirheadquarters staffs.
During the war, in theEuropean and Mediterranean theaters of operations, two or more fieldarmies were grouped and operationally controlled by a new type headquartersorganization, the army group. For example, in their fight northward on theItalian peninsula, the U.S. Fifth and British Eighth Armies were majorcommands of the Fifteenth Army Group-predominantly staffed by British Armypersonnel. On the European Continent, the U.S. Sixth Army Group comprised theU.S. Seventh and French First Armies on the southern front, while the FirstU.S. Army Group, later named the U.S. Twelfth Army Group (in the winter of1944-45), controlled the American field armies on the central front. There wasno prescribed T/O for an army group headquarters, and only the Twelfth ArmyGroup included a Veterinary Corps officer-only in the capacity to technicallysupervise or coordinate veterinary civil affairs matters between the centralarmies.
Next below the echelon ofthe field army headquarters, tactical command was assumed by corpsheadquarters. At the beginning of the war, the headquarters staffs for the armycorps (of infantry type), cavalry corps, and the new armored corps weredescribed in the pertinent T/O's as including a corps veterinarian. Of course,no cavalry corps headquarters was organized, and, during the winter of 1942-43,War Department action on streamlining the other corps headquarters staffs tohave a tactical mission only resulted in the elimination of the personnel spaceauthorizations for the veterinarian from both the armored and the army corpsheadquarters. As a result, the majority of existent corps veterinarians weretransferred at once, but others were continued in their assignments for a yearor more. In 1942, veterinarians were on duty with the II, III, IV, V, VI, VII,VIII, IX, X, XI, XII, XIV, XV, and XVIII Corps, and the I and II Armored Corps.
Headquarters, Division
In World War II, 91divisions were mobilized; this number included the 2d Cavalry Division which wasactivated twice and inactivated twice during the war period, but the ArmyVeterinary Service was not the important segment of the combat division that itwas in World War I when these utilized horses and mules as their principal meansof transport. The
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infantry division and thearmored division bore the major share of the land combat operations, but othertypes, such as airborne, mountain, and cavalry divisions, were deployed also.All of these included, at one time, their own organically assigned veterinarypersonnel, as did an experimental type of division referred to as the lightdivision (pack transport).
Infantry division.-Veterinary Corps officers were assigned, at one time or another, toall but a few of the some 60 infantry divisions that were in active statusduring World War II. By V-J Day, however, there were few, if any, infantry divisionveterinarians in the Army. This loss of veterinary personnel in the basic groundcombat organization was quite drastic in view of the fact that T/O's as late as1939 were authorizing space vacancies in an infantry division for threeveterinary officers and several enlisted personnel. By the end of another yearor two, the basic organization for the existing square-type infantry divisionwas being re-formed into the new triangular?type and was being completelymotorized. However, the newer T/O's for headquarters, infantry division(square), continued the veterinary personnel authorizations at one officer inthe grade of major and two enlisted personnel; the new triangular divisionheadquarters T/O provided for the assignment of only the veterinary officer inthe grade of major. Eventually, all infantry divisions were converted to thetriangular type. The continuing need for divisions, without animals, to havesuch assigned personnel was described once, at the start of the war period, as"the division veterinarian with an infantry division will primarily beconcerned with the inspection of meats, meat-food, and dairy products for thedivision" (10). Subsequently, in the spring-summer of 1943, Headquarters,Army Ground Forces, successfully programed a reduction or economies ofpersonnel within the T/O's for the infantry division; and thus "* * * Theveterinary officer was dropped; when the office of The Surgeon Generalprotested, the Army Ground Forces explained that the division had no animals andthat meat inspection was a function suitably relegated to [the field] army"(11). Actually, the new T/O (dated 15 July 1943) which did not provide for adivision veterinarian was not immediately applied, and some divisionveterinarians were continued in their assignment for many months, either aspart of the permissible overhead or as substitute sanitary officers andassistants to division surgeons.
Armored and airbornedivisions.-During the first few years of the war, the T/O's for headquarters,armored division, and for headquarters, airborne division, each included spaceauthorizations for division veterinarians in the medical sections, usually anofficer in the grade of major and one or two veterinary enlisted assistants.Pursuant to this authorization, the five airborne divisions which were overseasin 1944 were assigned their own veterinary personnel (namely, the 11th, 13th,17th, 82d, and 101st Airborne Divisions); and nearly all of the 16 activearmored divisions at one time had division veterinarians.
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Light division.-During WorldWar II, Army Ground Forces studied proposals modifying or reducing the standardinfantry division and specializing its personnel and equipment for deploymentsuch as in an amphibious, airborne, jungle, or mountain operation. Thus, in June1943, a single, pack animal-transported light division was organized for trialstudy as one proposed for jungle warfare (the 71st Light Division, Pack,Jungle), but it was reconverted to a standard infantry division beforedeployment from the Zone of Interior. It may be observed, however, that pursuantto T/O's, the headquarters, light division, contained a veterinary officer inthe grade of major, if the division was to be moved by pack animals.
Mountain division.-Themountain division originally occupied the same trial status as did the lightdivision. That is, in mid-1943, a single light division was organized as areduced infantry division but was specially manned and equipped for mountainwarfare (namely, the 10th Light Division, Pack, Alpine). Later in 1944, whenArmy Ground Forces discontinued its trials with the special light divisions,this unit was brought up to regular division strength as the 10th MountainDivision and was redeployed in December 1944 to the Mediterranean theater.Pursuant to T/O's, a division veterinarian in the grade of major and twoveterinary enlisted personnel were assigned to headquarters, mountain division (12,13). Divisional elements below the headquarters that had assignedveterinary personnel were: Special troops (with one veterinary officer in gradeof captain and five veterinary enlisted personnel), the three infantry regiments(each with two company grade veterinary officers and six enlisted personnel),and the engineer battalion (with one veterinary officer in the grade ofcaptain or first lieutenant and five enlisted personnel), these leaving 243,953, and 538 animals, respectively. Other elements were the veterinary troopsof the mountain medical battalion, the division artillery with its three fieldartillery battalions and veterinary sections, and the quartermaster battalion,mountain, with its three quartermaster pack companies. Altogether, the animalstrength of the mountain division aggregated 6,152 mules and horses.
Cavalry division.-Themedical section of headquarters, cavalry division, was authorized to includethe division veterinarian and two veterinary enlisted personnel (one as a meatand dairy inspector) (14 through 18). During the early part of the war period,the division veterinarian was also commanding officer of the division medicalsquadron's veterinary troop, but, in December 1940, the offices of divisionveterinarian and troop commander were separated by changes in the existing T/O'sfor the medical squadron. This was confirmed later, in the spring of 1942, whennew T/O's for headquarters, cavalry division, included provision for thedivision veterinarian without referring to the organization of the medicalsquadron or its veterinary troop. Of course, there were other and majorchanges in the various elements comprising the standard cavalry division. Thewartime T/O's
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generally referred to thedivision as including two brigades (each with two cavalry regiments and amachinegun squadron); division artillery; engineer, medical, andquartermaster squadrons; signal troop; and military police battalion. Thedivision, at full strength, had 11,000 to 12,000 officers and enlisted personnel(including 14 Veterinary Corps officers) and approximately 7,300 horses andmules.
There were two cavalrydivisions in the wartime Army: The 1st Cavalry Division which continued inexistence after the early 1920's; and the 2d Cavalry Division which wasactivated in April 1941 and temporarily or partially disbanded in July 1942,only to be completely reactivated in February 1943 (with Negro enlistedpersonnel) and then completely inactivated during the first 5 months of 1944.The 2d Cavalry Division, without its animals but with its full complement ofveterinary personnel, was deployed into the North African theater in 1944.During the earlier period of its active status, this division included thefollowing elements with assigned veterinary personnel: The 9th, 10th, 27th, and28th Cavalry Regiments; the 77th and 79th Field Artillery Battalions; the 20thQuartermaster Squadron; and a veterinary troop. The 1st Cavalry Division, likethe other, proceeded overseas without animals, and included the HeadquartersTroop, the 5th and 12th Cavalry Regiments of the 1st Cavalry Brigade, the 2dCavalry Brigade with the 7th and 8th Cavalry Regiments, the 61st and 99th FieldArtillery Battalions (75-mm. Howitzer Pack), 16th Quartermaster Squadron, andthe 1st Medical Squadron. It was deployed in the Southwest Pacific Area inmid-1943 but entered combat as infantry.
