MEDICAL DEPARTMENT

UNITED STATES ARMY

IN WORLD WAR II
Buckingham Studio, Inc.

Brigadier General Raymond A. Kelser
MEDICAL DEPARTMENT, UNITED STATES ARMY

UNITED STATES ARMY VETERINARY

SERVICE IN WORLD WAR II

Prepared and published under the direction of

Lieutenant General Leonard D. Heaton

The Surgeon General United States Army

Editor in Chief

Colonel John Boyd Coates, Jr., MC

Editor

Colonel George JL. Caldwell, YC, USA (Ret.)

OFFICE OF THE SURGEON GENERAL

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY

WASHINGTON D.C. 1961
UNITED STATES ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

IN WORLD WAR II

The Historical Unit, United States Army Medical Service

Colonel John Boyd Coates, Jr., MC, Director

Colonel Rex P. Clayton, MSC, Executive Officer

Colonel R. L. Parker, MSC, Special Assistant to Director

Lieutenant Colonel R. J. Bernhcci, MC, Special Assistant to Director

Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Ginalick, MSC, Chief, Special Projects Branch

Charles M. Wiltse, Ph. D., Litt. D., Chief, Historians Branch

Ernest Elliott, Jr., Chief, Editorial Branch

Lieutenant Colonel Leonard L. Collier, MSC, Chief, Information Activities Branch

Major Albert C. Riggs, Jr., MSC, Chief, General Reference and Research Branch

Hazel G. Hine, Chief, Administrative Branch

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 62-60003

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office

Washington 25, D.C. Price $7 (Buckram)
UNITED STATES ARMY

VETERINARY SERVICE

in

WORLD WAR II

by

Lieutenant Colonel Everett B. Miller, VC, USA
VI

MEDICAL DEPARTMENT, UNITED STATES ARMY

The volumes comprising the official history of the Medical Department of

the U.S. Army in World War II are prepared by The Historical Unit, U.S.

Army Medical Service, and published under the direction of The Surgeon

General, U.S. Army. These volumes are divided into two series: (1) The administrative or operational series; and (2) the professional, or clinical and

technical, series. This is one of the volumes published in the latter series.

VOLUMES PUBLISHED

ADMINISTRATIVE SERIES

Hospitalization and Evacuation Zone of Interior

CLINICAL SERIES

Internal Medicine in World War II:

Vol. I. Activities of Medical Consultants

Preventive Medicine in World War II

Vol. II. Environmental Hygiene

Vol. III. Personal Health Measures and Immunization

Vol. IV. Communicable Diseases Transmitted Chiefly Through Respiratory and Alimentary Tracts

Vol. V. Communicable Diseases Transmitted Through Contact or

By Unknown Means

Surgery in World War II:

General Surgery vol. II

Hand Surgery

eurosurgery vol.

Neurosurgery vol. II

Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology

Orthopedic Surgery in the European Theater of Operations
MEDICAL DEPARTMENT, UNITED STATES ARMY YII

Orthopedic Surgery in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations

The Physiologic Effects of Wounds

Vascular Surgery

Miscellaneous:

Gold Injury, Ground Type

United States Army Dental Service in World War II

590248'—61—2 IX

Foreword

The Army Veterinary Service has three major missions: (1) Inspection

of food used by the military including its processing and the sanitary inspections of the establishments producing it; (2) provision of comprehensive

animal service; and (3) conduct of veterinary laboratory services concerned

with food and various types of research. All of these missions assist the

Army Medical Service to protect the health of human beings and animals.

The veterinary animal service, as might have been expected, was the

major activity of the Veterinary Corps in World War I. Great numbers of

horses and mules were used, in ratio of one animal to every three men.

The outcome of major campaigns frequently depended upon the size and

efficiency of animal transport. In World War II, which was war of men

and machines, the ratio was animal to every 134 men. Obviously, in such

war, food inspection was the principal task of the Army Veterinary Service,

and medical service for animals was of somewhat lesser importance. In World

War I, an estimated 20 percent of Veterinary Corps personnel were utilized

to inspect the Army’s subsistence supply. In World War IT, between 90 and

95 percent were used for this purpose.

The Army Veterinary Service is component of the Army Medical

Service and as such shares the responsibility of safeguarding the health of

the Army. It fulfilled vital mission in World War II by inspection of the

food intended for troop consumption at the time of its purchase and receipt,

as well as during its storage and shipment. As part of this mission,

Veterinary Corps personnel inspected civilian as well as government installations to insure proper sanitation and techniques of storage and handling of

all meat and meat products, marine and dairy products, and nonanimal

products. These foodstuffs might readily have become contaminated and thus

rendered not only useless but dangerous to the health of personnel had they

been consumed.

None of these dangers came to pass. Between 1940 and 1945, personnel

of the Veterinary Corps conducted an inspection service which aggregated

more than 142 billion pounds of meat and dairy products. Enormous quantities of perishable foods were procured, shipped, and distributed on worldwide basis, on heretofore unimaginable scale, and under the most adverse

conditions. It is impossible to overemphasize the contribution to the war

effort made by the Veterinary Corps in the maintenance of the health of

the Army by its food inspection service.

More than gross inspection of these foods was required. An essential

part of the service was laboratory analysis to substantiate organoleptic tests

and detect deficiencies not otherwise discernible. To provide readily available

facilities for this special mission to all veterinary officers, no matter where
FOREWORD

they might be stationed, all area, medical general, and the numbered laboratories in oversea theaters had veterinary sections properly equipped and

staffed with personnel specially trained to perform chemical or bacteriologic

analyses required in connection with inspection of foods of animal origin.

During World War II, the 11 such laboratories in the United States and the

23 units overseas analyzed approximately 225,000 food specimens of animal

origin.

Because World War II was global war, the activities of these laboratories varied widely, according to the quality and quantity of available perishable foodstuffs and the types of animal diseases endemic in the region. The

animals from which meat products were obtained were subject to many

diseases directly transmissible to man, such as tuberculosis, Malta fever,

anthrax, actinomycosis, taeniasis, and glanders. In oversea theaters, particularly in the tropics, diseases new to United States troops were encountered, and many well-known diseases took on new importance, especially

such entities as leishmaniasis, leptospirosis, rabies, ornithosis, and others that

could spread from animals to troops. Some diseases, such as anthrax, canine

distemper, pigeon pox, rabies, tetanus, and equine encephalomyelitis, were

readily prevented by animal immunization, which was, of course, the responsibility of the Veterinary Corps.

Although its activities were chiefly centered on food inspection, the

Veterinary Corps was responsible in World War II for the professional care

of over 56,000 horses and mules used by the Army, as well as thousands of

war dogs. It was also responsible for veterinary service for the pigeons used

by the Signal Corps; for the animals used for laboratory tests, experimental

purposes, and the production of sera; and for livestock of various types.

Another mission of the Army Veterinary Service in World War II was

carried out in conjunction with Civil Affairs and Military Government. It

served as coordinating agency in reestablishing the veterinary service of

wartorn lands; in getting their livestock industries back into production;

and in increasing their production of biologicals and veterinary supplies. It

is highly significant that after World War II, plagues of animal diseases, for the first time in history, did not sweep across continents and add to the

famine and chaos which ordinarily follow war. The Veterinary Service has

an important future in this field, which encompasses knowledge of diseases

and of the care of all types of livestock; knowledge of the principles of

quarantine and of the national and international laws relating to it; and

worldwide knowledge of veterinary science.

It is small wonder, in view of its varied missions and responsibilities,

that the Army Veterinary Service expanded from its regular strength of

approximately 126 officers in 1939 to 2,116 in August 1945, and that its enlisted strength during the period of hostilities ranged between 6,000 and 8,000. Lt. Col. Everett B. Miller, VC, the author of this volume, has devoted much time and effort to the preparation of this permanent record of the
FOREWORD XI

activities of the Army Veterinary Service in World War II. Appreciation

is also due to Col. George L, Caldwell, VC, USA (Eet.), formerly Assistant

Chief, Veterinary Service, Office of The Surgeon General. As editor of this

volume, Colonel Caldwell has supplemented Colonel Miller’s fine work.

Together, author and editor have produced volume which discusses, in proper perspective, the major problems encountered, and the measures

taken to solve them, by the U.S. Army Veterinary Service in World War II.

The outstanding record of the Army Veterinary Service in World War II

is one of which our Nation may ell be proud. It sets pattern for emulation by those responsible for planning veterinary programs for the future.

Leonard D. Heaton,

Lieutenant General

The Surgeon General.

xiii

Preface

This volume is the result of the first opportunity ever granted an officer

of tire U.S. Army Veterinary Corps to write—from the inside, so to speak—-

an official history of American military veterinary medicine. From beginning to end, my purpose, whether or not have accomplished it, has been

to meet the needs of the medical man, the military staff officer, and the

interested public, as well as the requirements of the Army Medical Service’s

historical program.

Future works on the subject may correct inadvertent errors in this

account or may add facts which through lack of time or limitation of space

was unable to include. They will not. believe, convey the sense of urgency

which have felt throughout the task. As Veterinary Corps officer who

from the beginning of his military career in 1941 aspired to an appointment

in the Regular Army—an appointment obtained shortly after World War II

—I saw the profession of military veterinary medicine threatened with extinction while this volume was in its later stages. This assault on the profession and my closeness to the events might have made my account less

history than voluminous obituary. Actually, it strengthened my determination to make the work definitive and objective record.

My principal sources have been official documents of the Veterinary Division, Office of The Surgeon General, and the semipersonal letters written

by officers of the Veterinary Corps. have not attempted to distinguish

the actual authorship of documents but have attributed them to those who

signed them, even though the signers were not always the individuals who

prepared them. Any other course would have unduly prolonged the research.

am specially indebted to Brig. Gen. Wayne O. Kester, USAF (Ret.),

for encouraging me to undertake the work. It was he, then colonel in the

Army, who turned over the assignment to me upon his transfer to the new

Air Force, in which he became chief veterinary officer. At this early period,

was also associated with Capt. Julius J. Shaffer, MSC Reserve, now

civilian. wish to extend my most heartfelt thanks to Brig. Gen. James A.

McCallam, USA (Ret.), to Brig. Gen. Jacob L. Hartman, USA (Ret.), and

to Brig. Gen. Elmer IV. Young, USA (Ret.), who as successive heads of

the Veterinary Corps gave warm and appreciative support during the years

when this history was in the making. To Col. George L. Caldwell, VC,

USA (Ret.), Col. Ralph IV. Mohri, VC, USA (Ret.), and Brig. Gen. Russell

McNellis, VC, former members of the Veterinary Division, Office of The

Surgeon General, respectfully acknowledge very personal debt for the

understanding and patience shown me. My obligation to Colonel Caldwell

is particularly great, for it was he who, after my departure to another

assignment, technically edited the manuscript. In so doing, the book has
XIV PREFACE

benefited from his long experience, extensive knowledge of Army veterinary

medicine, and the mature perspective with which he so willingly carried

out that chore.

Finally, am deeply grateful to Maj. Gen. Joseph H. McNinch, to

Brig. Gen. Roger G. Prentiss, Jr., USA (Ret.), former heads of The Historical Unit, Army Medical Service, and to Col. John Boyd Coates, Jr., MC, its present Director. Colonel Coates and Colonel Mohri are mainly responsible for the incentive and, must add, the kindly firmness that were needed

to bring my tedious labors to fruitful end.

Also, gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Mrs. Elaine R. Stevenson, publications editor of the Editorial Branch, Historical Unit, who performed the final publications editing and prepared the index for this volume.

Additionally, there are Miss Lucy W. Hansucker, Mrs. Josephine P.

Kyle, Miss Janie W. Williams, and Mrs. Willa B. Dial—in that sequence

who, fortunately for me, entered into the life of the book, gaining share

of my troubles in gathering material, preparing manuscripts, and doing other

housekeeping affairs. And to Betty Jane Miller, my wife, owe much.

Everett B. Miller,

Lieutenant Colonel VC.
XV

Contents

Page

FOREWORD IX

PREFACE XIII

Chapter

Evolution of Military Veterinary Medicine, 1775-1916

II Development of the Army Veterinary Service, 1916-1940

Legislation and Major Administrative Directives

Administration and Organization

Personnel

Training and Instructional Services 12

Equipment and Supplies. 14

III Mission and Administration 17

Mission and Responsibilities 17

Administration 23

IV Personnel 33

Composition of the Veterinary Corps 33

Veterinary Officer Procurement 52

Personnel Matters 65

Veterinary Enlisted Men 77

Training and Instructional Services 83

Training Veterinary Officers 86

Training Veterinary Enlisted Personnel 94

Unit Training 104

Instructional Services 110

VI Supply and Equipment 119

Medical Department Procurement and Distribution 120

Medical Department Supply Items 121

Non-Medical Department Supply and Equipment 127

Oversea Supply 130

VII Functional Organization in the Zone of Interior 139

War Department Organization 139

Relationship Within the Army Service Forces 141

Role of Personnel Assigned to the Technical Services 142

Role of Personnel Assigned to Service Commands 177

VIII Functional Organization in Theater and Minor Commands 203

Veterinary Service of Field Units 206

Typical Theater Veterinary Service Organization 218

Base, Defense, and Minor Theater Commands 219

IX Functional Organization in the Middle East, Mediterranean (Formerly

North African), and European Theaters 241

U.S. Army Forces in the Middle East 241

Mediterranean (Formerly North African) Theater 249

European Theater 269
XYI CONTEXTS

Chapter Page

Functional Organization in the Asiatic-Pacific Theaters 283

The Three Pacific Areas 283

U.S. Army Forces in Central Pacific Area 284

U.S. Army Forces in South Pacific Area 298

U.S. Army Forces in the Far East 305

U.S. Army Forces, Pacific 337

U.S. Army Forces, China-Burma-India 340

XI Laboratory Service and Research 381

Principles and Practices 383

Service Command Medical Department Laboratories in the Zone of

Interior 390

Oversea Theater Veterinary Laboratory Service 402

Relation With Other Laboratories 423

Laboratory Research and Investigations 429

XII Civil Affairs and Military Government 441

Development 441

Mediterranean Theater 443

European Theater 454

Pacific Theaters 472

XIII Animal Procurement 489

Animal Procurement in the Zone of Interior 489

Remount Depot System 492 Oversea Theater Remount Operations 497

Army Horse Breeding Plan 512

XIV Animal Care and Management 519 Station Veterinary Service With Animals 520 Animal Quarantine 521 Feeds and Feeding 525

Horseshoes and Shoeing 531

Disposition of Animals 533

XV Transportation of Animals 539

Transportation by Ship 539

Transportation by Railroad 546

Transportation by Truck 552

Transportation by Airplane 553

Road March 556

XVI Evacuation and Hospitalization 563

Veterinary Hospital System in the Zone of Interior 563 Animal Evacuation Plan 567 Oversea Deployment 575

XVII Army Dogs 615

Dog Procurement 616 Army Dog Care and Management 619 Oversea Deployment 628

XVIII Army Signal Pigeons 643 Signal Pigeon Procurement 643 Pigeon Care and Management ____v 644 Oversea Deployment 649

XIX Animal Farms, Captured Animals, and Privately Owned Animals 655 Animal Farms 655

Captured Animals 661

Privately Owned Animals 668
CONTENTS XVII

Chapter age

XX Military Meat and Dairy Hygiene 675

Classification of Veterinary Products and Establishment Inspections 677

Veterinary Food Procurement Inspections 688

Veterinary Food Surveillance Inspections 703 Food Protection and Conservation 719

INDEX 735

Illustrations

igure

Training potential meat and dairy hygienists 97

Training veterinary enlisted men 99 Students receiving instruction in canned food inspection 100

Instructing Chinese, Field Artillery Training Center 115

Classroom instruction, U.S. Army Training Center, K’un-ming, China 116

Food testing kit for detecting chemical warfare agent contamination of foods.. 123

Biological production, Army Veterinary School, Army Medical Center 125

Operation of the veterinary lead line 130

Quartermaster Corps horse ambulance, 1940 131

10 Maj. T. C. Jones, VC, Registrar, Registry of Veterinary Pathology, Army

Institute of Pathology 148

11 Veterinary Food Laboratory, California Quartermaster Depot, Oakland, Calif.. 163

12 Testing laboratory at the Atlanta Army Service Forces Depot, 1945 164

13 Shipside inspection of foods of animal origin in Zone of Interior ports 175

14 Aerial view of Animal Remount Station, Camp Plauche, New Orleans, La 177

15 Conference of service command veterinarians held at Chicago, 111., 18 March

1944 180

16 Post stables, Fort Douglas, Utah 194

17 Kennel areas in the Panama Canal Department 222

18 Post veterinarian’s building, Fort Pepperrell, Newfoundland 226

19 Professional assistance provided to the Icelandic agricultural authorities and

their veterinarians 228

20 Headquarters building and row of box stalls at the 2605th Veterinary General

Hospital, Mirandola, Italy 257

21 Veterinary personnel inspecting milk supplies in Milan, Italy 258

22 Veterinary officers in the United Kingdom 270

23 Veterinary personnel inspecting ration reserve dumps in the European theater. 274

24 Military and civilian veterinarians attending the annual convention of veterinarians in Hawaii 291

25 Veterinary dispensary and office of Army Garrison Force veterinarian, Tinian. 294

26 Col. Wayne O. Kester, VC, and Col. Ernest E. Hodgson, VC, comparing the

keeping qualities of meat and dairy products 300

27 The Army Veterinary Service supervising the production of cured and smoked

hams in Australia 319

28 Pasteurization of fresh fluid milk supply as required by the Army Veterinary

Service, Australia 321

29 Trier inspection of cured and smoked ham, Melbourne, Australia 323

30 U.S. Navy personnel, under Veterinary Corps supervision, conducting inspections of sausages and other foods in Australia 326
XVIII CONTENTS

Figure Page

31 Slaughtering and packing poultry in Australia under Veterinary Corps supervision for supply to the Armed Forces in the SWPA 332

32 Inspection of the canning of dried egg powder produced under reverse lend-lease

agreement in Australia 333

33 Supervision of animal sick call in the training center for the Chinese military

forces, Ramgarh, India, 1944 353

34 Veterinary Corps officer hoof branding an anthrax-vaccinated Chinese Army

animal 355

35 Horseshoeing shop, Veterinary School, Infantry Training Center, K’un-ming,

China 371

36 Experimental surgery on laboratory animal 389

37 Animal house, Ninth Service Command Medical Laboratory, Presidio of

Monterey, Calif 400

38 Animal house, stockroom, Ninth Service Command Medical Laboratory,

Presidio of Monterey, Calif 401

39 Animal house, Ninth Service Command Medical Laboratory, Fort Lewis, Wash_ 402

40 Guinea pig room, animal house, Ninth Service Command Medical Laboratory,

Fort Lewis, Wash 403

41 Veterinary food analysis in the 1st Medical General Laboratory, Salisbury,

England 411

42 Laboratory building of the University of Reykjavik, Iceland, 1941 422

43 Veterinary laboratory at the University of Reykjavik, Iceland, 1941 423

44 Ulcerous lesions of foot-and-mouth disease 450

45 Cattle being artificially infected with suspension of the viral agent of foot-andmouth disease 452

46 Hog farm belonging to U.S. Navy-administered civil affairs/military government, Saipan 475

47 Veterinary officers, U.S. Army Military Government, Seoul National University,

Seoul, Korea 486

48 Veterinary dispensary, Headquarters, Western Remount Breeding and Purchasing Area, Pomona, Calif 493

49 American mules, U.S. Army Remount Stadion, Grosseto, Italy 498

50 The S.S. Virginian, converted animal transport used in World War II 541

51 Loading mules by rope net at Naples, Italy, September 1944 545

52 Training for amphibious landing 546

53 Unloading of horses by Troop B, 252d Quartermaster Remount Squadron,

Camp Polk, La 548 54 Unloading stock cars at Puente, Calif 550

55 Mule being processed for oversea shipment 551

56 Fifth U.S. Army truck at an animal ambulance loading point, Costel De Rio,

Italy, 30 September 1944 553

57 Fifth U.S. Army truck loaded with mules for transport into the frontlines,

Scarperia, Italy, September 1944 554

58 Experimental trials on airlifting field artillery pack battalion, New Guinea,

May 1943 555

59 Loading animals from truck to airplane at the Sahmaw, Burma, airstrip 556

60 U.S. Army airplanes with bamboo stall-like partitions 557

61 Capt. L. T. Lacey, VC, supervising the unloading of wounded animals 589

62 Veterinary Corps officers examining and treating sick and wounded animals,

Fifth U.S. Army Remount Station 589

63 Ambulance loading point of the 2d Platoon, Company (Veterinary), 13th

Mountain Medical Battalion 594
CONTENTS XIX

Figure Page

64 Animal ambulance, 2d Platoon, Company (Veterinary), 13th Mountain Medi- cal Battalion 595

65 Veterinary officers with the 18th Veterinary Evacuation Hospital 598

66 U.S. Army veterinary personnel training Chinese military personnel 600

67 Interior of the Front Royal, Va., dog center hospital 618

68 Multiple-kennel unit, Front Royal, Va., dog center 623

69 Cleaning and disinfection of Army dog kennels, Front Royal, Va 623

70 Special shipping crates for dogs, stowed aboard ships 625

71 guard dog party, War Dog Detachment, China-Burma-India theater 629

72 Pigeoneers cooperating with veterinary officers to maintain healthy birds 644

73 Maintaining pigeon efficiencyby the use of clean and good-quality pigeon feed__ 646

74 Specially designed pigeon lofts in the Hawaiian Islands 647

75 Lofts of the 279th Signal Pigeon Company, Hawaiian Islands 651

76 Examination and treatment of Army pigeons, Signal Pigeon Center, Tidworth,

England 652

77 Army hog farm in Levant Service Command 656

78 Army hog farm at Decamere, Eritrea 657

79 Hogs at the Ledo, India, farm being treated for screw-worm infestation 658

80 Army hog farm at Ledo, India 659

81 Hospital patient working on the animal farm at Pawling Convalescent Center,

N.Y 659

82 Diversified animal farm at Pawling Convalescent Center 660

83 Army task force dairy herd, Christmas Island 661

84 Examination of captured animal 665

85 Extensive second-degree burns on captured German horse 666

86 Second-degree burns on horse captured in the Po Valley 667

87 Antirabies vaccination, Chatham Army Air Force Field 669

88 Veterinary Corps officer conducting routine sanitary inspection of milk pasteurizing plant 678

89 Veterinary Corps officers inspecting procurements of dehydrated vegetables__ 681

90 Army Veterinary Service personnel inspecting subsistence supplies, European

theater 682

91 Inspecting vegetables and fruit at U.S. general depot in England 683

92 Veterinary inspection of the fresh milk supply in Iceland 690

93 Supervision of the processing and temperatures of canned meats, Australia 691

94 Preparation of frozen boneless beef for procurement by market centers 700

95 Subsistence arriving overseas without adequate packing 704

96 Aerial port of embarkation for perishable subsistence supply in India, March

1944 705

97 Veterinary in-storage inspections of subsistence at an Army depot in the United

Kingdom, 1944 708

98 Quartermaster refrigerated storage point on Tinian, 1945 714

99 Subsistence stacked on the ground, Ledo area, India 715

100 Veterinary food salvage operations at quartermaster depot in the European

theater 723

101 Training and equipping Veterinary Corps personnel to handle subsistence contaminated by chemical warfare agents 728

102 Veterinary food-security supervisors on duty in commercial food establishment in

the Hawaiian Islands 729
XX CONTEXTS

Maps Number Page

Quartermaster Remount Purchasing and Breeding Areas, Army Service Forces,

May 1942 151

Service Commands, August 1942 179

Base sections and bases in Australia, as of June 1942, and New Guinea bases, as

of August 1944 325

Army bases in the Philippine Islands, 1945 330

India-Burma theater, showing principal locations of operations of the Army

Veterinary Service 344

Veterinary units in the China theater, as of 1945 369

Laboratory locations in the Zone of Interior 382

Laboratory locations in Europe 383

Laboratory locations in the Pacific 384

10 Occupied areas of Germany and Austria 455

Charts

Functional organization of the Chicago Quartermaster Depot, Chicago, 111., 17

August 1945 157

Functional organization of the office of the service command surgeon, winter

1943-44 182

Typical organization of service command laboratory, showing veterinary

service 393

Functional organization of the army-type or communications zone medical

laboratory 405

Functional organization of medical general laboratory 406

Organization of Allied Commission and Allied Military Government, Italy, October 1943 to September 1945 446

Distribution of veterinary civil affairs/military government officers in occupied

Germany, October 1945 462

Veterinary Corps officers assigned to civil affairs/military government in the

European theater, 1943-48 462

Tables

Promotion of Veterinary Corps, Regular Army, officers, as described by law,

1916-40 -- 10

Veterinary personnel enrolled in training courses and schools in World War I— 13

Veterinary service to horses and mules in the U.S. Army, 1941-46 23

Veterinary service to U.S. Army horses and mules, by disease and external cause

(or injury), 1941-45 24

Inspections of foods of animal origin, procured, handled, and issued by the U.S.

Army Veterinary Service, 1941-46 26

Rejections of foods of animal origin before and following U.S. Army procurement, 1941—46 27

Personnel on duty in the Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office, 1939-46. 28

Composition of the Veterinary Corps, according to component, 1939-46 34

Veterinary Corps, Regular Army, 1939-46 35
CONTENTS XXI

Number Page

10 Veterinary Corps, National Guard, 1939-44 40

11 Officers ordered to active duty in the Veterinary Corps, by component, 1939-45. 54

12 Representative programs for veterinary officers’ Meat and Dairy Hygiene Course, Chicago Quartermaster Depot, Chicago, 111 91

13 Programs for the Course for Veterinary Technicians, 1943-45 102

14 Programs for the Course for Meat and Dairy Hygienists, Chicago Quartermaster Depot, Chicago, 111 104

15 Weight, size, and price data of veterinary small unit assemblies 122

16 Weight, size, and price data of Medical Department unit assemblages for veterinary units 128

17 Inspection of meat and dairy products by the Army Veterinary Service with

Quartermaster and Army Service Forces depots, 1940-45 160

18 Assigned veterinary personnel, field artillery battalions 213

19 Veterinary inspections of food in the Mediterranean theater, 1944 258

20 Sick and wounded U.S. Army horses and mules, European theater, 1944-45 277

21 Distribution of veterinary personnel, Hawaiian Department, December 1942 287

22 Newly activated veterinary food inspection detachments, SWPA, October 1944.316

23 Deployment of veterinary food inspection detachments, New Guinea bases,

Southwest Pacific Area, 1943-45 328

24 Food samples received and determinations made, Veterinary Section, Second

Service Command Medical Laboratory, 1941-45 394

25 Food samples and animal specimens received, Veterinary Service, Fourth Service

Command Medical Laboratory, 1941-45 395

26 Tests conducted on food samples and animal specimens, Veterinary Section,

Fifth Service Command Medical Laboratory, 1942-45 396

27 Water and food samples received by Veterinary Section, Sixth Service Command

Medical Laboratory, 1942-45 397

28 Food samples received and determinations made, Seventh Service Command

Medical Laboratory, 1942-45 398

29 Food analyses conducted by Veterinary Section, Eighth Service Command

Medical Laboratory, 1942-45 399

30 Clinicodiagnostic laboratory procedures, Veterinary Section, Eighth Service

Command Medical Laboratory, 1943-45 399

31 Analyses and examinations of food and water, Veterinary Section, Ninth Service

Command Medical Laboratory, Presidio of Monterey, Calif., 1942-43 401

32 Tables of organization for assigned veterinary personnel, 1940-45 404

33 Tables of organization for veterinary personnel, medical laboratories, compared

to total personnel strength 407

34 Examinations conducted by the Veterinary Section, 1st Medical General Laboratory, 1943-45 412

35 Examinations conducted by the Veterinary Section, 5th Medical Laboratory,

1943-45 415

36 Numbers of German livestock, 1938, 1945, and 1946 471

37 Veterinary physical examinations conducted on mules and horses procured for

the Army in the Zone of Interior, 1940-45 492

38 Sick and wounded animals of the Fort Reno, Okla., and Fort Robinson, Nebr.,

Remount Depots, 1939-45 495

39 Period of stay of veterinary animal service units in support of quartermaster

remount depots in the China-Burma-India theater 507

40 Breeding-foaling results among remount depot brood mare bands, 1940-45 514

41 Mean strength for Army horses and mules in the U.S. Army, 1940-45 520
XXII CONTENTS

Number Page

42 Procurement inspection of animal feeds and forage procured by the U.S. Army,

1940-45 526

43 Movements and losses of horses and mules on animal transports accompanied by

the U.S. Army Veterinary Service 543

44 Veterinary hospitals and dispensaries with animal patient capacities for 10 or

more animals, mid-1940_ 564

45 Veterinary hospitals and dispensaries newly established in the construction

programs, 1941-42 565

46 Veterinary construction plans, 1941 568

47 Veterinary evacuation and hospital units organized and deployed in World War

II 570

48 Personnel space authorizations for veterinary evacuation and hospital units 574

49 Historical record of veterinary evacuation and hospital units activated in World

War II 576

50 Sick and wounded animals of the Fifth U.S. Army, Mediterranean theater,

1943-45 583

51 Sick and wounded animals admitted into the Italian 213th Veterinary General

Hospital, Italian Veterinary General Hospital, and Italian 1st Veterinary

General Hospital, 1944-45 588 52 Sick and wounded animals of the Allied Chinese armies treated in the ChinaBurma-India and India-Burma theaters 596

53 Deployment of veterinary animal service detachments with the Allied Chinese

military forces in the China theater 602

54 Sick and wounded animals of the Allied Chinese Army in China treated in the

China theater 603

55 Sick and wounded animals of tactical units, South Pacific Area 606

56 Sick and wounded animals of the 61st, 63d, and 68th Quartermaster Pack Troops

and the 98th and 167th Field Artillery Battalions 609

57 Location of Army dog centers, Zone of Interior, 1942-45 617

58 Sick and wounded animals cared for by the 2604th Veterinary Station Hospital

and the 2605th Veterinary General Hospital, May 1945 665
CHAPTER

Evolution of Military Veterinary Medicine

1775-1916

Military veterinary medicine began with the origin of the IT.S. Army and

rather closely parallels the development of the profession of veterinary medicine in the United States. Between Id June 1775 and June 1916, or until

congressional legislation created commissioned officers’ corps of veterinarians

in the Army, much of the history of military veterinary medicine must be

gleaned from the histories of the mounted combat arms and medical and

supply services. These histories include references to veterinary affairs which

in chronologic sequence present fairly clear-cut picture of the development

of military veterinary service.

Cavalry, frequently known by other names, the combat arm formed in

1777, became the birthplace of military veterinary medicine in 1792 ).

Congressional legislation of 1792 provided that each of the four troops of

light dragoons (cavalry) would have one farrier to care for the ailments

of horses. The heritage of the Veterinary Corps officer is specifically traced

to horseshoers and farriers who acted as animal nurses in the “old, old

Army.” In fact, the horseshoe-shaped insigne of the farrier was once carried

into the design of the veterinarian’s distinctive insigne which, for few

years before World War I, included the undersurface of shod horse’s foot.

In 1798, the number of farriers had increased from to total of 10,

and the original pay of $8 had been increased to $10 per month. Cavalry

and farriers were not part of the Army from 1802 to 1808, but in the

latter year Congress provided for regiment of cavalry for which eight farriers were authorized. Farriers were first included in horse artillery in 1812.

Due to reduction in the horsed combat arms following the War of 1812, the

farrier disappeared from the military scene until 1833, when regiment of

cavalry was formed with complement of 10 farriers. Ten additional farriers appeared when second cavalry regiment was organized in 1836.

The 1834 and 1835 editions of General Kegulations for the Army described the annual report of the Inspector General as including discussion

of the “Veterinary Department of Cavalry,” noted “*

whether the

Veterinary Surgeon is competent to the duties of his station. whether

the farriers are properly instructed and expert in their business

This is likely the first use of the term “veterinary surgeon” in official

Army publications, but it is fairly probable that it may have been used

interchangeably with “farrier” as it has not been established that there were

any veterinarians in the Army at that time. Pay tables did not list

veterinary surgeon.
ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

It appears that the Quartermaster’s Department may have contemplated

the hiring of civilian veterinarians as early as 1837, but there is no evidence

of congressional appropriation for such purpose prior to the appropriation

act for the fiscal year 1849 (2). That few veterinarians were hired might

be evidenced by the fact that, during the fiscal year that marked the beginning of the Civil War, the Quartermaster’s Department expended only

$168.50 for services of civilian veterinarians.

During the war with Mexico and through the period of Indian fighting

before the Civil War, the number of farriers varied with the number of

mounted units authorized, but their general status remained more or less

unchanged. With the beginning of the Civil War, veterinary sergeant was

authorized for each of the three battalions in cavalry regiment. It may

be presumed that he had the duty of supervising farriers with companies

of the battalion. lie received $17 per month and ranked with sergeant of

cavalry. This grade of veterinary sergeant was dropped in 1862, but under

the act of March 1863 each regiment of cavalry was authorized regimental veterinary surgeon with the rank of regimental sergeant major and

pay of $75 per month (-7, 4) Appointments were made by the Secretary of

War following selection by the chief of the Cavalry Bureau upon nomination by regimental commanders. The increased grade and pay was likely

provided as result of the Army’s terrific animal loss due to disease and in

an effort to obtain better qualified personnel to provide veterinary service.

There were apparently no fixed standards of education and experience,

and it seems probable that not more than very few graduate veterinarians

applied for or received appointment. During the Civil War, the Quartermaster’s Department spent $93,666.47 for the hire of civilian veterinarians.

After the Civil War, the total of six Regular Army cavalry regiments

was augmented by four additional regiments. Unlike each of the six older

regiments which were authorized one veterinary surgeon, each of the newly

formed regiments was authorized two veterinary surgeons, one of whom

was designated “Senior Veterinary Surgeon” and received pay of $100 per

month. This disparity in personnel authorization persisted until 1899. One

of the important milestones in the improvement of military veterinary

service was the requirement set forth in Army General Orders of 1879 and

first included in Army Regulations of 1881 that thereafter all appointed

as veterinary surgeons with Cavalry were to be graduates of established

and reputable veterinary schools or colleges. The regulations also provided

that the veterinary surgeons would have rank and precedence comparable to

those of sergeant major. The 1881 appropriation act provided for 14

veterinary surgeons with Cavalry, but it appears that there were actually

12 on duty ). The Quartermaster’s Department was at that time employing one full-time veterinarian for the care of animals, and in the later

1880’s several more were employed for this purpose.
EVOLUTION, 1775-1916

At the beginning of the Spanish-American War, the Cavalry was authorized 1-1 veterinary surgeons (4 seniors and juniors) for its 10 regiments

). Artillery reentered the evolution of the Army Veterinary Service where

each battery of field artillery was authorized veterinary sergeant; previously,

in 1812, horsed artillery had farriers and after 1861 was provided with

artificers who very likely performed the duties of farriers.

The end of the investigation of the “embalmed meats” of the SpanishAmerican War marked the start of the Army's veterinary food inspection

service. In July 1901, veterinarian was transferred from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and appointed Meat Inspector, Subsistence Department at Large, U.S. Army for the purpose of making receipt inspections of meats

in addition to inspections made prior to delivery by veterinary inspectors

of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (7). By 1906, the number of Army

subsistence veterinary inspectors had been increased to six, and War Department Orders had directed post commanders to use veterinarians to conduct

ante mortem and post mortem inspections of beef purchased locally.

Congressional legislation in 1899, after the beginning of the Philippine

Insurrection, greatly improved the lot of Army A’eterinarians with Cavalry.

It provided that every regiment of cavalry would be authorized two veterinarians, one to have the pay and allowances (not the rank) of second

lieutenant of Cavalry and the other the pay of $75 per month and the

allowances of sergeant major. Later, the senior veterinarian was accorded

rank between that of cadet and second lieutenant, the highest rank

achieved by veterinarians prior to the authorization of corps of commissioned officers in 1916.

The so-called Army Reorganization Act of 1901 made further improvement in the status of the Army veterinarian by providing that all veterinarians (two for each regiment of cavalry and one for each regiment of

artillery) would have the pay and allowances of second lieutenant. The

number of such veterinarians was 42 (8). The act also provided that

veterinarians employed as civilians by the Quartermaster should receive

pay of $100 per month. The Quartermaster’s Department became the Army’s

largest user of veterinarians, and at one time it had more than 60 veterinarians

employed as civilians in the Philippine Islands (9). The pay of veterinarians

employed as civilians (contract veterinarians) remained at the $1,200 per year

level in spite of repeated efforts of The Quartermaster General to obtain

pay status more nearly comparable with that of Army veterinarians with

Cavalry and Field Artillery (10). The pay of veterinarians of Cavalry and

Field Artillery was increased in 1908 from the previous $1,500 to $1,700

Dr. C. W. Johnson was the original appointee, followed by Dr. W. H. McKinney for duty in

Kansas City, Mo. Drs. G. A. Lytle, D. A. Hughes, and C. J. Loveberry, in 1906, were stationed at

Chicago, 111., Omaha. Nebr.. and San Francisco. Calif., respectively. The death of Johnson (in 1911)

and of McKinney (in 1914) created position vacancies which were filled by the appointments of

Drs. T. H. Jones and S. K. Ingram.

The Congressional appropriations act of March 1901 provided for the pay of 42 veterinarians,

including the 12 in Artillery.
ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

per year (pay of second lieutenant, mounted). Retirement of veterinarians

with Cavalry and Field Artillery was first authorized under the provisions

of the appropriation act of 1911.

During the 124 years between 1792, when the farrier was first authorized, and 1916, when the commissioned Veterinary Corps was authorized,

the military veterinary service moved forward nearly in pace with the

progress being made by veterinary medicine in the United States at large.

The progressive improvement in military veterinary service was due to (1)

increasing appreciation by the military and legislative branches of the real

need for such service, (2) the inherent desire of nearly every individual

veterinarian in the service to provide better service and to improve his

personal status, and (3) the unceasing effort of civilian veterinarians through

the American Veterinary Medical Association to improve military veterinary

service and the status of their professional brothers in the service of their

country. Although much improvement in veterinary service had been effected,

there was still much room for improvement. The service was being provided by separate groups of veterinarians—two fully militarized groups,

the veterinarians with Cavalry and Field Artillery, and two civilian employee

groups, the meat inspection and animal service veterinarians working for

The Quartermaster General. Proper coordination in and between groups was

lacking, pay rates were not uniform, and the overall service did not have

an Army-wide organization to exercise administrative, functional, and policy

control. These shortcomings were overcome when the National Defense Act

of 1916 made provision for Veterinary Corps of commissioned officers

and wisely made the corps component of the Medical Department.

References

1. Robinett, P. M.: Arm of Speed and Violence. Army Information Digest 5:

August 1950.

2. Letter, Capt. G. H. Grosmane, Cincinnati, Ohio, to Acting Quartermaster General,

12 Sept. 1837.

3. General Orders No. 73, 24 Mar. 1863.

4. General Orders No. Ill, 29 Apr. 1863.

5. General Orders No. 27, 1881.

6. General Orders No. 9, 1898.

7. Circular Letter No. 3, Office of the Commissary General, July 1901.

8. General Orders No. 29, 1901.

9. Annual Report, The Surgeon General, 1918, p. 415.

10. Annual Report, The Quartermaster General, 1910, p. 56.
CHAPTER II

Development of the Army Veterinary Service

1916-1940

The history of the development of the Army Veterinary Service during

the period between 1916 and World War II devolves on such large number of subjects that it will be considered by major topical subjects and each

will be discussed in chronologic order.

LEGISLATION AND MAJOR ADMINISTRATIVE DIRECTIVES

The congressional legislation authorizing the Veterinary Corps was

section 16 of the National Defense Act, approved June 1916. This important historical document is quoted:

Sec. 16. VETERINARIANS.—The President is hereby authorized, by and with the

advice and consent of the Senate, to appoint veterinarians and assistant veterinarians in

the Army, not to exceed, including veterinarians now in service, two such officers for

each regiment of Cavalry, one for every three batteries of Field Artillery, one for each

mounted battalion of Engineers, seventeen as inspectors of horses and mules and as

veterinarians in the Quartermaster Corps, and seven as inspectors of meats for the

Quartermaster Corps; and said veterinarians and assistant veterinarians shall be citizens

of the United States and shall constitute the Veterinary Corps and shall be part of the

Medical Department of the Army.

Hereafter candidate for appointment as assistant veterinarian must be citizen of

the United States, between the ages of twenty-one and twenty-seven years, graduate

of recognized veterinary college or university, and shall not be appointed until he shall

have passed satisfactory examination as to character, physical condition, general education, and professional qualifications.

An assistant veterinarian appointed under this Act shall, for the first five years of

service as such, have the rank, pay, and allowances of second lieutenant; that after five

years of service he shall have the rank, pay, and allowances of first lieutenant; that

after fifteen years of service he shall be promoted to be veterinarian with the rank,

pay, and allowances of captain, and that after twenty years’ service he shall have the

rank, pay, and allowances of major: Provided, That any assistant veterinarian, in

order to be promoted as hereinbefore provided, must first pass satisfactory examination, under such rules as the President may prescribe, as to professional qualifications

and adaptability for the military service; and if such assistant veterinarian shall be

found deficient at such examination he shall be discharged from the Army with one

year’s pay.

The veterinarians of Cavalry and Field Artillery now in the Army, together with

such veterinarians of the Quartermaster Corps as are now employed in said corps, who

at the date of the approval of this Act shall have had less than five years’ governmental

service, may be appointed in the Veterinary Corps as assistant veterinarians with the

rank, pay, and allowances of second lieutenant; those who shall have had over five years

of such service may be appointed in said corps as assistant veterinarians with the rank,

pay, and allowances of first lieutenant; and those who shall have had over fifteen years
ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

of such service may be appointed in said corps as veterinarians with the rank, pay, and

allowances of captain: Provided That no such appointment of any veterinarian shall be

made unless he shall first pass satisfactorily practical professional and physical examination as to his fitness for the military service: Provided further, That veterinarians

now in the Army or in the employ of the Quartermaster Corps who shall fail to pass

the prescribed physical examination because of disability incident to the service and

sufficient to prevent them from the performance of duty valuable to the Government shall

be placed upon the retired list of the Army with seventy-five per centum of the pay to

which they would have been entitled if appointed in the Veterinary Corps as hereinbefore prescribed.

The Secretary of the War, upon recommendation of the Surgeon General of the

Army, may appoint in the Veterinary Corps, for such time as their services may be

required, such number of reserve veterinarians as may be necessary to attend public

animals pertaining to the Quartermaster Corps. Reserve veterinarians so employed shall

have the pay and allowances of second lieutenant during such employment and no longer:

Provided, That such reserve veterinarians shall be graduates of recognized veterinary

college or university and shall pass satisfactory examination as to character, physical

condition, general education, and professional qualifications in like manner as hereinbefore required of assistant veterinarians; such reserve veterinarians shall constitute

list of eligibles for appointment as assistant veterinarians, subject to all the conditions

hereinbefore prescribed for the appointment of assistant veterinarians.

Within limit of time to be fixed by the Secretary of War, candidates for appointment as assistant veterinarians who shall have passed satisfactorily the examinations

prescribed for that grade by this Act, shall be appointed, in the order of merit in which

they shall have passed such examination, to vacancies as they occur, such appointments

to be for probationary period of two years, after which time, if the services of the

probationers shall have been satisfactory, they shall be permanently appointed with rank

to date from the dates of rank of their probationary appointments. Probationary veterinarians whose services are found unsatisfactory shall be discharged at any time during

the probationary period, or at the end thereof, and shall have no further claims against

the Government on account of their probationary service.

The Secretary of War shall from time to time appoint boards of examiners to com

duct the veterinary examinations hereinbefore prescribed, each of said boards to consist

of three medical officers and two veterinarians.

Little had been accomplished toward implementation of the provisions

of the above-cited act before the entry of the United States in World War I.

The Selective Service legislation (Overman Act) of 18 May 1917 gave the

President full authority for expanding the Veterinary Corps beyond the

provisions of the National Defense Act ). Under this authority, War

Department General Orders No. 130 (section III), October 1917, established the Veterinary Corps, National Army, as follows:

1. The President directs that under the authority conferred by section of the act

“To authorize the President to increase temporarily the Military Establishment of the

United States” approved May 18, 1917, there be organized for the period of the existing

emergency Veterinary Corps, National Army, to consist of the commissioned and

enlisted personnel hereinafter specified.

2. The total mimber of commissioned officers and enlisted men may be approximately

equal to, but shall not exceed, commissioned officer and 1G enlisted men for each 400

animals in service; the veterinarians and assistant veterinarians of the Regular Army,

National Guard, drafted into the Federal Service, and Officers’ Reserve Corps in active
DEVELOPMENT, 101(5-1940

service, shall be considered as part of the total commissioned personnel herein

authorized.

3. The commissioned personnel shall consist of veterinarians and assistant veterinarians and the grades and the ratios in grades shall be as follows: Seven veterinarians with rank of major to 20 veterinarians with rank of captain,

to 30 veterinarians with rank of first lieutenant, to 37 assistant veterinarians with rank

of second lieutenant.

In no case shall original appointments or promotions be made so as to make the ratio

between any of the grades above that of second lieutenant to the grade next below it

above the ratio specified.

4. The enlisted personnel shall consist of men of the grades indicated below and the

proportions of these men shall not exceed those indicated. In each 200 enlisted men

there may be sergeants first class, 10 sergeants, 10 corporals, 40 farriers, horseshoers,

saddler, cooks, 43 privates first class, 8G privates.

5. The Surgeon General will submit recommendations to the Secretary of War for

the commissioned and enlisted personnel now required for the organization authorized

above, which, upon approval by the Secretary of War, shall be put into effect. The

organization of the Veterinary Corps will be subsequently increased or decreased as the

needs of the service require upon recommendations by the Surgeon General after they

have been approved by the Secretary of War.

Veterinary Corps, National Army, having been provided, the principles and policies for its operation were provided in SR (Special Regulations) No. 70, 15 December 1917, Special Regulations Governing the Army

Veterinary Service. This regulation contained the first comprehensive description of the administrative and functional organization of the Army Veterinary

Service. Additional implementing instructions were contained in series

of circular letters which were promulgated by the Surgeon General’s Office

during World War and thereafter until late in 1920. Special Regulations

No. 70, supplemented by the Surgeon General’s circular letters, provided

administrative and technical guidance until supplanted by 52 numbered

Army Regulations which were published in 1921-22. These Army Regulations, with minor changes from time to time, were in effect at the beginning of World War II.

After World War I, the wartime military establishment was replaced

by more permanent peacetime organization under the provisions of the

act of June 1920 which amended the National Defense Act of 1916 to

the degree that new law seemed to emerge. This act, as further amended

or modified by the appropriation act of 60 June 1922, the act of 14 July

1932, and the act of 31 July 1935, markedly influenced the development of

the Army Veterinary Corps. The effect of these acts will be discussed in

their relation to the subject headings which follow.

ADMINISTRATION AND ORGANIZATION

When the National Defense Act of 1916 came into existence, there was

no veterinary service organization above the regimental, camp, and depot

level and no professional supervision or coordinating control over the separate local activities. The act did nothing to change this situation as it
ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

contained but little above the specific provisions for forming corps of

commissioned officers within the Medical Department. The Surgeon General, in early 1917, invited certain civilian veterinarians to confer with him on

planning the organization and expansion of wartime veterinary service.

special committee of the American Veterinary Medical Association submitted recommendation to the Surgeon General’s conference group for the

organization of veterinary service patterned after that of the British

Army’s veterinary service. The conference group accepted this proposal,

and recommendation was submitted to the War Department on 14 July

1917. This recommendation resulted in the publication of General Orders No. 130, October 1917, which established the organization of the Veterinary

Corps, National Army. Prior to the issuance of this general order, The

Surgeon General, anticipating its publication, had replaced his original conference group with veterinary advisory board of five prominent civilian

veterinarians to formulate plans for the more detailed organization and

administration of the veterinary service. The recommendations of this board

resulted in the publication of SR 70 which, together with the Surgeon General’s circular letters, provided administrative and technical direction until

1921.

After the appointment of civilian veterinary advisory board, Veterinary Division was established in the Surgeon General’s Office in October

1917 when number of the original veterinary advisers were commissioned

in the Veterinary Corps, National Army, and were assigned to duty in the

Veterinary Division. Under the directorship of Medical Corps officers from

1917 to 1922 and Veterinary Corps officers thereafter, the Veterinary Division continued through World War and thereafter as the office at War

Department level responsible for the operation of the Army Veterinary

Service.

During World War I, practically all of the veterinary officers were

assigned to combat divisions, remount depots, and other units within the

Zone of Interior which were exempt from control of the six departments

within the United States. For this reason, veterinary officers were not

assigned to department headquarters. The Surgeon General’s Office exercised direct coordination and supervision of the veterinary service at the

many exempted installations. This was accomplished through five senior

veterinary officer general inspectors who traveled from camp to camp within

each of five established geographic areas. These inspectors were of great

value in advising the many young and inexperienced veterinary officers and

Merillat and Campbell (Veterinary Military History of the United States, 1935, p. 491) indicated that the conference members included Maj. Gen. W. C. Gorgas, The Surgeon General; Maj.

C. G. Furbush, MC; Maj. G. E. Griffin, VC; Lt. A. L. Mason, VC; and the following civilian

veterinarians: V. A. Moore, dean of the New York State Veterinary College, Cornell University;

C. J. Marshall, of the School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Pennsylvania; D. S. White,

dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine, Ohio State University; J. R. Mohler, assistant or acting chief of the Bureau of Animal Industry, U.S. Department of Agriculture and C. E. Cotton,

president, American Veterinary Medical Association. Of these, Marshall, White, and Cotton were

commissioned into the Veterinary Corps, National Army, on October 1917.
DEVELOPMENT, 1916-1940

in keeping The Surgeon General informed on all matters pertaining to the

newly organized service. Various required reports were submitted directly

to The Surgeon General from all exempted stations.

After World War I, more and more of the formerly exempted units

and installations were placed under the control of the departments in line

with general policy of decentralization. With this change, the need for

traveling general inspectors no longer existed, and the assignment of

veterinary officer to the office of each department surgeon to supervise the

Veterinary Service wfithin the area became desirable. The first such department veterinarian was assigned in 1919; others were assigned later. The

military departments were discontinued in 1920 but were replaced by nine

numerically designated corps areas. Thus, the former department veterinarian became corps area veterinarian. His duties were first completely

outlined in Army Regulations in 1920. The number of corps area headquarters to wdiich veterinary officer was assigned varied from year to year.

After mid-1938, each corps area had an assigned corps area veterinarian, and

the onset of World War II saw veterinary activities well coordinated wfithin

the corps area commands.

Reference to the responsibilities of the Army Veterinary Service when

outside of the Zone of Interior and to the office of chief veterinarian in an

expeditionary force was first contained in SR 70. At variance with the

more commonly accepted concept of subordination to the chief surgeon, this

SR TO provided that the chief veterinarian report direct to the commander

in chief. Under this concept, the Chief Veterinarian, American Expeditionary Forces in France, was assigned to the office of the force’s Chief

Quartermaster where he became veterinary technical adviser to the theater’s

remount service rather than central administrator of the veterinary service.

The veterinary service was in fact under the direct control of the Quarter- master Corps instead of the Medical Department. This arrangement was

wholly unsatisfactory from every standpoint, but it as not corrected until

August 1918 when the Army Veterinary Service was finally placed under

Medical Department control and the Chief Veterinarian was assigned to

the Chief Surgeon’s Office.

Department veterinarians were assigned to the Hawaiian, Philippine,

and Panama Canal Departments in 1918. From the office of the department

surgeon, they supervised and coordinated the veterinary services in these

departments in the same manner as the veterinary service was supervised

by department or corps area veterinarians in the Zone of Interior.

PERSONNEL

Regular Army Officers

It was not until the spring of 1917 that anything was materially accomplished to provide commissioned veterinary corps as authorized by the
10 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

National Defense Act of 1916. Before that time, board of officers, composed of three Medical Corps officers and two veterinarians, was appointed

to examine the physical and professional qualifications of veterinarians then

in Cavalry, Field Artillery, and Quartermaster Corps for appointment into

the Veterinary Corps, Regular Army. Later, the examinations were extended to civilian veterinarians. By April 1917, 58 officers with previous

military service had been commissioned. By July 1918, the corps had been

filled to its authorized strength of 118. The authorization remained at this

level until, under the 1920 amendments to the National Defense Act, it

was increased to 175. The vacancies thus created were partially filled (to

total strength of 163 by December 1920) by integration into the Regular

Army of selected Veterinary Reserve officers who had seen active military

service during World War I. The appropriation act of 30 June 1922 provided that, effective January 1923, pay would be restricted to 126 regular

Veterinary Corps officers. The cutback from the then actual strength of 158

to the authorization of 126 was accomplished in part by normal attrition,

but the appointments of 22 officers were forcibly terminated by “pink

ticket.” The National Defense Act was never amended to reflect the reduced authorization, but the restriction was repeated in successive appropriation acts so that the authorization and actual strength was still 126

at the beginning of World War II. Subsequent to the integration program

noted above, vacancies within the authorized strength were filled only in the

lowest grade by appointment from an eligible list established after examination of candidates for appointment.

Temporary promotions of Regular Army Veterinary Corps officers

were made under authority of the provisions for the National Army during

World War I. Permanent promotions were made upon completion of fixed

number of years of service and successful completion of physical and professional examinations (table 1).

Table 1. Years of service required for promotion of Veterinary Corps, Regular Army, officers,

as described by law, 1916-^0

Rank Act of June 1916 Act of June 1920 Act of 31 July 1935

Second lieutenant Original Original

appointment. appointment.

To first lieutenant After years After years Original

appointment.

To captain After 15 years After years After years.

To major After 20 years After 14 years After 12 years.

To lieutenant colonel. Not authorized After 20 years After 20 years.

To colonel After 26 years After 26 years.
DE VELOPM NT, 1916-1940 11

Reserve Officers

With the onset of World War I, it was evident that the demand for

veterinary officers would have to be met by the appointment of veterinarians

in the Veterinary Section, Officers’ Reserve Corps, under authority of the

Officers’ Reserve Corps section of the National Defense Act of 191(5. In the

spring of 1917, The Surgeon General authorized the deans of veterinary

colleges and some few leading practitioners to conduct professional examination of veterinarians who might apply for appointment as second lieutenants,

Veterinary Officers’ Reserve Corps. After the fall of 1917, candidates for

appointment were examined by Medical Department boards of officers at

Army camps. During the wartime period, total of 1,596 veterinarians

were commissioned in the Reserve and served on active duty. Like the

veterinary officers of the Regular Army and those of the National Guard,

Veterinary Corps Reserve officers were integrated into the National Army on

October 1D17, under the provisions of General Orders No. 130. On

August 1918, all officers were transferred into the U.S. Army {2). This

latter personnel action was interpreted as one of outright discharge from

the Officers’ Reserve Corps, so the demobilization of the Army resulted in

the unconditional release of all former Reserve Corps veterinary officers

from further military obligation ). The Veterinary Officers’ Reserve

Corps then comprised only the few who had not been called to active duty

and those who had been discharged prior to August 1918.

The Veterinary Section of the Officers’ Reserve Corps was reestablished

on January 1919 and by the end of that year had 92 members. Many

former veterinary officers who had rendered satisfactory service during the

war were reappointed in the Reserve in the grades held when relieved from

active duty. Later, the majority of new appointments were veterinarians

who had completed their training under the Reserve Officers’ Training

Corps program which was started in four veterinary colleges in 1920. The

number in the Reserve, which from 1925 to 1938 averaged about 1,000, had

increased to over 1,500 in 1940, providing an adequate source of supply of

veterinary officers when needed during World War II. After mid-1930,

over 100 Reserve Corps veterinary officers were, on their own application,

ordered to active duty with the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) for

which certain administrative and supply functions, including the inspection

of food by veterinary officers, were being performed by the Army. These

officers were relieved from active military duty in late 1939, but many were

reemployed as civilian employees of the CCC to perform meat inspection

duties.

National Guard Officers

During World War I, 74 officers with the National Guard were inducted into Federal service. These, like all other veterinary officers, were

590248 —61
12 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

integrated into the National Army on October 1917 and into the U.S.

Army on August 1918, These were discharged from military service following the war. Later, veterinarians again became part of the National

Guard, and, by 30 June 1941, 34 National Guard veterinary officers were in active Federal service. Also included among the 2,313 veterinary officers

who saw active military service during World War were 17 originally

appointed in the National Army, 207 appointed in the U.S. Army after

August 1918, and retired Regular Army Veterinary Corps officers. The

peak active strength was 2,234; this peak was reached on 30 November 1918.

The peak active strength in Europe during World War was 890 officers

on 28 December 1918.

Enlisted Men

The National Defense Act of 1916 did not provide for veterinary enlisted personnel. The first provision for enlisted men as contained in General Orders No. 130, which established National Army Veterinary Corps consisting of commissioned and enlisted personnel. It provided for

strength not to exceed 16 veterinary enlisted men for each 400 animals in

the Army. The number of enlisted men rapidly increased, and wartime

peak of 18,007 men was reached on 31 October 1918. About two of every

three enlisted men saw oversea service. Demobilization after World War

saw the rapid release of wartime or Selective Service enlisted men from the

Veterinary Service. During the spring of 1919, the War Department authorized enlistment or reenlistment with the Medical Department, Regular Army,

for immediate assignment to duty with the Veterinary Corps. War Department General Orders No. 127, 17 November 1919, augmented the Medical

Department enlisted strength by 1,500 personnel spaces with the expressed

contingency that personnel “*

will be enlisted in the Medical Department

but will be assigned to duty with the Veterinary Corps.” By 30 June 1920,

there were 965 enlisted men, “Medical Department (Veterinary Service),” on

duty. Under the 1920 amendments to the National Defense Act, reduction

in overall Medical Department enlisted personnel authorization was effected,

and this was reflected in the decrease of the veterinary suballotment to 800

in 1922. Further reduction in authorization followed, and the average authorization through the years to 1940 was approximately 600, while the

average actual strength was very close to this figure. Both the authorized

and actual enlisted strengths were generally below that necessary for operation of fully efficient veterinary service.

TRAINING AND INSTRUCTIONAL SERVICES

Training in World War

The most discouraging situation in the beginning wartime expansion of

the Army Veterinary Service Avas its inadequate training. Practically all

veterinary officers Avere lacking in military experience, and there was A^ery
DEVELOPMENT, 1916-11M0 13

serious shortage of trained men to help the untrained, as there was no corps

of commissioned officers before 1917. Training of individual officers and

enlisted men was necessary as was also the training of units. Many officers

were of necessity self-trained. On-the-job training was conducted in unit

schools at regimental, depot, division, and camp level wherever possible,

but the quality of training was too often poor due to lack of trained instructors. Most of the few experienced officers who were available as instructors

were assigned to the Medical Department special training facilities or schools

listed in table 2.

Table 2.—Veterinary personnel enrolled in training courses and schools in World War

Only about one-half of the Veterinary Corps officers serving during

World War received military veterinary training in Medical Department

or other training installations giving formal instruction. Approximately the

same proportion of enlisted men received this type of training. The school

at Camp Lee, Va., was concerned principally with the organization and unit

training of 36 hospital and replacement units for the American Expeditionary Forces in France; 6,500 of its students were sent overseas with organizations. The school at the General Supply Depot in Chicago supplied specialized training in food and forage inspection.

Training After World War

The end of World War brought the early closing of all of the wartime veterinary training schools or facilities other than the Course in Meat

Training facility Date opened Date closed Number enrolled

Officers Enlisted

Veterinary Training School (section, Medical Officers’ Training Camp, Camp

Greenleaf, Ga 15 Feb. 1918 18 Dec. 1918 738 1, 074

Veterinary Section, Medical Officers’ Training Camp, Fort Riley, Kans_ 25 Feb. 1918 Sept. 1918

15 Feb. 1919

(’)

527

Veterinary Training School, Camp Lee,

Va .June 1918 393 7, 968

217

Meat and Dairy Hygiene and Forage Inspection Course, General Supply Depot,

Chicago, 111 27 Aug. 1917

Jan. 1918

132

Course, Veterinary Laboratory, Philadelphia, Pa __

Total 1, 269 9, 786

The course was discontinued, and in its place, on 25 June 1920, the School of Military Meat and Dairy Hygiene

and Forage Inspection (later renamed the Army Veterinary School) was established.

The Veterinary Laboratory was transferred during March 1920to Washington, D.C.
14 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

and Dairy Hygiene and Forage Inspection in Chicago and the veterinary

laboratory course in Philadelphia. The latter was transferred to Washington, D.C., in 1920 and later became part of the Army Veterinary School.

The course of instruction at the Chicago General Supply Depot was

designated as the Veterinary School of Meat and Dairy Hygiene and Forage

Inspection in 1920, as an Army special service school under the Medical

Department for the training of veterinary officers and enlisted personnel

{3, If). The school was reorganized in early 1922 and was renamed the Army

Veterinary School. Pursuant to War Department authorization of July

1923, the school was transferred to Washington, D.C., where it was integrated into the organization of the Army Medical Center (S). The school

conducted the basic course for Veterinary Corps officers and the technicians’

course for enlisted personnel throughout the peacetime period. The Army

Veterinary School graduated 162 officers and 196 enlisted men between 1920

and 1941.

In 1920, the Medical Field Service School for the field training of Medical Department personnel was established at Carlisle Barracks, Pa. Groups

of Veterinary Corps officers first regularly attended this school in 1923;

total of 113 Veterinary Corps officers had graduated before 1941.

The following tabulation shows the number of Veterinary Corps officers

graduating from Army schools, other than Medical Department schools, during the peacetime period.

Army War College

Command and General Staff School

The Cavalry School 12

The Chemical Warfare School

Quartermaster Corps Subsistence School

Total 20

During the same period, 15 Veterinary Corps officers completed courses

in civilian educational institutions.

Some of the most important peacetime training was the training conducted in veterinary ROTC (Reserve Officers’ Training Corps) units in four

veterinary colleges between 1920 and 1935. During this period, nearly 500

veterinary ROTC students received their professional degrees and were

commissioned as second lieutenants in the veterinary section of the Officers’

Reserve Corps.

EQUIPMENT AND SUPPLIES

Shortly after becoming part of the Medical Department, the Army

Veterinary Service was equipped and supplied in common with the Medical

and Dental Corps. However, at the beginning of World War I, there was

practically no veterinary equipment or supply on hand. The relatively small

holding of veterinary supplies in the hands of the Quartermaster Corps was

transferred to the Medical Department, and veterinarians who were then
DEVELOPMENT, 1916-1940 15

entering active military service were asked to bring their equipment with

them for purchase by the Army. In addition, the Secretary of War granted

authority to civilian animal humane organizations to furnish gift donations

so that Army animals would not suffer from the lack of veterinary equipment and supplies.

Donations of considerable amounts of equipment and supplies were

made by the Blue Cross Society, sponsored by the American lied Cross, and

by the Red Star Animal Relief, organized as part of the American Humane

Association. The appropriations act of 12 May 1917 provided funds for the

Medical Department expressly “for the purchase of veterinary supplies,” but

it was late 1917 before nearly adequate stocks were available in the Medical

Supply Depot, St. Louis, Mo. Supply tables revised in early 1918 provided

new wallets, chests, and unit assemblies, largely patterned after British Army

equipment, for veterinary detachments, hospitals, and other field units. Before

22April 1918, nearly $4% millionhad been expended for veterinary equipment

and supplies, which by that time were on hand in adequate amounts.

After World War I, the Medical Department supply tables were subjected to various revisions, but the classification of veterinary supplies remained more or less the same after 1928. During the peacetime period, the

Medical Field Service School and the Army Veterinary School, working

with the Veterinary Division of the Surgeon General’s Office and selected

test units in the field, did much to improve and develop the veterinary

equipment and supply, particularly the various assemblies for field use.

References

1. The Medical Department of the United States Army in the World War. The

Surgeon General’s Office. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1923, vol. I.

2. War Department Generai Orders No. 73, Aug. 1918.

3. Letter, The Surgeon General to The Adjutant General, 10 May 1920, subject:

Special Service School for Instruction of Veterinary Personnel in Meat, Dairy, and

Forage Inspection Duties.

4. Letter, The Adjutant General to Deputy Officer, General Supply Depot, Chicago,

111., 25 June 1920, subject: Veterinary School of Meat and Dairy Hygiene.

5. Letter, The Surgeon General to The Adjutant General, 22 June 1923, subject:

Transfer of Army Veterinary School From Chicago to Washington, D.C., 1st indorsement thereto.

17

CHAPTER III

Mission and Administration

With an understanding of the beginnings in military veterinary medicine and of developments in the Army Veterinary Service since its formation pursuant to the National Defense Act of June 1916, the objectives

and accomplishments of the 2,116 veterinarians who served in the Veterinary

Corps of the Army during World War II become more real. At this point,

it must be emphasized that the wartime expansion of the Army Veterinary

Service was generally orderly, even showing increasing efficiency in answer,

or partial response, to the seemingly imponderable problems and questions

which then arose. This was not true during World War when the newly

created Army Veterinary Service was necessarily expanded even before its

fundamental principles or nuclei were fully developed. The onset of World

War II found the Army Veterinary Service with tested definition of its

mission and responsibilities and with central administrative agency in

operation—two factors which were essential to orderly expansion. Their

existence was credit to the Veterinary Corps which had actively continued

and repeatedly reevaluated them once they had been developed in the years

past.

MISSION AND RESPONSIBILITIES

The mission and responsibilities of the Army Veterinary Service in

World War II were generally no different from those which were defined

soon after the Veterinary Corps was created and was made component of

the Medical Department. Only the words were changed after World War I,

and time had brought about some refinements in these definitions as well as

more firm establishment of the relationship of the corps in Medical Department organization. Special Regulations No. 70, 15 December 1917, described

the objects of the Veterinary Corps as follows: “*

to protect the health

and preserve the efficiency of the animals of the Army,” and “*also

provide for the inspection of meat-producing animals before and after

slaughter and of dressed carcasses; and for the inspection of dairy herds

supplying milk to the Army.” Parts of the definition originated with the

National Defense Act of June 1916, which had created the Veterinary

Corps to include veterinarians, veterinarians with mounted units, veterinary

inspectors of horses and mules, and veterinary inspectors of meats. On 25

January 1922, AR (Army Regulations) No. 40-2005, Medical Department—

Veterinary Service, General Provisions, provided: “The Veterinary Service

as part of the Medical Department is charged in peace and war with

duties falling under two definite heads: First, those in connection with the

animals of the Army; second, those concerned with the food supplies of
18 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

troops that are of animal origin." This was restated in the 15 September

1942 edition of the same regulation and was continued throughout the remaining period of World War IT.

Animal Health

With reference to animals, the Army Veterinary Service was responsible

for (1) investigating animal hygiene and sanitary conditions and making

recommendations with respect thereto; (2) advising on those methods of

animal management concerned with animal health and efficiency; (3) instructing military personnel on military animal sanitation and management

and on horseshoeing; (4) examining animal feeds and forage when procured, in storage, and at issue; (5) evacuating and caring for sick and

wounded animals; (6) physically examining animals; (7) managing and

controlling veterinary hospitals and all other veterinary units; (8) investigating and controlling those diseases of animals which were known or suspected to be transmissible to the human being; and (9) controlling, training,

instructing, and assigning to duty of the commissioned and enlisted personnel of the Medical Department who belonged to the Veterinary Service.

These responsibilities expressly meant that the Army Veterinary Service in

World War II—-

1. Applied the principles of veterinary sanitary science to maintain animals in correct environment with regard to their shelter, restraint, handling, feeds and feeding, grooming, work and exercise, shoeing, clothing, and

equipment with the purpose of eliminating, so far as practicable, the causes

of physical inefficiency.

2. Initiated suitable measures for the control of communicable diseases.

3. Reduced animal losses and inefficiency by the prompt discovery of the

sick and wounded, their separation from the well, their evacuation, their

segregation in veterinary hospitals, and the application of curative measures.

4. Physically examined animals prior to purchase and at other times

with view to insuring the acquisition of only serviceably sound animals and

the prompt and economical disposal of the unsound.

5. Reduced the incidence among military personnel of diseases transmissible by animals by the application of veterinary public health measures

applicable to military animals and civilian animals in the vicinity of troop

areas.

Food Inspection

Regarding food supplies, the Army Veterinary Service in World War II

was responsible for (1) the procurement and surveillance inspections of

meats, meat foods, milk and dairy products used by the Army; (2) the

determination, by inspection or other means, of the sanitary condition of food

establishments, warehouses, and shipping conveyances and of the methods used

in manufacturing, storing, shipping, and handling food products; (3) the
MISSION AND ADMINISTRATION 19

submission of recommendations with respect to the food supply; and (4) the

instruction of veterinary food inspection personnel. These responsibilities

meant that the Army Veterinary Service—-

1. Applied the principles of sanitary control over the condition and

methods used in the production or manufacture, shipping, storage, issue, and

other handling of food products, including food establishments, warehouses,

freezing plants, refrigerators, railroad cars, ships, and airplanes as well as

milk herds and dairies.

2. Reduced or eliminated the hazards to troop health that existed in

diseased, contaminated, or deteriorated food supplies, by sanitary inspections

and reinspections of food products.

3. Assured that the quantity and the sanitary, nutritive, and grade

qualities of food products were delivered by contractors in accordance with

the requirements of specifications and purchase instruments.

By the operations listed, the veterinary food inspection service assured

that the food supplies of animal origin which were purchased by the Army

were produced in establishments maintaining acceptable standards of sanitation, that they were sound and of the required quality when procured, and

that the food products at time of issue to troops were wholesome and fit for

human consumption. The operations also were important in the conservation of the Army food stockpiles against unnecessary deterioration or outright losses due to spoilage.

Relation With Medical Service

In the conduct of this service with Army animals and the inspection of

the Army food supply, the Veterinary Service was administered, under the

direction of The Surgeon General, by Veterinary Corps officer who was

selected by The Surgeon General and assigned to duty in his office as chief

of the Veterinary Division. Below the level of the Surgeon General’s Office

in the organizational structure of the Army, these services in theater of

operations, territorial department, corps area (later service command), camp,

airbase, or other station, or in field army, army corps, division, air force,

or other unit were the responsibility of, and were conducted by, the senior

Veterinary Corps officer, whose official designation was “veterinarian.” His

basic title was, for example, chief veterinarian, department veterinarian,

corps area (or service command) veterinarian, station veterinarian, depot

veterinarian, base veterinarian, port veterinarian, army veterinarian, corps

veterinarian, division veterinarian, brigade veterinarian, or regimental veterinarian. At these levels of the military organizational structure, the dual

nature of responsibilities of the Army Veterinary Service—concerning animals on one hand and troops on the other—involved close and definite

relationship in Medical Department organization and administration. The

veterinary service with animals, and the general medical service with troops

proceeded along parallel lines. Their problems of sanitation, preventive

590248 —61
20 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

medicine, control of preventable diseases, professional care and treatment of

the sick and injured, and the administration of hospitals were precisely

analogous, as were the procedures prescribed and the means provided for

their solution.

Staff Duties

While appropriately united in one department and administered under

one head—The Surgeon General—the veterinary and medical services were,

in technical sense, separate except as they met on the common ground of

an animal disease which might possibly be communicable to man. On the

other hand, the veterinary service with troops or operations concerned with

the examination of the food supply was matter of sanitation and, thus,

direct extension of the sanitary service of the Medical Department, which

was charged with responsibility in all matters concerning the protection of

the health of troops. Proper coordination of these activities of this service

branch of the Army was assured only when there was but one representative

of the Medical Department on the staff of the commanding officer. Since

all considerations involving the health of troops were paramount, such staff

duty logically devolved upon the senior Medical Corps officer present with

the command. This principle, however, was construed as placing the veterinary officer of the command as subordinate of, or assistant to, the surgeon

only in staff capacity. In his staff relations, the veterinarian furnished the

surgeon with such technical information as was necessary in properly representing the affairs of the Medical Department. In addition to their staff

functions as surgeon and veterinarian, respectively, the medical officer commanded the medical detachment and the veterinary officer commanded the

veterinary detachment, and in such command capacity each was directly

responsible only to the commanding officer. Accordingly, at posts, camps,

and stations, such matters as reports and returns relating exclusively to the

veterinary detachment or to veterinary technical operations not involving

the health of troops were not transmitted by the veterinarian through the

surgeon.

In the absence of veterinary officer, the ordinary staff duties of the

surgeon were expanded to include direct responsibility for the command’s

veterinary service, including its administration. Where there were no veterinary personnel—officer or enlisted—the surgeon represented the Medical

Department in matters pertaining to the Veterinary Service, utilized such

facilities as were at his disposal, and kept the commanding officer advised as

to the veterinary requirements. To the extent that veterinary personnel

were available, these situations were avoided by the assignment of specially

trained and selected veterinary noncommissioned officers to the surgeon’s

offices of commands, by the authorization to employ civilian veterinarians, or

by the naming of an attending veterinarian who performed at such stations

the same duties as were required at his regularly assigned station.
MISSION AND ADMINISTRATION 21

Professional Duties

In addition to the duties and responsibilities devolving upon him as

doctor of veterinary medicine, the Veterinary Corps officer inherited certain

duties and responsibilities which were commensurate with his commissioning

as an Army officer and were proper to the performance of the mission

assigned to the Army Veterinary Service. These may be classified as professional, advisory, and administrative. The professional duties were typical

of those which were performed by the veterinary surgeons and employed

veterinarians who saw service with Cavalry, Field Artillery, and the Subsistence and Quartermaster’s Department before 1916; they had no advisory

duties and no personnel to assist them. The advisory duties may be compared with the activities of professional consultants or civilian experts, but

only the Veterinary Corps officer could perform all three classes of duties

and be responsible for them, including that of command. The duties and

responsibilities, in general, of the veterinary officers when acting in professional capacity were to

1. Practice preventive veterinary medicine by recommending suitable

measures for the prevention and control of animal diseases and injury, including physical examinations of animals.

2. Provide treatment and hospitalization for animals analogous to that

provided to troops by medical and dental officers.

3. Conduct sanitary inspections of establishments producing, storing,

issuing, or otherwise handling foods of animal origin which were used by

the Army and to conduct procurement and surveillance food products

inspections.

Advisory Duties

When acting in an advisory capacity, or as staff veterinary officer, his

duties were—-

1. To keep informed of existing conditions having any bearing upon

the health and physical efficiency of the animals of the command and, especially in moving command, to anticipate the occurrence of such conditions.

2. To keep informed of conditions affecting foods of animal origin

which might have bearing upon the health of troops.

3. To transmit to the commanding officer such of this information having

bearing upon the military administration and to submit appropriate

recommendations.

4. To transmit to the surgeon such of this information having any bearing upon the health of troops.

5. To make prescribed reports and returns and to take appropriate

action on reports and returns received from subordinates.

6. To perform such other duties as directed by superior authority.

These advisory duties did not mean that the veterinary officer took corrective action to minimize defect—that being the direct responsibility of
22 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

the commanding officer. If, however, the commanding officer expressly authorized the Veterinary Corps officer to give orders in his name for the correction of such defects, then the duties and responsibilities of the latter were

correspondingly increased. In advising, it became necessary for the veterinary officer to remember that when any veterinary necessity of the moment

conflicted with purely military necessity, the former was ranked secondary

in importance, unless the veterinary officer was convinced that the responsible

military authority was not aware of the far-reaching results from veterinary point of view, in which case, it was necessary to again present the

matter to the military authority, who alone possessed all of the facts bearing

on the decision of action for which he alone was responsible.

Administrative Duties

In liis administrative duties, the Veterinary Corps officer was directly

responsible for the condition and efficiency of the veterinary service of his

command—this being comparable to the duties of administrative officers of

the line units of the Army. More specifically, the veterinary officer was

responsible for

1. The training, discipline, efficiency, and assignment to duty of the

personnel which he commanded and the supervision of the internal economy

of the veterinary organization or unit.

2. The maintenance of equipment in proper condition by requisitioning

the needed supplies and by properly caring for the property on hand.

3. The keeping of prescribed reports and the making of prescribed

reports and returns.

4. The performance of such other duties as were required by superior

military authority, such as the conduct of veterinary instructional services in

horseshoeing schools.

Changes in Emphasis

The mission and responsibilities of the A'eterinary Service during World

ar II were not materially different from those of World War I. However, during the war, there were some changes in the emphasis on parts of

the mission and responsibilities and in the way that they were fulfilled. For

example, World War II saw the definition of Army animals, so far as the

Army Veterinary Service was concerned, expanded to mean not only horses

and mules but also Army dogs and signal pigeons and even laboratory animals. However, this change in meaning did not add to, or detract from, the

mission of the Army Veterinary Service to protect and preserve animal efficiency nor did changes in animal strength have an influence on this mission.

Similarly, the newer threats to troop health which came with leptospirosis

and rabies of dogs or with psittacosis and salmonellosis common to pigeons—-

diseases which are infectious for the human being—had little influence on the

basic concept of the mission of veterinary public health and its relationship
MISSION AND ADMINISTRATION 23

in the Medical Department. In regard to the Army food supply, which was

many times the volume of any past period, the increasing emphasis on centralizing food procurement, on conducting inspections at food establishments,

and on conserving Army stockpiles by surveillance inspections involved

changes and expansion of the administrative organization of the Army

Veterinary Service in the Zone of Interior and theaters overseas in lieu of

amendment to the statement of mission and responsibilities.

Tables and show the number of animals treated, and tables and

show the amounts of foods of animal origin that were inspected. These

tables present picture of the magnitude of the mission and responsibilities

of the Veterinary Service during World War II.

Table 3.—Veterinary service to horses and mules in the U.S. Army, by year,

[Rate expressed as number perannum per 1,000 average strength]

ADMINISTRATION

Surgeon General’s Office

The Army Veterinary Service was administered as component of the

Medical Department under the direction of The Surgeon General by

Veterinary Corps officer who was selected by The Surgeon General and

assigned to duty as chief of the Veterinary Division of his office. Pursuant

to the regulations of the Army, his title was that of chief of the Veterinary

Division and not chief of the Veterinary Corps. His recommendations and

actions were first subjected to review and approval by The Surgeon General,

but on certain matters of primary veterinary concern these recommendations

were accepted so regularly that, from practical viewpoint, the chief exercised varying degree of direct control over the Veterinary Corps.

In 1939, the chief of the Veterinary Division, then veterinary officer

with the rank of lieutenant colonel, was advising The Surgeon General

directlv on the administration of the Army Veterinary Service. The VeterYear Average

Admissions Deaths Days of

strength Number Rate Number Rate treatment

1941 46, 520 44, 696 960. 2, 528 54. 918, 553

1942 49, 701 33, 424 672. 2, 181 43. 706, 794

1943 56, 287 31, 784 564. 2, 987 53. 853, 481

1944 43, 334 25, 471 587. 2, 364 54. 610, 916

1945 35, 200 19, 939 566. 2, 856 81. 486, 652

1946 7, 717 3, 119 404. 275 35. 59, 210

Source: Reports, Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office, for the annual reports of The Surgeon General,

1942-45. [Officialrecord.]
24 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Table A.-—Veterinary service to Army horses and mules, in the

[Rate expressed as number per annum

inary Division at the time included one other veterinary officer and four

civilian employees (table 7). During the pre-World War II emergency

period, the veterinary personnel strength was augmented by three officers

the first increase in their numbers since mid-1925. With this change, the

peacetime Veterinary Division was reorganized to include, as of December

1941, the chief of the division, the assistant chief, the officers in charge of the

animal service and the meat and dairy hygiene subdivisions, and the liaison

officer to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Quartermaster General’s Office. few months later, this internal arrangement was replaced

by one more or less contemplated in the mobilization plans which had been

developed in the preceding peacetime years. The Veterinary Division was

divided into four subdivisions: (1) Personnel, Statistical and Training;

(2) Inspection; (3) Animal Service; and (4) Meat and Dairy Hygiene.

