The Army Medical Department, 1917-1941 Cover Image

The Army Medical Department, 1917-1941 / by Mary C. Gillett.

Gillett, Mary C., (author.). Center of Military History, (issuing body.).

Summary:

From the Book's Foreword: Long-awaited, Mary C Gillett's final work The Army Medical Department, 1917-1941, complete her four-volume study covering the years from 1775 to 1941. Although the Medical Department had improved medical standards and practices because of the latest advances in scientific medicine and was making significant progress toward creating an organizational structure and a supply system able to handle the demands of a conflict of any size, its reserves of trained personnel and supplies were seriously inadequate when the nation entered world War I in the spring of 1917. The narrative first describes the struggle of an unprepared department to meet the myriad demands of a war unprecedented size and complexity, then follows postwar efforts to meet the needs of the peacetime army during nearly two decades of continental isolationism and budgetary neglect, and finally covers the brief period of growing awareness of America's involvement in another major conflict and the intensive preparation efforts that ensued.

Electronic resources

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Record details

Physical Description: 1 online resource (xx, 644 pages) : illustrations (some color), color maps.
Publisher: Washington, D.C. : Center of Military History, United States Army, 2009.

Content descriptions

General Note:	Print version available for sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Publishing Office.
Bibliography, etc. Note:	Includes bibliographical references (pages 575-620) and index.
Formatted Contents Note:	Foreword -- Author -- Preface -- Prologue: Possibility of war -- 1: Day Has Come -- First steps -- Surgeon General -- Organizing the Surgeon General's office -- Training -- Base hospitals -- Medical supply -- Preparing to prevent disease -- Preparing for gas warfare -- Yanks are coming -- 2: Organizational Turmoil -- Surgeon General's role -- Personnel division -- Division of sanitation -- Finance and supply and administrative divisions -- Museum and library division -- Hospital division -- Division of special hospitals and physical reconstruction -- Professional services -- Division of Roentgenology -- Division of gas defense -- Division of food and nutrition -- Air service medical -- 3: Training For War -- Medical officers training camps -- Training camp programs -- Specialty training -- Army medical school -- Other special schools and programs -- Focus on flight surgeons -- 4: Mobilization Camps -- Preparatory stage -- Camp medical organization -- Medical supply -- Medical screening -- Medical personnel training -- 5: Communicable Diseases On The Rise -- Preventive medicine -- Hospitalization and treatment -- Influenza epidemic -- 6: Embarkation Challenges -- Organizing the system -- New York City area -- Newport news area -- On the transports -- 7: Theater Chief Surgeon's Office -- Command and control -- Promotion dilemma -- Gas warfare division -- Hospitalization division -- Personnel division -- Sanitation division -- Division of laboratories and infectious diseases -- Supply division -- Records and correspondence division -- Veterinary division -- 8: Services Of Supply Medical Activities -- Managing port congestion -- Establishing hospitals and laboratories -- Organizing medical supply -- Educating medical personnel -- 9: Zone Of The Armies Medical Activities -- Divisional medical organization -- Advance section training camps -- Trench warfare lessons -- Poison gas attacks -- 10: On The Eve Of New Battles -- Organizational changes -- St Mihiel medical support -- Meuse-Argonne medical support -- 11: Medical Burdens Of Hard Fighting -- Hospitalization -- Evacuation -- Health of aviators -- Medical supply -- Field instruction -- Preventive medicine --12: Challenges In Other Theaters -- In North Russia -- In Siberia -- In Germany -- In Poland -- In the Caribbean and the Pacific -- 13: Going Home -- Demobilization process -- Transporting the disabled -- Hospital system -- Specialized care and reconstruction -- 14: Peacetime Form -- Impact of new legislation -- Surgeon General -- Surgeon General's office -- Personnel shortages -- Promotion, ranks and status -- Medical reserve corps -- 15: Peacetime Function -- Training -- Care of the sick and wounded -- Aviation medicine -- Preventive medicine -- Research -- In retrospect -- 16: Discouraging Doldrums -- Surgeons General -- Surgeon General's office -- Personnel -- Supply -- Hospitals -- Training -- Air Corps medical service -- Administering the CCC -- Overseas possessions -- State of medicine -- 17: Drift Toward War -- Army mobilizes -- SGO reorganizes -- Departmental expansion -- Personnel -- Training -- Supply -- Hospitals -- Air Corps medical service -- Preventive medicine surge -- Epilogue: Department in retrospect -- Bibliography -- List of abbreviations -- Index.
Restrictions on Access Note:	Restrictions unspecified
Reproduction Note:	Electronic reproduction. [S.l.] : HathiTrust Digital Library, 2011.
System Details Note:	Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212
Source of Description Note:	Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (Center of Military History website, viewed May 31, 2017).