Cavalry Brigades andRegiments
The cavalry regiment, horse,and the cavalry regiment, horse and mechanized, pursuant to T/O's, haddifferent-sized veterinary sections. In the cavalry regiment, horse, the medicaldetachment veterinary section included 3 officers (including one inthe grade of captain who normally was designated regimental veterinarian, andtwo in the grade of first lieutenant who served with the regiment's two riflesquadrons) and 14 enlisted personnel (19, 20, 21). The regiment was mounted on1,500 to 1,600 horses. In contrast, the cavalry regiment, horse and mechanized,was furnished approximately 550 horses specifically for the regimental squadron,horse, while this regiment's other squadron was completely motorized ormechanized. The horse-mechanized unit included a veterinary section of oneofficer in the grade of captain and six enlisted personnel (22, 23, 24). DuringWorld War II, veterinary officers were assigned to duty to, or as National Guardofficers entered active military service with, at least 23 of these regiments:namely, 2d through 14th, 27th, 28th, 101st, 102d, 104th, 106th, 107th, 112th,113th, 115th, and 124th; also, Veterinary Corps officers served with the 26thCavalry Regiment (Philippine Scouts) which fought on the Bataan peninsula in1941-42.
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Field Artillery Battalionsand Regiments, and Division Artillery
Field artillery units havingorganically assigned veterinary personnel included at least four kinds ofbattalions, three types of regiments, and the so-called division artillery suchas of cavalry, light, and mountain divisions (table 18). These were horsemounted, horse drawn, or moved by pack animal. During the war, availablerecords show that there were as many as 28 such field artillery battalions towhich veterinary officers were assigned at one time or another.1 Of course, manyof the battalions were converted or motorized later, and thus their veterinarypersonnel departed, as did the horses and mules, before the battalions weredeployed. This number also includes the battalions that were a part of the 1stand 2d Cavalry Divisions and of the 10th Mountain Division which entered intocombat in the final push against the Germans in the Apennines. Other battalions,with their organically assigned veterinary sections, were deployed into combatas separate units, such as the 601st and 602d Field Artillery Battalions insouthern France and the 612th and 613th Field Artillery Battalions thatcomprised the MARS Brigade artillery in the Burma operations.
TABLE 18.-Assignedveterinary personnel, field artillery battalions
Field artillery battalion, 75-mm. | Animals | Veterinary section | |
Officers | Enlisted personnel | ||
Gun, horse-drawn | 389 horses | 1 1st Lt. | 7 |
Howitzer: |
|
|
|
| Horse | 491 horses | 1 1st Lt. | 7 |
| Pack | 288 mules and horses | 1 1st Lt. | 4 |
| Pack, mountain | 413 mules and horses | 1 Capt. or 1st Lt. | 6 |
In the formation ofregiments, two such battalions were grouped, and a regimental veterinarydetachment of 2 officers and 10 to 12 enlisted personnel were authorized forthe following: Field artillery regiment, 75-mm. field howitzer, horse; fieldartillery regiment, 75-mm. howitzer, pack; and field artillery regiment, 75-mm.gun, horse-drawn.
It must be mentioned thattwo horse or horse-drawn battalions were grouped with a third or truck-drawnbattalion to form the division artillery, cavalry division (with a total animalstrength approximating 1,000 horses), and that a special T/O of the lattersimply merged the two relevant veterinary sections to form the divisionartillery's veterinary detachment (25, 26). The latter was true also for thedivision artillery of other type divisions.
1This number, however, doesnot include the utilization of the pertinent portion of the T/O's for the pack howitzer fieldartillery battalion as regards the battalion's veterinary section that comprised the basisfor organizing 34 separate veterinary sections or detachments.
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Thus, division artillery,light division (pack transport), included three field artillery battalions,75-mm. howitzer, pack, each with their own veterinary sections (27).Altogether, there were 3 veterinary officers and 12 enlisted personnel to carefor approximately 850 mules and horses which were authorized for the lightdivision's division artillery. There were three battalions, 75-mm. howitzer,pack, mountain, in the composition of the division artillery, mountaindivision, whose animal strength aggregated close to 1,300 mules and horses;veterinary personnel in the sections with each of the battalions aggregated 3officers and 18 enlisted personnel (28). The mountain pack battalion wasdesigned for a part of mountain division artillery but need not be so deployed;in August 1945, the earlier pack battalion was replaced by the mountain packbattalion.
Medical Department Units
There were a large number ofMedical Department field units whose T/ O's provided for organically assignedveterinary personnel, including those T/O's which prescribed for what wasfrequently referred to as veterinary field units. The latter may be subgroupedinto those whose primary function in a theater command was to establish a systemof animal evacuation and veterinary hospitalization, and the second group ofthose concerned with a theater food inspection service. These veterinary fieldunits were:
Separate veterinary company
Veterinary troop, medical squadron
Veterinary company, medical battalion(mountain)
Veterinary animal service detachment, Team DC
Veterinary evacuation detachment, Team CD
Veterinary evacuation detachment, Team CE
Veterinary evacuation hospital
Veterinary convalescent hospital
Veterinary general hospital
Veterinary station hospital
Veterinary hospital detachment, Team DA
Veterinary hospital detachment, Team DB
Headquarters animalservice, Team AR
Veterinary food inspection detachment, Team DD
Veterinarydetachment, aviation
In addition, two differenttypes of separate veterinary sections and detachments were organized duringthe war period by the utilization of pertinent parts of T/O's for the fieldartillery battalion, 75-mm. howitzer, pack, and the quartermaster remounttroop. Including the latter, 226 veterinary units were organized or completelyreorganized pursuant to T/O's.
Medical Department units,other than those specified for the veterinary service, that included organicallyassigned veterinary personnel included hospital, laboratory, supply, and medicaladministrative staff units. Applicable T/O's provided for aveterinary enlisted man, in the capacity of meat and dairy hygienist, in anumber of hospital and medical treatment units such
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as the general hospital,general hospital (neuropsychiatric), station hospital, convalescent hospital,convalescent camp, and convalescent center. Many of these, following theiractivation, presumably gained the assignment of the veterinary enlistedpersonnel, but the exact number that did was not determined. In fact, thesituation with regard to veterinary service for hospital units was made lessclear because some few, particularly during the early part of the war period,were deployed in the theater commands with a Veterinary Corps officer includedin their organization. The same situation pertained to the headquarters,hospital center, and headquarters, medical concentration center, except thatsome of these headquarters units did not have the assigned veterinary personnel,though the pertinent T/O's expressly authorized veterinary personnel spacevacancies for an officer in the grade of major and an enlisted man.
During World War II, fourmedical general laboratories were deployed in the theater commands overseas: The1st in the European theater, the 15th in the Mediterranean theater, the 18th inthe Central Pacific Area, and the 19th in the Southwest Pacific Area. Theseunits were deployed to function as central medical department laboratoryfacilities in the theaters, conducting epidemiological studies, research, andtechnical inspections and investigation; preparing and distributing certainbiologics; and issuing laboratories animals. The T/O for themedical general laboratory authorized the assignment of two veterinaryofficers, one in the grade of lieutenant colonel and the other in the grade ofcaptain, and approximately four enlisted men, who were specialized inbacteriology, pathology, and food analyses (29 through 34). A similar, butsmaller, unit was the medical laboratory. This unit, designed for deployment bya field army or in a section of a theater's communications zone, was organizedinternally to include a base or stationary laboratory and three mobilelaboratories. During the war, 19 such units were deployed in the theaters. Eachsuch laboratory, pursuant to T/O's, was authorized one veterinary officer in thegrade of major and three to four enlisted specialist personnel, who specializedin bacteriology, pathology, and food analyses (35 through 40).
The medical supply depot wasanother field unit, with the specific mission of operating as the medicalsupply storage and distribution agency in a field army or section of thecommunications zone. The T/O's initiallyprovided for the assignment of a veterinary officerin the grade of major and an enlisted man as his assistant. At least 12 suchunits were organized during the early war period and are known to have had theirown assigned veterinary officers. A number of these continued the assignmentof their veterinary officers even after the authorization was deleted in April 1943.
Quartermaster Corps Units
In World War II, 21 ormore quartermaster pack troops and companies were organized, but none may be regarded ashaving its own organic veteri-
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nary section. The troop orcompany, each with 298 mules and horses and having the capability for hauling 20tons of cargo, was designed to operate either separately or as operationalelements of a cavalry division's quartermaster squadron (in which the troopname was used) and of a mountain division's quartermaster battalion (in whichthe company was used) (41, 42, 43, 44). Thus, these were the 16th and 20thCavalry Quartermaster Squadrons, each with a pack troop, and the 10th MountainQuartermaster Battalion, with 2 pack companies, but these 4 troops andcompanies are to be counted as additional to the 21 just mentioned. The reasonfor noting this is that the T/O's originally did not provide for a veterinarysection as an organic part of the pack company or troop, so that veterinaryanimal service detachments of varying organizational structure were speciallyorganized and attached to these units when operating separately. On the otherhand, as elements of a cavalry squadron or mountain battalion, the veterinaryanimal services for the troops and companies were provided by veterinary sectionorganizations that were set forth in the tables for the parent squadrons andbattalions-the cavalry squadron having a veterinary section of one officer inthe grade of lieutenant and four enlisted personnel, and the mountainbattalion having its veterinary section of one officer in the grade of captainor first lieutenant and nine enlisted personnel. The inequality in the T/O'sregarding the pack company and troop's veterinary services when operatingseparately or as elements of a squadron or battalion was corrected in May 1945when T/O's for the pack company or troop were amended to authorize an organic orunit veterinary detachment of one officer in the grade of captain or firstlieutenant and four enlisted personnel, when such company or troop was deployedseparately; however, no such units were organized at this time.