Probably the most important part of the change at this time was that mobilization planning had provided for the rank of the chief of the division to be

that of brigadier general. Thus, on 17 March 1942, this officer, Col. Raymond

A. Kelser, VC, was advised by The Adjutant General of his temporary

appointment as brigadier general in the Army of the United States (with

date of rank, March 1941) (/). He was the first! in the history of the

Year

Average

strength

Total Disease

Admissions Deaths Days of

treatment

(Number)

Noneffective

rate

Admissions

Number Rate Number Rate Number Rate

HORSES

1941 39, 703 40, 397 I, 017. 2, 291 57. 835, 935 57. 18, 570 467.

1942 41, 297 28, 636 693. 1, 916 46. 616, 505 40. 10, 977 265.

1943 40, 917 24, 789 605. 2, 631 64. 588, 838 38. 10, 845 265.

1944 22, 264 13, 615 611. 1, 625 73. 317, 520 39. 6, 468 290.

1945 13, 280 11, 157 840. 1, 932 145. 247, 277 51. 5, 337 401.

MULES

1941 6, 817 4, 299 630. 237 34. 82, 618 33. 1, 302 191.

1942 8, 404 4, 788 569. 265 31. 90, 289 29. 1, 899 226.

1943 15, 370 6, 995 455. 356 23. 164, 643 29. 2, 801 182.

1944 21, 070 11, 856 562. 739 35. 293, 396 38. 5, 152 244.

1945 21, 920 8, 782 400. 924 42. 239, 375 29. 4, 122 188.

Source: Reports, VeterinaryDivision, Surgeon General’s Office, for annual reports of The Surgeon General, 1941-45
MISSION AND ADMINISTRATION 25

U.S. Army, by disease and external cause (or injury), 1941-4-3

per 1,000 average animal strength]

Army Veterinary Service to attain general officer rank. The other parts of

the mobilization plans were not as rigidly carried out, though Veterinary

Corps officer was assigned to the Personnel Division (for the period,

February 1943-11 April 1944), and, in lieu of the veterinary subdivision in the planned Inspection Division, the position of traveling veterinary consultants was established.

On 26 March 1942, the Veterinary Division was elevated to the status of

“service” within the organizational structure of the Surgeon General’s

Office and was internally organized to include the director of service and

three divisions (each with three subdivisions).

War Department Reorganization

In March 1942, The Surgeon General lost his place in the War Department organization structure of direct accessibility to the Chief of Staff and

War Department General Staff (2). In the reorganization of the War

Department, many of its operative functions in the Zone of Interior were

then consolidated and delegated to three new major commands: the Army

Ground Forces, the Army Air Forces, and the Army Service Forces (origiDisease—Continued External cause (or injury)

Deaths Days of

treatment Noneffective Admissions Deaths Days of NonNumber Rate (Number) rate

Number Rate Number Rate

(Number) rate

HORSES—Continued

1, 762 44. 427, 046 29. 21, 827 549. 529 13. 408, 889 28.

1, 430 34. 235, 158 15. 17, 659 427. 486 11. 381, 347 25.

I, 927 47. 288, 314 19. 13, 944 340. 704 17. 300, 524 19.

1, 344 60. 157, 885 19. 7, 147 321. 281 12. 159, 635 19.

1, 618 121. 116, 661 24. 5, 820 438. 314 23. 130, 616 27.

MULES—Continued

167 24. 31, 828 12. 2, 997 439. 70 10. 50, 790 20.

194 23. 39, 043 12. 2, 889 343. 71 8. 51, 246 16.

270 17. 70, 778 12. 4, 194 279. 86 5. 93, 865 16.

561 26. 135, 526 17. 6, 704 318. 178 8. 157, 070 20.

679 31. 116, 130 14. 4, 660 212. 245 11. 123, 245 15.

[Officialrecord.]
26 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Table 5. Inspections of foods of animal origin, procured, handled, and issued hy the U.S. Army Veterinary Service, by year, 191+1-1+6

Year Grand total

Procurement inspections

Total Prior to purchase Ondelivery at purchase

Passed Rejected Passed Rejected Passed Rejected

1941 2, 715. 71

11, 004. 71

25, 055. 21

47, 028. 41

55, 583. 92

9, 680. 26

Millions of pounds

1, 292. 38

4, 296. 24

9, 714. 47

13, 522. 40

13, 885. 78

1, 873. 11

Millions

of pounds

58. 41

242. 33

307. 96

374. 20

246. 35

42. 02

Millions of pounds

315. 34

1, 318. 49

3, 983. 69

5, 674. 10

5, 861. 00

801. 71

Millions

of pounds

34. 57

213. 05

273. 24

307. 41

197. 50

37. 22

Millions of pounds

977. 04

2, 977. 75

5, 730. 78

7, 848. 31

8, 024. 83

1, 071. 40

Millions

of pounds

23. 84

29. 28

34. 72

66. 78

48. 85

4. 80

1942

1943

1944

1945-_

1946-.

Year

Surveillance inspections

Total On any receipt except purchase Prior to shipment

Passed Rejected Passed Rejected Passed Rejected

1941

1942

Millions of pounds

1, 364. 44

6, 962. 77

15, 015. 30

33, 091. 65

41, 411. 26

7, 749. 95

Millions of pounds

0. 49

3. 36

17. 49

40. 17

40. 53

15. 17

Millions of pounds

152. 42

1, 897. 38

5, 133. 21

13, 685. 48

17, 375. 57

2, 598. 32

Millions of pounds

0. 21

1. 30

4. 64

12. 54

17. 12

5. 32

Millions of pounds

404. 99

2, 579. 32

5, 883. 88

14, 064. 54

17, 750. 28

2, 812. 19

Millions of pounds

0. 22

1. 82

2. 21

85

78

37

1943

1944---

1945

1946

Year

Surveillance inspections Post mortem inspections of—

At issue to troops In storage Animals (excluding poultry) Poultry

Passed Rejected Passed Rejected Passed Rejected Passed Rejected

1941

Millions of pounds

807. 03

1, 986. 07

3, 920. 50

5, 206. 55

6, 052. 90

2, 151. 38

Millions

of pounds

0. 06

25

1. 86

3. 04

4. 90

4. 27

Millions of pounds

0)

0)

77. 70

135. 09

232. 51

188. 06

Millions

of pounds

C)

0)

8. 77

23. 73

17. 72

5. 21

Pounds

4, 313

2, 479

70, 308

172, 364

329, 369

9, 425

Pounds

124

162

5, 764

9, 181

4, 621

1, 064

Pounds

298, 764

192, 112

5, 755, 566

5, 947, 053

4, 620, 505

75, 159

Pounds

23, 255

12, 302

1, 244, 127

219, 912

286, 668

2, 454

1942

1943

1944

1945__

1946

For 1941 and 1942, these surveillance inspections, on inspection prior to shipment and inspection in storage, were merged in the so-called inspection in storage and at time of shipment.

Source: Reports, Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office, for the annual reports of The Surgeon General,

1942-46. [Officialrecord.]
MISSION AND ADMINISTRATION 27

Table 6. Rejections of foods of animal origin before and following U.S. Army procurement,

by year and by cause, 1941-46

nally named Services of Supply). The Surgeon General's Office (and the

Medical Department), along with the several supply arms and branches,

came under the jurisdiction and were subjected to the authority of the new

Army Service Forces command. In consequence, recommendations of the

Army Veterinary Service in general lost much of their identity and finality

because any Medical Department policy was necessarily subjected to the

approving authority of Army Service Forces headquarters before the War

Department General Staff and Chief of Staff could pass on them; the Army

Ground Forces and the Army Air Forces imposed additional qualifications

Year Total

Procurement inspections Surveillance inspections

Cause for rejection

Computed

procurement in- spections

Rejection

because

insanitary

or un- sound

Food in- sanitary

or unsound

Computed

inspections

at issue to troopsNot type, class, or

grade

Insanitary or unsound

1941_

Millions of pounds

58. 05

242. 33

307. 96

374. 20

246. 35

42. 02

Millions of pounds

51. 72

221. 46

282. 92

314. 05

200. 11

36. 22

Millions of pounds

6. 33

20. 87

25. 04

60. 14

46. 24

5. 80

Percent

5.

7.

5.

4.

3.

3.

Percent

10.

8.

8.

16.

18.

13.

Millions of pounds

0. 49

3. 36

17. 49

40. 17

40. 53 15. 17

Percent

0. 06

17

44

77

66

70

1942

1943

1944

1945

1946

Based on data contained InHealth of the Army, August 1949, vol. 4, No. 8, pp. 2-9. Refers to products which have failed to comply with Army purchase instruments in matters such as quality, sex,

age, fat content, color and artificial color, damaged cans or cases, excess moisture, Improper packing and packaging, improperly trimmed, insufficient curing or smoking, mutilated, defrosted, overweight, seedy, soft and oily, undercured,

underweight, and storage deterioration.

Refers to products such as broken eggs, contaminated, decomposed, putrid, rotten, moldy, uninspected by U.S.

Department of Agriculture, off flavor, parasitic infestation, rancid, short vacuum, slimy, sour, stale or deteriorated,

swellersand leakers, and diseased.

The total procurement inspections were simply the sum of the inspection priorto purchase and theinspection on delivery at purchase. Actually, not all food products were inspected prior to purchase (that is, during manufacture or packaging), but these and considerably larger quantities of others which are not so inspected are always inspected when

deliveredto and purchased by the Army. Thus, tocompute more realistic data of the actual amounts of foods inspected

for procurement, the amounts passed during inspection prior to purchase may be disregarded (because the same foods

arereinspected, or figuratively duplicated) in the inspections on delivery at purchase. Conversely, the computed procurement inspection is the sum of the quantities inspected (both passed and rejected) on delivery at purchase and the quantities rejected during inspection prior to purchase. This column is the procurement Inspection total rejections

shown as percent of thesum of the inspection on delivery at purchase and therejection prior to purchase.

Based on totalamount inspected.

Surveillance inspections relate to Government-owned food products, and these, having passedprocurement inspection, cannot berejected except for insanitary condition or unsoundness.

The totalsurveillance inspections were simply the sum of the inspections on any receipt except purchase, in storage

and at time of shipment, and at issue to troops; in fact, it is duplication possibly of given quantity of food as it was received in depots, stored, transshipped,and issued. Probably, more realistic data on such given quantity may be

observed in the inspection at issue to troops, which was the final, one-time inspection before its consumption. This

columnis thesurveillance inspection total rejections shown in percent of the sum of theserejections plus the passed inspection at time ofissue to troops.
28 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

before these recommendations reached the veterinary personnel in the field.

The general trend toward decentralization of authority from these three

major command staffs complicated and furthered the losses of decentralized

technical supervision over the Army Veterinary Service as whole. This

“decentralization of authority without losing essential control”—as the phrase

read—was carried to the extreme in the Army Service Forces which refused

authorization to revise properly, and even threatened to destroy, the existing

veterinary reports and Army-wide reporting procedures on sick and wounded

animals and on the inspections of food. Both reports were critically needed

by the Veterinary Division to plan for, and to evaluate, the efficiency of the

Army Veterinary Service.

Table 7.—Personnel on duty in the Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office, 30 June

In the general reorganization of the Surgeon General’s Office during

August 1942, the Veterinary Service organization again became the Veterinary Division, but it was grouped with other divisions (such as Medical

Practice, Dental, Nursing, and Preventive Medicine) under the newly formed

Professional Services, now major organizational unit within the Surgeon

General’s Office. This action marked the low-water mark in the history of

technical administration of the Army Veterinary Service because Professional

Services stood in the way of the direct access that the nominal chief of the

Veterinary Corps formerly had to The Surgeon General who, himself, had

lost his channel of direct communication with the Chief of Staff during

March 1942. During the period of the next years, the director of the

The headquarters of the Army Ground Forces and the Army Air Forces at no time during

World War II included veterinary staff officers.

1939--30 June 19J+6

Personnel 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946

Veterinary Corps officers;

Brigadier general

Colonel

Lieutenant colonel

Major

Captain

Branch immaterial (later Sanitary Corps officer), major

Total officers

Civilian employees 12 19 15 17 16

Assigned to duty in MilitaryPersonnel Division.

Sources: (1) Annual Reports of The Surgeon General, U.S. Army. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office,

1939-41. (2) Reports, Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office, for the annual reports of The Surgeon General,

1942-46. [Officialrecord.]
MISSION AND ADMINISTRATION 29

Veterinary Division was assisted in his staff work with the following branch organizations:

Veterinary Policies Branch (formerly Miscellaneous Branch)

Qualifications Section

Correspondence and Publications Section

Equipment and Construction Section Meat and Dairy Branch

Inspection Section

Quartermaster Subsistence Liaison Section

Reports Section

Animal Service Branch

Veterinary Hospitalization Section

Remount Liaison Section

Report Section

On August 1944, Professional Services was dissolved, and the Veterinary

Division regained its standing as major element in the organizational structure of the Surgeon General’s Office; the director of the Veterinary Division

again had direct access to The Surgeon General.

Veterinary Consultants Division

There was little change in the status of the Veterinary Division during

the remainder of the war. However, on 19 April 1945, the position of The

Surgeon General to advise on matters pertaining to the health of the Army

was removed from effective supervisory control by the headquarters of Army

Service Forces (3). Returning to the situation which existed before March

1942, The Surgeon General again became “the chief medical officer of the

Army and the chief medical adviser to the Chief of Staff and the War

Department.” On 18 October 1945, the Veterinary Division was renamed

the Veterinary Consultants Division. Though the change in name was made

without reduction in the scope of current veterinary administrative responsibilities within the Surgeon General’s Office, the new name erroneously conveyed the impression that the chief of the division was only professional adviser or special civilian consultant to The Surgeon General. By the end of

the winter of 1945-H6, all officer personnel who had seen wartime service in

the Surgeon General’s Office were retired, discharged from active duty, or

reassigned, and were replaced by newly assigned personnel. Also, the personnel space authorizations were cut back after V-J Day to three veterinary

officers and seven civilian employees.

Traveling Veterinary Consultants

Veterinary consultants were essential because the administrative responsibilities of the Veterinary Division had been largely subordinated (1) to

the wartime staffing empires in the headquarters of Army Service Forces and,
30 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

for time, in the Professional Services organization of the Surgeon General’s

Office, and (2) by the general trends in decentralization of authority and

functions. The necessary liaison and technical evaluation on uniformity of

the widespread operations and efficiency of the Army Veterinary Service, particularly its food inspection activities throughout the Zone of Interior, were retained in the Surgeon General’s Office by newly developed program

of field inspection. similar program had been established and maintained

during World War I, but then the program involved the assignment of general veterinary inspectors, five in number, who sought to improve the veterinary service with animals. In World War II, the program involved the

utilization of three traveling veterinary consultants who were concerned with

the inspection of foods.

The wartime program seems to have originated on September 1912

with the headquarters of Army Service Forces (then called Services of

Supply) which in general administrative memorandum requested The

Surgeon General and other technical service chiefs to encourage and develop

well-organized program of field inspections. During the next month, the

Veterinary Division proposed checklist on its conduct of inspections of

veterinary activities in the service commands; the latter, superseding the

corps areas, had become the principal field organizations of the Army Service

Forces. similar checklist was developed for use by the service command

veterinarians even though AR 40-2010 expressly provided for each such veterinary staff officer “*

to act as veterinary inspector for the service command *”

and defined his specific duties. On 30 April 1943, the Veterinary

Division advanced specific proposal for expanding the field inspections

beyond the geographical limits of service commands by the establishment of

program operated by the Surgeon General’s Office.

Subsequently, on May 1943, the headquarters of Army Service Forces

granted the augmentation of personnel space authorizations to the Surgeon

General’s Office by four veterinary officers “to provide positions as traveling

Veterinary Corps inspectors, under The Surgeon General.” Later, this

number was reduced to three and then, after World War II, to two traveling veterinary consultant officers. Actually, not more than three such

officers were on duty at any one time during World War II. Though assigned to duty with The Surgeon General, they were attached for administrative purposes to the Chicago Medical Depot, Chicago, 111., until the

fall of 1944, when they were reattached to the Kansas City Medical Depot,

Kansas City, Kans., and then, after January 1946, to the St. Louis Medical

Depot, St. Louis, Mo.; however, Chicago proved to be the best location for

their field office because the Quartermaster Corps had located most of its

During the summer of 1943, Colonels Frank M. Lee, Gerald W. FitzGerald, and Oness H. Dixon, Jr., were assigned as traveling consultants. Colonel Dixon was replaced in April 1944 by

Col. Jacob L. Hartman on 10 July and 10 August 1945, Colonels Lee and FitzGerald, respectively,

were reassigned, but their places were filled by the assignment of Col. John H. Kintner on July

1945 and Col. Gardiner B. Jones on 15 February 1946.
MISSION AND ADMINISTRATION 31

food procurement operational headquarters there. The traveling consultants

were ordered on detailed itineraries of travel which were developed by the

Surgeon General’s Office. After their tour of travel or conduct of special

investigations of veterinary food inspection activities at given places, the

traveling consultants submitted reports of inspection to The Surgeon General, who then initiated letters recommending corrective action, if and

when indicated, to the pertinent major commands. This field inspection

program proved of excellent value in making for uniformity and standardization of procedures pertaining to the inspection of meat, meat-food, and

dairy products, and the dissemination of current information relative to

changes in and the interpretation of specification requirements. The success

of the program was reflected in the continued assignments of traveling consultants under the supervision of The Surgeon General during the postWorld War II period and in the subsequent definition of them in SR 40-

930-1.

Tours of Inspection

Other means of coordinating the Army Veterinary Service included

the conduct of conferences, meetings, surveys, and visits of observation by

the officer members of the Veterinary Division. To certain degree, these

were augmented by inspections of field activities conducted by the Inspector

General’s Department and by The Surgeon General and senior officers of

his staff—the latter, especially before their departure, having been informed by

the Veterinary Division of the local veterinary situation or problems in the

areas to be visited. While it is impractical to record each such event, special

mention is made of the tours of inspection by Veterinary Division personnel

to the oversea theaters during World War II as follows:

Liaison duty with the British Army Veterinary Remount Services in

the European, Mediterranean, Middle East, and India-Burma areas, 27 November 1943 to IT February 1944.

Survey of the sanitary, veterinary, and other professional services in

the China-Burma-India theater, 10 October to 11 November 1944.

Observation of operation of the Army Veterinary Service concerned

with food inspection in the Mediterranean theater, 25 March to 25 April

1945.

It should be mentioned also that the Veterinary Division did not promulgate circular letters or similar mediums of technical and professional

information to the Army Veterinary Service such as was done during World

War I. The Army Veterinary Bulletin periodical which was used to

disseminate such information continuously since its first appearance on

14 January 1920, was stopped after the publication of the July 1943 issue;

the integration of this bulletin with the professional publications of the

Medical and the Dental Corps gave origin to The Bulletin of the U.S. Army

Medical Department recurring monthly publication appearing first in

October 1943 and continumo; through the remainder of World War IT.
32 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

References

1. Letter, The Adjutant General to Col. R. A. Kelser, VC, Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office, 17 Mar. 1942, subject: Appointment as Brigadier General.

2. War Department Circular No. 59, Mar. 1942, subject: War Department Reorganization.

3. War Department Circular No. 120, 18 Apr. 1945, sec. IV, subject: The Surgeon

General.
33

CHAPTER IV

Personnel

In the Army of World War II that at one time (July 1914 through

August 1945) exceeded million personnel and had more than 56,000 horses

and mules (during 1943), the Veterinary Service reached peak strength

of slightly over 2,100 veterinary officers and possibly more than 6,000 to

8,000 enlisted personnel. During the greater part of the war period, the

veterinary officer-Army strength ratio was about 1:4,000.

COMPOSITION OF THE VETERINARY CORPS

The wartime Army Veterinary Service was composed of military personnel, both commissioned officer and enlisted personnel, and relatively

small group of civilian employees. The commissioned personnel were, with

rare exception, male veterinary officers. At peak strength, their number

approximated 15 percent of the Nation's total veterinary manpower. These

veterinary officers were appointed in the statutory-defined components of

the Army of the United States: (1) the Regular Army, (2) the Officers’

Reserve Corps, (3) the National Guard-—each such component including

Veterinary Section or Veterinary Corps, or (4) the Army of the United

States, wherein officers were appointed without reference to particular arm

or service branch, Retired officers of the Regular Army comprised yet

another category of the World War II veterinary officer strength (table 8).

Regular Army

The strength of the Veterinary Corps, Regular Army, fixed at 126 personnel space vacancies pursuant to congressional appropriations legislation

after 1922, was unchanged throughout the war period, but its active-duty

strength was permitted to decline to low of 117 officers as of V-J Day

and then to 109 veterinary officers within the next year (table 9). After

July 1939, 10 officers were commissioned to maintain the Veterinary Corps,

Regular Army, against personnel losses due to deaths, retirements, and

resignations. The last of these appointments was made in 1943; in January

1944, the War Department ordered general stoppage to original appointments of officers in the Regular Army. Although Regular Army officers

who had been retired could be returned to active-duty status with or without

their consent, not more than two such veterinary officers were called to duty

at any time during World War II.

Technically, the Regular Army, Reserve Corps, and National Guard veterinary officers were

appointed into the Veterinary Corps of their respective components, but the Army of the United

States veterinary officer was appointed as an officer of the Army generally and then detailed to

duty with the Veterinary Corps.
34 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Table 8.—Composition of the Veterinary Corps, according to component, 1939-4-6

Officers’ Reserve Corps

The Veterinary Corps Reserve was the major source for officers in the

active Army Veterinary Service during its expansion from the peacetime

strength of 126 regular Veterinary Corps officers to peak active-duty

strength of 2,116 officers which was reached during World War II. The

expansion progressed in an orderly manner, as contrasted with the situation

in World War I, when no such reserve force came into existence until the

summer-fall of 1917. Ten Reserve officers were initially ordered to years

active military duty during the fall of 1939 pursuant to the congressional

enactment of April 1939 which provided for augmenting the active

Army’s defense forces in the Panama Canal Zone and for increasing the

Air Corps (7, 2, 3). Additional Veterinary Reserve Corps officers were then

brought into active service as subsequent military legislation increased the

enlisted strength of the Regular Army, federalized the National Guard, and provided for the selective service (or draftee) Army. By the time of

the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor (7 December 1911), the active-duty

strength of the Army Veterinary Service included 541 Veterinary Corps

Periods Total Regular

Army

Retired

Regular

Army

National

Guard Officers’Reserve

Corps

Prewar emergency periods:

126 126

151 126 25

30 June 1941 597 126 34 435

Near Dec. 1941 695 124 28 541

War period:

31 Dec. 1941 716 126 33 555

30 June 1942__ 952 126 30 794

Jan. 1943 1, 532 126 35 1, 369

26 June 1943 1, 839 126 29 1, 682

Jan. 1944 2, 039 125 28 1, 884

July 1944 2, 091 125 26 1, 934

30 Dec. 1944 2, 071 124 1, 954

2, 108 120 1, 986

2, 171 117 2, 052

Postwar period;

29 Dec 1945 1, 826 113 1, 712

June 1946 1, 050 109 940

28 Dec. 1946 695 176 519

From January 1943, includesAUS officers.

Sources: (1) Annual Reports of the Surgeon General, U.S. Army. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office,

1939-41. (2) Reports, Veterinary Division, SGO, for annualreports of The Surgeon General, U.S. Army, 1942-45. [Official

record.] (3) Crosby, J. F.: Procurement ofVeterinary Officers, 1939-43. (4) Strength reports of Military Personnel Division, SGO. (5) Memorandum, Director, Military Personnel Division, SGO, for Col. Q. F. Lull, SGO, 29 Oct. 1942.
PERSONNEL 35

Table

9.

—Veterinary

Corps,

Regular

Army,1939-46

Date

Actual strength

Gains (new

ap-point-ments)

Losses

Grades

Total

Death

Retire- ment

Resignation

Brigadier general

Colonel

Lieu- tenantcolonel

Major

Captain

First lieutenant

20

June

1939

126

73

35

30

June

1940

126

15

61

37

30

June

1941

126

15

59

12

35

Near

Dec.

1941

124

20

53

17

34

31

Dec.

1941

126

30

June

1942

126

33

43

28

21

Jan.

1943

126

26

Jan.

1943

126

52

37

35

Jan.1944

125

68

23

32

()

July

1944

125

70

24

29

()

30

Dec.1944

124

71

26

25

30

June

1945

120

74

25

20

Near

V-J

Day

117

74

27

15

()

29

Dec.1945

113

71

27

14

()

June

1946

109

11

70

26

13

28

Dec.1946

176

53

35

51

35

Included

two

battle

casualties during

the

Japanese invasion

and

occupation

of

the

Philippine

Islands;

this

information

did

not

become

available

until

after

World

War

II.

Source;

(1)

AnnualReport

of

the

Surgeon

General,

U.S.

Army.

Washington;

U.S.

Government Printing

Office, 1939-41. (2)

Reports,

Veterinary

Division,

SGO,

for

annual

reports

of

The

Surgeon

General, 1942-46.

[Official

record.]

(3)

Crosby,

J.

P.:

Procurement of

Veterinary

Officers, 1939-43. (4)

Strength

reports of

Military

Personnel Division, SGO.

(5)

Memorandum, Director,

Military Personnel

Division,

SGO,

for

Col

G.

F.

Lull,

SGO,

29

Oct.

1942.
36 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Reserve officers. Before the end of another year, the remainder were called

to active duty, and thus, this Reserve personnel force was practically

depleted.

The total strength of the Veterinary Corps Reserve ranged between

1,381 and 1,537 officers during the prewar emergency periods. This strength

was not larger because of the limitations imposed by the War Department

rather than the unwillingness of the Nation’s civilian veterinary profession

to support actively its military counterpart as in the past. On December

1939, the War Department suspended the appointment of additional officers

in the Officers’ Reserve Corps. However, certain exceptions were concurrently authorized so that the Veterinary Corps Reserve actually showed

net gain of 156 officers between July 1939 and 30 June 1940.

In December 1940, the year-long suspension order was amended to

reopen appointment procedures, but only in those Medical Department sections of the Officers’ Reserve Corps which had personnel space vacancies

remaining in their current peacetime procurement objectives. The amended

order found the Veterinary Corps Reserve to be in excess of its objective;

this order had for its purpose the buildup of reserve personnel force

which was then estimated as being required during the period of war

mobilization and until wartime officer procurement procedures could satisfy

the veterinary officer needs. Under the conditions, additional Veterinary

Reserve Corps officers were not appointed except under extraordinary grants

of authorization which are described later.

Of course, the ordered stoppages of the Veterinary Corps Reserve did

not gain support from the Surgeon General’s Office which had recommended

the continuation of its buildup. It was believed that physical disqualifications, resignations, deferments, and other personnel considerations would

cause an estimated reduction (by 25 percent) in the reserve strength to 1,148

effective officers. Furthermore, the Surgeon General’s Office believed that all

Veterinary Reserve Corps officers would have to be ordered to active duty

before the summer of 1942, and thus, no reserve force would be available

to meet requirements after that time.

Over these protests, however, the War Department continued its general

suspension orders against the further buildup of the Veterinary Corps Reserve. Though exceptions or waivers to the suspension orders were granted,

as previously noted, these proved to be unimportant as they related to

actually strengthening the Veterinary Reserve Corps. Instead, the waivers

were granted only as means of conserving segment of the Nation’s

veterinary manpower which might have otherwise been called to duty in

nonprofessional capacity. This conservation action was extremely important.

For example, waiver was granted in the instance of 32 veterinary students

who, pursuant to an authorization granted by the War Department, in

August 1940, were transferred from their appointments in non-Medical

Department sections of the Officers’ Reserve Corps (which were being
PERSONNEL 37

ordered to active duty) to the MAC (Medical Administrative Corps) Reserve, whereby they were retained on inactive-duty status pending completion of their professional veterinary education. In May 1941, the War

Department authorized 17 of these MAC officers to be conversion-transferred

to the Veterinary Corps Reserve (J, J, 6). In the same month, the War

Department also encouraged those graduate veterinarians who were being

inducted pursuant to the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 to

apply for Veterinary Reserve Corps appointments, whereupon, if accepted,

they were to be discharged from their enlisted status and then ordered to

1-year tour of duty. After the fall of 1941, these applications by inducted

veterinarians were regarded as being made for appointment as officers in

the Army of the United States.

Military legislation and recurring congressional appropriations after

1920 prohibited the employment of Reserve Corps officer on active duty

for more than 15 days without the consent of the individual, except at such

time as Congress declared national emergency. No such emergency was

declared until after the Pearl Harbor attack; on the other hand, Presidential

proclamations of national emergency were made in the interim, and these

were supported by congressional legislation which permitted the gradual

entry of the Officers' Reserve Corps into active military status. Thus the

congressional appropriations legislation contained in the act of July 1939

referred to the existing prohibition on the pay of Reserve Corps officers on

duty for more than 15 days each year but expressly provided for paying

those, including 10 of the Veterinary Corps Reserve, who were to be ordered

to 1-year tours of active duty in connection with the Regular Army augmentation and Air Corps expansion that were described in the Supplemental

Appropriation Act of April 1939. Later that year, the War Department

planned for an increment of 10 more active-duty Veterinary Corps reservists.

Their pay did not become available, however, until February 1940 when

congressional appropriations legislation again made reference to expenditures which were exceptional to the pay of the Officers’ Reserve Corps who

were on active duty more than 15 days each year. This was more-or-less

repeated in subsequent appropriations legislation until the fall of 1940 when

no such limitation was prescribed.

In the meantime, the War Department, after its ordering of early

increments of Reserve Corps officers to active duty with the Regular Army,

indicated its intentions to use only those who volunteered, were in the grades

of lieutenant or captain, and were under 35 years of age, and to permit them

no extension of duty beyond an initial tour of year. The same conditions

governed the request which was made in May 1940 for five more Veterinary

Corps Reserve officers; of course, their assignments were limited to stations

in the continental United States unless they were assigned to duty with the

Air Corps. During June 1940, the War Department authorized Reserve

Corps officers to volunteer for foreign service and concurrently granted them
38 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

privileges to voluntarily extend their initial 1-year tour for an additional

1-year period. All of this was changed during the summer of 1940, as attention was directed to the increasing threat to American security which had

come with the successes of the German armies in Europe and to the problems of federalizing the National Guard and developing and training

America’s draftee Army.

Pursuant to the enactment approved on 27 August 1940, Presidential

authority was used in ordering Reserve Corps officers into active duty, with

or without their consent, for 12-month period, and in assigning them

anywhere in the Western Hemisphere and in the territories and possessions

of the United States. This marked the first time since World War that

the Officers’ Reserve Corps came under compulsion to fulfill its real purpose. At the time, there were only 52 Veterinary Reserve Corps officers

on active duty, but total of 76 alone were needed in connection with the

current Regular Army increases to 280,000 enlisted strength. Originally,

the Surgeon General’s Office conceded to individual requests for deferring

orders, but as more and more Reserve Corps officers had to be ordered to

active duty, the increased protests by these officers led to the following

remark: “It is to be regretted that Reserve officers upon assuming occupational civilian responsibilities incompatible with their obligation as officers

of Reserve component of the Army, should not, prior to the current

emergency, have taken timely steps to terminate their commissions'’ 7,8).

However, the War Department authorized Reserve officers to resign their

commissions before the end of March 1942, if they were occupying key

positions in essential civilian industry, in Federal employment, or were members of faculties of civilian colleges. Unfortunately, the new law also authorized Reserve officers in the grade of captain and below, who had dependents, to resign their appointments on request within 20 days after entry

into active duty. Thus, many Veterinary Reserve Corps officers were soon

lost by their own resignation, and 178 others either terminated their

appointment or were transferred to the Inactive Reserve.

In the fall of 1940, the War Department indicated that Reserve Corps

officers would accompany the oversea movements of the units to which

they might be assigned, regardless of their length of service, and authorized

the oversea departments to satisfy their needs whenever possible by the

ordering to duty of such officers who might be residing there. Though the

new law of 27 August 1940 provided technical means for the War Department to retain Reserve Corps officers who had previously volunteered

for active duty by reordering them into second 1-year tour, without their

consent, the War Department generally refrained from keeping them beyond the initial duty tour except in the instance of those in the Air Corps

or Medical Department Reserves who volunteered for second tour. Then,

pursuant to the Service Extension Act of 18 August 1941, the active duty

tours of Reserve Corps officers were extended to 18 months. During this
PERSONNEL 39

period, the War Department liberalized its policy on the assignment of

Reserve officers to foreign service in the oversea insular departments, including Alaska, and to the defense bases which had been newly acquired in

the Atlantic and Caribbean areas.

Shortly after December 1941, the War Department terminated all of

its prior policies regarding the release of the Officers’ Reserve Corps from

active service and indefinitely extended their tours of duty. This was confirmed by Public Law 338, 77th Congress, approved 13 December 1941,

which suspended “during the existence of any war in which the United

States is engaged and during the months immediately following the termination of any such war” those earlier limitations which had been statutorily

imposed on the periods of active service and territorial deployment of Reserve

Corps officers.

National Guard

The National Guard, like the Officers' Reserve Corps, was reserve component of the Army of the United States, Its induction (or federalization)

into active military service was ordered by the President in 22 increments,

over the period from 16 September 1910 to 23 June 1941, and was authorized by the same legislation that brought Reserve Corps officers to active

duty with or without their consent; namely, Public Law 96, 76th Congress,

approved 27 August 1940. The federalization of the National Guard augmented the active-duty strength of the pre-Pearl Harbor Veterinary Service

by 37 officers (table 10). This number was approximately one-half of the

National Guard veterinary officers year earlier when it totaled 74.

After the mid-1930’s, the trends in motorization of military units led

to the removal of the office of division veterinarian in each of the 18

infantry divisions which were later inducted, and the horse-drawn field

artillery regiments, with the exception of one, were converted into motorized

units. Also, the veterinary company elements (12 in number in 1925 but

reduced to in 1939) of the National Guard medical regiments were converted into other type units so that only one remained active as of 30

June 1940, but none were brought into active duty. In September and

October 1940, the National Guard’s cavalry divisions, cavalry brigades,

and 17 cavalry regiments were disbanded or converted into other type units,

with the result that the only cavalry units to be federalized included

brigade, (horse) regiments, and (horse-mechanized) regiments. The

veterinary officers accompanying these units, which were now dismounted

and brought into active military service, were frozen in their National

Guard assignments until the fall of 1941 when they could be reassigned to

corps areas and certain installations in the Zone of Interior. Though the

National Guard units were ordered into active service for 1-year tour of

duty, as was true also for the Officers’ Reserve Corps, their tours of duty

were extended to 18 months pursuant to the Service Extension Act of
ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE 40

18 August 1941, and then more-or-less indefinitely by the act approved

13 December 1941.

Table 10. Veterinary Corps, National Guard, 1939-44

Army of the United States

The requirements for officers additional to those of the Regular Army,

Officers’ Reserve Corps, and National Guard were met by the grant of

officer appointments, directly into the Army of the United States, to the

following categories of veterinarians: (1) Those who were inducted into the

Army as enlisted men pursuant to the Selective Training and Service Act

of 1940; (2) veterinarians direct from their civilian status; and (3) those

who, as professional students in approved veterinary colleges, had voluntarily

obligated themselves to military service by applying for appointment as

second lieutenants, MAC, or by enlisting in the Medical Enlisted Reserve

Corps and then continuing or completing their education while in military

status. Of course, as previously pointed out, these veterinarians were not

appointed as Veterinary Corps officers per se but as officers in the wartime

Army of the United States for duty with the Veterinary Corps. These

officer appointments were authorized by Public Law 252, 77th Congress,

approved 22 September 1941.

Date Totalcommissioned

Commissioned

strength

Ranks

Lieutenant colonel Major Captain First lieutenant

Total:

30 June 1939 74 73 58

30 June 1940 68 64 50

30 June 1941 37 33 12 14

On active duty:

30 June 1939

34

Near Dec 1941 28

31 Dec 1941 33

30 June 1942 30 10

35

29 10 12

Jan. 1944 28 10 11

July 1944 26 10 10

The discrepancy between the figures for thetotal number of commissions and the figures forcommissioned strength

is almost entirely due simply to the lag between datesof appointmentsand acceptances of appointments.

Sources: (1) Annual reports of the Surgeon General, U.S. Army. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office,

1939-41. (2) Reports, Veterinary Division, SQO, for annual reports of the Surgeon General, 1942-46. [Official record.]

(3) Crosby, J. F.: Procurement of Veterinary Officers, 1939-43. (4) Strength reports of Military Personnel Division,

SQO. (5) Annual reports, Chief, National Guard Bureau, 1939-41.
PERSONNEL 41

Perhaps the first reference to the appointment of veterinary officers into

the Army of the United States was contained in the statement of War

Department policy regarding those veterinarians who, after May 1941, following their induction by the Selective Service System, were then being

appointed, from their enlisted status, as officers in the Officers’ Reserve

Corps. This new policy, set forth during the fall of 1941, regarded inducted

veterinarians who were then applying for officer status as actually making

application for appointment in the Army of the United States. Then, during January 1942, The Surgeon General requested the establishment of

procurement objective for 100 veterinary officer appointments in the Army

of the United States, 50 in the grade of first lieutenant to cover the appointments of inducted veterinarians, and the remaining number in the grades of

captain and major for appointing certain specially qualified veterinarians

direct from civilian life.

There is no record on the outcome of this recommendation; however,

on July 1942, the War Department authorized procurement objective

for 250 personnel space vacancies in the Army of the United States which

were to be filled by the appointment only of those veterinarians who were

being inducted into the Army as enlisted men. Later that year, this procurement objective was amended and augmented to total 1,124 personnel

authorizations, and concurrently the sources or categories of veterinarians

who could be procured were expanded to include direct appointments from

civilian-status and military-obligated veterinarians. In October 1943, this

procurement objective was canceled by the War Department General Staff,

but appointing procedures were kept open for certain categories of veterinarians. On 12 December 1944, procurement objective was reestablished for

appointing 52 additional veterinary officers, and the veterinary personnel

sources again were prescribed. After that time, reference was made to

ceilings of veterinary officer personnel in the Army of the United States

(rather than to procurement objective), and these total numbers were to be

attained and maintained by additional appointments in the Army of the

United States. (The ceilings included the Regular Army, Officers’ Reserve

Corps, and National Guard veterinary officers then on active duty.) Such

total ceiling for 2,150 officers was authorized by the War Department during April 1945; on 13 July 1945, this ceiling was raised to 2,327 personnel

space authorizations in the wartime Army Veterinary Service. The established ceilings were not met before the end of the active war period. On

September 1945, the War Department ordered cancellation on unfilled

position vacancies in the existent ceiling, which brought temporary halt

to veterinary officer appointments in the Army of the United States.

Inducted Veterinarians

The veterinarians who were inducted into the Army proved to be

smaller source for veterinary officer procurement in World War II than was
42 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

anticipated. In fact, though more than 200 were inducted during the first

or years of operation of the Selective Training and Service Act of 1040,

few were inducted into the Army as enlisted men during the latter part of

the war period. Their induction (or draft) into the Army was the activity

of the Selective Service System with its 64,000 or more, local draft boards

which could enter almost any qualified male citizen into the military service.

The deferment to groups of men by sole reason of occupation was illegal,

but individuals could be, and were, deferred, each on his own individual

merit, by reason of being engaged in, or in training and preparation for,

certain occupations. Attempts to legislatively amend the act of 16 September

1940 to provide for the blanket deferment of certain medical occupations

failed to gain headway; on the other hand, the National Headquarters,

Selective Service System, advised (though it could not direct) the local

draft boards on matters concerning the Nation's manpower situation in

certain occupations and suggested that they adopt policy of deferring

individuals who were engaged in such occupations. Pursuant to the law,

each local selective service board was autonomous in its deliberations on the

deferment of any registrant under its jurisdiction.

Before the Selective Service System announced its intentions to defer

individuals because of veterinary occupational activities, the Surgeon General's Office had impressed the War Department with the need to conserve

and properly utilize so much of the Nation's veterinary manpower as might

be inducted into the Army as enlisted men. Thus, during May 1941, the

War Department granted authorization for veterinarians who were inducted

to apply for veterinary officer appointments in the Officers Reserve Corps (9,

10). This was specific exemption to the general stoppages on additional Reserve Corps appointments that had been ordered by the War Department more

than year before. In the fall of 1941, the War Department restated its

policy that applications by the inducted veterinarians would be regarded as

being made for officer appointments in the Army of the United States. On

July 1942, following the request of The Surgeon General, the War Department provided for procurement objective of 250 personnel space authorizations in the Army of the United States which would cover the appointments of veterinarians who might be inducted. By that time, the Surgeon

General's Office was reviewing the induction actions by the Selective Service

System as comprising source of veterinary officers who were needed in the

expanding Army.

In November 1942, the number of inducted veterinarians had fallen far

short of meeting both the Army’s procurement objective and the increasing

requirements for veterinary officers. In fact, by that time only 114 veterinary

officers had been procured from this source, and in the interim another

source of veterinarians had come into existence; namely, the recent graduates from civilian veterinary colleges who had gained original appointments as second lieutenants in the MAC, Army of the United States, and
PERSONNEL 43

had been kept on inactive-duty status while completing their professional

education.

Thus the War Department amended, and then supplemented, the original procurement objective so that the unoccupied space authorizations

could be tilled from several categories of veterinarians: Those who might

be inducted, those who had recently graduated while holding temporary

appointments as MAC officers, and veterinarians appointed direct from

civilian life. These sources for appointing additional veterinary officers in the Army of the United States were changed as these procurement objectives

were changed at various times throughout the remainder of the war period,

though, in all instances, inducted veterinarians were granted priority for

appointment in meeting the needs for additional veterinary officers. As of

31 December 1942, the active-duty strength of the Veterinary Corps included

180 formerly inducted veterinarians, and, during 1943, another 46 were

processed for officer appointments.

Local draft boards were advised by the National Headquarters, Selective

Service System, during May 1941, that dangerously low level of manpower

existed in the Nation’s veterinary profession and that the latter “*

constitutes an activity essential to the national health, safety, and interest, and

that serious interruption or delay therein is likely to impede the national

defense program” {11). The Selective Service policy and procedure statement was as follows:

The local board has the problem of deciding, subject to appeal, whether or not an

individual veterinary is so necessary to community that he should be deferred from

training and service *. This problem should be approached with clear appreciation

of the overall national shortage and with the vital importance of the food and livestock

industry to the national health, safety and interest, and the needs of the particular

community for veterinary services clearly in mind. In classifying, the local board should

give full weight to the fact that the Veterinary Corps Reserve is at present of sufficient

strength to fill current Army needs. If, nevertheless, the local board determines that he

should not be deferred, and he is finally placed in Class 1-A, it should call his attention

to the following War Department instructions:

“Individuals who are qualified for appointment in the Veterinary Corps Reserve who

have been inducted under the provisions of the Selective Training and Service Act of

nineteen forty should be encouraged to apply for appointment in order that they may

serve in professional capacity. Individuals accepted for appointment will be discharged

and ordered to extended active duty for period of twelve consecutive months.”

Shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the National Headquarters,

Selective Service System, restated the personnel shortages among the country’s veterinary profession and requested that its field agencies, when considering nondeferment of veterinarians, consult with the Procurement and

Assignment Service, newly created agency which was surveying the medical

personnel situations in localities throughout the United States {12, 13, Ilf).

The spring of 1942 saw the issuance of the first of series of occupational

bulletins wherein the local draft boards were better advised on deferring

59024 —61
44 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

veterinarians from induction, and the War Manpower Commission was named

as certifying authority of occupations which were critical.

The veterinarians in civilian life who were engaged in caring for food

and draft animals or in the inspection of foods were described as being

essential to agricultural activities and, in March 1943, also as essential in

the Nation’s health and welfare services. These actions resulted in lesser

numbers of veterinarians being inducted into the Army but did not stop

their induction. The early months of 1944 saw occupational deferments for

individual veterinarians temporarily vacated when the Selective Service

System intensified its efforts to induct personnel under 26 years of age in

order to meet unexpectedly large quota demands by the Army for personnel.

However, during April 1944, the Army’s requirements were soon filled so that

veterinarians in this particular age bracket were again granted deferment

if found to be engaged in essential civilian activity.

Veterinarians in Civilian Status

Until the fall of 1942, veterinarians in full civilian status who were

under no obligation to serve in the Armed Forces, other than that described

in the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, were not material part

of the Army’s veterinary officer procurement picture. In fact, by 31 December 1942, the active-duty strength of the Veterinary Corps (more than 1,500

officers) included only eight veterinarians who had been granted officer

appointments direct from their civilian status—the remaining numbers, of

course, being Regular Army, Officers’ Reserve Corps, and National Guard

veterinary officers, formerly inducted veterinarians, and few ex-MAC

officers. Then, pursuant to the authorizations granted by the War Department

during November 1942 which provided for total of 1,124 space vacancies

in the Army of the United States without expressed restrictions on the

sources of the veterinary personnel supply, the veterinarians in civilian status

were entered into Army personnel procurement. During 1943, 104 such

veterinarians were recommended for direct appointment. However, in September 1943, these personnel procurements were seriously questioned by the

War Department General Staff, particularly, since it had become evident

that there were more than sufficient numbers to meet present and immediate future needs from among military-obligated veterinarians (such as

those graduating under the Army Specialized Training Program) and in- ducted personnel. The Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office, replied to the inquiry that certain veterinarians with training or experience in

specialized fields of veterinary medicine were needed and could not be

obtained except by recruitment directly from the civilian veterinary profession.

In October 1943, the Secretary of War ordered general cancellation

on further procurements of officers direct from civilian life, but pursuant

to his instructions “requests for the appointment of individuals with out-
PERSONNEL 45

standing qualifications and experience in special fields may be submitted to the Assistant Chief of Staff, G-l, who is authorized to waive the

requirements of procurement objective,” This restriction on the procurement of veterinarians direct from civilian status was incorporated into every

veterinary officer procurement objective and ceiling throughout the remaining war period. However, those veterinarians who, at one time during the

war, were discharged from their original appointments in the MAC or

their enlistments in the Medical Enlisted Eeserve Corps (under the Army

Specialized Training Program) were not regarded as being in this category

of civilian status and thus were appointed. Veterinary officer procurement

by the Army during World War II was, with the exception of an 11-month

period (November 1942-October 1943), almost completely independent of

withdrawals of personnel direct from the Nation’s civilian veterinary profession except where such veterinarians had prior obligations for military

service.

special military agency, the Officer Procurement Service, was in

operation in the particular period in which relatively large numbers of

veterinarians in civilian status were appointed directly into the Army of the

United States. This agency was established within the Army Service Forces

(then named Services of Supply) during November 1942, under provisions

of War Department Circular No. 367, November 1942. The Officer Procurement Service sought to procure veterinarians direct from their civilian

status to satisfy stated requirements, accomplishing this through 30 officer

procurement districts and processing them for appointment as officers. In

this action, the Officer Procurement Service procured only those veterinarians

declared available by the Procurement and Assignment Service (which was

the same agency that was advising the Selective Service System against inducting professional personnel when they were engaged in essential civilian

activities). Although an objective for 900 veterinarians was prescribed at

the onset, in April 1943, the veterinary personnel procurement activities by

the Officer Procurement Service were suspended on request by the Surgeon

General’s Office. At the same time, the Procurement and Assignment Service was asked to halt declarations of availability of veterinarians; however, the Officer Procurement Service continued to receive such declarations, but

in June 1943 these were returned to Procurement and Assignment Service

without further action. The request by the Surgeon General’s Office was

based on the fact that sufficient number of applications had been received

by April 1943 to meet the immediate needs. Then, during the fall of 1943,

as previously noted, the War Department ordered general stoppage on

the procurement of officers direct from civilian status which, so far as

veterinary officer procurement was concerned, was continued for the remainder of the war period.

The Procurement and Assignment Service, previously mentioned in the

discussion on the induction of veterinarians into the Army and then again
46 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

briefly in connection with the Army’s procurement of veterinary officers

direct from civilian life, was quasi-official civilian Federal agency. It

operated to provide three-way allocation of the Nation’s veterinary manpower: to the Army, to nonmilitary Federal agencies, and to civilian activities and occupations which were essential to the war effort. Thus, major

share of its operations are outside of the scope of the current history on

military veterinarians. This agency only provided advisory services; basically, it was not personnel procurement service nor one having assignment

responsibilities. Both the Selective Service System and the Army (including

its Officer Procurement Service) recognized the advisory responsibilities of

the Procurement and Assignment Service as early as January 1942 so that

the induction action by one, or the procurement action by the other, would not

deplete the medical, dental, and veterinary professional personnel from

civilian industry and local populations; before one or the other took action

on the withdrawal of personnel from civilian life, they requested clearance

for each such personnel from the Procurement and Assignment Service.

The Procurement and Assignment Service was created 30 October 1941

within the Office of Defense, Health, and Welfare Services, Executive Office

of the President, and, during April 1942, was transferred to the Office for

Emergency Management where it operated under the War Manpower Commission for the remainder of the active war period. Regarding its advisory

activities on veterinary personnel matters, this agency included civilian

veterinarians at nearly all levels of its organization: veterinary consultant to the director, five-member veterinary advisory committee to the

central directing board, and field consultant office which maintained liaison

with the American Veterinary Medical Association.

Military-Obligated Veterinary Students

During World War II, veterinary officer procurement was assured and

facilitated by the current output from the Nation’s civilian veterinary colleges of undergraduate students who had voluntarily obligated themselves to

military service upon completion of their professional education. Beginning

in April 1942, more than 1,800 veterinary students were, on their own

application, granted appointments as MAC officers in the Army of the

United States for retention on an inactive-duty status, until they completed

their education, when they became eligible for conversion transfer as veterinary officers and were then ordered to active duty. This student appointing procedure was discontinued in early 1943, Under new program, the

ASTP (Army Specialized Training Program), that lasted for about year,

the students were voluntarily enlisted in the Medical Enlisted Reserve

Corps and then ordered to active duty to continue or complete their education at Government expense. Those completing their education while under

the auspices of the ASTP immediately became eligible for discharge and

subsequent appointment as veterinary officers. The two programs, as will be
PERSONNEL 47

described, were established with distinctly separate objects or purposes,

but their combined veterinary personnel output was eventually regarded only as one that would satisfy the requirements of the Army for veterinary

officers. Like the inducted veterinarians (after the fall of 1941) and those

who were appointed directly from civilian status, the graduated students

were appointed in the Army of the United States.

The first of the two wartime programs was established principally to

conserve the student populations in medical, dental, and veterinary schools

against the threat of induction by the Selective Service System. However,

even before the selective service legislation was passed (on 16 September

1940) and the concerned agency could show its intentions not to completely

disrupt the various professional educational systems, the Surgeon General’s

Office had become particularly interested in conserving or retaining professional students in their schools until they had graduated or had become

qualified for appointment as Medical Department officers. For example,

in December 1939, the Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office, was

engaged in studies on proposal to arrange for the completion of undergraduate and postgraduate training of students in medicine, dentistry, and

veterinary medicine during mobilization. During April 1940, the War

Department provided authorization for students in approved professional

schools who held non-Medical Department Reserve officer appointments to

transfer, at some later date, to the MAC Reserve for assignment and retention on inactive-duty status until graduation, when they became eligible for

appointment in the Medical, Dental, or Veterinary Corps Reserve. Thus,

in August 1940, arrangements were completed for the transfer of 32 veterinary students who held nonmedical Reserve Corps appointments into the

MAC Reserve and for their retention on inactive-duty status until they had

graduated and had become eligible for conversion appointment into the

Veterinary Corps Reserve. (At least IT of these were named for conversion

appointment upon their graduation from the veterinary schools in mid1941.) During February 1941, after passage of the selective service legislation, The Surgeon General requested authorization for temporarily appointing into the MAC Reserve, the medical, dental, and veterinary students who

were in the junior and senior classes of the professional schools, but the

request was disapproved by the War Department {15) on the following

basis:

such action would constitute special treatment for particular class of students

which would result in exempting them from Selective Service.

Exemption from Selective Service cannot be justified for any particular group unless

it can be clearly demonstrated that the personnel of the group will be required in key

positions in industries essential to the national defense.

However, on IT April 1942, the War Department reversed its policy

with respect to veterinary students and authorized the appointment of any

or all male students in approved veterinary schools as second lieutenants in

the MAC, Army of the United States. These students were given certain
48 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

assurances of being retained on inactive-duty status until they had completed

their professional education when they would become eligible for conversion

appointment and would be ordered to active duty as first lieutenant veterinary

officers. The authorization for this appointing procedure lasted about 10

months and was discontinued on February 1943 16 17). So far as is

known, 1,847 veterinary students were temporarily appointed, on their own

application, as MAC officers. These appointments were terminated for convenience of the Government under the following prescribed circumstances:

(1) Matriculation in nonapproved veterinary school; (2) discontinuance of

veterinary education; (3) failure to successfully complete the 4-year veterinary curriculum; and (4) failure to gain conversion appointment as veterinary officers within months following graduation. Later in the springsummer of 1943, great many of these veterinary students, who had not yet

graduated, voluntarily terminated their appointments in order to enlist in

the Medical Enlisted Reserve Corps and to continue their professional education

under the auspices of the ASTP.

This program, it must be emphasized, was not enthusiastically endorsed by the Veterinary Division, Surgeon General's Office. Before the

program was launched, this Division pointed out that (1) the Selective

Service System logically should defer veterinary students; (2) the continued

flow of newly graduated veterinarians into the Nation’s civilian profession

would well be disrupted if all of the appointees were to be called to active

duty; and (3) if, on the other hand, veterinary students were to be commissioned in the MAC Reserve for the purpose of permitting them to complete their professional education, it should be clearly and definitely provided that upon graduating in veterinary medicine they would be absorbed

into the Veterinary Corps only to the extent indicated by military necessity

and that those not taken into the Veterinary Corps for active service would

be discharged from their MAC commissions and made available for civilian

service. Apparently, the emphasis on the latter point was not sufficiently

understood because, during May 1942, the War Department asked corps

area commanders to appoint all fourth-year veterinary students holding

MAC appointments into the Army of the United States as of the date of

graduation. Before this action could be taken, the Surgeon General’s Office

successfully recommended that only such number would be so appointed

as might be needed to satisfy position vacancies in any procurement objective which might be established for veterinary officers. No procurement

objective existed at the time.

During November 1942, the War Department for the first time provided

for the graduated students who held these appointments to be conversionappointed as veterinary officers to satisfy current personnel procurement objectives. Between January and 31 March 1943, the number of such

graduates was 130, and another 287 students were scheduled for graduation

and would become eligible for conversion appointment before the end of
PERSONNEL 49

June 1943. By the fall of the same year, there were 177 such veterinarians, including few who were scheduled to graduate before 31 December 1943, on whom no personnel actions were taken with respect to conversions from

their MAC appointments. As against these numbers of potential veterinary

officers, 211 were conversion-appointed as veterinary officers during 1943

46 percent of the total veterinary officer procurements for the year. On

February 1943, when the procedure of appointing veterinary students as

second lieutenants, MAC, in the Army of the United States was discontinued, the War Department was planning to activate the ASTP (16). This

program placed emphasis on utilizing civilian educational facilities to train

student personnel in certain professional and scientific fields at Government

expense in order to assure that the Army’s requirements for such personnel

would be met; otherwise, the Army’s requirements would have to be met, if

at all, by withdrawals of personnel from the Nation’s manpower who,

in these fields, were becoming more and more essential to civilian industry

and activity as the war progressed. The second program differed from the

former program in that the participating students were enlisted (in the

grade of private) in the Medical Enlisted Reserve Corps, were physically

qualified for military service, and were actually ordered to active duty in

the military unit which was established at the veterinary school where

they continued their professional education; their tuition was paid for by

the Government, and they were given the same pay and emoluments as were

authorized any other Medical Department men. There was no intention to

influence the standards or curricula of the Nation’s civil veterinary educational system.

When questioned in regard to the need for establishing this program

to supply veterinary officers, The Surgeon General, then faced with requirements for more than thousand officers, suggested that the number of

veterinary students then holding MAC officer appointments, if permitted to

apply for continuance of their professional education under the auspices

of the ASTP, would undoubtedly be sufficient to supply loss replacements

and additional requirements for several years beyond 1943. There was little

observable need to establish such specialized training program for preprofessional veterinary students. Subsequently, on 29 April 1943, the War

Department announced its intentions to begin this training for veterinarians,

as well as for physicians and dental surgeons, and by mid-1943, contracts

were entered into for the ASTP at 10 approved civilian veterinary schools

{18). Training was restricted to Medical Enlisted Reserve Corps students

who had been accepted by the schools prior to their call to active duty (on

30 June 1943) and to those students who were inducted. By the spring of

The veterinary schools were those at Alabama Polytechnic Institute, Auburn, Ala.; Colorado

State University, Fort Collins, Colo. Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, Ames,

Iowa Kansas State College of Agriculture and Applied Science, Manhattan, Kans.; Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.; University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa.; Agriculture and Mechanical College of Texas, College Station, Tex.; and State College of Washington, Pullman, Wash.
ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE 50

1944, enlistments in the Medical Enlisted Reserve Corps totaled 1,396 students (or 80 percent of the students in approved veterinary schools), including 350 to 400 seniors due to graduate before the end of December

of that year. This number included the majority of the students originally

appointed as MAC officers who had been permitted to terminate their appointments in order to enlist in the new program; however, there were

another 200 such officer students who retained their appointments because

they were not physically qualified to enlist or were enjoying their officer

status.

Shortly after the beginning of the ASTP, Headquarters, Army Service

Forces, and the Surgeon General’s Office jointly developed schedule for

the disposition of trainees, upon graduation or otherwise, as follows:

The training of trainees under the auspices of the ASTP would be

terminated upon receipt of the degree.

Students, 60 days prior to graduation, would apply for appointment as

first lieutenant, Army of the United States—the dean of the veterinary

college being asked to certify the date that students would be granted

their degrees. Letters of appointment would be issued by The Adjutant

General, effective on the date of graduation.

Trainees appointed in the Veterinary Corps, Army of the United States,

were to be discharged from their enlisted status and “ordered to active

duty only in such numbers as may be required to meet current requirements

for filler and loss replacements.” This policy was soon changed (in August

1943) by the War Department without reference of the matter to the

Surgeon General’s Office. It then provided that: “Trainees who graduate

in veterinary medicine under the Army Specialized Training Program and

for whom no vacancies exist will be discharged from their enlisted status

for the convenience of the Government effective the day of graduation and

will be issued certificate of capacity and subsequently appointed in the

Veterinary Corps, Army of the United States, when and if vacancies become available.” Essentially, the Surgeon General’s Office lost control over

those who graduated and were discharged, because no procedure was adopted

to record the addresses at which the graduates could be reached. The

Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office, especially desired that the

graduates from the ASTP be appointed as veterinary officers and retained

as such on inactive-duty status until needed. Actually, the graduated

veterinarians then reverted to civilian status and returned to military service

only if they volunteered or were inducted by the Selective Service System.

In October 1943, review of the veterinary officer procurements during the previous year showed that the graduate output from the original

program and the successor ASTP had not been used alone in appointing

additional officers and was, and would be, in considerable excess to veterinary officer requirements. Therefore, the War Department generally curtailed veterinary officer procurement except with respect to the recently
PERSONNEL 51

graduated veterinarians who held MAC appointments or had participated

in the ASTP. These military-obligated veterinarians, as well as veterinarians

who were inducted, comprised the major source for veterinary officers during the remainder of the war period. When the surplus of military-obligated veterinarians had become evident, there were suggestions that they be transferred to the Army Ground Forces or that all be appointed as

veterinary officers and ordered to duty as needed, but opposing views were

taken by the Assistant Chief of Staff, G-l (Personnel) and The Surgeon

General. In consequence, the ASTP for veterinary students was brought

to an abrupt halt; such training for freshman, sophomore, and junior

veterinary students was terminated with the end of academic terms which

had been started prior to 22 May 1944, but the senior students were authorized to continue in the program until their graduation. No veterinarian

ever received much more than year’s professional education at Government expense under the ASTP. Of the 1,676 students who had entered into

the program, 588 graduated while holding enlistment in the Medical Enlisted Reserve Corps; of the latter number, 143 only were discharged for

immediate appointment in the Army of the United States—these during the

period from August 1943 to December 1944. The remainder were discharged

only to be brought back to active military service direct from civilian status

at later date; some volunteered or were inducted before the end of the war.

Although these veterinary student conservation programs were the subject of all kinds of criticism, there can be no question that the Army at least

insured itself that its requirements for veterinarians would be met with the

least possible disruption to the existing established civilian veterinary services.

On the other hand, there was the question that possibly the Selective Service

System could have indirectly accomplished the same effect. For example,

the selective service legislation originally provided for the deferment of any

students during the academic year of 194CM4 or until July 1941. Then,

before the expiration date of this legislatively authorized deferment, the

Selective Service System set up procedures to grant 6-month deferments,

with periodic renewals, to individuals who were in training or in preparation for an occupational activity which was essential to the national health,

safety, or interest. Subsequently, on 12 May 1941, the National Headquarters,

Selective Service System, expressly informed its local draft boards on the

civilian veterinary educational system and its student input and advised that

it was “*

of paramount importance that the supply be not only maintained but encouraged to grow, and that no student who gives reasonable

promise of becoming qualified veterinary doctor be called to military

service before attaining that status.” During the next year, veterinary

students generally seemed to escape induction into the Armed Forces because

almost all held letters from the deans of the veterinary schools regarding

their academic standing and intentions of continuing their professional education. However, there were few instances where draft boards located near

590248 —61——6
52 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

the veterinary schools insisted on induction of students who were registered

at their permanent residence outside of those boards areas or in another

State. In December 1942, the Selective Service System took note that the

War Manpower Commission had certified veterinary students as critical

occupation, and the local draft boards were advised:

registrant who is in training and preparation as veterinary student

in recognized school of veterinary medicine shall be considered for occupational classification during the period of such professional course, provided he is fulltime student in good standing in such course of study and if it is certified by the institution that he is competent and that he gives promise of the successful completion of such

course of study and acquiring the necessary degree of training, qualification or skill to

become recognized doctor of veterinary medicine.

Actually, the value or effectiveness of the procedures and policies of the

Selective Service System regarding the deferment of veterinary students

was lost to the Army’s own program of student conservation in which

large share of the Nation’s veterinary student population had voluntarily

obligated themselves to military service by gaining temporary appointment

as MAC officers or by enlisting in the Medical Enlisted Reserve Corps.

However, in May 1944, with the discontinuance of the ASTP and the discharge of nearly all students from their enlistment, the Selective Service

System gained its first real opportunity to show its intentions to continue

the flow of students through the civilian educational system. Unfortunately,

just before this time, the Selective Service System began to emphasize the

induction of personnel in the younger age groups and began to give less

regard to occupation as factor of student deferment than it had in the

past. In fact, for about week in April 1944, the Selective Service System

had removed deferment status of all students who were between 18 and 25

years of age; this action, bringing chaos to the veterinary profession,

threatened to empty the veterinary schools of students other than those who had

voluntarily obligated themselves to military service (that is, those holding

MAC officer appointments or those enlisting under the ASTP). By 11 April

1944, the Selective Service System returned to the granting of deferment

status to veterinary students who were pursuing full-time courses of professional education in the Nation’s recognized veterinary schools until their

graduation. This situation Avas unchanged during the remainder of the war

period, even though the students Avere in the age group which Avas especially

sought for in the induction activities of the Selective Service System.

VETERINARY OFFICER PROCUREMENT

Veterinary officer procurement or development of the wartime Veterinary

Corps will be described in chronological sequence of the major Agents and

circumstances which saAV its number reach peak active-duty strength of

2,116 officers by the end of August 1945. Table 11 shows the official

monthly accessions of veterinary officers for the period from June 1939
PERSONNEL 53

through December 1945, the last few months of this period marking the

start of demobilization. Because it was composed of the variety of categories of veterinary officers, as stated previously, veterinary officer procurement obviously was complex procedure. There were so many facets to each personnel procurement procedure that the lack of full understanding of what was being done at times led to criticism. For example, reference

may be made to the ASTP and to the subsequent disposition policy for the

outright discharge from their voluntary enlistment in the Medical Enlisted

Reserve Corps of the many veterinarians who received part of their

professional education at Government expense. Though the Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office, had recommended that the current graduates

be appointed as veterinary officers and then held on inactive-duty status until

needed elsewhere within the War Department, this recommendation failed

to gain headway because these officers, as great many others, were being

counted against the Nation’s manpower allocation to the Army. Personnel

procurement procedures were also complex for the reason that the Nation’s

veterinary profession and its manpower potential (or students) were numerically inadequate even before the onset of World War II and would not

have been able to absorb any imbalances in their distribution between the

Army and the civilian activities essential to national defense. Adding to

the complexity was the fact that procedures on veterinary officer procurement were not evolved by single central office but were the results of

recommendations made by the Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office.

This Division necessarily presented viewpoints on the effects of such procedures on the civilian veterinary profession and the evaluation of such

recommendations by the personnel offices within the Surgeon General’s Office,

the Army Service Forces, and the War Department General Staff; the

views of one or the other were almost always necessarily arbitrated.

The beginning expansion of the Army Veterinary Service in World

ar II from its regular Veterinary Corps strength of 126 officers had its

origin with Public Law 18, 76th Congress, approved April 1939, and

the supporting appropriations legislation. These provided for the increase

on July 1939 of the Regular Army enlisted strength from 174,000 to

210,000 men or, more specifically, for an expansion of the Air Corps and

augmentation of the defense forces in the Panama Canal Zone. The War

Department then planned concurrent increase in the Army’s officer strength,

but recommendations for increasing the existing personnel authorization for

the Veterinary Corps, Regular Army, were not favorably considered. Instead, within the limits of the appropriations that became available, planning centered about the ordering of Veterinary Corps Reserve officers who

would volunteer for year’s tour of duty with the Regular Army. An

allotment for 192 Medical Department reservists was initially authorized, and,

although this made no particular reference to Veterinary Corps Reserve

officers, the War Department on 13 July 1939 advised corps area commanders
54 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Table

—Officers 11.

ordered

to

active

duty

in

the

Veterinary

Corps,

by

component,1939-45

Date

Total

Regular Army

Officers’Reserve Corps

National Guard

Army

of

the

United States

Date

Total

Regular Army

Officers’Reserve Corps

National Guard

Army

of

the

United States

1939

1943 January.

39

31

February

23

18

March.

53

49

April

116

107

May

64

59

June

30

28

July

19

18

43 63

42

September.

61

12 40

12 38

1940

November December Total.

511

39

472

May

1944 January.

49

45

February__

24

23

August

March.

10

11

April

22

20

May

10

10

18

12

June

10

10

July.

14

14

80

61

16

September

1941

November

41

33

December

February

34

25
PERSONNEL 55

42 43 47 27 26 34 35 42 38 24

38 41 47 26 26 34 35 39 31 16

Total

130

124

1945 January..

April

37 17

37 17

Julv

February March. April May

10 33 31 16

10 33 31 16

June July..

433

391

22

16

September.

1942

29 56 24 38 37 74 101 274 45 36 37

18 47 19 34 23 58 86 252 29 15 12

11 14 16 15 22 16 21 25

November December. Total..

154

154

Grand Total

May.

2,

120

10

1,

110

39

961

June JulyAugust October NovemberDecember Total

805

608

195

The

table

does

not

show

the

return of

retired

Regular

Army

officers

to

active

duty

in

November 1940.

The

grand

total

under

the

column

“Regular

Army”

may be

augmented

by

126

officers on

duty

as

of

30

June

1939;

thus,

2,120

plus

and

126

would

indicate

that

2,248

officers

were

ordered

to

active

duty

during

the

period.

The

table

contains “official”

data,

but

It

does

not

reflect

the

data

which

were

compiled

and

used

within

the

War

Department during

the

war

period

as

are

described

in

the

text;

furthermore,

data

are

shown

which

were

not

available

from

other

sources.

Source:

Report

OTN-337,

subject:

Officers

Appointed

in

the

Medical

Corps,

Dental

Corps,

Veterinary

Corps, Medical

Administrative Corps,

and

Pharmacy Corps

from

January

1939

through

February 1946.

Strength

Accounting

Branch,

The

Adjutant

General’s

Office.

July

1946.
56 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

to solicit such officers as were under their jurisdiction who would volunteer

{19). Ten of these officers were to be ordered to extended active duty until

30 June 1940, when the existing appropriations were legally discontinued.

few months later, at the outbreak of ar on the European Continent, the

President’s proclamation of September 1939, on the limited emergency,

carried with it the expansion of the Regular Army to new authorized

strength of 227,000 enlisted men. Planning within the War Department then

called for ordering 508 additional Medical Department Reserve Corps officers, expressly including 10 for the Veterinary Service, into 1-year tour

of duty with the Regular Army. IRnvever, these 10 additional Veterinary

Reserve Corps officers were not ordered to such duty until sometime in

early 1940 when congressional appropriations became available. This second increment of 10 Reserve Corps officers were assigned so as to release

certain regular Veterinary Corps officers from their routine station duties

for participation in the army corps and field army maneuvers which were

being conducted during the next few months.

During February 1940, new planning within the War Department

centered on further augmentation of the Regular Army to 280,000 enlisted

men and on the ordering of additional Reserve Corps officers to active duty

{'BO). However, on July 1940, before the new plan became effective, the

Surgeon General’s Office, urgently needing veterinary officers to inspect the

food supply which was being developed in connection with the grand fourarmy maneuvers taking place in the fall of the year, was granted authorization to bring few Veterinary Reserve Corps officers for 28-day tours of

duty at four Army camps. On 31 May 1940, the War Department authorized

five more Veterinary Corps Reserve officers to be ordered immediately to

1-year tours of extended active duty with the Regular Army {Bl). As of

30 June 1940, the active-duty strength of the Veterinary Corps was 151

officers: 126 regulars and 25 reservists. Just before this date, planning for

the Regular Army at 280,000 strength was brought to its final stage by

congressional appropriations legislation, becoming effective on July; 52

new personnel space vacancies were authorized to be filled by Veterinary

Reserve Corps officers after the effective date. Even before this troop increase became effective, supplementary congressional appropriations legislation further augmented the Regular Army to 375,000 enlisted men (BB).

The Surgeon General’s Office in August 1940 was studying Medical

Department personnel requirements for D/o million man force which was

to be reached by mid-1941. The study placed veterinary personnel requirements for this paper army at 1,230 officers, as follows:

Planned size of Army Veterinary officers

Current Regular Army (375,000 men) 404

Fall of 1940:

Federalization of National Guard (235,000 men)_ 188

Induction under Selective Service (320,000 men)_ 246

Spring of 1941: Induction or draft (475,000 men) 392
PERSONNEL 57

During August and September 1940, two separate laws provided for the

changeover from the so-called volunteer Army to the draftee Army which

was needed for the national defense. These enactments included the one,

approved on 27 August 1940, which authorized the President, as Commander in Chief, to order the reserve components of the Army of the United

States into the active military service of the United States, with or without

their consent, and the other, the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940,

which set in motion the system for inducting or drafting men into the

Armed Forces.

As the 1940-41 military program was launched, the federalization of

the National Guard, during the period from 16 September 1940 to 23 June

1941, brought 37 veterinary officers to active duty. During November 1940,

two retired Regular Army officers were returned to active duty with the

Veterinary Corps. However, the pattern of ordering additional Veterinary

Reserve Corps officers to duty was now lost in the maze of War Department

allotments, reallocations, and amended ones which authorized corps area

commanders, department commanders, and chiefs of the arms and services

to call to active duty certain numbers of Reserve Corps officers who were

under their jurisdiction for assignment. During October-November 1940,

allocations were divided between the corps area commanders in the Zone of

Interior for ordering 148 Veterinary Reserve Corps officers to duty in connection with the augmentation of the Regular Army to 375,000 enlisted men

and for another 110 (later reduced to 60) officers in connection with the

federalization of the National Guard (with more than 300,000 officers and

enlisted personnel) (23, 24-, 25). As of 30 June 1941, the active-duty strength

of the Veterinary Corps included 435 of the Officers’ Reserve Corps, 34 of

the National Guard, and 128 Regular Army and retired officers, total of

597.

During the last few months before December 1941, the War Department continued its programing on the ordering of additional Reserve Corps

officers to active duty. Allotments were being made which were to be filled

by 30 June 1942, and they specified not only the numbers but also the numbers by grade; Regular Army officers too were included in the allotments.

Of course, these allotments were constantly reviewed and repeatedly changed.

At about this time, almost all allotments previously provided for the War

Department overhead were converted to allotments to the new Army Service

Forces (then named Services of Supply) within this command, the various

chiefs of the Army technical or supply services were granted allotments for

certain numbers of veterinary officers: 30 to The Surgeon General, 152 to

The Quartermaster General and general depot service, to the Chief Signal

Officer, to the Chief of Chemical Warfare Service, and to the Chief of

Engineers. Veterinary officers, occupying these positions, were under the

direct control of the respective chief of service; the Surgeon General’s Office

had as much jurisdiction over them as it exercised over the hundreds of
58 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

veterinary officers who were on duty with the corps area service commands, oversea departments, Army Air Forces, and Army Ground Forces. As of 30

June 1942, the active-duty strength of the Veterinary Corps (at 952 officers) was proportionally distributed as follows: 69.3 percent with service forces, 16.2 percent with ground or combat troops, and the remaining 14.5 percent with the Army Air Forces (26).

Throughout this period, the reserve components of the Army of the

United States were not materially augmented. The only additions to the

Veterinary Corps Reserve were the veterinarians who were inducted and those

who as students had been voluntarily transferred to the MAC Reserve, pend- ing the completion of their professional education, when they would become

available for conversion transfer and order to duty as veterinary officers. During the fall of 1941, pursuant to congressional legislation, the Army provided

for the appointment of additional officers directly into the Army of the United

States; though some few inducted veterinarians, who were then applying for

Reserve Corps appointments as in the past, may have been considered as

making application for appointment in the Army of the United States, this

procedure was not officially prescribed until months after the Pearl Harbor

attack. On July 1942, after request, originating with the Surgeon General’s Office, the War Department provided for an officer personnel procurement objective of 250 space vacancies in the Army of the United States that

would be satisfied only by the appointment of veterinarians who might be

inducted into the Army as enlisted men by the Selective Service System.

In April 1942, preceding the establishment of this procurement objective,

the War Department started its program to conserve the veterinary manpower

potential contained in the student bodies at the civilian veterinary schools

against the action of the Selective Service System—that is, granting temporary

appointments to male veterinary students in approved schools as second lieutenants in the MAC, Army of the United States (27). These students were

retained on inactive-duty status, free from the Selective Service System, until

completion of their education when they became eligible for conversion transfer and order to active duty as veterinary officers. Those who graduated and

failed to gain conversion transfer within months were discharged from

their appointments in the Army of the United States. However, lacking

information that might show otherwise, it is believed that not many of such

graduated veterinarians were conversion transferred and were brought into

the Army until after November 1942.

Since not as many veterinarians were inducted into the Army as had

been anticipated, this source fell far short of filling the existing procurement

objective of 250 and the increasing requirements for Army veterinary officers.

By November 1942, little over 100 officer appointments were made in the

Army of the United States from inducted veterinarians, and the Veterinary

Officers’ Reserve Corps was now practically depleted. There remained only

28 physically disqualified personnel not on active duty. On 17 November
PERSONNEL 59

1942, the Surgeon General’s Office requested the War Department to cancel

the unexpended portion (or 146 personnel space vacancies) in the current

procurement objective for veterinary officer appointments in the Army of the

United States and to provide for new objective, without restriction on the

personnel sources and in some few grades higher than that of first lieutenant,

totaling 1,124 space authorizations. These changes were believed to be necessary to satisfy the increasing requirements for veterinary officers, to obtain

veterinarians direct from civilian life who were specially qualified and for

whom appointments in the higher grades would be made, to provide for the

appointment of inducted veterinarians who could be inducted into the Army

as enlisted men as in the past, and to provide for the conversion appointment

of newly graduated veterinarians who were completing their professional

education while holding appointment (on an inactive-duty status) as second

lieutenants in the MAC, Army of the United States. In two successive

actions taken during November 1942, the War Department amended the

July 1942 procurement objective by removing the restriction (concerning

inducted veterinarians) for filling the unexpended 146 personnel space vacancies and by supplementing it with an additional 978 space authorizations

(28. 29). As of 31 December 1942, the Veterinary Corps active-duty strength

totaled 1,532 officers, comprising 126 of the Regular Army, retired officers

recalled to duty, 35 of the National Guard, and 1,369 of the Officers’ Reserve

Corps or appointees in the Army of the United States—the latter including

180 formerly inducted veterinarians.

During 1943, the program of conserving the students in approved veterinary schools against the threatening induction action by the Selective Service

System was discontinued to the extent that additional MAC appointments

could not be made after February 1943. In its place, by July 1943,

veterinary specialized training program was established at the approved

veterinary schools in the United States; its object was to insure that sufficient

numbers of students would be educated (at Government expense) and graduated to meet the Army requirements for veterinarians. In fact, the numbers

of graduates and students in veterinary medicine, having then, or sometime

in the future, an obligation to serve in the Army, soon became numerically

excess to the immediate Army needs. The surplus was increased rather than

diminished because the Surgeon General’s Office and the Officer Procurement

Service had emphasized the procurement, since the winter of 1942-43, of

veterinarians direct from their civilian status. In the fall of 1943, the War

Department General Staff had cause to inquire into the veterinary officer

procurement situation, particularly, with respect to reasons for not more fully

using those sources of personnel who had certain obligations to the Army, as

follows (30)

few months ago this Division was advised by The Surgeon General that since the

Army had more veterinarians than required it would not be possible to order to active

duty and properly employ any material number of veterinarians who hold reserve commissions. In spite of this it is noted that appointments from civil life and from the
60 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

enlisted ranks are still being made in the Veterinary Corps. If the requirements have

been met, there appears to be no justification for continuing to appoint veterinarians.

If there is still shortage, requirements should be met by using veterinarians commissioned in the Reserve Corps [sic] who are graduating from colleges. In this connection

it is noted that the ASTP has 1,399 students enrolled in veterinary courses.

At about this time, the Veterinary Corps strength was 1,981 officers, new

appointments having been given during the past months (or from March

through August 1943) to 39 veterinarians who were inducted into the Army

as enlisted men and to 110 veterinarians direct from civilian life. The Veterinary Reserve Corps was depleted. However, there was potential source of

362 veterinarians by the end of 1943, as follows:

Appointments in Medical Administrative Corps, Army of the United States:

Recent graduate veterinarians under current option for call to active duty 70

Veterinary students expected to graduate prior to 31 December 1943 107

Enlisted in the Army SpecializedTraining Program

Recent graduate veterinarians under current option for call to active duty 13

Veterinary students expected to graduate prior to 31 December 1943 172

The Army Service Force Headquarters, which had compiled this information

on veterinary officer procurement, then suggested that these individuals be commissioned in theArmy of the United States as veterinary officers but retained on

inactive-duty status until required. However, in review of its operations and

policies, the Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office, advised {31)

After the Veterinary Corps Reserve had been substantially all utilized, additional

requirements have been met by commissioning from the following categories and reasons

therefore are indicated:

(a) Inducted Veterinarians. With an overall shortage of veterinarians in the United

States it is highly important in the interest of our livestock and dairy industries to conserve veterinary talent. The commissioning of the qualified veternarian who is not

deferred by his draft board but inducted into the Army saves taking one from civil life

or releases new graduate for civil use.

(b) New Graduates Holding Medical Administrative Corps Commissions. Conversion

commissions have been granted as many of these graduates as existing or anticipated

vacancies permitted, giving equal consideration to all accredited colleges, the relative

proficiency of graduates, and further considering the necessity of making some appointments of individuals who have had post-graduate experience or special training.

(c) Civilian Veterinarians. It has been necessary and desirable to meet proportion of new requirements by the appointment of some veterinarians from civil life. Such

appointments have been made to meet requirements during periods between graduating

classes or when the number of individuals it is desired to appoint from particular

graduating class or classes is insufficient to meet immediate needs. Then, many requisitions for veterinary officers, especially from overseas theaters, are for individuals who

have had considerable post-graduate experience in various phases of meat, meat-food and

dairy products inspection activities. Further, it is essential to obtain number of veterinarians with training and experience in various other specialties in the veterinary field.

These cannot all be met by the recent graduate.

