Medical Officers Training Camp - Yearbook (Fort Riley, KS)

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MEDICAL oi+'Fit:iires 'ri2AiN1Nt: CAMP , Biminio1030isisioioioioioioioioioioioioi0101oioioio FORT RILEY, KANSAS are, for the most part directed, in time of war, to the preservation of the strength of the Army in the field by CID the neces- sary sanitary measures, C23 the retention of effectives at the front, and the movement Cevacuationj of non-effectives to the rear without obstructing military operations, and C31 the prompt succor of the wounded on the battle field and their removal to the rear thus preventing the unnecessary withdrawal of combatants from the firing line to accompany the wounded and promoting the general morale of the troops. Beyond the above duties, and of great importance, the medical oncerns itself with the care and treatment of the sick and injured in the zone of the advance, on the line of department c communications, and in the home territory. While the civilian physician is, or should be, thoroughly skilled in his professional duties, under conditions which prevail in his routine work, yet his military functions are so different, the conditions under which he works are so varied, the means at hand for remedying defects so meager, and his knowledge of military procedure so lacking that he can not be expected to know, intuitively, what to do or how to proceed to obtain the material with which he must work. Further, his utter lack of discipline makes it very difficult for him to exercise the power of command or to be commanded without a thorough course in drill procedure and methods of handling men under such conditions as he may be forced to conduct his military duties. While the knowledge or medicine, in itself, has increased greatly during the time in which we have been engaged in various wars as a nation, yet it was not till the Civil War, when Letterman introduced his ambulance service, that any system-atized method of handling wounded was followed. ln our Spanish American War, the doctors were untrained volunteers, for the most part, many of them skilled in the practice of medicine but lacking the knowledge of applying the practice of medicine to the care of large bodies of men and of the system necessary to secure hospital and military supplies. These conditions were, of course, not the fault of their medical training but were due to the lack of experience in things military. All this chaotic condition has now changed. The Government has realized the value of having men inthe Medical Department, who are thoroughly trained, not only in their truly professional lines, but in military ways as far as they affect the work of the Medical Department of the Army in ts relations to the other departments. Under the present method of training the civilian doctor is taught his drill regulations, so that he may know how to handle his men in formation and on the march, is given opportunity to learn discipline and the methods of enforcing discipline, is schooled in his paper work, so that he may know how to render his reports and obtain his supplies, is instructed in the methods of handling and evacuating the wounded, is imbued with the idea that proper sanitary measures are necessary for the main- tenance of the health of the Army, is trained in sanitary tactics and maneuvers, so that he may properly correlate his establishment of aid stations and his system of evacuation of wounded with the movements of the line organizations' and is quizzed and examined on Army Regulations, Manual of Courts-Martial, Manual for the Medical Department' and other military works, a knowledge of which is deemed esesential to a proper understanding of his duties as a medical officer in a military organization. With all of this it must be understood that opportunity is offered in these training camps, and the work is so arranged, that those members of the Medical Department, who are to be attached to such units as deal mainly with the care and treatment of the sick and wounded are given special work in post, base and cantonment hospitals properly to fit them to conduct their work under such conditions as prevail in military organizations, In brief, the Object of the Medical Training Camp is so to train and instruct the civilian physician, who has become a part of the military establishment, that he may naturally fit into his cog of the military wheel and render such effective and efficient service to the Army as a whole that the fighting force is capable of exerting its maximum efficiency whenever called upon so to do. QCQCQOQOQOM liilllliiiiii ' 13

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MLDICAI- oi4Hcf1rzs1i2A1NirgQ,QAMrJ A 4A , i eininsnnoiocnioiioiioQSoiiioioioiougoiiocnoioioioioioioilioio ' FORT RILEY, KANSAS Ebc Cbject of the mcbical Eraining Clamp im I-IEN, in the spring of 1917, the United States decided to cast its lot, for the sake of humanit , with the v wa -fm v . . Y . gf21T'bQg Allied Forces strug ling against the tyrannies of Prussianism, this countr was almost totally unprepared g ' y ' f Q 2,24 1 to render any great assistance beyond furnishing of funds and supplies to replace the waning stores of its allies. Our man-power, although theoretically enormous, was, as far as immediate usefulness is con- if ,335 tl cerned almost to be disregarded. It became evident, at once, that measures must be taken to classify and w fi -call into the military service of the country such able-'bodied males as were not essential to the various gl -I . . economic and industrial pursuits of the country, in order to furnish ourselves with a fighting force , sufficient properly to render assistance in replacing the already greatly depleted military forces of our allies. This consideration, as is well-known, lead to the Selective Service Act of May, 1917. While, in time of war, a large fighting force is indispensable, yet it is of prime importance that a sufficient number of properly trained and experienced officers be available. From such a small military organization as existed at the time of our entry into the war, we could expect to obtain only a mere handful of trained officers, far too few to lead and command tne vast hoards of untrained men to be called into active service. For this reason Officers Training Camps were es- tablished in variousparts of the country to which selected men of good physical and mental qualifications were sent for a course of intensive military training under specially trained instructors from our regular military organization. This idea of training o?i:ers for military service is, of course, not new as the Military Academy at West Point and the Naval Academy at Annapolis have been carrying out this procedure for many years. However, the number of men available for such duty has always been small, as compared with the vast number needed during the present emergency. It is true that a few training camps, such as that at Plattsburrg, have been conducted with this end in view, but nothing like a general concerted plan had been attempted prior to this time. lWith the Medical Department, however, little had been done in the way of training civilian physicians in the duties and functions of the military organizations, beyond an occasional training course of two weeks at a camp, to which vol- unteers from the Medical Reserve Corps might report for duty, and the attempt to interest the members of the Medical Reserve Corps in the Correspondence Course for Officers of the M.R.C. at Fort Leavenworth. For this reason Medical Training Camps were established at Fort Riley, Kansas, Fort Ogelthorpe,,Georgia, and Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indiana, the idea of such general training camps for officers of the Medical Department being entirely new. It is surprising that this plan was not adopted sooner, in view'of the lessons of the Spanish-American War, but the reason may probably be found in the misconceptions of the functions of the Medical Department, as held by the public in general as well as by the medical profession at large and even by the line of the Army. It is no doubt true that the true function and importance of the Medical Department were not appreciated until the Russo-japanese War, which was the first great war in which the deaths from wounds exceeded those from disease in- curred in camps and in consequen e of unsanitary conditions. It is, perhaps, unnecessary to point out that the duties of a medical officer are, first, administsative and advisory, second, those dealing with sanitary problems, and lastly those of a purely professional nature. While, of course, the medical officer deals with the sick and wounded, yet his primary duties i01l1OlO1OlOi,O1OlClillllili Cl 12 . '

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