Another type of pack unitwas that provided in the pack-transported light division; namely, thequartermaster pack company, light (45). Three such companies were authorized foreach division, each having 287 mules and horses, but no veterinary section wasincluded in the organic composition of the company.
Other quartermaster fieldunits concerned with Army horses and mules were the quartermaster remountsquadron and the quartermaster remount troop-each provided with a veterinarydetachment. Approximately 10 remount troops, and including separate troop unitsand those grouped under a remount squadron headquarters, were organizedduring the war.2Another animal unit was the quartermaster war dog platoon,later redesigned as the infantry scout dog platoon, which included a personnelspace authorization in the T/O's for a veterinary enlisted man. Altogether, 21platoon units were organized.
2This number doesnot include, however, the utilization of the pertinent portion of the T/O's forthe quartermaster remount troop as regards the troop's veterinary section thatcomprised the basis for organizing nine separate, lettered veterinary sections.
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In regard to the variousquartermaster field units which were concerned with the receipt, storage,distribution, or other handling of subsistence in theater commands, there wasonly one whose T/O had provisions for a veterinary detachment; namely, thequartermaster refrigeration company, fixed (46, 47). This unit was designed tooperate a perishable subsistence distribution point serving as many as 120,000troops and, as required, to operate a field abattoir. It was authorized its ownveterinary detachment of two officers in the grades of captain and firstlieutenant and eight enlisted personnel; in July 1944, the veterinarydetachment's enlisted strength was cut back to four men. During World War II, anestimated 20 such units with their veterinary detachments operated in theoversea commands-many companies were deployed without their butcher or otherplatoon elements being activated. At least nine quartermasters refrigerationcompanies, fixed, saw duty in the European theater, where they were attached tothe quartermaster base depot units.
Signal Corps Units
There was only one fieldunit of the Signal Corps authorized organic veterinary service; namely, thesignal pigeon company. Veterinary Corps officers were assigned to 12 or moresuch units during World War II.
Transportation Corps Units
At the onset of the war,water transportation was the responsibility of the Quartermaster Corps, and itsoversea field installations were referred to as mobile ports, each withprescribed capacities for handling as many as 50,000 personnel and 300,000 tonsof cargo a month. The T/O's for headquarters and headquarters company, port(mobile), authorized veterinary personnel spaces for in officer in the grade oflieutenant colonel and an enlisted man as meat and dairy inspector (48). Withthe development of the Transportation Corps, the Quartermaster Corps mobile portorganization was replaced by two new port units-the major port and the mediumport. During the war period, approximately 30 such port headquarters wereactivated,probably each with its own port veterinary personnel, but this last wasdifficult to accurately determine from available historical reports becausesome port headquarters were subordinated in various theater provisionalorganizations. For example, the 24th Major Port was lost in the organization ofthe Army Port and Service Command, Central Pacific Base Command, which set up atHonolulu, T.H. The numerical designation of some port headquarters units werethe 1st through the 18th, the 20th through the 24th, the 51st, 52d, 53d, 55th,and the 668th through the 671st.
The headquarters andheadquarters company, major port (oversea), comprised the administrativeoverhead for a mobile port organization and facility (49). Its T/O's authorizedthe assignment of two veterinary officers
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(one in the grade oflieutenant colonel and the other as captain) and four enlisted personnel as meatand dairy inspectors. The smaller unit, headquarters and headquarters company,medium port (oversea), regulated a port organization and facility withcapabilities at about a half of that prescribed for a major port (50). Thepertinent T/O's provided personnel space authorizations for one veterinaryofficer in the grade of major and two enlisted personnel.
Army Air Forces Units
War Department T/O's for themedical section of headquarters, air force, included provisions for theassignment of one veterinary officer in the grade of major and a veterinarynoncommissioned officer (51, 52). During World War II, there were four suchnumbered air forces in the Zone of Interior, and the Fifth through the Fifteenthand the Twentieth were deployed in the oversea areas, but, in many of these,there was no headquarters?assigned or air force veterinarian. Usually, thislast-named staff position was occupied by the commanding officer of theveterinary detachment, aviation, which was attached to the air force, or bythe relevant air service command veterinarian. In the air service command,veterinary personnel space authorizations for one officer in the grade of majorand an enlisted man were prescribed in the T/O's for this unit (53). Theauthorizations were a part of those provided for the medical section of theheadquarters special staff group.
Another Army Air Forcesunit was the Air Corps headquarters and headquarters squadron, air force basecommand. This included a veterinary officer in the grade of captain and oneveterinary enlisted man, as a meat and dairy hygienist, in the medical personnelspace authorization for the headquarters group (51). Also, there was thearctic search and rescue squadron which contained authorizations for aveterinary enlisted man in each of its three flights that contained sled dogteams.
TYPICAL THEATER VETERINARYSERVICE ORGANIZATION
The foregoing paragraphs aredescriptive of the types of individual veterinary units and those field unitshaving organically assigned veterinary personnel who saw service in thetheater commands during World War II. Throughout the war, however, there was nosingle description of the principles and doctrine, which brought these variousunits together or into focus, as to what really comprised a theater veterinaryservice organization. Furthermore, such few descriptions as did exist wereincomplete and meager in detail, outdated, or pertained to veterinary animalservice almost exclusively (55 through 60). Long after the end of the period ofactive hostilities, such a description was developed and officially entered intodiscussions generally on the roles of the medical, dental, and veterinaryservices in a theater of operations. Referring largely to the wartime expe-
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riences, the typical theaterveterinary service organization thus was described in FM (Field Manual) 8-10,Medical Service, Theater of Operations, 22 March 1951.
BASE, DEFENSE, AND MINORTHEATER COMMANDS
Preparatory to thedescription of the functional organization of the Army Veterinary Service inthe Middle East-African-European and the Asiatic-Pacific theaters, reference ismade first to the several departments, base and defense commands, and minortheater organizations which were included in, or surrounded, the WesternHemisphere. The latter, for the most part, comprised the American theater. Theseincluded the original departmental commands in the Panama Canal region and inthe Puerto Rican area, and the semiterritorial, semitactical organization inAlaska, later reorganized as the Alaskan Department. As Germany continued hermilitary successes over all of the European Continent, the United Statesentered into the development of a number of Atlantic and Caribbean bases forbetteringthe defenses of the North American Continent. Thus, pursuant to thedestroyer-base transaction concluded by the President in the fall of 1940,British territorial areas and islands along the North Atlantic coastline and inthe Caribbean became sites for new U.S. military bases. The largest of these,created as administratively separate organizations, were the Newfoundland BaseCommand and Bermuda Base Command; the others, including Trinidad, in theCaribbean area were subordinated as island base organizations of the newCaribbean Defense Command. Greenland became the location for Army bases pursuantto an agreement reached in April 1941 between the United States and Denmark. InIceland, the Army took over bases that were originally set up there in thespring of 1940 by a British expeditionary force; in 1944, Iceland separateditself from Denmark to become an independent sovereignty.
Parallel with the foregoingdevelopments, other bases-many identified later as belonging to the Army AirForces Air Transport Command-were developed in the Western Hemisphere along theaerial routes which were followed in the delivery of airplanes and lend-leasesupplies to the Allied military forces in various parts of the world. This, inpart, marked the origin of U.S. Army Forces, South Atlantic, and also certaincommands in Canada, though the western part of that country became moreimportant militarily as the Northwest Service Command in connection with thedevelopment of the Alcan Highway and Canol Project. Regardless of the natureor military reasons for their creation and development, the various base anddefense commands each had its own veterinary service organization. Theirmissions were primarily those of food inspection, including the conduct ofinspections on meat and dairy products which were procured from indigenoussources. On the other hand, the veterinary services with animals in
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these commands were notextensive, though Army dogs were utilized in some, and Army mule and horsestrength in the Panama Canal Department approximated a thousand animals in1941.
Caribbean Defense Command
The Caribbean DefenseCommand, with headquarters located at Quarry Heights, C.Z., was organized inFebruary 1941 purposefully to coordinate the control of Army activities in thePanama Canal Department, the Puerto Rican Department (later AntillesDepartment), and the several task forces and base commands which then weresetting up at the bases leased from the British and in other territories in theCaribbean area. This was one of six defense commands created to organize thedefense for that which was to be named the American theater, before war wasdeclared; the others being the Alaska Defense Command and the four (that is,Eastern, Central, Southern, and Western) which were established within thecontinental United States. The early organization of the Caribbean DefenseCommand was made up of three sector subcommands: the Panama Sector; the PuertoRican Sector, including the department by that name, as well as Army personneland activities in the Virgin Islands, Jamaica, Cuba, and Antigua; and theTrinidad Sector, including the Trinidad Base Section and the forces in SaintLucia, Aruba, and Curacao, and the Guianas (British, French, and Dutch). Eachsector subcommand had its own veterinary service organization, but there wasno coordination between them at the level of the Caribbean Defense Command-thelatter having no staff veterinarian in its headquarters. On the other hand,the commanding general of the Caribbean Defense Command also was the PanamaCanal Department commander, but the defense command headquarters special staffwas kept unusually small; it did not include a staff surgeon until the fall of1943.