(d) A.S.T.P. Graduates. It is contemplated that with the exception of the appointment of few veterinarians from civil life with post-graduate experience and training

in veterinary specialties, the greater percentage of future vacancies will be filled by the

appointment of graduates trained in veterinary medicine under the Army Specialized
PERSONNEL 61

Training Program. There will probably still be few inducted veterinarians who, for

the reasons indicated in (a) above, should be considered for commissions.

With regard to future requirements for veterinary officers it is well nigh impossible

to estimate future needs with any degree of accuracy. This is because it is not simply

case of estimating under approved Tables of Organization for tactical units or on the

basis of so many veterinary officers per thousand troops. Veterinary officers requisitioned

for food inspection activities are frequently called for in irregular numbers, based on

local situations. This is especially true in foreign theaters but likewise applies to

considerable extent in the United States. In order, therefore, to meet requirements as

they arise and not have large surplus of officers in pools for which vacancies may not

develop within reasonable time, it has been the policy of this office to recommend for

commission and immediate active duty relatively small groups at irregular intervals. It

is believed that this plan should be continued.

As this inquiry was coming to close, the Secretary of War ordered

general cessation of procurement of officer personnel direct from civilian life;

however, exceptions were specifically provided in the instance of physicians,

dentists, chaplains, pilots, and individuals with outstanding qualifications and

experience in special fields {32). As might be expected, the War Department on 26 October 1943 canceled the existing procurement objective for

additional veterinary officer appointments except to provide: (1) For onetime and last-time opportunity for the conversion appointment of 177 veterinarians and students scheduled to graduate before 31 December 1943, who

were holding MAC appointments; (2) for continuing the existing policies

relating to the discharge or appointment of students graduating while under

the auspices of the ASTP; (3) for appointing inducted veterinarians; and

(4) any civilian veterinarian with special training or unusual experience not

possessed by recent veterinary graduates and whose procurement was approved

by the Assistant Chief of Staff, G-l (Personnel) of the War Department.

By the end of December 1943, the active-duty strength of the Veterinary

Corps totaled 2,039 officers, which was net gain of more than 500 personnel

since 31 December 1942. During 1943, 62 Veterinary Reserve Corps officers

were called to active duty, and officer appointments were recommended by the

Surgeon General’s Office for 462 veterinarians (although 916 applications

were processed). These included 46 who had been inducted, 221 holding

original appointments as MAC officers, 80 graduating while under the auspices of the ASTP, 104 veterinarians direct from civilian status, and 11 veterinarians who were commissioned in some branch of the Army other than

the Medical Department. Most of these appointments were made during the

earlier part of the year or prior to the 26 October 1943 cancellation of the

veterinary officer procurement objective. During the next year (January

through December 1944), veterinary officer appointments totaled only 73.

The personnel directive of 26 October 1943 governed veterinary officer

procurement for more than 14 months or until December 1944. The 150 to

160 appointments which were made during this time sufficed to keep the

Veterinary Corps strength at little more than 2,000 officers and were generally
62 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

limited to graduate veterinarians who as professional students had held commissions in the MAC and to those who had completed their professional educa- tion while under the auspices of the ASTP. In answer to an application for 83 additional veterinary officers, by the Surgeon General’s Office during

November 1944, the War Department General Staff on 12 December 1944

authorized the appointment of 52 more veterinary officers in the grade of first

lieutenant in the Army of the United States but expressly defined the sources

of these as follows:

a. Those enlisted men and forthcoming graduates of Army Specialized Training Pro- gram whom The Surgeon General considered best qualified for appointment.

b. Veterinarians from civil life, holding inactive Medical Administrative Corps commissions as second lieutenants. Appointment will not be made from this category unless

there is shortage of qualified personnel designated in the preceding paragraph a.

Twenty-two recent graduates who had participated in the ASTP and 30

inducted veterinarians were appointed in the Veterinary Corps, Army of the

United States, to fill this personnel procurement objective.

Actually, as the new personnel authorization was below Army needs, the

Surgeon General’s Office again, in mid-January 1945, restated the current

shortages in the Veterinary Corps as numbering 139 officers (33, JJ). Three

months later, on 14 April 1945, the War Department answered the request

with procurement objective authorization to attain and maintain personnel ceiling at 2,150 veterinary officers as long as the Army was at strength

of 7.7 to 8,2 million personnel. The ceiling was the first to be established

for the Veterinary Corps during the war. Under this ceiling, appointments

were to be made, in the grade of first lieutenant, of personnel from the following prescribed sources, with priority in the order listed:

Those warrant officers and enlisted men whom The Surgeon General considers best

qualified.

Graduates of approved veterinary schools who were not appointed in the Army of

the United States for assignment to the Veterinary Corps due to lack of position vacancies

and future graduates holding Medical Administrative Corps appointments. These categories will be considered in the following order with priority of consideration based upon

order of graduation, provided proper clearance is obtained from the Procurement and

Assignment Service of the War Manpower Commission on those who no longer hold

commissions:

(1) Graduates of the Army Specialized Training Program, discharged from the

service in 1944.

(2) Individuals formerly holding appointments as Second Lieutenant, Medical Administrative Corps, who graduated prior to November 1944 and who subsequent to graduation

were discharged from their commissions.

(3) Individuals holding appointments as Second Lieutenant, Medical Administrative

Corps, Army of the United States, who graduated during November and December 1944

and January 1945.

(4) Individuals holding appointments as Second Lieutenant, Medical Administrative

Corps, Army of the United States, who will graduate during 1945 and 1946.
PERSONNEL 63

Every possible effort was made to satisfy the new personnel ceiling immediately, but the restrictions on sources of veterinarians and the lack of up-todate information on the addresses of those who had been discharged earlier

from their MAC appointment and the Medical Enlisted Reserve Corps only

resulted in failure. Between January and June 1945, only 33 new veterinary

officer appointments were made. Actually, the numbers were urgently required because, pursuant to the agreement reached during February 1945

between the Secretary of War and the War Food Administrator, veterinary

officers were to be deployed on inspection work in meat packing plants which

was needed to improve the Army meat supply situation but for which the

Nation’s civilian meat inspection agency could not provide inspection personnel, This interagency agreement for such veterinary officer utilization was

urged on the Army by the Director of Economic Stabilization, concurred in

by the Office of Marketing Services, War Food Administration, and endorsed

by the Quartermaster Corps which by that time was the procuring agency

of meats for all of the Armed Forces and was experiencing supply shortages.

Along with the difficulties being experienced by the Surgeon General’s Office

in procuring the needed veterinary officers, The Adjutant General, on 17 May

1945, asked The Surgeon General to investigate the need for continuing the

ceiling of 2,150 veterinary officers—the results of such study to be submitted

to the Assistant Chief of Staff, G-l (Personnel), War Department General

Staff, before 13 June 1945; otherwise, the unexpended position vacancies in

the authorized objective would be canceled {35). The Surgeon General was

also advised: “It is believed with the cessation of hostilities in Europe, the

need for Veterinary Corps officers will be materially reduced, if not completely eliminated.”

The Veterinary Division, Surgeon General's Office, recommended both

modification of existing restrictions on the sources of officer procurement

and an increase, rather than cancellation, in the personnel ceiling to new

total of 2,237 personnel space authorizations. The Surgeon General, in his

reply to the Assistant Chief of Staff, G-l, on 29 May 1945, noted that:

The requirement for Veterinary Corps officers is not proportional to the military

strength of the Army particularly in reference to their duties in connection with the procurement of foods of animal origin. This requirement for Veterinary Corps officers is

based on the amounts of these items procured by the Army both for military needs and food

for liberated countries.

The procurement by the Army of food items subject to veterinary inspection has not

been reduced followingV-E Day, but maintains high level.

The requirement for veterinary officers was not proportional to the military strength

of the Army particularly in connection with food procurement inspection service.

The Quartermaster Corps food procurement program for the Armed Forces and

emergency civilian feeding in liberated countries was being increased both in respect to

quantities and to geographical distribution of sources.
64 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

The War Food Administration and the War Department agreement for Army veterinary inspection in meat processing plants which could not be supervised by the Federal

Meat Inspection Division because of the latter's shortages in personnel was to become

operational.

The Assistant Chief of Statf, G-l (Personnel), inserted into the record at

this time that it was “*considered contrary to established War Department policy to commission qualified civilian veterinarians in the Army of the

United States to perform duties which do not require military status,” but

somewhat earlier, the same office had refused to release veterinary officers to

the Federal meat inspection agency. In any event, on 13 July 1945, the War

Department granted authorization to The Surgeon General—in line with the

recommendations—to procure qualified veterinarians for appointment as first

lieutenant in the Veterinary Corps, Army of the United States, in order to

attain and maintain personnel strength of 2,327 officers; the sources of

supply were defined as follows {36)

Warrant officers and enlisted men whom The Surgeon General considers best qualified.

Graduates of approved veterinary colleges who graduated subsequent to 1943 and

were not appointed in the Veterinary Corps due to lack of position vacancies, preference

being given to graduates of the Army Specialized Training Program, discharged from the

service in 1944, whose present addresses are unknown, provided proper clearance is

obtained from the Procurement and Assignment Service of the War Manpower Commission.

When need occurs for the appointment of veterinarians with special training and

unusual experience which recent graduates do not possess, appointments will be made

from veterinarians in civilian status, after presenting the case to the Assistant Chief

of Staff, G-l, for decision.

The war soon ended and the authorized ceiling strength was not reached.

In fact, on September 1945, all unexpended position vacancies in existing

procurement objectives were canceled {37).

Postwar Demobilization

At about the time that the Army Veterinary Service reached its peak

officer strength, the Army was undergoing partial demobilization following

the victory in Europe and the change to the one-front war against the Japanese. This reduction in force was complicated by beginning programs of

redeploying troops from the Mediterranean and European theaters to the

Pacific, replacing personnel in the active theaters by those who had not seen

oversea duty, and the continuing assignments to maintain the postwar Army.

Thus, the period of partial demobilization saw few veterinary animal service

units in the Mediterranean theater inactivated to provide personnel for the

veterinary food inspection detachments which were to be redeployed to the

Pacific theater and the beginning reduction in force in the European theater,

but actually there were few separations of individual veterinary officers anywhere. Personnel were needed until such time that the Army was relieved

of its food procurement contracts, stockpiles of subsistence, and holdings of
PERSONNEL 65

animals. In addition, the Veterinary Corps at the time was actually below

stated requirements. The sudden capitulation of the Japanese brought an

end to the program of redeployment and changed the slow rate of separations

under the program of reduction in force to one of rapid, full-scale demobilization.

Separation schedules were then developed on the basis of age and

numerical score, named “adjusted service rating”—the latter including prescribed number of point credits which were granted for such factors as

length of service, length of time overseas, combat activity, decorations, and

number of dependents. Thus, veterinary officers 50 years of age or older or

having an adjusted service rating of 110 were included in the first group of postwar separations. In time, these criteria were changed (or lowered),

and length of service was soon added as third factor. Thus, in mid-September, the War Department was releasing veterinary officers, if 42 years of age,

who had point score of 80 or more, or had seen military service prior to

January 1941. Officers who were declared essential to the Army in their

places of current assignment could be retained until specified date but were

to be released earlier if replacement personnel arrived. During November

1945, new separation criteria were announced which lowered the adjusted

service rating score to 70 points and reduced the period of military service

to that of duty prior to December 1941. By the end of the year, an estimated 730 veterinary officers had been separated from the Army since V-E

Day. By the end of June 1946, such separations totaled 1,500 officers, and

270 more personnel were released during the next months. As of 28 December 1946, the Veterinary Corps strength was 695 officers.

PERSONNEL MATTERS

Officer procurement, as described previously, was only one facet of Veterinary Corps personnel administration during World War II. There were

many other problems, such as the determination of requirements, military

occupational classification, promotion, professional standards and standards

of conduct, protective status, awards, and personnel losses (or attrition).

Before veterinary enlisted personnel are discussed, brief mention is also made

of female veterinarians in the Army, civilian employees, and the nonprofessional officers who were detailed to duty with the Army Veterinary Service.

Determination of Requirements and Assignments

The regulations of the Army in 1942 provided basis for estimating

requirements but only in the terms of determining the needs of, or assignments to, Army camps or posts, as follows (38)

a. To station having an animal strength of 200 or more, station veterinarian

may be assigned if available, and where the number of animals exceeds 600, additional

veterinary officers as assistants to the station veterinarian, as available, are authorized

as follows:
66 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Total animal strength, 601 to 1,100, one assistant.

Total animal strength, 1,101 to 1,600, two assistants.

Total animal strength, 1,601 to 2,200, three assistants.

Total animal strength, 2,201 to 2,800, four assistants.

Total animal strength, 2,801 to 3,500, five assistants.

&. station having human strength of approximately 1,000 will be allowed one or

more veterinary officers, as circumstances warrant, for duty in connection with meat and

dairy hygiene, the maintenance of instruction courses, or other duties pertaining to the

veterinary service. At depots, ports of embarkation and debarkation, purchasing points,

and other places where foods of animal origin are purchased, stored, or handled by the

Army, the assignment of veterinary officers will be based on actual need as determined

by The Surgeon General.

In fact, almost all requirements would have had to be made by the assignment of individual veterinary officers, and indeed, at times, this was actually

done. The ratios of 0.25 to 0.27 veterinary officers per 1,000 Army Strength

were computed after the end of World War II; that is, they were accomplished facts. Though troop strength was satisfactorily used by nearly all

of the Medical Department professional corps in determining their requirements, it was valueless in the computation of the Army’s total needs for

veterinary officers. For example, this basis was entered into military planning, during 1940-41, for bringing veterinary Reserve Corps officers to active

duty in connection with the augmentation of the Regular Army, federalization of the National Guard, and early training of the selectee Army, but the

ratio that was then used (0.65 veterinary officers per 1,000 troop strength)

would have eventually created demand for more than 5,000 veterinary officers when the Army reached its peak strength. Animal strength, though used

in the ratio of 2.5 officers per each 1,000 Army horses and mules during

World War I, also lacked much the same quality for justifying requirements

in the modern motorized Army of World War II as did troop strength,

except that it would have created an officer understrength in the Veterinary

Corps by about one-third.

The lack of single basis to determine overall veterinary officer requirements caused justifiable concern in the upper echelons of military planning

at first, but later the situation was accepted after better understanding of

the reasons. There was no question, however, that the use of animals did

influence veterinary officer requirements in some theaters during World War

II and that troop strength, particularly ration strength, could be used also

to determine veterinary officer needs in these and other theaters where the

surveillance inspection of the food supply was major veterinary activity. The last-named basis closely paralleled the Army’s food supply during its

storage and distribution by the Quartermaster Corps and shipment by the

Transportation Corps. However, the least understood factor was the need

for veterinary officers in numbers to provide an inspection service paralleling

the Quartermaster Corps food procurement activities, especially when these

activities were expanded, as they were, to include the supply for all of the

Armed Forces or when the Nation’s food control and economic agencies
PERSONNEL 67

advised the Army to extend its procurement activities to new sources of

supply. Sometimes, foods were procured in the oversea theaters and foreign

countries; generally, four times as many veterinary personnel were required

there as when the Army food supply for the Armed Forces overseas originated from the Zone of Interior.

Actually, veterinary officers engaged in food procurement inspection were

urgently needed ahead of the buildup of, and thus, in proportionally greater

numbers than indicated by, the strength of troops for which food stockpiles had to be developed and then moved to the areas of distribution. Much the

same situation prevailed during the immediate postwar period when large

number of veterinary officers had to be retained until subsistence contracts

could be terminated and the large stockpiles transferred from the operational

control of the Army. In fact, as the partial result of such personnel needs

to support food procurement activities, the veterinary officer-Army strength

ratio ranged between 0.31 and 0.41 per 1,000 strength, during the first

months after Pearl Harbor, and as much as 0.39 per 1,000 during the immediate postwar period; between these periods covering the greater part of the

war, this proportion was somewhat less.

The proportionate assignments of veterinary officers in the Zone of Interior, with the Army Air Forces, and to the oversea theaters were constantly

changed as the war progressed. As of 30 June 1939, the regular Veterinary

Corps was largely assigned in the Zone of Interior with only IT, or 13.5 percent, of its officers overseas in the Panama Canal, Hawaiian, Puerto Eican,

and Philippine Departments. The percentage became considerably less in

1940-41, during the prewar emergency periods, when the mobilization and

training of the wartime Army was launched in the Zone of Interior. These

troops, including veterinary officers, after the Pearl Harbor attack, were then

deployed, in gradually increasing numbers, to the Pacific theaters to stem the

Japanese onslaught and later to the North African shores and Normandy

beachheads. By October 1943, the oversea percentage had increased to include

338 officers of the total number, or 17.2 percent, of Veterinary Corps officers.

By April 1945, the oversea veterinary officer strength reached wartime peak

of approximately 35 percent; at this time, the number of veterinary officers

(707), in proportion to the oversea total Army strength, was 0.12 per 1,000.

It is rather significant that some theaters, such as the Pacific and Asiatic

areas, had relatively larger numbers of veterinary officers than seemed to be

warranted as contrasted to other theaters, such as the European which had

by far the greater share of the U.S. Army troop strength. However, in the

former theaters, the veterinary officers were needed in numbers above the

level of food surveillance in order to satisfy the needs of Allied military

forces and food procurement activities.

In regard to veterinary officers who were assigned to the Army Air

Forces, their number reached peak of approximately 355 in August 1944,

approximating 17.5 percent of the total number of Veterinary Corps officers.
68 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

At that time, the veterinary officer-Air Force strength ratio was 0.1 1,000

Only 8.2 percent of these officers were overseas.

Occupational Specialty and Professional Classification

Closely related to assignment actions was the classification of individual

Veterinary Corps officers according to the prescribed MOS (military occupational specialty) in which they seemed to be best qualified. In fact, by the

end of the war, veterinary officers were being requisitioned by coded MOS

number. In 1943, 11 special military jobs were defined for them as follows:

Veterinary Officer (3200)

Veterinary Officer, Large Animal (3201)

Veterinary Officer, Small Animal (3202)

Veterinary Officer, Staff (3203)

Veterinary Officer, Remount (3205)

Veterinary Unit Commander (3207)

Meat and Dairy Products Inspector (3221)

Meat Products Inspector (3222)

Dairy Products Inspector (3223)

Food Chemist (3224)

Veterinary Laboratory Officer (3231)

This classification procedure, on paper, possessed promising features for

the better placement of veterinary officers in military assignments for which

they might be especially qualified by prior experience or civilian education.

In practice, it was failure, but perhaps some of this was due to the fact

that classification of occupational jobs in the Army was started so late

during the war period. For example, the majority of veterinarians entering

the military service were qualified animal practitioners and were thus

eligible for assignment of MOS 3201 or 3202; on the other hand, the Army

needs for such personnel were relatively small, as contrasted to the requirements for veterinary officers as meat or dairy inspectors. Also, by 1943,

the Veterinary Corps was approaching its peak strength. Any effectual

reclassification of veterinary officers at this time which might have been

based on surveying their premilitary acquired skills would have led to reassignments—costly in terms of the time needed to transfer them—and the

removal of others from assignments in which the individual veterinary

officer had already demonstrated his ability and capability to the satisfaction

of the immediate commander.

Promotion

The beginning of World War II found the rank of Veterinary Corps

officers on active duty distributed through the grades of colonel, lieutenant

colonel, major, captain, and first lieutenant, and in such proportions as had

developed under the peacetime system of promotions pursuant to con-
PERSONNEL 69

gressional legislation. After 1920 when the regular Veterinary Corps was

largely made up of lieutenants and captains, the Veterinary Corps, Regular

Army, had now developed—under the provisions of time-in-grade system

of promotions—into corps of lieutenant colonels. This maldistribution of

the upper grades lessened during the prewar emergency periods with

the ordering of the Officers’ Reserve Corps and National Guard into active

military service; new appointments and temporary promotions into the

Army of the United States also soon brought the grade distribution of

Veterinary Corps officers to more nearly equaling that of the arms and other

service branches of the Army. Overall, however, this grade distribution was

less favorable than that for the Medical Corps, but it was generally better

than that of the entire Army, particularly, in the upper grades.

The wartime Army Veterinary Service did not include Veterinary Corps

officers holding the grade of second lieutenant. On the other hand, during

World War II, for the first time in the history of the Veterinary Corps, one

veterinary officer gained temporary appointment as brigadier general in the

Army of the United States. This promotion, made effective on March

1942, was tentatively set forth in prewar planning for mobilizing the

Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office, to include one brigadier general as divisional chief (39). Of course, with the retirement of this general,

in January 1946, the space authorization was vacated.

The wartime promotion system, or temporary promotions in the Army

of the United States, actually received its start during the prewar emergency

periods. At this time, it was limited more or less to temporarily advancing

the grades of Regular Army officers (without vacating their permanent

grades) so that they could have rank commensurate with that held by the

Reserve Corps and National Guard officers who were then being ordered to

extended active duty with the Regular Army (4$, Jf, JJ)- These promotions of Regular Army officers by their temporary appointment in

higher grade in the Army of the United States were made pursuant to the

National Defense Act, as amended, and military appropriations legislation.

In January 1942, the War Department replaced the earlier procedure with

one in which Reserve Corps and National Guard as well as Regular Army

officers could all gain advancement to the higher grades, and it was equally

applicable to those who were initially appointed as officers in the Army of

the United States (JJ). Conditions governing such promotions included:

time-in-grade prerequisites before becoming eligible for promotion, the earned

merits of the individual, the need for recommendation by the senior officer,

and the existence of personnel space vacancy in the next higher grade.

In practice, the temporary promotion system that was established was

not without its faults. Frequently, promotions seemed to be gained only

by those who were at the right place at the right time, and the rates of

Following World War II, both the grade of second lieutenant and that of brigadier general

were restored to the Veterinary Corps—pursuant to the Officer Personnel Act of 1947—but later, In

1954, by amendment to that law, the grade of second lieutenant was again dropped.—J. B. C., Jr.
70 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

promotion for veterinary officers in one command or theater were not comparable to the rates of promotion in another. In some areas, senior veterinary officers hesitated to release eligible personnel, whom they found to be

satisfactory, for reassignment into places having position vacancies of

higher grades, and undoubtedly some of the same eligible personnel were

satisfied with their current assignment rather than risk transfer where

chances of promotion were greater. In the veterinary and other units, which

were organized under the provisions of War Department tables of organization, the veterinary officers could not be promoted to grades higher than

those prescribed, regardless of the length of their assignments. Promotions

of officers belonging to the non-Regular components of the Army of the

United States to the grades of lieutenant colonel and colonel were relatively

few in number, but this as no reflection on their efficiency nor one for

criticism that promotions in the higher grades were reserved for the regular

Veterinary Corps. The facts were that the latter was already topheavy with

rank before the temporary promotion system was begun and that there was

so little attrition of Veterinary Corps officers during the war period.

specific promotion problem concerned veterinary officers who held the

grade of first lieutenant, but this did not evolve until after War Department

Circular No. 122 of 1943 had provided for the promotion of almost all Medical

and Dental Corps officers of this grade to captain. The War Department

did not believe that the Veterinary Corps was experiencing any serious

promotion inequality such as was being imposed among the many lieutenants

of the other two Medical Department professional corps who were assigned

to tactical units and to service installations {45). In opposition to this

opinion, however, The Surgeon General showed that approximately 180

veterinary officers in the grade of first lieutenant were then assigned to at

least 13 kinds of non-Medical Department units under approved tables of

organization but that there was essentially no opportunity for the promotion of these officers, irrespective of their length of service, qualifications, or

manner of performance of duty. In August 1944, pursuant to AR (Army

Regulations) No. 605-12, existing position vacancies in tables of organization or allotments for veterinary officers in the grades of first lieutenant, captain, or both, were considered as position vacancies in the grade of captain. This soon resulted in the temporary promotion of many lieutenants in the Veterinary Corps; by the end of 1944, its number of captains exceeded that of the lower grade for the first time during the war period.

Shortly after V-J Day, the War Department, in gesture to improve

public relations with the officers who were being separated from the military

service, inaugurated different kind of mass promotion system. NonRegular veterinary officers below the grade of colonel were granted onegrade promotion, coincident with their separation, if they had seen at least

years’ active service since 16 September 1940 but had received no promo-
PERSONNEL 71

tion, or if they had served time in grade for 18 months as first lieutenant or

24 months as captain or major, or 30 months as lieutenant colonel (4-6, 4?)-

Undoubtedly, some refused the separation promotion from captain to major

because personnel in the latter grade did not receive the muster-out pay

which was granted to those holding the rank of first lieutenant and captain.

These promotions were temporary, were made in the Army of the United

States, and were to expire months after the end of the emergency period.

Professional Standards, Standards of Conduct, and Nonprofessional

Utilization of Veterinary Officers

Prerequisite to their appointment, veterinary officers were required to

have graduated from civilian veterinary college which was acceptable to

The Surgeon General. The number of such colleges in the United States

during World War II totaled eight, and there were another two in Canada.

Little difficulty was experienced with individuals who had graduated from

veterinary schools outside of the United States and Canada which failed

to meet the educational standards established by the American Veterinary

Medical Association and were thus disapproved by The Surgeon General.

As to their standards of conduct, veterinary officers had to be particularly reserved in their relationships with the civilian contractors furnishing foods to the Armed Forces. Actually, during World War II as in the

period before it, there were no definitive rules for the conduct of veterinary

food inspection personnel such as were developed later. However, there

were no available records to show that Army inspection personnel were involved during the war in major irregularities or deviations from their duties

to protect the financial interests of the Government by determining that the

quality of the product complied with the contract requirements. Another

standard of conduct pertained to professional practice by individual veterinary officers; that is, caring for and treating animals which were not owned

by the Government. This standard seems to have originated sometime after

World War and was changed from time to time thereafter. For example,

in 1920, the War Department granted approval to the following recommendations by the Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office, published in

Veterinary Circular Letter No. 59:

1. It is deemed desirable policy not to discourage veterinary officers of the Army

in the practice of their profession amongst civilian animals, provided that such practice

does not interfere with the performance of military duties, that it does not entail expense

to the Government or the expenditure of military supplies, and that no veterinary officer

maintains an office outside his military station *.

2. Attendance on cases outside the military service has tendency to keep these

officers in touch with the general conditions regarding animal sanitation in their immediate locality, and also gives them experience in cases whch is not usually obtained in

the military service, in this way broadening their professional field and increasing their

general value to the Army.
72 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Ill 1942, this statement of policy was replaced by new one which

was set forth in AE 40-2005, as follows:

7. Veterinary attendance. —Veterinary officers on duty will attend all public animals

and the authorized private mounts of officers; also, when practicable, other animals and pets actually owned and kept by officers, enlisted men, company messes, exchanges, and

like organizations; and, at stations or in the field, where other veterinary attendance

cannot be procured, civilian-owned animals employed or maintained on the reservation.

8. Private practice of veterinary officers, a. If citizens in the neighborhood of

military post or the residence of an Army officer desire the professional services of such

officer, and the attendance of private practitioner acceptable to them cannot conveniently be obtained, it is regarded as not inconsistent with the regulations governing the

Army for such officer to render his services when this does not interfere with the proper

performance of his official duties. Private or civilian practice by Army veterinary officers

in civilian communities, the needs of which can be met by civilian practitioners, will ordinarily be restricted to consultation practice with such civilian practitioners, and to emergency veterinary medical or surgical work necessary to save life or limb, or prevent great

suffering for which civilian practitioners are not immediately available, b. The establishment of an office for the purpose of engaging in civil practice is prohibited.

This policy was continued in effect through World War II. In addition,

there were other regulatory controls, such as those concerning the monetary

charges that would be made if Government medical supplies were used (to

cover the costs thereof) and for the handling of the monies which might

be collected, including reimbursement to the Government,

Another subject that concerned the veterinary professional man in the

Army was his utilization in nonprofessional capacity. Conceivably, as an

officer of the Army, the Veterinary Corps officer was required to serve in

certain staff capacities and as part-time administrator over the operations

of the Army Veterinary Service concurrent with his professional activities;

also, he had an obligation to serve at times on courts-martial and boards of

officers. However, the full-time deployment of any veterinary officer in

nonprofessional capacity could not be condoned, and where this existed, for

any great length of time, the individual veterinary officer could most often

blame himself for the situation. It was commonly experienced that veterinary

personnel were usually so preoccupied with the military veterinary service

within their areas of responsibility that commanders and surgeons had little

cause to assign extracurricular duties to them. Probably, the greatest misuse

of veterinary personnel occurred, during the earlier war years, when some

few arrived in the oversea replacement pools and could not be immediately

assigned to veterinary duty because of lack of position vacancies.

Protective Status Under Rules of Land Warfare

Though an integral component of the Medical Department since 1916,

the Army Veterinary Service was not granted protective status, or those

benefits that are accrued by noncombatant personnel pursuant to the Geneva

Conventions or international rules of land warfare. Thus, it is not surpris-
PERSONNEL 73

ing that Army regulations, as early as World War I, referred to the wearing of pistols by veterinarians in the Army, and, that in January 1918, Army

general orders authorized issues of personal firearms to veterinary enlisted

men. Unfortunately, the War Department tables of allowances in the mid- 1920’s failed to make mention of pistols and ammunition (for training) for veterinary personnel so that this became, in 1927, major reason for the

Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office, to recommend against such

issues to veterinary company unit. These recommendations were favorably

upheld by The Adjutant General. few years later, the Geneva Red Cross

Convention in new ruling provided that sanitary or medical formations

or establishments were not to be deprived of protective status if “*

there

is found in the formation or establishment personnel or materiel of the

veterinary service which does not integrally belong to it” {48). In other

words, the Army Veterinary Service was an unarmed combatant—unarmed

pursuant to War Department policy but regarded generally as combatant

under international convention.

Throughout this period, protected Medical Department personnel in

field training or maneuvers were identified, by wearing on the sleeve of their

uniforms, white armband bearing red cross. The Medical Department

supply catalogs itemized this as: Brassard, Geneva Convention. Upon discretion of the surgeons of various commands, it is probable that individual

veterinary personnel who were engaged in sanitary inspections of food supplies or attached to medical units wore the same brassard and, of course,

were unarmed. The same occurred during World War II. (On the other

hand, after the early 1920’s, veterinary units and hospitals engaged in animal

service were specially identified at station in the field with guidon, green

cross, and their veterinary ambulances and transport equipment were marked

with Greek cross in green on white background.) On 20 August 1940,

by amendment, the current Medical Department supply catalog added the

following item: Brassard, Veterinary Corps: Green Cross. This was white

armband bearing green cross. During the next year, the veterinary brassard was described in Army training manuals for the soldier, as well as in

Army regulations regarding uniforms; one regulation expressly provided

that this brassard would be worn “by members of the veterinary service

assigned to theaters of operations.” Thus, veterinary personnel were to be

separately identified from other Medical Department personnel. As matter

of fact, the training manual for Medical Department soldiers that was

promulgated in 1941 emphasized this with statement on their protective

status under the Geneva Red Cross Convention, as follows: “Medical troops,

installations, and equipment are to be protected so long as they are not

used to commit acts injurious to the enemy. This protection is extended to

the dental, hut not to the veterinary service.”
74 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Shortly after Pearl Harbor, the Commanding General, Third U.S. Army, then located at San Antonio, Tex., recommended to the Army Ground Forces that veterinary tables of unit equipment and pertinent Army regulations be

changed to permit the arming of veterinary personnel and their training in the use of personal sidearms. These recommendations found acceptance with the Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office. Subsequently, by

mid-1942, tables of allowances provided personal arms for Veterinary Corps

officers. Veterinary enlisted personnel were not armed at first because some

few were of the opinion that they, in general sense, were Medical Department personnel who could not be considered for arming. In January 1944, the Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office, recommended that certain

types of veterinary units be provided with carbines (one for each enlisted

man) and pistols (one per officer) together with machineguns, grenades,

and rocket launchers for the large units. The Military Training Division,

Headquarters, Army Service Forces, obtained legal opinion on the protective status of Army veterinary personnel from the Judge Advocate General’s Office, dated 15 February 1944.

On 23 February 1944, the War Department policy governing the armament of personnel and units for field service was revised to provide that no

weapons would be provided for chaplains or for medical units or personnel

except veterinary {59). Subsequently, the Veterinary Division, Surgeon

General’s Office, initiated recommendations for arming veterinary units (and

personnel) such as the veterinary convalescent, general, station, and evacuation hospitals and the veterinary cellular hospital, evacuation, animal service,

and food inspection teams. Concurrently, veterinary units and personnel

were required to undergo training in the use of weapons and courses in

familiarization firing and qualification firing, such as were prescribed from

time to time by Headquarters, Army Service Forces. Overseas, in the European theater, the Chief Surgeon’s Office established the following policy:

“Veterinary personnel, both officer and enlisted, were not repeat xoere not

[sic], entitled to protection afforded by the Geneva Convention, and the

phrase ‘personnel employed in pursuit of sanitary establishments’ shall not

include the Veterinary Service; further, that veterinary personnel will be

armed” {50).

Awards

Military decorations were awarded to individuals in recognition of their

acts of heroism performed, achievements accomplished, and valuable services

rendered. In World War II, the Distinguished Service Cross was awarded

to 1st Lt. (later Capt.) Clayton H. Mickelsen, VC, then with the 26th

Cavalry Regiment (Philippine Scouts) {51). The citation read as follows:

For extraordinary heroism in action at Rosario, La Union, Philippine Islands, on

December 22, 1941. Diiring concentrated fire from enemy tanks and infantry at close

range against the rear guard of the 26th Cavalry (PS) Lieutenant Mickelsen, with one
PERSONNEL 75

other officer, with total disregard of his personal safety, remained between the hostile

troops and his own force, set fire to truck placed on bridge, and remained at the

bridge exposed to enemy fire until satisfied that the bridge was in flames. Subsequently,

Lieutenant Mickelsen, with the other officer, in scout car, moved slowly with the rearmost elements of the 26th Cavalry, picking up the wounded and collecting and giving

orders to stragglers. By his heroic actions, Lieutenant Mickelsen prevented unhindered

pursuit by the hostile tanks, saved the lives of number of wounded, collected many

stragglers and set an inspiring example of courage for the entire regiment.

Next in order, below the Distinguished Service Cross, is the Distinguished Service Medal. Such decoration was awarded to Brig. Gen.

llaymond A. Kelser for his “unusual executive ability and initiative” and

“leadership and foresight” as nominal chief of the Army Veterinary Service

in World War II (62). In addition, the following U.S. military decorations

were awarded to Veterinary Corps officers: Legion of Merit, 37, and Bronze

Star Medal, 49. One Sanitary Corps officer and one female veterinary

officer of the Women’s Army Corps, both on duty with the Army Veterinary Service, also earned the Legion of Merit. The Bronze Star Medal was

awarded to 32 veterinary enlisted personnel.

Another military decoration, the Purple Heart, for wounds received in

action, was awarded to an unknown number of veterinary officers and

enlisted personnel. Also, mention must be made of the Veterinary Corps

officers and the 31 or more veterinary enlisted men in the China-BurmaIndia theater who were awarded the Combat Medical Badge for having

shared with Infantry the hazards and hardships of combat. Another Veterinary Corps officer was awarded the Combat Infantryman Badge for his

services, after being conversion transferred to Cavalry, during the fighting

that ended with the capture of the Philippine Islands by the Japanese enemy

in early 1942. Furthermore, some few Veterinary Corps officers were

awarded decorations by foreign countries, and separate veterinary units and

units having attached veterinary personnel received awards for meritorious

service or participation in certain recognized campaigns of the war.

Attrition of Veterinary Officers

Those hardships of military service that can be measured in the terms of

personnel killed or dying were not particularly great in the Veterinary

Corps, as contrasted with the losses which ere encountered in the combat

arms. However, 17 veterinary officers died or were killed during World

War II. This number included Veterinary Corps officers who were killed

in action and who were among the total 10 who were captured, wounded,

or killed by enemy action (that is, battle casualties). Another 141 VeteriThis was the first instance that the Distinguished Service Medal was awarded to veterinary

officer, although it might be observed that similar award was made to the World War chief of

corps, Col. C. F. Morse, MC.

590248 —61
76 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

nary Corps officers were separated from active military service during the

war period, as indicated below:

Cause for separation Number

Physically disqualified 84

Over 38 years of age 21

Retirement

Reclassified

Resigned

Released as key man in civilian life

Conditions other than honorable

Over age

Enter U.S. Military Academy

Dishonorable discharge

Hardship

Other

Total 141

Source: United States Army in World War II. The

Technical Services. The Medical Department: Personnel.

[In preparation.]

Nonveterinary Officers, Female Veterinary Officers, and Civilian Employees

Though number of veterinary officers and veterinarians saw military

service in other than the Veterinary Corps during World War II, very few

non-Veterinary Corps officers and civilian veterinarians were used in the

Army Veterinary Service. One Sanitary Corps officer came on duty with

the Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office, and another one or two

were assigned to duty with the Army Veterinary School, Army Medical

Center, Washington, D.C. Also, few MAC officers were assigned to larger

veterinary units and organizations both in the Zone of Interior and oversea

theaters where they substituted for veterinary officers on full-time duty as

administrative personnel. It may be observed that tables of organization for

large units, such as the veterinary convalescent, general, and evacuation hospitals, were changed during 1942 and 1943 to include position vacancies for

MAC officers to command the hospital’s enlisted detachments; on the other

hand, the medical officers or aidmen who were authorized for such units

pursuant to the organization tables, prior to World War II, were then

withdrawn. However, since the number of these units was only five, the

aforementioned had little influence on the utilization of MAC officers for

conserving the Army’s veterinary professional manpower in World War II.

One female veterinarian who had gained appointment in the Women’s

Army Corps in the fall of 1942 was assigned to duty with the Army Veterinary Service in Medical Department laboratory (in the Seventh Service

Command) in the Zone of Interior; on 25 August 1945, she was transferred

to become the first female veterinary officer. Another female veterinarian

who saw service as noncommissioned officer (Women’s Army Corps) in the

Zone of Interior (in the Third Service Command) gained her appointment
PERSONNEL 77

as first lieutenant in the Veterinary Corps in 1946. Actually, there were

no established procedures for the appointment of female veterinary officers

during World War II.

In regard to female military personnel, it may be noted that the Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office, in March 1944, could find no

existent job positions to which Women’s Army Corps officers could be assigned in lieu of male officers. On the other hand, relatively small number

of enlisted women were assigned to several station veterinary detachments

or organizations in metropolitan areas, but generally their detail to duty

presented major problem because so many duties peculiar to the Army

Veterinary Service precluded the use of women, military and civilian alike.

On the other hand, female civilian employees could be, and were, used as

clerks, stenographers, and typists, in the Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office, and in many veterinary offices of major commands, quartermaster depots, and medical laboratories, both in the Zone of Interior and the

oversea theaters. Male employees were not used to any great extent, except

possibly in medical laboratories (as animal caretakers), in depots (as

laborers), and as food inspectors. However, food inspectors could not be

used with any degree of success in most veterinary detachments whose enlisted personnel were necessarily needed for long or irregular periods of duty

in the civilian food establishments that were producing on military contracts.

VETERINARY ENLISTED MEN

At the beginning of World War II, veterinary enlisted men were collectively designated as Medical Department (Veterinary Service), but, during the war, the practice of using this service branch designation was discontinued, and men then were referred to by their MOS. The authorized

enlisted strength was 1,387 on 30 June 1941 and had been increased to 2,808

by 30 June 1942. Throughout this period, the space authorizations were

filled by men, voluntarily enlisting (or reenlisting) in the Regular Army

and, after the fall of 1940, also from National Guard units which were

federalized, and the selectees who came into military service through the

operations of the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940.

During the war, the number of enlisted personnel on duty with the

Army Veterinary Service probably reached peak of 6,370. Veterinary

units which were organized pursuant to War Department-approved tables

of organization alone projected requirements for more than 2,000 enlisted

men, but there were other units and organizations whose tables of organization and overhead or bulk allotment authorizations provided space vacancies for many more. The basis for determining their requirements in local

situations was defined in AR 40-2035, as follows:

3. Station allowance of noncommissioned officers.—To every veterinary station detachment there will be assigned at least one noncommissioned officer, Medical Department

(Veterinary Service), and one additional such noncommissioned officer for every four
78 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

enlisted men of the Medical Department (Veterinary Service) of the grades of private,

first class, and private in excess of four.

4. Station allowances of privates, first class, and privates.—a. To every veterinary

station detachment commanded by veterinary officer, there will be assigned at least

four enlisted men of the Medical Department (Veterinary Service) of the grades of

private, first class, and private when the animal strength is 200, and one additional

private, first class, or private for every additional 75 animals.

h. The foregoing allowances are prescribed only when veterinary hospital service

is maintained at the station. If as routine procedure, the sick animals are sent to

hospital at another station, the allowance of enlisted men authorized in this paragraph

should be reduced to the actual requirements of the command.

c. The strength of veterinary detachments at administrative offices, depots, offices

of attending veterinarians, laboratories, etc., where the special requirements of the veterinary service are not directly contingent upon the animal strength, and at all independent stations, will be determined in each case by The Surgeon General under the direction

of the War Department.

Prior to tlie war, veterinary men were enlisted in the grade of private,

with chances of promotion to private, first class, and then to corporal, on

the authorization of the various veterinary detachment or unit commanders.

Privates and privates, first class, according to their length of service and

degree of proficiency in prescribed MOS, also were given specialist ratings

which carried with them certain pay emoluments. Beyond the grade of

corporal, the veterinary enlisted men were advanced through the successive

noncommissioned officer grades of sergeant, staff sergeant, and then technical

and master sergeants. These higher grades were attained by examination

and grant of permanent warrant by The Surgeon General. As of November 1941, permanent warrants were held by 17 as master sergeants, 38 as

technical sergeants, and 34 as staff sergeants in the Army Veterinary Service. In the meantime, permanent promotions had been stopped (after 30

June 1941) and, in lieu thereof, the noncommissioned officers were being

promoted under temporary warrants to meet the needs of the rapidly expanding Army; these were granted to master sergeants, 17 technical

sergeants, and 74 staff sergeants during the fiscal year ending 30 June 1941.

Between 19 December 1941 and June 1942, the peacetime specialist

rating system for privates and privates, first class, was replaced. Technical enlisted personnel were appointed and promoted into the new technician grades of T/3 (technician, third grade), T/4 (technician, fourth grade),

and T/5 (technician, fifth grade). Their pay and allowances were comparable to those of staff sergeant, sergeant, and corporal, respectively.

Privates and privates, first class, having special ratings were integrated

into the new technician grades, as follows:

1. Enlisted men with first, second, or third class specialist ratings and

privates, first class, with first, second, or third class specialist ratings were

redesignated as technicians, fourth grade,

2. Privates with third or fourth class specialist ratings and privates,

first class, with fourth class specialist ratings were redesignated as technicians, fifth grade.
PERSONNEL 79

3. The fifth and sixth class specialist ratings were abolished.

At about the time that the peacetime specialist rating system was discontinued, the Army was well on its way to develop and utilize system of

classifying the large numbers of incoming selective service personnel who

were to comprise the bulk of the wartime Army of the United States.

Classification by their occupational skill (in contrast to classification by

physical capacity and by intellectual capacity) now became very important

to mobilization. Incoming selectees necessarily had to be promptly and

properly assigned to specific military jobs on the basis of their having been

trained or of their being experienced in some related occupation in civilian

life. By December 1941, the Army was describing military occupations,

such as horseshoer, meat or dairy inspector, veterinary surgical technician, and veterinary technician, which could be satisfied by assigning selectees who

had been in such occupations in civilian life. However, no selectee had the

civilian prerequisites for assignment in the Army as forage inspector,

medical laboratory technician, veterinary ambulance orderly, veterinary noncommissioned officer, or veterinary pharmacy technician. For such assignment, the inducted personnel generally were required to have some military

training and particularly to have prior civilian experience, such as blacksmith, barn boss, chemist, laboratory assistant, pharmacist, stable man, or

preprofessional student. Every kind of occupation or job in the Army

was described, each with code number or SSN (specification serial number), but only those characteristic of the technical personnel who came

into the Army Veterinary Service are referred to in this discussion.

This occupational classification began on induction and was continuous

throughout the military service of the enlisted men. In this procedure, the

identity of the men as belonging to the Medical Department (Veterinary

Service) was soon lost. The newly inducted men, after interviews at reception centers, were classified and given SSN’s most closely corresponding to

their major civilian occupations or skills. These men were then sent, according to their SSN, to units and replacement training centers. There they

were given basic military training, and those seemingly best fitted for assignment to the Army Veterinary Service were given basic veterinary technical

training; others were sent to Medical Department enlisted technicians schools.

In the preliminary procedures, the enlisted men were referred to as potentials, eventually to qualify, by further military training or military experience in an assignment, in one of the seven MOS’s. In July 1944, major

revisions in the Army classification system saw this number of so-called

veterinary occupational specialties reduced to three: meat or dairy inspectors,

veterinary technician, and veterinary ambulance orderly.

The continual review of occupational classifications of enlisted personnel,

whenever they were reassigned, led to the loss of many enlisted men who had

become particularly valuable to the Army Veterinary Service. This loss

occurred in the replacement depots and reassignment centers, where by mere
80 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

change of SSN’s, the enlisted personnel were diverted into occupational

assignments totally foreign to their civilian and/or past military occupations. Ordinarily, the enlisted personnel having particular SSN were held

in these depots and centers pending the latter’s receipt of requisition from

unit needing such specialists, but, under conditions of confusion, high

priorities, and military exigencies, the personnel were reclassified into SSN’s

to immediately satisfy the personnel requisitions which had been submitted.

The losses of qualified personnel by these actions were further aggravated

when, at later date, the depots and centers necessarily had to reclassify

another group of personnel in order to meet newer requisition demands for

the kind of personnel it had originally reclassified out of that SSN. The

Army Veterinary Service overseas too often had to accept untrained, unqualified personnel. This practice became so commonplace, and there were

so many complaints about it, particularly from oversea theaters, that Headquarters, Army Service Forces, in January 1945 directed that Medical

Department enlisted personnel would not be diverted from medical services

or utilized in any position which could be filled by non-Medical Department personnel.

References

1. Public Law 18, 76th Congress, 1st Session, approved Apr. 1939.

2. Annual Report of the Surgeon General, U.S. Army. Washington: U.S. Government

Printing Office, 1940.

3. Radiogram, The Adjutant General’s Office, to corps area commanders, 13 July 1939.

4. Letter, Executive Officer, Surgeon General’s Office, to The Adjutant General, 14

May 1941, subject: Special Mobilization Procedures for Procurement of Medical Department Officers Who Are Students in Approved Medical Schools, with 1st indorsement

thereto, 23 May 1941.

5. Annual Report of the Surgeon General, U.S. Army. Washington; U.S. Government

Printing Office, 1941.

6. Letter, Chief, Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office, to 17 recent graduates

holding appointments as MAC officers, 11 June 1941.

7. Letter, Acting The Adjutant General, to corps area commanders and The Surgeon

General, Mar. 1942, subject: Medical Reserve Officers Holding Key Civilian Positions.

8. Letter, The Adjutant General, to corps area commanders, 18 Mar. 1942, subject:

Availability of Reserve Officers for Active Duty.

9. Radiogram, The Adjutant General, to corps area commanders, May 1941.

10. Letter, The Adjutant General, to army and corps area commanders, 20 June 1941,

subject: Appointment in the Dental and Veterinary Corps Reserve of Inducted Veterinarians.

11. Memorandum, National Headquarters, Selective Service System, to State directors,

12 May 1941, subject: Occupational Deferment of Veterinary Doctors and Veterinary

Students.

12. Memorandum, National Headquarters, Selective Service System, to State directors,

28 Jan. 1942, subject: Occupational Deferments of Medical Doctors, Dentists, and Doctors

of Veterinary Medicine.

13. Memorandum, National Headquarters, Selective Service System, to State directors, 28 Jan. 1942, subject; Occupational Deferments of Medical Doctors, Dentists, and

Doctors of Veterinary Medicine, amended 28 Apr. 1942. Reprinted, J. Am. Vet. M. A.

100: 525-527, June 1942.
PERSONNEL 81

14. Memorandum 76, Procurement and Assignment Service, to State Chairmen of

Preparedness Committees, 20 May 1942. Reprinted, J. Am. Vet. M. A. 101: 78-79, July

1942.

15. Letter, The Surgeon General, to The Adjutant General, 18 Feb. 1941, subject:

Commissioning of Junior and Senior Students in the Medical Department Reserve Corps,

with 1st indorsement thereto, 18 Mar. 1941.

16. War Department Memorandum No. W150-3-4, Feb. 1943, subject: Discontinuance of Appointments in Medical Administrative Corps of Accepted Matriculants in

Medical, Dental, and Veterinary Schools and Disposition of Those Officers Previously

Appointed as Such. As amended by Changes 1, 18 Feb. 1943, and Changes 2, 25 July 1943.

17. War Department Circular No. 179, May 1944, subject: Medical Administrative Corps.

18. Immediate action letters, The Adjutant General’s Office, to service commands, 20

May 1943, subject: ASTP Negotiation Directives for Veterinary Medicine Training.

19. Annual Report of the Surgeon General, U.S. Army. Washington; U.S. Government Printing Office, 1939.

20. Letter, The Adjutant General’s Office, to The Surgeon General, 13 Feb. 1940, subject Additional Officers Required if Regular Army is Increased From Enlisted Strength

of 227,000 to 280,000.

21. Letter, The Adjutant General’s Office, to The Surgeon General, 31 May 1940,

subject: Active Duty of Reserve Officers Incident to Increase of Regular Army,

22. Public Law 667, 76th Congress, 3d Session, approved 26 June 1940.

23. Letter, The Adjutant General’s Office, to corps area commanders, Oct. 1940,

subject: Additional Reserve Officers for Extended Active Duty With Corps Area Service

Commands.

24. Letter, The Adjutant General’s Office, to corps area commanders, 25 Nov. 1940,

subject: Additional Reserve Officers for Active Duty With Regular Army.

25. Letter, The Adjutant General’s Office, to corps area commanders, 20 Nov. 1940,

subject: Allotment of Medical Reserve Officers.

26. Annual Report, Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office, U.S. Army, 1942.

27. Letter, The Adjutant General’s Office, to corps area commanders and The Surgeon

General, 17 Apr. 1942, subject: Commissions for Dental and Veterinary Students.

28. Letter, The Adjutant General’s Office, to The Surgeon General, 19 Nov. 1942,

subject: Amendment to Procurement Objective, Army of the United States, for Duty

With the Veterinary Corps (Surgeon General).

29. Letter, The Adjutant General’s Office, to The Surgeon General, 24 Nov, 1942,

subject: Increase in Procurement Objective, Army of the United States, for The Surgeon

General (Veterinary Corps).

30. Memorandum, Assistant Chief of Staff, for Military Personnel Division, Army

Service Forces, 15 Sept. 1943, subject: Requirements for Veterinarians.

31. Memorandum, Director, Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office, for Military Personnel Division, Surgeon General’s Office, 20 Sept. 1943.

32. Letter, The Adjutant General’s Office, to Headquarters, Army Service Forces,

18 Oct. 1943, subject: Cancellation of Procurement Objectives.

33. Letter, Surgeon General’s Office, to Assistant Chief of Staff, G-l, 13 Jan. 1945,

subject: Establishment of Ceiling for Veterinary Corps Officers.

34. Letter of reply, The Adjutant General’s Office, to The Surgeon General, 14

Apr. 1945.

35. Letter, The Adjutant General, to The Surgeon General, 17 May 1945, subject:

Procurement Objective for Appointment in Army of the United States (Veterinary Corps).

36. Letter, Adjutant General’s Office, to The Surgeon General, 13 July 1945, subject:

Establishment of Ceiling for Veterinary Corps Officers.
82 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

37. Letter, Adjutant General’s Office, to all concerned, Sept. 1945, subject: Cancellation of Procurement Objective.

38. AR 40-2035, 18 Dec. 1942.

39. Letter, The Adjutant General, to Chief, Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s

Office, 17 Mar. 1942, subject: Appointment as Brigadier General.

40. Letter, The Adjutant General, to The Surgeon General, 10 Sept. 1940, subject:

Temporary Promotion of Regular Army First and Second Lieutenants.

41. Memorandum, Chief, Veterinary Division, for Chief, Military Personnel Division,

Surgeon General’s Office, 16 Dec. 1940.

42. Letter, Acting The Adjutant General, to chiefs of arms and services, and corps

area and department commanders, 25 Aug. 1941, subject: Temporary Promotion of Regular Army Officers.

43. Monthly Resume of Activities of the Veterinary Division.

44. War Department Circular No. 1, Jan. 1942.

45. Letter, The Adjutant General, to Representative C. B. Hoeven, M.C., 30 Oct. 1943.

46. War Department Circular No. 10, 11 Jan. 1946.

47. War Department Circular No. 140, 15 May 1946.

48. TM 27-251, Jan. 1944.

49. War Department Memorandum No. W310-44, 23 Feb. 1944, subject: Policy Governing Armament for Table of Organization and Equipment, Service Units.

50. Semiannual Report, Veterinary Division, Office of the Chief Surgeon, Headquarters, ETOUSA, 1945.

51. General Orders No. 11, Headquarters, U.S. Army Forces in the Far East, 18 Jan.

1942, subject: Awards of Distinguished Service Cross.

52. War Department General Orders No. 4, Jan. 1946.
83

CHAPTER

Training and Instructional Services

The expansion of the Army Veterinary Service, during World War II,

to its peak strength of 2,116 officers and to three to four times that number of enlisted personnel suffices to indicate the magnitude of training.

The majority of these personnel required some degree of training—perhaps

only indoctrination—in basic military and technical subjects which would

qualify them for assignment to duty in an Army occupational specialty.

Almost without exception, there were no military position vacancies which

could be satisfied merely by placing uniforms on civilian veterinarians. This

procedure had been tried in World War when the Veterinary Corps was

constituted and organized, but the results were unsatisfactory. At that time, the untrained military veterinarian had failed to impress his field commander with professional recommendations and opinions on the conservation of animal health and efficiency.

In contrast, the onset of World War II found the Army Veterinary

Service to be well advanced in its state of training. This had been made

possible by the continuation of the Veterinary Corps and the Medical Department program for training veterinary personnel during the peacetime period.

Thus, by 1940, nearly all of its regular officers had completed the annual twophase course of military indoctrination, lasting months, at the Medical

Field Service School, Carlisle Barracks, Pa., and at the Army Veterinary

School, xirmy Medical Center, Washington, D.C.; many such officers also had

entered into postgraduate professional education or into advanced military

training courses.

In addition, the Veterinary Reserve Corps officers who were being

ordered into active military service in 1939-40 included many officers, who

had completed their professional education in the civilian veterinary colleges

and educational institutions which had Reserve Officers’ Training Corps units,

or who had seen active service, during the 1930’s, with the Civilian Conservation Corps under Regular Army administration and supervision. These, and

greater number of other Reserve Corps officers, also had been prepared for

military service by their entry in the peacetime correspondence or extension

courses which were conducted by the Medical Field Service School and in

the weeks’ duty training at summer training camps. There was also the

relatively small group of veterinary officers with the National Guard units

who had trained in the armories and in summer encampments. Altogether,

the active and reserve veterinary components of the Army of the United

States comprised satisfactorily trained cadre about which the Veterinary

Service of World War II developed into an efficient operational organization.
84 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

During World War II, the urgent requirements for large numbers of

specially qualified individuals were met by modifying or converting the mili- tary training courses that were operated by and for the Regular Army in peacetime and by establishing new ones. Naturally, these wartime courses

were considerably shorter in duration. They were conducted formally in the Zone of Interior at service schools, replacement pools, and training centers,

at certain military installations, and in some few civil educational institutions. The wartime courses generally were “refresher” in nature as they

pertained to basic military or technical subjects, but others were at the level

of postgraduate professional or advanced military training. Between July 1940 and June 1945, 1,898 veterinary officers and 4,256 enlisted personnel

completed such courses.

However complete and extensive as these training courses in the schools

and centers in the Zone of Interior may appear, they did not change the basic

military concept that the state of training was command responsibility.

The Army camp commander, commanding officer of unit, or oversea commander—particularly the station veterinarian, senior officer of veterinary

unit, or theater veterinarian—was actually responsible for properly training,

or having trained, all of the organically assigned veterinary personnel of

that detachment, unit, or command. The Surgeon General had no such responsibility, acting only as adviser and elucidating basic Medical Department

doctrine, primarily at the level of schools and training centers (i). Thus,

pursuant to the Army regulations in effect during World War II—originally

promulgated during the 1920’s—Army Veterinary Service generally was

responsible for training its own personnel, and this concept at the Army

camp level was expressed in the following words (£, 3).

8. Control of veterinary personnel.—As detachment commander, the station veterinarian will be responsible that all veterinary officers are properly instructed with regard

to their professional and military duties and responsibilities, and for the instruction, training of all enlisted men, Medical Department (veterinary service), who

may be assigned to the station *.

9. Instruction and training of veterinary personnel.—All enlisted men of the Medical

Department (veterinary service) will be instructed under the supervision of the station

veterinarian in the methods of rendering first aid to sick and wounded animals, in the

care, management, and hygiene of animals, and the various subjects pertaining to the

veterinary enlisted man.

This veterinary responsibility was not removed from the Army camp or

unit level, but its significance generally escapes attention because World War

II saw increasing emphasis on training personnel at schools and training

centers prior to their assignment to the units or station detachments. In

other words, the Army camp or unit veterinarian, at the beginning of the

war, almost alone had the all-important responsibility for training the individual, and only such personnel as could be spared were detailed to the service

schools for additional training. New station detachments and veterinary

units were developed by ordering cadres of trained personnel from existing
TRAINING 85

ones and by such cadres then training the new, additional personnel (that is,

selectees) who were being ordered into the detachments and units directly

from the reception centers. This was the cadre training system; it contrasted

with the preactivation training which came into existence later in the war

period.

This cadre system involved the movement of new personnel from the

reception centers into training centers and schools in sufficient number to

form certain planned units and detachments. Thereby, the recipient unit or

camp was relieved of much of its responsibilities for operating training

schedules on basic military and technical subjects, and at the same time this

preactivation training assured certain known level of individual training

in all detachments and units. However, the preactivation system singularly

favored the new organizations because existent ones could no longer slough

off their undesirable personnel into cadres.

Another advantage was that the preactivation training overcame the

objections which were voiced against the stripping of personnel from units

in training and operational detachments to attend the training schools, thus

delaying the training of the unit as whole. Actually, preactivation training was not in operation during the early part of World War II when

great number of new veterinary units and detachments were brought into

existence—for the reason that the output from formal training schools and

centers was not yet adequate to meet the numerical demands for trained personnel in the great numbers of new units then being formed. On the other

hand, somewhat similar results were being obtained because, beginning in

November 1940, great numbers of veterinary officers on being ordered to

active duty were sent to the Meat and Dairy Hygiene Course, Chicago Quar- termaster Depot, Chicago, 111., while en route to initial assignment; others

were initially ordered for processing and reassignment training at officers’

replacement pools which were established at depots, ports, and medical installations after January 1942.

The training of the individual veterinary officers and enlisted personnel

did not stop after their completion of the school courses; it was continuous

throughout their military service. Frequently, the training of individuals

within units and detachments was applicatory in nature, on-the-job training.

Also, they were trained to function together as team—this being referred

to as small unit training. Such training was extended to approximately 85

veterinary hospital, company, troop, and detachment (or cellular team) units

which were activated and organized in the Zone of Interior for oversea

deployment. These units, following completion of their unit training programs, were frequently advanced in their training by ordered movement into

maneuver areas with army corps and field armies. At their representative

table of organization strength, these veterinary units aggregated more than

2,000 personnel. The veterinary officers and enlisted personnel who were

organically assigned to the combat divisions, Army Ground Force units other
86 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

than divisional, Medical Department laboratories and hospitals, Quartermas- ter Corps refrigeration companies, Signal Corps pigeon companies, and ArmyAir Force commands were similarly trained.

TRAINING VETERINARY OFFICERS

During World War II, the training of Veterinary Corps officers was

part of the Medical Department training system. Several refresher-type and

short courses on postgraduate professional subjects were conducted at the

Army Veterinary School; their training for field service was conducted in

parallel with that of Medical and Dental Corps officers at the Medical Field

Service School, Carlisle Barracks, Pa. The veterinary officers’ course in meat

and dairy hygiene, established and maintained on request of The Surgeon

General, though sanctioned as Quartermaster Corps activity, was actually

regulated by and for Medical Department veterinary personnel.

Veterinary officers were also detailed as students for further training in

non-Medical Department service schools and civilian educational institutions

which better adapted such officers for military assignments of more general

nature—such as defense in chemical warfare, medical supply procurement,

foreign language, or duty with military government in liberated and occupied

countries. Generally, this training was conducted under the jurisdiction of

the wartime Army Service Forces organization of the War Department in

the Zone of Interior, but it was made equally applicable to the veterinary

personnel assigned to the Army Ground Forces and Army Air Forces. Overall, this entire program of training was purposefully established and maintained for the fitting-in of Veterinary Corps officers as integral members of

the medical team in the Army formation.

Army Veterinary School

The Army Veterinary School, in operation since the early 1920’s, was at

the onset of the pre-World War II emergency period conducting its 23d (and

final), shortened session (15 September to 30 November 1939) of the Basic

Graduate Course for five newly commissioned veterinary officers, Regular

Army. Following the completion of the session of this course, the Army

Veterinary School —so far as veterinary officer training was concerned—instituted two wartime courses; namely, the Refresher Course in the Forage

Inspection and the Special Graduate Course in Clinical Pathology (later

replaced by the Refresher Laboratory Training Course). The graduates

from these courses numbered 112 veterinary officers during the period from

January 1940 through December 1946. The aforementioned courses were

continued throughout World War II. The Army Veterinary School conducted these courses of training within the organization of the Medical

Department Professional Service Schools, Army Medical Center.

The mission of the Army Veterinary School, as set forth in AR 350-

1021, included the operation of training courses, the conduct of research and
TRAINING 87

maintenance of veterinary laboratory, and the production of certain biologicals. This mission closely paralleled the missions which were assigned

to the other school elements of the Medical Department Professional Service Schools, The school’s staff, during the war, increased from nominal peacetime strength of to veterinary officers to officers as of 30 June 1945;

at this time, there were also 23 enlisted technicians and 10 civilian employees.

These personnel for the most part were not engaged in the conduct of training, however, as they were used in the laboratory and research section of the

Army Veterinary School organization. Within the training or school section

of the Army Veterinary School there were academic departments—five for

the officers’ course and another two for the enlisted men’s course.

The National Guard officers’ course, or the part of the original basic

Graduate Course relating to forage inspection, was continued during World

War II as the 1-month Refresher Course in Forage Inspection, for veterinary

officers only, regardless of whether they belonged to the Regular Army,

National Guard, or Reserve Corps. It was inaugurated under letter of

authorization from the War Department, dated 31 July 1940, whereby wartime refresher and special graduate courses could be established by The Surgeon General (J, 5, 6). The course was temporarily suspended in June 1942,

but, at the request of the Surgeon General’s Office, it was reestablished by

Headquarters, Army Service Forces, beginning again on March 1943.

Until V-J Day, after which time this course was set aside in nonoperational

status, the Refresher Course in Forage Inspection was conducted 21 times,

its graduates totaling 66 veterinary officers.

The section of the Refresher Course in Forage Inspection, relating to the

grading of hay in accordance with U.S, standards, was actually conducted by

personnel of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (at cost to the Army) pursuant to an agreement which had been reached between that agency and the

Army in 1925. The agreement provided that veterinary officers successfully

completing such instructions would be licensed each year by the Secretary of

Agriculture as official Federal hay inspectors. In practice, the inspection

of the Army’s supply of hay by Veterinary Corps officers was conducted on

professional basis, and this inspection had gained degree of statutory

recognition.

The other wartime course for veterinary officers, the Special Graduate

Course in Clinical Pathology, established by the Army Veterinary School,

followed recommendations which were made by the Veterinary Division,

Surgeon General’s Office, during June 1940. This course was inaugurated

few months later. Designed as refresher or preparatory course to train

veterinary officers who were being assigned to veterinary laboratory activities

and Medical Department laboratory units, it included 454 hours of applicatory study and instruction in bacteriology, parasitology, serology, and food

chemistry (7). Although conducted several times as regularly scheduled

4-month course, the urgent wartime need for such officers and the use of it
88 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

in the local veterinary officers’ replacement pool soon saw the course scheduled

whenever veterinary officers reported for training. This special graduate

training course was restarted after V-J Day when it was renamed the

Refresher Laboratory Training Course. By the end of 1946, 46 veterinary

officers had completed this training course.

Medical Field Service School

Although the officers’ courses at the Army Veterinary School were conducted only for Veterinary Corps officers—in the same manner as Medical Corps officers were trained at the Army Medical School and Dental Corps

officers at the Army Dental School—the officers’ course at the Medical Field

Service School at Carlisle Barracks, Pa., was generally open to Medical

Department officers of the three professional corps; that is, medical, dental,

and veterinary officers were given parallel training in medical field service.

During peacetime, these Medical Department officers, on gaining Regular

Army commissions, were routinely entered into training and indoctrination

course lasting months—4 months at the respective professional service

schools, and then they were grouped together for the 5-month course at the

Medical Field Service School. The latter was the so-called Basic Officers’

Course. With the approach of World War II, the course was modified in

length to shorter one, and sessions were scheduled in rapid succession for

the training of new Regular Army officers.

The special Basic Officers’ Course was further modified in December 1940

and converted into the wartime Refresher Officers’ Course which was continued through World War II. Shortly after World War II, the Carlisle Barracks training facility was discontinued, and the Medical Field Service School

was concurrently established at the new Brooke Army Medical Center, Fort

Sam Houston, Tex. During the years 1940-46, total of 683 veterinary officers had completed training in medical field service.

This training of veterinary officers at the Medical Field Service School

was integral to the school’s assigned missions which included the training of

Medical Department officers in the principles and methods of medical field

service so as to increase their ability as instructors and to enhance their proficiency in the performance of their command and staff duties. To accomplish this training mission, the school was divided into several academic

departments. The Department of Veterinary Field Service was first recognized by AR 350-1030, September 1942. The veterinary representative or

department was scheduled to provide certain instructional services not only

in the Advanced and Basic Officers’ Courses but also in variety of other

courses such as the Medical and Field Sanitary Inspectors’ and the Officer

Candidate Courses that came into existence during World War II.

The wartime Refresher Officers’ Course in field service for medical, dental, and veterinary officers was conducted 73 times; its veterinary student
TRAINING 89

output totaled 677 officers. In contrast with the 5-month peacetime course

which it had replaced, the wartime course was originally scheduled for

weeks, but this was later revised to or weeks. Each session included comprehensive and intensive study in variety of subjects which would qualify younger Medical Department officers of the wartime Army of the

United States to better understand and apply the principles of military medicine and to conserve the health of the Army. The instructional services

within the course that were rendered by the veterinary academic department were gradually increased from hour in 1940 to hours in 1945. Sessions having five or more veterinary officer students saw the withdrawal of some

of the students from certain parts of the general course to be given specialized training in veterinary field service. Such training originally comprised 15 hours of so-called substitute instruction, but this was gradually increased

to total of 53 hours by 1943. At this time, the topical subjects included

veterinary administration, the organization of the veterinary service in task

forces and theaters of operations, the care and transportation of animals,

pack animal transport, Army dogs, diseases of animals, veterinary preventive

medicine and public health, and the inspection and care of subsistence in

field storage.

The attendance of the 677 veterinary officers in the Refresher Officers’

Course on medical field service during the war actually led to the criticism

that insufficient numbers were being so trained. The Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office, sought to remedy this by originally emphasizing the

detail of veterinary officers to the course from the tactical units and commands. Unfortunately, the field army or command surgeons—though generally in agreement with the program of training—voiced opinions that the

individual veterinary officers who were under their jurisdiction were then too

few in number to be spared from their units which, at that time, were entering into field maneuvers. The corps areas, later renamed service commands,

were also requested to send their assigned veterinary officers to the Medical

Field Service School for training, but this seemed to have no material effect

on increasing veterinary officer enrollment. Later, the Veterinary Division,

Surgeon General’s Office, augmented its request to the service command veterinarians in the Zone of Interior by adding as prerequisite to the training

of officers in military meat and dairy hygiene the prior completion of the

Refresher Officers’ Course in field service. In 1943, the service command

veterinarians were even advised that unless they sent greater numbers of their

assigned personnel to the Medical Field Service School, the Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office, would have to withdraw veterinary activities

there.

Meat and Dairy Hygiene Course

Officially, there was no Medical Department Meat and Dairy Hygiene

School until after the end of World War II; there was, however, throughout
90 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

the war period, the official Meat and Dairy Hygiene Course for veterinary

officers that was conducted at the Chicago Quartermaster Depot (5, 9). This

course of specialist technical training found its beginning in the establishment, by The Surgeon General, of several refresher and special graduate

courses for Medical Department personnel such as were contemplated in the

current Army mobilization regulations {4, 6). Although the greater number of the wartime courses (not excluding the aforementioned Refresher

Course in Forage Inspection, Special Graduate Course in Clinical Pathology,

and Refresher Officers’ Course) were set up within hospital and school facilities of the Medical Department, short courses for training 20 or more Veterinary Reserve Corps officers (who were being ordered into active military

service) as meat and dairy inspectors were inaugurated in mid-1940 at three

quartermaster depots and one port of embarkation.

At this time, the operation of school-type course became subject of

discussion between the Depot Veterinarian, Chicago Quartermaster Depot,

and the Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office. On November 1940, the Veterinary Division obtained approval from the Office of the Quarter- master General to conduct short courses for training veterinary officers under

the supervision of the depot veterinarian and to obtain classroom space

within the depot. No reference was then made to school, because the conduct of wartime course was paramount; the new Meat and Dairy Hygiene

Course was convened in its first session, beginning 25 November 1940, with

an enrollment of 17 Veterinary Corps officers. While some consideration had

been given for training veterinary enlisted personnel in Chicago, the enlisted

men’s Meat and Dairy Hygiene Course was not added to the veterinary training facility at the Chicago Quartermaster Depot until the fall-winter of 1945.

Through 1946, the Meat and Dairy Hygiene Course was conducted 52 times,

with its graduates totaling 1,038 veterinary officers as follows:

Calendar year Number

1940 17

1941 169

1942 191

1943 194

1944 188

1945 165

1946 114

This number included more than hundred officers originally assigned to the

Army Air Forces; others so trained were later reassigned to the Army Air

Forces, also to the Army Ground Forces.

The training facility which conducted this course came to be regarded as

Quartermaster Corps activity under the control of The Quartermaster General. Its instructional staff of Veterinary Corps officers, usually three in

number, were actually depot-assigned personnel, including one who was designated as director and was responsible to the Depot Veterinarian, Chicago

Quartermaster Depot, for the operation of the course. Their assignments,
TRAINING 91

however, were regulated by the Surgeon General’s Office which also maintained control over the training doctrine.

Table 12.—Representative programs for veterinary officers’ Meat and Dairy Hygiene Course, Chicago Quartermaster Depot, Chicago, III.

The veterinary officers’ Meat and Dairy Hygiene Course was originally

scheduled as 4-week course, including 166 hours of lectures and demonstrations. Gradually, the course subjects changed, and new ones were added

to better qualify its veterinary officer graduates to inspect the Army’s food

supply which also changed; thus, additional training was provided in dehydrated products such as dried eggs and milk powder, in field rations, and in

boneless beef. By mid-1943, the course scheduled 2l7y hours of technical

instruction and, in the fall of 1943, Headquarters, Army Service Forces,

added several hours of concurrent basic military training and physical conditioning. During June 1944, 51/2-week program was scheduled and officially approved by the Military Training Division, Army Service Forces.

The 264 hours of training that were now scheduled included 50 hours on

veterinary administration and miscellaneous matters, 165 hours of technical

and professional subjects, and 49 hours on military training and physical

conditioning (table 12), There ere no major changes in the course program

for the remainder of the war period.

In 1946, War Department Pamphlet No. 20-21 concerning official courses of training in Army

schools made reference to the “Meat and Dairy Hygiene School, Chicago Quartermaster Depot,

Chicago, Illinois,” but reference to the training facility officially as school was not made until

1952, when War Department General Orders No. 80 changed the “Army Medical Service Meat and

Dairy Hygiene School” from an activity under the control of The Quartermaster General to one

under the control of The Surgeon General.-—E. B. M.

590248 —61

Programs 514-wcek course 8-week course

Veterinary administration Hours

28

Hours

38 Fresh meats 31 41 Sausage 11

Cured and smoked meats __ 10 13

Canned meats and Army rations 16 13

Fats and oils. __

Fish and seafoods.

Poultry and eggs 35 42

Milk and dairy products 38 49

Inspection procedures 12 22

Establishment inspection

Refrigeration and warehousing 10

Food poisoning and microbiology

Basic military training or troop information, and physical conditioning. 49 32

Examinations and reviews 10

Commandant’s time 12 16

Total ___264 320
92 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Graduate Professional Training in Civilian Educational Institutions

Though the war saw many-fold increase in the refresher and shortperiod professional training for Veterinary Corps officers within the Medical

Department service school system, the postgraduate or advanced professional

training in civilian educational institutions (at Government expense) was

more or less suspended so far as veterinary officers were concerned. In fact,

during the academic year of 1940-41, only one officer attended the advanced

course in animal breeding that was given at the University of Kentucky,

Louisville, Ky., and it was not until 1946 that veterinary officers resumed

this training in educational institutions.

Advanced Military Training

Advanced and specialist military training, as distinguished from professional or technical training in Medical Department schools and civilian universities, was given to 105 veterinary officers in variety of Army service

schools, including the Army Industrial College, and in schools maintained at

civilian institutions. In the fall of 1941, two veterinary officers were in attendance at two successive sessions of 3-month course of training on the

mobilization of civilian industry and the procurement of military supplies at

the Army Industrial College, Washington, D.C. Also, after lapse of 13

years, including the entire active war period, the War Department reestablished quota for veterinary officers to enter into the Command and General

Staff School, Fort Leavenworth, Kans. Though the Surgeon General’s Office,

then encountering an extreme shortage of Veterinary Corps officers, did not

favorably review the detail of veterinary officers as students to the school,

one veterinary officer attended course during 1946.

Among the special service schools, outside of the Medical Department,

to which veterinary officers were most frequently detailed as students was the

Chemical Warfare School, Edgewood Arsenal, Md. During the academic

year of 1940, an officer attended that school’s T-week Basic Officer’s Course

for Chemical Warfare Service officers. In 1942, on request of the Surgeon

General’s Office, the Chief of the Chemical Warfare Service cooperated in

establishing short course at the school for training on the medical aspects

of chemical warfare. When the War Department, on August 1942, announced the establishment of this course, reference was made only to the

detail there of Medical Corps officer students. However, the Veterinary

Division, Surgeon General’s Office, argued the need for similar training for

Veterinary Corps officers, so that Headquarters, Services of Supply, on

October 1942, authorized changes in the Medical Corps Officers’ Course,

Chemical Warfare School, to include the training of veterinary officers.

Eventually, the course title was amended to Medical Department Officers’

Course. Veterinary officers attended 19 of the 29 sessions of this course that
TRAINING 93

were conducted, with the number completing it totaling 62 personnel, as

follows:

Programed originally as 4-week course, the Medical Department Officers’ Course at the Chemical Warfare School was reduced to one of weeks’

duration beginning in May 1943. Prior to entry into this course, the concerned medical and veterinary officers were required to have successfully

completed the Refresher Officers’ Course at the Medical Field Service School.

(It may be noted that the latter course included some training on the medical aspects of chemical warfare during the time that the Medical Department course at the Chemical Warfare School was nonoperational.) The Medical

Department Officers’ Course included instruction, by Veterinary Corps officer

instructors, on the protection, care, and decontamination of foods and of ani- mals in the event of chemical attack; these subjects were given in more detail

to the veterinary officer students in 15 to 24 hours of substitute instruction

which was scheduled for all sessions having such students. As sufficient

number of Medical Department personnel had become specially qualified to

meet the potential medical exigencies of chemical warfare and as the enemy

use of this type of specialized warfare was then improbable, the course was

discontinued in the winter of 1944-45.

In the program of training personnel for civil affairs and military government assignments in liberated and occupied countries, 13 veterinary officers

were sent to the School of Military Government that was established in May

1942 at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va., and was operated

under the command of the Provost Marshal General; another two officers

were entered into 4-week training course at the Provost Marshal General’s

School at Fort Custer, Mich. From these service schools, the student officers

were advanced in their preparation for future assignment by detail for 12

weeks’ training in the Civil Affairs Training Schools at civilian educational

institutions, including Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., and Yale University, New Haven, Conn. Eleven of the veterinary officers attended the

latter schools, and another one attended the Naval School of Military Government which had been established at Princeton University, Princeton, N.J.

By the end of 1945, 19 veterinary officers had completed this training.

It is interesting to note that 12 veterinary officers (1 in 1944, 10 in 1945,

and in an unknown year) attended the Army Chinese Language School

which was operated at the University of California, Berkeley, Calif. Personnel with this training were urgently needed in the Army Veterinary Service

which instructed, and operated in liaison capacity with, the Allied-sponsored

and U.S.-trained Chinese military forces in China, Burma, and India. After

1942 Calendar year Number

1943 26

1944 22 Year not known
94 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

August 1945, the assignment of additional personnel in such training, lasting

from to months per course, was brought to halt.

Reserve Officers’ Training Corps

There were no veterinary ROTC (Reserve Officers’ Training Corps)

units in operation during World War II; however, mention should be made

of the training, as very substantial number of the Veterinary Corps Reserve

officers called to active duty during the war had been commissioned following

completion of ROTC training. Prior to June 1933, 453 ROTC graduates

had been commissioned in the Reserve. During 1920-21, veterinary ROTC

units established in four veterinary colleges, Kansas State Agricultural

College, Cornell University, Ohio State University, and Iowa State College

of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts. Enrollment in these units steadily

increased, reaching peak at about the time that the appropriations of 14

July 1932 prohibited training of student not enrolled prior to May 1932.

Training of students enrolled prior to that date was continued until the student graduated—the last enrollees graduated in 1935, and the units were

disbanded. It was not until 1948 that the restriction in the military appropriation acts was removed and ROTC veterinary units were established in

six veterinary colleges.

TRAINING VETERINARY ENLISTED PERSONNEL

After the fall of 1917 when enlisted personnel were authorized for the

Army Veterinary Service, their training as animal service technicians, meat

and dairy inspectors, and laboratory technicians was an important activity

within the Medical Department. In comparison to the training of more than

9,000 enlisted men in World War I, during World War II, such training was

conducted in eight separate Medical Department schools, replacement training centers, and other facilities in the Zone of Interior for 4,240 enlisted

personnel.

Beginning with the two sessions of the Army Veterinary School which

were started in September and December 1940, the School’s Veterinary Technicians Course was lengthened to months, with 22 personnel completing the

two sessions. The changes in the duration of the course and acceleration of

the course schedules were the first real progress made during the pre-Pearl

Harbor emergency periods in the development of the Medical Department

wartime training program for veterinary enlisted personnel. Effective in

March 1941, the responsibility for conducting this course was transferred

from the Army Veterinary School to the Medical Department Enlisted Technicians School which was then established as separate school within the

organization of the Medical Department Professional Schools, Army Medical

Center. second Enlisted Technicians School with comparable veterinary
TRAINING 95

training course was established at about the same time at William Beaumont

General Hospital, El Paso, Tex.

Replacement Training Centers

During the period that Medical Department school training was being converted and accelerated into wartime program, the training of enlisted men became involved in the procedures of receiving and processing those who,

pursuant to the Nation’s new draft laws (that is, the Selective Training and

Service Act of 1940), were being inducted into the Army. At first, the

selectees (then, at times, also called draftees), as well as volunteer recruits

or enlistees, were assigned to Regular Army and recently federalized National

Guard units for their basic training. By mid-1941, these personnel were

being processed instead through reception centers, and from there they were

moved into replacement training centers.

At these training centers—one or more in number for each combat arm

and service branch—all selectees and recruits were given basic military training and basic technical training prior to their assignment to the new units

which were being organized or to units as replacement personnel. Several

such centers were expressly established as medical replacement training centers and later, on 15 April 1944, were renamed medical sections, Army Service

Forces training centers. However, in only one of these was veterinary replacement or basic technical training actually conducted at any one time. Originally, this was at the Medical Replacement Training Center, Camp Grant,

111., where the Veterinary Section of the Center was established in November

1941. During the summer-fall of 1944, this veterinary instructional group

and its equipment were transferred to new station as part of the Medical

Training Section, Army Service Forces Training Center, Fort Lewis, Wash.

Basic technical training of selectees for future assignment as veterinary

animal service technicians and meat and dairy hygienists was started at

Camp Grant on December 1941. Until the fall of 1944, selectees and recruits in this center who advanced from their initial basic military training

into the veterinary basic technical training course numbered 1,419; of this

number, 1,260 successfully completed their basic technical training in the

35 sessions of the veterinary course that were conducted. At Fort Lewis,

two more sessions of the veterinary basic technical training course were conducted during the winter of 1944—45; its enrollees who completed the training numbered 61. There was no further training of individuals in technical specialties for the Army Veterinary Service in the centers after

January 1945, and shortly after V-J Day, all technical training was stopped

in the Army Service Forces training centers.

The veterinary basic technical training, which was conducted at Camp

Grant and then at Fort Lewis, comprised only part of the whole program of training being given to the selectees and recruits coming into the

replacement centers. The selectees and recruits were given basic military
96 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

training, and, on completion of this training, those who had prior civilian

experience or education and otherwise seemed to be qualified for potential

assignment as veterinary animal service technicians or meat and dairy inspectors were entered into the veterinary basic technical course at the centers. These two courses together were referred to as comprising the mobilization training program.

Obviously, not all selectees who possessed prerequisites for assignment

to the Army Veterinary Service, even those who may have been particularly

well qualified, were advanced into veterinary basic technical training; also,

selectees who were not specially qualified were passed on at times into

veterinary basic technical training. In sense, the aforementioned situation

lends itself to some criticism of military wastages of civilian trained manpower, but the fact remains that the Selective Service procedures for inducting men in World War II did not assure the input of men having certain

civilian educational or occupational qualifications in such numbers and proportions as were needed, sometimes quite urgently, by the military services.

The whole mobilization training program varied between weeks and 17 weeks. Within the 17-week program which was prescribed by the War

Department in August 1943, there were weeks of basic military training;

weeks of technical, tactical, and logistical training; and weeks of field

training. Of course, the basic technical training period changed as the

length of the mobilization training program was changed.

The training center’s basic military trainees who were selected for

veterinary basic technical training and future assignment to the Army

Veterinary Service came under the jurisdiction of the veterinary instructional staff of the replacement training center. At Camp Grant, this instructional staff, averaging four veterinary officers, was referred to as comprising the Veterinary Technicians School, Medical Replacement Training

Center (fig. 1). The basic technical course lasted approximately weeks

and included 240 hours of instruction as follows:

Subject Hours

Administration 15

Anatomy and physiology 25

First aid 30

Animal management 15

Veterinary sanitation

Pharmacy

Horseshoeing

Supplies and equipment

Defense in chemical warfare

Field veterinary service 22

Army dogs

Horsemanship 12

Meat and dairy hygiene 77

Concurrent basic military training 26

Later, an 8-week course was developed.
TRAINING 97

Figure 1.—Trainingpotential meat and dairy hygienists in the inspection (or candling)

of individual shell eggs, at Veterinary Section, Medical Replacement Training Center, Camp Grant, 111.

This training program prepared the selectee for eventual assignment

either as veterinary technician (animal service) or as meat and dairy

inspector—each recognized as particular military occupational specialty

and having so-called SSN (specification serial number) of 250 and 120,

respectively. On completion of the training, the selectee was assigned one

SSN or the other according to his prior civilian experience and education,

his aptitude shown during the basic technical training which he had just

completed, and the existing requirements. Assignment or movement orders

then were issued by the Adjutant General’s Office for these trainees to proceed to units, to unit training centers, to Army camps in the Zone of Interior, or to ports for oversea shipment, or wherever requisitioned. Some

selectees were lost to officers’ candidate schools, and many others ere sent

to Medical Department enlisted technicians schools for further training.

During August 1944, the instructional staff at Camp Grant was transferred to reestablish veterinary basic technical training in the Medical

Training Section, Army Service Forces Training Center, Fort Lewis. At

this Center, the instructional staff experienced rapid turnover of its personnel, but two sessions of an 8-week replacement training course were

conducted, with 61 enlisted men completing it, before February 1945,

Refresher training courses also were conducted for 19 meat and dairy inspectors who were being assigned to medical hospital units. After February 1945, there was no basic technical training of men in replacement training centers for the Army Veterinary Service for the remainder of the war

period.
98 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Enlisted Technicians’ School for Army Air Forces Meat and Dairy Inspectors

During the war, the Camp Grant training center also conducted special program for training enlisted men in the Army Air Forces. Under the

terms of an agreement that was reached, on December 1942, between the

Army Service Forces which controlled this training center and the

Army Air Forces, the existent veterinary instructional staff of that medical

replacement training center was temporarily augmented to form new

Enlisted Technicians’ School for Army Air Forces Meat and Dairy Inspectors. Between the opening date and its closure, in August 1943, the Enlisted Technicians’ School for Army Air Forces Meat and Dairy Inspectors enrolled 1,147 enlisted students in an 8-week course which was conducted

seven times; of this number of students, 1,027 completed the course. The

course was entirely technical in nature-—being given only to Army Air

Forces selectees Avho had already completed course in basic military training—and included 384 hours of instruction in the following subjects:

Subject Hours

Dismounted drill 16

Physical training 24

Veterinary hygiene and sanitation 30

Veterinary anatomy 30

Veterinary bacteriology 22

Meat and dairy hygiene 170

Veterinary administration 46

Inspections and tests 14

Open time 32

Medical Department Enlisted Technicians Schools

In the discussion of training of veterinary enlisted personnel at Medical Department schools during World War II, reference is necessarily

made to the Course for Veterinary Technicians that was being conducted

in its peacetime 22d session (1 February to 31 May 1940) at the Army

Veterinary School. On July 1940, this course was shortened and, beginning in September, was rescheduled at 3-month intervals. The changeover to the wartime Course for Veterinary Technicians was initiated by the

Surgeon General’s Office. On 31 July 1940, this action was generally confirmed by War Department authorization for establishing any variety of

specialist courses suitable and needed for the training of Medical Department personnel in time of war. Pursuant to existing mobilization regulations of the Army which provided for the establishment of such courses in

existent service schools or hospitals where replacement center facilities were

not readily available (as they were not at the time), the Surgeon General’s

Office established such courses at the Army Medical Center and at 10 or

more general hospitals in the Zone of Interior. The original Course for

Veterinary Technicians was considered as one of such specialist courses.
TRAINING 99

Figure 2.—Training veterinary enlisted men in feeds and forage inspection in the

Course for Veterinary Technicians, Medical Department Enlisted Technicians School, Army

Medical Center, Washington, D.C., August 1943.

After the conduct of two shortened sessions, or the 23d and 24th sessions, the Course for Veterinary Technicians was transferred, during March 1941, from the operating responsibility of the Army Veterinary School to the

newly established Medical Department Enlisted Technicians School, Army

Medical Center (figs. and 3). During the same month, the newly opened

School for Medical Department Technicians, William Beaumont Genera]

Hospital, was requested by the Surgeon General’s Office to provide for the

operation, also, of the Course for Veterinary Technicians. Each of the two

enlisted technicians schools included veterinary section with instructional

staffs of three Veterinary Corps officers and four to six enlisted men. The

William Beaumont school conducted the course 45 times, and, at the Army

Medical Center, the course was conducted 47 times, including the 22d

through the 24th sessions that were conducted by the Army Veterinary

School. The student output from the Course for Veterinary Technicians

totaled 1,642 enlisted personnel before the schools at the Army Medical

Center and William Beaumont General Hospital discontinued such training,

in 1945.

This course conducted in the Medical Department enlisted technicians schools to standardize the qualifications of veterinary enlisted personnel. It implemented the program of veterinary basic technical training
100 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Figure 3.—Students at the Army Veterinary School, Army Medical Center, receiving

instruction in canned food inspection.

which was being given in the replacement training centers during the ar

and was never considered as substitute for the on-the-job training that

was being given within Army camps or units. Many of the enlisted men,

entering the Army Veterinary Service directly from reception centers (that

is, having bypassed the center level of veterinary basic technical training),

were advanced in their assignments in veterinary occupational specialty

by their detail for such school training during the war.

By 1943, quotas were being established as to the numbers of enlisted

personnel that were to be selected and sent to each school from both the

replacement training centers and the major echelons of command within

the Zone of Interior. As result of this quota system, there were several

problems. For example, the schools had cause to complain against the

quality of selectees sent to them from the replacement training centers; the

latter did not seem to comply always with requirements to “in the selection

of men to fill quotas, [give] careful consideration to their adaptability,

intelligence, and previous educational attainments” {10).

The service command veterinarians also protested that the quotas meant

loss of men from their operations which were already reduced to barest

minimum strength pursuant to local command programs of personnel economies. In other instances, service command and unit veterinarians indicated

their opinion that their personnel were sufficiently trained to meet local
TRAINING 101

requirements and thus there was no real need to select personnel to satisfy

such quotas. In answer to such comments, the Surgeon General’s Office had

earlier advised that such arguments were not the answer to the overall needs

to obtain and maintain minimal trained force which would be needed to

satisfy future requirements when Army camps would be expanded, for

organizing new units, or for oversea replacement. The quota system for

selecting students for the Course for Veterinary Technicians was started in

early 1941; prior to that time, the Surgeon General’s Office had selected and

nominated the personnel who were to be trained in the schools.

This wartime course had dual purpose; graduates from the two

Medical Department technicians schools were qualified both as veterinary

animal service technicians and as meat and dairy hygienists. The course

title itself became misleading, during World War II, because the words

“veterinary technician” gradually assumed limited application as pertaining

to personnel qualified or engaged only in caring for animals. In April 1945,

the title of the course was lengthened to Course for Veterinary Technicians

and Meat and Dairy Hygienists. Later that year, the course was divided

into two separate courses—one for veterinary technicians and the other for

meat and dairy hygienists. Thus, insofar as school training was concerned,

the term “veterinary technician” was applicable to veterinary animal service personnel only after 1945.

The dual-purpose Course for Veterinary Technicians which was conducted originally by the Army Veterinary School and then converted and

transferred to the Army Medical Center’s enlisted technicians school was at

variance with the course of the same name which was established at the

William Beaumont General Hospital’s enlisted technicians school. Some of

the differences may be accounted for by the fact that the latter facility did

not have veterinary laboratory at the onset such as was available in

Washington, D.C., but it was located adjacent to an area having large

number of military animals. Actually, at the beginning, several newly

formed veterinary hospital units were located at nearby Fort Bliss, Tex.,

which also had sizable station veterinary hospital. Eventually, these

differences in the course schedules of the two schools were narrowed, and

greater emphasis was placed on training in military veterinary food inspection.

During August 1943, Headquarters, Army Service Forces, issued 12-

week training program for use as guide in the conduct of the dual-purpose

Course for Veterinary Technicians at both schools (table 13). revised

program was approved in July 1944, and this included the arrangement of

technical subjects into weeks’ training in animal service followed by

weeks’ training in veterinary food inspection. Another revised program

of the school course appeared on April 1945, and this, significantly,

amended the course title to Course for Veterinary Technicians and Meat and

Dairy Hygienists. Insofar as possible, these programs were adopted at the
102 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

schools, but difficulties were continuously experienced in finding suitable

facilities in the vicinity of El Paso, Tex., that would provide field training

to supplement the classroom or didactic instruction in meat and dairy

hygiene.

Table 13.—Programs for the Course for Veterinary Technicians, 1943—45

Course in Clinical Pathology for Enlisted Specialists

The 3-month Course in Clinical Pathology for Enlisted Specialists

(also called the Course for Enlisted Specialists, Veterinary Laboratory

Technicians) was established and conducted by the Army Veterinary School

in much the same manner and under the same authorization that the veterinary officers’ Special Graduate Course in Clinical Pathology was established

and operated. Recommendations for this course were made originally in

April 1941 by the Surgeon General’s Office which then scheduled the opening of the first session on June 1941. It was not continued through the

Subject 29 Aug. 1943 26 June1944 Apr. 1945

Hours Hours Hours

Concurrent basic military training 108 108 48

Army orientation 24

Athletics and mass games 48

Total 108 108 120

Veterinary anatomy and physiology 20 20 20

Veterinary hygiene and sanitation __

18 18 14

Veterinary first aid and emergency medical treatment 36 36 40

Veterinary bacteriology and parasitology 20 20 18

Veterinary pharmacology. __

30 30 30

Horseshoeing. __

Roentgenology __ 15 15 15

Minor surgery and operating room technique 10 10 12

Forage and grain inspection __ 42 42 22

Meat and dairy hygiene 115 127 216

Veterinary administration 52 52 37

Field trips 30 42

Examination, tests, and inspections 24 24 24

Open time. __

48 24

Total. 468 468 456

Grand total. .... 576 576 576

Source: (1) ASF Memorandum, 29 Aug. 1943, subject: Training Program for Medical Department Technicians.

(2) Training Program for Medical Department Enlisted Technicians, with 1st indorsement thereto, 18 Mar. 1944. (3)

Programs of Instruction for Medical Enlisted Technicians, with 1st indorsement, Headquarters, Army Service Forces,

Apr. 1945.
TRAINING 103

entire war period, and only 23 personnel were graduated in the six sessions

of the course that were held between the opening date and May 1943.

Veterinary Technicians’ School, Fort Riley, Kansas

The dual-purpose training of veterinary enlisted personnel in Medical

Department Enlisted Technicians Schools was brought to halt at the Army

Medical Center in February 1945 and months later at William Beaumont

General Hospital. In the postwar period, the Course for Veterinary Technicians and Meat and Dairy Hygienists was divided into two separate

courses, each with single purpose and each conducted at separate training

facility in more suitable locations. The changes were recommended to Headquarters, Army Service Forces, by the Surgeon General’s Office, on 19

October 1945, which then requested {11)

course of instruction for Veterinary Technicians, SSN 250, be established as

class activity at Ft. Riley, Kansas, on or about 14 January 1946 with capacity of

fifteen (15) students. The duration of this course would be six (6) weeks. It would be

conducted under the modification of the presently approved program *.

course of instruction for Meat and Dairy Hygienists, SSX 120, be established at

the Chicago Quartermaster Depot, Chicago, Illinois, on or about December 1946 with

capacity of fifteen (15) students. The duration of this course would be six (6) weeks.

It would be conducted under the modification of the previously approved program *.

Both recommendations found acceptance with Headquarters, Army Service Forces. In connection with the new single-purpose Veterinary Technicians Course, the veterinary instructional staff and training equipment of

the former school for Medical Department technicians, William Beaumont

General Hospital, were moved during the period, 12 December 1945 to

December 1946, to Fort Riley, Kans. At the beginning, the new Veterinary

Technicians School which was established there came under the control of the

Seventh Service Command, but, effective on 25 April 1946, it was reclassified as an activity under control of The Surgeon General. Its instructional

staff totaled two veterinary officers, including the school commandant, and

four enlisted personnel, who were placed under the supervision of the

senior veterinary officer assigned to Fort Riley.

This new course was expressly designed to technically train enlisted

personnel for the Army Veterinary Service in the care and management

of horses and mules. It was conducted in its first session, beginning on

24 January 1946, as course. However, concurrent with the postwar plans on readjusting the Army’s school system, the fifth session of the

Veterinary Technicians Course (22 July to November 1946) was considerably lengthened—comprising 640 hours of instruction.

The continuing reduction in the Army’s horse and mule strength and

the gradual revision of plans for training the postwar Army caused the

Surgeon General’s Office to discontinue the Veterinary Technicians Course

on completion of the fifth session. By that time, 75 veterinary enlisted
104 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

personnel had or would have completed this training. The Veterinary Technicians School, at Fort Riley, was discontinued on November 1946.

Meat and Dairy Hygienists Course, Chicago Quartermaster Depot

Concurrent with the establishment of the postwar Veterinary Technicians Course at the short-lived Veterinary Technicians School at Fort Riley,

the training of veterinary enlisted meat and dairy hygienists was started at

the Chicago Quartermaster Depot, which was also the place of operation of

the Veterinary Corps officers’ Meat and Dairy Hygiene Course. This

establishment of training for enlisted meat and dairy hygienists was recommended by the Surgeon General’s Office and approved by Headquarters,

Army Service Forces, on 13 November 1945; the schooling facilities needed

at that depot were provided, on request, by the Office of the Quartermaster General. The first session of the Meat and Dairy Hygienists Course was

convened on December 1945 with enlisted enrollees; by the end of the

next year, 162 veterinary enlisted personnel had completed the course. Conducted originally as course, it was later developed into one lasting weeks (table 14).

Table 14.—Programs for the Meat and Dairy Hygienists Course

UNIT TRAINING

The training of veterinary personnel, both officer and enlisted, did not

stop with their completion of the courses which were conducted at the

Subject 5pi-week course 8-week course

Veterinary administration

Hours

21

Hours

61

Fresh and frozen meats __

37 41

Sausage and specialty meats_ 10 10

Cured and smoked meats ______

11

Canned meats and rations 12

Fats and oils __

Fish and seafood

Poultry and eggs_ __________

40 42

Milk and dairy products __ 38 39

Food poisoning

Inspection procedure

Establishment inspection

Packing and storage 10

Refrigeration and warehousing

Commandant’s time and tests __ 32 38

Physical training 30

Troop information

Total 232 320
TRAINING 105

school or training center levels. It was continuous during the military service

of the individuals, while they were in Army camps and units, and in the

Zone of Interior as well as in the oversea theaters. Most of this training

was largely applicatory in nature as contrasted to didactic instruction in

school classrooms.

Officer Replacement Pools

Although each Army camp and installation in the Zone of Interior that

had veterinary detachment operated its own programs for introducing

newly assigned personnel into its organizational operations, one of the more

important of these training programs at camp level involved those programs

which were conducted in officer replacement pools. During December 1941-

January 1942, such pools for Veterinary Corps officers were established,

pursuant to War Department authorization, at 11 medical installations, replacement training centers, depots, and ports; few more pools were added

later. These pools were located at the Army Medical Center; William Beaumont General Hospital; the replacement training centers at Camp Grant

and Camp Lee; the ports of embarkation at New York and San Francisco; the general depots at Boston, San Antonio, Seattle, and Lathrop; the quartermaster depots at Chicago, Fort Worth, Kansas City, and Oakland; and

the remount depot at Fort Robinson, Nebr,

The capacity of the pools, at any one time, in terms of number of personnel, was not to aggregate more than 50 unassigned veterinary officers,

who were to be regarded as constituting reserve force of veterinarians in

refresher and preparatory military training, pending their initial assignment

as “filler” or “loss replacement” veterinary officers to newly forming or

existent units {12). The officer replacement pool system, which then came

into operation, more or less replaced the procedures previously used by the

Surgeon General’s Office in the pre-World War II emergency periods, when

small surplus number of Veterinary Reserve Corps were being ordered

to active duty for preliminary training at the larger Army camps, remount

purchasing and breeding areas, and depots prior to initial duty assignment.

The training which was conducted varied according to the parent installation of the replacement pool. Subsequently, the Surgeon General's

Office developed master schedule of training which was promulgated as

guide by Headquarters, Army Service Forces, for adoption at all pools.

This prescribed 4-week course, having 192 hours of training as follows:

Subject Hours

Military basic and general administration 45

Veterinary administration 10

Veterinary field service with animals

Veterinary food inspection 102

Miscellaneous, including “open time” 32

Total 192
106 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

This course was divided into two phases, the academic and the applicatory.

The latter, also called on-the-job training, was obtained by the attachment

of the unassigned veterinary officers so that they would receive the maximum training possible by actual performance of the major duties of the

position in which training was received.

In May 1944, Headquarters, Army Service Forces, amended their earlier

schedule for training veterinary officers in the replacement pools by promulgating course having 48 days of on-the-job training. The change for

the longer course was occasioned by the growing need to amend the original

purposes of the replacement pools. These pools were now being filled by

veterinarians who were being inducted into the Army as enlisted men and

by recent graduates from civilian veterinary colleges who had completed

their education while holding Medical Administrative Corps officer appointments or under the auspices of the Army Specialized Training Program.

The personnel were reviewed for qualifications for additional military training and assignment as Veterinary Corps officers prior to their release from

the officer replacement pools.

After the end of the active war hostilities, the purpose of the pools was

again changed because they were filled largely by veterinary officers who

were returning from the oversea theaters and were awaiting separation or

new assignment orders. By the end of 1945, many of the replacement pools

were closed. Only five continued in operation: at the New York port and

the Chicago, Kansas City, Seattle, and Lathrop depots {13). Information

on the number of officers processed through these replacement pools is fragmentary, but at least 650 veterinary officers were sent through the pools at

the Kansas City Quartermaster Depot, San Antonio Army Service Forces

Depot, and New York Port of Embarkation during the war period.

Small Unit Training

Informal programs (other than those in the officer replacement pools)

were undertaken at camp level to introduce or orient newly assigned personnel on the organizational operations of veterinary detachments inside

of the Army camps (as well as at the depots, ports, hospitals, and other

installations) in the Zone of Interior. Such programs were essential in the

autonomy and part of the internal administration of each camp, depot, or

After May 1946, Headquarters, Army Service Forces, authorized the continuation of only

the veterinary officers replacement pool at the Chicago Quartermaster Depot, but, on 31 March

1947, this pool was also closed by the War Department. During part of this period, this pool

facility was the central administrative agency for the Army Veterinary Service in the Army’s postwar plan which was to provide refresher professional training to Medical Department officers prior

to their separation from the military service. Though some extensive plans were made to establish

12-week training in large animal and small animal practice, in food inspection, and in laboratory

work for 25 to 50 veterinary officers at remount depots, the Chicago Quartermaster Depot, and the

Army Veterinary School, only few Veterinary Corps officers (probably five in number) volunteered

for delay in their release from the Army in order to undertake refresher course at Government

expense.—B. B. M.
TRAINING 107

port veterinary detachment; pursuant to Army regulations, the conduct of

detachment training to insure the proficiency of detachments was the responsibility of the veterinary officer commanding that detachment. At

times, on account of shortages in the number of personnel who were available, service command veterinarians in the Zone of Interior favored on-the-job

training of camp veterinary detachments rather than to detail personnel

to military branch service schools for training. The extent of such training,

during World War II, obviously varied because no two detachments were

internally administered in the same way. There is no available record to

indicate to what extent the Surgeon General’s Office vitiated the training at

camp level as it had done in World War I. Information is available, however, regarding the training of the units which were organized in the Zone

of Interior for oversea deployment.

After World War I, tactical unit training was almost forgotten or

disappeared as peacetime economy forced the Army into garrisons and

minimal day-to-day existence. The onset of World War II saw only few

veterinary units in the Army formation: two company elements of medical

regiments and medical squadron’s veterinary troop in the United States.

These units were at “peace strength” or skeletonized so that tactical unit

training for Army Veterinary Service was regarded as practically nonexistent.

During the war years, the number of veterinary units was increased to

more than 200—including six types of such larger units as hospitals, companies, and troops and about the same number of types of smaller units

called detachments or cellular teams. With the exception of one unit, the

larger veterinary units (21 in number) were organized and trained in the

Zone of Interior, and one-third of the detachment-size units (or 61) likewise were organized and trained in the Zone of Interior—the remainder

being developed overseas. The training of these units in the Zone of Interior was variable, and at no time was unit training program specially

designed for them.

Many of the wartime units, particularly the veterinary hospitals and

companies, were brought into existence by assigning cadres of trained officers

and men from Army camp detachments and existing units who would train

the untrained and newly assigned personnel. Later, units were formed by

the assignment of individual personnel who, under the preactivation training system, were previously trained for such assignment at service schools,

officer replacement pools, or training centers.

Unit training centers were established by the Army Service Forces at

Camp Ellis, 111., at Camp Plauche, La., and at Camp Sibert, Ala. However,

these centers were rarely used for training the veterinary units which were

newly organized during World War II. Instead, the units were activated

near places where they could enter into functional training. Thus, Fort

Bliss and Camp Hale, Colo, (home of the Army Ground Forces Mountain

590248 —61
108 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Training Center) became focal points for activating and organizing many of the veterinary animal service units and detachments; Fort Clark, Tex., and Fort Eiley likewise had large number of animals, mounted units, and

each had station veterinary hospital, so that other veterinary animal service units were brought into existence there.

The veterinary food inspection detachments, on the other hand, were

activated in the Zone of Interior at dozen or more Army camps at which suitable facilities were readily available to provide functional training in the sanitary inspection of food animals at slaughter and in food surveillance.

After the winter of 1944—45, under the conditions of preactivation training, several food inspection detachments were activated and trained together at the Army Service Forces Training Center, Fort Lewis. These units completed their training as unit in relatively short period of time because their schedules were less disrupted by the admixture of untrained personnel such as happened during the unit training under the older cadre system of

developing new units.

In the planning for redeployment of units, after the end of active hostilities in the Mediterranean and European theaters, unit training was reviewed as urgently requiring the facilities of three Army Service Forces

training centers. It was contemplated that Medical Department units on

return to the United States would have to be retrained for eventual redeployment to the Pacific theaters. Between V-E Day and V-J Day, only 23

Medical Department units, having seen active service in the European and

Mediterranean theaters, were entered into the training centers for redeployment training; these units included the 71st Veterinary Food Inspection

Detachment at the Army Service Forces Training Center, Fort Lewis. Several similar type units were redeployed direct to the Pacific theaters, but

greater number, including 13 food inspection detachments newly activated

in the Mediterranean and European theaters, which were scheduled for redeployment, either were not shipped from theaters or were not reshipped from

the Zone of Interior after they had arrived.

Training in the Oversea Theaters

The training of veterinary personnel and units was continued after their

arrival in the oversea theaters. For the most part, such training was purposely conducted only to indoctrinate and orient them, after arrival, in

matters peculiar to the veterinary situation of the theater. Nowhere was

this nearly as comprehensive and extensive as the wartime training system

that was developed in the Zone of Interior. There were exceptions; for

example, long after the Africa-Middle East theater had passed into standby

basis, the theater veterinarian noted need to better qualify veterinary

enlisted personnel by training them on the surveillance inspection of the Army

food supply. Elsewhere, such as in the Mediterranean theater and in the
TRAINING 109

Central and South Pacific xVreas, incoming veterinary food inspection detachments and veterinary sections of quartermaster refrigeration companies

were required to undergo more training in food surveillance because they

had been essentially trained in the Zone of Interior along the lines of rendering at-slaughter food animal inspections. The latter training did not reflect

on the practicality of the training system in the Zone of Interior. Mention is made here that the Army Veterinary Service overseas inspected all of the

Army’s foods, whereas, in the Zone of Interior, their training gave little

emphasis on inspecting foods of nonanimal origin.

Probably, the greatest conversion training of veterinary units and personnel occurred in the Southwest Pacific Area and in China, Burma, and

India. In the Southwest Pacific Area, 16 veterinary animal service sections

or detachments were inactivated, and their 125 personnel locally retrained

as food inspectors. This had become necessary because the planning for

extensive utilization of animal transport for campaigning on the jungle

islands of the Southwest Pacific Area was discontinued after the units had

been requisitioned and scheduled for shipment from the Zone of Interior. In

the interim, Australia (like New Zealand in the South Pacific Area) suddenly and unexpectedly had become major source of food supply to the

Armed Forces in the Pacific.

In India-Burma, the campaigns against the Japanese to clear the way

for the Stilwell and Burma Roads and the strategy for support of the Alliedsponsored Chinese military forces originally created urgent demands for

veterinary animal service personnel. However, the gradually increasing

needs for more expansive program of food procurement and food surveillance inspection eventually saw many of the existing units in the theater

broken up to form 14 food inspection detachments for deployment in China.

These detachments also had to be specially trained. They were entered into

training (totaling 188 hours of instruction) which emphasized

abattoir operations and at-slaughter inspections; the sanitary situation and

resources of the local livestock and food industries; the proper handling,

storage, and conservation of foods; and the protection of troop health against

food supplies of local origin that might have been contaminated or spoiled.

The orientation and indoctrination of veterinary personnel and units

arriving in the theaters was different from the problems of conversion training. It was prerogative usually assumed by each theater veterinarian to

improve the internal administration of the local veterinary organization and

to acquaint new arrivals of their purpose and their place within the organization and mission of the theater as whole. The manner and the extent, in

which this was conducted, varied among the theaters. In the Central Pacific

Area, for example, this orientation was quite complete and successfully conducted at two provisional veterinary hospital organizations on Oahu, T.H.,

because, until late 1944, almost all personnel arriving in the theater came

through this single portal of entry in the Hawaiian Islands. This was
no ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

equally true in England, which became the portal of entry during the buildup and organization of the European theater that lasted for considerable length of time before active ground combat operations were started. There, for

example, veterinary officers were given last-minute instructions on European

veterinary medicine and practices before deployment to civil affairs and mili- tary government in the liberated and occupied countries on the European

Continent. In the Southwest Pacific Area, the orientation of veterinary

personnel in Australia emphasized at-slaughter inspections and processing of

foods in establishments, whereas later, in New Guinea, these personnel were

indoctrinated on the sanitary defects of nonperishable foods and conservation measures to minimize food spoilage and losses in the tropics. Army

Air Forces veterinary personnel and detachments were given the same instructions as were those of the Service Forces. In India-Burma and China, the orientation and indoctrination was so

extensive at times as to approach the level of training conducted in the

Zone of Interior. This orientation and indoctrination training of the Army

Veterinary Service in the two theaters was purposefully divided into that

conducted for the personnel and units who were used in inspecting the

Army’s food supplies and that for the personnel and units who were concerned with the Chinese military forces.

The former group was oriented and indoctrinated largely in the local

British, Indian, and Chinese methods of processing and handling foods and in sanitary inspection procedures. The latter group, which included the

veterinary instructional personnel and those on liaison duty with the Chinese

military forces, prior to assignments, was specially instructed at the Ramgarh,

India, training center and, later, at the Yunnan Field Artillery Training

Center at K’un-ming, China. Their instruction necessarily emphasized

horseshoeing, the pack loading of animals, field veterinary service and

management of animals, and the several animal diseases which were seriously

threatening the movement of the Chinese armies and divisions. It was

locally expressed opinion that Army veterinary personnel might have been

better trained or experienced in these matters, but, on the other hand, the

personnel were being required to supervise animal matters in the Chinese

forces that in the past were normally taken care of by Cavalry, Field Artillery, and Quartermaster officers. Indoctrination and orientation also included the discussion on Chinese customs and, of course, the training in

small arms firing and unit protection against enemy infiltration.

INSTRUCTIONAL SERVICES

In addition to training veterinary personnel, Veterinary Corps officers

also rendered instructional services to the combat arms and other service

branches (including the Medical Department). During World War II, such

training activities were greatly expanded in the Zone of Interior and, in the

oversea theaters, were extended to Allied and cobelligerent armies.
TRAINING 111

Veterinary Instructional Service in Zone of Interior

There is no information available regarding the extent of the veterinary

instructional services which were conducted in garrison schools at the Army

camp level or in units. At the branch service school or training center

level, on the other hand, available information indicates that such services were provided by the Army Veterinary Service to more than 47,100 officers

and enlisted personnel, including those belonging to the Medical Department.

During 1939-40, veterinary officer instructional services were being rendered in the special service schools for the mounted combat arms and services at Fort Benning, Ga., Fort Belvoir, Va., Fort Riley, and Fort Sill, Okla.

The Cavalry School, at Fort Riley, and the Field Artillery School, at Fort

Sill, each had veterinary officer assigned as full-time instructor. At the

Cavalry School, this officer conducted instructions on variety of topical

subjects relating to the care and management of Army horses and mules.

The subjects, all or few, were included in five officers’ courses and two

enlisted men’s courses; the student output from these courses in the period

1940-45 totaled more than 4,400 Cavalry officers and 1,041 enlisted personnel.

The veterinary instructional services in the Field xVrtillery School were

almost as extensive in scope. At both schools, the veterinary officers conducted portion of the enlisted men’s courses for horseshoers. Between 10

July 1940 and 23 September 1944, the Fort Sill facility graduated 397 enlisted horseshoers; between January 1941 and June 1945, the Cavalry

School graduated 1,054.

Instructional services were provided also to more than 4,800 dog handlers (2,100 Army and 2,700 U.S. Coast Guard) who were trained in the

Quartermaster Corps war dog reception centers in the Zone of Interior and

to the enlisted pigeoneers personnel of the Signal Corps. In both instances,

the basic doctrine for training these personnel on the care and management

of the Army dog and the Army signal pigeon was developed in cooperation

with the Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office; the training manuals

that had been developed previously without veterinary professional assistance were now corrected or amended to advance the practices of dog and

pigeon care and management and the relevant animal disease controls and

prevention in the Army. In connection with instructions to pigeoneers, the

veterinary officers both at Fort Monmouth, N.J., and at Camp Crowder, Mo.,

had prepared and assembled extensive notes which were incorporated in the

Signal Corps manual on the signal pigeon.

The mobilization training program of the War Department, which was

designed for use in basic military and technical training of Signal Corps

enlisted personnel at replacement training centers, expressly provided for the

basic technical training of pigeoneers (MOS 560) to include 25 hours of

veterinary instructions on pigeon care and management. This program was

conducted at Fort Monmouth and then, after the fall of 1942, at Camp
112 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Crowder. similar program was developed to train Quartermaster Corps

officers and enlisted personnel to be dog trainers, who were identified as

MOS 4371 for the dog training officer and MGS 458 for the enlisted dog

training. Therein, approximately 15 percent of the total instructional period

in the 8- to 12-week courses included such subjects as emergency first aid,

care and management of sick and wounded dogs, detection and prevention

of commonly occurring diseases, kennel management, grooming, dog rations

and feeding and watering transportation, and use of the dog gas mask. The

veterinary officers in the Columbus Depot participated in the Packaging,

Processing, and Packing Course that was conducted for the training of

Quartermaster officers in the preparation of supplies for domestic and oversea shipment.

Another military branch school which provided veterinary instructional

services was the Chemical Warfare School, Edgewood Arsenal. In its Medical Department Officers' Course, instructions were given, by veterinary officers

who were assigned to the station, in such subjects as the effects of chemical

agents on animal health and efficiency, and the defense and care (or decontamination) of animals and troop food supplies in the event of chemical

warfare attack.

During World War II, veterinary instructional services were used extensively in training Medical Department personnel other than veterinary.

Within the Medical Department Professional Service Schools, veterinary officer instructors from the Army Veterinary School and the Medical Department Enlisted Technicians School participated in four medical courses. In

the 8-week Tropical and Military Medicine Course (originally designated as

the 4-week Tropical Medicine Course), approximately 1,700 Medical Corps

officers were provided to 12 hours of instruction on military food hygiene

and viral diseases. Also, there was the Course in Food and Nutrition in

which the principles of military meat and dairy hygiene were described to

Sanitary Corps officers who were being trained for duty as medical nutrition

officers. Much the same scope of instructional services, including food sanitation, lasting about 53 hours per session, was provided for female dietitians

attending the Hospital Dietitians Course. Part of the Course for Medical

Department Laboratory Enlisted Technicians in the Army Medical School

and the Medical Department Enlisted Technicians School was conducted by

Veterinary Corps officers.

At the Medical Field Service School, the Department of Field Veterinary Service provided instructional services in the Officer Candidate School

for Medical Administrative Corps Officers, in the Medical and Field Sanitary Inspectors Course, and in the Officers’ Refresher Course. The lastnamed course was attended by Medical Corps, Dental Corps, and Veterinary

Corps officers. In this course, all student officers were given an hour’s lecture

on veterinary field service, but after mid-1943, an additional hours were

added to include instruction and demonstrations on the subjects of military
TRAINING 113

food hygiene, the evacuation of wounded personnel by pack animal, and

dehydrated foods. Altogether, more than 26,000 Medical Department officers

completed this training course in the 73 times that it was conducted; its

veterinary officer output, totaling 677, comprised only 2.5 percent.

The Medical Field Service School’s Medical and Field Sanitary Inspectors Course (originally called the Medical Inspectors Course) was inaugurated during November 1942, but it was not until August 1943 that its student Medical, Sanitary, and Medical Administrative Corps officers were given

some instruction by veterinary officers. At that time, the Veterinary Corps

officers were being removed from the organization of Infantry divisions so

that these medical, sanitary, and administrative officers had to be prepared

to perform such duties. Their veterinary instructions—comprising total

of 21 hours during the courses held during 1945—included lectures and

demonstrations on sanitary food inspection, the sanitation of food establishments, and the handling of canned, frozen, and dehydrated foods in messhalls. In the Officer Candidate School for Medical Administrative Corps

Officers, the Department of Field Veterinary Medicine provided hours of

instruction in the course that was conducted 26 times.

Instructing Allied and Cobelligerent Military Veterinary Services

Veterinary instructional services were conducted in the oversea theaters

largely for improving the Allied-sponsored Chinese military forces in IndiaBurma and China and the cobelligerent Italian forces in the Mediterranean

theater. At the request of the Philippine Army, 11 of their veterinary officers (and some few enlisted men) were instructed on military food inspection by the Army Veterinary Service of the Philippine Base Section command of the Southwest Pacific Area. In the Mediterranean theater, the

Veterinarian, Fifth U.S. Army, supervised the establishment of training

courses for the personnel who comprised the cobelligerent Italian Army’s

veterinary hospital units that were attached to, and were deployed in rear

echelon support of the pack trains of, the U.S. corps and combat divisions.

Veterinary Corps officers assigned to the U.S. supervisory regiment and on

liaison duty with the Italian veterinary units also provided limited amount

of technical assistance to these Italian hospitals which were assigned to the

theater’s Services of Supply remount depots.

In the China-Burrna-India theater, reorganized in November 1944 into

the India-Burma and the China theaters, veterinary instructional services

to the Allied-sponsored Chinese military forces comprised the major activity of the Army Veterinary Service. This was started soon after the arrival,

in May 1942, of the first contingent of U.S. troops that followed the Military

Mission to China under Maj. Gen. (later General) Joseph TV Stilwell who

had seen the Japanese cut up and disperse Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek’s

armies. small part of these troops retreated out of Burma into India, and

the other and larger share that survived returned to China. The Chinese
114 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

forces which came into India were temporarily held there in new project

of training and re-equipping them for the future offensives that were to

reopen the Burma Road into China. The training of these Chinese forces

in India, which were also called the X-Force, was undertaken at the U.S.

training center established at Ramgarh.

Later, the Chinese forces which had been forced to retreat out of Burma

back into China were started in their training by the U.S. Army. These

Chinese forces—also referred to as the Y-Force—were trained for the most

part in and about K’un-ming. From the original U.S. training center in

India, four veterinary personnel were ordered during February 1943 to the

new Yunnan Field Artillery Training Center, and two others were ordered

in the next month to the Yunnan Infantry Training Center, also near

K’un-ming. The training program in India gradually came to halt, as the

X-Force was deployed with the Allied forces that cleared the Japanese out

of northern and central Burma. This program for the Y-Force was stopped

when they were moved out of their training to stem the Japanese drive southward into eastern China. During this period, third group of Chinese

armies and divisions—designated as the Z-Force—was brought into the

strategic plan for training, equipping, and eventual deployment. The

Z-Force, developing in eastern China, however, was not too far advanced in

its training when the threatening enemy drive in its direction caused the

abandonment of original plans. The training of these three Chinese forces

was conducted formally at training center level and included the training of

the individual as well as of the unit. The Army Veterinary Service trained

more than 2,000 Chinese military personnel including veterinary officers.

After their training, Veterinary Corps personnel, in liaison duty with the

Chinese combat forces, continued the training of the Chinese at the unit level.

In order to conduct this training of the Chinese military forces, the

U.S. forces in the China-Burma-India theater were organized, in March

1942, to include the so-called Chinese Training and Combat Command. This

comprised headquarters group, the Training Group which operated the

training centers in Ramgarh and in K’un-ming and the Liaison Group which

included the U.S. personnel assigned liaison duty with the Chinese armies

and divisions. The Training Group, in addition to the operation of the

aforementioned centers, established training schools for the Chinese Y-Force

at Ta-li, in October 1943, at Yen-shan, in November 1943, and in several

other places in central South China. In November 1943, Veterinary Corps

personnel established training of the Z-Force at Kuei-lin, China. By the

summer-fall of 1944, the training at center level was discontinued, except at

the Yunnan Field Artillery Training Center, and was replaced in part by

training, by liaison personnel, within the Chinese military units (fig. 4).

Most of the liaison personnel were in China or were moving there from

Burma at about this time. These personnel, as were the remaining training

center assigned personnel, were reassigned to the Chinese Combat Command
TRAINING 115

Figure 4.—Instructing Chinese in the proper methods for securing loads on the

Phillips pack saddle, Field Artillery Training Center, Chinese Training Command, Yiinuan, China.

and the Chinese Training Command, respectively, which were formed, in January 1945, from the breakup of the original Chinese Training and Combat Command, shortly after the China theater came into existence as separate entity.

The center training for the Y-Force, at K’un-ming, was aided by the

detail of instructional groups to certain Chinese units which could not, or

would not, send their personnel to K’un-ming. During September-October

1943, six Veterinary Corps officers were ordered to establish school course

for training the Chinese 11th and 20th Group Armies at Ta-li. In November 1943, Training Instructional Group No. 4, made up of the same number

of veterinary personnel, was ordered to organize veterinary training schools

for the Chinese 8th, 52d, and 60th Armies at Como, Yen-shan, and Meng-tzu.

On 30 October 1943, the Yunnan Infantry Training Center’s veterinary

school was closed. The new training schools with the Chinese armies were

closed during the spring of 1944. After that time, only the Yunnan Field

Artillery Training Center remained in operation, becoming the chief veterinary training facility for Chinese forces until V-J Day.

The developing emphasis on unit training, as contrasted with the emphasis on training in centers, saw the Veterinary Corps officers on liaison duty

establish variety of unit training programs within the Chinese armies and

59024S 61 10
116 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

FiGtJKE 5.—01assroom instruction conducted by U.S. Army Veterinary Corps

officer through Chinese interpreter to Chinese veterinary officer students at

Veterinary School, U.S. Army Training Center, K’un-ming, China.

divisions. Such personnel had been on duty with the Chinese forces as

early as the summer of 1943, but it was not until January 1945 that sufficient number of them had become available for assignment to all Chinese

divisions and armies. On their arrival in the Chinese units, the liaison veterinary personnel set up courses for training the unit’s veterinary officers and

enlisted men, operated horseshoeing school, and organized schedules to

improve the methods of animal care and management and the means of pack

loading animals. Their task was not an easy one because the instructions

were given through Chinese interpreter, the training aids were unavailable,

equipment was necessarily improvised, and the Chinese by habit held little

regard for enhancing the efficiency and military life of animals (fig. 5).

For example, to them, shoeing was disgraceful menial task and, even after

that attitude was overcome, horseshoe-making equipment had to be improvised before the new Chinese army horseshoers could even be started in their

training. Against such hindering obstacles, however, much was accomplished

by the Army Veterinary Service to increase the efficiency of forces whose

mobility was so much dependent on their animals.

During the period that IJ.S. forces were located in China, the previously

mentioned instructional services were expanded to include assignment of two

Veterinary Corps officers to the faculty of the Chinese Army Veterinary
TRAINING 117

College, An-shun, China. Their assignment followed the grant of approval

by the Commanding General, China-Burma-India theater, in July 1944, to

request initiated by the Chinese National Health Administration. In July

1945, arrangements were completed with the Chinese Ministry of War for

veterinary college graduates to attend 4-week postgraduate course at the

Yunnan Field Artillery Training Center, K’un-ming. In mid-August 1945,

this course, emphasizing clinical veterinary medicine which could not be

given at An-shun, was opened at the training center; its enrollment included

23 college graduates and college faculty members.

References

1. Goodman, Samuel M.: History of Medical Department Training in U.S. Army for

the Period July 1939 to 30 June 1945. Voi. IV. [Official record.]

2. AH 40-2035, 15 Apr. 1922.

3. AR 40-2035, 18 Dec. 1942.

4. Letter, The Adjutant General to The Surgeon General, 31 July 1940, subject:

Courses at Special Service Schools.

5. Annual Report of The Surgeon General, U.S. Army. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1941.

6. Mobilization Regulations No. 3-1, 23 Nov. 1940.

7. Letter, Lt. Col. R. B. Stewart to Army Veterinary School, Aug. 1940, subject:

Special Course of Instruction in Veterinary Laboratory Procedure.

8. Shook, L. L.: Historical Report on Meat and Dairy Hygiene School, November

1940 to June 1943. [Official record.]

9. Lee, F. M.: Training Activities Report of Meat and Dairy Hygiene Course (MO-9),

July 1943-30 June 1945.

10. War Department AG Memorandum W615-52-43, 12 June 1943, subject: Trainees

Selected to Attend Medical Department Enlisted Technicians Schools.

11. Memorandum, Operations Service, Surgeon General’s Office, for Military Training

Division, Army Service Forces, 19 Oct. 1945, subject: Training of Veterinary Technicians, SSN 250, and Meat and Dairy Hygienists, SSN 120.

12. Letter, Adjutant General’s Office, Services of Supply, 19 December 1941, subject:

Officer Filler and Loss Replacements for Ground Arms and Services; as amended by

Letter, Adjutant General’s Office, 20 Feb. 1942, subject: Officer Filler and Loss Replacements.

13. War Department Circular No. 365, 1945. See also Circulars Nos. 115, 137, and

205, 1946.

119

CHAPTER VI

Supply and Equipment

The Army eterinary Service was not supply service in the sense that

it purchased, stored, distributed, or otherwise handled professional veterinary

equipment and supplies for the Army; it was consumer. Nor was the Army

Veterinary Service materially involved (that is, as final approving authority) in the planning for its own supply; however, some developmental studies

were undertaken. These matters originated with the supply activities of the

Medical Department as whole. Individual Veterinary Corps officers and

units requisitioned for their supplies in the same manner that the Medical

Corps and Dental Corps obtained their supplies; their needs, such as for

certain drugs, surgical dressings, and instruments, were often furnished from

the same stocks of Medical Department supplies. In fact, the Army Veterinary Service had only little more to do with Medical Department supply

than it had to do with the trucks, communications equipment, or weapons

that were obtained and were used daily by each veterinary unit and detachment.

Medical Department supply activities, at the level of the Surgeon General's Office, were administered by the Finance and Supply Division—the latter being reorganized in 1942 into the Supply Service. This administrative office organization was assigned functions and had the same degree of

responsibility with regard to medical supply that were comparable to those

of the Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office, regarding its supervision of professional veterinary services of the Army. On matters pertaining

to veterinary supply, the Veterinary Division acted as adviser—in capacity

that was comparable to the advisory responsibilities, real or assumed, it had

to the Personnel Division, Surgeon General’s Office, with regard to veterinary

personnel. Requirements planning, the professional opinions on the efficacy

of supply items which were to be procured, and the recommendations on the

distribution of medical equipment and supplies to veterinary detachments and

units comprised the major advisory duties. In addition, the Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office, cooperated with the Operations Service in

developing equipment tables for field units and with variety of agencies

and service branches which were particularly concerned with equipment and

supplies, research, and development. For example, there was veterinary officer membership on The Surgeon General’s Medical Department Technical

Committee; the Army Committee for Insect and Rodent Control; the Subcommittee on Biologicals, Drug Resources Advisory Committee of the ArmyNavy Munitions Board; the Army Service Forces (later, War Department)

Inspection Advisory Council; and the Provisions and the Feeds and Forage

Technical Committees of the Federal Specifications Board, Bureau of Supply,
120 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

U.S. Treasury Department. All of these were concerned in some manner or

other with supply to the Army. The Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s

Office, also cooperated in the research and development of certain Quarter- master Corps and Chemical Warfare Service equipment and supplies. It

must be mentioned, however, that no Veterinary Corps officer was detailed to

full-time duty with the Supply Service, Surgeon General’s Office, although at least one such assignment was made in World War I, and after that time

mobilization planning prior to World War II had projected such assignments. In 1940-41, however, two veterinary officers were trained, presumably

for such an assignment, at the Army Industrial College, Washington, D.C.; one was eventually assigned to the St. Louis Medical Depot, St. Louis, Mo.,

(i) where nearly all Medical Department items peculiar to the Army Veteri- nary Service were stored and from which Army-wide distribution was made.

The costs of Medical Department materiel initially supplied to equip

veterinary units which saw service in the oversea theaters varied: For

veterinary food inspection detachment, $109; for the veterinary evacuation

hospital, $2,078; and for the veterinary general hospital, $9,013 (2). Station

veterinary hospitals for the Zone of Interior could be equipped at costs in

Medical Department materiel ranging between $1,770 for one of 10-animal

patient capacity and $7,263 for hospital of 150-animal patient capacity.

Of course, if the total costs to initially equip these hospitals were to be considered, then one must add also the equipment and supplies which were furnished by the Chemical Warfare Service, Corps of Engineers, Ordnance

Department, Quartermaster Corps, and Signal Corps.

MEDICAL DEPARTMENT PROCUREMENT AND DISTRIBUTION

At the onset of World War II, the actual procurement of Medical Department equipment and supplies was divided between the New York General

Depot, N.Y., which had Medical Section, and the St. Louis Medical Depot.

few items were purchased also by the medical depot sections of general

depots which were located in San Francisco, Calif., and San Antonio, Tex.

Of these, St. Louis, was, and continued to be, throughout the war, the central

location for handling materiel solely classified for veterinary use (that is,

class 8).

Undeniably, shortages in Medical Department materiel were encountered

by the Army Veterinary Services in the Zone of Interior, particularly during

1940-42, but, temporary as they may have been, there was no report that professional veterinary food inspection and animal services were seriously affected.

Overseas, in certain theaters, shortages in Medical Department materiel existed which did affect the Army Veterinary Service.

Throughout the Medical Department supply system—from procurement

districts through the depots to the camp medical supply officers—routinely,

there was no real veterinary activity. The veterinary detachments and units
SUPPLY AND EQUIPMENT 121

made their needs known, by requisitions, to the local medical supply officers

and were only responsible, pursuant to the regulations of the Army, for submitting the requisitions, properly caring for the property which they received,

and for practicing supply economy. At various times, their requisition

demands were processed through the Medical Department supply system to

the Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office, for review before procurement and distribution were effected. The latter situation occurred whenever

the requisitions called for new (or nonstandard) items or for seemingly

unusual quantities of items which were already being handled by the Medical Department supply system. These demands arose when veterinary detachments and units were expanded into new areas of activities; for example, the

care and treatment of Army dogs and signal pigeons. Actually, only few

requisitions concerning the professional care and treatment of these animals

were favorably reviewed within the Veterinary Division, Surgeon General's

Office, because there were so few items specifically required for which standard items could not be substituted.

MEDICAL DEPARTMENT SUPPLY ITEMS

Nearly all of the equipment and supplies professionally used by the

Army Veterinary Service were provided by the Medical Department in the

same manner that professional supplies came into the hands of Medical Corps

and Dental Corps officers. In fact, after 1921 when the separate veterinary

supply tables were discontinued, many items in common use by these three

professional corps were grouped together for procurement, storage, and distribution.

One class of Medical Department equipment and supply items (class 8)

was procured, handled, and issued for the use of the Army Veterinary Service

only. Its 164 items (as of the January 1941 edition of the supply catalog)

were those that had no other Medical Department use. The cataloging of the

veterinary class of equipment and supplies was not greatly changed during

World War II; few items were deleted and some others were transferred

as the responsibility of the Quartermaster Corps to supply, but, on the whole,

nothing new of major importance was added. This revealed that the supply

planning in peacetime generally was such that actual veterinary supply was

not adversely affected or delayed, as had occurred in World War I, when

studies on requirements and on an up-to-date compilation of veterinary

supply table were not begun until after war mobilization had started.

Small Unit Assemblies

In order to facilitate their handling and issue, great many of the

individual items were assembled into kits and chests. Some of these small
122 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

unit assemblies were intended for supply to veterinary personnel and facilities

operating in the Zone of Interior and to units deployed in the communica- tions zone of war theater. number of other small unit assemblies were

developed for veterinary field service. The weight, size, and cost data of these are shown in table 15.

Table 15. Weight, size, and price data of veterinary small unit assemblies

In parallel with the development of medical kit for testing the Army’s

water supplies for possible contamination by chemical warfare agents, the

Medical Research Laboratory, Chemical Warfare Center, Edgewood Arsenal,

Md., in December 1944 initiated project on field kit which could be used

for similarly testing the Army’s food supplies. By February 1945, the kit

assembly was approved (or standardized) by Headquarters, Army Service

Forces; during May 1945, it was included as an item of regular Medical

Department supply and was made available to large number of military

units, including those of the Army Veterinary Service. It consisted of the

Item number Nomenclature Weight Size Price

Pounds Cubic feet 019 000 Case, hypodermic tablets, veterinary. 0. 50 0. 01 $4. 00

020 000 Case, mallein test __ 4. 25 33 48. 00

021 000 Case, meat and dairy hygiene inspection 10. 00 55 30. 85

023 000 Case, pocket, veterinary 1. 50 02 18. 80

024 000 Case, post mortem, veterinary 10. 50 25 21. 35

029 000 Chest, clipping 51. 50 2. 84 45. 00 794 000 Dispensing set, veterinary 150. 00 13. 00 29. 30

713 000 Kit, veterinary officer’s 8. 75 63 31. 00

712 500 Kit, veterinary noncommissioned officer’s, 9. 40 48 11. 50

805 000 Case, instrument, veterinary noncommissioned officer’s, 1. 25 02 7. 50

713 500 Kit, veterinary private’s 7. 67 37 9. 15

805 700 Case, instrument, veterinaryprivate’s 25 01 3. 00

802 000 Case, dental, veterinary 35. 00 70 110. 00

803 000 Case, foot, veterinary 8. 00 25 33. 50

804 000 Case, forceps, hemostatic, veterinary 1. 25 04 25. 00

805 000 Case, general operating, veterinary 13. 00 49 113. 30

806 000 Case, stomach and rectal, veterinary 12. 00 60 6. 75

807 000 Chest, MD No. 80 155. 00 5. 00 141. 00

808 000 Chest, MD No. 81 160. 00 5. 00 50. 00 812 200 Chest, veterinary pack 59. 00 1. 80 37. 00 812 500 Chest, veterinary pack 60. 00 1. 80 34. 75

814 000 Chest, restraint, veterinary 84. 00 4. 25 94. 45

815 000 Chest, restraint, veterinary, supplemental. 94. 00 4. 22 66. 25

816 000 Surgical dressing set, veterinary 80. 00 4. 00 38. 25

815 400 Gas casualty set, veterinary 165. 00 5. 00 143. 75

Sources: (1) Army Service Forces Catalog, MED 3, Mar. 1944. (2) War Department Supply Bulletin, SB 8-1,

Nov. 1944.
SUPPLY AND EQUIPMENT 123

Figure 6.—Food testing kit for detecting chemical warfare agent contamination of foods.

kind of reagents that were useful in conducting simple tests for the detection

of mustard gas, nitrogen mustards, cyanogenic agents, and the arsenical

smokes and blister gas contamination in foods (fig. 6).

Biologicals

The procurement and distribution of biologicals by the Medical Department supply system were closely supervised by the Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office, probably to more exacting degree than any other

group of Medical Department materiel used by the Army Veterinary Service.

During 1942, the Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office, entered into

regular meetings of the Subcommittee on Biologicals of the Drug Resources

Advisory Committee, Army-Navy Munitions Board. At these meetings, that

part of the Nation’s industry which produced biologicals was surveyed as to

its capacity to satisfy military requirements for biologicals; later, this planning was conducted in cooperation with the Army Veterinary School. Army

Medical Center, Washington, D.C., on request of the Requirements Division,

Army Service Forces. The actual procurement of biologicals involved both

the output from Medical Department laboratories of certain items and the

purchase of others from commercial sources. At the onset of World War II,
124 RM ETERIXA ERVIC

the biological products itemized in the Medical Department Supply Catalog included

From commercial sources through depots:

Antianthrax serum

Anthrax spore vaccine (intradermic)

Tetanus antitoxin

From Army Veterinary School, Army Medical Center:

Antigens: bovine infectious abortion, glanders, and equine infectious abortion

(for complement-fixation tests)

Mallein (intradermic)

Tuberculin (intradermic)

Vaccine, equine strangles

Vaccine, equine infectious abortion

From corps area medical laboratories:

Vaccine, autogenous, veterinary

At this time, however, little use was being made of equine strangles vaccine, and it was soon removed from Medical Department supply; the same

was true for the laboratory test antigen for bovine infectious abortion. There

were several additional biologicals, some in common use in the Army, but

they were not itemized until later. These included equine encephalomyelitis

vaccine—improved, produced, and distributed by the Army Veterinary School

after the late 1930’s—and tetanus toxoid of commercial manufacture. The

former, appearing first in the supply catalog in 1942, was used in the highly

successful program to protect military horses and mules from equine encephalomyelitis which as occurring in enzootic form each year in the United

States (fig. 7). The tetanus toxoid appeared in regular supply channels at

the same time, but actually it was used earlier in 1939, in new program to

confer permanent type of immunity against tetanus in few selected Army

animals. The toxoid, however, did not entirely replace tetanus antitoxin

which was used whenever serious wound injury was treated. During 1943, the diagnostic antigens for conducting the tube and the plate agglutination

tests for bovine contagious abortion were added to the supply catalog. The manufacture of few veterinary biologicals by the Medical Department was continued or revitalized in 'World War II or whenever commercial

or other sources could not fully satisfy Army requirements. Economy in

production and distribution was factor in these activities, but far more

important than this was the training it offered veterinary laboratory officers.

Certain production procedures which were covered by patent held by manufacturer of equine encephalomyelitis vaccine were recognized by the Army

Veterinary School in its production and improvement of that vaccinal biological for military use; the manufacturer granted license to the Army to use

the patented techniques. Aside from the few mentioned, veterinary biologicals generally were procured from commercial sources.

Actually, there were many more kinds of biologicals needed and used by

the Army Veterinary Service than were itemized as available through regular

Medical Department supply channels. The itemized ones conceivably were
SUPPLY AND EQUIPMENT 125

Figure 7.—Biological production, Army Veterinary School, Army Medical Center,

Washington, D.C.

sufficient for the veterinary services with Army horses and mules, but many

others were needed and were obtained for the professional care and treatment of Army dogs, signal pigeons, animal pets belonging to military organizations and personnel, military farm livestock, and the civilian animals which

temporarily came under direct military jurisdiction. In regard to the civilian

animals, it should be understood that the establishment of civil affairs and

military government organization and of civilian aid supply was usually

delayed and that the planning for these animals was conducted at levels of

military administration (and with degree of secretiveness) far removed

from the veterinary services in the task forces where the civilian animal

populations in liberated, captured, and occupied areas during World War II,

particularly in the Pacific theaters, were first encountered. Therefore, the

biologicals needed for these groups of animals were procured usually through

local purchases made by depots and medical supply officers; sometimes they

were actually obtained in foreign countries, if available and if the local

situation was one of emergency. Among the biologicals most commonly

needed were rabies vaccine, anti-canine-distemper serum and virus, pigeonpox vaccine, anti-hog-cholera serum and virus, and various biologicals for

the diagnosis or control of the other serious diseases of livestock (not excluding brucellosis, erysipelas, blackleg, leptospirosis, and salmonellosis). In
126 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

1943, camp medical supply officers in the Zone of Interior were authorized to

procure biologicals for the protection of Army dogs against rabies and canine

distemper.

Difficulties in the veterinary supply of biologicals were encountered with

the short life of viable vaccinal agents; also, there were delays in receiving

requisitioned supplies, but these delays more frequently arose when the supply depots or supply officers were not fully advised of the specific biological

needed, the quantity (dose or vials), and the exact reasons for needing them.

There is no doubt that veterinary requisitions were at times as badly written

as the scribbled prescriptions handed into corner drugstores in civilian life.

In their advisory relationship to Medical Department supply officers overseas, veterinary officers advised against the introduction of specific viable

biologicals into areas which were free of the particular disease or which

regulated against the importation or use of such agents.

Professional Books and Journals

Until 1943, there was little supply by the Medical Department of veterinary professional books and periodicals (or journals). book allowance was

established during 1942 for hospital libraries in the Zone of Interior, but the

books were too few in number and generally were not of the subject matter

more urgently needed by veterinary officers. Then, in July 1943, the Surgeon

General’s Office announced procedure for the supply of 46 kinds of books

to the offices of service command veterinarians, station veterinary detachments, veterinary laboratories and training schools, and to the Army Veterinary Service inside of depots, market centers, remount area headquarters,

dog training centers, and ports; each facility was furnished the books that

were most needed according to its activities.

Unit Equipment Assemblages

To facilitate the delivery of functional equipment to new veterinary

organizations and units, particularly in their preparations for oversea deployment, their Medical Department and other technical service items of equipment and supplies were grouped together into unit assemblages. Earlier

assemblages of Medical Department technical equipment and supplies were

compiled from War Department approved tables of allowances and from

tables of equipment for the specific units that were promulgated later. As

of January 1941, the Medical Department Supply Catalog itemized six veterinary unit assemblages; Veterinary Dispensary Equipment (Zone of Interior), Veterinary Pack Equipment (Cavalry), Veterinary Convalescent Hospital (1,000-animal), Veterinary Evacuation Hospital (250-animal), Veterinary

General Hospital (500-animal), and Veterinary Station Hospital (150-animal). In January 1942, on the basis of mobilization planning, the Veterinary

Division, Surgeon General's Office, recommended that the 13 assemblages for
SUPPLY AND EQUIPMENT 127

veterinary evacuation, general, and station hospitals be packed and placed

into storage at various places throughout the United States so that they

would be available whenever and if these type units would be activated.

During 1942, there were added to the six original ones, the unit assemblages

for the separate veterinary company, the veterinary troop of medical squadron (in cavalry division), and the veterinary company of medical battalion (in mountain division) however, planning for these was transient,

and the assemblages disappeared from regular Medical Department supply

channels before 1943.

Eventually, the unit assemblages that were retained were described as

to their component technical items in Medical Department equipment lists.

Similar lists were developed for the Medical Department materiel—assemblages for veterinary infirmaries and station veterinary hospital organizations which were being established and operated at the Army camps in the Zone

of Interior. During 1944, these several equipment lists were integrated into

new section of the Medical Department Supply Catalog and were regarded

as supplemental annex to War Department approved tables of equipment

for veterinary units; that is, the Medical Department items of materiel,

because of their great numbers, were enumerated for the units in these equipment lists rather than in the relevant approved tables of equipment which

were already lengthy with their entries on other non-Medical Department

equipment. Table 16 refers only to the Medical Department materiel authorized for given unit by citation of the item number of the unit assemblage

which was described in the lists.

NON-MEDICAL DEPARTMENT SUPPLY AND EQUIPMENT

The Medical Department supply of technical or professional materiel

comprised only part of the equipment and supplies which were used by the

Army Veterinary Service. The latter also obtained items from the Chemical

Warfare Service, Corps of Engineers, Ordnance Department, Quartermaster- Corps, and Signal Corps. These military services procured, stored, and distributed certain supplies in about the same manner that the Medical Department procured, handled, and distributed medical supplies. Quantitatively

for each veterinary unit, their supply greatly outweighed the Medical Department materiel and included gas masks, motor transport vehicles, as well as

horses and mules, and armaments.

Protective Equipment Against Chemical Warfare

The supply of protective equipment which would safeguard military

animals against chemical warfare agents was the responsibility of the Chemical Warfare Service. However, this equipment, which came into Army supply during World War II, was the result largely of the research and development studies that were undertaken by Veterinary Corps officers in cooperation
128 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

with the Chemical Warfare Service. The onset of World War II found the

Army without tested or proved equipment that might be used to protect

horses, mules, dogs, and pigeons from such chemical warfare agents as were

thought to have been developed in Europe during the last decade. There

were certain horse gas masks available or left over from World War I, but

little was accomplished during the succeeding peacetime years to improve

them or to make them protective against the newer chemical warfare agents.

In fact, throughout the 1930’s (or until mid-1940, at least), the use of Army

horses and mules to actually test the protective efficiency of chemical warfare

equipment was prohibited.

Table 16. Weight, size, and price data of Medical Department unit assemblages for veterinary

units

During August 1940, studies were begun at the Chemical Warfare Center

on canister-type mask which would provide greater protection to animals

and would be effective against the newer chemical warfare agents. The mask

that was developed satisfied the requirements of field trials which were conducted by the Cavalry Board, Fort Riley, Kans., the First Cavalry Division

Board at Fort Bliss, Tex., and the Field Artillery Board, Fort Bragg, N.C.

Subsequently, on 20 February 1941, the War Department described the

Horse Gas Masks M4 and M5 as standard equipment. About year later, an

Itemnumber Nomenclature Weight Size Price

Pounds Cubicfeet Dollars

735 200 Veterinary infirmary, ZI .. 1, 101 132 619

734 000 Veterinary dispensary equipment, CZ 576 23 1, 054

735 500 Veterinary pack equipment 92 74

733 500 Veterinary convalescent hospital, CZ, 500-patient.

17, 920 929 7, 745

734 500 Veterinary evacuation hospital, 150-

patient.

3, 303 172 2, 078

736 000 Veterinary station hospital, ZI, 150-

patient.

19, 879 1, 111 7, 263

736 200 Veterinary station hospital, ZI, 100-

patient.

16, 242 902 6, 213

736 300 Veterinary station hospital, ZI, 50-patient_ 11, 775 733 4, 949

736 400 Veterinary station hospital, ZI, 25-patient_ 5, 830 347 2, 202

736 500 Veterinary station hospital, ZI, 10-patient_ 4, 098 281 1, 770

736 100 Veterinary station hospital, CZ, 150-

patient.

10, 785 498 5, 011

735 500 Veterinary general hospital, CZ, 500-

patient.

26, 990 1, 612 9, 013

733 700 Veterinary detachment, food inspection

equipment, medical.

100 109

Sources: (1) Army Service Forces Catalog, MED 3, Mar. 1944. (2) War Department Supply Bulletin, SB 8-1,

Nov. 1944.
SUPPLY AND EQUIPMENT 129

expenditure order was issued by the Chemical Warfare Service on the procurement of 39,145 of these masks and, within short period of time, technical manual and motion picture films were prepared for training personnel

in their use, care, handling, packing, transporting, and inspection. Issues of

these masks were authorized for each horse and mule in theater of operations, with additional numbers for veterinary units and hospitals having

animal patients.

There were no major changes in protective equipment for Army horses

and mules during the remainder of the war period; in fact, during April

1943, the Army Ground Forces—-with its requirements apparently met—indicated that there was no need to continue developmental studies on the masks

or on any other kind of equipment (including capes and leggings).

Studies, comparable to the research and development of horse gas masks,

were conducted on protective equipment for Army dogs. In the fall of 1942,

the Quartermaster Corps inquired into the availability of masks or other

protective equipment for dogs which were then being used. This inquiry

marked the beginning of studies on the effects of chemical agents on dogs,

but it was not until 1944 that field trials with experimental models of dog

masks were brought to final stage. Eventually, the Dog Gas Mask M6-12-8

was approved and made available by the Chemical Warfare Service as an

item of issue in the oversea theaters, on the basis of one for each Army dog.

Transportation Equipment

Vehicles and animals were part of the unit equipment of most veterinary detachments and units which were deployed in the oversea theaters;

these were used in the transportation of personnel and equipment, the collection of daily supplies (including rations), and the evacuation of sick and

wounded animals. Until August 1942, all vehicles as well as animals were

provided by the Quartermaster Corps but, after that time, the supply of

motor transport was the responsibility of the Ordnance Department, while

the Quartermaster Corps continued to supply the animals which were used

with the veterinary leading apparatus and wagons or were used in pack animal transport and to provide the few wagons that were authorized in the

larger veterinary hospitals.

There is little need to describe the veterinary leading apparatus because

it was not used to any great extent, if at all, in the evacuation of animals

during World War II. It was Quartermaster Corps item of supply and was

listed as costing more than $200 each, exclusive of the animals which were used

to operate it (fig. 8). Actually, the lead line was impressed into uses other

than that of evacuating animals; it was used also to move animals if they

were not to be led or driven as herd. Thus, at port of embarkation in

the Zone of Interior during World War IT, so-called floating picket line

was improvised by stretching sort of leading apparatus between two trucks.

During World War II, the identity of the veterinary ambulance as
130 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

U.S. ARMY PHOTO

Figure 8.—Operation of the veterinary lead line.

specific kind of animal-drawn or motor-drawn vehicle and trailer was generally lost in the use of variety of motor vehicles and semitrailers to transport sick and wounded animals. What was referred to as the Quartermaster Corps horse ambulance in 1940 soon became the two-wheel, two-horse trailer

van (fig. 9), and the trucks specially fitted with stock-rack bodies were

often replaced overseas with trucks that had no special sides to prevent

animals from falling off or jumping over the sides of the truck body. In

fact, almost any type of %y -ton or 4- to 5-ton truck, could be, and was,

used to transport animals to veterinary hospitals. In the Mediterranean

theater during operations in mountainous areas, 6-ton semitrailers drawn by

tractor truck were found to be particularly hazardous in the successful

evacuation of the sick and wounded animals from pack trains of the Fifth

U.S. Army, and these semitrailers were replaced by regular motor vehicles.

OVERSEA SUPPLY

Overseas, the Army Veterinary Service obtained its equipment and supplies in much the same manner that it obtained them in the Zone of Interior; namely, by requisition demand on depots. Of course, there were

occasions when the required supplies were procured by local purchase or

when captured materiel was used. The depot system of supply by the

Medical Department overseas was based upon the establishment and opera-
SUPPLY AND EQUIPMENT 131

F.tgtjee 9.—Quartermaster Corps horse ambulance, 1940. A. Sideview. B. Rearview.
132 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

tion of field medical branch depots and medical sections of general depots

which were located in the combat or army areas and in the communications

zone under the control of the theater’s services of supply organization. Each

depot included Veterinary Corps officer (in the grade of major) who

acted as special staff assistant to the unit commander. At least 12 such

depot units, each with its own veterinary officer, came into existence during

the first few years of the war. During 1943, the depot unit just mentioned

was removed from the list of approved tables of organization and was replaced by two new kinds of field or theater units. Neither of the new

units was specially authorized Veterinary Corps officer, but some few

veterinary officers who had become experienced with their earlier assignments in the original units were retained or became unit commanders.

Medical Department Supply in the Oversea Theaters

By the end of World War II, the utilization of veterinary personnel on

full-time duty in field medical depot organizations and operations was negligible. Matters relating to the equipment and supply of veterinary personnel and units in the oversea theaters were chiefly limited to liaison and to

the advisory assistance given by theater veterinarians to the medical supply

officers who were located in the various theater surgeons’ offices. The needs

for particular item or kind of item more often comprised the urgency for

veterinary advisory assistance to the theater medical supply officers. Except

in two theaters and possibly in third, the supply needs of the Army

Veterinary Service were, in terms of quantity, quality, and time, satisfactorily met. At one time or another, shortages in supply were experienced,

but these frequently were transient and were overcome almost as soon as

they occurred. factor contributing to such incidents was the deployment

of Army dogs and signal pigeons into oversea areas where the Army Veterinary Service may have been totally unprepared and unequipped to render

any kind of professional animal services. In other situations, captured animals were assembled, and local livestock industries were temporarily brought

under military control so that there were demands for supplies that were not

forseen during the planning for given military operation. This actually

occurred in the European theater where considerable emphasis was placed on

policy in which the Army veterinary animal service was to be confined

at the level of emergency first aid treatment in medical dispensaries and

which favored the utilization of local civilian veterinary facilities and personnel. Actually, the policy had no value in any theater except in Europe

and, even there, certain problems arose; for example, captured animals untested for glanders were used in depots, and sick or wounded guard dogs

were evacuated to British Army veterinary hospital.

The truly real shortages of veterinary equipment and supplies were

experienced in the China-Burma-India and the Mediterranean theaters. In

the latter, the unexpected and sudden use of large numbers of animals by
SUPPLY AND EQUIPMENT 133

U.S. troops—first in the Sicilian campaign and then in the campaigns north- ward up the Italian peninsula—and the subsequent deployment of Italian

Army pack trains and veterinary hospitals created demands for supplies

which were not readily satisfied. Even at the end of 1941, the Army Veterinary Service with the remount organization that was supporting the Fifth

U.S. Army regarded its medical supply situation as acute.

In the China-Burma-India theater, later divided into the separate IndiaBurma and the China theaters, the Army Veterinary Service experienced

great difficulties in obtaining Medical Department equipment and supplies

for its use, but this situation was no different from that for all of the U.S.

forces in the theater. Actually, the difficulties were probably caused by the

shipping distance and time from the Zone of Interior and by the relative

low standing in priority of the theater to receive supplies until the war

in Europe was won. One result of this shortage in supply was the hampering effect on the early instructional programs which were conducted for the

Chinese military forces by Army veterinary personnel in training schools

or centers and by those who were assigned liaison duty with the Chinese

field armies and combat divisions; however, local improvisation of training

aids by the Army Veterinary Service prevented any serious delay of training. Significantly, self-supply was only part of the Medical Department

supply difficulties in the China-Burma-India theater; there were also the

problems in the U.S. supply of veterinary materiel to the United Statessponsored Chinese Army in China and to other Chinese military organizations and in the British supply of veterinary materiel to the Allied-sponsored

Chinese Army in India, which was reorganized and trained by the U.S.

forces.

These supplies were separately identified as to their sources and recipients in the theater, until the fall of 1944, when the confusion and complexity of the supply procedures which were seen at ports and depots handling, storing, and distributing these different kinds of supplies were brought

to an end; at this time, unilateral U.S. supply for both the U.S. forces and

Chinese armies was established. Before this time, in connection with the

supply to the Chinese Army in India, British officials were primarily responsible, but the Army Veterinary Service was actually responsible for determining requirements and distributing the British supplies to the Chinese

combat divisions. Unfortunately, the British sources did not deliver the kind

and amount of materiel which was requisitioned nor were the deliveries effected without some delay. In the supply to the Chinese Army in China,

difficulties were experienced with so-called Chinese defense supplies which

were being provided by the United States on lend-lease basis and were distributed by the Chinese National Health Administration. Eventually, this

was modified so that greater amounts of the right kind of medical equipment

and supplies would be obtained in China and more would be diverted to the military effort. In addition to these two Chinese forces, there was another
134 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

one which was not Allied sponsored but was maintained by the Chinese government through its Ministry of War. It was supplied by Chinese Services

of Supply organization, comparable to the China theater’s U.S. Services of

Supply organization, and was also responsible for any local procurement of

military supplies in China. The Chinese organization was provided Veterinary Corps personnel who were only partially successful in their attempts to

develop veterinary supply system in the Chinese forces that would have

paralleled the Medical Department system of supply in the U.S. Army. Originally, their veterinary supply was administered as separate activity of the

Chinese Horse Administration, which maintained four veterinary supply depots.

Civilian Supply in Liberated and Occupied Areas

The brief references made previously to Chinese defense supplies comprised the only known instance in which the Army Veterinary Service was

directly involved in the Medical Department’s participation in the lend-lease

supply of American medical materiel to foreign countries. This supply was

undertaken by the United States in 1941 to provide aid to those foreign

countries and their armies whose defense was considered as essential to its

own defense There was also another program for supplying civilians,

but this was limited to newly liberated and occupied areas. While the

latter supply was conceived as being outside the sphere of military operations and more properly the concern of nonmilitary agencies of the U.S.

Government, there was reason to believe that temporary relief should be

afforded to civilian populations in liberated and occupied areas if for no

other reason than that disease and civilian unrest, as might hamper military operations, should be kept to minimum. It was to be short-term

program, operated by the Army only during the period of military operations, and was to be “phased-out” as postwar rehabilitation programs would

come into existence. Planning for direct civilian supply by the Army during the period of liberation and initial occupation was undertaken in 1943,

or after experiences in North Africa had shown that civilian agencies (including the Foreign Economic Administration and the Office of Foreign

Relief and Rehabilitation Operations, U.S. Department of State) were

powerless to act until the areas were militarily secured. Veterinary materiel

was included in this civilian supply specifically to protect civilians and U.S.

troops from indigenous animal diseases and to conserve the food and transport animal populations in these areas.

Planning for the civilian supply of Medical Department materiel was

undertaken in the Surgeon General’s Office by specially created board of

officers, in mid-1943. Their recommendations were channeled through Headquarters, Army Service Forces, and thence to the Combined (United StatesBritish) Chiefs of Staff, located in Washington, D.C., which had established Supply Subcommittee within its Combined Civil Affairs Committee,
SUPPLY AND EQUIPMENT 135

Actually, the original planning in the Surgeon General's Office overlooked

veterinary materiel requirements of liberated and occupied countries, but

this situation was corrected after December 1943 when the Subcommittee

asked if there were studied requirements for veterinary materiel in this

civilian supply. If not, the Army was requested to support the recommendations which had been made by U.S. State Department agencies who were

to follow the Army supply with their own long-range, postwar programs

for veterinary civilian supply in liberated and occupied countries. veterinary officer was named at once on the Surgeon General’s Civil Affairs Divi- sion Board and then to newly formed Working Party on Veterinary Supplies for Liberated Areas, which operated within the jurisdiction of the

Combined Chiefs of Staff, in Washington, D.C. ).

The Working Party on Veterinary Supplies for Liberated Areas was

made up of United States component and British component—the latter

obtaining its views from London, England. The United States component,

including Veterinary Corps representation from the Surgeon General’s Office,

formulated and, on 15 March 1944, reported plan for civilian supply (d),

and the British component’s plan became available during April 1944,

The British component’s plan seemingly was one which was developed by

United States and the British Army veterinary officers in England (7, 5, 9).

Obviously, the two plans were not alike, but their differences were readily

reconciled in moderate revision of the U.S. plan which soon found acceptance with the Supply Committee, Combined Civil Affairs Committee of

the Combined Chiefs of Staff. The Army’s veterinary civilian supply was

based on the procurement and distribution of four small unit assemblies of

Medical Department materiel as follows:

Number

of items

CAD Basic Veterinary Unit: For the care and treatment of 20 percent of 25,000 animals for months,

in occupied areas during the period of military

occupation 43

CAD Veterinary Surgical Unit: For the care and

treatment of each 10 percent of 100,000 animals

for months 40

CAD Veterinary Laboratory Unit: For the establishment, or the rehabilitation, of simple food analytical

and animal disease-diagnostic laboratories 88

CAD Biologic Reserve; For controlling enzootics,

using on 20 percent of 25,000 animals:

Central Reserve

On need-be basis (for 6-month period) 12

In England, special Allied Post War Requirements Bureau was set up during the fall of

1944 to include representatives from various countries and one Veterinary Corps officer. Certain

recommendations regarding veterinary supply were subsequently reviewed jointly by the British

Royal Army Veterinary Corps and the U.S. Army Veterinary Service of the European theater.

The latter’s review eventually came into the hands of the Working Committee on Veterinary Supplies for Liberated Areas.
136 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

As of June 1944, supply planning within the Combined Chiefs of

Staff projected requirements for 3,496 basic, 224 surgical, and 77 laboratory

units for distribution among 17 European countries during the initial

months of their liberation or military occupation; these quantities were

increased later. Responsibility for their procurement was divided between

the United States and the United Kingdom—the latter only had one-third

of the total but was responsible for the supply of most of the biologicals.

At this time, however, the fighting on the European Continent had begun

so that the Allied (United States and British) forces resorted to the plan

which had been developed in England until the basic, surgical, and laboratory units that were approved could be assembled and made available.