The trisector organizationof the Caribbean Defense Command lasted until June 1943 when the Puerto RicanDepartment was renamed Antilles Department and reorganized to include theTrinidad Sector and Base Section as a subordinate echelon of command. Thetwo-departmental organization was continued until September 1945. At that time,"defense" was dropped from the name and it became Caribbean Command.Just before this change in name was made, or on 11 August 1945, the theatercommand headquarters formally gained a Veterinary Corps officers on its medicalstaff by the additional duty assignment of the Veterinarian, Panama CanalDepartment. On 1 September 1945, a T/O reversed the status of the theatercommand veterinarian, with his reassignment to primary duty in the theaterheadquarters and additional duty to Headquarters, Panama Canal Department (61).
Panama Canal Department
The Army Veterinary Servicewith the Panama Canal Department originated in World War I. During 1940-41, its peacetime personnel strength
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was almost doubled, toinclude, as of the end of December 1941, 7 veterinary officers and 53 enlistedpersonnel. Most of these were on duty with the 3d Veterinary Company, the 2dField Artillery Battalion, and provisional veterinary hospital organizationsat Fort Clayton and Fort William D. Davis; the department's animal strengthapproximated 1,000 mules and horses. However, after 1942, when the 2d FieldArtillery Battalion was motorized and its mules transshipped to the Pacifictheaters and Zone of Interior, this number of veterinary personnel was reducedto approximately 6 officers and 15 enlisted personnel and so remained untilafter the war period. In July 1944, the personnel were transferred to the newlyestablished Veterinary Service Detachment, Panama Canal Department, under thedirect jurisdiction of the department veterinarian located at Fort Clayton.Subdetachments then were organized at Fort Clayton, Fort William D. Davis,Post of Corozal, and at Guatemala City, Guatemala, and at Salinas, Ecuador. TheWar Department allotment or manning table that provided for this organizationalso included the veterinary space authorizations for the Sixth Air Force.
The veterinary service withanimals concerned the mules and horses which were used by the 2d Field ArtilleryBattalion and the Panama Mobile Force, but these units were motorized later, andthe excess animals then were transshipped from the department, the last shipmentbeing made in June 1943. In the interim (beginning in December 1942), however,Army dogs were brought into the Panama Canal Department and were placed underthe control of the Army Veterinary Service; on request, dogs also were issued tothe U.S. Marine Corps (fig. 17). In addition to these activities, completeprofessional services were provided to the Navy and the Marine Corps which wereutilizing mules and native ponies in mounted guard patrols, a veterinaryinvestigation was conducted for the Panama National Police Corps following anincident of feed poisoning among a large number of its police horses, and theArmy Veterinary Service cooperated with local civilian authorities in theoperation of import animal quarantines such as concerned the traffic of dogs andother pet animals belonging to military personnel. In this connection, it maybe noted that a dog involved in a fatal case of human rabies (in an Armyofficer, in Guatemala) was quarantined for approximately 2 months at the Armyveterinary hospital, Fort Clayton, and then destroyed; the fact that this dogmanifested no clinical symptoms of rabies during the quarantine period and thesubsequent laboratory examination of brain tissue was negative for Negribodies resulted in civil action to extend the animal import quarantine period to6 months.
In regard to the subsistencesupply, the Army Veterinary Service inspected all foods, including fruits andvegetables, that were received from the Zone of Interior and cooperated withquartermaster officers in the procurement locally of fresh milk, ice cream, andbeef. The handling of perish-
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FIGURE 17.-Kennel areas inthe Panama Canal Department.
able subsistence in thePanama Canal Department was facilitated by the construction of a cold storageplant (of approximately 360,000 cu. ft. capacity) at Corozal General Depot;ration issues were distributed from this point by refrigerated truck and boatsto outposts as far as a hundred miles away. Under the prevailing tropical andhumid climatic conditions, considerable difficulty was experienced in thehandling of perishable subsistence without the occurrence of some losses inquality due to partial thawing of products. To prevent outright spoilage, manyproducts which ordinarily were handled in a chilled refrigerated state werefrozen. The difficulty was best indicated by spoilage losses totaling 50 to 95percent of the quantities in certain shipments received at Corozal, particularlyin shipments of head lettuce. The fresh fruits and vegetables that were procuredlocally originated from Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Ecuador. Fresh milk forthe military forces in the department was obtained from two dairies, one atMount Hope, and the other at Aguadulce.
During 1943 and 1944, theArmy Veterinary Service in the Panama Canal Department inspected more than 160million pounds of meat and dairy products, as follows:
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1943 | Pounds |
Procurement inspections: |
|
| Prior to purchase | 15,503,527 |
| On delivery at purchase | 23,684,983 |
Surveillance inspections: |
|
| Any receipt except purchase | 10,778,618 |
| Prior to shipment | 2,388,329 |
| Issue | 33,914,959 |
| 1944 |
|
Procurement inspections: |
|
| Prior to purchase | 714,354 |
| On delivery at purchase | 5,222,261 |
Surveillance inspections: |
|
| Any receipt except purchase | 34,296,236 |
| Prior to shipment | 10,457,882 |
| Issue | 26,486,920 |
Another 1,805,952 and1,268,899 pounds, respectively, were inspected for the Army Exchange Systemwhich manufactured most of the ice cream that it sold, though some quantitieswere procured from three commercial plants. It must be noted that the veterinaryinspections pertaining to locally procured foods were also a part of themedical protective procedures of antibiological warfare.
Along with the theaterprograms to lessen the volume of water transportation into the Panama CanalDepartment, the Army Veterinary Service surveyed the fresh beef supply inCentral and South American countries and conducted the necessary ante mortem andpost mortem inspections. The Rastio Nacional, Escuintla, Guatemala, proved tobe the largest of the sources surveyed, and under Veterinary Corps supervisionproduced and shipped to the Panama Canal Department more than 850,000 pounds offresh-frozen carcass beef during the period November 1943 through July 1944. Theabsence of suitable abattoir facilities in San Salvador precluded beefprocurement from El Salvador. For the supply of fresh beef to the airbases atDavid, Panama, and Salinas, Ecuador, local cattle slaughtering projects wereset up with veterinary officers conducting the necessary inspections. TheDavid airbase supply originated at Los Potreros and approximated 15,000 poundseach month, and that in Ecuador provided more than 210,000 in the period from 6October 1942 through 24 November 1943. None of these projects was conductedwithout certain problems, not excluding international relations, such asrefrigeration and transportation of the meat, the standards of abattoirconstruction and operation, and the grade quality of the beef. In Ecuador, inaddition to the development of a suitable meat supply, the veterinary officersurveyed and assisted in the development of modern marketing procedures andsanitary controls for fresh fruits and vegetables, eggs, and milk. Thelast-named product was obtained from a dairy plant in Guayaquil which bottledthe milk in beer bottle containers and then pasteurized the bottled milk in anearby brewery plant; the raw milk
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supply originated from aherd specially examined and tuberculin tested by the veterinary officer. Thelatter, also, provided attending veterinary services to the bases at Talara,Peru, and in the Galapagos Islands where the major problem was that of properlyhandling and storing perishable subsistence.
Antilles Department
The Antilles Department,like the Panama Canal Department, was a sector or administrative subarea of theCaribbean Defense Command. It was established on 1 July 1939, originally as thePuerto Rican Department, with headquarters at San Juan, P.R., but on 1 June1943, its name was changed and the new Antilles Department was assignedjurisdiction over a much larger area. Soon after the Department was established,in December 1939, a Veterinary Corps officer was assigned to station at thePost of San Juan and station hospital; though he acted in the capacity ofDepartmentveterinarian, that office was not officially designated until September 1941. Bythat date, the Puerto Rican Department had gained sufficient numbers ofveterinary personnel for their assignment throughout the immediate geographicareas which were added when the Department became a sector subcommand to thenewly created Caribbean Defense Command.
By the end of 1942, theDepartment's veterinary service organization was extended to the Post of SanJuan, to Fort Buchanan (site of the Puerto Rican General Depot, later AntillesGeneral Depot 1), and to the Department's medical laboratory, as well as to theforces or base commands on Cuba, Jamaica (at Fort Simons), Virgin Islands, St.Thomas, Antigua, and British West Indies. Then, during the next year, after theoriginal name was changed to Antilles Department, the geographic boundaries weregreatly expanded, encompassing those of the formerly independent Trinidad Sectorand Base Command. The latter, with headquarters at Port of Spain, Trinidad,B.W.I., included a base force veterinarian. The original Trinidad Sector andBase Command, after its formation (in May 1941), gradually added the basesubcommands and task forces that were being set up, such as in the British WestIndies on Saint Lucia Island, in British Guiana, in the Netherlands Antilles (orNetherlands West Indies) on Aruba and Curacao, in Netherlands Guiana (orSurinam), and in French Guiana. On account of the small size of the variousdefense forces, only veterinary enlisted personnel were assigned to mostareas. The merger of the original Puerto Rican area and the Trinidad Sectortotaling 14 or more separate countries, islands, and island groups saw thestrength of the Army Veterinary Service in the Antilles Department at 12officers and 25 enlisted personnel (as of the end of 1943). During 1945,these personnel were regrouped under the central supervision of the Department'sVeterinary Detachment, Medical Section, with home station at Antilles GeneralDepot 1 (at Fort Buchanan).