Actually, the Allied forces found their civilian supplies being used at an

earlier date and at much more rapid rate than anticipated so that requisitioning by spot demand early became commonplace procedure to bring

veterinary civilian supplies into European countries. However, while spot

demand requisitioning seemed to have initially brought the more urgently

needed supplies into France, the civilian supplies became more readily available when the Allied armies liberated the other countries in Northwest

Europe.

civilian supply program for the Mediterranean theater, particularly

Italy, likewise was developed by the Working Party on Veterinary Supplies

for Liberated Areas. However, what was being accomplished was not fully

known to that theater because, in June 1944, the latter submitted to the

Combined Civil Affairs Committee in Washington, D.C., list of veterinary

materiel which it thought, supported by its study of the needs of Italian

veterinarians during the previous months, should be supplied to foreign

countries having an agricultural economy comparable to that of Italy

{10, 11). Obviously, the newly submitted list for veterinary civilian supply

was critically at variance with the several small unit assemblies which had

been developed in Washington, D.C., because the latter presumably were

based on probable needs where American methods of disease control and

treatment were employed. The Surgeon General’s Office advised the Combined Chiefs of Staff’s Civil Affairs Committee that their four small unit

assemblies should not be changed {12), and this recommendation was eventually agreed to by the Public Health Subcommission, Allied Control Commission, in Italy. Then, as these supplies became available, the Public

Health Subcommission, Allied Control Commission, transferred them to the

Chief of the Italian Veterinary Service under the Ministry of Interior,

who distributed them through the various provincial governments. Where

these imported civilian supplies together with those available from the local

Italian resources were inadequate, the more urgent requirements were partially met by requisitioning on the Army medical supply system within the

theater or by requisitioning special items direct from the United States.

Greece and Austria also were provided with veterinary materiel in this
SUPPLY AND EQUIPMENT 137

Army Medical Department’s civilian supply program. However, their requisitions, particularly those from Greece, were necessarily reduced because some

of the equipment and supplies so demanded were destined for use in longterm rehabilitation programs in these countries and thus were outside of the

limitations which governed the Army’s civilian supply program. In the

Pacific and Far East areas, the United States was alone in the military

supplying of civilians during the period of military liberation and initial

occupation. These areas specifically included the Philippine Islands, Formosa, parts of China, the Netherlands East Indies, Japan, and Korea.

However, the program was not fully developed for any particular area pursuant to original plans when Japan unexpectedly surrendered. Then, as

happened in Europe, the Army responsibility in liberated areas was relinquished as soon as possible to the liberated governments who continued

to obtain their needed supplies through civilian international agencies.

Of course, in military occupied areas, the Army continued its civilian supply

program long after the end of active hostilities.

References

1. Kelser, II. A.: Veterinary Service in the Preparedness Program. Yet. Med. 36:

12-18, January 1941.

2. Army Service Forces Medical Supply Catalog, MED 3, Mar. 1944.

3. Public Law 11, 77th Congress, approved 11 March 1941.

4. Yates, Richard E.; The Procurement and Distribution of Medical Supplies in the

Zone of Interior During World War II (31 May 1946). [Official record.]

5. Memorandum, Combined Secretariat to Supply Subcommittee, Combined Civil

Affairs Committee, June 1944, subject: Veterinary Supplies for Liberated Areas: Report

by the Working Party.

6. Memorandum, U.S. Members to Supply Committee, Combined Civil Affairs Committee, 15 Mar. 1944, subject: Veterinary Supplies for Liberated Areas.

7. Memorandum, Civil Supply Branch, International Division, Army Service Forces,

for Special Planning Division, Surgeon General’s Office, 19 Apr. 1944, subject: Veterinary

Requirements in Occupied Countries.

8. Perkins, C. B., and Iluebner, R. A.; World War II History of the Army Veterinary Service, European Theater. [Official record.]

9. Todd, Frank A.: History of the U.S. Army Veterinary Service With Civil Affairs/

Military Government in the European Theater, July 1947. [Official record.]

10. Letter, Economics and Supply Division, G-5 Section, Allied Force Headquarters,

June 1944, to Combined Civil Affairs Committee, Combined Chiefs of Staff, June 1944,

subject: Veterinary Component Additions to CAD List.

11. Letter, Col. R. W. Rushmore, VC, to Public Health Subcommission, Allied Control

Commission, Italy, 18 July 1944, subject: Summary of Veterinary Activities for Period

November 1943 to July 1944.

12. Memorandum, Civilian Supply Branch, International Division, Army Service

Forces, for The Surgeon General, 16 June 1944, subject: AFHQ Veterinary List. Memorandum in reply, Operations Service, Surgeon General’s Office, July 1944.

390248 —61 11 139

CHAPTER VII

Functional Organization in the Zone of Interior

WAR DEPARTMENT ORGANIZATION

Chapters III to VI have dealt with the Army Veterinary Service in

general terms as to its central administration, its personnel, and its training and supply. Probably, more interesting subject is the functional organiza- tion of the Army Veterinary Service in the Zone of Interior or the discussion of the deployment and utilization of veterinary personnel and their

activities in the United States during World War II. Unfortunately, functional organization per se is difficult to understand and proves even more

difficult to describe, particularly since veterinary functional organization was

one of integration into the combat arms and technical services. Essentially,

it followed the command structure of the Army as whole and, as the latter

changed, so did veterinary functional organization change. Sometimes, the

military command structure created hardships on the orderly operations of

military veterinary service, but this could be expected, and though,

seemingly or theoretically, threatening complete breakdown for adequate

and proper professional activities, these hardships were minimized by willful

cooperation and recourse to technical channels of communication between the

veterinary personnel who came under control of the various commands. The

latter always had as their objective the gaining of command support in the

conduct of meat and dairy hygiene and veterinary animal services. These

two activities, together with veterinary laboratory service, characterized the

organizational functions of the Army Veterinary Service in World War II.

Before discussing the veterinary organization, one must be moderately

acquainted with the organization of the War Department which, physically

located in the United States, was superimposed over the Army both in the

Zone of Interior and overseas. At the onset of World War II, the War

Department, as contrasted with the Army, included the civilian Secretary of

War and the military Chief of Staff, who controlled the War Department

General Staff and the War Department Special Staff. The latter comprised

the chiefs of combat arms, certain administrative bureaus such as were

headed by The Adjutant General, Judge Advocate General, Inspector General, and Chief of Finance, and the chiefs of supply and technical services.

The service chiefs were the Chief of Chemical Warfare Service, Chief of

Engineers, The Surgeon General, Chief of Ordnance, The Quartermaster

General, and Chief Signal Officer. There was no Chief of Transportation

until mid-1942. The Army organization comprised the four field armies

which commanded most of the ground tactical forces in the United States,

and the nine corps area commands administered the military camps and
140 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

stations and supported the ground force units. There were certain other

field installations, however, such as general depots and ports, which came

under the direct control of the War Department. Finally, there were two

major commands which had come into existence during the pre-Pearl Harbor

emergency periods: The Army Air Forces and the General Headquarters

for the field forces. The latter, created in July 1940, was responsible for

the tactical training of ground troops and the planning for the defense of the United States by four territorial defense commands. By this time, the

Army Air Forces was started on its way toward degree of autonomy. There were few components of the overall military organization in the

Zone of Interior below the level of the General Staff that did not have

assigned veterinary personnel. The larger share of this personnel was, at

the beginning of the period, located at various camps and stations

under the jurisdiction of corps area commands, in the depots, hospitals,

schools, and laboratories controlled by The Quartermaster General and The

Surgeon General, and at the general depots, ports, or other exempted stations which reported directly to the War Department. Gradually, as the

Nation’s first peacetime draft law came into operation and military Deserve

forces were ordered into active duty, more Veterinary Corps personnel were

assigned to the ground combat units and to the Army Air Forces fields and

bases.

Effective on March 1942, about months after the start of active

hostilities, the War Department was reorganized, and the operational controls over military activities in the Zone of Interior were redivided among

three, newly created, separate commands: The Army Air Forces, the Army

Ground Forces, and the Services of Supply—the last being renamed Army

Service Forces in May 1943 (i). The veterinary organization of these three

commands is described later, but it is of immediate importance to observe

that the commanding general of each of these commands reported to the

Chief of Staff of the Army. The Surgeon General, in turn, was subordinated to the Commanding General, Army Service Forces.

Of the three newly created War Department commands in the Zone of

Interior, Army Service Forces predominates in the discussion of the Army

Veterinary Service, because the Army Service Forces command included The

Surgeon General of the Army and the Medical Department of which the

Army Veterinary Service was component element. Also, it included the

Quartermaster Corps which supplied the Army and other Armed Forces with

foods and animals, the Transportation Corps which transported the Army

and moved its supplies, and the service commands (once called corps areas)

which controlled or administered nearly all of the Army camps and stations

in the Zone of Interior. In contrast to the alignment of the larger share of

the Army Veterinary Service with Army Service Forces, proportionally

smaller number of veterinary personnel on duty at airfields and bases were

transferred to Army Air Forces, and Army Ground Forces came into control
ORGANIZATION IN ZONE OF INTERIOR 141

over those personnel who were assigned to Infantry, Cavalry, Field Artillery,

and other ground combat service organizations and units.

RELATIONSHIP WITHIN THE ARMY SERVICE FORCES

The Army Services Forces command included its headquarters organization, certain operational elements which were the technical or the administrative and supply services, and the service commands (formerly corps

areas) which were the major elements of its field organization. At its head

was the Commanding General, Army Service Forces. The several functional

staff divisions of Headquarters, Army Service Forces, were not unlike the

policy-making General Staff divisions of the War Department and also

comprised the groups of certain War Department administrative bureaus

including the offices of The Adjutant General, the Judge Advocate General, the Chief of Finance, the Provost Marshal General, and the Chief of Chaplains. No veterinary personnel were assigned to Headquarters, Army

Service Forces. The technical services and supply departments of the Army

were in the next echelon of the command. One such agency was the Medical

Department which was headed by The Surgeon General; the latter’s office

included the Veterinary Division whose divisional chief—a Veterinary Corps

officer—was the chief of the Army Veterinary Service. The technical services included also the Chemical Warfare Service, Corps of Engineers, Ordnance Department, Quartermaster Corps, Signal Corps, and Transportation

Corps. Each of these, as did the Medical Department, controlled number

of field installations in the Zone of Interior, also referred to as class IV

installations, where veterinary personnel were on duty. These personnel comprised the remount depot veterinarians, remount purchasing board and area

headquarters veterinarians, Army dog center veterinarians, depot veterinarians, market center veterinarians, port veterinarians, veterinary instructional staffs in schools and training centers, and those engaged in research

and development activities. The Army Service Forces field organization or

its service commands, from veterinary standpoint, comprised the service

command veterinarians, medical laboratory veterinarians, and the many

camp, station, and area veterinarians. Installations under the control of

service commands were designated as class installations, and the veterinary

services thereat, as class activities.

Thus, within Army Service Forces, veterinary personnel in the Zone of

Interior were divided among two command groups—those belonging to the

several technical services and the others under jurisdiction of the service

commands. This division or scattering of veterinary personnel came with

the Army Service Forces emphasis on decentralizing command authority

over supply matters (that is, procurement, transportation, storage, and distribution) among the technical and supply services and that of “housekeeping” to the service commands. Professional and specialist activities were

accorded secondary roles in the Army Service Forces so that training, labora-
ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE 142

tory services, hospitalization functions and other medical activities, including the veterinary services, were grossly and arbitrarily divided between the

Army’s technical services and its “housekeepers.” This division complicated

and made difficult an overall technical supervision of veterinary activities by

The Surgeon General, such as in service command, in Quartermaster

Corps depot, or in Transportation Corps port. However, by means of

informal arrangements and personal communications on professional matters,

necessarily made outside of command channels, the various groups of veterinary personnel were coordinated in their activities to become equally important in accomplishing the major missions of the Army Veterinary Service

in the Zone of Interior.

HOLE OF PERSONNEL ASSIGNED TO THE TECHNICAL SERVICES

The Army Veterinary Service with the supply and technical departments,

bureaus, or corps of the Army Service Forces necessitated the distribution

of veterinary personnel and their utilization at various field (or class IV)

installations which were controlled by the respective chiefs of services. At

one time, in 1943, there were approximately 600 such installations in the

Zone of Interior, but no more than one-fourth of this number were provided with organically assigned veterinary personnel, including some that

were provided part-time or attending veterinary services by personnel under

service command jurisdiction. Essentially, these personnel assignments were

regulated by The Surgeon General in the same general manner that all

Medical Department officer and enlisted personnel assignments were controlled, and were made in cooperation with the chiefs of technical services

who required Army Veterinary Service personnel. There was no instance

on record that The Surgeon General was, or could be, criticized one way

or the other in his actions on withholding or making available veterinary

personnel to the various technical services; in fact, the Quartermaster Corps

which required relatively large numbers of them, on one specific occasion,

augmented the arguments of The Surgeon General in order to obtain

veterinarians for military service in numbers greater than the number that

Headquarters, Army Service Forces, was willing to grant. Following their

assignments, the veterinary personnel came under the immediate control of

the respective installation commander and the latter’s chief of the technical

service concerned; for example, under the depot commander and The Quarter- master General or under the port commander and Chief of Transportation.

However, varying degree of professional or advisory assistance on technical matters for conducting the veterinary service in the class IV installations was provided by The Surgeon General to these assigned personnel.

With one exception, the personnel so assigned to the various technical service installations retained their identity with the Veterinary Corps, Medical

Department—the exception being few officers who were assigned to duty

with the Chemical Warfare Service. At these class IV installations, the
ORGANIZATION IN ZONE OF INTERIOR 143

commander and Ms chief of technical service directed the performance

of specialized veterinary services within the defined overall mission and

functions of the concerned technical service organization. Of course, this

direction was self-limiting to the degree that the veterinary services rendered

were within the scope of Medical Department activities and were coordinated and uniform in nature and that the veterinary personnel were properly and economically assigned and utilized; all were matters of immediate

and continuing importance to The Surgeon General.

Chemical Warfare Service

The Chemical Warfare Service (later Chemical Corps) was one of the

Army Service Forces technical services having assigned veterinary personnel.

Its veterinary service was major Medical Department activity at Edgewood

Arsenal, Md., and other field installations which were controlled by the

Chemical Warfare Service. The veterinary activities there were diversified,

ranging from the operation of laboratory animal colonies to scientific research into the effects of chemical warfare gases on animals and the development of procedures and protective equipment regarding animals and troop

food supplies which may be exposed to any chemical warfare attack by an

enemy. Also, pertinent training publications were promulgated for use

throughout the Army, and instructional services were rendered. Altogether,

these veterinary activities were completely defensive in nature as regards the

mission and functions which were defined for the Chemical Warfare Service;

of course, activities pertaining to the actual care and handling of animal

casualties and contaminated subsistence were the responsibility of the Medical Department.

These activities had an inauspicious start when, just before World War

II, one Veterinary Corps officer was assigned to the Medical Research Divi- sion at Edgewood Arsenal; as of September 1945, the number of veterinary

officers there was eight. This medical facility was reorganized several times

during the war period, so that for some time the veterinary personnel were

assigned to the Medical Department Research Laboratory. In 1943, however,

the laboratory was brought under jurisdiction of the Chemical Warfare

Center, Edgewood Arsenal, and thus controlled by the Chief of Chemical

Warfare Service. In September 1945, the Medical Research Laboratory was

discontinued, but its activities at Edgewood Arsenal were continued as the

new field organization, or Research Branch of the Medical Division which

was established in the office of the Chief of Chemical Warfare Service.

Within this reorganization, veterinary officers comprised the field Veterinary

and Animal Section and others were assigned to the Flame Attack and the

Food Chemistry Sections. At various times, these personnel were detailed to

duty in the Chemical Warfare Service mobile or field testing unit at Bushnell, Fla., and to the San Jose Island project, Panama Canal Department.

Another two officers were permanently assigned to the Medical Research
144 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Laboratory, Dugway Proving Ground, Tooele, Utah. Matters relating to

the veterinary medical aspects of chemical warfare and progress reports on

research and development were communicated directly, or through the office

of the Chief of Chemical Warfare Service, to the Veterinary Division,

Surgeon General’s Office.

At Edgewood Arsenal, one of several specific activities of Veterinary

Corps officers was their utilization as part-time instructors in the training

courses, including the Medical Department Officers’ Course, that were held

in the Chemical Warfare School. Another activity and one that was conducted in other installations was the procurement of experimental animals

and the management of laboratory animal colonies which were needed in

chemical warfare research; the veterinary officers often evaluated the toxicological and biological reactions occurring in tested animals. In addition,

these personnel entered into research and development projects on the effects,

hazards, protection, and treatment or decontamination of military animals

and food supplies exposed to chemical warfare agents. Fundamental principles of veterinary medical or defensive aspects of chemical warfare were

promulgated in Army training manuals (2, 3, and protective equipment

was developed for military animals; namely, the Horse Gas Masks, M4 and

M5; the Dog Gas Masks, MG-12-8; and the Protective Pigeon Bag. The

masks became items of standard issue by the Chemical Warfare Service.

Recommendations also were made with regard to the treatment of animal

casualties which led to the development at the Medical Department Equipment Laboratory, Carlisle Barracks, Pa., of the new Veterinary Gas Casualty

Chest Set. In regard to the Army’s food supplies, studies were made on the

protective efficacy of outside packing and packaging materials, particularly

those which were used on field rations. Actually, this development concerned the Chemical Warfare and Army Veterinary Services as much as it

did the Quartermaster Corps—the latter being primarily responsible for the

Armed Forces food packing and packaging. Later, kit was developed for

Medical Department issue to military units that could be utilized to detect

the gross contamination of foods by common chemical warfare agents; this

was officially referred to as the Food Testing Kit (fig. 6). In 1945, the

Army Veterinary Service with the Chemical Warfare Service initiated

new project for studying chemical agents which might be used beneficially

as insect control or insecticidal agents.

Completely separate from the preceding utilization of Veterinary Corps

personnel, the Chemical Warfare Service had approximately 20 others in its

Special Projects Division who were concerned with the veterinary medical

aspects of biological warfare. Details regarding their activities are generally unavailable except perhaps the notation that the Chemical Warfare

Service sometimes had no responsibility other than that of administering

the money. Thus, in this way, the Chemical Warfare Service became involved in the joint United States-Canadian research project that was con-
ORGANIZATION IN ZONE OF INTERIOR 145

ducted on the viral agent of rinderpest disease of cattle, leading to the

development of new avianized vaccine that could be used to effectively

protect country’s cattle population from panzootic of that disease. This

project was conducted at the War Disease Control Station, Grosse Isle,

Canada, and was staffed by six Veterinary Corps officers and several research scientists from the Army Medical Corps, the Navy, and the Canadian

Army. Other Veterinary Corps officers were engaged in antibiological warfare research at an installation in Maryland.

Medical Department

The Medical Department must also be described as one of the Army

Service Forces technical services having assigned veterinary personnel, exclusive to those comprising the Veterinary Division in the Surgeon General’s Office. Just as Edgewood Arsenal came under control of the Chief

of Chemical Warfare Service, there were number of Medical Department

installations and activities commanded by The Surgeon General. The more

obvious of such were the Army Medical Museum (later Army Institute of

Pathology), the Army Medical Center—both in Washington, D.C.—and the

Medical Field Service School, Carlisle Barracks, Pa. Other class IV installations under The Surgeon General were the medical depots and medical sections of general depots, medical research facilities including the Veterinary

Research Laboratory at Front Royal, Va., and the instructional staffs of

replacement training centers such as at Camp Grant, 111., and Fort Lewis,

Wash., and the enlisted technicians school at William Beaumont General

Hospital, El Paso, Tex. The named general hospitals, including William

Beaumont General Hospital, were not commanded by The Surgeon General

after August 1942 when Headquarters, Army Service Forces, transferred

them to service command control; only training activities within them were

regulated by The Surgeon General. Also, the regional and convalescent

hospitals or hospital centers (except that of Walter Reed), which came

into existence later, were not controlled by The Surgeon General. These

were controlled by the commanding general of the service command in

which they were located, but, in the spring of 1946, they were transferred

to Medical Department control. The same situation pertained to the replacement training centers for veterinary enlisted personnel; that is, the centers’

instructional staffs and training doctrines were regulated as class IV activities by The Surgeon General, but all other veterinary services at Camp

Grant and Fort Lewis were regulated by the concerned service command

as at any other of its class installations.

The installations just mentioned, or any others that were commanded

by chief of technical service, ere commonly referred to as class IV

installations. The same classification procedure designated activities and

facilities coming under service command control as class installations;

those of the Army Ground Forces were class II installations, and the
146 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Army Air Forces controlled its own (class III) installations. Actually,

there was continual interchange of the class designations of installations

so that, for example, Carlisle Barracks which housed the Medical Field

Service School was, for short period of time (August 1942 to May 1943),

controlled not by The Surgeon General but by the Third Service Command.

The situation pertaining to replacement training centers and the school

training staffs in named hospitals was even more confusing because the

installations housing them were designated as class or under the control

of the service commands; but, as previously mentioned, The Surgeon General

prescribed the training doctrine and assigned the instructional staffs in

these installations.

Army Medical Center.—The functional organization of the Army Veterinary Service at the Army Medical Center, Washington, D.C., was largely

that of the Army Veterinary School. The Army Veterinary School was

component of the Medical Department Professional Service Schools organization of the center and was headed by Veterinary Corps officer as school

director. Its mission, pursuant to Army Regulations No. 350-1000, were

(1) to provide instructional service in the training of Medical Department

personnel, (2) to conduct veterinary laboratory service and research investigations on animal diseases and Army foods, and (3) to produce, develop,

and distribute certain veterinary biologicals. In addition, the Army Veterinary School rendered station meat and dairy hygiene and veterinary animal

services for the medical center which included the Walter Reed General

Hospital. The exception to the organization of all veterinary activities at

the Army Medical Center under the Army Veterinary School occurred with

the establishment, in April 1941, of the Medical Department Enlisted Technicians School under the administrative control of the Professional Service

Schools organization. special veterinary instructional staff was assigned

but was discontinued in March 1945 when all veterinary activities of the

installation again came under control of the director of the Army Veterinary

School.

The Army Veterinary School laboratory was essentially the central

veterinary laboratory for the Army and, until World War II, comprised

the only Medical Department laboratory facility available for routine clinicodiagnostic and food analytical needs of the Army Veterinary Service in

the Zone of Interior. Then, in 1941, as new corps area (or service command)

medical laboratories were established, each with veterinary section, the

laboratory of the Army Veterinary School restricted its routine services to

satisfying the veterinary laboratory needs of the Third Service Command

and the Military District of Washington. In its activities as the Army’s

central veterinary laboratory, the Army Veterinary School trained nearly

all veterinary personnel who were assigned to the Medical Department

laboratory system, provided advisory services to the Surgeon General’s Office, evaluated and standardized test procedures and equipment, and acted as
ORGANIZATION IN ZONE OF INTERIOR 147

control or appeal laboratory regarding controversial matters arising between

other laboratories. Its research investigations and activities included the

perfection and production of equine encephalomyelitis vaccine; the application of improved biologic preparation to the production of typhus vaccine;

the production of large quantities of Japanese encephalitis vaccine used

to immunize troops; the isolation and identification of the viruses of various

types of equine encephalomyelitis infection in man and animals; the effects

of freezing, storing, and thawing fresh milk; and the analyses and nutritional evaluation of the military ration. Many of these studies were conducted in collaboration with the laboratories of the Army Medical School.

Medical Field Service School.—The Army Veterinary Service with the

Medical Field Service School, Carlisle Barracks, included the veterinary

officers who were assigned to, and comprised, the school’s Department of

Veterinary Field Service. Prior to September 1942, the department was

referred to as the Office of the Senior Veterinary Representative. Their

activities were largely those of providing veterinary instructional services

in the courses on medical field service that were conducted for Medical

Department officers and in the officer candidate school. The Basic Course

or the wartime Officers’ Refresher Basic Course were attended by veterinary

officers as well as by medical and dental officers. In addition to their instructional activities, the school’s veterinary officers provided the station

meat and dairy hygiene and veterinary animal services for Carlisle Barracks

and represented the Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office, in the

development of training doctrine and War Department manuals concerning

veterinary medical field service. Also, these officers cooperated with the

Medical Department Equipment Laboratory in studies on improving and

developing Medical Department equipment and supplies which were used

or needed by the Army Veterinary Service in the field.

Following the termination of the war, on 15 February 1946, the Medical

Department school was discontinued at Carlisle Barracks and concurrently

reestablished, with its Veterinary Department, at Brooke Army Medical

Center, Fort Sam Houston, Tex. The equipment research activities relating

to packing and chest assemblies were resumed at the Army-Navy Medical

Purchasing Office, New York, N.Y., and those relating to veterinary food

inspection equipment were assigned to the Meat and Dairy Hygiene School,

Chicago, 111.

Army Medical Museum.—The Army Medical Museum in Washington,

D.C., redesignated in 1946 as the Army Institute of Pathology and then in

1949 as the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, first gained the assignment of Veterinary Corps officer on 13 October 1943. Actually, this

facility had need for veterinary services long before this date because of

the growth in the collection of animal specimens during the opening years

of the war and the need to arrange, investigate, and study such pathological

material. Several months later, on 23 March 1944, The Surgeon General

o!)024S 61 12
148 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Figuee 10.—Maj. T. C. Jones, VC, Registrar, Registry of Veterinary Pathology,

Army Institute of Pathology.

granted approval for the American Veterinary Medical Association to sponsor veterinary subdivision or element of the American Registry of Pathology (5, 6). This subdivision, named the Registry of Veterinary Pathology

(originally called the Registry of Comparative Pathology), was administered by the senior pathologist or chief of veterinary section, pathological

department (fig. 10). As of the end of World War II, the Registry of

Veterinary Pathology contained 3,600 accessions and was already providing

clinicodiagnostic and consultation services in pathology to members of the

American veterinary profession. It had also contributed to wartime research

on animal disease of military importance such as equine influenza, equine

periodic ophthalmia, and canine leptospirosis.

Veterinary Research Laboratory.—Another class IV installation was

the Veterinary Research Laboratory, located at the Aleshire Quartermaster Remount Depot, Front Royal, Va. This laboratory originated with recommendations made on August 1938, by the Chief of the Veterinary Division,

Surgeon General’s Office. Cooperative actions subsequently taken by the

local quartermaster depot commander and depot veterinarian led to the de-
ORGANIZATION IN ZONE OF INTERIOR 149

velopment of laboratory facilities suitable for the conduct of research in- vestigations on diseases seriously affecting Army horses and mules. By 10

June 1939, the first Veterinary Corps officer and other personnel had arrived.

There is no official date on its establishment, but, as of September 1944, the

Veterinary Research Laboratory was being formally referred to as field

installation under the command control of The Surgeon General (7). At

this time, concurrent with Army planning for closing the depot at an early

date, the Surgeon General’s Office, with the concurrence of the Remount

Branch, Office of the Quartermaster General, sought and eventually gained

(on May 1945) approval from Headquarters, Army Service Forces, to

relocate the laboratory in Nebraska at the Robinson Quartermaster Remount

Depot. The Veterinary Research Laboratory was physically transferred to

its new location in September 1945, where it continued in operation until

it closed in July 1947. Actually, only the physical plant of the laboratory

was closed because the Veterinary Research Laboratory was then transferred on paper in an inactive status to the Army Medical Center, and the

existing research projects were referred to the Army Veterinary School at

that center for further study.

During the tenure of its operations, the range of the activities of the

Veterinary Research Laboratory paralleled that of any scientific research

on diseases and injuries and consisted of investigations on the clinical and

pathological changes and the improved means for diagnosis, prevention,

and treatment of equine influenza, equine periodic ophthalmia, and equine

infectious anemia.

Quartermaster Corps

Within the Army Service Forces organization in the Zone of Interior,

the Quartermaster Corps was the leading technical and supply service with

regard to the number of veterinary personnel utilized at its installations.

This personnel included animal purchasing board veterinarians, headquarters

veterinarians of remount purchasing and breeding areas, remount depot

veterinarians, veterinarians of Army dog reception and training centers,

depot veterinarians of Quartermaster depots and sections of general (or

Army Service Forces) depots, and to degree, the Quartermaster market

center veterinarians. These veterinarians, or veterinary officers, and the

veterinary detachments which they commanded rendered professional and

technical services in as many as or more purchasing boards, remount

areas, remount depots, dog centers, 18 depots and depot sections, and 34

market centers. The first three were concerned with the Quartermaster supply of horses and mules; the next group of installations was involved in the

supply of dogs to the Armed Forces; and the last two groups procured,

stored, issued, and otherwise handled the nonperishable and perishable subsistence supply for the Army. All were class IV installations under the

control of The Quartermaster General, and their veterinarians came under

the jurisdiction of the concerned installation commander. At the installa-
150 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

tions, the senior veterinary officers supervised the conduct of routine stationtype meat and dairy hygiene and veterinary animal services—these activities

being the same as in any Army camp or airbase. However, their principal

duties were of specialized nature and were characteristic of the overall

missions of the particular Quartermaster installations to which the veterinary

officers were assigned.

Animal purchasing boards.—For the supply of horses and mules to the

Army, the Quartermaster Corps established animal purchasing boards.

These were mobile procurement agencies which went to the farms, horse production areas, and livestock markets located within or in part of specified

geographic area conforming to the boundaries of one of the several designated remount areas in the United States. Actually, these boards were constituted or active only during the time that horses and mules were being

procured in their given geographic areas, and their operations were regulated by the concerned headquarters’ remount purchasing and breeding areas,

within whose geographic boundaries they were operating. Sometimes, two

or more animal purchasing boards were operational in remount area, but

usually the rate of animal procurement during World War II was so sporadic

and relatively small, in contrast to the situation in World War I, that only

one board was allowed to operate at time in remount area. In fact, most

frequently, remount area headquarters personnel were placed on additional

duty to the local animal purchasing board whenever any animals were to be

procured. The numbers and kinds of animals purchased were regulated by

The Quartermaster General who issued procurement directives to the personnel in headquarters’ remount purchasing and breeding areas, who in turn

controlled the concerned animal purchasing boards.

The Army Veterinary Service had the assigned mission to physically

examine all animals prior to purchase, with view to insuring the acquisition of only healthy, sound horses and mules, and to inspect and supervise

the sanitary conditions at purchasing points and along the shipping routes

to Army remount depots or other destinations in order to prevent the introduction or spread of communicable animal diseases 9). At the organization level of the animal purchasing board, this mission was the designated

responsibility of the purchasing board veterinarian. Each purchasing board

was required to have Veterinary Corps officer in the composition of its

membership, who came under the immediate jurisdiction of the officer in

charge of the board. The purchasing board veterinarian determined the age

(and sometimes the weight) and made complete and systematic physical

examination as to health, soundness, and physical condition of each horse or

mule submitted to the board, followed by specific recommendation as to the

acceptability of each animal. This recommendation was made subject to the

result of the intradermic mallein test for glanders that was conducted on the

animal at the purchase point, if sufficient period of time (48 hours) was

available, or after the animal’s arrival at destination. The animals which
ORGANIZATION IN ZONE OF INTERIOR 151

REMOUNT AREA HEADQUARTERS

Map 1.—Quartermaster Remount Purchasing and Breeding Areas, Army Service Forces,

May 1942.

were finally accepted for purchase were then identified descriptively, and

temporarily or permanently marked with Preston brand. In addition to

these activities, the purchasing board veterinarian conducted sanitary inspections of purchasing points and of the methods and facilities which were

being used in handling and shipping the animals and investigated the animal

disease situation among civilian populations in the locality. Animals which, on physical examinations for Army procurement, showed signs or symptoms

of serious communicable disease were reported to local civilian authorities

for disposition; furthermore, areas which were experiencing enzootics of such

diseases or were under animal quarantine imposed by States or the Federal

Government were removed as points of animal procurement.

Headquarters, remount purchasing and breeding areas.—The remount

areas, more descriptively named remount purchasing and breeding areas,

were geographically defined areas of the United States, including its territories. Within each such area, all matters relating to horse and mule procurement and to the Army Horse Breeding Plan were coordinated and supervised by the pertinent area headquarters organization which, in turn, was

controlled by The Quartermaster General. At the beginning of the war

period, there were seven such areas (map 1). Subsequently, the number of

remount areas was reduced to six and then, in 1947, to four.
152 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Each remount area headquarters included the headquarters veterinarian

who, under the direction of the immediate officer in charge, supervised all

veterinary matters relating to animal procurement and the Army Horse

Breeding Plan in the respective area {10). His special duties included the

assignment, training, and supervision of veterinary personnel who were

assigned to animal purchasing boards which operated in the area; the sanitary inspection of facilities and procedures commonly used throughout the

area for assembling, handling, and transporting animals; and the veterinary

survey, in cooperation with local, State, or Federal agencies, of the nature

and extent of prevailing animal diseases and other conditions bearing on the

potential military usefulness of animals in the remount area. Arrangements

also were made for the care and treatment of those newly purchased animals

which might become sick or injured before they were shipped from the

purchase points or while en route to the remount depots. Also, the headquarters veterinarian provided professional services to the Government-owned

stations which, under the Army Horse Breeding Plan, were farmed out in

that area to selected civilian horse breeders, called stallion agents. These

professional services included the examination of the stallions for condition,

soundness, and sterility and the examinations of the civilian mares which

were to be serviced by the stallions. Of course, professional advice and instruction were provided as to the proper care of the stallions, the mares, and

their foals in order to further the object of the Army Horse Breeding Plan,

which was to improve the quality of horses suitable for military use. Some

few remount area headquarters had their own stables for handling the stallions between times of issue to the civilian agents; infrequently, these animals were so handled as to require their withdrawal from stallion agents.

Remount depots.—The third agency or installation organic to the Army

horse and mule supply comprised the Quartermaster remount depots. These

received the newly purchased animals (also called remounts or green animals)

from the purchasing boards in the remount areas, conditioned or otherwise

processed them, and then issued the animals to mounted organizations and

installations. These depots also maintained small brood mare bands, assisted

in the operation of the Army Horse Breeding Plan, and became the location

of two Army dog reception and training centers. At the beginning of World

War II, the number of remount depots operating in the Zone of Interior was

three: Aleshire, at Front Royal, Ya.; Reno, at Fort Reno, Okla.; and Robinson, at Fort Robinson, Nebr. Their capacities were expanded in the fall of

1940 to handle as many as 35,000 horses and mules at one time. In October

1943, the Kellogg Arabian Nursery, Pomona, Calif., was acquired by donation

and was established as the fourth remount depot in the Zone of Interior;

however, its activities were less expansive than those of the other three.

Between July 1940 and June 1945, the depots processed over 100,000 animals

(including 57,000 newly purchased remounts and 47,000 horses and mules

which were returned by organizations and installations) and had issued more
ORGANIZATION IN ZONE OF INTERIOR 153

than 65,000 animals, some being issued more than one time. As of December

1945, animals in the four depots totaled little more than 12,000. Each remount depot was internally organized to include veterinary

section headed by the depot veterinarian who commanded the veterinary

detachment and the station veterinary hospital. Typical of the functional

organization of veterinary services in nearly all Quartermaster installations, the depot veterinarian also occupied the position of staff officer to the commanding officer of the depot. The veterinary section itself was divided into several subsections: Administration; medical supply; station meat and dairy

hygiene and forage inspection; receipt, quarantine, and issue; breeding and

nursery; and, of course, the veterinary hospital. The depot veterinarians also supervised veterinary officer replacement pools and veterinary activities

of Army dog centers when they were operated at the remount depots. With

regard to the remounts which were received or the animals returned from

organizations, the depot veterinary activities included identification and

branding, supervision of quarantine, diagnostic testing and immunization

against serious animal diseases, dipping and internal medication against

parasitic infestations, and the care and treatment of sick and injured animals.

Special inspections were made at the time the animals were prepared for

issue and shipped from the depot so that only those in good health and physical condition would arrive at destination. As required, depot veterinary

personnel were detailed as attendants to the animals while en route.

The veterinary service with the depot brood mare bands was highly

specialized in character because it involved, not only routine veterinary care

and treatment activities, but also supervision over brood mares and stallions

which were particularly subject to so-called breeding diseases and sterility

problems, and the proper management of foals. New techniques and scientific

improvement of horse production and control of animal diseases were under

continuous study by the remount depot veterinarians.

Army dog reception and training centers. Another type of Quarter- master installation concerned with the processing of animals was the Army

dog (or the officially named war dog) reception and training center. This

was an innovation of World War II when dogs were, for the first time in

American military history, included in the definition of military animals and

thus were provided with the same degree of veterinary care and treatment as

Army horses and mules. Beginning in March 1942, the Army began to

accept donations of trained war dogs, but, few months later, the Army

undertook the training of dogs with arrangements being made with newly

organized civilian agency to recruit dogs (lent by civilian owners) and to

send them to Army dog reception and training centers. Later, in March

1945, the Army also began purchasing its own war dogs. The newly acquired

dogs were received, conditioned or otherwise processed, and issued to military

organizations by Army dog reception and training centers; what was accomplished there paralleled the mission and activities of remount depots with
154 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

newly purchased horses and mules. Five dog centers were established in late

1942, in the remount depots at Fort Robinson and Front Royal, at Camp

Rimini, Mont., at Cat Island (near Gulfport), Miss., and at San Carlos, Calif.

Only the installation at Fort Robinson was continued in operation after

November 1944; the others were closed few months earlier. In 1943, sixth

Army dog center was established and operated at the U.S. Department of

Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Center, Beltsville, Md., but its activities

were limited largely to joint research project on Army dog rations. The

Camp Rimini installation was designated primarily as the center for processing sled and pack dogs. Approximately 18,000 dogs were received at the

centers from the civilian agency, and another 1,380 were purchased by the

Army between March and August 1945; of this number, more than 10,000

dogs were issued, including those shipped overseas.

Each dog center had its own veterinary detachment, whose commanding

officer was responsible for the veterinary care and treatment of the dogs which

were received, processed, and issued by that installation. The veterinary

activities in the Army dog centers included physically examining the dogs

at time of arrival; identifying and branding them; supervising their quarantine, feeding, kenneling, and handling; diagnostic testing for and immunizing

against communicable diseases; controlling parasitic infestations; treating

and hospitalizing sick and wounded dogs; and inspecting the dogs for health

and physical condition at the time of issue or shipment from the center. The

major difference between these activities and the veterinary service with

horses and mules in remount depots was that the dogs received from the

civilian procurement agency were frequently not examined for health and

physical condition until after their arrival at the dog centers. Thus, many

animals were necessarily hospitalized at the centers or were destroyed, with

owners’ consent, if the initial examinations showed them to be seriously sick,

injured, or infected with communicable disease; unfortunately, relatively

large percentage of these animals were disqualified by other factors, such as

temperament, but even so, they could not be returned to their owners while

sick or known to be infected with serious disease. This situation was

strikingly exemplified in 1942 when one recruit dog developed signs of rabies

infection after its arrival at the Fort Robinson center. Of course, when the

dogs were procured by purchase, Veterinary Corps officer usually made

complete physical examination of the dogs before acceptance and prior to

their shipment to an Army dog center. During 1942-43, contractor in the

First Service Command who was supplying trained sled dogs was provided

attending veterinary services after suffering serious losses on account of insanitary conditions and after an epizootic of canine distemper in his kennels

threatened to curtail the Army supply.

Quartermaster depots and sections of Army Service Forces depots.-—

Although the Army Veterinary Service at the several types of Quartermaster

Corps installations was concerned with animal care and treatment, there were
ORGANIZATION IN ZONE OF INTERIOR 155

two other types of installations which utilized an even greater number of

personnel as veterinary food inspectors; namely, the Quartermaster depots

and sections of general (or Army Service Forces) depots and the Quarter- master market centers. These other installations procured, received, stored,

and distributed meat and dairy products for the Army in the Zone of Interior and for shipment overseas; the depots handled nonperishable subsistence,

and the market centers handled the perishable subsistence.

At the beginning of the war, Veterinary Corps personnel were on duty

at the five active subsistence storage and distribution depots in the United

States: Chicago and Seattle Quartermaster Depots, San Antonio General

Depot, and the depots with the ports of embarkation at New York and San Francisco. During the prewar emergency period, these depots were expanded,

and new general and Quartermaster depots were constructed so that the

Quartermaster depot system of Army food supply in the Zone of Interior

eventually totaled 18 installations, each having its own veterinary detachment. These included the Atlanta Army Service Forces Depot in Georgia,

Boston Quartermaster Depot in Massachusetts, California Quartermaster Depot (at Oakland), Charlotte Quartermaster Depot in North Carolina,

Chicago Quartermaster Depot in Illinois, Columbus Army Service Forces

Depot in Ohio, Jersey City Quartermaster Depot in New Jersey, Kansas City

Quartermaster Depot in Missouri, Memphis Army Service Forces Depot in

Tennessee, Mira Loma Quartermaster Depot in California, New Cumberland

Army Service Forces Depot in Pennsylvania, Richmond Army Service Forces

Depot in Virginia, San Antonio Army Service Forces Depot in Texas (at

Fort Sam Houston), Savannah Army Service Forces Depot in Georgia,

Schenectady Army Service Forces Depot in New York, Seattle Army Service

Forces Depot in Washington, Utah Army Service Forces Depot (at Ogden),

and Fort Worth Quartermaster Depot in Texas. These Army Service Forces

depots were called general supply depots before Headquarters, Army Service

Forces, had changed their names, and each handled not only nonperishable

subsistence but also other Quartermaster supplies and the supplies of other

technical services for the Army. Of course, there were other depots, but

some depots were so little concerned with the Army food supply that they

did not warrant the assignment of veterinary personnel, although all were

provided station-type veterinary services, usually on an attending basis.

Thus, mention by name only is made of the Belle Mead Army Service Forces

Depot in New Jersey, Jeffersonville Quartermaster Depot in Indiana, Philadelphia Quartermaster Depot in Pennsylvania, New Orleans General Depot

in Louisiana, New York General Depot in New York, and the Washington

Quartermaster Depot in the District of Columbia.

The depots just mentioned were class IV installations under the control

of The Quartermaster General, except for the early period of the war when

the general depots were regulated by the War Department General Staff and
156 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

then, for brief period of time, by Headquarters, Army Service Forces, which had created General Depot Service to supervise them. The latter

control was discontinued in July 1942 when the responsibility for general depot administration was transferred to The Quartermaster General, who

was already operating his own Quartermaster depots. At each of the 18

depots having assigned veterinary personnel, there was the designated depot veterinarian who was responsible to the immediate depot commander for the

conduct of the veterinary activities at that depot. These activities were the

performance of routine station-type meat and dairy hygiene and veterinary

animal services and the inspection of the nonperishable meat and dairy products that were received, stored, distributed, or otherwise handled by the depot.

Also, the depot veterinary detachments inspected foods, both perishable and

nonperishable, during their procurement, but this activity became so complicated with the veterinary food inspection activities of service commands as

to warrant its discussion in later paragraphs.

The Quartermaster depot veterinary detachments had varied beginnings. Two of them, the Chicago and San Antonio depots, actually existed before

the prewar emergency periods; several others originated from the division of existing combination depot-port veterinary organizations, and then there

were few which at one time had veterinary personnel detailed to them on

an attending basis by the corps area or service command in which the depots

were located. Combination depot-port detachments were the predecessors of separate depot veterinary detachments which were organized at the Boston

(in the spring of 1942), the California or the former San Francisco (in

September 1942), and the Seattle (in May 1942) depots. The combination

depot-port detachments in New Orleans and New- York, however, became

predominantly port organizations as the original depots in these cities were

subordinated or disappeared. The Columbus (before September 1942), Savannah (between December 1941 and October 1942), and New Cumberland

(between September 1941 and April 1945) depots as well as that at Boston

(prior to January 1942) were originally dependent on the Fifth, Fourth,

Third, and First Service Commands, respectively, for their veterinary services, but eventually these depots gained their own assigned veterinary personnel. On the other hand, until December 1940, the Chicago depot veterinarian was detailed additional duty as Sixth Corps Area veterinarian, and

the veterinary detachment at Schenectady depot did not formally originate

until January 1942 when the civilian veterinarian, who was employed at that

installation in connection with the Civilian Conservation Corps program, was

ordered into active military service as Reserve Corps officer. Finally, there

were the two subdepots or branch depots—Mira Loma and Fort Worth

where the originally assigned veterinary personnel from the parent California

and San Antonio depot detachments became separate veterinary detachments,

in August and May 1942, respectively, when the subdepots were reorganized

as full depots. The beginning dates of veterinary detachments in other
ORGANIZATION IN ZONE OF INTERIOR 157

Chabt 1.—Functional organization of the Chicago Quartermaster Depot, Chicago, III.,

17 August 19Jf5

COMMANDING GENERAL INTELLIGENCE

PUBLIC RELATIONS DEPOT CONTROL DIVISION

EXECUTIVE OFFICER

Q.M. PRICE ADJUSTMENT

DISTRICT OFFICE

FIELD HEADQUARTERS

O.Q.M.G.

PARTS STANDARDIZATION

PROJECT P.Q.M.G.

FIELD LIAISON OFFICERS

O.Q.M.G. MEDICAL NUTRITION LAB. SUBSISTENCE SCHOOL

ADMIN. SERVICE DIVISION FISCAL DIVISION PERSONNEL DIVISION

SUBSISTENCE RESEARCH

DEVELOPMENT LABORATORY DEPOT VETERINARY DIVISION REPAIRS UTILITIES DIV

TRANSPORTATION

DIVISION

PROCUREMENT DIVISION

DIRECTOR OF SUPPLY DIRECTOR OF MAINTENANCE

STOCK CONTROL

DIVISION

STORAGE

DIVISION

MAINTENANCE

DIVISION

RECLAMATION

REPAIR DIVISION

depots were as follows: Atlanta, March 1941; Charlotte, December 1941;

Jersey City, July 1941; Kansas City, December 1940; Memphis, May 1942;

Eichmond, July 1942; and Utah, May 1942.

Within the operating organization of the various depots, the depot veterinarian frequently was placed at the level of chief of division and as

staff officer reporting directly to the depot commander (chart 1). In less

than half of the number of installations, the depot veterinarian organized

his operations as branch under the jurisdiction of the chief of the depot’s

administrative division. In few other instances, the veterinary service

organization was placed under the supervision of the depot’s procurement

division of the storage division, but this arrangement, although commonly

observed in many depots during the early part of the war period, was generally unsatisfactory as obligating the inspector to the chief of division for

which the inspections were being conducted and as restricting the performance of the overall mission of the depot veterinary detachment. This organization within the depots completely separated depot veterinarians from super-
158 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

vision by medical supply officers in Army Service Forces depots and from

the depot surgeons or medical sections except in regard to the sanitary inspections of local food supplies and station veterinary service with the few animals which were maintained there.

The internal organization of the veterinary branch or division likewise

varied among the depots and was usually developed by the depot veterinarian

in accordance with the local situation. Thus, the office of the depot veterinarian was recognized as the administrative section and veterinary detachment headquarters; the depot section performed the station service and inspected the depot’s receipts, storage, and distributions of nonperishable foods,

and sometimes there was laboratory section and field inspection section.

The field inspection section usually had one or more suboffices in the city

where the depot was located; performed inspections in the commercial food

establishments, storage warehouses, and shipping points that were involved

in the Army food supply program; and also provided the Veterinary Corps

officer in attendance at the Quartermaster market center, if one was located

in that city. Many depot veterinary field inspection sections were further

subdivided, as required, into two or more subsections, each being responsible

for the inspection service in geographical area of the city or for the specialized inspection of certain products or specific activity (such as milk supply

and refrigerated storage plants).

The numbers of personnel comprising the veterinary organizations varied

greatly among the depots and generally increased as the war progressed. In

the beginning, only one or two veterinary officers and from one to four civilians were required at many depots, but then these were not engaged in the

origin inspections of foods; enlisted personnel were not especially assigned

pursuant to the Quartermaster Corps policy that depot operations should be

manned by civilian employees. The latter were utilized in capacities as

clerk-stenographers, in such depot laboratories as came under the jurisdiction

of depot veterinarians, as laborers for opening and repackaging the sample

inspection cases of food, and infrequently as inspectors. Most of the enlisted

personnel were added in connection with the off-depot veterinary activities,

particularly after the fall of 1943, when veterinary inspection responsibilities

in metropolitan areas in which depots were located were assigned to the

respective depot veterinary detachments. As of mid-1945, an estimated 160

Veterinary Corps officers were assigned to duty with the depots, together with

450 veterinary enlisted men and 90 civilian employees, but this number (aggregating 700) was somewhat below the peak strength which was reached in the

depots earlier. The largest depot veterinary detachment as that at Chicago

where 72 officers and 171 enlisted personnel ere assigned as of October 1943.

The depot-assigned Veterinary Corps officers usually were graduates of

the wartime Meat and Dairy Hygiene Course which was begun in November

1940 at the Chicago Quartermaster Depot. Throughout the war period, however, this course was conducted under the supervision of the depot veteri-
ORGANIZATION IN ZONE OF INTERIOR 159

narian, Chicago Quartermaster Depot, but the instructional staff and training doctrine was selected and prescribed by the Surgeon General’s Office. At

seven depots (Boston, California, Chicago, Kansas City, San Antonio, Seattle,

and Fort Worth) Veterinary Officer Replacement Pools, under control of

The Surgeon General, were established for conducting on-the-job training

for newly appointed officers preparatory to their permanent assignment.

Depot-assigned veterinary officers also provided instructional services in formal training courses which were conducted at the depots for Quartermaster personnel.

The relationship between the depot veterinary detachments and the Army

Veterinary Service of the service commands was manifestly one of cooperation. Actually, pursuant to the channels of command within the Army Service Forces organization, the depot veterinary detachment was totally outside

the jurisdiction of the service command even though the latter was responsible for, and did provide, certain services, including medical activities, to

the depots. ANIMAL SERVICE

In regard to veterinary animal service, it may be mentioned that few

depots (such as at Richmond with 60-70 horses, Utah with 40 horses, Atlanta

with 18, and Columbus and Schenectady each with less than 10) utilized

horses to mount civil guard patrols or for drayage purposes in lieu of motor

vehicles. These and number of other depots (including Chicago, Mira

Loma, New Cumberland, Savannah, and Fort Worth) also had Army dogs

to augment the internal security procedures inside warehouses and storage

areas. These animals usually came under the full supervision of the depot

veterinary detachment. In other depots, studies were conducted on the development of animal feeds and forage. At the California depot, more than

1,200,000 pounds of grain, hay, and straw were inspected prior to purchase

in the period 1940 through March 1945, but the greater part of this amount

pertained to supervising or inspecting the double compressing of grain hays

by contractors at the Tracy subdepot for transshipment overseas. At the

Seattle depot, research studies led to the development of canned horsemeat

and herring product for feeding Army dogs in the Alaskan Department.

MEAT AND DAIRY INSPECTIONS

Since few depots had military troops, the station meat and dairy hygiene

inspections were largely limited to sanitary inspections of foods which were

procured locally by the officers club messes or the concessionaires who operated restaurants for the depot’s civilian employees. This sanitary inspection

of foods and the conducting of rabies control program for civilian-owned

pet animals and Army dogs on the depot were the only veterinary activities

that were accomplished under the supervision of the depot surgeon. The

latter frequently designated the depot veterinarian as the depot medical

sanitary officer.
160 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Table 17. Inspection of meat and dairy products by the Army Veterinary Service with Quartermaster and Army Service Forces depots, 1940-45

In contrast to the station-type meat and dairy hygiene service just mentioned, there were the inspections of the nonperishable (or canned) meat and

dairy products that were received, stored, distributed, or otherwise handled

by the depots. Until the fall of 1943, this comprised the principal duty of

the Army Veterinary Service with Quartermaster depots and sections of

Army Service Forces depots; of course, many depot veterinary detachments

also were inspecting the procurements of nonperishable foods. After August

1943. the principal activities of the detachments were twofold; (1) The indepot inspections of foods handled by the depots, and (2) the off-depot meat

and dairy hygiene inspections which then were officially limited to contiguous

metropolitan areas but extended to all commercial food establishments, storage warehouses, or shipping points, located within the area, that were concerned with the Army supply of both nonperishable and perishable meat and

dairy products. The quantities of subsistence thus inspected varied greatly

among the individual depots (table 17) in fact, some few depot detachments

(such as at the Atlanta, Charlotte, and Memphis installations) had little to

do with the inspection of perishable meat and dairy products.

The on-depot veterinary inspections of the nonperishable meat and dairy

products received, stored, or shipped by the depots were largely sanitary in

Depot 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945

Atlanta

Millions of pounds Millions of pounds

11.

Millions of pounds

63.

Millions of pounds

36.

Millions of pounds

24.

Millions of pounds

23.

Boston 0)

396.

0) 286. 321.

California 31. 84. 240. 525. 468.

Charlotte 30. 17. 67. 42.

Columbus 186. 221. 308. 202.

Kansas City 28. 518. 315. 255. 248.

Memphis 64. 157. 215. 192.

Mira Loma 22. 176. 306. 252.

San Antonio, 13. 67. 190. 295. 147. 159.

Schenectady, 160. (») 478. 0)

Utah

178.

225. 264. 341.

Fort Worth 32. 238. 423.

Data not available from source material.

To June 1945.

ToAugust 1945.

Source: Histories of the Army Veterinary Service With Quartermaster Depots and Sections of Army Service Forces

Depots During World War II. [Official records.]

Note: In addition to those inspections shown, the Chicago QuartermasterDepot’s veterinary inspections of products

passed each month averaged 90 million pounds in 1942, more than 142 million pounds in 1943, and 122 million pounds in

1944, with July 1945 marking themonth of greatest amount of inspections at 205 millionpounds. The Jersey City Quartermaster Depot’s inspections during 1944 gradually increased from 91 million pounds inspected in March to 168 million

poundsin October, and reached quantity as high as 200 million pounds in March 1945.
ORGANIZATION IN ZONE OF INTERIOR 161

nature. Before the war, very small amounts of subsistence were stockpiled,

only at the Chicago Quartermaster Depot and at the Seattle Quartermaster Depot to the account of the San Francisco General Depot (later, the California Quartermaster Depot). In early 1941, as wartime stockpiling programs were begun, the Chicago Quartermaster Depot, in particular, scattered its subsistence holdings to seven depots (namely, Atlanta, Charlotte,

Jersey City, Kansas City, New Orleans, San Antonio, and Schenectady).

This led to the formation of many additional depot veterinary detachments.

In mid-1941, the new Quartermaster system of nonperishable subsistence supply in the Zone of Interior gave the designation of nine installations as

regional distribution depots which would supply the needs of certain specified

Army camps and airbases. Additional depots were soon named so that there

were no Quartermaster depots and sections of Army Service Forces depots

having veterinary detachments that were not receiving, storing, and distributing canned meat and dairy products.

On-depot inspection of nonperishable meat and dairy products was continuous throughout the period of their storage or holding at the depot. Special inspections were conducted at the time of their receipt as phase of

veterinary procurement inspection. Although originally inspected during the

time of manufacture or canning in contractor’s plants, these products were

reinspected for sanitary condition before the Army finally accepted them on

delivery. Occasionally, the extent of damage to subsistence while in transit

to the depots had to be assessed so that proper claims could be made against

the rail or truck carriers. Also, pursuant to those terms of contractual documents relating to the contractor’s guarantee against more than specified rates

of spoilage in newly delivered products, timely veterinary inspections were

made which would enable Army contracting officers to obtain the contractor’s

replacement shipment or payment for the spoiled or deteriorated products.

At regular intervals, surveillance inspections were made on the stored subsistence so that lots of particular item, longest on hand or showing signs

of beginning deterioration, would be granted priority for distribution at an

early date. Actually, stock turnover was quite rapid during most of the war

period so that comparatively small quantities of nonperishable subsistence in

the depots became unsuitable for distribution. The leakage among cans of

evaporated milk, the penetration of wooden-box nails into cans of imported

corned beef, and the rusting of the exterior of cans in commercial-type packages seemed to have been the major causes for the losses that occurred. Of

course, particular attention was directed to prevent unnecessary exposure of

stored products to extreme climatic conditions, to minimize the damage from

outside storage when enclosed warehouse space was not available, and to avoid

the losses attributable to factors such as were readily regulated (such as rough

handling and high stackpiling). Another veterinary inspection was conducted at the time the products were distributed or shipped from the depot

to the Army camps or airbases or to port for oversea movement; routinely,
ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE 162

however, the inspection of nonperishable subsistence immediately prior to

shipment could be minimized wherever the surveillance inspections of nonperishable products in storage were systematically conducted.

FOOD SALVAGE

Veterinary surveillance inspections in seven depots were extended to food

salvage activities that had become necessary as Army camps, once having

relatively large numbers of troops, returned their surplus stockages to depots

for redistribution. Also, large quantities of subsistence were returned from

the Alaskan area after the Aleutian campaign and from other offshore base

commands which had been built up in 1940-41. In these activities, depot

veterinary inspection personnel, utilizing prisoner-of-war labor, segregated

the sound canned products and repackaged them so that the processed stock

was suitable for domestic use or even export shipment; usually 90 to 95 percent of these products was actually saved. At the Utah installation, the

salvage operations were particularly extensive, covering more than 400 carloads or about 35 million pounds of returned canned meat and dairy products.

In addition, the Army Veterinary Service at the Atlanta, Charlotte, Jersey

City, Mira Loma, New Cumberland, Richmond, and Seattle depots, on authorization of the local commander, extended their food surveillance inspections to the canned fruits and vegetables and to the cereals which were stored

or handled in the depots.

TESTING LABORATORIES

Another depot activity usually assigned to the operational control of

Veterinary Corps officers was the local Quartermaster subsistence or general

testing laboratory (figs. 11 and 12). Actually, the Army Veterinary Service

had little need for these laboratories in connection with their meat and dairy

hygiene inspections because the Medical Department system of laboratories

in hospitals and for the service commands was set up and available pursuant to an authorization earlier granted by the War Department. However, regardless of this and probably with the encouragement of individual

veterinary personnel, the Atlanta, California, Charlotte, Jersey City, Kansas

City, Memphis, Mira Loma, and Seattle depots had their own laboratories

under Veterinary Corps supervision, but the Surgeon General’s Office refrained from granting them Medical Department trained personnel and

equipment. Instead, the depot subsistence laboratories were manned by

civilian employees, utilizing locally procured laboratory equipment and supplies, In the California installation—apparently the most elaborate laboratory—the workload, in 1944 alone, comprised 40,050 separate examinations

and tests on 14,630 samples which were representative for 78 million pounds

of subsistence.

Centralized procurement of nonperishable subsistence.—In regard to

the off-depot inspections, the depot veterinary detachments were concerned

with two Quartermaster systems of Army subsistence procurement—one, the
ORGANIZATION IN ZONE OE INTERIOR 163

Figure 11.—Veterinary Food Laboratory, California Quartermaster Depot, Oakland, Calif.

centralizing of procurement for nonperisliable meat and dairy products in

three depots, and, the other, the Quartermaster market center system pertaining to the procurement, storage, and distribution of perishable products. The Quartermaster market centers are described later in this chapter, but it

may be noted that few depot detachments had much to do with inspecting

the perishable subsistence supply, until after August 1943, as this inspection

workload at the onset was left to the Army Veterinary Service under control of the service commands. In regard to nonperishable products procurement, however, both depot veterinary detachments and service command

veterinary detachments were involved early.

During the prewar emergency periods, only few canned meat, fish, and

dairy products were centrally purchased for the Army. There were three

so-called procuring depots, but they made little or no demand for veterinary

products inspection at the point of origin or during the time of manufacture.

Each such depot had its own veterinary detachment which conducted acceptance inspection on such samples as were submitted by the contractors.

This was common practice forced on the peacetime Army, though at times

detachment personnel traveled to the food establishments to inspect the
164 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Figure 12. Testing laboratory at the Atlanta Army Service Forces Depot, 1945.

product during its manufacture. Later, origin procurement inspection

gained more recognition, and soon the procuring depots’ veterinary detachments were faced with an almost insurmountable workload at many, fardistant and widely separated cities where civilian subsistence contractors

were producing for the rapidly expanding Arm} Also, the number of

canned items designated for central procurement, by the Chicago depot in

particular, was greatly increased. During January 1941, following approval of Quartermaster Corps planning by The Surgeon General, The

Adjutant General authorized depots to communicate with the commanding

generals of service commands (then called corps areas) in regard to the

ordering of Veterinary Corps officers on origin inspections of nonperishable

subsistence {11 1*2, 13 ij). This became effective almost immediately in

the First, Third, Fourth, and Fifth Service Commands, and the veterinary

detachments of the depots which were located in these service command

areas (including those of the Boston, New Cumberland, Richmond, Atlanta,

Charlotte, Memphis, Savannah, and Columbus depots) and conducted little,

if any, origin inspections of canned products for the procuring depots. At

other depots, such as at Jersey City, Schenectady, Chicago, Kansas City,

San Antonio, Fort Worth, Oakland, Mira Loma, Seattle, and Utah (which

were in the geographic areas of the Second, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, and

Ninth Service Commands), the depot detachments greatly expanded their
ORGANIZATION IN ZONE OF INTERIOR 165

activities, sometimes to distant points, to inspect tlie nonperishable subsistence which was being procured.

Unquestionably, individual depot commanders believed that their veterinary detachments were better qualified to conduct origin inspections of nonperishable subsistence than those under the jurisdiction of service commands {15). Individual commanding generals of service commands, however, believed that their veterinary inspection services, which were already

organized for inspecting most of the Quartermaster market center procurements of perishable products, were being disrupted by the off-depot inspection activities by depot veterinary detachments. In any event, areas

of conflict and overlapping of inspectional jurisdiction developed between

the depots and the service commands. partial solution to these problems

came in February 1943 when The Quartermaster General requested his

depot commanders to limit the deployment of their veterinary detachments

on origin inspections of nonperishable subsistence to points within radius

of 30 miles from the cities or towns where such depots were located {16).

In August 1943, Headquarters, Army Service Forces, directed that the

depot commanders (or their veterinary detachments) would have inspectional responsibility over nonperishable, as well as perishable, meat and dairy

products such as were procured, stored, or otherwise handled by the Army

in metropolitan areas where the depots were located; in all other geographical areas, the concerned service command's veterinary inspection organization would assume the responsibility {17). Thus, the depot veterinary detachments, such as the Boston, Richmond, and Columbus installations, which

were then performing only on-depot meat and dairy hygiene services, were

considerably enlarged and then undertook full veterinary inspectional responsibilities in their metropolitan areas; on the other hand, those detachments with the Jersey City, Chicago, Kansas City, San Antonio, and Fort

Worth depots lost their inspectional jurisdiction over large geographical

areas to the respective service commands.

Quartermaster market center system for procuring perishable subsistence.—In the system for the centralized procurement of perishable subsistence

by Quartermaster market centers started in 1941, the veterinary inspection

workload, for the most part, was divided between the Army Veterinary

Service with the service commands and that with the Quartermaster depots

and sections of Army Service Forces depots. The latter, however, had little

to do with the inspection of perishable, or fresh, meat and dairy products

until after August 1943. Under this system that gradually replaced the

peacetime procedures in which individual Army camps and airbases procured and competed against each other in the same local markets, the responsibility for perishable subsistence procurement was transferred from

the formerly independent camp and base purchasing officers to the Office of

the Quartermaster General and thence to its new field agency in Chicago;

namely, Ileadquarfers, Perishable Subsistence Branch, later named Field
166 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Headquarters, Perishable Branch, Subsistence Division, Office of The Quar- termaster General. Veterinary Corps officer, assigned on October 1941,

as headquarters veterinarian and chief of veterinary section, was accorded

the recognition of having originated system of inspection that in great

measure assured the success of the Quartermaster market center system

(18). The headquarters organization supervised the procurement, storage,

and distribution of perishable subsistence on regional or geographic basis

through varying number of operating agencies, designated Quartermaster market centers. Eventually, these handled all types of perishable meat and

dairy products in the Zone of Interior but, in the beginning, only butter,

cheese, fresh eggs, and poultry were procured, stored, and distributed. Any

or all procurement and storage activities with respect to the products in

given geographic area were the responsibility of specific Quartermaster market center which was responsible also for distributing them to Army

camps and airbases in their immediate vicinities; the required inspections

were conducted, or arranged for, by Veterinary Corps officers on duty with

the respective market centers.

At the field headquarters level of organization, the headquarters veterinarian originally planned for the inspection of all meat and dairy products

which were to be procured, stored, distributed or otherwise handled by the

Quartermaster market center system and initiated the proposal that soon

saw the utilization of the existent Army Veterinary Service with the service

commands, depots, ports, and other installations—whichever had Veterinary Corps officer available and nearest the area—to conduct the required

inspections. Then, on 17 October 1941, pursuant to this planning, The

Adjutant General authorized the officers in charge of market centers to call

on the commanding generals of service commands (then called corps areas)

to arrange for service command veterinary personnel to conduct point of

origin inspections on market center purchases of perishable meat and dairy

products {19). This authorization was similar to that made earlier in 1941

with respect to the veterinary inspection of depot procurements of canned

subsistence. In November 1941, The Quartermaster General authorized

market center officers also to request the commanding officers of four depots

(Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, and Kansas City) to provide veterinary inspectional services. However, pursuant to the original authorization, the

service commands undertook the performance of the major share of the

veterinary procurement inspection workload for the market centers, although,

in accordance with arrangements made locally with the service command

veterinarians, few port and depot veterinary detachments expanded their

operations in response to market center requests for inspection at points of

origin. Naturally, there were several geographic areas in which these

The veterinary section, as of August 1945, included veterinary officers and 18 civilian clerical employees and was internally organized into subsections Administrative; meat and meat food

products; butter, eggs, and fish; and the Chicago Quartermaster Market Center veterinary component.
ORGANIZATION IN ZONE OF INTERIOR 167

arrangements were unsuitable, with the result that in August 1943, Headquarters, Army Service Forces, directed that, with the exception of the

metropolitan areas contiguous to depots where the concerned depot commanders would be responsible for providing all veterinary food inspection

services, the commanding generals of service commands were responsible for

providing the veterinary inspectional services—whether it be in regard to

perishable or to nonperishable subsistence {17). Thus, during the winter of

1943H:4, the service command veterinary service organizations assumed the

inspection workload in cities and towns throughout the continental United

States except in about dozen metropolitan areas in which depot veterinary detachments conducted the inspections of meat and dairy products. Some- times the service command’s inspection workload was passed on to the veterinary detachments at airbases and fields under control of the Army Air Forces.

At the level of the market centers, which were the operational elements

of the Quartermaster market center system, only those concerned with meat

and dairy products were provided with organic veterinary services. These included the following market centers, designated after the city or town in

which they were located: Alexandria, Va.; Baltimore, Md.; Boston, Mass.;

Columbia, S.C.; Columbus, Ga.; Denver, Colo.; Dover Buying Office, Dover, Del.; El Paso, Tex.; Houston, Tex.; Jacksonville, Fla.; Kansas City, Kans.; Los Angeles, Calif.; Little Rock, Ark.; Louisville, Ky.; Memphis, Tenn.; Nashville, Tenn.; New Orleans, La.; New York, N.Y.; Norfolk, Va.; Oklahoma City, Okla.; Orlando, Fla.; Philadelphia, Pa.; Phoenix, Ariz.; Richmond, Va.; Salt Lake City, Utah; San Antonio, Tex.; San Francisco, Calif.;

Seattle, Wash.; Spokane, Wash.; St. Louis, Mo.; Syracuse, N.Y.; Fort

Worth, Tex.; and Edmonton, Canada. The veterinary section of field headquarters included subsection which rendered this service to the Chicago market center. Usually, veterinary officers were detailed to the installations

on an attending or part-time basis from their primary assignment with

nearby depot or service command camp. There were few market centers,

however, which gained their own assigned veterinary officers, but such

assignments were regarded as tending to subordinate inspectional activities

under the jurisdiction of procurement and supply officers and buyers.

The market center veterinarian functioned under the supervision of the

officer in charge, reviewed the purchase orders made by the buyers, and

forwarded copies of such orders with requests for inspection to the Army

camp, airbase, depot, or other veterinary officers located nearest the geographic area in which the purchases were being made. The field headquarters veterinarian promulgated an official guide on the format of such

market center purchase orders and bid proposals which were used by the

contracting officers and buyers in all market centers, and at the same time

promulgated series of letter guides on the veterinary technical aspects of

inspecting market center purchases and storages of subsistence for use by

the Army camp, airbase, depot, and other inspecting veterinary officers. At
168 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

first, the market center veterinarian’s requests for inspections were forwarded to the offices of the concerned service command veterinarians who, in turn, determined which Army camp, airbase, depot, or other veterinary detachment would conduct the particular inspections; later, the market center veterinarians were authorized direct communications with the actual in- spectors, and the service command veterinarian was supplied with information copies of inspection requests. This expedited the rendition and report- ing of the veterinary inspection, particularly when the market center

purchase instruments were changed, as they often were, or when the contractors failed to comply with the provisions of the Army purchase instruments. By the end of 1942, most service commands were routinely informing the market center veterinarians of the location and addresses of the

veterinary detachments which would conduct inspections in specified areas.

The service commands were responsible also for ascertaining that contractors’

food establishments, storage warehouses, and commercial distribution points

operated at certain sanitary standards; routinely, the establishments entering into contract were previously inspected by Veterinary Corps officer

on request of market center, and then reinspected at least each month

during the time that such establishments maintained interest in contracting

with the Army. Establishments failing to comply ith certain sanitary

standards were disapproved and, on recommendation of the service command

veterinarian, were not used in the subsistence buying by the Quartermaster market center system. The same was applicable to sources of the nonperishable subsistence which was procured by the depots. Lists of approved establishments thus were officially promulgated by service command veterinarians, who then forwarded them to the market center veterinarians who, in turn,

advised the contracting officers and buyers in regard to civilian contractors

with the facilities and standards of operation needed to produce clean,

wholesome products for Army supply.

In the market center system of procurement, emphasis was placed on the

veterinary inspection of meat and dairy products during their manufacture

or processing and for compliance with the grade and sanitary qualities as

indicated in the purchase instruments; another and final veterinary inspection was conducted for sanitary condition of the products at the time of

arrival at destination and actual receipt by Army property or supply officers. Until December 1945, inspections were made on the procurement of

13,411,237,884 pounds of meat and dairy products, having value of $3,359,-

231,351. Some of these products were delivered to Zone of Interior destinations for immediate troop issue; however, large portion of them were

temporarily stored as reserve stockpile or were purchased during peak or

seasonal production periods. Veterinary surveillance inspections were made

of these products, usually stored in commercial cold storage plants, at 30-day

intervals. Market center veterinarians, reviewing the periodic reports of

surveillance inspections submitted by Army camp, depot, airbase, or other
ORGANIZATION IN ZONE OF INTERIOR 169

inspecting veterinary detachments, were generally successful in advising the

market center property or supply officers in regard to which products, longest in storage or showing signs of early deteriorations, should be moved from

the storage plants for early distribution. Improper packing or damage to

shipping containers comprised major causes for recommending that certain

lots be withdrawn from transshipment overseas. During the period from

September 1944 through June 1945, the outright monetary losses in storage

holdings of perishable subsistence did not exceed 0.005 percent of the value.

Transportation Corps

The Army Veterinary Service with the Transportation Corps was centered at ports of embarkation which served as the terminal points for moving

materiel from the Zone of Interior to the oversea theaters. The Transportation Corps, however, did not come into existence until the spring-summer of

1942, so that the onset of World War II actually found the military transportation activity divided between the War Department General Staff

(Assistant Chief of Staff, G-4) for overall supervision and the Quarter- master Corps and its Army Transport Service. At that time, there were

only two Army ports of embarkation—at New York, N.Y., encompassing the

Brooklyn Army Base, and at San Francisco, Calif., encompassing Fort

Mason. Other ports were established during the prewar emergency periods

at Boston, Mass., New Orleans, La., and Seattle, Wash. The veterinary

services at these Army ports were conducted on coordinated basis with that

of the general and quartermaster depots that were located in coastal cities.

Of course, when these military ports became identified as field installations

of the newly created Transportation Corps, the dualistic activities of the

veterinary detachments in the seaboard cities were terminated. Separate

veterinary services were established.

Veterinary detachments were formed at the following eight class IV

installations under jurisdiction of the Chief of Transportation, or ports of

embarkation: Boston, Charleston, S.C., Hampton Roads, Va., Los Angeles,

Calif., New Orleans, New York, Seattle, and San Francisco. number of

subports and three cargo ports were established under the control of these

ports of embarkation which also for short periods of time, supervised shipping operations of lesser extent at approximately 10 other coastal cities,

including those in Alaska (at Excursion Inlet, Juneau, and Skagway) and

in Canada. Usually, satellite installation was provided veterinary service

on part-time basis by the area command in which it was located. Between

December 1941 and the end of 1945, these Army ports embarked well over

71/2 million passengers and loaded out approximately 1/ million ship tons

(measurement tons of 40 cu. ft.) of cargo freight (20). Also, more than

11,000 mules and horses were transshipped to the U.S. and Allied armies overseas.
170 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

The Army Veterinary Service with each port of embarkation was regu- lated by the senior Veterinary Corps officer, designated as the port veterinarian, assigned to the office of the port surgeon. The latter acted as adviser to the port commander for all medical activities performed in behalf of that

port; after mid-1943, technical guidance over Medical Department activities

in ports by the Surgeon General’s Office was more or less assumed by medi- cal officer then detailed to the Office of Chief of Transportation. Under the

supervision of the immediate surgeon at each port, the port veterinarian commanded the port veterinary detachment; conducted the port’s veterinary

services, including routine station-type meat and dairy hygiene and veteri- nary animal service operations; provided for the inspections of the foods and the animals which were received, processed, and transshipped through the

port; and performed veterinary sanitary inspections of harbor craft, freighters, refrigerated cargo ships, and animal and troop transports. The last two activities were, of course, the principal and characteristic operations of the

Army Veterinary Service at Transportation Corps ports. few post veterinary detachments also were involved in the inspection of the Quartermaster Corps supply of subsistence, but, by the fall of 1943, procurement inspection in the Zone of Interior was reallocated to service commands and depots. The

New Orleans port veterinary detachment, which had been conducting large- scale procurement inspections along the Gulf Coast, for example, in September 1943, lost several personnel and this inspection responsibility to the

Eighth Service Command.

The numbers of personnel in the veterinary detachments varied among

the ports, aggregating total of approximately 50 officers and probably more

than double that number of enlisted personnel. Civilians were employed as

clerk-stenographers in most detachment offices. As of mid-1945, the Los

Angeles port had veterinary officers and 16 enlisted personnel on duty; at New York, these numbers were and 19, respectively. Wartime peak strengths in the San Francisco port averaged 14 veterinary officers each

month during the last months of 1944 and 33 enlisted personnel per month

during the period from January to June 1943. Most port veterinarians conducted their own programs of on-the-job training for their veterinary detachments. In addition, port veterinarians, pursuant to Army regulations,

conducted special training of veterinary personnel who accompanied the

oversea shipments of Army horses and mules, dogs, and other animals and,

at the New York and San Francisco installations, supervised the operation

of veterinary officers replacement pools.

Station-type veterinary services.—In the conduct of their routine, station-type veterinary services, the port of veterinary detachments may be

compared with the depot veterinary detachments as previously described.

They provided professional care and treatment for small number of horses

and mules that were maintained in several ports for drayage purposes or to

mount guard patrols and for few Army dogs which were used as internal
ORGANIZATION IN ZONE OF INTERIOR 171

security guards. One port of embarkation (Boston) had as many as lb

horses and 23 dogs in subsidiary installation, and at another (Charleston), the port veterinarian attended 40 horses and 12 dogs; however, not more

than an aggregate of 150 animals came under veterinary supervision in the

ports at any one time. The major station-type activity was not veterinary

service with animals, but the meat and dairy hygiene services relating to the

subsistence supply to port-assigned personnel, the crews on small boats or

harbor craft, and the troops during their staging. Usually, the meat and

dairy products used inside of the ports and their troop staging areas were

received from nearby depots and market centers, and thus, having been

inspected when procured, only came under veterinary surveillance inspection

at the times of receipt and issue. At all ports, this meat and dairy hygiene

service was extended to veterinary sanitary inspections of Army exchange

restaurants, officers club messes, concessionaires, and troop messhalls; this

activity at the New York port, for example, led to the rendition of more than

1,700 monthly sanitary inspection reports through the 2-year period ending

June 1915.

The station-type veterinary meat and dairy hygiene services also in- cluded the veterinary sanitary inspections of the food storage facilities on

small boats and harbor craft, on baggage-kitchen and kitchen cars of troop

and hospital trains arriving and departing from the ports, on Army-operated ships, and sometimes on Navy, War Shipping Administration, and

British Ministry of War Transport vessels in Army service. Troop trains

requiring additional subsistence supply while en route ordinarily obtained

the meat and dairy products from one of approximately 125 specially designated Army installations or supply points along their routes of travel. Another activity was related to the inspection of so-called ships stores or the

subsistence which was used in the feeding of crews during the voyages; this

supply was entirely separate from subsistence cargo for oversea supply and

the subsistence which was used for on-ship feeding of Army troops while

en route.

The Army and Navy routinely provided subsistence stores for their ships

from regular military stockpiles, but the other agencies obtained their ships

stores for crew feeding from miscellany of domestic and foreign sources

where sanitary conditions were often questionable. The problem here was

that the Army Veterinary Service had no responsibility or authorization to

conduct meat and dairy hygiene services regarding the ships stores on the

War Shipping Administration and British vessels, but, at the same time, this

subsistence—of unknown origin and of questionable quality—such as became

surplus to the crews was being discharged at the oversea destinations and

entered into Army subsistence supply. This occurred particularly during

the early war years and often comprised the first fresh foods that were

available in the oversea theaters; Army hospitals in the North African thea590248 —61—13
172 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

ter and in the South Pacific Area gained priority for receiving such surplus

ships stores.

Along with their conduct of routine meat and dairy hygiene services in the port areas, the veterinary detachments became involved in number of

related food inspection activities. For example, the port veterinary detachments at the Boston and Seattle installations also inspected the fruit and

vegetable supply. At the Charleston port, this extra duty was added, in July 1944, when the port commander determined that past losses among nonanimal-origin foods were too great. Another activity was the supervision of subsistence conservation measures whereby seriously damaged food containers

were set aside on the piers (that is, removed from oversea shipment) for

collection later and then recommended for reissue locally. Possibly, an

activity that reached considerable proportions in the vicinity of ports, such

as at Charleston and New Orleans, was the encouragement and the sanitary

supervision of local fresh milk supplies; port commanders more or less

demanded that, for maintaining morale in the troop staging areas, fresh milk would be made available in plentiful supply. In this connection, the Army

Veterinary Service at the Boston and the Charleston ports inaugurated, or

participated in, the original studies on the development of suitably frozen

fresh milk for issue to the Army hospital ships which were evacuating

patients from the European theater. The Transportation Corps, Quarter- master Corps, and the Medical Department viewed this development as

major advancement in the feeding of hospital patients. The Army Veterinary Service with Transportation Corps ports also comprised security

guard against the introduction of animal diseases into the United States and

frequently cooperated with such Federal nonmilitary agencies as were legally

empowered to regulate the importation of animals, food products, or ships

stores, and the disposal of garbage on ships returning from oversea theaters.

For example, foot-and-mouth disease (aphthous fever) was not brought into

the United States even in the immediate postwar period when millions of

military personnel were returned from Europe. Particular mention may be

made of the successful operations of various degrees of import quarantine

conducted in the Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York, and Seattle ports.

Also, importations of Army purchases of South American canned corned

beef were inspected routinely at time of arrival by port or nearby depot

veterinary detachments in cooperation with civilian veterinary inspectors of

the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Inspection of shipboard subsistence.—The specialist activities of the

Army Veterinary Service with the Zone of Interior ports concerned the transportation of animals to the theaters, the oversea movement of subsistence

cargo, and the subsistence supply for on-ship feeding of troops while en

route. The last-named activity posed major and difficult problem throughout the war period because so few troop movements were made on ships

under regulatory control of the Army; in fact, the Navy, War Shipping
ORGANIZATION IN ZONE OF INTERIOR 173

Administration, and British Ministry of War Transport transported the

majority of Army troops. This problem was twofold in nature: It concerned the sanitary inspections of ships galleys and the storage of subsistence

which were involved in the feeding of Army troops while in transit; and it

related to the veterinary sanitary and other quality grading of the actual

food products. The first part of the problem was readily answered, because

Veterinary Corps officers were usually named into membership on official port

inspector general teams that passed on the acceptability of ships which were

being offered by the agencies for moving Army troops. At the Hampton

Roads and San Francisco installations, such port veterinary inspections over

the 2-year period ending June 1945 were made of 988 (including 162 Navycontrolled) ships and 466 ships, respectively. At the New York port, as many

as hundred ships were inspected during single month.

The second part of the problem related to the veterinary inspections of

the products used for shipboard feeding of Army troops is somewhat comparable to the situation of the entry of ships stores from War Shipping

Administration vessels into regular Army supply channels overseas, as previously noted. This was not readily solved because the War Shipping Administration and other agencies, including the British Ministry of War

Transport, and less so, the Navy, each maintained its own subsistence procurement responsibility. However, what was accomplished during the war

to improve the quality of this shipboard subsistence was done in accordance

with local arrangements made by individual port veterinarians and the concerned agency representatives. However, near the end of the war period,

the matter of veterinary-inspected meat and dairy products became the subject of conferences between the Army and the War Shipping Administration,

but no final, centralized interagency agreement was reached. Pursuant to

these local arrangements, the Army Veterinary Service at the onset limited

itself to the inspection of foods for sanitary and grade quality at the time

of arrival at the piers or immediately prior to their loading into the ships’

troop galleys. At Hampton Roads, such inspections of products at shipside

were begun in October 1943 and aggregated 8,556,966 pounds of inspected

meat and dairy products by the end of June 1945. Such shipside inspections

were eventually set up at four ports, and at three others, the port veterinarians also requested nearby depot and service command veterinary detachments to inspect the subsistence in commercial food establishments before

delivery to the piers.

In regard to troop feeding on British Ministry of War Transport ships

which were loading out of the Boston, Hampton Roads, and New York ports,

local arrangements were in effect before the end of 1943 for their supplies

of meat and dairy products to have originated from Veterinary Corpsapproved food establishments and to be inspected at shipside (or prior to

loading) for sanitary condition and grade quality. At Hampton Roads, such

inspections were made of 761,876 pounds of subsistence in the 4-month period,
174 ARMY VETERIXARY SERVICE

October 1943 through January 1944: at New York, an average of six British

transports were inspected each month. Suitable local arrangements also were

made in regard to the oversea transportation of Army personnel on Navycontrolled ships, particularly at the Hampton Roads, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle ports; of course, during the war, large quantities of Navyowned subsistence were procured through Army supply channels so that

veterinary products inspections at shipside were routinely one of observing

that the products themselves had not deteriorated or become spoiled since

their last inspection at procurement point or storage facility. It may be

mentioned that Headquarters, Army Service Forces, on 27 March 1944. officially approved the agreement which had been reached between The Surgeon

General and the Chief, Bureau of Supplies and Accounts, U.S. Navy, whereby

the Army Veterinary Service would inspect all foods loaded on War Shipping Administration-controlled ships which were transporting Navy personnel out of the San Francisco port. Similar but less formal arrangements

were also in effect at Seattle.

Inspection of subsistence cargo.—The inspection of subsistence cargo

for oversea supply was the most important activity of the Army Veterinary

Service at Zone of Interior ports. It had for its objectives the removal from

transshipment of meat and dairy products such as were deteriorated or otherwise unsuitable or would become spoiled while en route or soon after arrival

at destination and the technical supervision over the facilities and procedures

of ships storage as would assure the safekeeping of the products, particularly

those of perishable nature, during the voyage (tig. 13), During the early

war years, since few personnel in the ports assumed the responsibility for

the overall aspects of handling subsistence cargo, port veterinary detachments necessarily operated as technical advisors on packaging, storage, stevedoring, and security police. For example, at various times in the New York

port, 40 percent of outside containers were noted to be damaged as result

of rough handling or improper packaging. 10 carloads of frozen products

had thawed out during their stay on the pier area before they were opened

for loading, and pilferage on the piers approximated 100,000 pounds per

month. Of course, these difficulties were gradually overcome.

The quantities of outbound subsistence inspected varied among the individual ports, and for each port the rate of shipment changed periodically.

For example, the West Coast ports shipped large volumes during the first

months of the war, but with Allied strategy calling for early defeat of the

German Axis, larger volumes were later moved from the Atlantic ports

first to the North African and then to the European theaters. Boston became

concerned with the supply to the base command garrisons in Newfoundland,

Greenland, and Iceland, but its heaviest movements were made to northern

Europe. New York was the principal port for serving the European theater

and also moved large quantities to the Mediterranean. Hampton Roads

divided its outbound cargo for these two theaters, whereas the Charleston
ORGANIZATION IN ZONE OF INTERIOR 175

U.S. ARMY PHOTO

Figure 13. Shipsitle inspection of foods of animal origin in Zone of Interior

ports was one of the many inspections conducted by the Army Veterinary Service

along the food supply route to troops overseas.

port carried light cargo loading schedule—its wartime role being that of

the home port for hospital ships in Atlantic waters. New Orleans was the

major shipping port for the Armed Forces in the Caribbean area, but it also

shipped to the European and Asiatic-Pacific theaters. On the West Coast,

the San Francisco port was the principal oversea supplier, but in this it was

aided by the Los Angeles installation, which also served the Asiatic theater,

and by the Seattle port, which moved supplies to Alaska and to the Central

and Western Pacific area. In March 1945, the veterinary detachment at the

New York Port of Embarkation alone technically supervised the loading out

of 315 million pounds of meat and dairy products—a wartime peak monthly

inspection workload at port for the war period.

Refrigerated freighters, each usually requiring days for loading, were

moved out of many ports at the rate of per month, but peak monthly rates

of were experienced at Hampton Roads (in November 1943), of 10 at

Los Angeles (in the first half of 1943), and of 25 at the New York port.

It may be mentioned that refrigerated freighters (also called reefer ships)

were not especially plentiful during the early part of the war period; on the

other hand, refrigerated storage and issue points were not fully developed
176 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

in the theaters to receive or hold any large quantities of perishable subsistence even if it was shipped. The early demands for perishable subsistence

were satisfied in part by the use of portable refrigerator boxes (of 360 cu. ft.

capacity), whicli coidd be carried as deck cargo loads and then put ashore

at destination; also, some few cargo ships were modified during their construction to have built-in refrigerated space in their holds. Later, refrigerated barges were constructed which could be used as floating storage and

issue points on arrival at outlying bases in the Pacific theaters. As of May

1945, the Army controlled only three of the total of 148 fully or partially

refrigerated ships available in the U.S. shipping pool (aggregating 15 million

cu. ft. of refrigerated ship space). Infrequently, veterinary officers were

detailed to duty on the refrigerated ships during voyages to observe the

conditions of the subsistence on arrival overseas.

Veterinary animal service.—Nearly all ports of embarkation were involved in the movement of Army animals to the oversea commands. Altogether, under veterinary supervision, these ports shipped out more than

11,000 mules and horses, approximately 1,900 Army dogs, and several thousand pigeons and Medical Department laboratory animals. Another 2,227

mules were transshipped to India through the New York Port of Embarkation, under the provisions of lend-lease supply to Great Britain; through the

fall of 1945, few hundred horses and mules surplus to the Army in the

Panama Canal Department, 153 captured horses from the European theater,

and many Army dogs and signal pigeons also were brought into the Zone

of Interior through the ports. In this traffic, the port veterinarians inspected

the animals on arrival, rendered veterinary certificates on their health, cared

for them during their stay in the port area, and supervised the loading and

unloading procedures; animals which were sick or injured, or in unsatisfactory physical condition, were removed from further shipment. Facilities on

outbound animal transports were inspected before the start of loading operations and before the transports departed. Also, such veterinary personnel as

accompanied the transports to destination were selected, trained, and equipped

to care for the animals while en route. Sometimes, port-assigned veterinary

personnel comprised the animal transports’ veterinary detachments, but more

often the latter were veterinary animal service detachments which were en

route overseas or the personnel organically assigned to the units whose animals were being transported.

With the exception of two, the ports of embarkation did not have special facilities for receiving, processing, and embarking animals. At the New York

port, horses and mules generally were moved through the stockyards in

Jersey City, N.J., where the required Army veterinary animal services were

provided by provisional organization under control of the Second Service

Command. The Ninth Service Command veterinary detachment at the

Presidio of San Francisco provided the essential veterinary animal services

for the 2,929 nudes and horses that were staged for movement to the Central
ORGANIZATION IN ZONE OF INTERIOR 177

U.S. ARMY PHOTO

Figure 14.—Aerial view of Animal Remount Station, Camp ITauche, New Orleans, La., 1944. The loading wharf is shown in the upper left corner.

and Southwest Pacific theaters through the San Francisco port; at Seattle,

the detachment at Fort Lawton, Wash., cared for the dogs which were moved

through that port. Elsewhere, pier or warehouse facilities were used. The

exceptional ports, or those having special animal embarkation depot facilities,

were the New Orleans port with its Animal Remount Station, Camp Plauche,

La. (fig. Id) and the Los Angeles installation with its Animal Depot, Puente,

Calif. The latter’s veterinary detachment became operational in February

1944 and, until its discontinuance in May 1945, received 1,874 mules and

horses and actually embarked 1,550 of these for the China-Burma-India

theater. At the Camp Plauche facility, port veterinary services were rendered for as many as 964 horses and mules in single month (as of June

1944) approximately one-half of the total number of mules and horses transshipped out of the Zone of Interior during the war were processed at Camp

Plauche remount station under veterinary supervision, with destinations in

the Asiatic-Pacific and Mediterranean theaters.

ROLE OF PERSONNEL ASSIGNED TO SERVICE COMMANDS

Activities and installations of the Army Service Forces that were not

controlled by chief of technical service were administered and organized

on regional basis by service commands. The latter contained the major
178 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

operating elements of the Army Veterinary Service in the Zone of Interior. There were nine service commands whose geographic boundaries paralleled

those of their predecessor corps areas (map 2). and their commanding generals each reported to the Commanding General, Army Service Forces. In

the summer of 1912, tenth service command—hut with additional missions

not relating to the Army Service Forces—was formed. This was the Military

District of Washington, with headquarters in the District of Columbia, which

came into control of several installations and small area previously assigned

to the Third Service Command (2.1). During September 1942, the Northwest Service Command was established, with headquarters at Whitehorse and

later relocated in Edmonton, to administer specified oil pipeline, highway,

and railroad projects in western Canada. This last-named command was

discontinued on 30 June 1945 and incorporated, as district subcommand,

into the Sixth Service Command.

Each service command had its own veterinarian who controlled the command’s veterinary services under the supervision of the service command

surgeon (fig. 15). The service command veterinarian functioned as the

advisory and administrative assistant to the surgeon of the service command

in directing the veterinary service thereof, as veterinary consultant, and

as attending veterinarian at the headquarters (22).

Actually, the service command surgeons and veterinarians did not always

have this centralized direction and control over Medical Department activities

and veterinary services throughout their respective commands or in the Army

camps and installations which came under service command jurisdiction.

Before November-December 1943, Headquarters, Army Service Forces, provided for little or no control of the service commands’ Medical Department

The following Veterinary Corps officers served in the capacity as service command veterinarians or, before July 1942, as corps area veterinarians

First Service Command; Col. George H. Koon (1939 through December 1943) and Col. Jesse

D. Derrick (December 1943 through 1945).

Second Service Command: Col. Christian W. Greenlee (1939 through September 1940) and

Col. Burton A. Seeley (September 1940 through 1945).

Third Service Command: Col. Horace S. Eakins (1939 through August 1942), Col. Frank H.

Woodruff (August 1942 through August 1944), and Col. George L. Caldwell (September 1944

through 1945).

Fourth Service Command: Col. Burton A. Seeley (1936 through September 1940), Col. William

H. Houston (September 1940 through April 1945), and Col. Edward M. Curley (April through

December 1945).

Fifth Service Command Col. W. H. Houston (1937 through September 1940) and Col. C. W. Greenlee (September 1940 through 1945).

Sixth Service Command: Lt. Col. Will C. Griffin (1936 through September 1940), Col. Fred

C. Waters (September through December 1940), Col. James E. Noonan (December 1940 through

February 1944), and Col. Louis L. Shook (February 1944 through 1945).

Seventh Service Command: Col. Harold E. Egan (1939 through 1945).

Eighth Service Command: Col. Jean R. Underwood (1939 through January 1941), Col. James

A. McCallam (March 1941 through February 1943), and Col. A. C. Wight (March 1943 through

1945).

Ninth Service Command: Col. Robert J. Foster (1938 through September 1944), Col. Oness H.

Dixon (April 1944 through August 1945), and Col. Francois H. K. Reynolds (September through

December 1945).

Military District of Washington Lt. Col. Gerald W. Holmberg (December 1942 through 1945).

Northwest Service Command Maj. W. B. Bills.
ORGANIZATION IN ZONE OF INTERIOR 179

Map 2.—Service Commands, August 1942.

functions and activities by the respective headquarters surgeons and veterinarians because, at all echelons of Army Service Forces organization, the

total subordination of medical affairs was under the direct control of immediate commanders. In fact, commanding general of service command was

not authorized to have surgeon, or any other Medical Department officer,

on his immediate staff. This situation originated in the summer-fall of 1942

when the predecessor corps areas were redesignated as service commands and

the latter, in turn, were made direct agencies of the Commanding General,

Army Service Forces. However, before this time or in the days of corps

area organization, there was Medical Department control which in some

respects was similar to that seen in the service command organization after

November-December 1943; that is, each corps area had corps area surgeon

(and corps area veterinarian as assistant to the surgeon) on the staff of

the commanding general. The difference between them and the later service

command surgeon (and veterinarian) was that the latter supervised his command's veterinary services under the regulation of the commanding general

of the service command, whereas the corps area surgeon (and his veterinary

officer assistant), even though he reported to the corps area commander, was

commonly referred to as an agent of The Surgeon General. The corps area’s

medical affairs were regulated by technical channels of communication from

the Surgeon General's Office, but this was abruptly discontinued with the

new organization of the service commands.

14
180 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Figure 15.—Conference of service command veterinarians held at Chicago, 111., 18

March 1944. Left to right, first row, seated: Col. Burton A. Seeley, Col. Harold E. Egan,

Col. Robert J. Foster, Brig. Gen. Raymond A. Kelser, Col. Jesse 1). Derrick, Col. William

H. Houston, and Col. Christian W. Greenlee. Second row: Col. Forrest L. Holycross, Col.

Oness II. Dixon, Jr., Lt. Col. Raymond T. Seymour, Lt. Col. John H. Rust 3d, Lt. Col. H. K.

Moore, Col. Louis L. Shook, Col. Gerald W. FitzGerald, and Col. Seth C. Dildine. Third

row: Col. Allen C. Wight, Lt. Col. Gardiner B. Jones, Col. Frank H. Woodruff, Lt. Col. John

Ludwigs, Lt. Col. S. W. Alford, Col. Fred C. Waters, and Col. Frank M. Lee.

The inception of the service command organization in the summer of

1942 brought with it the temporary removal of the ex-corps area surgeon

from his staff officer status with respect to the commanding general and his

downgrading to the position of “chief of medical branch” under the directorship of the new service command headquarters supply division {23). At the

same time, the service command veterinarian became chief of section within

the medical branch, although Headquarters, Army Service Forces, did not

provide for veterinary section in the internal organization of that branch.

In fact, for some time, the veterinary section of one service command headquarters operated outside the jurisdiction of the medical branch and, in

another section, such separation was discussed. As further indication of

the irregularities brought on by the Headquarters, Army Service Forces,

plan for the new service command organization, another headquarters tentatively placed its medical branch under the directorship of personnel rather

than under the headquarters supply division. More important, however, was

the fact that there was no officially recognized service command veterinarian

and that it was not Medical Department officer (service command surgeon
ORGANIZATION IN ZONE OF INTERIOR 181

and/or veterinarian) but the headquarters director of supply who was ex- plicitly assigned the stall functions for supervising the service command's

veterinary services, including those at the camp or post level.

At first, Headquarters, Army Service Forces, provided for these service command headquarters directors of supply to supervise also the veterinary inspection services at market centers, plants, and depots in connection with procurement of meat and food supplies. This obviously was an error as it

tended to completely separate certain food procurement inspection responsi- bility from he Quartermaster General since all other procurements by him and by the other chiefs of technical supply services were inspected under

their supervision or other regulatory control and not by any service command headquarters. In any event, this was soon corrected—as were other

mistakes—by Headquarters, Army Service Forces. Thus, in December 1942, revised manual on the organization of its service commands changed the

supervisory activity so that the director of supply in each headquarters was

to supervise the veterinary inspection service incident to the service command

procurement of meat and food supplies, and, as requested by The Quarter- master General, they were to assist also in inspections incident to other procurement of meat and food supplies. Actually, by this time, The Quarter- master General, through his developing centralized depot procurement system for nonperishable subsistence and the new Quartermaster market center system, was procuring most of the supplies needed by the Army.

Along with this delegation of staff controls over veterinary food inspection activities to the headquarters’ directors of supply, the service command

veterinarians also lost their staff controls both over veterinary personnel

assignment in the service commands and over their training to the new service

command headquarters’ directors of personnel and directors of training, respectively. In other words, veterinary affairs became complicated, trifurcated staff problem in the service command headquarters. Actually, the

Army Veterinary Service was not the only service affected by the service

command organization of 1942 because the same losses of staff representation

and their divisions in management control were equally experienced by all

technical services. It may be noted, however, that, in at least one service

command headquarters, the chief of the veterinary section was subdelegated

certain responsibilities to take staff action as an assistant to the local director

of supply.

In November-December 1943, after year and half of this non-Medical

Department headquarters supervision of the Army Veterinary Service within

the service commands, Headquarters, Army Service Forces, set up its own

organizational chart as pattern for reorganizing the various service command headquarters. At the same time, the chiefs of the headquarters’ medical branches were reinstated as service command surgeons, who as chief

representatives of the Medical Department were designated to act as staff

officers and advisers to the commanding generals of their service commands.
182 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Chart 2.—Functional organisation of the office of the service command surgeon,

winter 19Jf3~44

SERVICE COMMAND SURGEON

EXECUTIVE OFFICER

ADMINISTRATIVE

SERVICE

PERSONNEL

SERVICE

OPERATIONS

SERVICE

SUPPLY

SERVICE

PROFESSIONAL

SERVICE

PREVENTIVE

MEDICINE

DIVISION

NEUROPSYCHIATRY

DIVISION

NUTRITION

DIVISION

MEDICAL

DIVISION

DENTAL

DIVISION

VETERINARY

DIVISION

VENEREAL

DISEASE

CONTROL

DIVISION

PHYSICAL

STANDARDS

DIVISION

NURSING

DIVISION

SURGICAL

DIVISION

FIELD INSTALLATIONS

Iii other words, the service command surgeons replaced the headquarters’

directors of supply divisions as the responsible supervisors and technical

advisors to the commanding generals on Medical Department activities within

the service commands. Following pattern of organization suggested by the

Surgeon General’s Office, each surgeon’s office was then reorganized to include

veterinary division headed by the service command veterinarian (chart 2).

There was no uniformity of internal organization among the veterinary divisions of service command headquarters. Usually they comprised the office

of service command veterinarian, one to three veterinary officers as assistants, occasionally, Medical Administrative Corps officer and civilian clerical

employees. In the Seventh Service Command, this divisional organization

was subdivided into three branches, each with two to four sections: Administration branch, food inspection and milk sanitation branch, and animal

service branch. There were four subsections in the Ninth Service Command

headquarters veterinary division: Control (or personnel), professional service, inspection service, and animal service. In other service commands, such

as the First, Second, and Eighth, the divisions also included the central

offices for service command veterinary units or detachments as were com-
ORGANIZATION IN ZONE OF INTERIOR 183

manded by the service command veterinarians. Throughout the war period,

the service command veterinarians frequently promulgated letters of instruction or technical directives relating to veterinary matters that were distrib- uted through command channels to the service command veterinary detachments and personnel; in fact, information received from the Surgeon General's Office, either by official correspondence or informally, was coordinated into the service command headquarters procedures and disseminated in this

manner by the service command veterinarians.

After Xovember-December 1943, there was little further change in the

wartime service command organization relating to the Army Veterinary

Service. Then, with the reorganization of the War Department and abolishment of Headquarters, Army Service Forces, that took place, effective on

11 June 1946, the nine service commands were discontinued (£J). By substituting six army areas for the service commands, the number of service

command veterinarians was reduced to six and their names changed to army

area veterinarians. The latter were continued in the offices of the new army

area surgeons who then, with regard to medical matters, received orders and

instructions from the War Department General Staff. They were responsible

for the areas’ veterinary service except “veterinary services at Quartermaster and general depots charged with supply of food products and veterinary food

inspection within the metropolitan areas in which such depots are located”

and the “veterinary service at Quartermaster remount depots and remount

area headquarters.”

Station Veterinary Service

The Army Veterinary Service below the level of service command veterinarians included varying number of so-called station veterinary detachments, each commanded by the senior Veterinary Corps officer assigned and

present for duty. He conducted the station veterinary service under the general supervision of the post, camp, or station surgeon assigned to the class

(or service command-controlled) installation or to the camp or class II

installation where Army Ground Forces troops were housed. The Army

Veterinary Service with service commands also included the veterinary sections of service command medical laboratories and so-called area or district

veterinary detachments. The latter comprised new type of organization in

the service commands and gradually came into existence as actions by Headquarters, Army Service Forces, and service command headquarters in regard

to command and personnel controls virtually destroyed many station veterinary detachments. The numbers of Army Service Forces veterinary personnel in the service commands at one time, in December 1944, approximated

650 officers. In the Fourth Service Command, the veterinary officer and

enlisted personnel strengths reached wartime peaks of 101 and 306, respectively, by the end of 1943; in the Sixth Service Command, these numbered

99 officers and 213 enlisted personnel as of V-J Day. As of the end of 1944,
184 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

both the Second and the Seventh Service Commands veterinary personnel

strengths approximated 80 officers and 240 enlisted personnel, each, but the

Seventh’s continued to increase to 96 veterinary officers and to 260 men by

mid-August 1945.

These numbers of personnel were commented upon by the respective

command veterinarians as being either adequate or too low for the successful

accomplishment of the veterinary mission. Thus, in the Third Service

Command—

Even while at its peak the force was not adequate for the work required. surplus

of inspectors never existed; on the contrary the available force was usually spread so

thin that the quality of the inspection service suffered thereby. Excepting sometimes in

the case of officers, it was not problem of being unable to obtain authorization, but

rather problem of obtaining the actual personnel, trained or untrained, from any source.

This condition became more critical as the war progressed and physically qualified Veterinary Service Trained enlisted men were withdrawn from our service for assignment to

combat units.

This loss of personnel for non veterinary utilization in the Army Ground

Forces comprised complaint more serious than that which was made by the

service command veterinarians earlier when their personnel were being withdrawn for assignment to new stations or the Army Air Forces in the expansion period or for oversea assignment. Needless to say, the losses were

tentatively identified with requisition demands for correspondingly larger

numbers of limited service and untrained personnel. In the Sixth Service

Command—

The numbers of veterinary personnel available were considered to be no more than

adequate at any time, and were occasionally insufficient for the rising scale of wartime

duties. It was very difficult at many times during the war period to obtain sufficient

veterinary personnel in the Command for accomplishment of inspection responsibilities.

The necessary T/O increases and personnel authorizations could be obtained without

undue difficulty, but the problem was in filling personnel requisitions in time for the

recurrent workload increases. complicating factor was that veterinary replacement

personnel had to be technically qualified, dependable and with initiative, to be of value

for the individual type of duties performed. The problem was solved each year by vario\is means, but grave doubt sometimes existed as to whether food inspection requirements

could be satisfied.

Another service command veterinarian believed that the personnel shortages

were caused by overall headquarters planning which did not project for more

than day-to-day operations of the veterinary service and that the additionally

required personnel often became available long after the given situation was

met by local reorganization or had long since ceased to exist. In only one

service command was the veterinary personnel strength regarded as being so

critical that it could not be satisfied, at least temporarily, by readjustments

in the deployment of available personnel.

With few exceptions, the veterinary personnel in the service commands

were male officers and enlisted men. The Third and Seventh Service Com- mands, however, each eventually gained one or two assigned Women’s Army
ORGANIZATION IN ZONE OF INTERIOR 185

Corps officers who were graduate veterinarians and varying number of

enlisted female personnel. Civilian employees were used for clerical purposes

in many veterinary offices and as animal caretakers in medical laboratories; the trend toward the substitution of military personnel by civilian employees in veterinary inspection work was enforced upon detachments in three service

commands. Actually, qualified or experienced civilian meat inspectors were

unavailable, but those who were available could not be utilized under any or

all conditions for the irregular and long periods of inspection work normally

required of the veterinary enlisted personnel. In the First Service Command,

civilian meat inspectors were employed (as of October 1945) in the Third

Service Command there were IT but, as of the end of 1945, only remained.

varying percentage of the personnel assigned to the service commands

were trained in Medical Department schools and courses for officers and in

replacement training centers and Medical Department enlisted technicians

schools for enlisted personnel. Nearly all service command veterinarians

experienced difficulties in the acute lack of any additional personnel to replace

those who were temporarily released from their duty assignments for such

school training, but at the same time there was every reason for properly

training them before their selection for oversea deployment sometime in the

future. After September 1943, the service command headquarters, rather

than the Surgeon General’s Office or War Department, ordered veterinary

officers into school training. This school training was implemented by on-thejob training of the personnel at their assigned stations, particularly on those

subjects which better qualified them in carrying out the mission of the local

station veterinary detachments. Usually no formal schedule for such on-thejob training was prescribed by the service command headquarters, and pertinent directives and publications of technical nature which were promulgated by the Surgeon General's Office and service command veterinarians

most frequently became the source material for conducting this on-the-job

training in the station detachments. The equipment and supply for station

veterinary detachments among the various service commands were readily

obtained and were generally adequate. In at least one service command (the

First), however, difficulty was experienced in obtaining suitable clothing for

veterinary personnel on duty in cold storage warehouses, and, in others, some

shortages in the supply of meat and dairy hygiene inspection equipment,

especially thermometers, existed during the early part of the war period.

Station veterinary services were the basic activities of the Army Veterinary Service with service commands in the Zone of Interior, and station

veterinary detachments comprised its basic functional organization. These

station veterinary services were comparable to the routine, housekeeping-like

meat and dairy hygiene and veterinary animal services which were conducted

by those detachments assigned to depots and ports, as previously described,

and those assigned to bases and airfields which were controlled by the Army

Air Forces. These routine services were provided by the Army Service
186 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Forces service command detachments at such installations as replacement

training centers, recreational and personnel redistribution centers, convalescent camps and general hospitals, arsenals and motor depots, internment

camps, and prisoner-of-war camps, and at the camps where Army Ground

Forces units were being trained and prepared for oversea deployment.

Each station veterinary detachment included all officers and enlisted

personnel who were assigned for veterinary service at the station and was

administered and commanded by the senior veterinary officer, the latter being

designated the station veterinarian. The detachment’s personnel strength

was to be determined by the number of animals at the station, whether

station veterinary hospital was operated, and by the extent of the local meat

and dairy hygiene inspections. Control over the discipline, training, equipping, and assigning to duty of the detachment personnel were responsibilities

vested in the station veterinarian in his capacity as commanding officer; the

station veterinarian also was responsible for the conduct of the local veterinary services and activities, but in this he was supervised by the station

surgeon. In fact, so far as staff relations were concerned, the station veterinarian was an assistant to the surgeon who in turn was the representative for

the Medical Department on the staff' of the commanding officer of the station

concerned. Sometimes, by local arrangement, the station veterinarian was

directly named to the staff of the station commander, but this was the exception in common station organization.

Unfortunately, the regulatory provisions for station veterinary functional

organization were changed by Headquarters, Army Service Forces, which

through series of staff actions virtually destroyed station veterinary detachments. For example, all station Medical Department functions were fully

subordinated to local commanders without channels of communications for

referring professional or technical matters to senior Medical Department

officers who now had been removed from their staff officer capacity in all

service command headquarters, as previously noted. In another, but less

successful, staff action, Headquarters, Army Service Forces, attempted station reorganization which would have placed all Medical Department activities under the supervision of station supply officers and responsibility for

duty assignments of Medical Department personnel under the local station

personnel officers—a situation which paralleled the service command headquarters organization of 1942-43. Of course, the latter reorganization plan

was not forcibly effected, and, throughout the war period, the station surgeons continued to represent Medical Department affairs direct to their station

commanders. However, the latter were guided in their command responsibility over the local station veterinary services by the director of supply of

the immediate service command headquarters or by that headquarters’ personnel division, until November-December 1943, when service command surgeons (and veterinarians) regained their staff officer status.
ORGANIZATION IN ZONE OF INTERIOR 187

In another staff action, in mid-1943, Headquarters, Army Service Forces,

changed the procedures which were being used by the service commands in

allocating space authorizations for personnel at the stations. Thus, the service command headquarters were authorized to consolidate the existent personnel space authorizations for medical, dental, veterinary, and all other station

service complements into single bulk allotment for the station concerned;

furthermore, the authorizations for veterinary personnel were “bulked” with

the total Medical Department personnel authorizations. Now, station veterinary detachments were discontinued and merged with the station medical

detachment, and veterinary personnel lost their identity. Between the station

commander and the station surgeon, who now assumed command over the

veterinary detachments, trained veterinary enlisted personnel were transferred, utilized in nonveterinary duties, particularly in the station hospitals,

and often had little chance of promotion. This had very deterrent effect

on morale and efficiency of station veterinary detachments, and equally important was the fact that service command veterinarians lost all accounting

of the availability and capabilities of each station detachment to participate

in the Army Veterinary Service functions of the concerned service commands

as whole (25 through 30). By the end of 1944, this situation had become

progressively worse as more and more physically qualified personnel were

withdrawn for oversea deployment, and the stations, encountering shortages

in numbers of personnel, restricted their personnel to carrying out only the

station's immediate missions and functions. Veterinary detachments which

were conducting off-station food inspection services in commercial food establishments were cut back by local authority. Not the least concerned in this

last action were the service command headquarters control divisions.

Although it would seem that the status of the Army Veterinary Service

at the station level was markedly reduced, there were saving provisions for

its continuance and for centralized supervision by the service command veterinarian on command-wide basis. One such provision was that veterinary

personnel were designated in critical occupational specialty for which

trained replacements had to be available before they could be transferred

from their assigned stations. Another was, as previously noted, the independent actions on the part of one or more service command headquarters

to continue the service command veterinarian as staff officer to supervise

the veterinary activities and personnel in the command, even though Headquarters, Army Service Forces, had specifically advised against such functional organization in the service commands. Also, in many service commands, with the assistance of the headquarters control divisions which earlier

had been active in reducing station veterinary detachments, separate veterinary detachments were organized to conduct all off-station veterinary services

within specified geographic area. This latter development, which gave

origin to area or district veterinary detachments, together with the service
188 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

command headquarters reorganization of November-December 1943 which

reinstated the service command veterinarians, actually accounted for continued effectiveness and efficiency of the Army Veterinary Service with the

service commands, though station veterinary detachments were now virtually

ineffective. The status and developments among the various service commands regarding station veterinary service are described in later paragraphs.

The developments were contingent on the gradual restriction of station veterinary detachments to duty on the post or camp proper and the emergence of

new area or district detachments which took over all off-station duties, particularly the inspections of meat and dairy products at contractors’ plants,

commercial warehouses, and shipping points in specified areas.

In the First Service Command, station veterinary service was conducted

at dozen or more class and class II installations, including that at two

distributions centers (at Hartford, Conn., or the Willimantic Distribution

Center, and at Medford, Mass.). Beginning in 1943, these station veterinary

detachments were reduced in their personnel strengths, and their off-station

activities at commercial food establishments which were supplying the Armed

Forces were transferred to the inspection responsibility of single service

command veterinary unit; namely, Service Command Unit 1100 (or Service

Command Unit 1135) as it was called before its redesignation, in February

1945, First Service Command Veterinary Service at Large. It was organized

during November 1942, first with veterinary officers and, after May 1943, also

with veterinary enlisted personnel—the latter being formerly assigned to

general dispensary organization. Under the command of the service command

veterinarian, Service Command Unit 1100, First Service Command Veterinary

Service at Large, reached peak strength of 17 officers and 39 enlisted personnel and civilian inspector employees. Their activities approximated

two-thirds of the total quantities of foods inspected in the service command

during the first months of 1945. This unit’s inspections in Boston were

assumed by the Boston Quartermaster Depot in the fall of 1943, but, by the

end of 1944, it had taken over inspection responsibilities in most areas previously serviced by station and airbase veterinary detachments and in parts

of Connecticut and Massachusetts that once were serviced by veterinary

personnel assigned to the two distribution centers. At various times, suboffices or substations of the unit were established, such as at Hartford and

New Haven in Connecticut; Gloucester, New Bedford, Springfield, and Worcester in Massachusetts; Manchester in New Hampshire, and at Portland, Maine.

In the Second Service Command, station veterinary detachments were

kept intact for the greater part of the war period. Some few stations were

expanded to satisfy the veterinary food inspection needs at procurement and

storage points in towns and cities near them, such as Fort Totten, N.Y.,

whose veterinary detachment inspected in the Poughkeepsie-Kingston-Chester

area, and as Pine Camp, N.Y., whose detachment inspected in the nearby
ORGANIZATION IN ZONE OF INTERIOR 189

cheese centers. Later, however, the origin inspections of foods in areas outside of routine traveling distance from the stations were conducted by newly

organized district detachments. Thus, the inspection services, which were

begun in Newark, N.J. (at an issue commissary installation, in May 1943),

in Syracuse, N.Y. (in March 1944), and in Buffalo, N.Y. (in 1941), were

later reorganized as veterinary detachments of districts 1, 3, and 4, respectively, and assumed the inspection responsibility for origin inspections of

foods over relatively large areas. Then, on June 1945, all station and other

veterinary detachments lost their area inspection responsibilities to the 1217th

Service Command Unit, Veterinary Inspection Unit, which was then created

with 28 officers and 100 enlisted personnel under the command of the service

command veterinarian. This last action with respect to the removal of area

food inspection responsibility from station veterinary detachments in the

Second Service Command essentially paralleled that of the First Service

Command; the same occurred, as will be observed, in varying degrees in

many other service commands (except in the Third, Fourth, and Fifth).

In the Third Service Command, veterinary services were expanded from

four permanent posts as of the start of the emergency periods to as many as

24 class and class II installations during the war period. As of V-J Day,

veterinary officers of the command were assigned to 17 installations, rendering service to others on an attending basis and supervising origin food

inspections at multitude of places away from their assigned stations. Thus,

the end of war saw inspection responsibilities in food establishments, commercial warehouses, and shipping points assigned to many station veterinary

detachments—there being no tendency to transfer these responsibilities into

single detachment such as had occurred in the First and Second Service

Commands. In fact, at this time, eight or nine such detachments were rendering inspection services at more than 20 towns and cities in the vicinity of

their respective stations. However, there was one service command unit, the

1300th Service Command Unit, with station in Baltimore, Md., parent unit

of which had been organized before 1939, and the detachments of three railhead facilities, which were organized in the spring-summer of 1942, at Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Pa., and Richmond, Va., that conducted origin

inspections more or less on an area basis; as of mid-1945, these four detachments were inspecting in approximately 50 towns and cities and were doing

more than 95 percent of the total food inspections in contractors’ plants in

the service command, equaling 100 million pounds of meat and dairy products

each month.

In the Fourth Service Command, the number of station veterinary

detachments increased from 25 during the prewar emergency periods to more

than 40 before the end of hostilities. As in the Third Service Command,

there was no trend toward the centralization of off-station activities into one

or more service command or district detachments. Throughout the war

period, nearly all of the veterinary detachments maintained inspection respon-
190 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

sibility for the foods which were processed, stored, or otherwise handled in

their localities. .Vs of V-J Day, 19 veterinary station detachments were providing 35 officers and 57 enlisted personnel on detached service in 25 towns

and cities. Similarly, there was no major centralization of origin inspections

in the Fifth Service Command, where the increased veterinary food inspection activities at contractors’ plants, commercial storage warehouses, and

shipping points were satisfied by the enlargement of certain station detachments (such as at Camp Breckinridge, Ky.; Fort Benjamin Harrison, Ind.;

Camp Perry, Ohio; and Fort Thomas, Ky., or later, at Fort Hayes, Ohio).

These located their personnel in about 15 large towns and cities on full-duty

status.

In the Sixth Service Command, station veterinary detachments were at

first fully developed. Many, such as those at Forts Brady, Custer, and

Wayne and Camp McCoy in Michigan and Fort Sheridan and Camps Ellis

and Grant in Illinois, assumed inspection responsibilities on the perishable

meat and dairy products which were procured in their respective areas. Then,

during September 1943, the off-station duties of many of the detachments

were wholly or partially transferred from them to the jurisdiction of three

newly organized veterinary food inspection service sections, each being

assigned to district subcommand headquarters: Detroit, Mich, (or district 1),

Mil waukee, Wis. (or district 2), and Chicago, 111. (or district 3). These

sections, later designated and reorganized as the 1697th, 1698th, and 1699th

Service Command Units, Veterinary Food Inspection Service, respectively,

established area offices in 14 towns and cities from which veterinary personnel were detailed to inspection duties in contractors’ plants, commercial warehouses, and shipping points. The area offices were established in the Michigan

district at Alma, Detroit, and Grand Rapids; in the Wisconsin district, at

Green Bay, La Crosse, Madison, Marshfield. Menomonie, Milwaukee, and

Plymouth; and in the Illinois district, at East St. Louis, Freesport, and

Hoopeston, and also at Gary, Ind. As of December 1943, the three district

detachments, as well as few station veterinary detachments of stations,

airbases, and other installations (which continued off-station activities until

September of the next year), were inspecting the output from more than 200

contractors of meat, poultry, eggs, butter, cheese, fish, powdered milk, evaporated and other milk products for the Armed Forces. The Sixth Service

Command district organization was as extreme in the reduction of station

veterinary activities as were the First and Second Service Commands, but the

latter had centralized their off-station activities in single service command

units, whereas the former decentralized these among three district veterinary

food inspection organizations. However, soon after the cessation of active

hostilities, the district commands were discontinued so that, by November

1945, the district veterinary organizations were also inactivated and their

personnel, without change of place of duty assignments and their areas of

inspection responsibility, were transferred to the newly reorganized 1699th
ORGANIZATION IN ZONE OF INTERIOR 191

Service Command nit eterinary Food Inspection Service, with central

office location in Chicago. In other words, the last reorganization resulted in formation of detachment that was no different than Service Command

Unit 1100, First Service Command Veterinary Service at Large, or the

Second Service Command’s 1217th Service Command Unit, Veterinary Inspection Unit.

The Seventh Service Command station veterinary detachments were

numerically increased from in 1940 to 12 as of August 1945, but this last

number does not include general hospital installations and prisoner-of-war

camps to which veterinary personnel were assigned or had only veterinary enlisted personnel. Most of the station veterinary detachments eventually

were limited to the conduct of on-station duties, such as occurred in the

Sixth Service Command, and to all off-station activities that were being centralized under control of three or four station veterinary detachments in one

or more States. However, these veterinary detachments were not assigned

by district commands; instead, as in the Fifth Service Command, certain

station detachments were specially developed and given area-wide responsibilities. Thus, the Veterinary Food Inspection Detachment, 1745th Service

Command Unit, Fort Omaha, Nebr., performed inspections throughout Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, and eastern Nebraska, as well as in the cities of

Sioux City, Iowa, and Sioux Falls, S. Dak.; the Medical Department Detachment (Veterinary Service) of the Station Complement, 1775th Service Command Unit, at Fort Snelling, Minn., operated in Minnesota, North Dakota,

and South Dakota; and the Veterinary Section of the Headquarters Detachment, Station Complement, 1798th Service Command Unit, at Fort Des

Moines, Iowa, inspected in Iowa. fourth veterinary food inspection detachment with station at Fort Warren, Wyo., assumed control over origin inspections in western Nebraska and Wyoming.

The Eighth Service Command effected no great change in the status of

its station veterinary detachments and, in fact, continued to enlarge them

in order to perform off-station services in their immediate areas. One service

command veterinary unit, the 1875th Field Service Unit, was established,

however, as part of the service command headquarters, but it was limited

to the conduct of food inspection services at procurement areas which were

too far distant from the existing detachments.

In the Ninth Service Command, as of October 1944, veterinary personnel

were assigned to 30 service command installations including 17 camps, general and convalescent hospitals, prisoner-of-war camps, redistribution

center, and service command veterinary units. For the most part, the

station veterinary detachments were kept intact or were enlarged in order

to conduct off-station food inspections in their immediate areas; in fact, few

of them at one time were referred to as area veterinary detachments. However, only four true area detachments were ordered into organization as

autonomous units with assignment to the cities of Los Angeles, Calif, (in
192 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

1939), Phoenix, Ariz. (in March 1941), Salt Lake City (in July 1941), and

Spokane, Wash, (in November 1941), While each assumed inspection responsibility in contractors’ plants, commercial warehouses, and shipping points in

its respective city, the area detachments also established subsistence inspection

services in large number of towns and cities such as were not adjacent to

stations and airbases in the service command. These area detachments of the

Ninth Service Command were not limited in their activities as were the

service command, district, and area food inspection detachments of other

service commands, because they also performed variety of duties including

veterinary animal service to installations and facilities in their areas. Beyond these area detachments there was no tendency to centralize food procurement

inspection activities.

These area, district, and single service command veterinary detachments

seemed to satisfy the needs of the concerned service command veterinarians.

Their advantages were that administration was simplified in regard to training, selecting, and specially instructing the personnel who were permanently

assigned to off-station duty, that morale and efficiency was maintained by

proper promotion and by nonuse in other than the duties for which they had

been trained, and that technical matters relating to the administration of

Quartermaster contracts for subsistence were readily coordinated and made

uniform throughout the service command area.

There were number of service command controlled installations, other

than Army camps, which were provided with meat and dairy hygiene and

veterinary animal services. Included in this group were the named general

hospitals, regional hospitals, convalescent hospitals, and hospital centers.

number of these were serviced by the local station veterinary detachment

just as were other facilities located at that camp. Where hospital was

completely separate installation, such as general hospital, its veterinary

service was provided either on an attending basis by an existing detachment

from nearby camp or by veterinary personnel assigned to it. By the end

of the war, approximately one-half of these hospital installations had their

own organically assigned veterinary detachments or personnel.

At these hospital installations, the veterinary detachments inspected the

food supplies which were received for use in the hospitals and, in particular,

surveyed the local dairy industries that were supplying fresh milk. Later,

with the increased emphasis on programs for the rehabilitation and recreation

of convalescents, Army horses were issued to many hospitals, and these veterinary detachments also provided veterinary animal services—in several instances, actually managing or supervising the hospital stables. few hospitals also operated vegetable gardens, and at least one (Stark General

Hospital) also established poultry farm which came under the management

of the hospital veterinarian. Elsewhere, these veterinary detachments managed the local laboratory animal colonies for hospital clinicodiagnostic laboratories and inspected the messhalls and the kitchen compartments on hospital
ORGANIZATION IN ZONE OF INTERIOR 193

railroad cars. Aside from the purely, on-station veterinary activities, the

hospital veterinary detachments were often designated by service command

veterinarians to assume inspectional responsibilities in nearby cities and towns

in the same manner that other class station detachments assigned such

responsibilities. This was particularly true in the Third, Fourth, Eighth, and Ninth Service Commands; in fact, in the Ninth, the Barnes General

Hospital veterinary detachment purposely reached strength of officers,

26 enlisted personnel, and clerical employees (as of the fall of 1944). It

is matter of record that, until 1945, veterinary personnel were excluded from tables for the organization of general or other so-called fixed hospitals

in the Zone of Interior; in the summer and fall of that year, presumably

reflecting on the studies of hospital organization that were made during the

earlier war years, Headquarters, Army Service Forces, and the War Department in manuals and other directives concerning hospital organization provided for Veterinary Corps officer on the administrative staff of the commanders of named general hospital centers when operating as independent

installations.

In the category of specialized service command-controlled installations,

there were also the Army Ground and Service Forces distribution stations

where soldiers were provided recreational leave pending their reassignment

or redeployment overseas for second time. Then also, there were the War

Relocation Authority camps for interned Japanese, the many prisoner-of-war

camps, and few Army disciplinary barracks. Infrequently, these camps

had mounted horse patrols, Army guard dog detachments, and sometimes

their own vegetable gardens or hog farms. Usually, such installations were

provided veterinary food inspection and animal services on part-time basis

by Veterinary Corps officers designated as attending veterinarians from nearby

Army camps.

Veterinary Animal Service

Of the three major activities of the Army Veterinary Service in the

service commands—veterinary animal service, military meat and dairy hygiene

service, and veterinary laboratory service and research—the second was by

far the most extensive, and it together with the last-named activity was the

most important during World War II. Veterinary animal service at station

level in the service commands, though generally greater than in the peacetime years immediately preceding the war period, reached maximum in

1940-42, and after that time progressively decreased (fig. 16). There were

no auxiliary remount depots in the stations or camps such as had developed

in World War I; now, motor pools provided the camp transportation facilities, and ground combat units were, with few exceptions, motorized and

mechanized. By the end of the war, only Fort Riley, Ivans., and Camp

Carson, Colo., which were Army Ground Forces centers for training Cavalry

and Mountain Warfare units, had any great numbers of animals; elsewhere,

only small groups of horses and mules were being utilized such as at the
194 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Figure 1G.—Post stables, Fort Douglas, Utah

Army Service Forces installations concerned with hospital patient convalescence, rehabilitation and recreational projects, in rest camps, sometimes for

drayage to conserve motor gasoline, and in ordnance depots and prisoner-ofwar camps for guard patrol purposes. Many of the animals at the stations,

as they became surplus to military needs during the war, were sold at public

auction by U.S. Treasury Department officials; others were returned to the

Quartermaster remount depots.

Station veterinary detachments experienced no major problems in the

care of Army horses and mules. Stabling was generally adequate at the

larger, permanent installations; elsewhere, temporary or makeshift facilities

were provided, but generally even these proved to be adequate. Almost the

same situation existed in regard to station veterinary hospitals. Feeds and

forage for the animals were generally obtained through regular quartermaster channels of supply, these products being inspected by Veterinary

Corps officers at the time of their procurement. The quantities of grains

and hay inspected varied among the service commands and gradually decreased, along with the reduction in animal strength, as the war progressed.

Diseases occurring more frequently in the camp animals included equine

influenza and the related shipping-fever types of diseases, and ringworm.

Both became commonplace, during the early war years, when the Army was

handling large numbers of newly procured remounts and before an energetic
ORGANIZATION IN ZONE OF INTERIOR 195

program was undertaken for dipping animals before their issue from Quar- termaster remount depots. Also, vesicular stomatitis enzootic was experienced at stations and maneuver areas in southwestern United States in

1941 and 1942. Periodic mallein testing for glanders and the annual programs of immunization against equine encephalomyelitis and tetanus proved

to be completely successful. Animals used in civilian educational institutions

having Reserve Officers’ Training Corps units also were attended by veterinary officers.

Station veterinary service with animals usually meant the professional

care and management only of Army horses and mules, but, during World

ar II, for the first time, the Army dog and signal pigeon were added to

the general definition of Army animals such as would be routinely cared for

by the Army Veterinary Service. This station service with Army dogs

paralleled that with horses and mules; including the conduct of quarantines,

physical examinations; immunization programs to prevent or control infectious diseases (such as canine distemper, rabies, leptospirosis, canine dirofilariasis) veterinary sanitation and hygiene; and the care, treatment, and

hospitalization of the sick and injured dogs. For the most part, veterinary

hospital facilities and supplies, already available at many stations and being

used in connection with Army horses and mules, were modified as required;

elsewhere, small veterinary hospitals with kennels were constructed or improvised. In some service commands, the Army dog population among the

stations totaled as many as 260 to 600 (in the Second and the First Service

Commands, respectively), but others had considerably smaller numbers; only

few of these dogs died or were destroyed on account of disease or injury

while assigned to the stations. In regard to veterinary service with signal

pigeons, one large loft with approximately 3,000 birds was located at Fort

Benning, Ga. (in the Fourth Service Command). Of course, there was also

the Signal Corps pigeon breeding and training center at Fort Monmouth,

N.J. (in the Second Service Command), later removed to Camp Crowder,

Mo. (in the Seventh Service Command), where Veterinary Corps officers

were assigned. In the First and Sixth Service Commands, pigeons were

located at number of airbases and fields. However, by the end of 1944,

many Army animals—horses, mules, dogs, and pigeons—had been disposed

of by return to depots and centers, so that the end of the war found veterinary service with animals at station levels in the service commands to have

virtually disappeared.

The Army Veterinary Service with the First, Second. Third, Fourth,

Eighth, and Ninth Service Commands provided professional care and treatment to approximately 1,500 horses which, pursuant to the agreement reached

during September 1942 between the Secretary of War and the Secretary of

the Navy, were loaned by the Army to mount U.S. Coast Guard beach

patrols {31. 32, 33). Sometimes, Veterinary Corps officers were assigned

full-time duty to the concerned Navy district headquarters but, in other
196 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

service commands, the Coast Guard patrol station commanders utilized the

services of nearby station veterinarians. The animals of Coast Guard dog

patrols also were cared for by the Army Veterinary Service; however, dogs

were not part of the interservice agreement, so that the required veterinary supplies were obtained, not through Army Medical Department supply

channels, but by requisition on the U.S. Coast Guard. The station veterinarian, Fort Belvoir, Va,, in the Military District of Washington, pursuant

to periodically renewed agreements, since 1929, between the Secretaries of

War and Navy, continued during the war to attend the animals which were

maintained by the U.S. Marine Corps at Quantico, Va,; after September

1944, the horses belonging to the U.S. Marine Corps at Camp Crane, Ind.,

also came under the supervision of Veterinary Corps officer. Another, but

unofficial, veterinary animal services activity was the professional care and

treatment of dogs, cats, and other pet animals belonging to military organizations or privately owned by military personnel. For the most part, this

professional activity in Army camps was kept minimal, consistent with the

requirements of concerned station commanders and the capabilities of station

veterinarians to conduct it with the personnel already available; that is, no

veterinary officers were specifically assigned to stations for full-time, official

duty to conduct veterinary practice on nonmilitary animals. In regard to

these animals, however, station veterinarians, under supervision of the station

surgeons, inaugurated programs for immunizing dogs and other pet animals

against rabies and cooperated with local provost marshals in freeing Army

camps of stray animals.

Veterinary Food Inspection Service

The veterinary meat and dairy hygiene services among the service commands were quite variable. Some services were concerned largely with food

procurement inspections (such as the Sixth and Seventh), others with the

surveillance inspections of products which were being moved to the ports of

embarkation for oversea shipment (such as the First and Second), while

others were areas for the concentration of troops in training and thus were

consumer areas (such as the Fourth and Eighth).

At the start of the emergency periods, all station veterinary detachments were concerned with the inspections of meat and dairy products which

ere procured, received, and issued by the local Quartermaster officers.

Occasionally, off-station veterinary inspections were made of fresh meat and

some chicken or turkey, and, at least once each month, the veterinary officers inspected the local dairies and ice cream plants which were supplying

the camps. Even less frequently—but after many endorsements on basic

communication (that is, “redtape”)—so-called courtesy inspections were conducted by few station veterinary detachments in contractors’ plants of the

meat and dairy products which were being processed for delivery to one or

more far-distant camps, to maneuver area, or to an oversea department.
ORGANIZATION IN ZONE OF INTERIOR 197

Later, during the emergency periods, the veterinary meat and dairy hygiene inspection services at station levels were reorganized, and station veterinary detachments, which up to this time had so infrequently conducted courtesy inspections of products for delivery to far-distant points, were thenrequested by Army purchasing officers to perform inspections at commercial food

establishments in nearby cities and towns almost continuously. This changeover took place concurrent with the centralization of procurement of nonperishable subsistence in several Quartermaster depots and with the establishment of the Quartermaster market center system of perishable subsistence supply. These new Quartermaster procedures for subsistence supply also saw the lessened activity of local Quartermaster or supply officers in

procuring foods for Army camps because the latter were supplied from depots or Quartermaster market center distribution points. The station veterinary detachments, although continuing to perform surveillance or sanitary

inspections of the foods received and used within their camps, soon found

that the major part of their workload was not in the camps but off of the

station or in an adjacent city or town. There, among other military activities, they conducted inspections on meat and dairy products during manufacture in commercial food establishments to determine compliance of the

products with the sanitary or grade qualities, such as were specified in Army

contractual documents, and conducted surveillance inspections of foods

received, stored, transshipped, or otherwise handled at commercial cold storage plants, warehouses, and shipping points.

In connection with these off-station veterinary meat and dairy hygiene

services by the station veterinary detachments, it may be noted that, in the

early months of 1941, the Secretary of War authorized procuring depots to

call on service commands (then designated corps areas) to issue temporary

duty travel orders for their station veterinary detachments to inspect nonperishable products in contractors’ establishments. Later, on 17 October

1941, similar authorization was set up with regard to the inspection of

perishable foods being procured by Quartermaster market centers. As the

war progressed, the depot and market center demands on station veterinary

detachments soon became overwhelmingly large; in fact, service command

veterinarians, in order to relieve their workloads, frequently called on the

Army Air Forces veterinary detachments to perform the required inspections,

particularly, if the latter were located near procurement point. Unfortunately, the service command-controlled veterinary inspections extended into

geographic areas where depot veterinary detachments also were conducting

origin inspections because the latter were granted inspection responsibilities

over both perishable and nonperishable subsistence procurements in nearby

cities and towns that were not unlike those assigned to the service commands.

This situation became acute in few of the larger metropolitan areas contiguous to Quartermaster depots and sections of Army Service Forces depots

but, in some service command areas, no such overlap or duplication of effort
198 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

occurred because the concerned service command veterinarians either had

restricted depot veterinary detachments to on-depot activities only or had encouraged the depot veterinary detachment to assume inspectional responsibility over prescribed geographic area. Thus, in the fall of 1948,

Headquarters, Army Service Forces, on request by the Surgeon General's

Office, which had investigated the developing service command depot controversy in the metropolitan areas and had obtained concurring approval

from the Office of the Quartermaster General, directed the assignment of

veterinary food inspection responsibility throughout the Zone of Interior to

the service commands, with the exception of those metropolitan areas that

were contiguous to Quartermaster depots and sections of Army Service

P'orces depots where the depot veterinary detachment would conduct the

inspections. The outcome of this directive was that some service commands

gained personnel by transfer from depots located in their areas, and, in

other service commands, just the reverse occurred. Actually, many service

command veterinarians were of the opinion that the depot-assigned veterinary detachments were conducting large percentage of the meat and dairy

hygiene inspection workload within their geographic boundaries (in metropolitan areas over which they had no formal jurisdiction or technical control); in practice, the depot veterinary detachments generally coordinated

their operations with those established for and used by the service command-controlled veterinary detachments. There was no change in this division of responsibility for meat and dairy hygiene inspection services in the

service command areas for the remainder of the war period.

Concurrent with the origin inspections of food products, sanitary inspections were conducted in the food establishments or contractors’ plants

and commercial warehouses where these products were manufactured, processed, stored, and handled for Army procurement and distribution. However, abbatoirs and meat establishments which operated under the supervision of the Bureau of Animal Industry, U.S. Department of Agriculture,

were exempted from Army veterinary sanitary inspections, as were any

establishments that were inspected by recognized agencies which enforced

sanitary standards equal to or above those of the Army. At the beginning of the war period, each Army veterinary detachment was conducting initial

sanitary inspections of those establishments and dairies (and then at intervals of at least once month) that were involved in the local meat and milk

supply to the post, camp, or station concerned. Then gradually, with the

developing system of regional and centralized procurement by market centers

and depots, these veterinary sanitary inspections at the local level were

newly coordinated on service command-wide basis, and service command

lists of approved establishments were promulgated. These lists were furnished to the buyers in market centers and depots as well as to the Army

Exchange Service and other military procurement agencies. Routinely, the

latter restricted their procurements from the establishments named in these
ORGANIZATION IN ZONE OF INTERIOR 199

lists. Owners of establishments not so listed, but desirous of becoming Army

approved, were requested to submit requests for veterinary sanitary inspections direct to the procurement agencies which, in turn, endorsed the request

to the service command headquarters where the service command veterinarian

made the necessary arrangements for the sanitary inspection to be made by

veterinary officer at station in the immediate locality of the establishment. The results of the initial inspection and of subsequent monthly inspections of so-called approved establishments were continually summarized

by the service command headquarters in officially changed lists of approved

establishments.

The veterinary lists of approved food establishments included all processing plants, cold storage warehouses, and commercial distribution points

located in the geographic area of the concerned service command—naming

not only those under the inspectional jurisdiction of Army Service Forces

station veterinary detachments but also those inspected by depot veterinary

detachments and Army Air Forces base veterinary detachments. There is no

information to indicate whether format was prescribed during the war

period for obtaining uniformity in the lasting of approved establishments

by the nine service commands. Apparently, no uniformity was obtained,

because in the list of one service command, the establishments were itemized

by State, together with the city or town of location and the types of products for which approved. Another service command list contained an

itemization of the food establishments according to the type of food product

for which approved, together with the city of location and the specific

veterinary detachment (station, area, depot, or airbase) which was responsible for performing inspections in the plant. In manner, the lists of

approved establishments were closely identified with lists of location of

veterinary inspection stations, and, thus, each establishment or town was

assigned the inspection responsibility of certain detachment without chance

of duplication of effort and overlapping of jurisdictional boundaries among

the stations, depots, and airbases.

Aside from the inspection of foods procured and distributed to the

Armed Forces, the Army Veterinary Service in the service commands inspected for nonmilitary Federal agencies and other agencies, when so requested and particularly when it had bearing on the sanitary condition

of foods supplied directly or indirectly to military personnel. few such

agencies were the Civilian Conservation Corps, War Relocation Authority,

War Shipping Administration, Panama Railroad Company, British Ministry of War Transport, Veterans’ Administration facilities, and military

programs for feeding civilian population in liberated and occupied countries. At many Army camps, pursuant to authorization by local commanders. or on request of camp Quartermaster officers, veterinary personnel

also conducted sanitary surveillance inspections of the fruits, vegetables, and

other non-animal-origin foods that were received and issued at the camps.
200 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

References

1. War Department Circular No. 59, Mar. 1942, subject: War Department Reor- ganization.

2. TM 8-285, 27 Nov. 1942.

3. TM 8-285, 15 Apr. 1944.

4. TM 3-220, 15 Nov. 1943.

5. Letter, Col. J. E. Ash, MC, Curator, Army Medical Museum, to The Surgeon General, 22 Mar. 1944, subject: Establishment of Registry of Comparative Pathology; with

1st indorsement of reply, American Registry of Pathology, 23 Mar. 1944.

6. Letter, Dr. J. G. Hardenbergh, Executive Secretary, American Veterinary Medical

Association, Chicago, 111., to Army Medical Museum, May 1944, with reply thereto,

10 May 1944.

7. Surgeon General’s Office Order No. 183, Sept. 1944.

8. All 40-2005, 15 Sept. 1942.

9. All 30-440, 18 June 1942.

10. All 40-2045, Mar. 1922.

11. Memorandum, Office of The Quartermaster General (Brig. Gen. H. D. Munnikhuysen, QMC, Assistant The Quartermaster General), for The Adjutant General, Jan.

1941.

12. Memorandum, from Chief, Veterinary Division, for Military Personnel Division

(Commissioned), Surgeon General’s Office, 10 Jan. 1941.

13. Radiograms, The Adjutant General, to the commanding generals and officers of

New York and San Francisco Ports of Embarkation; Chicago, Boston, Jeffersonville, and

Kansas City Quartermaster Depots, and San Antonio General Depot, 18 Jan. 1941.

Amended by radiograms, 27 Jan. 1941; by radiograms, 27 Jan. 1941, to commanding officers of the Fourth Corps Area and New Orleans Quartermaster Depots; and radiogram,

to commanding officer, Charlotte Quartermaster Depot, Sept. 1941.

14. Radiograms, The Adjutant General, to Commanding Generals, First through

Ninth Corps Areas, 18 Jan. 1941.

15. Letter, Commanding General, Chicago Quartermaster Depot, Chicago, 111., to The

Quartermaster General, 18 Dec. 1941, subject: Veterinary Inspection Service, with 1st

indorsement thereto, to The Surgeon General, dated 22 Dec. 1941, and 2d indorsement

of reply, by Col. R. A. Kelser, VC, Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office, 80

Dec. 1941.

16. Letter, Office of The Quartermaster General, to depot commanders, 10 Feb. 1943,

subject: Courtesy Inspection of Subsistence Supplies.

17. Circular No. G3, Headquarters, Army Service Forces, 19 Aug. 1943, subject:

Veterinary Inspections.

18. Dildine, S. C.: History of the Army Veterinary Service, Field Headquarters,

Perishable Branch, Subsistence Division, Office of the Quartermaster General, Chicago,

111., 1941. [Official record.]

19. Radiograms, The Adjutant General, to Field Headquarters, Perishable Subsistence

Section, Office of the Quartermaster General, Chicago, 111., and all Quartermaster market

centers, 17 Oct. 1941.

20. Wardlow, C.: U.S. Army in World War II. The Technical Services. The Transportation Corps: Movements, Training, and Supply. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1956.

21. War Department General Orders No. 23, May 1942.

22. All 40-2010, 27 Nov. 1942.

23. Services of Supply Organization Manual, 10 Aug. 1942.

24. War Department Circular No. 138, 14 May 1946, subject: War Department Reorganization.
ORGANIZATION IN ZONE OF INTERIOR 201

25. Derrick, J. D.: Historical Report of the Army Veterinary Service, First Service

Command, Army Service Forces, September 1939 to 14 August 1945. [Official record.]

2G. Curley, E. M.: Historical Report of the Army Veterinary Service, Fourth Service

Command, September 1939 to 30 November 1945. [Official record.]

27. Greenlee, C. W.: Historical Report of the Army Veterinary Service, Fifth Service

Command, January 1946. [Official record.]

28. Shook, L. L.: Historical Report of the Army Veterinary Service, Sixth Service

Command, September 1939 to December 1941. [Official record.]

29. Wight, A. C.: Historical Report of the Army Veterinary Service, Eighth Service

Command, 19 December 1945. [Official record.]

30. Medical Department, United States Army. United States Army Dental Service

in World War II. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1955.

31. Letter, Col. E. M. Daniels, QMC, Office of the Quartermaster General, for The

Surgeon General, 26 Sept. 1942, subject: Veterinary Service for Horses Assigned to Coast

Guard for Coastal Patrol.

32. Letter, Office of the Quartermaster General, to The Surgeon General, Dec. 1942,

subject: Veterinary Personnel for Mounted Patrol, U.S. Coast Guard.

33. Finance and Supply Circular 125—43, U.S. Coast Guard, 15 June 1943, subject:

Procurement of Veterinary Supplies for Horses and Dogs.

590248 —61 15 203

CHAPTER VIII

Functional Organization in Theater and

Minor Commands

At the beginning of the war period, the oversea organization of the

Army Veterinary Service was divided between the four oversea departments:

Hawaiian, Panama Canal, and Philippine Departments, and the new Puerto

Rican Department which was established on July 1939. Each department's headquarters staff included department surgeon with veterinary

officer as an assistant (that is, the department veterinarian) to supervise

the veterinary affairs within the territorial or departmental area. The duties

of these department veterinarians generally paralleled those prescribed for

corps area veterinarians in the Zone of Interior. Below the level of the

headquarters, veterinary personnel generally were assigned to various provisional veterinary general and station hospital organizations which were

located at the larger installations, and infrequently few personnel were

assigned to tactical unit. There was no sharp line of demarcation between the departmental air, ground, and service forces such as made its

appearance in the war period, and unified veterinary service organization

under the technical supervision of the single department veterinarian satisfied all Army requirements.

In 1939-40, the oversea veterinary strength totaled IT to 19 officers;

during World War II, 700 Veterinary Corps officers were distributed among

at least 23 theater commands. The more important of these commands were

as follows:

Minor commands and American theater:

Caribbean Defense Command

Panama Canal Department

Antilles Department (superseding Puerto Bican Department)

Bermuda Base Command

Newfoundland Base Command

Greenland Base Command

Iceland Base Command

Northwest Service Command

Alaskan Department

U.S. Army Forces, South Atlantic

Middle East, Mediterranean, and European theaters:

U.S. Army Forces, Africa-Middle East theater

U.S. Army Forces in the Middle East

U.S. Army Forces in Central Africa

Mediterranean (formerly North African) Theater of Operations, U.S. Army

European Theater of Operations, U.S. Army
204 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

PacifioAsiatic theaters:

U.S. Army Forces, Pacific Ocean Areas

U.S. Army Forces in Central Pacific Area (superseding Hawiian Department)

U.S. Army Forces in South Pacific Area

U.S. Army Forces in the Far East (superseding Philippine Department)

U.S. Army Forces, Services of Supply, 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 no definition of theater command that would allow

for the proper listing of all for the war period, because there were some,

such as the U.S. Army Forces in Liberia and the many task forces which

were sent to the South Pacific Area, that originated as separate War Department-controlled commands. Eventually, many of these were merged or relegated to control by larger theater command.

One of the reasons for this grouping of the theater commands into

three major groups was that it simplified the description of veterinary functional organization by geographic area. However, beyond this, there can

be no simple description of theater’s veterinary service for the war period

that would be descriptive for all or most of the oversea command. Because

each was developed separately, rapidly, and concurrently, none followed

any particular organizational pattern. In fact, the historical record of

oversea veterinary functional organization, its development, and its accomplishments comprises an individual study for each theater command.

There was no typical theater veterinary service organization. The absence

of theater veterinary organization plan may be explained in number of

ways; there was the general concept in peacetime planning for single

theater of operations such as existed with the American Expeditionary Forces

in France during World War I. Also, there as the single General Headquarters (GHQ) about which the War Department had been centering its

attention since the early 1930’s, and it was not until 1911 that, for the first

time, there was some real 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.

These generally followed the appearance of semitactical base commands and

defense commands that were established in and surrounding the United

States and the Western Hemisphere.

Another significant factor responsible for failure to properly forecast

theater requirements for an adequate veterinary service originated with

fundamental concept that veterinary personnel were to be attached to units

(in field service) whose animal strength was sufficient to justify their employment ). This was set forth even in the latest wartime manuals on

Medical Department doctrine, though animal strength had long been argued

by the Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office, as comprising an inadequate basis for determining veterinary personnel requirements. Further-
organization in theater and minor commands 205

more, there had been prescribed or recognized since World War I, the

duality of the mission of the Army Veterinary Service to care for sick and

wounded animals and to inspect foods. However, despite this, primary

emphasis was placed on the evolution of theater veterinary organization,

made up of detachments and units that would operate system of animal

evacuation and veterinary hospitalization; in the years just before Pearl

Harbor, these detachments and units were only slightly modified to include

provisions for the operation of meat and dairy hygiene services. Undoubtedly, the very sudden mechanization and motorization of the Army

that took place in 1940H:1 saw the nonactivation or conversion of detachments and units that were identified primarily for veterinary animal service

and thus the complete loss of personnel and units who could otherwise have

been diverted from animal service to veterinary food inspection within the

theater commands. The scarcity of veterinary personnel in the opening

days of several theater commands was amplified by the fact that overall

logistic planning had given no indication that the Army overseas would be

rationed or subsisted by Allied governments from local resources to the

extent that it was and that programs of military 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 African Continent.

Of course, there were many other factors that would account for the

varied developments of the Army Veterinary Service among the wartime

theater commands. For example, as in the Zone of Interior, there were

three separate Army entities: Air Forces, Ground Forces, and Service

Forces. The theaters’ air forces—particularly the very heavy, long-range, or

strategic bombing commands and the Air Transport Command—usually

exempted themselves from jurisdiction of the theaters as being War Department or global commands; these had their own assigned veterinary personnel.

Then, too, in most major theaters, the Army ground combat forces with their

veterinary service organization came under the operational control of an

Allied command or joint Army-Navy headquarters, and it was unreasonable for the U.S. Army theater command to exert any real effective administrative control over matters such as veterinary affairs in the U.S. Army

field armies and other tactical forces that were part of such senior Allied

or joint command. Of course, such senior commands frequently had but

little concept of military veterinary medicine. Another factor was that the

Army theater commands showed an overwhelming tendency to subordinate

the nominal chief or theater veterinarian to the theater’s services of supply

headquarters organization—a status comparable to that set forth in the War

Department reorganization of 1942, which had reduced the standing of The

Surgeon General and his chief of Veterinary Corps under the jurisdiction

of Headquarters, Army Services of Supply. That this was improper was

clearly seen in the actions or reorganizations during the last year of the war
206 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

period when most oversea commands restored the position of chief veterinarian to the respective theater headquarters’ medical section.

VETERINARY SERVICE OF FIELD UNITS

Preliminary to the description of the veterinary service organization

in theater commands, an understanding of the various types of military organizations or units is necessary. Units, as the term is used here, refer to

standard military formations which were manned and equipped in conformity with War Department T/O&E’s (tables of organization and equipment). Each T/O unit was periodically reviewed by the Veterinary Divi- sion, Surgeon General’s Office, as to its composition, equipment, and mission,

as described in the pertinent T/O&E’s, particularly if such table provided

for, or should have included provisions for, veterinary personnel. Also, the

Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office, sometimes following suggestion of the Medical Field Service School at Carlisle Barracks, Pa., or

of theater veterinarian, initiated procedures for War Department approval of tables for new types of veterinary units. In contrast to the units, there Avere the various military organizations or provisional organizations

which were developed locally within the theater commands to satisfy temporary needs. Theater headquarters staffs and base command headquarters

Avere the more common examples of such military organizations, but sometimes T/O unit-like organization Avas improvised locally. The number

and size of provisional organizations Avas limited only by the personnel

space vacancies (so-called overhead allotment) granted by the War Department to each theater command. There Avas no central veterinary control

from the Surgeon General’s Office over Avhat share of the overhead allotment, or grades, should be set aside for veterinary personnel, and each theater commander retained perogative to indicate, or change, such of the

allotment as pertained to the theater’s veterinary service. The importance

of this is indicated by the fact that personnel space authorizations and

grades for veterinary officers in the theater headquarters staff AA’ere part of

this theater overhead allotment, and the Surgeon General’s Office had no

regulatory or administrative control over theater commanders or theater

surgeons to sponsor theater veterinarian in the grade of colonel, for

example.

At the start of the war period, T/O’s (later T/O&E) providing for

veterinary units and units having their OAvn or organically assigned A’eterinary personnel AA’ere 24 in number (2). During the war, this number Avas

increased to 65 or TO, including some fexv Avhich AA’ere canceled (such as that

for the veterinary convalescent hospital), not utilized in organizing unit, or changed Avith the resultant discontinuance of the veterinary component

(such as that for the headquarters, infantry division). At least 550 War

Department-activated units had veterinary officers and enlisted personnel

assigned to them pursuant to the pertinent T/O’s during World War II.
ORGANIZATION IN THEATER AND MINOR COMMANDS 207

The following tabulation shows the number of such assignments in units

known to have veterinary personnel assigned:

Unit Number

Headquarters, General Headquarters

Headquarters, medical service, communications zone

Headquarters, army 11

Headquarters, corps 14

Headquarters, cavalry corps

Headquarters, armored corps

Headquarters, infantry division (square and triangular) GO

Headquarters, airborne division

Headquarters, armored division 16

Headquarters, light division (pack transport)

Headquarters, mountain division..

Headquarters, cavalry division

Cavalry regiment, 24 horse

Cavalry regiment, horse and mechanized

Field artillery battalion, 75-mm. gun, horse drawn

Field artillery battalion, 75-mm. howitzer, horse

Field artillery battalion, 75-mm. howitzer, pack

Field artillery battalion, 75-mm. howitzer, pack, mountainj

28

Field artillery regiment, 75-mm. field howitzer, horse

Field artillery regiment, 75-mm. howitzer, pack

Field artillery regiment, 75-mm. gun, horse drawn

Division artillery, cavalry division

Division artillery, light division

Division artillery, mountain division

Separate veterinary company 12

Veterinary troop, medical squadron

Veterinary company, medical battalion (mountain)

Veterinary animal service detachment, Team DC 27

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 animal service, Team AR

Veterinary food inspection detachment, Team DD 122

Veterinary detachment, aviation

Veterinary section (independent, field artillery battalion, 75-mm. howitzer, pack) 34

Veterinary section (independent, quartermaster remount troop)

General, station, and convalescent hospitals, and convalescent camps and centers—

Headquarters, hospital center

Headquarters, medical concentration center

Medical general laboratory

Medical laboratory 19

Medical supply depot 12

Does not Include provisional organizations.

Data not available.
208 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Unit Number

Quartermaster pack troop or company

Quartermaster squadron

Quartermaster battalion (mountain)

Quartermaster wagon battalion

Quartermaster remount troop and squadron 10

Quartermaster war dog platoon (later, infantry scout dog platoon) 21

Quartermaster refrigeration company, fixed 20

Signal pigeon company (and similar units) 12

Headquarters and headquarters company, major and medium ports, oversea 30

Headquarters, air force] jg

Air service command. _J

Air corps headquarters and headquarters squadron, air force base command

Arctic search and rescue squadron

Engineer, infantry, and other field units

Does not include provisional organizations.

Data not available.

Headquarters, Army and Corps

The senior theater command headquarters to be described in T/O’s was general headquarters. One such table pertaining to its initial organization included provisions for two veterinary officers, one in the grade of

colonel and the other in the grade of captain or first lieutenant, who were

to be part of the headquarters medical section (of 13 Medical Department officers) (S, 4)- Actually, no such headquarters unit was deployed that

included Veterinary Corps officers. Mention must also be made of another

command staff that was described; namely, headquarters, medical service,

communications zone 6). This set forth veterinary section of five

officers, which approximated fifth of the total number of Medical Department officers authorized, including one each in the grades of colonel, lieutenant, and major, and two in the grade of captain, and five veterinary

enlisted personnel. The other sections of this medical headquarters staff

were administrative, hospitalization, supply, personnel, evacuation, sanitation, vital statistics, consultant, and dental.

The senior, and active, echelon of tactical command headquarters staff

unit in the theater commands during World War II was headquarters, army.

Its T/O included provisions for two veterinary officers, one in the grade of

colonel and the other in the grade of captain, and two veterinary enlisted

personnel (7, 8, 9). At the beginning of the war, four such army headquarters (First, Second, Third, and Fourth) had been 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 the First, 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 Eighth U.S. Armies in

the Southwest Pacific Area, and (he Tenth U.S. Army which fought the

last battle of World War IT, on Okinawa. The composition of each field
ORGANIZATION IX THEATER AND MINOR COMMANDS 209

army varied considerably, but so far as the active field army’s veterinary

service was concerned, none included large number of veterinary units.

The army veterinarian was normally the assistant to the army surgeon,

who reported on veterinary affairs to the army commander only indirectly

or through the army’s G—t section of the general staff. During the war

period, new general staff section, or G-5, was established within these army

headquarters specially to supervise civil affairs and military government

activities during the periods of combat in liberated Allied and occupied

countries. Some few armies in the European theater thus gained the attachment of veterinary civil affairs officers in their headquarters staffs.

During the war, in the European and Mediterranean theaters of operations, two or more field armies were grouped and operationally controlled

by new type headquarters organization, the army group. For example,

in their fight northward on the Italian peninsula, the U.S. Fifth and British

Eighth Armies were major commands of the Fifteenth Army Group

predominantly staffed by British Army personnel. On the European Continent, the U.S. Sixth Army Group comprised the U.S. Seventh and French

First Armies on the southern front, while the First U.S. Army Group,

later named the U.S. Twelfth Army Group (in the winter of 1944-45),

controlled the American field armies on fhe central front. There was no

prescribed T/O for an army group headquarters, and only the Twelfth

Army Group included Veterinary Corps officer—only in the capacity to

technically supervise or coordinate veterinary civil affairs matters between

the central armies.

Xext below the echelon of the field army headquarters, tactical command was assumed by corps headquarters. At the beginning of the war,

the headquarters staffs for the army corps (of infantry type), cavalry corps,

and the new armored corps were described in the pertinent T/O’s as including 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 to have tactical mission

only resulted in the elimination of the personnel space authorizations for

the veterinarian from both the armored and the army corps headquarters.

As result, the majority of existent corps veterinarians were transferred

at once, but others were continued in their assignments for year or 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 and II Armored

Corps.

Headquarters, Division

In World War II, 91 divisions were mobilized; this number included

the 2d Cavalry Division which was activated twice and inactivated twice

during the war period, but the Army Veterinary Service was not the important segment of the combat division that it was in World War when

these utilized horses and mules as their principal means of transport. The
210 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

infantry division and the armored division bore the major share of the land

combat operations, but other types, such as airborne, mountain, and cavalry

divisions, were deployed also. All of these included, at one time, their own

organically assigned veterinary personnel, as did an experimental type of

division referred to as the light division (pack transport).

Infantry division.—Veterinary Corps officers were assigned, at one time

or another, to all but few of the some 60 infantry divisions that were in

active status during World War II. By V-J Hay, however, there were few, if any, infantry division veterinarians in the Army. This loss of veterinary

personnel in the basic ground combat organization was quite drastic in view

of the fact that T/O’s as late as 1939 were authorizing space vacancies in an

infantry division for three veterinary officers and several enlisted personnel.

By the end of another year or two, the basic organization for the existing

square-type infantry division was being re-formed into the new triangulartype and was being completely motorized. However, the newer T/O’s for

headquarters, infantry division (square), continued the veterinary personnel

authorizations at one officer in the grade of major and two enlisted personnel;

the new triangular division headquarters T/O provided for the assignment

of only the veterinary officer in the grade of major. Eventually, all infantry divisions were converted to the triangular type. The continuing need

for divisions, without animals, to have such assigned personnel was described

once, at the start of the war period, as “the division veterinarian with an

infantry division will primarily be concerned with the inspection of meats,

meat-food, and dairy products for the division” {10). Subsequently, in

the spring-summer of 1943, Headquarters, Army Ground Forces, successfully programed reduction or economies of personnel within the T/O’s for

the infantry division; and thus “*The veterinary officer was dropped;

when the office of The Surgeon General protested, the Army Ground Forces

explained that the division had no animals and that meat inspection was

function suitably relegated to [the field] army” {11). Actually, the new

T/O (dated 15 July 1943) which did not provide for division veterinarian

was not immediately applied, and some division veterinarians were continued in their assignment for many months, either as part of the permissible overhead or as substitute sanitary officers and assistants to division

surgeons. Armored and airborne divisions.—During the first few years of the war,

the T/O’s for headquarters, armored division, and for headquarters, airborne division, each included space authorizations for division veterinarians

in the medical sections, usually an officer in the grade of major and one or

two veterinary enlisted assistants. Pursuant to this authorization, the five

airborne divisions which were overseas in 1944 were assigned their own

veterinary personnel (namely, the 11th, 13th, 17th, 82d, and 101st Airborne

Divisions) and nearly all of the 16 active armored divisions at one time

had division veterinarians.
organization in theater and minor commands 211

Light division.—During World War II, Army Ground Forces studied

proposals modifying or reducing the standard infantry division and specializing its personnel and equipment for deployment such as in an amphibious,

airborne, jungle, or mountain operation. Thus, in June 1913, single, pack animal-transported light division was organized for trial study as one proposed for jungle warfare (the Tlst Light Division, Pack, Jungle), but it

was reconverted to standard infantry division before deployment from the

Zone of Interior. It may be observed, however, that pursuant to T/O’s, the

headquarters, light division, contained veterinary officer in the grade of

major, if the division was to be moved by pack animals. Mountain division.—The mountain division originally occupied the same

trial status as did the light division. That is, in mid-1943, single light

division was organized as reduced infantry division but was specially manned and equipped for mountain warfare (namely, the 10th Light Division, Pack, Alpine). Later in 1944, when Army Ground Forces discontinued its

trials with the special light divisions, this unit was brought up to regular

division strength as the 10th Mountain Division and was redeployed in

December 1944 to the Mediterranean theater. Pursuant to T/O’s, division

veterinarian in the grade of major and two veterinary enlisted personnel

were assigned to headquarters, mountain division 12 13). Divisional elements below the headquarters that had assigned veterinary personnel were:

Special troops (with one veterinary officer in grade of 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 of captain or first

lieutenant and five enlisted personnel), these having 243, 953, and 538 animals, respectively. Other elements were the veterinary troops of the mountain medical battalion, the division artillery with its three field artillery

battalions and veterinary sections, and the quartermaster battalion, mountain, with its three quartermaster pack companies. Altogether, the animal

strength of the mountain division aggregated 6,152 mules and horses.