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Veterinary service withanimals in the Antilles command was limited to Army sentry dogs, 24 ofthem being received during November 1942 and distributed to militaryinstallations in Puerto Rico, Jamaica, and Antigua. As of December 1945, only 12dogs remained, all housed and cared for by the veterinary detachment at thegeneral depot, Fort Buchanan. Another 10 Army dogs were utilized at Fort Read,Trinidad. The veterinary meat and dairy hygiene inspection activities largelyconcerned surveillance inspectional control over products which were receivedfrom the Zone of Interior. During 1942, subsistence brought into the area andinspected approximated 20 million pounds of meat and dairy products; lossestotaled 0.34 percent on account of spoilage. In Puerto Rico, Jamaica, and Cuba,fresh milk and ice cream (totaling 4 million pounds in 1943), and somefresh-frozen fish were procured locally, as were also some fresh beef andpoultry from the Dominican Republic and Cuba. In Puerto Rico also, the ArmyVeterinary Service, on request of the Department surgeon, expanded itsinspection activities to commercial food establishments, including softbeverage bottling plants, bakeries, and restaurants. In connection with theconduct of these sanitary inspections of food establishments and of locallyprocured food products, the necessary bacteriological examinations and chemicalanalyses workload was referred to the Department medical laboratory which hadbecome,operational, in the spring of 1942, complete with a veterinary laboratorysubsection. In the Trinidad Sector, there was almost no procurement of foodslocally, though a very small quantity of fresh milk was obtained in BritishGuiana, and some few cattle of Venezuelan origin were slaughtered underveterinary supervision to furnish beef to the U.S. Engineer Departmentcivilians at airbase construction camps.
Bermuda Base Command
The Bermuda Base Command,coming into existence in the spring of 1941, evidenced no need for veterinarypersonnel until after a special survey of the local milk industry was conductedby a Veterinary Corps officer, on request of the Government of Bermuda. Thissurvey demonstrated that the command's milk supply was originating from a localmilk industry wherein 51 percent of the dairy cattle were infected withbrucellosis (an animal disease, transmissible to the human being, calledundulant fever), less than half of the milk production was pasteurized, anddairy farm and milk plant sanitary controls were almost nonexistent.Subsequently, with the assignment of a veterinary officer and two enlistedpersonnel to the base command surgeon's office in 1942, much was accomplished inassisting the Bermuda Government to improve the local dairy industry. Hisprincipalduties were the inspection of the troop food supplies and the care of Armyhorses.
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FIGURE 18.-Office of thePost Veterinarian, Fort Pepperrell, Newfoundland, November 1943.
Newfoundland Base Command
Newfoundland, an area namedin the destroyer-base exchange agreement of 1940 between the United States andGreat Britain, was entered by an Army task force landing there in January 1941.The station hospital, including a Veterinary Corps officer and the medicalstaff section of the new base command headquarters, comprised the originalMedical Department organization at Fort Pepperrell (near St. John's). Area orstation commands, each with their own veterinary personnel, were set up atFort Pepperrell, Fort McAndrew (near Argentia), Harmon Field (nearStephenville),and the airbase at Gander Lake-the last two installations being transferred inOctober 1943 to the jurisdiction of the North Atlantic Wing, Air TransportCommand (fig. 18). Personnel strength reached a peak of 5 veterinary officersand approximately 30 enlisted personnel. During July 1944, the office of thepost veterinarian, Fort Pepperrell, was merged with that of the base commandveterinarian, and, as of the end of that year, three veterinary officers(together with nine enlisted personnel) were at station at Forts Pepperrell andMcAndrew, and at Air Transport Command's Harmon Field.
The Army Veterinary Servicewith the Newfoundland Base Command was largely concerned with inspecting thetroop food supply. Thus, during
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1943 and 1944, theinspection workload each year approximated 7 million pounds of subsistence,including 4 million pounds which originated from the Zone of Interior and theremainder comprising inspections of locally procured products. Rejections in1944 totaled 92,250 pounds of meat for failures to satisfy contractualrequirements and another 36,000 pounds of Government-owned products, mostlyfresh fruits and vegetables, which were spoiled. Veterinary animal service, onthe other hand, was more limited, this being extended to approximately 35 Armydogs which were used as adjunct security guards at installations and to1,000-1,500 Army signal pigeons which arrived during 1943. The enzooticity ofcanine distemper among the civil dog population led to the veterinaryprogrammingfor annual revaccinations of the Army dogs against this disease; rabies,however, was nonexistent.
In regard to the troop foodsupply, the Army Veterinary Service routinely inspected all foods (includingfruits and vegetables) which were received from the Zone of Interior, forsanitary condition, and conducted procurement inspections for grade and sanitaryqualities of that brought in from Canada and of the fresh milk and fish whichwere procured locally. In connection with food procurement in Newfoundland, theArmy Veterinary Service surveyed the local dairy industry, cooperated withcivilian agricultural and public health officials in the start of test programsagainst tuberculosis and brucellosis in the dairy herds, cooperated with the twoveterinary officials in conducting these tuberculin and brucellosis tests on thecattle, and sought improvement in the sanitary standards for the handling,storage, and dressing of the local fish catch. The bacteriological examinationof fresh milk supply was conducted by the Army Veterinary Service in itsprovisional laboratory set up at a base hospital.
Greenland Base Command
Greenland was another areavital to the defense of the air and sea communications routes in the NorthAtlantic. Pursuant to an agreement reached between the United States andDenmark, a U.S. Army task force landed there in June-July 1941, relieving theoriginal U.S. Marine Corps garrison, and established Headquarters, GreenlandBase Command. Station hospital units soon were set up at the four main, widelyscattered bases, but it was not until 1942, that Medical Department activitiesthroughout Greenland were brought under the central supervision of a recentlydesignated base command surgeon. A staff veterinarian, who attended all fourbases, was named at the same time. The veterinary activities at these basesincluded the sanitary or surveillance inspections of meat and dairy productswhich were supplied to Army troops (which reached a peak strength of 5,600 inOctober 1943) and the professional care of the Army dogs. All food supplies werereceived from the Zone of Interior. Limited quantities of mutton and lamb wereplanned for local procurement, but a
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veterinary survey showedthat the existing shortages in facilities to properly move the meats to thebases would preclude this.
Iceland Base Command
In Iceland, the ArmyVeterinary Service established a program for civil affairs assistance that wasthe first of its kind and that contributed materially to the excellentrelations of the U.S. military forces with that country's government andpopulation (fig. 19). In fact, what was accomplished there by Army veterinaryofficers was recorded in U.S. diplomatic correspondence by an expression ofappreciation by the Prime Minister of Iceland "for the valuable servicesthey are rendering to Icelandic economy and the rural life of Iceland by thiscooperation" (62). These services included the initiation of regulatorycontrols against the diseases affecting the local animal industry, themodernization of the milk and dairy industry and the development of hog raising,and the conduct of scientific and prac-
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tical veterinary researchprograms, including investigational studies on that disease of sheep calledjagziekte.
Veterinary services inIceland were organized under the jurisdiction of Headquarters, Iceland BaseCommand, which set up operations at Reykjavik, in September 1941. Thisheadquarters included a veterinary officer in its base surgeon's office, whomaintained technical supervisory responsibilities over the veterinary officersattached to two hospital units (the 208th General and the 168th StationHospitals) and the 5th Infantry Division that came into Iceland from the Zoneof Interior. The veterinary enlisted personnel were assigned foradministrative purposes to a quartermaster refrigeration company. Aside fromtheir special duties in regard to civilian veterinary matters, their primaryduty was that of inspecting the Army food supply. Most of this supply originatedfrom the Zone of Interior, being transported on U.S. Navy vessels. On request oflocal Icelandic authorities, incoming fresh fruits and vegetables wereinspected, particularly with reference to the prevention of the introduction ofnew plant diseases, but later, the Army adopted procedures for burning garbagewaste containing such material. With civilian cooperation, the Army VeterinaryService set up a sanitary source of fresh milk supply for hospital patients,and eventually, this supply was extended to troops. Ice cream, lamb, and fishwere procured locally, following Veterinary Corps inspection of the commercialindustries. Laboratory controls over the local food supply and investigationalresearch on animal diseases were established and maintained by the ArmyVeterinary Service, on invitation of Icelandic authorities, in the University ofReykjavik.