Cavalry division.—The medical section of headquarters, cavalry division,

was authorized to include the division veterinarian and two veterinary enlisted personnel (one as meat and dairy inspector) (7J through 18). During the early part of the war period, the division veterinarian was also

commanding officer of the division medical squadron’s veterinary troop, but,

in December 1940, the offices of division veterinarian and troop commander

were separated by changes in the existing T/O's for the medical squadron.

This was confirmed later, in the spring of 1942, when new T/O's for headquarters, cavalry division, included provision for the division veterinarian

without referring to the organization of the medical squadron or its veterinary troop. Of course, there were other and major changes in the various

elements comprising the standard cavalry division. The wartime T/O’s

590248 —61 16
212 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

generally referred to the division as including two brigades (each with two

cavalry regiments and machinegun squadron); division artillery; engineer, medical, and quartermaster squadrons; signal troop; and military

police battalion. The division, at full strength, had 11,000 to 12,000 officers

and enlisted personnel (including 14 Veterinary Corps officers) and approximately 7,300 horses and mules.

There were two cavalry divisions in the wartime Army: The 1st Cavalry

Division which continued in existence after the early 1920’s; and the 2d

Cavalry Division which was activated in April 1941 and temporarily or

partially disbanded in July 1942, only to be completely reactivated in February 1943 (with Negro enlisted personnel) and then completely inactivated

during the first months of 1944. The 2d Cavalry Division, without its

animals but with its full complement of veterinary personnel, was deployed

into the North African theater in 1944. During the earlier period of its

active status, this division included the following elements with assigned

veterinary personnel: The 9th, 10th, 27th, and 28th Cavalry Regiments; the

77th and 79th Field Artillery Battalions; the 20th Quartermaster Squadron; and veterinary troop. The 1st Cavalry Division, like the other, proceeded

overseas without animals, and included the Headquarters Troop, the 5th and

12th Cavalry Regiments of the 1st Cavalry Brigade, the 2d Cavalry Brigade

with the 7th and 8th Cavalry Regiments, the 61st and 99th Field Artillery

Battalions (75-mm. Howitzer Pack), 16th Quartermaster Squadron, and the

1st Medical Squadron. It was deployed in the Southwest Pacific Area in

mid-1943 but entered combat as infantry.

Cavalry Brigades and Regiments

The cavalry regiment, horse, and the cavalry regiment, horse and mechanized, pursuant to T/O’s, had different-sized veterinary sections. In the

cavalry regiment, horse, the medical detachment veterinary section included

officers (including one in the grade of captain who normally was designated

regimental veterinarian, and two in the grade of first lieutenant who served

with the regiment’s two rifle squadrons) and 14 enlisted personnel (19, 20,

21). The regiment as mounted on 1,500 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 or mechanized. The horse-mechanized unit included veterinary section of one officer in the grade of captain

and six enlisted personnel (22, 23, 2i[). During World War II, veterinary

officers were assigned to duty to, or as National Guard officers 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 26th Cavalry Regiment

(Philippine Scouts) which fought on the Bataan peninsula in 1941—12.
ORGANIZATION IN THEATER AND MINOR COMMANDS 213

Field Artillery Battalions and Regiments, and Division Artillery

Field artillery units having organically assigned veterinary personnel

included at least four kinds of battalions, three types of regiments, and the

so-called division artillery such as of cavalry, light, and mountain divisions

(table 18). These were horse mounted, horse drawn, or moved by pack animal. During the war, available records show that there were as many as 28

such field artillery battalions to which veterinary officers were assigned at

one time or another. Of course, many of the battalions were converted or

motorized later, and thus their veterinary personnel departed, as did the

horses and mules, before the battalions were deployed. This number also

includes the battalions that were part of the 1st and 2d Cavalry Divisions

and of the 10th Mountain Division which entered into combat in the final

push against the Germans in the Apennines. Other battalions, with their

organically assigned veterinary sections, were deployed into combat as separate units, such as the 601st and 602d Field Artillery Battalions in southern

France and the 612th and 613th Field Artillery Battalions that comprised

the MARS Brigade artillery in the Burma operations.

Table 18.—Assigned veterinary personnel, field artillery battalions

In the formation of regiments, two such battalions were grouped, and

regimental veterinary detachment of officers and 10 to 12 enlisted personnel were authorized for the following: Field artillery regiment, 75-mm. field

howitzer, horse; field artillery regiment, 75-mm. howitzer, pack; and field

artillery regiment, 75-mm, gun, horse-drawn.

It must be mentioned that two horse or horse-drawn battalions were

grouped with third or truck-drawn battalion to form the division artillery,

cavalry division (with total animal strength approximating 1,000 horses),

and that special T/O of the latter simply merged the two relevant veterinary sections to form the division artillery’s veterinary detachment (05, 26).

The latter was true also for the division artillery of other type divisions.

This number, however, does not include the utilization of the pertinent portion of the T/O’s

for the pack howitzer field artillery battalion as regards the battalion’s veterinary section that

comprised the basis for organizing 34 separate veterinary sections or detachments.

Field artillery battalion, 75-mm. Animals

Veterinary section

Officers Enlisted

personnel

389 horses 1st Lt

Howitzer:

491 horses st Lt

288 mules and horses st Lt

Pack, mountain 413 mules and horses Capt. or 1st Lt
214 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

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 veterinary officers and 12 enlisted

personnel to care for approximately 850 mules and horses which were authorized for the light division’s division artillery. There were three battalions,

75-mm. howitzer, pack, mountain, in the composition of the division artillery, mountain division, whose animal strength aggregated close to 1,300 mules and horses; veterinary personnel in the sections with each of the battalions aggregated officers and 18 enlisted personnel {28). The mountain

pack battalion was designed for part of mountain division artillery but

need not be so deployed; in August 1945, the earlier pack battalion was

replaced by the mountain pack battalion.

Medical Department Units

There were large number of Medical Department field units whose

T/O’s provided for organically assigned veterinary personnel, including those

T/O’s which prescribed for what was frequently referred to as veterinary

field units. The latter may be subgrouped into those whose primary function

in theater command was to establish system of animal evacuation and

veterinary hospitalization, and the second group of those concerned with

theater food inspection service. These veterinary Held units 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 animal service, Team AH

Veterinary food inspection detachment, Team DD

Veterinary detachment, aviation

Iii addition, two different types of separate veterinary sections and detachments were organized during the war period by tfie utilization of pertinent

parts of T/O’s for the field artillery battalion, 75-mm. howitzer, pack, and

the quartermaster remount troop. Including the latter, 22(5 veterinary units

were organized or completely reorganized pursuant to T/O’s. Medical Department units, other than those specified for the veterinary

service, that included organically assigned veterinary personnel included

hospital, laboratory, supply, and medical administrative staff units. Appli- cable T/O’s provided for veterinary enlisted man, in the capacity of meat and dairy hygienist, in number of hospital and medical treatment units such
ORGANIZATION IN THEATER AND MINOR COMMANDS 215

as tlie general hospital, general hospital (neuropsychiatric), station hospital, convalescent hospital, convalescent camp, and convalescent center. Many of

these, following their activation, presumably gained the assignment of the

veterinary enlisted personnel, but the exact number that did was not deter- mined. In fact, the situation with regard to veterinary service for hospital units was made less clear because some few, particularly during the early part of the war period, were deployed in the theater commands with Veterinary Corps officer included in their organization. The same situation pertained to the headquarters, hospital center, and headquarters, medical concentration center, except that some of these headquarters units did not have

the assigned veterinary personnel, though the pertinent T/O’s expressly

authorized veterinary personnel space vacancies for an officer in the grade of major and an enlisted man.

During World War II, four medical general laboratories were deployed in the theater commands overseas: The 1st in the European theater, the 15th

in the Mediterranean theater, the 18th in the Central Pacific Area, and

the 19th in the Southwest Pacific Area. These units were deployed to function as central medical department laboratory facilities in the theaters, conducting epidemiological studies, research, and technical inspections and investigation; preparing and distributing certain biologies; and issuing laboratory animals. The T/O for the medical general laboratory authorized

the assignment of two veterinary officers, one in the grade of lieutenant colonel and the other in the grade of captain, and approximately four enlisted

men, who were specialized in bacteriology, pathology, and food analyses

{29 through 34-) similar, but smaller, unit was the medical laboratory.

This unit, designed for deployment by field army or in section of theater’s communications zone, was organized internally to include base or stationary laboratory and three mobile laboratories. During the war, 19 such

units were deployed in the theaters. Each such laboratory, pursuant to

T/O’s, was authorized one veterinary officer in the grade of major and three

to four enlisted specialist personnel, who specialized in bacteriology, pathology, and food analyses {35 through 4-0)

The medical supply depot was another field unit, with the specific mission of operating as the medical supply storage and distribution agency in

field army or section of the communications zone. The T/O’s initially provided

for the assignment of veterinary officer in the grade of major and an

enlisted man as his assistant. At least 12 such units were organized during the early war period and are known to have had their own assigned veterinary officers. number of these continued the assignment of their veterinary officers even after the authorization was deleted in April 1943.

Quartermaster Corps Units

In World War II, 21 or more quartermaster pack troops and companies

were organized, but none may be regarded as having its own organic veteri-
216 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

nary section. The troop or company, each with 298 mules and horses and

having the capability for hauling 20 tons of cargo, was designed to operate

either separately or as operational elements of cavalry division’s quartermaster squadron (in which the troop name was used) and of mountain

division’s quartermaster battalion (in which the company was used) (4-1, 4-2,

43. 44)- Thus, these were the 16th and 20th Cavalry Quartermaster Squadrons, each with pack troop, and the 10th Mountain Quartermaster Battalion, with pack companies, but these troops and companies are to be

counted as additional to the 21 just mentioned. The reason for noting this

is that the T/O’s originally did not provide for veterinary section as an

organic part of the pack company or troop, so that veterinary animal service

detachments of varying organizational structure were specially organized

and attached to these units when operating separately. On the other hand,

as elements of cavalry squadron or mountain battalion, the veterinary

animal services for the troops and companies were provided by veterinary

section organizations that were set forth in the tables for the parent squadrons and battalions—the cavalry squadron having veterinary section of one

officer in the grade of lieutenant and four enlisted personnel, and the mountain battalion having its veterinary section of one officer in the grade of

captain or first lieutenant and nine enlisted personnel. The inequality in

the T/O’s regarding the pack company and troop’s veterinary services when

operating separately or as elements of squadron or battalion was corrected

in May 1945 when T/O’s for the pack company or troop were amended to

authorize an organic or unit veterinary detachment of one officer in the

grade of captain or first lieutenant and four enlisted personnel, when such

company or troop was deployed separately; however, no such units were

organized at this time.

Another type of pack unit was that provided in the pack-transported

light division; namely, the quartermaster pack company, light (45). Three

such companies were authorized for each division, each having 287 mules

and horses, but no veterinary section was included in the organic composition

of the company.

Other quartermaster field units concerned with Army horses and mules

were the quartermaster remount squadron and the quartermaster remount

troop—each provided with veterinary detachment. Approximately 10

remount troops, and including separate troop units and those grouped under

remount squadron headquarters, were organized during the war. Another

animal unit was the quartermaster war dog platoon, later redesigned as the

infantry scout dog platoon, which included personnel space authorization in the T/O’s for veterinary enlisted man. Altogether, 21 platoon units

were organized.

This number does not include, however, the utilization of the pertinent portion of the T/O’s

for the quartermaster remount troop as regards the troop’s veterinary section that comprised the

basis for organizing nine separate, lettered veterinary sections.
ORGANIZATION IN THEATER AND MINOR COMMANDS 217

In regard to the various quartermaster held units which were concerned

with the receipt, storage, distribution, or other handling of subsistence in

theater commands, there was only one whose T/O had provisions for

veterinary detachment; namely, the quartermaster refrigeration company,

fixed {4-6, 4?)- This unit was designed to operate perishable subsistence

distribution point serving as many as 120,000 troops and, as required, to

operate held abattoir. It was authorized its own veterinary detachment of

two officers in the grades of captain and hrst lieutenant and eight enlisted

personnel; in July 1911, the veterinary detachment’s enlisted strength was

cut back to four men. During World War II, an estimated 20 such units

with their veterinary detachments operated in the oversea commands—many

companies were deployed without their butcher or other platoon elements

being activated. At least nine quartermasters refrigeration companies, hxed,

saw duty in the European theater, where they were attached to the

quartermaster base depot units.

Signal Corps Units

There was only one held unit of the Signal Corps authorized organic

veterinary service; namely, the signal pigeon company. Veterinary Corps

officers were assigned to 12 or more such units during World War II.

Transportation Corps Units

At the onset of the war, water transportation was the responsibility of

the Quartermaster Corps, and its oversea field installations were referred to

as mobile ports, each with prescribed capacities for handling as many as

50,000 personnel and 300,000 tons of cargo month. The T/O’s for headquarters and headquarters company, port (mobile), authorized veterinary

personnel spaces for an officer in the grade of lieutenant colonel and an

enlisted man as meat and dairy inspector (4 ). With the development of

the Transportation Corps, the Quartermaster Corps mobile port organization

was replaced by two new port units—the major port and the medium port.

During the war period, approximately 30 such port headquarters were activated, probably each with its own port veterinary personnel, but this last

was difficult to accurately determine from available historical reports because some port headquarters were subordinated in various theater provisional organizations. For example, the 24th Major Port was lost in the

organization of the Army Port and Service Command, Central Pacific Base

Command, which set up at Honolulu, T.H. The numerical designation of

some port headquarters units were the 1st through the 18th, the 20th through

the 24th, the 51st, 52d, 53d, 55th, and the 668th through the 6Tlst.

The headquarters and headquarters company, major port (oversea),

comprised the administrative overhead for mobile port organization and

facility (49). Its T/O’s authorized the assignment of two veterinary officers
218 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

(one in the grade of lieutenant colonel and the other as captain) and four

enlisted personnel as meat and dairy inspectors. The smaller unit, headquarters and headquarters company, medium port (oversea), regulated

port organization and facility with capabilities at about half of that prescribed for major port {50). The pertinent T/O's provided personnel

space authorizations for one veterinary officer in the grade of major and two

enlisted personnel.

Army Air Forces Units

War Department T/O's for the medical section of headquarters, air

force, included provisions for the assignment of one veterinary oflicer in the

grade of major and veterinary noncommissioned officer (5i, 52). During

World War II, there were four such numbered air forces in the Zone of

Interior, and the Fifth through the Fifteenth and the Twentieth were deployed in the oversea areas, but, in many of these, there was no headquartersassigned or air force veterinarian. Usually, this last-named staff position

was occupied by the commanding officer of the veterinary detachment, aviation, which was attached to the air force, or by the relevant air service

command veterinarian. In the air service command, veterinary personnel

space authorizations for one officer in the grade of major and an enlisted

man were prescribed in the T/O's for this unit (53). The authorizations

were part of those provided for the medical section of the headquarters

special staff group.

Another Army Air Forces unit was the Air Corps headquarters and

headquarters squadron, air force base command. This included veterinary

officer in the grade of captain and one veterinary enlisted man, as meat and

dairy hygienist, in the medical personnel space authorization for the headquarters group (5/). Also, there was the arctic search and rescue squadron

which contained authorizations for veterinary enlisted man in each of its

three flights that contained sled dog teams.

TYPICAL THEATER VETERINARY SERVICE ORGANIZATION

The foregoing paragraphs are descriptive of the types of individual

veterinary units and those field units having organically assigned veterinary personnel who saw service in the theater commands during World

War II. Throughout the war, however, there was no single description of

the principles and doctrine, which brought these various units together or

into focus, as to what really comprised theater veterinary service organization. Furthermore, such few descriptions as did exist were incomplete

and meager in detail, outdated, or pertained to veterinary animal service

almost exclusively {55 through GO). Long after the end of the period of

active hostilities, such description was developed and officially entered into

discussions generally on the roles of the medical, dental, and veterinary

services in theater of operations. Referring largely to the wartime expe-
organization in theater and minor commands 219

riences, the typical theater veterinary service organization thus was described in FM (Field Manual) 8-10, Medical Service, Theater of Operations, 22 March 1951.

BASE, DEFENSE, AND MINOR THEATER COMMANDS

Preparatory to the description of the functional organization of the

Army Veterinary Service in the Middle East-African-European and the

Asiatic-Pacific theaters, reference is made first to the several departments, base and defense commands, and minor theater organizations which were

included in, or surrounded, the Western Hemisphere. The latter, for the

most part, comprised the American theater. These included the original departmental commands in the Panama Canal region and in the Puerto

Rican area, and the semiterritorial, semitactical organization in Alaska, later

reorganized as the Alaskan Department. As Germany continued her mili- tary successes over all of the European Continent, the United States entered into the development of number of Atlantic and Caribbean bases for bettering the defenses of the North American Continent. Thus, pursuant to the

destroyer-base transaction concluded by the President in the fall of 1940, British territorial areas and islands along the North Atlantic coastline and

in the Caribbean became sites for new U.S. military bases. The largest of

these, created as administratively separate organizations, were the Newfoundland Base Command and Bermuda Base Command; the others, including Trinidad, in the Caribbean area were subordinated as island base

organizations of the new Caribbean Defense Command. Greenland became

the location for Army bases pursuant to an agreement reached in April

1941 between the United States and Denmark. In Iceland, the Army took

over bases that were originally set up there in the spring of 1940 by British

expeditionary force; in 1944, Iceland separated itself from Denmark to

become an independent sovereignty.

Parallel with the foregoing developments, other bases—many identified

later as belonging to the Army Air Forces Air Transport Command—were

developed in the Western Hemisphere along the aerial routes which were

followed in the delivery of airplanes and lend-lease supplies to the Allied

military forces in various parts of the world. This, in part, marked the

origin of U.S. Army Forces, South Atlantic, and also certain commands in

Canada, though the western part of that country became more important

militarily as the Northwest Service Command in connection with the development of the Alcan Highway and Canol Project. Regardless of the nature

or military reasons for their creation and development, the various base and

defense commands each had its own veterinary service organization. Their

missions were primarily those of food inspection, including the conduct of

inspections on meat and dairy products which were procured from indigenous sources. On the other hand, the veterinary services with animals in
220 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

these commands were not extensive, though Army dogs were utilized in some, and Army mule and horse strength in the Panama Canal Department approximated thousand animals in 1941.

Caribbean Defense Command

The Caribbean Defense Command, with headquarters located at Quarry

Heights, C.Z., was organized in February 1941 purposefully to coordinate

the control of Army activities in the Panama Canal Department, the Puerto

Rican Department (later Antilles Department), and the several task forces and base commands which then were setting up at the bases leased from the

British and in other territories in the Caribbean area. This was one of six

defense commands created to organize the defense for that which was to be

named the American theater, before war was declared; the others being the

Alaska Defense Command and the four (that is, Eastern, Central, Southern,

and Western) which were established within the continental United States.

The early organization of the Caribbean Defense Command was made up of

three sector subcommands: the Panama Sector; the Puerto Rican Sector,

including the department by that name, as well as Army personnel and

activities in the Virgin Islands, Jamaica, Cuba, and Antigua; and the

Trinidad Sector, including the Trinidad Base Section and the forces in

Saint Lucia, Aruba, and Curacao, and the Guianas (British, French, and

Dutch). Each sector subcommand had its own veterinary service organization, but there was no coordination between them at the level of the Caribbean Defense Command—the latter having no staff veterinarian in its headquarters. On the other hand, the commanding general of the Caribbean

Defense Command also was the Panama Canal Department commander, but

the defense command headquarters special staff was kept unusually small;

it did not include staff surgeon until the fall of 1943,

The trisector organization of the Caribbean Defense Command lasted

until June 1943 when the Puerto Rican Department was renamed Antilles

Department and reorganized to include the Trinidad Sector and Base Section

as subordinate echelon of command. The two-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 theater command headquarters

formally gained Veterinary Corps officers on its medical staff by the additional duty assignment of the Veterinarian, Panama Canal Department. On

September 1945, T/O reversed the status of the theater command veterinarian, with his reassignment to primary duty in the theater headquarters

and additional duty to Headquarters, Panama Canal Department (61).

Panama Canal Department

The Army Veterinary Service with the Panama Canal Department

originated in World War I. During 1940-41, its peacetime personnel strength
organization in theater and minor commands 221

was almost doubled, to include, as of the end of December 1941, veterinary

officers and 53 enlisted personnel. Most of these were on duty with the 3d

Veterinary Company, the 2d Field Artillery Battalion, and provisional veterinary hospital organizations at Fort Clayton and Fort William D. Davis; the department’s animal strength approximated 1,000 mules and horses.

However, after 1942, when the 2d Field Artillery Battalion was motorized

and its mules transshipped to the Pacific theaters and Zone of Interior, this

number of veterinary personnel was reduced to approximately officers and

15 enlisted personnel and so remained until after the war period. In July

1944, the personnel were transferred to the newly established Veterinary

Service Detachment, Panama Canal Department, under the direct 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.

The War Department allotment or manning table that provided for this

organization also included the veterinary space authorizations for the Sixth

Air Force.

The veterinary service with animals concerned the mules and horses

which were used by the 2d Field Artillery Battalion and the Panama Mobile

Force, but these units were motorized later, and the excess animals then

were transshipped from the department, the last shipment being made in

June 1943. In the interim (beginning in December 1942), however, Army

dogs were brought into the Panama Canal Department and were placed

under the control of the Army Veterinary Service; on request, dogs also

were issued to the U.S. Marine Corps (fig. 17). In addition to these activities, complete professional services were provided to the Navy and the

Marine Corps which were utilizing mules and native ponies in mounted

guard patrols, veterinary investigation was conducted for the Panama

National Police Corps following an incident of feed poisoning among

large number of its police horses, and the Army Veterinary Service cooperated with local civilian authorities in the operation of import animal

quarantines such as concerned the traffic of dogs and other pet animals belonging to military personnel. In this connection, it may be noted that

dog involved in fatal case of human rabies (in an Army officer, in Guatemala) was quarantined for approximately months at the Army veterinary

hospital, Fort Clayton, and then destroyed; the fact that this dog manifested

no clinical symptoms of rabies during the quarantine period and the subsequent laboratory examination of brain tissue was negative for Negri bodies

resulted in civil action to extend the animal import quarantine period to

months.

In regard to the subsistence supply, the Army Veterinary Service inspected all foods, including fruits and vegetables, that were received from

the Zone of Interior and cooperated with quartermaster officers in the procurement locally of fresh milk, ice cream, and beef. The handling of perish-
222 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

U.S. ARMY PHOTO

Figure 17.—Kennel areas in the Panama Canal Department

able subsistence in the Panama Canal Department was facilitated by the

construction of cold storage plant (of approximately 360,000 cu. ft. capacity) at Corozal General Depot; ration issues were distributed from

this point by refrigerated truck and boats to outposts as far as hundred

miles away. Under the prevailing tropical and humid climatic conditions,

considerable difficulty was experienced in the handling of perishable subsistence without the occurrence of some losses in quality due to partial thawing of products. To prevent outright spoilage, many products which ordinarily were handled in chilled refrigerated state were frozen. The difficulty was best indicated by spoilage losses totaling 50 to 95 percent of the

quantities in certain shipments received at Corozal, particularly in shipments

of head lettuce. The fresh fruits and vegetables that were procured locally

originated from Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Ecuador. Fresh milk for the

military forces in the department was obtained from two dairies, one at

Mount Hope, and the other at Aguadulce.

During 1943 and 1944, the Army Veterinary Service in the Panama

Canal Department inspected more than 160 million pounds of meat and

dairy products, as follows:
ORGANIZATION IN THEATER AND MINOR COMMANDS 223

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

19U 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 26,480,920

Another 1,805,952 and 1,268,899 pounds, respectively, were inspected for the

Army Exchange System which manufactured most of the ice cream that it

sold, though some quantities were procured from three commercial plants.

It must be noted that the veterinary inspections pertaining to locally procured foods were also part of the medical protective procedures of antibiological warfare.

Along with the theater programs to lessen the volume of water transportation into the Panama Canal Department, the Army Veterinary Service

surveyed the fresh beef supply in Central and South American countries and conducted the necessary ante mortem and post mortem inspections. The

Pastio Nacional, Escuintla, Guatemala, proved to be the largest of the

sources surveyed, and under Veterinary Corps supervision produced and

shipped to the Panama Canal Department more than 850,000 pounds of

fresh-frozen carcass beef during the period November 1943 through July

1944. The absence of suitable abattoir facilities in San Salvador precluded

beef procurement from El Salvador. For the supply of fresh beef to the

airbases at David, Panama, and Salinas, Ecuador, local cattle slaughtering

projects were set up with veterinary officers conducting the necessary inspections. The David airbase supply originated at Los Potreros and approximated 15,000 pounds each month, and that in Ecuador provided more

than 210,000 in the period from October 1942 through 24 November 1943.

None of these projects was conducted without certain problems, not excluding international relations, such as refrigeration and transportation of the

meat, the standards of abattoir construction and operation, and the grade

quality of the beef. In Ecuador, in addition to the development of suitable

meat supply, the veterinary officer surveyed and assisted in the development

of modern marketing procedures and sanitary controls for fresh fruits and

vegetables, eggs, and milk. The last-named product was obtained from

dairy plant in Guayaquil which bottled the milk in beer bottle containers and

then pasteurized the bottled milk in nearby brewery plant; the raw milk
224 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

supply originated from herd specially examined and tuberculin tested by

the veterinary officer. The latter, also, provided attending veterinary services to the bases at Talara, Peru, and in the Galapagos Islands where the

major problem was that of properly handling and storing perishable subsistence.

Antilles Department

The Antilles Department, like the Panama Canal Department, was

sector or administrative subarea of the Caribbean Defense Command. It

was established on July 1939, originally as the Puerto Rican Department, with headquarters at San Juan, P.R., but on June 1943, its name was

changed and the new Antilles Department was assigned jurisdiction over

much larger area. Soon after the Department was established, in December 1939, Veterinary Corps officer was assigned to station at the Post of

San Juan and station hospital; though he acted in the capacity of Department veterinarian, that office was not officially designated until September

1941. By that date, the Puerto Rican Department had gained sufficient

numbers of veterinary personnel for their assignment throughout the immediate geographic areas which were added when the Department became

sector subcommand to the newly created Caribbean Defense Command.

By the end of 1942, the Department’s veterinary service organization

was extended to the Post of San Juan, to Fort Buchanan (site of the

Puerto Rican General Depot, later Antilles General Depot 1), and to the

Department’s medical laboratory, as well as to the forces or base commands

on Cuba, Jamaica (at Fort Simons), Virgin Islands, St. Thomas, Antigua,

and British West Indies. Then, during the next year, after the original

name was changed to Antilles Department, the geographic boundaries were

greatly expanded, encompassing those of the formerly independent Trinidad

Sector and Base Command. The latter, with headquarters at Port of Spain,

Trinidad, B.W.I., included base force veterinarian. The original Trinidad

Sector and Base Command, after its formation (in May 1941), gradually

added the base subcommands and task forces that were being set up, such

as in the British West Indies on Saint Lucia Island, in British Guiana, in

the Netherlands Antilles (or Netherlands West Indies) on Aruba and Curacao, in Netherlands Guiana (or Surinam), and in French Guiana. On

account of the small size of the various defense forces, only veterinary enlisted personnel were assigned to most areas. The merger of the original

Puerto Rican area and the Trinidad Sector—totaling 14 or more separate

countries, islands, and island groups—saw the strength of the Army Veterinary Service in the Antilles Department at 12 officers and 25 enlisted personnel (as of the end of 1943). During 1945, these personnel were regrouped

under the central supervision of the Department’s Veterinary Detachment,

Medical Section, with home station at Antilles General Depot (at Fort

Buchanan).
organization in theater and minor commands 225

Veterinary service with animals in the Antilles command was limited

to Army sentry dogs, 24 of them being received during November 1942 and distributed to military installations in Puerto Ilico, Jamaica, and Antigua,

As of December 1945, only 12 dogs remained, all housed and cared for by

the veterinary detachment at the general depot, Fort Buchanan. Another

10 Army dogs were utilized at Fort Read, Trinidad, The veterinary meat

and dairy hygiene inspection activities largely concerned surveillance inspectional control over products which were received from the Zone of Interior.

During 1942, subsistence brought into the area and inspected approximated

20 million pounds of meat and dairy products; losses totaled 0.34 percent

on account of spoilage. In Puerto Rico, Jamaica, and Cuba, fresh milk and

ice cream (totaling million pounds in 1943), and some fresh-frozen fish

were procured locally, as were also some fresh beef and poultry from the

Dominican Republic and Cuba. In Puerto Rico also, the Army Veterinary

Service, on request of the Department surgeon, expanded its inspection activities to commercial food establishments, including soft beverage bottling

plants, bakeries, and restaurants. In connection with the conduct of these

sanitary inspections of food establishments and of locally procured food

products, the necessary bacteriological examinations and chemical analyses

workload was referred to the Department medical laboratory which had become operational, in the spring of 1942, complete with veterinary laboratory subsection. In the Trinidad Sector, there was almost no procurement

of foods locally, though very small quantity of fresh milk was obtained

in British Guiana, and some few cattle of Venezuelan origin were slaughtered

under veterinary supervision to furnish beef to the U.S. Engineer Department civilians at airbase construction camps.

Bermuda Base Command

The Bermuda Base Command, coming into existence in the spring of

1941, evidenced no need for veterinary personnel until after special survey

of the local milk industry was conducted by Veterinary Corps officer,

on request of the Government of Bermuda. This survey demonstrated that

the command’s milk supply was originating from local milk industry

wherein 51 percent of the dairy cattle were infected with brucellosis (an

animal disease, transmissible to the human being, called undulant fever),

less than half of the milk production was pasteurized, and dairy farm and

milk plant sanitary controls were almost nonexistent. Subsequently, with

the assignment of veterinary officer and two enlisted personnel to the

base command surgeon’s office in 1942, much was accomplished in assisting

the Bermuda Government to improve the local dairy industry. Ills principal duties were the inspection of the troop food supplies and the care of

Army horses.
226 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Figxjee 18.—Office of the Post Veterinarian, Fort Pepperrell, Newfoundland,

November 1943.

Newfoundland Base Command

Newfoundland, an area named in the destroyer-base exchange agreement

of 1940 between the United States and Great Britain, was entered by an

Army task force landing there in January 1941. The station hospital, including Veterinary Corps officer and the medical staff section of the new

base command headquarters, comprised the original Medical Department

organization at Fort Pepperrell (near St. John’s). Area or station commands, each with their own veterinary personnel, were set up at Fort

Pepperrell, Fort McAndrew (near Argentia), Harmon Field (near Stephenville), and the airbase at Gander Lake—the last two installations being

transferred in October 1943 to the jurisdiction of the North Atlantic Wing,

Air Transport Command (fig. 18). Personnel strength reached peak of

veterinary officers and approximately 30 enlisted personnel. During July

1944, the office of the post veterinarian, Fort Pepperrell, was merged with

that of the base command veterinarian, and, as of the end of that year, three

veterinary officers (together with nine enlisted personnel) were at station

at Forts Pepperrell and McAndrew, and at Air Transport Command’s

Harmon Field.

The Army Veterinary Service with the Newfoundland Base Command

was largely concerned with inspecting the troop food supply. Thus, during
ORGANIZATION IN THEATER AND MINOR COMMANDS 227

1943 and 1944, the inspection workload each year approximated million

pounds of subsistence, including million pounds which originated from the

Zone of Interior and the remainder comprising inspections of locally procured products. Rejections in 1944 totaled 92,250 pounds of meat for failures to satisfy contractual requirements and another 36,000 pounds of Government-owned products, mostly fresh fruits and vegetables, which were

spoiled. Veterinary animal service, on the other hand, was more limited, this being extended to approximately 35 Army dogs which were used as

adjunct security guards at installations and to 1,000-1,500 Army signal

pigeons which arrived during 1943. The enzooticity of canine distemper

among the civil dog population led to the veterinary programing for annual

revaccinations of the Army dogs against this disease; rabies, however, was

nonexistent.

In regard to the troop food supply, the Army Veterinary Service

routinely inspected all foods (including fruits and vegetables) which were

received from the Zone of Interior, for sanitary condition, and conducted

procurement inspections for grade and sanitary qualities of that brought in

from Canada and of the fresh milk and fish which were procured locally.

In connection with food procurement in Newfoundland, the Army Veterinary Service surveyed the local dairy industry, cooperated with civilian

agricultural and public health officials in the start of test programs against

tuberculosis and brucellosis in the dairy herds, cooperated with the two

veterinary officials in conducting these tuberculin and brucellosis tests on the

cattle, and sought improvement in the sanitary standards for the handling,

storage, and dressing of the local fish catch. The bacteriological examination of fresh milk supply was conducted by the Army Veterinary Service

in its provisional laboratory set up at base hospital.

Greenland Base Command

Greenland was another area vital to the defense of the air and sea

communications routes in the North Atlantic. Pursuant to an agreement

reached between the United States and Denmark, IJ.S. Army task force

landed there in June-July 1941, relieving the original US. Marine Corps

garrison, and established Headquarters, Greenland Base Command. Station hospital units soon were set up at the four main, widely scattered

bases, but it was not until 1942, that Medical Department activities throughout Greenland were brought under the central supervision of recently

designated base command surgeon. staff veterinarian, who attended all

four bases, was named at the same time. The veterinary activities at these

bases included the sanitary or surveillance inspections of meat and dairy

products which were supplied to Army troops (which reached peak

strength of 5,600 in October 1943) and the professional care of the Army

dogs. All food supplies were received from the Zone of Interior. Limited

quantities of mutton and lamb were planned for local procurement, but
228 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Figure 19.—Maj. F. A. Todd, VC (kneeling) and Capt. H. J. Robertson, VC (standing)

providing professional assistance to the Icelandic agricultural authorities and their

veterinarians.

veterinary survey showed that the existing shortages in facilities to properly

move the meats to the bases would preclude this.

Iceland Base Command

In Iceland, the Army Veterinary Service established program for civil

affairs assistance that was the first of its kind and that contributed materially to the excellent relations of the U.S. military forces with that

country’s government and population (fig. 19). In fact, what was accomplished there by Army veterinary officers was recorded in U.S. diplomatic

correspondence by an expression of appreciation by the Prime Minister of

Iceland “for the valuable services they are rendering to Icelandic economy

and the rural life of Iceland by this cooperation” {62). These services

included the initiation of regulatory controls against the diseases affecting

the local animal industry, the modernization of the milk and dairy industry

and the development of hog raising, and the conduct of scientific and prac-
organization in theater and minor commands 229

deal veterinary research programs, including investigational studies on that

disease of sheep called jagziekte.

Veterinary services in Iceland were organized under the jurisdiction of

Headquarters, Iceland Base Command, which set up operations at Reykjavik,

in September 1941. This headquarters included veterinary officer in its base surgeon's office, who maintained technical supervisory responsibilities over the veterinary officers attached to two hospital units (the 208th Gen- eral and the 168th Station Hospitals) and the 5th Infantry Division that

came into Iceland from the Zone of Interior. The veterinary enlisted personnel were assigned for administrative purposes to quartermaster refrig- eration company. Aside from their special duties in regard to civilian

veterinary matters, their primary duty was that of inspecting the Army

food supply. Most of this supply originated from the Zone of Interior,

being transported on U.S. Navy vessels. On request of local Icelandic

authorities, incoming fresh fruits and vegetables were inspected, particularly

with reference to the prevention of the introduction of new plant diseases,

but later, the Army adopted procedures for burning garbage waste containing such material. With civilian cooperation, the Army Veterinary Service set up sanitary source of fresh milk supply for hospital patients,

and eventually, this supply was extended to troops. Ice cream, lamb, and

fish were procured locally, following Veterinary Corps inspection of the

commercial industries. Laboratory controls over the local food supply and

investigational research on animal diseases were established and maintained

by the Army Veterinary Service, on invitation of Icelandic authorities, in

the University of Reykjavik.

Northwest Service Command

The Army Veterinary Service with the Northwest Service Command

was begun during January 1943, or approximately months after the command—with headquarters at Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada—was

established by the War Department. That command was the 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, and

Mackenzie District) and the southeastern area of Alaska, These activities

were the maintenance of railway, the completion of the Alaskan (or

Alcan) Highway, and the construction of pipelines (called the Canol Project)

from Norman Wells and Watson Lake. Since early 1942, the U.S. Roads

Administration Agency, Army engineer construction regiments, and Task

Force 2600 had been pioneering the highway and pipeline projects. Near

the war’s end, on 30 June 1945, the Northwest Service Command was reorganized as district subcommand under the jurisdiction of the Sixth

Service Command.
230 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Following the arrival of the first veterinary officer, further development of the command veterinary service organization was delayed for some

time by local administrative difficulties and misleading conception that none

was needed. Between June and October 1943, 19 additional veterinary personnel, including officers and 14 enlisted men, were brought in on request

of the service command; these were grouped under the administrative control of the newly formed Veterinary Section, Medical Branch, Headquarters,

Northwest Service Command. From this single veterinary detachment, personnel under the supervision of the service command veterinarian were placed

on detached service at stations along the Alaskan Highway, the Mackenzie

River supply route, and the Army Quartermaster Market Center at Edmonton, Alberta Province. Another veterinary detachment was included in

the organization of the Northwest Service Command Medical Laboratory,

which was established in August 1943 and was discontinued by the end of

March 1944, In addition, varying number of personnel other than those

assigned to the service command conducted veterinary services for or in

the Northwest Service Command: (1) The veterinary personnel belonging

to the Alaskan Wing or Division, Air Transport Command, who provided base veterinary services along the airplanes-for-Russia route through

the Northwest Service Command; (2) others from the Ninth Service Command, Army Service Forces, who conducted meat and dairy hygiene inspections in the Vancouver Barracks, B.C., area; and (3) those from the Seattle

Port of Embarkation who rendered ancillary port veterinary services along

the inland overwater route through Prince Rupert, B.C. The veterinarian

at Skagway, Alaska, which like Prince Rupert, was subport installation

originally of the Seattle Port of Embarkation, was transferred to the jurisdiction of the Northwest Service Command in the fall of 1943.

Veterinary activities in the Northwest Service Command included the

care of animals, meat and dairy hygiene inspections, and laboratory services.

The first-named activity, to be sure, was not extensive. However, few

pack horses and mules and sled dogs were procured and used locally by

Army engineer units and, until mid-1943, some 30 dogs were kept at Camp

Prairie (near Waterways). Other dogs were utilized by the Air Transport

Command for use in search and rescue work for crews of forced-landed

airplanes. Also, until November 1944, seven Army mules and horses were

maintained at Chilkoot Barracks, Alaska. In regard to meat and dairy

hygiene services, veterinary surveys were made of the sources of meat and

fresh milk in western Canada, food procurement inspections were conducted

for the Edmonton Quartermaster Market Center, and surveillance inspections were made of all subsistence, including fruits and vegetables, during

its storage, transportation, and other handling before issue to the messhalls.

The veterinary food procurement inspections saw the rapid development of list of approved food establishments, particularly in the Edmonton

area. There, the veterinary officer with the Northwest Service Command
organization in theater and minor commands 231

Medical Laboratory established laboratory quality control over the raw

milk supply and in the milk pasteurization plants which provided milk to

the Army; before this time, there was little or no public health control over

dairy production. In the procurement inspections of meats, the Army Veterinary Service accepted the sanitary standards prevailing in the meat plants

operating under the supervision of the Veterinary Division, Health of Animals Branch, Dominion Department of Agriculture; however, Army veterinary personnel were stationed in these plants as inspectors for quality of the

products during their manufacture and to check the weight or quantity of

the products at delivery. The last-named activity became important because

there was great deal of variation between the Army’s and the Canadian

contractor’s conceptions of tare weights and shrinkages. In another action

regarding local supply, the Army Veterinary Service successfully prevailed

upon the U.S. Engineer Department’s civilian contractors of the Canol

Project along the Mackenzie River route to obtain their meats through

Army channels from the Edmonton area; the local sources used by the contractors were found to be unreasonably primitive and completely insanitary.

The Edmonton Quartermaster Market Center also procured, during 1944-45

throughout Canada, 22,500,000 pounds of frozen poultry for Army use and

export; veterinary point of origin inspections of this poultry were conducted in the Vancouver Barracks and Toronto-Montreal areas by personnel

on temporary duty from the Ninth and the Second Service Commands and

also of 10,600,000 pounds by veterinary personnel who were assigned to the

Northwest Service Command. It may be mentioned here that the Canadian

Government and poultry industry were appreciative of the improvements

made in poultry production as the result of the application of Army veterinary standards of sanitation and quality control. Altogether, veterinary procurement inspections in the command for the 21/2-year period (January 1943

through June 1945) approximated 46 million pounds of meat and dairy

products.

Of the major supply routes through the Northwest Service Command,

the overwater transportation route from the Seattle Port of Embarkation along

the shores of western Canada to Skagway proved to have the least veterinary

problems for subsistence surveillance inspections. In fact, the Northwest

Service Command’s veterinary service organization had little to do with this

until late 1943, when the Skagway port veterinary service was transferred

from the jurisdiction of the Seattle Port of Embarkation. At Skagway and

later- at Whitehorse, which were terminal points of railway, small refrigerated storage depots were constructed. In these intertheater shipments by

railroad, difficulties arose when the quantities of subsistence unloaded at the

port exceeded the storage facilities in Skagway, or when snow, rockslides,

and wrecks disrupted the traffic to Whitehorse. At one time, frozen foods

were temporarily stacked under tarpaulin coverings, and, in another instance, boxcar loads of subsistence were moved to holding in colder area,
232 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

but even these were lost temporarily when the cars were covered by snowdrifts. An innovation in the shipment of certain perishable foods was the

use of charcoal heaters inside the railroad cars during the winter months.

There were no major food losses encountered; however, in the subsistence

which was returned to depot storage from camps and stations as they were

closed up, there were some requirements to set up food reclamation operations. Regarding this returned subsistence-—

it was found that repeated freezing and thawing, plus general weather exposure had not materially damaged many canned meats. Other items such as evaporated

milk were ruined by such exposure and were condemned. Some quantities had developed

rust, dents, bacterial fermentation, and lost labels.

Alaskan Department

The Army Veterinary Service with the Alaskan Department originated

in October 1940 when one veterinary noncommissioned officer arrived for

duty at Ladd Field (near Fairbanks). On June 1941, the first Veterinary

Corps officer was assigned, and before the end of that year, additional personnel were brought in from the Zone of Interior; these officers established

station veterinary services at Fort Richardson (near Anchorage), Fort Ray

(near Sitka), and on Kodiak Island (at Fort Greely) and Dutch Harbor

(at Fort Mears). At the time, however, there was no true military department organization—the Army operations in the area being organized (in

mid-1940) as the Alaska Defense Force, or as the Alaska Defense Command

which was the new designation after February 1941. It must be recalled

that this comprised one of six such commands which were formed during

the prewar emergency periods for purposes of general defensive planning

for the continental United States. Until November 1943, when military

activities in the Alaskan command came to be administered on the basis of

separate oversea military department 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 Defense Command. As will be observed later, the early military organization in Alaska had little or nothing

to do with the fighting on, and the recapture of, the Aleutian Islands,

though this area later was included in general descriptions of the Alaskan

Department.

During the early war years, the medical staff section in the Alaskan

command was without headquarters-assigned veterinarian. In April 1943,

the many small and widely scattered veterinary detachments were grouped

into the newly organized Veterinary Section, Service Command, Alaska

Defense Command. This was renamed later as Veterinary Detachment,

Alaskan Department. Its senior ranking Veterinary 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
ORGANIZATION IN THEATER AND MINOR COMMANDS 233

Glenn, Fort Greely, Fort Mears, Fort Morrow, Fort Randall, Fort Ray, Fort Raymond, Fort Richardson, Juneau, Ladd Field, Nome, and Whittier.

This marked the period of maximum activity, and, soon after the reoccupation of Kiska Island (in August 1913) and the end of the Aleutian campaign, the original defense command organization gave way to peace-time

oversea department, the Alaskan Department. Eventually, the original veterinary organization was merged into Headquarters, Alaskan Department,

and during December 1941, the ranking veterinary officer took over the role

of department veterinarian. Then, the number of veterinary personnel in the Alaskan Department reached its peak strength of officers and 33 enlisted personnel. Of course, with the decline of military operations in

Alaska, the veterinary service that once had been scattered at 14 locations

were consolidated on Adak Island, at Forts Glenn, Greely, Mears, and

Morrow, at Ladd Field, Nome, Whittier, and at new locations: Amchitka

Island, Camp Earle, and Shemya Island,

At these stations, both meat and dairy hygiene and veterinary animal

services were provided. During the war, more than 150 sled dogs were

maintained at Fort Richardson, Ladd Field, and Nome for use in connection with land-rescue operations and evacuations of patients, and scoutmessenger dogs were used on Attn, Adak, and Amchitka Islands. Also, there

were 275 pigeons at Fort Richardson and Ladd Field during tthe period

from November 1941 through October 1943. In June 1945, veterinary officer

undertook the development of livestock farm on Adak Island which, by

the end of the year, had hundred hogs, fed on Army messhall garbage,

and 250 chickens whose egg production was being furnished to the Army

hospital. The fresh vegetable production in the gardens and hothouses at

Ladd Field was managed by the veterinary officer. In cooperation with the

Alaska Territorial veterinarian and public health officials, Army veterinarians

tested dairy herds for tuberculosis and brucellosis. An education program

for improved sanitary milk production was conducted among the farms

and producers.

The Alaskan command was provided with subsistence which for the

most part originated from the Zone of Interior; however, varying quantities

of fresh meat and dairy products were procured locally. Thus, beginning

in 1942, veterinary procurement inspections were inaugurated on quartermaster purchases of fresh fish (salmon and halibut) and locally canned

salmon; also, ante mortem and post mortem inspections of reindeer (at

Nome and Bethel) and of cattle (on Kodiak Island) were conducted. Later,

in 1943 and 1944, lambs and hogs, respectively, were slaughtered under

veterinary supervision in the Matanuska Valley. Along with this, the

Army Veterinary Service programed improvements in the local dairy industries so that regular supply of fresh milk became available for the troops

at Fort Richardson, Ladd Field, and Juneau. Losses among the subsistence

brought in from the Zone of Interior were relatively great because there
234 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

were no adequate storage facilities to keep the tin containers from rusting

or the foods from alternately freezing and thawing with the seasonal weather

changes. During the first year at Ladd Field, perishable (or fresh) subsistence was stored in an abandoned mine shaft which penetrated below

the perpetual ice sheet. Also, in 1942, aerial bomb damage at Fort Mears

and inadequate construction of refrigerated storage facilities at Fort Raymond led to serious losses of fresh foods.

Reference is made here to the Aleutian Islands Campaign (3 June 1942

to 24 August 1943) which otherwise is cited formally as one of the campaigns of the Army in the Asiatic-Pacific theater. The Alaskan Department had little to do with the fighting for Attu or the reoccupation of

Kiska Island; however, after the United States had regained possession

of these islands, they were included in the geographic boundary definitions

of the Alaskan Department. Army task forces landed on Adak (in August

1942) and Amchitka Islands (in January 1943) to develop bases for

the Eleventh Air Force. At about this time, Veterinary Corps officer

attached to the 25-bed hospital unit which was scheduled for deployment to

Atka Island was transferred to Adak Island. On 11 May 1943, task force

composed of the main portion of the 7th Infantry Division made surprise landing on Attu Island and, before the end of that month, drove off

the Japanese forces. As to the activities of the division veterinarian who

accompanied the task force, it was reported:

due to the fact that most subsistence consumed was “Type and K”, he had

very little food inspection to do, so he acted as Liaison Officer, organizing litter squads

at the beaches and leading them up to the front line, and in general assisting the Medical

Officers where necessary. During ids spare time, [he] assisted in debugging Japanese

mines and high explosives *.

When Kiska Island was reoccupied, Veterinary Corps officer accompanied

that task force. This ended the Aleutian campaign, but within year, the

large stockpiles of food that were built up in these islands, becoming excess

to requirements when the tactical forces were withdrawn, began to show

evidences of deterioration and spoilage. Large quantities of these stockpiles

subsequently were condemned, while some were returned to Quartermaster depots in the Zone of Interior for reclamation and repackaging. Thus, in

regard to the subsistence stockpiles on Adak Island, veterinary officer

reported:

this food had been hurriedly stored on the tundra in three large dumps, which

for the main part were completely covered with snow during the winter. As the snow

melted off, the Veterinary Detachment was able to work, removing all that had been

badly damaged by the weather. During the following year [1944] approximately 000,000

pounds of food of all types was condemned. While this amount seems high, it must be

remembered that most of this subsistence had been, of necessity, roughly treated during

the early stages, and much of it had been excesses on the mainland and other stations.

At the time of condemnation most of it was two years old and was badly damaged due

to rough handling, freezing, and rust.
ORGANIZATION IN THEATER AND MINOR COMMANDS 235

U.S. Army Forces, South Atlantic

The Army Veterinary Service with U.S. Army Forces, South Atlantic, which was established, in November 1942, with headquarters located at

llecife, Brazil, was initially represented by the veterinary officer then on

duty with the South Atlantic Wing, Air Transport Command, lie served in the additional-duty capacity as theater veterinarian, but, as it became

evident that Air Transport Command operations would be exempted from

theater control, he was replaced, pursuant to arrangements made by the

headquarters surgeon, by another officer newly arrived from the Zone of

Interior (on February 1943). On 31 October 1945, when the U.S. Forces,

South Atlantic, was discontinued, veterinary service in the geographic

area was transferred to the jurisdiction of the Air Transport Command, South Atlantic Division, and veterinary officer was transferred to the

latter headquarters at Natal, Brazil.

The U.S. Army Forces, South Atlantic, was never theater of operations; in fact, in many respects it was similar to the U.S. Army Forces in

Central Africa—both initially acting as defense commands for the air-ferrying operations and the bases of the Air Transport Command which were

strung from southeastern United States, through the northeastern part of

South America, central Africa, and thence into the Middle East. During

February 1943, Composite Force 8012 on Ascension Island was added to the

jurisdiction of U.S. Army Forces, South Atlantic; this task force, including

Veterinary Corps officer, had set up station there in March 1942. By the

end of 1943, the theater command’s veterinary service organization included

three officers and six enlisted personnel. These were distributed among three

area subcommands: Recife, which included Fernando de Noronha, Bahia, and

Ascension Island; Natal, which extended to Fortaleza (approximately 200

miles from Natal) and Belem, which included also Sao Luiz and Amapa.

Later, fourth area was established in southern Brazil to include Rio de

Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Porto Alegre, and Rio Grande, where large quantities

of foods were procured for local use.

The main activity of the Army Veterinary Service in these areas was

the inspection of meat and dairy products. Large quantities of these were

received by shipment from the United States, but, on account of the irregularities of shipping due to threatened enemy submarine action and the shortages in refrigerated storage facilities until the last year of the war, considerable quantities were procured locally. As of the spring of 1943, eight

commercial food establishments in Brazil were listed by the Veterinary

Corps as approved sources for procuring meats, poultry, milk, eggs, butter, and cheese. Others were added later, so that this number was 25 as of the

end of 1944. fresh milk supply was developed for troops in the Recife

area, and some of this was shipped, in 10-gallon containers, by airplane to

Natal. Ice cream was obtained, however, by the Army’s manufacturing its

590248 —61 17
236 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

own from powdered mix brought in from the Zone of Interior. Fresh

eggs were procured locally, but stringent supervision was made over the

inspection (or candling) before procurement; rejections of this product

approximated 65 percent of contractors’ offerings. The most extensive of

veterinary food procurement inspections within the South Atlantic command

were conducted in southern Brazil. Early shipments of meats received from

contractors in that area were rejected frequently on account of poor grade

quality or where the commercial refrigerated ships had not properly handled the perishable foods. The supply from this area improved considerably

after the theater veterinarian surveyed and set up program for products

improvement among the food establishments, and an Army purchasing

agency was formed with headquarters in Rio de Janeiro. Eventually, in

early 1945, so far as it was possible to do so, this general purchasing agency

began procurement program to satisfy the demands of the South Atlantic

command for all of its meats and ponltry products, and at that time veterinary detachment was established to conduct inspections of products during

their processing in the plants. Though the Brazilian meat inspection services were accepted in regard to the conduct of ante mortem and post mortem

inspections of beef cattle, the Army Veterinary Service emphasized product

quality grading; the inspections of sausage, bacon and ham, and other prepared meat products; and the proper packaging and transshipment of Army

subsistence. Along with this, poultry inspection and the techniques of Army

boneless beef production were introduced into the Brazilian food industries.

Between January 1943 and September 1945, the Army Veterinary Service

inspected 4,076,141 pounds of meat and dairy products on arrival from the

Zone of Interior and another 8,322,585 pounds of Brazilian origin—rejections among these quantities totaling 287,147 pounds and 613,363 pounds,

respectively.

Air Transport Command

unique command, having no geographic boundaries and in sense

superimposed over all theaters of operations and theater commands, was the

Army Air Forces Air Transport Command, with headquarters in Washington, D.C. Prior to June 1942, this was known as the Air Corps Ferrying

Command —created in mid-1941 to deliver lend-lease airplanes to points

designated by Allied Nations. Along the major aerial routes, the Air Transport Command organized sectors, later (in mid-1942) renamed wings; in

July 1944, certain of these wings became divisions, some with wing subelements. There were changes in the aerial routes as the war progressed.

In July 1944, Veterinary Corps officer was assigned to Headquarters, Air Transport Command, and about this time the number of veterinary

officers on duty with the divisions approximated twenty-two. These veterinary officers were assigned to most of the principal airbases operated under

the jurisdiction of the Air Transport Command or were assigned as staff
organization in theater and minor commands 237

officers to the wing medical offices and thus were available to provide attending veterinary services at number of bases along the aerial routes. Another

group of veterinary officers, approximately 15 in number, were assigned to

various bases of the Air Transport Command's Ferrying Division which

operated from fields located in the Zone of Interior. Actually, that command's ground installations were referred to as Army Air Forces base units.

Base veterinary services were not unlike those provided by other Army Air

Forces veterinary personnel, and these services became particularly important where the bases along an aerial route were far distant from regular

channels of Army subsistence supply. Thus, at bases along the central

African route, veterinary personnel successfully developed and inspected

locally procured fresh foods which were fed to aircrews and in-transit

personnel. In the China-Burma-India theater, in Canada, and at various

base commands of the American theater, these inspection services supplemented those conducted by theater or services of supply personnel; elsewhere, such as with U.S. Army Forces, South Atlantic, IT.S. Army Forces,

Azores, and U.S. Forces in Central Africa, the wing veterinarians were utilized at various times in an additional duty status in the Army theater

command headquarters. In fact, following the war, military operations,

such as in the South Atlantic theater command and in the Bermuda, Greenland, Iceland, and Newfoundland Base Commands, were transferred to control by the Air Transport Command.

Military Missions

Along with the discussions of the lesser theater commands, mention

must be made of the various U.S. military missions. There were number

of these which were sent to foreign countries, and in several instances such

as the Special Observers Group to England, the Stilwell Mission (to China),

or the U.S. Military Mission to North Africa, the missions became starting points for Army theater commands.

Similar missions were maintained also in Central and South American

countries to promote their military efficiency. One such agency was the U.S.

Military Mission to Peru which was established in the spring of 1941 to act

in technical advisory capacity to the Peruvian Army on its remount service.

Subsequently, on request, Veterinary Corps officer was assigned as assistant

to the Advisor of the Remount Service of the Peruvian Army, arriving there

during early March 1942. He took command of the Peruvian Army Veterinary General Hospital, Las Palmas, Lima, Peru. In mid-1944, when the

original mission was enlarged to one of full mission status, the veterinary

officer was designated as assistant chief of the mission, with duties also as

technical advisor of the veterinary service of the Peruvian Army, commander of the veterinary hospital, supervisor of the military horseshoeing

school, and technical advisor and director of clinical studies in the new

National Veterinary School of Peru. Much was accomplished in improving
238 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

the veterinary services and the standards of animal care and management,

including the deA elopment of new standards for training horseshoers, horseshoe manufacturing, procuring of remount animals, and bi-eeding horses for

military purposes. Also, the field pi'ocedui’es for conducting test and ei’adication programs against tuberculosis and brucellosis Avere demonstrated in

the local dairy industry. Most notable, hoAvever, were successes obtained in

the reconstruction of the civilian veterinary educational system, with action

being taken by the Government of Peru in establishing its National Veterinary School, and in the start of translating standard texts on ATterinary

medicine into the Spanish language. “This translation project alone has

warranted the detail of U.S. veterinary officer to Peru in that it should be

of great value to the veterinary profession and hence to the Peruvian Army

and the livestock industry as whole in all countries where Spanish is the

national language.”

veterinary officer Avas also on duty with the military mission to Panama.

References

1. FM 8-10, 28 Mar. 1942.

2. Kelser, R. A.: Veterinary Service in the Preparedness Program. Vet. Med. 30.

12-18, January 1941.

3. T/O 502 W, July 1929.

4. T/O 300-1, May 1940. (Rescinded by WD Circular No. 193, 1944.)

5. T/O 678 W, 23 Feb. 1927.

6. T/O 8-500-1, Nov. 1940.

7. T/O 200-1, Jan. 1941.

8. T/O 200-1, July 1942.

9. T/O&E 200-1, 26 Oct. 1944.

10. New Tables of Organization. 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 Army Ground Forces: The Organization of Ground Combat Troops. AVashington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 3947.

12. T/O&E 70, Nov. 1944.

13. T/O&E 70-1, Nov. 1944. See also T/O&E 70-3, Nov. 1944; T/O&E 7-131,

Nov. 1944; and T/O&E 5-235, Nov. 1944.

14. T/O 489 W, Jan. 1925.

15. T/O 8-85, Mar. 1939.

16. T/O 8-85, Nov. 1940, with Changes No. 3, 12 Dec. 1940, and Changes No. 2, June 1941.

17. T/O 2-1, Apr. 1942.

18. T/O&E 2-1, 30 Sept. 1944.

19. T/O 2-11, Nov. 1940.

20. T/O 2-11, Apr. 1942.

21. T/O&E 2-11, 30 Sept. 1944.

22. T/O 2-51, May 1940.

23. T/O 2-51, Nov. 1940.

24. T/O 2-71, Apr. 1942.

25. T/O 6-110, 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, Nov. 1944.
ORGANIZATION IN THEATER AND MINOR COMMANDS 239

29. T/0 G80 W, 23 Feb. 1927.

30. T/O 8-504, Nov. 1940.

31. T/O 8-610, Apr. 1942.

32. T/O&E 8-610, 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, Oct. 1940.

37. T/O 8-611, 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, Nov. 1944.

45. T/O 10-578, May 1943.

46. T/O 10-217, Apr. 1942.

47. T/O&E 10-217, 30 July 1943, with Changes No. 3, 19 July 1944.

48. T/O 10-260-1, July 1942.

49. T/O&E 55-110-1, 20 Nov. 1943.

50. T/O&E 55-120-1, 13 May 1944.

51. T/O 1-800-1, July 1941.

52. T/O&E 1-800-1, 26 July 1943. Note: Modifications of the table were published

also, such as T/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 July 1942. Note: Modifications of the table were published also,

such as T/O&E 1-400-2S and 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 Table 8-1S-PC, Sept. 1945.

62. Letter, Mr. Lincoln MacVeagh, U.S. Minister to Iceland, to Commanding General,

U.S. Forces in Iceland, 19 June 1942. See also, General Orders No. 16, Headquarters,

ETOUSA, 12 Fell. 1944, and General Orders No. 47, Headquarters, ETOUSA, 12 May

1944, awarding the Legion of Merit to Maj. F. A. Todd, Capt. H. J. Bobertson, and Maj.

R. B. Meeks.

241

CHAPTER IX

Functional Organization in the Middle East,

Mediterranean (Formerly North African), and European Theaters

U.S. ARMY FORCES IN THE MIDDLE EAST

The Africa-Middle East area became theater primarily of British

strategic responsibility, and no American theater for combat operations was formed there. However, the U.S. Government, under its lend-lease

program, supplied materiel to the Allied British forces which fought the

Afrikn Korps and moved supplies to Russia through the overland and

aerial routes that were contained in this area. Subsequently, these logistic

support activities were taken over by U.S. military missions which were

sent there during the prewar emergency periods. Some time after the

United States had entered the war, on 16 June 1942, the foregoing activities were completely militarized under two theaterlike commands: USAFIME

(U.S. Army Forces in the Middle East), and USAFICA (U.S. Army

Forces in Central Africa). The former eventually absorbed the latter and,

in September 1943, also assumed jurisdiction of another independent, theaterlike command, USAFIL (U.S. Army Forces in Liberia). The PGC (Persian Gulf Command) was established on 10 December 1943, as an entity

separate from USAFIME, but was rejoined with it in the fall of 1945.

Earlier that year, on March 1945, the major theater headquarters was

assigned jurisdiction over the few units and personnel of MTOUSA (Mediterranean Theater of Operations, U.S. Army) that remained in northwestern Africa; concurrently, its name was changed to USAFAMET (U.S.

Army Forces, Africa-Middle East Theater). Each of the foregoing commands contained its own Army Veterinary Service organization.

The Army Veterinary Service with USAFIME had its start on July

1942. At that time, pursuant to plan developed months earlier by the

medical officer with the original USMNAM (U.S. Military North African

Mission), veterinary officer arrived from the Zone of Interior at this

theater headquarters location in Cairo, Egypt. The original military mission, it must be mentioned, was one of several such agencies which had

come into this area before the active war period to coordinate U.S. lendMaj. (later Lt. Col.) Edgerton L. Watson, VC, was the theater veterinarian until his departure on 22 February 1944, when Maj. Walter A. Lawrence was so designated. Following the latter’s

departure for return to the United States on 21 November 1945, Capt. Clark E. Burt, VC, commanding, 912th Veterinary Food Inspection Detachment, assumed duties as acting theater veterinarian.
242 ARM VETERINARY SERVICE

lease supply and technical assistance for Russia and the British armies

which were fighting the Nazi-Fascist military advances in North Africa.

Another .S. military mission was established in Iran, along the route in the

Persian corridor or southern “backdoor” entrance into Russia. USMNAM,

sometime after December 1941, partially militarized its activities to form

three area offices; namely Asmara (Eritrea), Heliopolis (Egypt), and Tel

Aviv (Palestine). Then, on 16 June 1942, the militarization of American

governmental operations in the areas was completed, these being organized

under jurisdiction of the new USAFIME (1).

The formation of the theater command saw the final militarization of

the USMNAM as the NASC (North African Service Command), with

headquarters at Gura, Eritrea, together, with its three area commands, and

that of the Iranian Mission as the Iran-Iraq Service Command, with headquarters at Basra, Iraq. Each headquarters contained medical section, but only the theater headquarters immediately gained the assignment of the

veterinary officer who had arrived during July 1942. This theater organization lasted for only months; on 11 August 1942, the three area subcommands were reorganized as Eritrea, Delta, and Levant Service Commands, respectively, and Iran-Iraq Service Command was renamed PGSC

(Persian Gulf Service Command). Before the end of the year, on December 1942, fifth service command—Libyan Service Command—was established, with headquarters at Benghazi, Libya. During November 1942, these

service commands were grouped under control of the new Headquarters,

Services of Supply, USAFIME. By this date, the Army Veterinary Service

included 13 officers and 17 enlisted personnel—a number that was generally

adequate for assignment to all service commands. The senior veterinary

officer formerly assigned to the theater headquarters medical section now was

assigned to the new Headquarters, Services of Supply, but acted also at the

previous theater level in dual-status capacity. Actually, this did not last

for year before Headquarters, Services of Supply, was disbanded on

12 September 1948, and the office of theater veterinarian was reestablished.

At about the same time, the Middle East theater gained two army

commands: USAFICA which now was reorganized as WASC (West African

Service Command), with headquarters at Accra, Gold Coast, and TTSAFIL,

with headquarters at Roberts Field, near Monrovia, Liberia. Later, on

10 December 1943, the Persian Gulf Service Command was transferred from

theater control and was established as the separate, autonomous oversea

command, Persian Gulf Command. Summarizing, as of the end of 1943, the veterinary staff organization included the officers on duty at the following subcommand headquarters: Eritrea Service Command; Delta Service

Command; Levant Service Command; Benghazi Base Command and Tripoli

Base Command, successors to Libyan Service Command, May 1943; West

NASC, formed in June and disbanded during August 1942, must not be confused with the

command by the same name that was established on March 1943, covering the geographic area

in northwestern Africa.
MIDDLE EAST, MEDITERRANEAN, AND EUROPEAN THEATERS 243

African Service Command; and U.S. Army Forces in Liberia. One of the

greatest difficulties was the enormous distances between installations and

the attendant scattering of veterinary personnel. Then, during the forepart of 1944, the subcommand structure was again changed wherewith Eritrea

Service Command was redesignated EEC (Eritrea Base Command), and the Delta Service Command was expanded into the new, larger MESC

(Middle East Service Command) which absorbed also the Levant, Benghazi, and Tripoli subcommands. Also, in May 1944, the Cairo Military District was established.

The larger share of veterinary personnel in the several base and service commands were assigned into space vacancies created by the theater’s overhead allocations or were attached to diverse medical units. Only one unit, the 289th Quartermaster Refrigeration Company (Fixed), was actually

authorized veterinary personnel, but this was inactivated in May 1944, approximately year after its arrival in the theater. Then, on 10 February

1945, four veterinary food inspection detachments were activated and organized to improve the efficiency of personnel and to simplify the admin- istration of veterinary activities: The 909th at Accra in the WASC; the

910th at Asmara in EEC; the 911th at Camp Russell B. Huckstep in

MESC; and the 912th in the Cairo Military District. Another, the 76th

Veterinary Food Inspection Detachment at Casablanca, French Morocco, was

added months later when, as will be noted, the North African area of the

Mediterranean theater was absorbed by the Middle East theater.

Effective on March 1945, USAFIME was renamed AMET (AfricaMiddle East Theater). Concurrently, military activities and personnel remaining in French Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia that were under jurisdiction of MTOUSA, that is, the latter’s Mediterranean Base Section organization, were transferred to control of the newly redesignated theater and

were reorganized as NASC (North African Service Command) with headquarters and the acting service command veterinarian located at Casablanca.

With the cessation of the war in Europe, other changes soon were made in

the composition of the theater’s subcommands. The WASC was disbanded

on July 1945, its personnel and activities being added to the NASC.

Then, on October 1945, the PGC again became service subcommand.

Now, the major theater subcommands were; Middle East Service Command, Eritrea Base Command, U.S. Army Forces in Liberia, North African

Service Command, and Persian Gulf Service Command. This organization

was further reduced during the winter of 1945—46, and during May 1946

the theater was inactivated. The personnel and activities remaining in the

area were assumed by the new DUSAME (Detachment, U.S. Army, Middle

East) with headquarters at Cairo.

Throughout the war period, the principal activity of the Army Veterinary Service in the Middle East and Africa-Middle East theaters was the

inspection of subsistence—both that consumed locally and the supply to the

18
244 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Allies. There were no U.S. military animals. However, in early 1943,

approximately 25 or 30 horses were borrowed from the local British forces

to mount guard patrol at Camp Russell B. Huckstep, near Heliopolis,

and for recreational riding at the rest camp at Tel Litwinsky, Palestine.

During January 1945, two of the horses at Camp Russell B. Huckstep developed rabies, these animals apparently being bitten by stray dog or

jackal. Subsequently, rabies control program was instituted with the

vaccination of 17 personnel, quarantine of the stable area, destruction of

stray animals, and the reiteration of year-long order against the maintenance of animal pets on the camp area. Another disease of importance in

military veterinary medicine was African horse sickness, disease against

which the horses at Camp Russell B, Huckstep were vaccinated in July

1945. The disease, reappearing in Egypt in 1942 for the first time since

1928, gradually spread northward and then to Palestine and Syria. In the

fall of 1944, the senior veterinary officers of this theater and of MTOUSA

cooperated with local British and Egyptian officials in an investigation of

the disease. In connection with animal disease investigation, it may be

noted that, on request through diplomatic channels, the Army Veterinary

Service also conferred at Beirut with officials of the Government of Lebanon

on the epizootic of hemorrhagic septicemia and swine erysipelas which

caused the loss of more than thousand hogs in years. In another incident, during an Army veterinary inspection of hog slaughter at the municipal

abattoir in Cairo on June 1945, foot-and-mouth disease was discovered, and findings ere reported to the Egyptian officials.

The greater part of the subsistence supply inspected by the Army

Veterinary Service in the Middle East theater originated from the Zone of

Interior. However, during the first year, beef and small quantities of fresh

eggs were procured under reverse lend-lease from the British, and throughout the war period certain perishable foods were purchased from indigenous

sources. In regard to the reverse lend-lease supply, the British at first

made daily issues of beef of Australian and New Zealand origin to the

forces in the Delta Service Command, but, after mid-1943 when the Army

completed construction of its own refrigerated plant at Heliopolis, the beef

was sent by railroad car direct from Port Said. The British forces also

obtained foods of U.S. origin in connection with the Allied program for

feeding civilians in the Balkan countries; in May 1944, their holdings of

50,000 tons of powdered milk were inspected by the Army Veterinary

Service when it became evident that the British were planning its condemnation.

The local purchasing of subsistence for Army supply throughout the

Africa-Middle East area was necessarily limited by the small quantities

available and by the relatively low sanitary standards in the local food

establishments. The products more commonly purchased were fish, fresh eggs, and poultry. The poultry was slaughtered and dressed in Cairo under
MIDDLE EAST, MEDITERRANEAN, AND EUROPEAN THEATERS 245

continuous Veterinary Corps supervision. Eggs were required to be individually candled or inspected prior to purchase; following an epidemic of

diarrhea in an AAF (Army Air Forces) unit that was traceable to contaminated shell eggs, the Veterinary Corps also supervised their washing before procurement. In the Levant and Delta Service Commands, dairy herds were tested against tuberculosis infection, and fresh milk supply

was developed. Parallel with the foregoing activities, the Army Veterinary

Service cooperated with the Quartermaster Corps in the development of

food production projects, frequently supervising their operations. For example, at Camp Ilussell B. Iluckstep, ice cream was manufactured for sale

in the Army exchange system. As of July 1945, this manufacture totaled

14,100 pounds of ice cream, and another 21,600 pounds was produced under

veterinary supervision at Casablanca. number of pig farms also were

established, to dispose of Army garbage and to add variety to the ration.

At Decamere Compound, Quartermaster abattoir was operated by veterinary personnel who also trained the Italian civilian laborers, improvised

the equipment, and foraged the countryside with trucks in search for animals that could be purchased. Mention must be made that the Army

Veterinary Service, beginning in 1945, extended its food inspection activities

to the theater's supply of non-animal-origin foods.

Services of Supply, U.S. Army Forces in the Middle East

Headquarters, Services of Supply, USAFIME, was organized in November 1942 to coordinate the theater’s service forces personnel and activities. The service forces subcommands which operated under this new headquarters included Eritrea, Delta, Levant, Persian Gulf, and Libyan Service

Commands; these, of course, were changed from time to time. Each

service command had its own assigned or attached staff veterinarian who

reported on technical matters to the Services of Supply headquarters veterinarian (also, the theater veterinarian). Actually, this service forces organization was short lived, because it became somewhat superfluous during 1943,

when planning for the invasion of Europe through the Balkan countries

was canceled and the tactical and air commands departed for Europe (in

September 1943). Thus, in the fall of that year, Headquarters, Services of

Supply, was discontinued, and the service commands were returned to direct

control by theater headquarters.

Eritrea Service Command. —The Eritrea Service Command, with headquarters at Asmara, and reduced to the status of base command in February 1944, was provided veterinary services beginning in November 1942.

During 1943-44, veterinary officer was assigned also to its Decamere

Compound.

Levant Service Command.—The Levant Service Command, with headquarters at Tel Aviv (later at Tel Litwinsky), was providing veterinary

services through most of the period of its existence—September 1942 to mid-
246 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

January 1944. Levant Service Command and Eritrea Service Command

both were not particularly large—the former mainly operating rest camp

and military leave center to the Holy Land and the latter acting as rear

base area during the early war period when Rommel’s Afrika Korps threatened entry into the Nile Valley.

Libyan Service Command.—The Libyan Service Command acted as the

supply base for the several U.S. units that supported the British Eighth

Army’s westward drive against Rommel in North Africa. Veterinary officers were assigned to the headquarters at Tripoli, Tripolitania, in February

1943, and somewhat later (in May 1943) to the Benghazi Base Command,

Tripoli Base Command, and the forward area including Tunisia—the last

three having succeeded the short-lived Libyan Service Command.

Delta Service Command.—The Delta Service Command was established

in August 1942 and was reorganized in February 1944 as MESC, with headquarters initially at Heliopolis, and later (May 1945) at Camp Russell B.

Huckstep. This service command had its own veterinarian, beginning in

December 1942. The latter supervised the veterinary activities which were

conducted at Camp Russell B. Huckstep, site of large quartermaster

depot, in the Suez Canal Ports Command (established in March-April

1943), and in the Alexandria Port Command-—each with its own camp or

port veterinarian; in early 1944, the Suez Canal Ports Command was absorbed by the larger Alexandria Port Command.

Middle East Service Command.—The Middle East Service Command

was created in mid-February 1944 as the engroupment of the theater’s

former Delta, Levant, and Libyan Service Commands —now disbanded; its

headquarters medical staff comprised continuation of that of the Delta

Service Command. The EBC was subordinated to it at first, but, in December 1944, the base command was reestablished as separate theater command. Another separate command was the Cairo Military District, established in May 1944. The importance of the MESC, from an organizational

viewpoint, is that it, with two minor area exceptions, and the Persian Gulf

area comprised the original geographic area of the theater; also, before

it was established, the Middle East theater had absorbed another, USAFICA,

the latter now existing as the WASC (after September 1943). Both the

MESC and the WASC had their own veterinary services.

U.S. Army Forces in Central Africa

The Central Africa theater, with headquarters at Accra, was established on 16 June 1942, concurrently with USAFIME. This comprised the

original defense command for the bases along the southern trans-African

air route which were being used by the ATC (Air Transport Command)

to ferry lend-lease aircraft to Russia and the British forces. The veterinary

service organization with the Central African theater was limited to the

Veterinary Corps officer who was assigned to the 93d Station Hospital,
MIDDLE EAST. MEDITERRANEAN, AND EUROPEAN THEATERS 247

which arrived from the Zone of Interior at Dakar, French West Africa.

Elsewhere, along the route of air bases through British West Africa, Nigeria, French Equatorial Africa, and Anglo-Egyptian Sudan that were

used by the ATC, the latter's assigned veterinary personnel performed the

necessary base veterinary services. When the enemy forces were pushed out of North Africa, the trans-African air-ferry route was moved northward

to the Mediterranean coastline of Africa, so that the Central African

theater no longer had major military mission. Thus, on 12 September

1943, USAFICA was disbanded, and its activities were reorganized into the

WASC, under the jurisdiction of USAFIME. During May of the following year, the station hospital-assigned veterinarian was relocated in Accra to

assume the function as service command veterinarian; and, in February

1945, he also became commanding officer of the newly activated 909th

Veterinary Food Inspection Detachment. Headquarters, WASC, was disbanded in July 1945, and the Accra base was transferred to the jurisdiction

of NASC under the new name of Southern Town Command.

U.S. Army Forces in Liberia

The U.S. Army Forces in Liberia, with headquarters at Roberts Field,

originated with the landing on 16 June 1942 of an Engineer regiment and

the first echelon of Army Task Force 5889, aggregating 1,200 troops. The

accompanying task force veterinarian was the first Army Veterinary Corps

officer to locate on the African Continent during World War II (2). On

12 September 1943, the control over USAFIL was transferred to USAFIME,

but this theater continued the former as semiautonomous subcommand

throughout the remainder of the war period. The office of the force veterinarian, or Roberts Field station veterinarian, was continued until 23 April

1944; during the next month and until November 1945, veterinary activities—concerned with the inspection of foods—were conducted by veterinary noncommissioned officer under the supervision of the surgeon. In one

instance on record, relatively large quantity of foods was lost when

refrigerant gas could not be obtained to properly operate the refrigerated

storage facilities. All meat and dairy products consumed in Liberia were

received from the Zone of Interior.

North African Service Command

The North African Service Command (established on March 1945

and disbanded in early 1946), with headquarters at Casablanca, was the

continuation of Mediterranean Base Section, MTOUSA, when the latter’s

control over activities in French Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, were transferred to AMET. At the service command headquarters level, veterinary

The foregoing is not to be confused with the command of the same name, which did not have

organic veterinary services, that existed in June-August 1942, and included military activities in

Eritrea, Egypt, and Palestine.
248 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

matters were supervised by the commanding officer, 76th Veterinary Food

Inspection Detachment. The NASC itself was divided into so-called Town

Commands: Eastern, in Tunis, Tunisia; Center, in Algiers, Algeria; Western, in Oran, Algeria; and, after mid-1945, Southern, in Accra, when the

WASC was disbanded.

Persian Gulf Command

The Persian Gulf Command was an independent oversea command during the period 10 December 1943 to October 1945. Before and after this

period, it was major service forces subcommand of the Middle East and

Africa-Middle East theaters. During the earlier history, it was identified

under succession of names: U.S. Military Iranian Mission, after 24 June

1942 as Iran-Iraq Service Command, and after 13 August 1942 as Persian

Gulf Service Command, until it became an autonomous, theaterlike command. Veterinary officers were assigned to it first in November 1942, and

eventually these were on duty in the various district and port areas, including the Ports Service (or Headquarters, 9th Port) at Khorramshahr, Iran;

Gulf District, with headquarters at Basra and later at Ahwaz, Iran; Desert

District, with headquarters finally located at Andimeshk, Iran; and Mountain District, with headquarters at Tehran, Iran. These stretched northward from the Persian Gulf, along busy route for lend-lease supply to the

Allied Russian armies. Military personnel and civilian contractors were

rationed mainly on foods received from the United States, and infrequently

these were supplemented by local procurements of fresh eggs, poultry, game,

fish, and fruits and vegetables. The fresh meat supply from the local abattoirs was referred to as demonstrating “a studied neglect of sanitation”

and thus were excluded from U.S. Army supply. Regarding the foods imported into the command, it was noted that—

Extremely hot weather in this area presented constant problem in preservation of

subsistence. Meats of the pork luncheon type [i.e., canned] did not keep when exposed

to temperatures of 100° to 120° which are relatively mild summer temperatures in Iran.

Salted meat shipped in barrels was often improperly prepared before shipment overseas, and in many cases water evaporation caused spoilage. In one instance, 400 barrels

of salt pork and brisket of corned beef were condemned because the water in the brine

had evaporated.

Mechanical refrigeration on ships was overtaxed in these areas and often failed

prior to docking at the Persian Gulf ports. During the year [1943] 469,473 pounds of

beef out of shipment of 18,943,437 pounds were condemned due to failure of mechanical

refrigeration on ships.

Veterinary service was instrumental in x-ecommending and supervising the construction of large underground storage cellars, which resulted in marked saving of subsistence arriving from the United States.

Ninth Air Force and Air Transport Command

The veterinary service with the AAF (Army Air Forces) included

that of the Ninth Air Force and that with elements of the ATC. The
MIDDLE EAST, MEDITERRANEAN, AND EUROPEAN THEATERS 249

latter had been operating its Africa-Middle East Wing through the theater

since the start of lend-lease aid to the Russian armies and to the British

Army which fought the German Afrika Korps in December 1943, the wing

gave origin to two separate wings: the North African Wing, mainly in the

Mediterranean theater, and the Central African Wing, whose route of airbases traversed through the Central xlfrican and the Middle East theaters. The latter, renamed Central African Division, ATC, as of January 1944

included two veterinary officers and four enlisted personnel. These acted as

base veterinarians, food inspectors, and supervisors of local abattoirs, such

as at Accra, at Kano, Lagos, and Maiduguri in Nigeria, and at El Fasher

and El Geneina in Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. There were two veterinary officers, also, with the Ninth Air Force, which for about year operated against

enemy targets in northern Africa and central Europe. In the fall of 1943,

this air force departed for the European theater.