Northwest Service Command
The Army Veterinary Servicewith the Northwest Service Command was begun during January 1943, orapproximately 3 months after the command-with headquarters at Whitehorse,Yukon Territory, Canada-was established by the War Department. That command wasthe designated field agency of Army Service Forces (in the Zone of Interior),taking over the administration of U.S. military activities in western Canada(namely, in Alberta Province, British Columbia Province, Yukon Territory, andMackenzie District) and the southeastern area of Alaska. These activities werethe maintenance of a railway, the completion of the Alaskan (or Alcan) Highway,and the construction of pipelines (called the Canol Project) from Norman Wellsand Watson Lake. Since early 1942, the U.S. Roads Administration Agency, Armyengineer construction regiments, and Task Force 2600 had been pioneering thehighway and pipeline projects. Near the war's end, on 30 June 1945, theNorthwest Service Command was reorganized as a district subcommand under thejurisdiction of the Sixth Service Command.
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Following the arrival of thefirst veterinary officer, further development of the command veterinaryservice organization was delayed for some time by local administrativedifficulties and a misleading conception that none was needed. Between June andOctober 1943, 19 additional veterinary personnel, including 5 officers and 14enlisted men, were brought in on request of the service command; these weregrouped under the administrative control of the newly formed VeterinarySection, Medical Branch, Headquarters, Northwest Service Command. From thissingle veterinary detachment, personnel under the supervision of the servicecommand veterinarian were placed on detached service at stations along theAlaskan Highway, the Mackenzie River supply route, and the Army QuartermasterMarket Center at Edmonton, Alberta Province. Another veterinary detachment wasincluded in the organization of the Northwest Service Command MedicalLaboratory, which was established in August 1943 and was discontinued by the endof March 1944. In addition, a varying number of personnel other than thoseassigned to the service command conducted veterinary services for or in theNorthwest Service Command: (1) The veterinary personnel belonging to the AlaskanWing or Division, Air Transport Command, who provided base veterinary servicesalong the airplanes-for-Russia route through the Northwest Service Command; (2)others from the Ninth Service Command, Army Service Forces, who conducted meatand dairy hygiene inspections in the Vancouver Barracks, B.C., area; and (3)those from the Seattle Port of Embarkation who rendered ancillary portveterinary services along the inland overwater route through Prince Rupert, B.C.The veterinarian at Skagway, Alaska, which like Prince Rupert, was a subportinstallation originally of the Seattle Port of Embarkation, was transferred tothe jurisdiction of the Northwest Service Command in the fall of 1943.
Veterinary activities in theNorthwest Service Command included the care of animals, meat and dairy hygieneinspections, and laboratory services. The first-named activity, to be sure, wasnot extensive. However, a few pack horses and mules and sled dogs were procuredand used locally by Army engineer units and, until mid-1943, some 30 dogs werekept at Camp Prairie (near Waterways). Other dogs were utilized by the AirTransport Command for use in search and rescue work for crews of forced-landedairplanes. Also, until November 1944, seven Army mules and horses weremaintained at Chilkoot Barracks, Alaska. In regard to meat and dairy hygieneservices, veterinary surveys were made of the sources of meat and fresh milk inwestern Canada, food procurement inspections were conducted for the EdmontonQuartermaster Market Center, and surveillance inspections were made of allsubsistence, including fruits and vegetables, during its storage,transportation, and other handling before issue to the messhalls.
The veterinary foodprocurement inspections saw the rapid development of a list of approved foodestablishments, particularly in the Edmonton area. There, the veterinary officerwith the Northwest Service Command
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Medical Laboratoryestablished a laboratory quality control over the raw milk supply and in themilk pasteurization plants which provided milk to the Army; before this time,there was little or no public health control over dairy production. In theprocurement inspections of meats, the Army Veterinary Service accepted thesanitary standards prevailing in the meat plants operating under the supervisionof the Veterinary Division, Health of Animals Branch, Dominion Department ofAgriculture; however, Army veterinary personnel were stationed in these plantsas inspectors for quality of the products during their manufacture and to checkthe weight or quantity of the products at delivery. The last-named activitybecame important because there was a great deal of variation between the Army'sand the Canadian contractor's conceptions of tare weights and shrinkages. Inanother action regarding local supply, the Army Veterinary Service successfullyprevailed upon the U.S. Engineer Department's civilian contractors of the CanolProject along the Mackenzie River route to obtain their meats through Armychannels from the Edmonton area; the local sources used by the contractorswere found to be unreasonably primitive and completely insanitary. The EdmontonQuartermaster Market Center also procured, during 1944-45 throughout Canada,22,500,000 pounds of frozen poultry for Army use and export; veterinary pointof origin inspections of this poultry were conducted in the Vancouver Barracksand Toronto-Montreal areas by personnel on temporary duty from the Ninth and theSecond Service Commands and also of 10,600,000 pounds by veterinary personnelwho were assigned to the Northwest Service Command. It may be mentioned herethat the Canadian Government and poultry industry were appreciative of theimprovements made in poultry production as the result of the application of Armyveterinary standards of sanitation and quality control. Altogether, veterinaryprocurement inspections in the command for the 2?-year period (January 1943 through June 1945) approximated 46 million pounds of meat and dairyproducts.
Of the major supply routesthrough the Northwest Service Command, the overwater transportation route from the Seattle Port of Embarkation along the shores of western Canada toSkagway proved to have the least veterinary problems for subsistencesurveillance inspections. In fact, the Northwest Service Command's veterinaryservice organization had little to do with this until late 1943, when theSkagway port veterinary service was transferred from the jurisdiction of theSeattle Port of Embarkation. At Skagway and later at Whitehorse, which wereterminal points of a railway, small refrigerated storage depots wereconstructed. In these intertheater shipments by railroad, difficulties arosewhen the quantities of subsistence unloaded at the port exceeded the storagefacilities in Skagway, or when snow, rockslides, and wrecks disrupted thetraffic to Whitehorse. At one time, frozen foods were temporarily stacked undertarpaulin coverings, and, in another instance, boxcar loads of subsistencewere moved to holding in a colder area,
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but even these were losttemporarily when the cars were covered by snowdrifts. An innovation in theshipment of certain perishable foods was the use of charcoal heaters inside therailroad cars during the winter months. There were no major food lossesencountered; however, in the subsistence which was returned to depot storagefrom camps and stations as they were closed up, there were some requirements toset up food reclamation operations. Regarding this returned subsistence-
* * * it was found thatrepeated freezing and thawing, plus general weather exposure had notmaterially damaged many canned meats. Other items such as evaporated milk wereruined by such exposure and were condemned. Some quantities had developed rust,dents, bacterial fermentation, and lost labels.
Alaskan Department
The Army Veterinary Servicewith the Alaskan Department originated in October 1940 when one veterinarynoncommissioned officer arrived for duty at Ladd Field (near Fairbanks). On 3June 1941, the first Veterinary Corps officer was assigned,and before the end of that year, additional personnel were brought in from theZone of Interior; these officers established station veterinary services at FortRichardson (near Anchorage), Fort Ray (near Sitka), and on Kodiak Island (atFort Greely) and Dutch Harbor (at Fort Mears). At the time, however, there wasno true military department organization-the Army operations in the area beingorganized (in mid-1940) as the Alaska Defense Force, or as the Alaska DefenseCommand which was the new designation after 4 February 1941. It must be recalledthat this comprised one of six such commands which were formed during the prewaremergency periods for purposes of general defensive planning for the continentalUnited States. Until 1 November 1943, when military activities in the Alaskancommand came to be administered on the basis of a separate oversea militarydepartment and the Alaska Defense Command was redesignated Alaskan Department,the area was under the control of the Ninth Corps Area and then the Fourth U.S.Army, but for defensive purposes, it was supervised by the Western DefenseCommand. As will be observed later, the early military organization in Alaskahad little or nothing to do with the fighting on, and the recapture of, theAleutian Islands, though this area later was included in general descriptions ofthe Alaskan Department.
During the early war years,the medical staff section in the Alaskan command was without aheadquarters-assigned veterinarian. In April 1943, the many small and widelyscattered veterinary detachments were grouped into the newly organizedVeterinary Section, Service Command, Alaska Defense Command. This was renamedlater as Veterinary Detachment, Alaskan Department. Its senior rankingVeterinary Corps officer initially was assigned to station on Adak Island.During this time, veterinary subsections were established at 14 locations:Adak Island, Annette Island, Fort
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Glenn, Fort Greely, FortMears, Fort Morrow, Fort Randall, Fort Ray, Fort Raymond, Fort Richardson,Juneau, Ladd Field, Nome, and Whittier. This marked the period of maximumactivity, and, soon after the reoccupation of Kiska Island (in August 1943)and the end of the Aleutian campaign, the original defense commandorganization gave way to a peace-time oversea department, the AlaskanDepartment. Eventually, the original veterinary organization was merged intoHeadquarters, Alaskan Department, and during December 1944, the rankingveterinary officer took over the role of department veterinarian. Then, thenumber of veterinary personnel in the Alaskan Department reached its peakstrength of 7 officers and 33 enlisted personnel. Of course, with the declineof military operations in Alaska, the veterinary service that once had beenscattered at 14 locations were consolidated on Adak Island, at Forts Glenn,Greely, Mears, and Morrow, at Ladd Field, Nome, Whittier, and at 3 new locations:Amchitka Island, Camp Earle, and Shemya Island.
At these stations, both meatand dairy hygiene and veterinary animal services were provided. During the war,more than 150 sled dogs were maintained at Fort Richardson, Ladd Field, and Nomefor use in connection with land-rescue operations and evacuations of patients,and scout?messenger dogs were used on Attu, Adak, and Amchitka Islands. Also,there were 275 pigeons at Fort Richardson and Ladd Field during the period fromNovember 1941 through October 1943. In June 1945, a veterinary officer undertookthe development of a livestock farm on Adak Island which, by the end of theyear, had a hundred hogs, fed on Army messhall garbage, and 250 chickens whoseegg production was being furnished to the Army hospital. The fresh vegetableproduction in the gardens and hothouses at Ladd Field was managed by theveterinary officer. In cooperation with the Alaska Territorial veterinarian andpublic health officials, Army veterinarians tested dairy herds for tuberculosisand brucellosis. An education program for improved sanitary milk production wasconducted among the farms and producers.
The Alaskan command wasprovided with subsistence which for the most part originated from the Zone ofInterior; however, varying quantities of fresh meat and dairy products wereprocured locally. Thus, beginning in 1942, veterinary procurement inspectionswere inaugurated on quartermaster purchases of fresh fish (salmon and halibut)and locally canned salmon; also, ante mortem and post mortem inspections ofreindeer (at Nome and Bethel) and of cattle (on Kodiak Island) wereconducted. Later, in 1943 and 1944, lambs and hogs, respectively, wereslaughtered under veterinary supervision in the Matanuska Valley. Along withthis, the Army Veterinary Service programmed improvements in the local dairyindustries so that a regular supply of fresh milk became available for thetroops at Fort Richardson, Ladd Field, and Juneau. Losses among the subsistencebrought in from the Zone of Interior were relatively great because there
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were no adequate storagefacilities to keep the tin containers from rusting or the foods from alternatelyfreezing and thawing with the seasonal weather changes. During the first year atLadd Field, perishable (or fresh) subsistence was stored in an abandoned mineshaft which penetrated below the perpetual ice sheet. Also, in 1942, aerialbomb damage at Fort Mears and inadequate construction of refrigerated storagefacilities at Fort Raymond led to serious losses of fresh foods.
Reference is made here tothe Aleutian Islands Campaign (3 June 1942 to 24 August 1943) which otherwise iscited formally as one of the campaigns of the Army in the Asiatic-Pacifictheater. The Alaskan Department had little to do with the fighting for Attu orthe reoccupation of Kiska Island; however, after the United States had regainedpossession of these islands, they were included in the geographic boundarydefinitions of the Alaskan Department. Army task forces landed on Adak (inAugust 1942) and Amchitka Islands (in January 1943) to develop bases for theEleventh Air Force. At about this time, a Veterinary Corps officer attached tothe 25-bed hospital unit which was scheduled for deployment to Atka Island wastransferred to Adak Island. On 11 May 1943, a task force composed of the mainportion of the 7th Infantry Division made a surprise landing on Attu Islandand, before the end of that month, drove off the Japanese forces. As to theactivities of the division veterinarian who accompanied the task force, it wasreported:
* * * due to the fact thatmost subsistence consumed was "Type C and K", he had very little foodinspection to do, so he acted as Liaison Officer, organizing litter squads atthe beaches and leading them up to the front line, and in general assisting theMedical Officers where necessary. During his spare time, [he] assisted indebugging Japanese mines and high explosives * * *.
When Kiska Island wasreoccupied, a Veterinary Corps officer accompanied that task force. This endedthe Aleutian campaign, but within a year, the large stockpiles of food that werebuilt up in these islands, becoming excess to requirements when the tacticalforces were withdrawn, began to show evidences of deterioration and spoilage.Large quantities of these stockpiles subsequently were condemned, while somewere returned to Quartermaster depots in the Zone of Interior for reclamationand repackaging. Thus, in regard to the subsistence stockpiles on Adak Island, aveterinary officer reported:
* * * this food had beenhurriedly stored on the tundra in three large dumps, which for the main partwere completely covered with snow during the winter. As the snow melted off, theVeterinary Detachment was able to work, removing all that had been badly damagedby the weather. During the following year [1944] approximately 600,000 poundsof food of all types was condemned. While this amount seems high, it must beremembered that most of this subsistence had been, of necessity, roughly treatedduring the early stages, and much of it had been excesses on the mainland andother stations. At the time of condemnation most of it was two years old and wasbadly damaged due to rough handling, freezing, and rust.
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U.S. Army Forces, SouthAtlantic
The Army Veterinary Servicewith. U.S. Army Forces, South Atlantic, which was established, in November1942, with headquarters located at Recife, Brazil, was initially represented bythe veterinary officer then on duty with the South Atlantic Wing, Air TransportCommand. He served in the additional-duty capacity as theaterveterinarian, but, as it became evident that Air Transport Command operationswould be exempted from theater control, he was replaced, pursuant toarrangements made by the headquarters surgeon, by another officer newly arrivedfrom the Zone of Interior (on 1 February 1943). On 31 October 1945, when theU.S. Forces, South Atlantic, was discontinued, veterinary service in thegeographic area was transferred to the jurisdiction of the Air TransportCommand, South Atlantic Division, and a veterinary officer was transferred tothe latter headquarters at Natal, Brazil.
The U.S. Army Forces, SouthAtlantic, was never a theater of operations; in fact, in many respects it wassimilar to the U.S. Army Forces in Central Africa-both initially acting asdefense commands for the air-ferrying operations and the bases of the AirTransport Command which were strung from southeastern United States, throughthe northeastern part of South America, central Africa, and thence into theMiddle East. During February 1943, Composite Force 8012 on Ascension Island wasadded to the jurisdiction of U.S. Army Forces, South Atlantic, this task force,including a Veterinary Corps officer, had set up station there in March 1942.By the end of 1943, the theater command's veterinary service organizationincluded three officers and six enlisted personnel. These were distributed amongthree area subcommands: Recife, which included Fernando de Noronha, Bah?a, andAscension Island; Natal, which extended to Fortaleza (approximately 200 milesfrom Natal); and Bel?m, which included also S?o Luiz and Amap?. Later, afourth area was established in southern Brazil to include Rio de Janeiro, S?o Paulo,P?rto Alegre, and Rio Grande, where large quantities of foods wereprocured for local use.
The main activity of theArmy Veterinary Service in these areas was the inspection of meat and dairyproducts. Large quantities of these were received by shipment from the United States, but, on account of the irregularities ofshipping due tothreatened enemy submarine action and the shortages in refrigerated storagefacilities until the last year of the war, considerable quantities wereprocured locally. As of the spring of 1943, eight commercial food establishmentsin Brazil were listed by the Veterinary Corps as approved sources for procuringmeats, poultry, milk, eggs, butter, and cheese. Others were added later, so thatthis number was 25 as of the end of 1944. A fresh milk supply was developed fortroops in the Recife area, and some of this was shipped, in 10-galloncontainers, by airplane to Natal. Ice cream was obtained, however, by the Army'smanufacturing its
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own from a powdered mixbrought in from the Zone of Interior. Fresh eggs were procured locally, butstringent supervision was made over the inspection (or candling) beforeprocurement; rejections of this product approximated 65 percent of contractors' offerings. The most extensive of veterinary food procurementinspections within the South Atlantic command were conducted in southernBrazil. Early shipments of meats received from contractors in that areawere rejected frequently on account of poor grade quality or where thecommercial refrigerated ships had not properly handled the perishable foods. The supply from this area improved considerablyafter the theater veterinarian surveyed and set up a program for productsimprovement among the food establishments, and an Army purchasing agencywas formed with headquarters in Rio de Janeiro. Eventually, in early 1945, sofar as it was possible to do so, this general purchasing agency began aprocurement program to satisfy the demands of the South Atlantic commandfor all of its meats and poultry products, and at that time a veterinarydetachment was established to conduct inspections of products during theirprocessing in the plants. Though the Brazilian meat inspection services wereaccepted in regard to the conduct of ante morten and post mortem inspectionsof beef cattle, the Army Veterinary Service emphasized product qualitygrading; the inspections of sausage, bacon and ham, and other prepared meatproducts; and the proper packaging and transshipment of Army subsistence.Along with this, poultry inspection and the techniques of Army boneless beefproduction were introduced into the Brazilian food industries. BetweenJanuary 1943 and September 1945, the Army Veterinary Service inspected 4,076,141 pounds ofmeat and dairy products on arrival from the Zoneof Interior and another 8,322,585 pounds of Brazilian origin-rejectionsamong these quantities totaling 287,147pounds and 613,363 pounds,respectively.
Air Transport Command
A unique command, having nogeographic boundaries and in a sense superimposed over all theaters of operationsand theater commands, was the Army Air ForcesAir Transport Command, with headquarters in Washington, D.C. Prior toJune 1942, this was known as the Air Corps Ferrying Command-created inmid-1941 to deliver lend-lease airplanes to points designated by AlliedNations. Along the major aerial routes, the Air Transport Command organizedsectors, later (in mid-1942) renamed wings; in July 1944, certain of thesewings became divisions, some with wing subelements. There were changes inthe aerial routes as the war progressed.
In July 1944, a VeterinaryCorps officer was assigned to Headquarters, Air Transport Command, andabout this time the number of veterinary officers on duty with the divisionsapproximated twenty-two. These veterinary officers were assigned to most ofthe principle airbases operated under the jurisdiction of the AirTransport Command or were assigned as staff
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officers to the wingmedical offices and thus were available to provide attendingveterinary services at a number of bases along the aerial routes. Anothergroup of veterinary officers, approximately 1.5 in number, were assigned tovarious bases of the. Air Transport Command's Ferrying Division which operatedfrom fields located in the Zone of Interior. Actually, that command's groundinstallations were referred to as Army Air Forces base units. Base veterinaryservices were not unlike those provided by other Army Air Forces veterinarypersonnel, and these services became particularly important where thebases along an aerial route were far distant from regular channels of Armysubsistence supply. Thus, at bases along the central African route, veterinarypersonnel successfully developed and inspected locally procured fresh foodswhich were fed to aircrews and in-transit personnel. In the China-Burma-India theater, in Canada, and at various basecommands of theAmerican theater, these inspection services supplemented those conducted bytheater or services of supply personnel; elsewhere, such as with U.S. ArmyForces, South Atlantic, U.S. Army Forces, Azores, and U.S. Forces in CentralAfrica, the wing veterinarians were utilized at various times in an additional duty status in theArmy theater command headquarters. In fact, following the war, military operations,such as in the South Atlantic theater command and in the Bermuda, Greenland, Iceland, andNewfoundland Base Commands, were transferred to control by the AirTransport Command.
Military Missions
Along with the discussionsof the lesser theater commands, mention must be made of the various U.S.military missions. There were a number of these which were sent to foreign countries, andin several instances such as the Special Observers Group to England, the StilwellMission (to China), or the U.S. Military Mission toNorth Africa, the missions became starting points for Army theater commands.
Similar missions weremaintained also in Central and South American countries to promotetheir military efficiency. One such agency was the U.S. Military Mission toPeru which was established in the sprung of 1941 to act in technical advisorycapacity to the Peruvian Army on its remount service. Subsequently, onrequest, a Veterinary Corps officer was assigned as assistant to theAdvisor of the Remount Service of the Peruvian Army, arriving there during earlyMarch 1942. He took command of the Peruvian Army Veterinary General Hospital, Las Palmas, Lima, Peru. Inmid-1944, when the original mission was enlarged to one of full mission status, the veterinary officer wasdesignated as assistant chief of the mission, with duties also as technicaladvisor of the veterinary service of the Peruvian Army, commander of theveterinary hospital, supervisor of the military horseshoeing school, andtechnical advisor and director of clinical studies in the new NationalVeterinary School of Peru. Much was accomplished in improving
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the veterinary services andthe standards of animal care and management, including the development of newstandards for training horseshoers, horseshoe manufacturing, procuring ofremount animals, and breeding horses for military purposes. Also, the fieldprocedures for conducting test and eradication programs against tuberculosisand brucellosis were demonstrated in the local dairy industry. Most notable,however, were successes obtained in the reconstruction of the civilianveterinary educational system, with action being taken by the Government of Peruin establishing its National Veterinary School, and in the start oftranslating standard texts on veterinary medicine into the Spanish language."This translation project alone has warranted the detail of a U.S.veterinary officer to Peru in that it should be of great value to the veterinaryprofession and hence to the Peruvian Army and the livestock industry as a wholein all countries where Spanish is the national language."
A veterinary officer wasalso on duty with the military mission to Panama.
References
1. FM 8-10, 28 Mar. 1942.
2. Kelser, R. A.: VeterinaryService in the Preparedness Program. Vet. Med. 36. 12-18, January 1941.
3. T/O 502 W, 1 July 1929.
4. T/O 300-1, 1 May 1940.(Rescinded by WD Circular No. 193, 1944.)
5. T/O 678 W, 23 Feb. 1927.
6. T/O 8-500-1, 1 Nov.1940.
7. T/O 200-1, 1 Jan. 1941.
8. T/O 200-1, 1 July 1942.
9. T/O&E 200-1, 26 Oct.1944.
10. New Tables ofOrganization. In: Army Vet. Bull. 33: 331-337, October 1939.
11. Greenfield, K. R.,Palmer, R. R., and Wiley, B. I.: United States Army in World War II. The ArmyGround Forces: The Organization of Ground Combat Troops. Washington: U.S.Government Printing Office, 1947.
12. T/O&E 70, 4 Nov.1944.
13. T/O&E 70-1, 4 Nov.1944. See also T/O&E 70-3, 4 Nov. 1944; T/O&E 7-131, 4 Nov. 1944;and T/O&E: 5-235, 4 Nov. 1944.
14. T/O 489 W, 1 Jan.1925.
15. T/O 8-85, 1 Mar. 1939.
16. T/O 8-85, 1 Nov. 1940, with Changes No. 1, 12Dec. 1940, and Changes No. 2, 4 June 1941.
17. T/O 2-1, 1 Apr. 1942.
18. T/O&E 2-1, 30 Sept.1944.
19. T/O 2-11, 1 Nov. 1940.
20. T/O2-11, 1 Apr. 1942.
21. T/O&E 2-11, 30 Sept.1944.
22. T/O 2-51, 1 May 1940.
23. T/O2-51, 1 Nov. 1940.
24. T/O 2-71, 1 Apr.1942.
25. T/O 6-110, 1 Apr. 1944.
26. T/O&E 6-110, 30 Sept.1944.
27. T/O&E 6-270T, 21 Jan. 1944.
28. T/O&E 6-150, 4 Nov. 1944.
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29. T/O 680 W, 23 Feb.1927.
30. T/O 8-504, 1 Nov. 1940.
31. T/O8-610, 1 Apr. 1942.
32. T/O&E 8-610, 6 June 1943.
33. T/O&E 8-500, 23 Apr.1944.
34. T/O&E 8-500, 18 Jan. 1945.
35. T/O 286 W, 23 Feb. 1927.
36. T/O 8-234, 1 Oct.1940.
37. T/O 8-611, 1 Apr. 1942.
38. T/O&E 8-611, 25 Aug. 1943.
39. T/O&E 8-500, 23 Apr. 1944.
40.T/O&E 8-500, 18 Jan. 1945.
41. T/O&E 10-118, 26 Sept. 1944, with Changes No. 1, 29 May 1945.
42. T/O 10-115, 15 Sept. 1942.
43. T/O&E 10-115, 30 Sept.1944.
44. T/O&E 10-335, 4 Nov. 1944.
45. T/O 10-578, 4 May 1943.
46. T/O 10-217, 1 Apr.1942.
47. T/O&E 10-217, 30July 1943, with Changes No. 3, 19 July 1944.
48.T/O 10-260-1, 1 July 1942.
49. T/O&E 55-110-1, 20Nov. 1943.
50. T/O&E 55-120-1, 13 May 1944.
51. T/O 1-800-1, 1 July1941.
52. T/O&E 1-800-1, 26July 1943. Note: Modifications of the table were published also, such asT/O&E 1-800-1S-2T, and T/O&E 1-800-1S-RS, and T/O&E 1-801-1.
53. T/O 1-400-1S, 13 July1942. Note: Modifications of the table were published also, such as T/O&E 1-400-2Sand T/O&E 1-400-3S.
54. T/O 1-450-1, 16 Dec. 1941.
55. FM 8-5, 12 Jan. 1942.
56. FM 8-5, May 1945.
57. FM 8-10, 27 Nov. 1940.
58. FM 8-10, 28 Mar. 1942.
59. FM 100-10, 29 Apr. 1942.
60. The Army Medical Bulletin No. 19, The Veterinary Service. Medical Field Service School, Carlisle Barracks, Pa., 1926.
61. WD Manning Table8-1S-PC, 1 Sept. 1945.
62. Letter, Mr. Lincoln MacVeagh, U.S. Minister to Iceland, to CommandingGeneral, U.S. Forces inIceland, 19 June 1942. See also, General Orders No. 16, Headquarters, ETOUSA, 12Feb. 1944, and General Orders No. 47, Headquarters, ETOUSA, 12 May 1944,awarding the Legion of Merit to Maj. F. A. Todd, Capt. H. J. Robertson, andMaj. R. B. Meeks.