MEDITERRANEAN (FORMERLY NORTH AFRICAN) THEATER

Operation TORCH, the assault and landings on the northwestern coastline of Africa, was carried out on 8-11 November 1942 by three task forces,

totaling more than 100,000 Allied troops: The Western Task Force of U.S.

troops convoyed from the Zone of Interior, landing in the vicinity of Casablanca; the Center Task Force, mainly made up of U.S. II Corps from the

United Kingdom, landing in the Oran Sector of Algeria; and the British

Eastern Assault Force, moving into Algiers. As of the end of December

1942, at least 10 Veterinary Corps officers belonging to the European theater

were on duty with such units in North Africa as II Corps, 1st and 34th

Infantry and 1st Armored Divisions, Special Group—Services of Supply,

2d Medical Supply Depot, 3d Port of Embarkation, Twelfth Air Force, and

XII Air Force Service Command; another was assigned to AFIIQ (Allied

Force Headquarters) ). Other units having assigned veterinary personnel

that arrived in North Africa before this date included Veterinary Food

Inspection Detachment “A,” 2d Medical Laboratory, and the 68th and 282d

Quartermaster Refrigeration Companies. The first campaign in North Africa

(Algeria-French Morocco Campaign) was completed within days of the

landings of the task forces, but the Tunisia Campaign (starting on 12

November 1942) saw the continuing engagement of U.S. combat troops to

mid-May 1943.

Allied Force Headquarters

When the foregoing veterinary units and personnel arrived on the

coastal regions of French Morocco and Algeria, there was yet no theater of

operations; NATOUSA (North African Theater of Operations, U.S. Army)

was not formed until February 1943. In the interim, they were part

of, and under the immediate jurisdiction of, the combined American-British

military staff agency, AFHQ. This had been formed in London on 11
250 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

August 1942, had planned Operation TOUCH, transferred location to Gibraltar and directed the assault landings that were made on November

1942, and during December 1942 was separated from its earlier ties with

the developing European theater. AFHQ included medical section under

the directorate of British medical officer, but subdivided into British component and smaller American component. Before and immediately after

the arrival of this AFHQ medical section in North Africa, there was no

indication that there would be any direction or coordination of the task

forces’ veterinary services at this staff level. It is possible that the British

medical director had no conception that the U.S. Army Veterinary Service

was an operational element of the Medical Department—observing, of course, that the British military veterinary service is an independent corps, completely outside of the jurisdiction of the British medical corps. In any

event, the U.S. medical component soon gained short-lived or temporary

addition to its original allocation of four personnel space vacancies that saw

the assignment of Veterinary Corps officer from the European theater on

28 December 1942. The assignment lasted only to 28 February 1948 when

the added personnel space allocations were withdrawn, and no veterinary

officer was reassigned to duty in AFHQ until March 1944.

North African Theater

The developing need for U.S. Army staff control over the expanding

American military activities and personnel was satisfied on February 1943, with the establishment of NATOUSA. This organization marked the culmination of the European theater’s jurisdiction in North Africa and was

also the American counterpart to, or component paralleling, the local British

theater—the two being combined to form the Mediterranean Theater of

Operations, Allied. With this new organization in February 1943, those

U.S. Army Medical Department officers who were then assigned to the

AFHQ medical section now served in dual duty status in the newly

formed NATOUSA medical section. The latter, however, was augmented

by the assignment of additional personnel. However, no veterinary officer

was assigned to this theater medical section in double duty status until

March 1944 except for very brief period of time in early 1943 (from 28

February to March) and for the temporary duty assignment of junior

veterinary officer beginning sometime in the fall of 1943.

During the first year of its existence, this United States theater headquarters generally assumed direct control over the several base section subAFHQ veterinarians included Lt. Col. S. B. Renshaw, VC, for the period, 28 December 1942

to 28 February 1943, and Col. J. E. Noonan, VC, for the period, March 1944 to the end of

the war.

Colonel Renshaw was transferred from AFHQ to the theater headquarters on 28 February

1943, and then, on March 1943, to Headquarters, Mediterranean Base Section. {See also footnote 4, above.) Lt. Col. D. L. Cady, VC, was attached to theater headquarters from replacement

depot in the period from 18 October 1943 to April 1944 Colonel Noonan, assigned to AFHQ,

served in the dual capacity also as theater veterinarian.
MIDDLE EAST, MEDITERRANEAN, AND EUROPEAN THEATERS 251

commands that were in existence, or were formed later, even though theater

services of supply organization was established on 15 February 1943. The

base section subcommands included the Atlantic, in French Morocco; the

Mediterranean, in Algeria; the Eastern, in Tunisia; the Island, on Sicily;

the Northern, comprising Sardinia and Corsica; and the Peninsular, on the

Italian mainland. They were not transferred to the operational control of

Services of Supply, NATOUSA, until early 1944. Seemingly, the only operational controls regarding Medical Department activities that were originally assigned to this services of supply organization were medical supply.

Summarizing, critical situation existed for more than year when there

was no technical adviser to the theater surgeon on veterinary affairs, and,

as will be noted later, most of the base sections had no permanently assigned veterinary officers on their medical staffs. In no major oversea

theater was there parallel to the hopeless, day-to-day operations of the

Army Veterinary Service, particularly in its food inspection activities, in

the North African theater in 1943.

Toward the close of 1943, the Veterinary Corps strength in the North

African theater totaled 50 officers—these being assigned to units or attached

from replacement depots for duty, as follows (4) '•

Attending Veterinarian, Surgeon’s Office, North African Theater of Operations, U.S. Army

Veterinary Section, Public Health Subcom- Veterinary Section, 7th Medical Supply

Depot

Attending Veterinarian, 2664th Quartermaster Depot

Attending Veterinarians (depot), Quartermaster Section, Eastern Base Section

Veterinary Section, 8th Port

Attending Veterinarian, Surgeon’s Office,

Island Base Section:

Veterinary Food Inspection Detachment

“T”

Attending Veterinarian, Quartermaster

Section, Island Base Section

Veterinary Section, 10th Port

Peninsular Base Section:

Veterinary Food Inspection Detachment

“A”

Veterinary Section, 2d Medical Laboratory

Attending Veterinarian, Quartermaster

Section, Peninsular Base Section

Veterinary Section, 6th Port

Veterinarian, Fifth U.S. Army

Veterinarian, VI Corps

Veterinary Sections, Surgeons’ Offices, 3d,

34th, 36th, and 45th Infantry Divisions,

and 82d Airborne Division

mission, Allied Control Commission

Veterinary Section, 15th Medical General

Laboratory

Attending Veterinarian, Surgeon’s Office,

Atlantic Base Section:

Veterinary Detachment, 68th Quartermaster Refrigeration Company

Attending Veterinarian, Quartermaster

Section, Atlantic Base Section

Mediterranean Base Section:

Veterinary Section, 4th Medical Laboratory

Veterinary Detachment, 282d Quartermaster Refrigeration Company

Attending Veterinary Detachment, 3d

General Depot

Attending Veterinarians (at depots),

Quartermaster Section, Mediterranean

Base Section

Veterinary Section, 3d Port

AttendingVeterinary Section, Center District, Mediterranean Base Section

Eastern Base Section;

Veterinary Food Inspection Detachment

“C”

Veterinary Section, 1st Medical Laboratory
252 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Attending Veterinarian, Surgeon’s Office, North African Theater of Operations, U.S. Army—Continued

Veterinarian, Twelfth Air Force Service

Command:

Adriatic Depot:

Veterinary Food Inspection Detachment

“B”

The more singular defects in the Army Veterinary Service of the theater

at the time were, as noted earlier, the lack of staff representatives in the

theater surgeon's office and in the several base section medical offices, and the

consequent separation of veterinary personnel and units without overall, unified technical supervision. Also, more than third of the veterinary officers

in the theater were located in replacement pools from which many were

attached for duty at depots and ports. The foregoing situation officially

came to command attention first during the fall of 1943 when, on request of

the Surgeon, Headquarters, NATOUSA, and under orders of the theater

commander, veterinary officer surveyed the Army Veterinary Service. The

Medical Department’s request for the survey originated after the arrival

(in September 1943) of 12 veterinary officers from the Zone of Interior on

the basis of Quartermaster Corps requisition. The requisition was based

on AF1IQ planning for U.S. military supervision of Allied French slaughterhouses in North Africa that would supply fresh meat to troops under

reverse lend-lease agreement. The Quartermaster Corps plan was not activated, nor was the Medical Department previously consulted.

During February 1944, the theater headquarters organization was changed

so that many of its service forces activities were transferred to the year-old

Services of Supply, NATOUSA. The veterinary officer who was serving as

attending veterinary consultant to the theater surgeon, in temporary duty

status, was assigned full-time duty in the newly expanded Headquarters,

Services of Supply, as staff veterinarian, on April 1944. In the interim,

or on March 1944, senior Veterinary Corps officer, newly arrived from

the Zone of Interior, was assigned—pursuant to War Department orders

to the Medical Section, AFHQ, and thus became the theater veterinarian, in

the Surgeon’s Office, Headquarters, NATOUSA. At this time and continuing for the remainder of the active war period, veterinary personnel and

activities were coordinated and supervised on theaterwide basis. These

technical or professional controls were extended equally to veterinary affairs

in the service forces as well as to those in the field armies and the AAF,

even though the AAF was under the command of AFHQ (and not of the

American theater headquarters which had only logistic support responsibilities to the ground troops and air forces).

The significance of the aforementioned 12 veterinary officers was the

fact that they were necessarily placed in replacement pools or depots from

which they were reassigned in temporary duty status to existing medical,

quartermaster, and port units and organizations. There were no immediate

position vacancies available to which they could be permanently assigned.

Along with this, there were mis-assignments, assignments which would have

best been made with more senior officers, and assignments which required
MIDDLE EAST, MEDITERRANEAN, AND EUROPEAN THEATERS 253

specially trained personnel. However, this personnel situation became even

less tolerable before it was improved—with the 2d Cavalry Division arriving at Oran in late March 1944, and its 20 officers forming another pool

(under the designation of Headquarters Troop, 5th Cavalry Brigade).

Basically, these personnel were needed to augment the veterinary food inspection service and to satisfy the developing requirements for veterinary

animal services in the tactical units and quartermaster remount operations.

Thus, in the general reorganization of veterinary affairs—impetus being

given to this by the new Office of Theater Veterinarian—the “replacement

pool” concept of temporary assignments to conduct an efficient theater

veterinary service was replaced by the organization of appropriate units

and the development of recognized position vacancies in organizations to

which personnel were permanently assigned. While the foregoing personnel

situation existed to degree in other theaters, during the first year or so of

the war period, there was no other major theater in which it persisted as

long as it did in the North African theater. Subsequently, before the end

of 1944, the theater’s veterinary service was augmented by the activation

of 12 veterinary food inspection detachments and separate veterinary company, and veterinary officers were permanently assigned to number of

other units and organizations.

As of June 1944, the functional organization of the Army Veterinary

Service in the North African theater included:

Theater Veterinarian, Surgeon’s Office, Headquarters, North African Theater of Operations,

U.S. Army

Veterinary Section, Public Health Subcommission, Allied Control Commission

Veterinary Section, loth Medical General

Laboratory

Veterinary Section, 1st Medical Laboratory

Veterinarian, Surgeon’s Office, Headquarters, Services of Supply:

Mediterranean Base Section:

Veterinary Section, 4th Medical Laboratory

Veterinary Detachment, 282d Quarter- master Refrigeration Company

Veterinary Section, 2604th Quartermaster

Depot (Overhead)

Veterinary Detachment, 3d Port

Veterinarian, Surgeon’s Office, Center

District:

6734th Medical Platoon

Veterinarian, Surgeon’s Office, Eastern

Base Section:

Veterinary Food Inspection Detachment

“C”

Veterinary Detachment, 8th Port

Veterinarian, Surgeon’s Office, Island

Base Section:

Veterinary Detachment, 10th Port

Veterinarian, Surgeon’s Office, Northern

Base Section:

Veterinary Food Inspection Detachment

“T”

Veterinarian, Surgeon’s Office, Peninsular

Base Section:

Veterinary Food Inspection Detachment

“A”

Veterinary Detachment, 68th Quartermaster Refrigeration Company

Veterinary Section, 6T42d Quartermas- ter Remount Depot

Veterinary Section, 6th Port

Veterinarian, U.S. Fifth Army:

Veterinary Section, 2d Medical Laboratory

17th Veterinary Evacuation Hospital

Veterinary Section, Surgeon’s Office, VI

Corps

Veterinary Detachment, 601st Field Artillery Battalion
254 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Theater Veterinarian, Surgeon’s Office, Headquarters, North African Theater of Operations,

U.S. Army—Continued

Veterinarian, U.S. Fifth Army—Continued

Veterinary Detachment, (J02d Field Artillery Battalion

Veterinary Sections, Surgeon’s Offices of

the 1st Armored, and the 3d, 34th, 36th,

and 45th Infantry Divisions

Veterinarian, Army Air Forces Service

Command, Mediterranean Theater of

Operations:

Veterinary Section, Air Force Service

Command

Veterinary Section, XII Air Force Service

Command

Veterinary Section, XV Air Force Service

Command

Adriatic Depot:

Veterinary Food Inspection Detachment

“B”

Mediterranean Theater

Soon after the successful landings on the southern coast of France

(Operation ANVIL-DEAGOON) that marked the Southern France Campaign (15 August to 14 September), the theater organization was changed,

as were its geographic boundaries. Approximately 25 veterinary officers

accompanied the Seventh IT.S. Army and the supporting base section subcommands going into southern France from the North African theater.

Effective on November 1944, NATOUSA was redesignated MTOUSA.

In the interim, as will be noted, the original Services of Supply was reorganized

under the new designation of Communications Zone—first of NATOUSA and

then of MTOUSA, but, on 20 November 1944, the Communications Zone was

discarded from the theater organization. Concurrently, Headquarters,

MTOUSA, resumed full and direct operational control over the existing

base sections—a situation somewhat comparable to that before February

1944. In northwestern Africa there was the newly consolidated Mediterranean Base Section; on Corsica and Sardinia, the Northern Base Section;

and below the combat area of the Fifth U.S. Army in western Italy, the

Peninsular Base Section—each with its own veterinary service organization. In addition, the theater veterinarian dealt with the army veterinarian,

Fifth U.S. Army, and the veterinary elements of the AAFSC (Army Air

Forces Service Command) also, the theater veterinarian acted at the level

of AFIIQ and with the veterinary CA/MG (Civil Affairs and Military

Government) officer assigned to Allied Commission, Italy,

At the beginning of 1945, the Army Veterinary Service—now approximating strength of 37 officers and more than 80 enlisted personnel—was

well distributed throughout the base sections, Fifth U.S. Army, and AAF,

as follows:

Theater Veterinarian, Surgeon’s Office, Headquarters, Mediterranean Theater of Operations,

U.S. Army (also Medical Section, Allied Force Headquarters)

Mediterranean Base Section:

76th Veterinary Food Inspection Detachment

Veterinary Section, 3d Port

Veterinary Section, Public Health Subcommission, Allied Commission

Veterinary Section, 15th Medical General

Laboratory
MIDDLE EAST, MEDITERRANEAN, AND EUROPEAN THEATERS 255

Theater Veterinarian, Surgeon’s Office, Headquarters, Mediterranean Theater of Operations, U.S. Army (also Medical Section, Allied Force Headquarters)—Continued

Northern Base Section

77th Veterinary Food Inspection Detachment

Veterinary Section, Surgeon’s Office, Peninsular Base Section:

66th, 67th, 68th, 69th, 71st, 73d, 74th,

75th, and 889th Veterinary Food Inspection Detachments

Veterinary Detachment, 282d Quartermaster Refrigeration Company

Veterinary Detachment, 6742d Quarter- master Remount (Overhead)

Veterinary Section, 8th Port

Veterinary Section, 10th Port

2698th Technical Supply Regiment

Rome Area Command:

72d Veterinary Food Inspection Detachment

Veterinarian, Surgeon’s Office, Fifth U.S.

Army:

Veterinary Section, 2d Medical Laboratory

Army Air Forces Service Command, Mediterranean Theater of Operations:

6565th, 65G6th, and G567th Veterinary

Detachments (Air Force Overhead)

Adriatic Depot:

70th and 888th Veterinary Food Inspection Detachments

Equally as important was the fact that the theater's replacement depots or

pools now had only veterinary officer; months earlier there were 16

officers in such depots or pools, of which number 12 were attached to units

for duty.

During the early months of 1945, the Veterinary Corps officer strength

was almost doubled by the arrival of the 10th Mountain Division, but there

was little change on March 1945 when the theaters personnel and activities remaining in North Africa were transferred to the jurisdiction of the

newly expanded (and redesignated) USAFAMET. On May 1945, or just

before the German armies in Italy capitulated, the Army Veterinary Service

in the Mediterranean theater approximated 74 officers and 300 enlisted personnel assigned as follows:

Theater Veterinarian, Surgeon’s Office, Headquarters, Mediterranean Theater of Operations,

V.S. Army (also Medical Section, Allied Force Headquarters)

Veterinarian, Public Health Subcommission,

Allied Commission

Veterinary Section, 15th Medical General

Laboratory

Veterinary Section, Surgeon’s Office, Peninsular Base Section:

GGth, G7th, G8th, 69th, 71st, 73d, 74th,

75th, 77th, and 889th Veterinary Food

Inspection Detachments

643d and 644th Veterinary Evacuation

Detachments

2604th Veterinary Station Hospital

(Overhead)

2605th Veterinary General Hospital

(Overhead)

Veterinary Detachment, 282d Quartermaster Refrigeration Company

Veterinary Detachment, 2610th Quartermaster Remount Depot

Veterinary Detachment, G742d Quarter- master Remount (Overhead)

Veterinary Section, 8th Port

Veterinary Section, 10th Port

Veterinary Section, 2G98th Technical

Supervision Regiment

Rome Area Command:

72d Veterinary Food Inspection Detachment

Adriatic Base Command:

70th and 888th Veterinary Food Inspection Detachments

Veterinarian, Surgeon’s Office, Fifth U.S.

Army:

Veterinary Section, 2d Medical Laboratory

Veterinarian, Surgeon’s Office, 10th Mountain Division:

Veterinary Company, 10th Mountain

Medical Battalion
256 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Theater Veterinarian, Surgeon’s Office, Headquarters, Mediterranean Theater of Operations,

U.S. Army (also Medical Section, Allied Force Headquarters)—Continued

Veterinarian, Surgeon’s Office, Fifth U.S.

Army—Continued

Veterinarian, Special Troops

Veterinary Sections, 85th, 86th, and 87th

Mountain Infantry Regiments

Veterinary Sections, 604th and 605th

Field Artillery Battalions

Veterinary Section, 126th Mountain Engineer Battalion

Army Air Forces Service Command, Mediterranean Theater of Operations:

6565th, 6566th, and 6567th Veterinary

Detachments (Air Force Overhead)

After the close of the Po Valley Campaign (5 April to May 1945)

which had ended with the surrender of the German armies in Italy, the

Army Veterinary Service prepared its units for redeployment to the Pacific

theater or inactivation, and for retrenchment within the theater. Also, six

food inspection detachments were newly activated and organized for redeployment; and an additional six were improvised for continued use in the

theater until the quartermaster subsistence stockpiles were disposed of.

The first group comprised the 476th through the 481st Veterinary Food

Inspection Detachments; the latter ere the 6645th, 6646th, and 6647th

Veterinary Food Inspection Detachments (Provisional) in the Peninsular

Base Section, the 6648th with Fifth U.S. Army, the 6649th in the Rome

Area Command, and the 6650th in the Adriatic Base Command. During

October 1945, the theater was separated from AFHQ, and the former’s

headquarters medical section began to transfer its workload to the Surgeon’s

Office, Peninsular Base Section (fig. 20).

The accomplishments of the Army Veterinary Service in the Mediterranean theater are about evenly divided between those relating to the inspection of foods and the veterinary service with animals. The latter had

small beginning in the combat divisions in North Africa and then in

Sicily, but it was not until after the Fifth U.S. Army reached the mountainous areas in southern Italy that animals—their procurement, and their

professional care and treatment—were accorded full recognition. By December 1943, that army’s combat divisions had obtained and were utilizing

more than thousand horses and mules, and another 600 were being

processed in remount depots located behind the combat area, in the Peninsular Base Section. By mid-1944, most of the combat divisions had given

up their animals as U.S.-supervised Italian pack trains became available; another 2,000 mules and horses were assembled in the Peninsular Base Section remount depots. (Including the French Expeditionary Corps, which

utilized many more animals than the U.S. combat divisions and accompanying Italian Army mule pack companies, the Fifth U.S. Army animal strength

actually reached peak strength, in May 1944, of 12,659 horses and mules.)

Altogether, there were more than 5,000 U.S. and Italian animals for which

an evacuation chain and system of veterinary hospitalization was improvised.

Veterinary evacuation hospitals and evacuating companies and detachments
MIDDLE EAST, MEDITERRANEAN, AND EUROPEAN THEATERS 257

Figure 20.-—Headquarters building and row of box stalls at the 2605th Veterinary General

Hospital, Mirandola, Italy, May 1945.

were organized or were brought into the theater, and Italian veterinary

hospital units under U.S. supervision were deployed to operate at remount depot areas and maintain system of animal evacuation for sick

and wounded animals. By the end of the active war period, more than 9,000 sick and wounded horses and mules were treated or cared for by the Army

Veterinary Service, Regarding the inspections of subsistence supplies, only

the statistical data for the entire theater are available for 1941 (table 19).

The rejection of approximately million pounds comprises 0.14 percent

of the quantities of foods passed, and about 0.73 percent of the foods that

were known to have been issued to troops (fig. 21), The rates of rejections

in foods of nonanimal origin and field rations were double that of the

meat and dairy products. In the Mediterranean theater, as in most oversea

theaters during World War II, the Army Veterinary Service officers extended

their meat and dairy hygiene services and also inspected foods of nonanimal origin.
258 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Figure 21.—Veterinary personnel inspecting milk supplies in Milan, Italy, June

1945. Overseas, where the supplies were inadequate to meet civilian needs and the

prevailing standards of sanitation would not satisfy Army requirements, milk was

not procured locally.

Table 19. Veterinary inspections of food in the Mediterranean theater, 1944

Services of Supply, North African Theater

The Army Service Forces organization—or Services of Supply—had

Medical Department role far different from that of similar organizations

in other theaters when it was established on 15 February 1943. For approximately year, it only controlled medical supply; all other Medical

Department activities and personnel in the base subsections were under

Organization

Total Meat and dairy products Field rations and foods of nonanimal origin

Passed Rejected Passed Rejected Passed Rejected

Millions of Millions of Millions of Millions of Millions Millions of pounds pounds pounds pounds pounds pounds

Ports. 1, 942. 08 0. 42 1, 034. 90 0. 38 907. 18 0. 04

Base sections 1, 292. 46 4. 15 1, 119. 71 2. 06 172. 76 2. 10

AAF bases 278. 60 35 255. 92 34 22. 62 01

otal 3, 513. 14 4. 92 2, 410. 53 2. 78 1, 102. 56 2. 15
MIDDLE EAST, MEDITERRANEAN, AND EUROPEAN THEATERS 259

the direct operational control of Headquarters, XATOUSA. On 20 February 194-1, with reorganization of the theater, the base subsections and

Medical Department activities within them were reassigned from the jurisdiction of the theater headquarters to the theater services of supply—this

being more orthodox arrangement. At this time there were six base

subsections: Atlantic, Mediterranean, Eastern, Island, Northern, and Peninsular Base Sections. Base veterinary services were generally well established at quartermaster subsistence depots and in the ports; many of the

base headquarters medical sections, however, operated without staff veterinary officers.

The first two of the aforementioned base sections were evolved from

services forces personnel and units attached to the original Western Task

Force (from the Zone of Interior) and the Center Task Force (from the

European theater). The Center Task Force contained the so-called Special

Group, Services of Supply, which was evolved on December 1942, as the

staff of Mediterranean Base Section, with headquarters at Oran. veterinary officer had accompanied this base section to North Africa, and, in

March 1943, he was replaced by another, who after his arrival in North

Africa had been moved downward from AFHQ to the theater headquarters

and thence to this base section headquarters. Following the latter's departure

(hospitalization due to an injury) in August 1943, no veterinary officer was

reassigned to full duty with the medical section of Mediterranean Base

Section during the remainder of its existence in the Mediterranean theater.

The second subcommand, Atlantic Base Section, was evolved from Services

of Supply, Western Task Force—being established on an operational status

on 30 December 1942, with headquarters at Casablanca. senior veterinary

officer had accompanied this service forces group from the Zone of Interior,

but, after February 1943, the nominal base section veterinarian vacated his

position for another in the headquarters staff (as G-4, for supply) and was

replaced by succession of junior officers, some being only attached or on

additional duty assignment. The foregoing is explained in detail to show the

unfortunate events in 1943 that resulted in the absence of an assigned veterinarian in the theater surgeon’s office until March 1944.

On April 1944, when veterinary officer was assigned to the staff of

this service forces organization, the major veterinary units or organizations with assigned veterinary personnel were four veterinary food inspection detachments, medical laboratory, two quartermaster refrigeration companies, three ports, and provisional remount organization. In July 1944,

request for augmentation of the food inspection service was partially

granted when 12 veterinary food inspection detachments were activated pursuant to War Department authorization; the theater granted special authorization for their vehicular transport and office equipment. By November

See footnotes and 5, p. 230
260 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

1944, these detachments, and the original four which had arrived earlier

from the Zone of Interior, were at station, as follows:

Detachment Station

GGth Leghorn, Italy

G7th Piombino, Italy

G8th Bagnoli, Italy

G9th Cecina, Italy

70th Foggia, Italy

71st Naples, Italy

72d Rome, Italy

73d Marcianise, Italy

74th Leghorn, Italy

75th Algiers, Algeria

76th Casablanca, French Morocco

77th Ajaccio, Corsica

887th (formerly “A”) Southern France

888th (formerly “B”) Bari, Italy

889th (formerly “C”) Marcianise, Italy

890th (formerly “T”) Southern France

With the pending plans for invading southern France, the Services of

Supply redirected its efforts for supporting the landings of the Seventh

U.S. Army and French First Army; on October 1944, this was renamed

Communications Zone. On 20 November 1944, Communications Zone, MTOUSA, with headquarters location at Dijon, France, was disbanded, but

its personnel and activities were transferred to the jurisdiction of the

European theater (and therein continued Southern Line of Communications).

Similarly affected by this transfer were two of its base subsections: Coastal

Base Section (later called Continental Base Section) and the Delta Base

Section. Now the base sections were returned to operational control of

theater headquarters. Actually, only three of the six bases existing in early

1944 remained: The Mediterranean Base Section, which had absorbed the

personnel and activities formerly assigned to the Atlantic and the Eastern

Base Sections, these being disbanded on 15 November 1944; the Northern

Base Section; and the Peninsular Base Section. The Island Base Section

was closed out in mid-July 1944.

Atlantic Base Section.—The Atlantic Base Section in French Morocco

was established, as noted earlier, in December 1942, taking over service

forces activities as the combat units of the original Western Task Force

departed for the Tunisia Campaign. It was one of three such commands

set up in North Africa. After mid-1943, when the combat area moved to

Sicily and then to the Italian mainland, veterinary activities in this base

section were rapidly cut back, and by the spring of 1944, only one Veterinary

Corps officer remained—eventually taking over the command of the newly

organized 76th Veterinary Food Inspection Detachment at Casablanca. During the year 1944, more than 18 million pounds of canned jams, shell eggs,

and fresh fruits and vegetables were inspected for procurement-—most of
MIDDLE EAST, MEDITERRANEAN, AND EUROPEAN THEATERS 261

this being transshipped for supplying troops in Algeria. On 15 November

19-14, the command was disbanded, and its personnel and activities were

transferred to the jurisdiction of the Mediterranean Base Section.

Mediterranean Base Section.—The Mediterranean Base Section was the

centrally located one of the three Army Service Forces base sections set up

in North Africa, taking over the base units and personnel formerly assigned

to Center Task Force. Its activities in the Algiers area were organized under the designation of Center District during the period from June

1943 to May 1944. After the Seventh U.S. Army invaded Sicily and the

Fifth U.S. Army landed on the Italian peninsula, the base section was depleted of most of its veterinary personnel; this exodus continued through

the early months of 1944. Food inspection services including salvage operations were conducted at ports, quartermaster ration dumps, and cold storage

installations; also, lend-lease foods for the French were inspected, as were

local ice cream plants, abattoirs, and fish piers. After 15 November 1944,

when the Atlantic and the Eastern Base Sections were disbanded, the

Mediterranean Base Section took over the personnel and activities remaining

in North Africa; its headquarters was moved from Oran to Casablanca in

December 1944. There the 76th Veterinary Food Inspection Detachment’s

commander acted in an additional duty status as base section veterinarian.

On March 1945, the base section was redesignated as NASC, which was

transferred from the jurisdiction of Headquarters, MTOUSA, to USAFAMET.

Eastern Base Section.-—The Eastern Base Section, established on 22

February 1943—with headquarters locations at Constantine, Algeria, at

Mateur, Tunisia, and finally at Bizerte, Tunisia—was in the immediate rear

of the U.S. II Corps and other combat forces during the Tunisia Campaign (17 November 1942 to 13 May 1943) and was the major supply base

in North Africa for the Sicily Campaign. Its headquarters medical section

did not include base section veterinarian except for brief period in the

summer-fall of 1944. After the start of the campaigns on the Italian peninsula, its importance was lessened considerably. By the spring of 1944,

almost all veterinary personnel had departed—including those on duty at

the quartermaster depots in Bizerte and the Bone-Philippville, Tunisia, area,

with the 8th Port, with the 68th Quartermaster Refrigeration Company at

Constantine, and with the 1st Medical Laboratory. The Veterinary Food

Inspection Detachment “C” finally departed during June 1944 from its station at Mateur. After lapse of approximately weeks, veterinary officer

arrived on temporary duty status to assist in the close out of the subsistence stockpiles in depots at Tunis and Bizerte, but then he too departed

in September 1944. On 15 November 1944, Eastern Base Section was disbanded, and such personnel and activities as remained were absorbed by the

expanding Mediterranean Base Section.
262 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Island Base Section.—The Island Base Section was established withheadquarters at Palermo, approximately weeks after the end of the active

campaign for Sicily, or on September 1943. It was originated as the

6625th Base Area Group which had accompanied the Seventh U.S. Army

and had assumed administrative jurisdiction over all service units on the

island before the end of 1943. As of January 1944, the base section’s

veterinary service included the base veterinarian (in the surgeon’s office),

the 10th Port veterinarian, and Veterinary Food Inspection Detachment

“T”—the latter having been transferred from the Seventh U.S. Army in

October 1943. There was no large assemblage of veterinary personnel here,

because the African bases, rather than Sicily, remained the major base for

the early operations on the Italian peninsula. On 15 July 1944, Headquarters, Island Base Section, was disbanded. The base section veterinary

service was limited to the inspection of foods at ports and at quartermaster

ration dumps and cold storage plants; sizable quantities of captured foods

were released following inspection. However, on account of the prevailing

insanitary conditions, no food procurement program was set up.

Northern Base Section.—The “land-carrier” islands of Corsica and Sardinia, which were used by the Twelfth Air Force and as troop concentration area for the invasion of southern France, came under the Northern

Base Section command on January 1944, with headquarters at Ajaccio.

AAF veterinarians at first provided the needed inspection services of foods

handled at the port and depots at Ajaccio (also at Bastia and Casamozza,

Corsica), and at Cagliari, Sardinia (and at Decima, Aligliero, and Maddalena). Sardinia, captured from surprised German-Italian garrison, also

comprised source for approximately 1,600 pack animals that were procured

and shipped to the Fifth U.S. Army, between December 1943 and May 1944,

by Army veterinarians detailed there for that purpose. There was no base

section veterinarian, but in July-August 1944, two veterinary food inspection detachments were assigned-—the 77th to Corsica, remaining there until

the spring of 1945; and the 74th to Sardinia, but departing some few months

after arrival. The Northern Island Base Section was closed out in May

1945.

Peninsular Base Section.—On November 1943, or less than months

after the Allied Armies landed on the Italian mainland, the Peninsular

Base Section set up headquarters at Naples; its medical section did not have

permanently assigned veterinarian until after mid-1944. This headquarters

was organized as the 6665th Base Area Group at Casablanca, under the

direction initially of the Fifth U.S. Army. As of January 1944, its

veterinary units and units with assigned veterinary personnel—totaling 13

officers—included food inspection detachment, medical laboratory,

medical supply depot, provisional quartermaster remount depot organization. port, and U.S.-supervised Italian Army veterinary hospital unit.

This base section veterinary service expanded rapidly during the first or
MIDDLE EAST, MEDITERRANEAN, AND EUROPEAN THEATERS 263

months of 1944 as the Fifth U.S. Army pushed northward along the

western side of the Italian peninsula. Another food inspection detachment, medical laboratory, two quartermaster refrigeration companies, and two port units arrived, and several new food inspection detachments were organized. Other veterinary personnel arrived later. As of September 1944, the veteri- nary service of the Peninsular Base Section approximated IT officers and

61 enlisted personnel, but, by that date, some personnel and units had

already departed or were committed to Operation ANVIL-DRAGOON.

By this date, the Peninsular Base Section had become the largest and the

most important Service Forces base section organization in the Mediterranean

theater.

The base section’s veterinary service with animals had its origin with the Fifth U.S. Army’s demands for pack animal transport. Early in the

winter of 1943—44, the base section quartermaster leaned heavily on veterinary

officers to assist in the procurement of animals from the Italian country- side and of Italian army mules from Sardinia, and in the operation of

remount depots and the processing of animals and outfitting of pack trains. The sick and wounded animals of the frontline troops were treated in the

remount depot veterinary dispensaries set up at Santa Maria, Persano, and

Bagnoli, Italy—these later relocating at Grosseto and Pisa, Italy; also, an

Italian Army veterinary hospital organization was set up under U.S. Army

veterinary supervision, but this was found to be unsatisfactory to the needs.

Later, in the fall of 1944, the 6T42d Quartermaster Remount Depot (Overhead), which had been improvised in early 1944 and as operating the

depot system in the Peninsular Base Section, was divided. The /2-6T42d Quartermaster Remount Depot (Overhead) moved into southern France

where it became the 6835th Quartermaster Remount Depot under the jurisdiction of the European theater, and the 6742d Quartermaster Remount

Depot (Overhead)-I/O, which remained. Another provisional organization,

the 2610th Quartermaster Remount Depot—formed in January 1945—replaced the latter after V-J Day. There were no Services of Supply veterinary hospitals in the Peninsular Base Section to relieve the Fifth U.S.

Army of its sick and wounded animals until after the spring of 1945.

At that late date, the 2604th Veterinary Station Hospital (Overhead)

and the 2605th Veterinary General Hospital (Overhead) were organized

locally; also, the Italian Army’s 1st Veterinary Station Hospital and 2d

Veterinary General Hospital were integrated into the base section’s animal

evacuation and hospitalization system. Transportation of hospital cases of

animals was provided by the 643d and 644th Veterinary Evacuation Detachments which were activated and organized within the Mediterranean theater

in mid-March 1945.

The veterinary food inspection services were continuous from the unloading docks of the ports, to the cold-storage plants and base section depots to the railheads and truck heads and issue dumps behind the combat

troops. All sorts of food were inspected for sanitary condition and suita-
264 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

bility for shipment. major program was developed to lessen food losses

encountered by improper storage and rough handling; and system of

sorting the good from the cases of damaged or deteriorated items accomplished much to conserve the theater’s subsistence supply, particularly at

the ports and depots. In generalization of the subsistence supply, the

theater veterinary service noted—

It is believed that the subsistence shipped to this theater from the Zone of Interior

has been of remarkable high quality. Practically all rejections of such subsistence have

been the result of damage in handling, shipment and storage. The one notable exception

to this has been canned milk. considerable quantity of this product has been lost

because of faulty cans and bacterial growth in the milk. Specifications for the milk

cans have been changed recently, and the resulting pi-oduct has been much more satisfactory.

Throughout the campaign, the base sections have taken over food dumps left behind

by the advancing Fifth U.S. Army. Such dumps have consistently yielded heavy rejection rates. Army agencies apparently issued only full cases, and simply stacked and left

all broken cases and loose cans. C-ration cases were commonly found in use as dunnage,

and weather protection was often insufficient or entirely absent. These conditions combined to yield great amounts of damaged subsistence which were taken over by SOS

agencies, but which subsequently had to be discarded as unfit for human consumption.

Other heavy losses were suffered because of the use of subsistence as “Flatting” in

ships carrying heavy equipment. Tanks, landing mats and artillery crushed cases of

canned goods severely. This practice has been discussed with the Quartermaster and

steps have been taken to discontinue it.

large amount of perishable subsistence has been lost as result of methods that

were employed in the stowing of refrigerator ships. Supply ships arriving in this theater

are ordinarily partially unloaded at several different ports. In many cases, it has been

found necessary to unload, reload, or shift cargo not intended for the particular port in

order to reach those portions of the consignment which are to be unloaded. This has

resulted in excessive handling and exposure of perishable subsistence with consequent

loss of condition before its arrival at the final destination. Repeated efforts have been

made, in cooperation with the Quartermaster, to have the refrigerator ships, leaving the

Zone of Interior for this theater, loaded in such manner that the consignment for each

successive port of call is available without moving other cargo. To date, these efforts

have met with little success, but they are being vigorously continued by means of cables,

letters and conferences, both personal and via teletype.

Subsequently, during September 1944, the major veterinary principles for

the care and preservation of subsistence supplies were set forth in command letter that was circulated throughout the Services of Supply organization (5).

Other base subcommands.— There were number of other minor commands in the Mediterranean theater and another two base sections which

were transferred to the European theater. The latter were the Coastal

Base Section (later redesignated Continental Base Section, and finally as

Continental Advance Section) organized in July 1944, and the Delta Base

Section, which was formed in October 1944. Both were established by

Communications Zone to support the advances of the Sixth Army Group in

southern France and to operate the rear bases. On 20 November 1944,
MIDDLE EAST, MEDITERRANEAN, AND EUROPEAN THEATERS 265

these were transferred to the European theater. Then, there was another

subcommand located within the geographic boundaries of Peninsular Base

Section; namely, Rome Area Command, later referred to as Rome Area.

This was set up in July 1944 under the direct jurisdiction of theater headquarters, and the 72d Veterinary Food Inspection Detachment was assigned

thereto later that year. In mid-1945, the food inspection activities in the

Rome Area were taken over by the 6649th Veterinary Food Inspection

Detachment (Provisional). Another separate subcommand comprised the

U.S. Service Forces for personnel and activities in the Bari area in southeastern Italy. Initially, these were AAF controlled, and generally referred

to as the Adriatic Depot. Veterinary Food Inspection Detachment “B”

(later redesignated the 888th) was assigned there in the fall of 1943, and,

after mid-1944, the newly formed 70th Veterinary Food Inspection Detachment was assigned. On 28 February 1945, these detachments, along with

other Service Forces units and organizations in the Bari area, were transferred from the control of the AAF/MTO (Army Air Forces, Mediterranean

Theater of Operations) and were reorganized as the theater subcommand

called Adriatic Base Command. Soon after the cessation of hostilities, the

inspection workload was taken over by the 6650th Veterinary Food Inspection Detachment (Provisional), and, on 31 October 1945, Adriatic Base Command was closed out. There were also the Azores Command, established

in March 1944 and later that year transferred to the jurisdiction of the

Eastern Defense Command of continental United States, and the Military

Headquarters, Balkans, which was organized in February 1945 and disbanded soon after V-E Day. They had no assigned veterinary personnel,

however.

Fifth and Seventh U.S, Armies

The major Ground Forces units in the North African or Mediterranean

theater were the II Corps, the Fifth U.S. Army, and the Seventh U.S.

Army. The II Corps comprised the command element of the Center Task

Force that landed in North Africa in November 1942. Though assigned to

the Fifth U.S. xVrmy, which was activated in January 1943, the II Corps

was deployed more or less independently for short periods of time, with

the British forces in the Tunisia Campaign, and with the Seventh U.S.

Army in the Sicily Campaign. The corps headquarters moved into the

campaigns on the Italian peninsula as Fifth U.S. Army element and continued as such until the end of the war. On its initial arrival from the

European theater, the Headquarters, II Corps, medical section included

staff veterinary officer.

Headquarters, Fifth U.S. Army, was organized during January 1943,

with headquarters at Oudjda, French Morocco; personnel and units from

the Center and Western Task Forces and from the Zone of Interior were

included in its early composition. veterinary officer was added to the
266 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

army surgeon’s office early in the year. On September 1943, the army

elements invaded the Italian mainland near Salerno and did not stop in the

advances northward until the Germans capitulated in early May 1945; there

were five major campaigns: Naples-Foggia, September 1943 to 21 January

1944; Anzio, 22 January to 24 May 1944; Home-Arno, 22 January to

September 1944; North Apennines, 10 September 1944 to April 1945; and

Po Valley, April to May 1945. During the first winter, most of the

combat divisions had their own division veterinarians and retained them

primarily for the purpose of developing and maintaining animal pack trains. The latter were indispensable where only trails and broken roads

linked the frontline outposts, which were “holed-up” on the sides of the

southern Apennines, with the ammunition dumps and ration depots in the

valleys. Also, human casualties were evacuated by pack animals. Gradually,

Italian Army mule pack companies, some being brought from Sardinia, were attached to the divisions to replace the improvised divisional trains, but even so, their animal casualties were taken care of by U.S. Army veterinary personnel or were under their supervision.

Some few of the animals originally Avere cared for by provisional

veterinary hospital and French Army veterinary ambulance company,

but early in 4944, three veterinary evacuation hospitals came into the Fifth

U.S. Army area; namely, Italian 110th, Italian 130th, and U.S. 17th

the latter recently arriving from the Zone of Interior. For short period of

time in the summer of 1944, the 45th Separate Veterinary Company Avas

assigned to the army, but in the fall of that year, both it and the 17th

Veterinary Evacuation Hospital AA'ere transferred for deployment Avith the

Seventh U.S. Army. The Avinter months of 1944-45 saAv tAvo additional

veterinary evacuation hospitals brought into the animal evacuation system of the Fifth U.S. Army, the Italian 211th and Italian 212th. At this time, there Avere only Italian Army mule pack companies in the front lines; in

fact, since mid-1944, when the U.S. 601st and 602d Field Artillery Battalions

had departed for southern France after short period of deployment, there

were essentially no U.S. Army horses and mules in this field army. In

January-February 1945, U.S. military animals AA'ere returned to the army

front when the U.S. 10th Mountain Division arrived from the Zone of

Interior; it included full complement of diA'isional veterinary units.

Then, in April 1945, the 36th Separate Veterinary Company came into the

theater and Avas deployed in support of the 10th Mountain DiA'ision. By

the end of hostilities—following more than year of urgent need

and countless improvisations—there had come into the Mediterranean theater

U.S. field army with approximately 4,500 mules and horses available for

pack transport and with complete A'eterinary evacuation system that extended from the combat divisions, through the field army’s hospitals and

evacuating units, to the rear Seiwice Forces area Avith its A’eterinary station and general hospitals and remount depots.
MIDDLE EAST, MEDITERRANEAN, AND EUROPEAN THEATERS 267

The Fifth L.S. Army veterinarian had little concern over the subsistence supply, but finally, in April 1945, the 67th and the 77th Veterinary

Food Inspection Detachments were assigned for deployment at rail and

truck heads, ration dumps, and ratio breakdown points. Following Y-E

Day, the workload of these units was taken over by the 6648th Veterinary

Food Inspection Detachment (Provisional). Though the Fifth U.S. Army

was earlier named for the occupation forces in Austria, it was not so deployed after V-E Day; in September 1945, its headquarters ceased operations.

The Seventh U.S. Army—successor to Headquarters, Force 163, that was

established in January 1943—directed Operation HUSKY, or the invasion

of Sicily. Throughout the Sicily Campaign (9 July to 17 August 1943)

there was no veterinary officer on the staff of the army surgeon; however,

Headquarters, II Corps, and most of the combat divisions which participated included assigned veterinary personnel. The veterinary officer in the

3d Infantry Division reported on the improvisation and maintenance of divisional animal pack train; in about wrecks, more than 700 mules and

horses were procured locally. Veterinary Food Inspection Detachments “B”

and “T” landed at Gela and Licata, Sicily, or days after the invasionlandings were begun. In October-November 1943, the Seventh U.S. Army

lost these two detachments by transfer—“B” to the AAF Adriatic Depot,

and “T” to Island Base Section.

After the Sicily Campaign, the Seventh U.S. Army was stripped of

most of its combat divisions while planning was undertaken for Operation

ANYHL-DKAGOON, the invasion of southern France; the Southern France

Campaign (15 August to 14 September 1944) saw the junction of the

Mediterranean’s forces with the Allied Armies of the European theater near

Dijon, France, and the subsequent disintegration of the Germans in southwestern France. veterinary officer was added to the army surgeon’s office

on 11 August 1944. Veterinary units and units with assigned veterinary

personnel that now were moved into southern France included Veterinary

Food Inspection Detachments “A” (later redesignated 887th) and “T” (later

the 890th), 17th Veterinary Evacuation Hospital, 45th Separate Veterinary

Company, 1st and 4th Medical Laboratories, 68th Quartermaster Refrigeration Company, 6th Port, and (later renamed 6835th) Quarter- master Remount Depot. Of course, some of these did not come into southern

France until October or November 1944. Other units or organizations with

assigned veterinary personnel included the 3d and 45th Infantry Divisions,

the 601st and 602d Field Artillery Battalions, and the Service Forces headquarters of Coastal Base Section and Delta Base Section. About midway

through the Rhineland Campaign, or on 20 November 1944, the foregoing

were transferred to the jurisdiction of the European theater.

590248 —61 19
268 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Twelfth and Fifteenth Air Forces

The Army Veterinary Service with the Mediterranean theater’s air forces

originated in the fall of 1942 when veterinary officer was assigned to the

medical section of the Twelfth Air Force and one to the Air Force Service

Command Medical Section—just before their departure from the United

Kingdom. Soon after arrival in North Africa, both officers were reassigned to the XII Air Force Service Command, During the early part of

1943, the identity of the Twelfth Air Force was lost in an Allied air command (namely, Northwest African Air Forces), but in the fall of that year,

it was reconstituted, and on November 1943, its bomber command elements were released into the organization of the new Fifteenth Air Force.

The latter was largely based in southeastern Italy and became part of

Headquarters, USSAFE (Strategic Air Forces in Europe), which directed

the bombing of Germany; the Twelfth Air Force, on the other hand, provided tactical air support to the ground combat forces in the theater, and

thus, its bases were scattered. By the end of 1943, XII Air Force Service

Command included its staff veterinarian at Algiers, and there were veterinary

subsections with the I, II, and III Air Service Area Commands. For the

Fifteenth Air Force bases, there only Veterinary Food Inspection

Detachment “B” assigned since November 1943 to the Adriatic Depot at

Bari; the 70th Veterinary Food Inspection Detachment was assigned there,

too, but much later (in August 1944).

In January 1944, the twm air force headquarters were reorganized under

the newly created Headquarters, AAF/MTO (Army Air Forces, Mediterranean Theater of Operations) and XII Air Force Service Command was

enlarged into the new AFSC/MTO (Air Force Service Command, Mediterranean Theater of Operations) to support both Twelfth and Fifteenth Air

Forces. The senior veterinary officer with the air forces now was reassigned to the medical section of AFSC, and veterinary subdetachments were

established with the latter’s area commands. In July 1944, this veterinary

service organization was revised with the organization of the 6565th, 6566th,

and 6567th Veterinary Detachments (Air Force Overhead). The last of these

three units included the ranking veterinary officer of AFSC, with location at

Naples; inAugust 1944,this detachment commander was designated additional

duty assignment asAir Force Veterinarian. The 6565th and 6566th, each with

an organic section (totaling two officers and three enlisted personnel), were

assigned for duty at bases of the Twelfth and Fifteenth Air Forces. It was

not until February 1945, however, that the two food inspection detachments,

“B” and 70th, along with other service forces personnel and activities in

the Bari area, were released from the xlAF to the new Adriatic Base Command. After V-E Day, the two air forces disbanded their veterinary detachments, and the 6567th Veterinary Detachment (Air Force Overhead) was

disbanded sometime before November 1945 when AAFSC/MTO was closed
MIDDLE EAST, MEDITERRANEAN, AND EUROPEAN THEATERS 269

out. The inspection of subsistence supplied to airbases comprised the major workload of the veterinary service with the theater’s air forces.

EUROPEAN THEATER

The Army Veterinary Service in the European theater had its formal

start on May 1942, when veterinary officer, newly arrived from the Zone

of Interior, was assigned to the Medical Section, Headquarters, USAFBI

(U.S. Army Forces in the British Isles) {6, 7). There were then four other

veterinary officers in the theater command, which had been created in January 1942—this to succeed type of U.S. military mission (namely, Special

Observer Group) that had been set up in London, England, about

months earlier. In the same month that the theater veterinary service was

first organized, the aforementioned command headquarters established its

Services of Supply, to which senior veterinary staff officer was assigned

directly from the Zone of Interior by the War Department. This officer,

however, on arrival overseas in mid-June 1942, was moved into the staff position of theater veterinarian. In the interim, on June 1942, Headquarters,

USAFBI, was renamed Headquarters, ETOUSA. At this time, to the

theater organization were added the INDIGO forces or U.S. Army Forces in

Iceland, and the MAGNET forces or U.S. Forces for North Ireland, each

with its own force veterinarian.

By the end of 1942, the European theater’s veterinary service included

29 officers and 35 enlisted personnel. The rate of increase had been sufficiently rapid, but at least third of this number were now in North Africa

—recalling, of course, that Center Task Force and supporting units for

Operation TORCH had been mounted out of the United Kingdom and

eventually, during February 1943, were fully removed to the jurisdiction of

the new NATOUSA. Another four veterinary officers were assigned to duty

in Iceland. The officers in the United Kingdom were at station, as follows

(fig. 22) Medical Section, Headquarters, Services of Supply

Surgeon’s Office, Southern Base Section

Surgeon’s Office, Northern Ireland District

Depots G-20 and G-110

Ports at Bristol and Clyde

Corps

29th Infantry Division

Eighth Air Force

YIII Air Force Service Command

8th Bomber Command

Air Bases at Burtonwood and Molesworth

Operation BOLERO, or the buildup of the U.S. forces in the United

Kingdom, continued through 1943. During this year, the assignment status

of the theater veterinarian was changed. Since June 1942 and lasting until

Theater veterinarians or those acting in that capacity included Lt. Col. H. J. Juzek, VC, from

May 1942; Col. E. M. Curley, VC, after 11 June 1942; Col. C. B. Perkins, VC, after 21 August

1944 and Col. J. R. Sperry, VC, after September 1945.
270 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICI

Figure 22.

—Veterinary

officers

in

the

United

Kingdom.

Kneeling (left

to

right)

Maj.

Richard A.

Huebner,

Capt.

Jules

J.

Werner,

Capt.

Max

G.

Badger, 1st

Lt.

Vernon

D.

Chadwick, 1st

Lt.

Joseph

G.

Feinberg,

Lt.

Col.

J.

Y.

Baldwin,

RAMC,

Capt.

Martin

Kadets, 1st

Lt.

John

M.

Livingstone, 1st

Lt.

Samuel

Hutt,

Capt.

Marcus

M.

Mason,

Fit.

Lt.

Raeburn,

RAF.

Standing

(left

to

right)

Capt.

James

G.

Eagelman,

Capt.

Arthur

B.

Rogers,

Maj.

Benjamin

B.

Blood,

Capt.

Alexander

Morris,

Col.

Walter

L.

Perry,

MC,

Lt.

Col.

Francois II.

K.

Reynolds,

Lt.

Col.

Hugh

F.

J.

Arundel,

Col.

Harry

J.

Juzek,

1st

Lt.

Charles

S.

Ballet,

Col.

Edward M.

Curley,

1st

Lt.

Robert

R.

Altaker,

Lt.

Col.

Robert J.

Robertson, Capt.

Morse

A.

Gates,

Lt.

Col.

Charles

O.

Grace,

Maj.

Russell

S.

Wann,

Capt.

James A.

Brennan,

Maj.

Robert

B.

Meeks,

Capt.

Ernest

W.

Rivers,

Maj.

Samuel

E.

Bunton, Jr.,

Capt.

Karl

F.

Steinbach,

Maj.

Guy

II.

Todd,

Capt.

Max

II.

Carlin,

Capt.

Albert

M.

Michaels.
MIDDLE EAST, MEDITERRANEAN, AND EUROPEAN THEATERS 271

March 1943, this stall representative of the Army Veterinary Service in the

European theater was actually on duty with the medical section at Headquarters, Services of Supply, located at Cheltenham. In March 1943, the

chief of that section (or Chief Surgeon) was transferred to the theater headquarters at London, and the medical section itself, now removed to the

higher level of theater headquarters organization, was subdivided into two geographically separated components: The Deputy Chief Surgeon’s Office

at London and the Deputy Chief Surgeon’s Office at Cheltenham. The latter

retained the major operational parts of the theater’s medical staff, includ- ing the theater veterinarian, whereas the medical planning staff was relocated in London. Eventually, the entire medical staff for Headquarters,

ETOUSA, was moved to the European Continent during the period 16-28

August 1944. As of 31 December 1943, the Army Veterinary Service in

the theater included 65 officers and 135 enlisted personnel—the officers being assigned to duty as follows:

Surgeon’s Office, Headquarters, European Theater of Operations, U.8. Army

1st Medical General Laboratory

1st Medical Concentration Center

Medical Sections of Eastern, Northern Ireland, Southern, and Western Base Sections

General Depots G-14, -15, -16, -20, -22, -23,

-25, -30, -35, -40, -45, -47, -50, -55, -65,

and -75

Quartermaster Depots Q-101, -103, -104,

-105, -107, -108, -111, and -125

Ports of Embarkation; 4th, 5th, 11th, 12th,

14th, and 15th

Chemical Defense Station, European Theater of Operations, U.S. Army

Surgeon’s Office, Headquarters, First U.S.

Army:

VII Corps

2d and 3d Armored Divisions

1st, 5th, and 9tb Infantry Divisions

101st Airborne Division

Surgeon’s Office, U.S. Army Air Forces in

United Kingdom:

First Army Air Force

2d Veterinary Platoon (Aviation), with

10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, and

22d Veterinary Detachments

The status of the theater veterinarian that had been gained in early

1943 lasted for about year. During this time, there was central coordination of veterinary technical affairs in the services of supply organization

with those of the ground troops and air forces. However, this situation was

terminated more or less in early 1944, when SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force) came into existence to direct the

landings and operations of the Allied ground and air combat forces on the

Axis-dominated European Continent. As the operational controls over the

U.S. field armies and AAF were transferred to control by the new senior

Allied headquarters, the U.S. Army theater command was reduced substantially to service forces organization. It would have only administrative control over, and would provide only logistic support to, these air and

ground forces. Concurrently, the medical staffs of theater headquarters and

services of supply headquarters were consolidated into single medical section, and the theater veterinarian acted in double-job assignment.

After D-day, and with the relocation of theater headquarters on the
272 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

European Continent, the services of supply element of the combined theaterservices of supply headquarters was renamed Headquarters, Communications

Zone. From the medical standpoint, the theater Chief Surgeon was also

the Chief Surgeon of the Communications Zone, and he and his staff, including the veterinary officer, functioned in this dual capacity. Between the

theater veterinarian and the senior veterinarian on duty at each army headquarters, liaison was effected.

Just before D-day for Operation OVERLORD (on June 1944), the

theater’s veterinary service organization included 118 officers and 282 enlisted personnel. These numbers were increased gradually during the succeeding months so that, as of 31 December 1944, they were 170 and 623,

respectively. The changes were marked by new arrivals of units from the

Zone of Interior, but very large increase occurred during November ivhen,

following Operation ANVIL-DRAGOON (on 15 August 1944), the Sev- enth U.S. Army and supporting forces in southern France were transferred

from the North African and Mediterranean theaters to the control of the

European theater. As of the beginning of 1945, the veterinary officers in

the theater were assigned as follows:

Surgeon’s Office, Headquarters, European Theater of Operations, U.S. Army

Surgeon’s Office, Headquarters, Communications Zone

17th Veterinary Evacuation Hospital

45th Veterinary Company (Separate)

Veterinary Food Inspection Detachments 166th, 167th, 168th, 169th,

887th (formerly “A”), and 880th

(formerly “C”)

1st Medical General Laboratory

Medical Laboratories: 4th and 361st

804th Hospital Center

Medical Sections of Southern Line of

Communications, Continental Advance Section, Advance Section,

United Kingdom Base, and the Brittany, Channel, Normandy, and Seine

Base Sections

General Depots G-18, -23, -24, -30, -35,

-45, -47, -50, -65, and -75

Quartermaster Depots Q-101, -107,

-108, -111, and -114

Quartermaster Base Depots: 52d, 53d,

54th, 55th, 56th, 58th, 62d, 63d, 68th,

and 72d

Quartermaster Refrigeration Companies

(Fixed) 68th, 283d, 284th, 285th,

3089th, 3090th, 3091st, 3093d, and

4163d

6835th Quartermaster Remount Depot

Signal Pigeon Companies: 277th, 278th,

282d, 284th, and 285th

Transportation Corps Ports: 4th, 5th,

6th, 7th, 11th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th,

17th, and 51st

Chemical Defense Station, European

Theater of Operations, U.S. Army

Surgeon’s Office, Headquarters, Armies:

First, Third, Seventh, Ninth, and

Fifteenth

Armored Division: 3d

Infantry Divisions: 3d and 9th

Airborne Divisions: 17th, 82d, and 101st

1st Airborne Task Force

Field Artillery Battalions (Pack)

601st and 602d

Medical Laboratories: 1st, 7th, 10th,

28th, and 362d

Surgeon’sOffice, U.S. Strategic Air Forces

Area Service Command, U.S. Strategic

Air Forces

Surgeon’s Office, Eighth Air Force

IX Air Force Air Service Command

1st and 2d Veterinary Detachments

(Aviation), with 10th through 26th

Veterinary Sections

Civil Affairs Division, Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force

European Civil Affairs Unit and Regiments 2d, 3d, and 4th
MIDDLE EAST, MEDITERRANEAN, AND EUROPEAN THEATERS 273

Soon after V-E Day, the veterinary personnel in the theater was

rapidly cut back. On July 1945, Headquarters, ETOUSA, was redesignated Headquarters, USFET (U.S. Forces in European Theater), and

month later the wartime Services of Supply or Communications Zone was

renamed Theater Service Forces. Both had main headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, and rear headquarters at Paris, France. In the interim,

or effective on 14 July 1945, SHAEF went out of existence. Of course,

by this time, service forces units, the field armies, and the AAF were being

disbanded if not deployed to the Pacific theaters, and the Third and

Seventh U.S. Armies were moving into their occupation duties in Germany.

The regular veterinary service organizations that remained were operated

for protecting the subsistence supply to troops and rendering veterinary animal service; however, large number of veterinary officers who were surplus to the immediate military situation were temporarily utilized in CA/ MG operations for occupied Germany. As of the end of 1945, only 67 officers and 128 enlisted personnel remained.

In regard to the accomplishments of the Army Veterinary Service in

the European theater, particularly as relates to the inspection of food supplies, it must be observed that the matter of personnel assignments was

such that no satisfactory brief explanation can be given of its operational

organization. With the exception of the several quartermaster refrigeration companies (fixed) and the port units which operated over large areas

but had too few veterinary personnel, inspections along the entire system

of subsistence supply to troops were rendered on provisional basis by

veterinary personnel who, for the most part, were assigned to other organizations or were detached to service with units (fig. 23). The staff sections of

Headquarters, ETOUSA, did not act favorably on the recommendations of the

theater veterinarian or on the requisitions of base section commanders that were

made for organizing veterinary food inspection detachments, though such units

were being used in the Asiatic-Pacific theaters, and the AAF/ETO were utilizing somewhat similar units since the fall of 1943, Eventually, however, in the

spring of 1945, few such detachments (four in number) were organized on

the European Continent—these joining two others which had come into

southern France from the North African theater. Instead, veterinary inspection personnel routinely were assigned against so-called overhead allotments

and provisional organizations in the base section subcommands. For example,

on 14 June 1943, provisional Emergency Treatment Groups were authorized,

aggregating 60 veterinary officers and the same number of enlisted personnel;

also, veterinary enlisted personnel were specially assigned to medical hospital

units of given bed capacity. As the military operations developed on the

European Continent, the procedure for assigning veterinary personnel to

Emergency Treatment Groups was discontinued, and in its place theaterwide

personnel space allocation for 30 officers and 90 enlisted personnel was set up
274 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Figuke 23.—Veterinary personnel inspecting ration reserve dumps in the European theater.

and distributed among the existing base section subcommands of the Communication Zone organization. From such organizations, units, or base section

headquarters to which they were assigned, the veterinary personnel then

were attached for duty at general and quartermaster depots and other installations which were receiving, storing, issuing, or otherwise handling

subsistence. When these depots and installations were closed out and moved

into another area or base section subcommand—a constant changeover—-

administrative directives for the individual veterinary personnel to relocate

were belatedly received. Following Y-E Day, when quartermaster base

depot units were selected for redeployment to the Pacific theater, recommendations were made by the headquarters staff of the European theater to

satellite veterinary subdetachments directly on these units—which perhaps

should have been done much earlier.

In connection with the losses of veterinary officers from the combat

divisions after mid-1943, when the latter’s T/O’s were amended to delete the

personnel space vacancies that had authorized the veterinary assignments,

it was observed in the European theater that this was

of definite detriment to the supervision of adequate veterinary service and the

accomplishment of our mission, despite the fact that argument has been presented by

various individuals concerning the value of the Veterinary Officer in these assignments.

It is considered that there is no more important problem than the provision of sound

edible food to those in the field, especially during war when the obstacles of adequate
MIDDLE EAST, MEDITERRANEAN, AND EUROPEAN THEATERS 275

refrigeration and competent handling are magnified. The Division Veterinarian constitutes the last link in the chain of inspection from the date the animal is slaughtered

to provide food. It is felt the Division Veterinarian is most important in the chain of

inspection, since without this last step in the complicated and detailed inspection procedure, all may be lost by contamination or spoilage. When food supplies were captured

the absence of trained veterinary personnel in the field units below Army, made

the complete and adequate inspection of these materials almost impossible. There is

little doubt that many food supplies acquired under these conditions were consumed by

troops at the front without the protective benefit of veterinary examinations. After

these organizations had consumed articles they desired, the existence of remaining food

stores was then reported to higher headquarters. Because of the strong desire of troops

for fresh meat, clandestine slaughter was sporadically practiced and, here again, no

adequate examination was made either before or after slaughter.

Many of the defects in the transportation, storage, and other handling

of subsistence supplies that were reported upon in other oversea theaters

were observed also in the European theater, the single exception being, of

course, that there was not the tropical heat that influenced the deterioration

and losses at so rapid rate in Africa, the Middle East, and in the Pacific

areas. Also, semipermanent or permanent-type protective covering of subsistence stockpiles was the rule; outside of this theater, such storage was

usually an exceptional condition. In matters relating to transportation, the

Army Veterinary Service sought to minimize food losses by recommending

the discontinuance of “flatting” of cargo in ships with cases of subsistence,

the maintenance of constant temperatures in refrigerated subsistence during truck and rail shipments from ports to depots, and the reporting to

concerned Transportation Corps and Quartermaster Corps officers on the

types of damage which were occurring in the various types of subsistence

cases. Refrigerated railroad cars presented problems of overall shortages

in numbers, insanitary conditions or lack of cleanliness, and the scarcity

of re-icing facilities along the food supply system. An innovation in moving perishable subsistence as its loading on trucks and covering with

layer of straw and tarpaulin—with the refrigerated condition of such loads

holding well up to 18 or 19 hours.

Generally, the subsistence supply originating from the Zone of Interior

was found to be satisfactory, and from time to time, changes were recommended for its improvement. For example, salt-packed bacon and ham were

suggested for packing in ventilated boxes; the grade of butter shipped

from the United States was raised so that an acceptable quality product

would arrive in the theater; and large-sized drums of dried milk and large

cans of evaporated milk were unsatisfactory because only part of drums

were used at time, with rapid spoilage of the unused portions, and the

cans were readily damaged by handling in transit. Other veterinary problems with the subsistence supply, involving laboratory investigations, included the salvage of such ships cargoes as were contaminated by salt water

or bilge water, the studies on British reports of caseous lymphadenitis infection in carcasses of lamb and mutton of TT.S. origin and of salmonella

590248 —61 20
276 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

contamination of dried egg powder manufactured under civilian Federal

inpection, the value of canned rations which had been alternately frozen

and thawed (in Iceland), and the disposal of unfit foods or garbage to the

local civilian population without the attending threat of disseminating animal diseases. It may be observed that the civilian livestock raisers in the

European theater, as elsewhere, were prone to blame Army garbage as the

factor for introducing animal diseases whereas the real fault was, possibly

as the result of wartime conditions, the failure on their part and local

regulatory authorities to properly treat (or process) such garbage prior

to feeding to animals—such being done pursuant to law or regulation, in

peacetime.

The Army Veterinary Service inspected captured foods before their

issue to troops or disposition to civilians, surplus stores from ships arriving

in the theater, and, after June 1943, fruits and vegetables. Some small

quantities of locally procured foods were inspected. In this connection, it

may be noted, the American forces first arriving in the United Kingdom were

subsisted on the British Army ration. Following the change to its own

ration supply, the U.S. Armed Forces continued only the procurement of

milk and few other items, on account of the wartime food shortages for

the civilian population and the prevailing standards of sanitation. The

fresh milk supply was developed only in Northern Ireland for hospital

patients, and ice cream was manufactured under veterinary supervision in

numerous messhalls or approved civilian establishments using Army-supplied raw material. In June 1943, veterinary officer began procurement

inspections on canned chicken soup which was packed in self-heating container, at plant in England; actually, the canned chicken ingredient was

of U.S. origin. Another food item inspected during procurement within

the theater was frozen cod fillets from Iceland.

Veterinary service with animals concerned Army horses and mules, dogs,

and signal pigeons—the same as in most other major oversea theaters during World War IT. Horses and mules came into the theater officially for

the first time during November 1944 when the Seventh U.S. Army and

supporting units in southern France were received by transfer from the

North African and Mediterranean theaters. Mounted units with veterinary

personnel included the 601st and 602d Field Artillery Battalions (Pack)

and the 6835th Quartermaster Remount Depot (Overhead) also, there

were the 17th Veterinary Evacuation Hospital and the 45th Veterinary

Company (Separate). peak horse and mule strength approximating

1,500 animals was reached during the winter months of 1944-45 (table 20).

These numbers, however, do not pertain to the captured animals (estimated

at 10,000) that came into the hands of the field armies and services of

supply subcommands on the European Continent. Though the Army Veterinary Service planned for the care and treatment of captured animals,

little was accomplished because Headquarters, ETOUSA, set forth the
MIDDLE EAST, MEDITERRANEAN, AND EUROPEAN THEATERS 277

policy statement (in March 1945) that: “No animals should be captured

instead, these animals were disposed of by impromptu turnover to the local

civilian authorities. There is no question that this was sort of reckless

and wasteful practice because captured animals were assembled and frequently used by army units without benefit of adequate supervision and

testing against diseases that were transmissible to troops and were redistributed (or given away) into areas without prior examination for diseases

that could have decimated the local civilian animal populations—a practice

that became dubious when the theater Chief Quartermaster set up project

to purchase animals from the French economy for supply to the Mediterranean theater.

Table 20.—Sick and wounded U.S. Army horses and mules, European theater, by months,

1944-45

Army dogs of U.S. origin came into the European theater by direct

shipment to the Continent, and these were utilized to limited extent alongside British-trained dogs loaned to the U.S. units. This utilization of

British-trained dogs was predicated on the fact that, during the years of

preinvasion preparations in the United Kingdom, the British laws and

Average

Admissions

Died Killed Length of

Year and month mean

strength Total Disease Injury Battle

casualty

or destroyed

in

action

treatment

im November 1, 402

Number

101

Number

34

Number

66

Number Number Number

14

Days

1, 333

December 1, 492 114 31 60 23 20 1, 447

1945

January 1, 451

1, 501

881

137 46 73 18 13 2, 150

February 229 144 83 3, 929

March. 173 99 51 23 3, 780

660 51 13 35 1, 685

675 49 14 34 1, 489

June 714 50 10 39 1, 163

786 106 38 68 1, 293

877 76 29 47 1, 417

344 29 21 651

339 28 25 574

339 24 17 477

321 13 713

Total 1, 180 482 626 72 70 25 22, 101

Source; Veterinary Reports of Sick and Wounded Animals, MD Form 102, November 1944 through December 1945.

[Official records.]
278 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

regulations relating to animal importations and mandatory 6-month quarantine were recognized by the European theater as making virtually impractical

the earlier use of U.S.-trained dogs. Veterinary care and treatment services

for these dogs by U.S. veterinary personnel were so minimized by the theater

headquarters staff to the extent that arrangements were made for the professional treatment of the sick and wounded dogs by civilian veterinarians

or by the British Army veterinary service.

Services of Supply (Later Communications Zone), European Theater

Headquarters, Services of Supply, in the European theater was established in May 1942, and its medical section included staff veterinary officer

who acted in the dual capacity as theater veterinarian. After the spring

of 1943, the situation was reversed when the latter, with new and primary

assignment to Headquarters, ETOUSA, also acted in the dual capacity as

senior service forces veterinarian; then year later, following the formation of SHAEF, the theater headquarters and its services of supply headquarters were merged. Throughout this period, actually since July 1942,

the personnel and activities of the service forces located in the United Kingdom were organized under one of several subcommands such as London

Base Section (originally Headquarters Command, ETOUSA), Southern

Base Section, Eastern Base Section, Western Base Section, and Northern

Ireland Base Section—each with headquarters, including base section

medical staff and usually with veterinary officer. These base sections had

direct control over the ports, quartermaster and general depots, and other

units or facilities which received, stored, or otherwise handled the subsistence supply for the troops that were located in their geographic areas.

In one such subcommand, the Southern Base Section, veterinary personnel,

as of December 1943, were assigned to the headquarters medical staff, port

unit, two general depots, five quartermaster depots, six attached “cold sores”

installations, and eight general and station hospitals—the latter had only

enlisted personnel assigned.

The foregoing base sections remained under the jurisdiction of Services

of Supply, ETOUSA, through 1943 and early 1944. Then, beginning in

May 1944 and continuing into mid-September, the original ones were subordinated as district subcommands of the newly established United Kingdom

Base (in September 1944), and eight new base sections were established when

the U.S. armies invaded and moved out over the Normandy beachheads.

As the cross-channel invasion got underway, the service forces component

of the combined Headquarters, ETOUSA, and Headquarters, Services of

Supply, ETOUSA, was renamed Communications Zone (on June 1944).

small forward echelon of this headquarters staff actually moved to the

European Continent, setting up at Valognes, France, in mid-July 1944, but,

within less than month and before it became fully operational, it was

joined by the main headquarters staff from London. The theater veteri-
MIDDLE EAST, MEDITERRANEAN, AND EUROPEAN THEATERS 279

narian of this combined theater-communications zone headquarters was not

included in the movement orders to the European Continent, and for short period of time his duties were assumed by the verterinary officer

assistant. On 21 August 1944, the Third U.S. Army veterinarian, Col.

Clell B. Perkins, VC, was reassigned as the new theater veterinarian.

The service forces subcommands that were established and came to

operate on the European Continent included Advance Section, Communica- tions Zone, (May 1944), Brittany Base Section (originally Base Section 1,

in May 1944), Loire Base Section (originally Base Section 2, in June 1944),

Normandy Base Section (originally Base Section 3, in August 1944), Intermediate Section (originally Base Section 4, in August 1944), Seine Base

Section (in August 1944), Channel Base Section (in September 1944), and

Oise Section (later Oise Intermediate Section, in September 1944). Of

course, there were changes in these; for example, the Loire Base Section was absorbed by the Brittany Base Section, and the latter was then absorbed by Normandy Base Section. Almost as soon as these were established, each base section headquarters medical staff included Veterinary

Corps officer as assistant to the surgeon. The first of these to become operational in Northwest Europe was Advance Section, Communications Zone—-

reaching France on 15 June 1944, and under the command control of Headquarters, First U.S. Army, until 14 July 1944. It included section

veterinarian.

While these several base sections were coming into operational existence

on the European Continent, another two were set up by the North African

theater for its Operation ANVIL-DRAGOON: Coastal Base Section, in

May 1944, which evolved in October 1944 as Continental Base Section; and

Delta Base Section, in October 1944. The former moved in the immediate

rear area of the Seventh U.S. Army as it advanced through southern

France, and the other operated as the rear logistic support base. Both

sections originally were under the jurisdiction of their parent Headquarters,

Communications Zone, NATOUSA, but, during November 1944, when the

southern France area was totally transferred to the jurisdiction of the European theater, this zonal headquarters organization, having moved out of

the North African theater, was disbanded and concurrently reorganized as

Southern Line of Communications. In February 1945, Southern Line of

Communication was discontinued, and both Continental Advance Section,

with headquarters then at Dijon, and Delta Base Section, with headquarters

at Marseilles, France, came under the immediate jurisdiction of Communications Zone, ETOUSA.

Soon after V-E Day, the Advance and Continental Advance Sections

were disbanded, and Normandy and Channel Base Sections were merged into

the new Chanor Base Section; then in early 1946, the latter was consolidated

with Oise, Seine, and Delta area commands on continental Europe into the

new Western Base Section, while United Kingdom Base was reorganized

as London Area Office. In the meantime, or on August 1945, the postwar
280 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

European theater’s Headquarters, Communications Zone, was renamed Headquarters, Theater Service Forces.

Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force

There was no Army Veterinary Corps officer on the staff of the Chief

Medical Officer, Supreme Headquarters, Allied Force. Full responsibility

and authority to coordinate the theater veterinary service was vested in

the theater chief surgeon and his staff. There were veterinary officers assigned to G-5 Division, SHAEF, but these assignments were made in connection only with CA/MG operations in liberated and occupied areas and

countries. The mission of the Allied headquarters was fulfilled on May

1945, when Germany surrendered, and, on 14 July 1945, it went out of

existence.

First, Third, Seventh, Ninth, and Fifteenth U.S. Armies

The veterinary service organization with the ground forces in the

European theater increased gradually from the or officers with Corps,

which in mid-1942 comprised U.S. Army, Northern Ireland, to strength

of 37 officers and more than 150 enlisted personnel by the winter of 1944-45.

The early increases were mainly due to the influx of divisions into the

United Kingdom, each with their own division veterinarians, but later—-

after the personnel space vacancies for veterinarians in divisions and army

corps headquarters had been removed—the buildup was continued by the

attachment to the ground units of such service forces units as medical

laboratories, quartermaster refrigeration companies, signal pigeon companies,

and several animal units. Even in January 1945, however, there were 16

veterinary officers assigned to the headquarters staffs of field armies and

divisions, including the First, Third, Seventh, Ninth, and Fifteenth U.S.

Armies, and the 3d and 9th Infantry, 2d and 3d Armored, and 17th, 82d,

and 101st Airborne Divisions. The aforementioned corps comprised the

largest tactical unit in the European theater until October 1943 when the

Headquarters, First U.S. Army arrived from the Zone of Interior. Its

headquarters medical section included an army veterinarian. The Third

U.S. Army followed, building up in early 1944 and coming into action on

the European Continent on August 1944. These two field armies were

coordinated by Fleadquarters, 12th Army Group (originally called Headquarters, 1st Army Group)—the latter having, at no time, regularly assigned veterinary staff officer. Before the end of 1944, two other field

armies were added to this group: The Ninth and the Fifteenth U.S. Armies,

each with veterinary branch in the army surgeon’s office. By this time, also, there had come into the Allied lines the Seventh U.S. Army, with

veterinary officer assigned to the army surgeon’s office, that had advanced

from the invasion beaches of Operation ANVIL-DRAGOON through south-
MIDDLE EAST, MEDITERRANEAN, AND EUROPEAN THEATERS 281

ern France. It was coordinated with the French First Army by Headquarters, 6th Army Group. Altogether, in five major campaigns, the ground

combat forces had pushed out of their OMAHA and UTAH beachheads in

Normandy and marched eastward into Central Europe.

Following the surrender of Germany, only twm field armies were retained in the European theater: The Third U.S. Army in the Eastern Military District, and the Seventh U.S. Army in the Western Military District

of the American Zone of Occupied Germany.

Eighth and Ninth Air Forces

The Army Veterinary Service with the air forces in the European theater

was begun in mid-1942 when personnel were assigned to Headquarters, Eighth

Air Force and VIII Air Force Service Command—these being activated

within the theater in February 1942. Later that year, the newly organized

Twelfth Air Force and XII Air Force Service Command were provided

assigned veterinary officers, but these soon were transferred to the North

African theater. During the fall of 1943, the Ninth Air Force came into the

theater from the Middle East theater, with its own assigned veterinary

personnel. few months later, the tw numbered air forces were grouped

for administrative purposes under the new USAAFUK (U.S. Army Air

Forces in the United Kingdom), laterreorganized in March 1944 as USSAFE

(U.S. Strategic Air Forces in Europe). The latter established its own

Air Service Command, complete with medical section including staff

veterinary officer who served in double duty status at Headquarters,

USSAFE; the same staff veterinary officer acted as technical adviser to the

air surgeon on coordinating the veterinary service organization in the Eighth

and Ninth Air Forces. The Eighth and Ninth Air Forces each had its

own air service command whose headquarters medical sections included

veterinary staff officer. During the winter of 1943M4:, these air force service

commands obtained better organization of their veterinary services at the

various bases when two veterinary detachments, each with nine subsections,

were activated. (Before March 1944, the detachments were named platoons,

and the sections as detachments.) Thus, for VIII Air Force Service Command there were organized the 1st Veterinary Detachment (Aviation),

and 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 17th, 21st, 22d, 23d, and 26th Veterinary Sections; the IX Air Force Service Command gained the new 2d Veterinary

Detachment (Aviation), with 14th, 15th, 16th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 24th, 25th,

and 2Tth Veterinary Sections. The tactically deployed Ninth Air Force

As of the spring of 1944, there were three numbered air forces operating in the European

theater Eighth, Ninth, and Fifteenth Air Forces. Under the jurisdiction of SHAEF, these were

assigned to two major air commands: AEAF (Allied Expeditionary Air Force) and USSAFE.

ABAF exerted only operational control over the Ninth Air Force to provide air support to the

ground combat forces, but for administrative purposes, Ninth Air Force was controlled by USSAFE

which also maintained both administrative and operational controls over the Eighth Air Force, as

well as operational control (only) over the Fifteenth Air Force, which was operating from bases

in, but otherwise under the administrative control of, the North African and Mediterranean theater.
282 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

moved to France soon after the landings were made, accompanied by its

veterinary personnel and units, and Headquarters, USSAFE, soon followed.

The Eighth Air Force, however, continued to operate its strategic bombing

operations from bases in the United Kingdom. It may be observed, also, that

veterinary personnel were assigned to the Eastern Air Command, USSAFE,

which during 1944 included several airbases in and about Kiev, U.S.S.R.

References

1. World War II History of the Army Veterinary Service of U.S. Army Forces,

Africa-Middle East Theater. [Official record.]

2. Annual Reports, Surgeon, Roberts Field, USAFIL, 1943 and 1944.

3. World War II History of the Army Veterinary Service in North African and

Mediterranean Theater of Operations, U.S. Army. [Official record.]

4. Letter, Lt. Col. D. L. Cady, VC, to Surgeon, NATOUSA, 21 Dec. 1943, subject:

Investigation and Survey of Veterinary Activities in North African Theater of Operations.

5. Circular No. 101, Headquarters, Services of Supply, NATOUSA, Sept. 1944.

G. World War II History of the Army Veterinary Service in the European Theater

of Operations, U.S. Army. [Official record.]

7. Weekly divisional activity reports, Veterinary Division, Office of the Chief Surgeon, Headquarters, BTOUSA, 30 May 1943 to July 1945.
283

CHAPTER

Functional Organization in Asiatic-Pacific

Theaters

THE THREE PACIFIC AREAS

At the onset of World War II, the Army Veterinary Service in the Pacific was divided between two oversea military departments: The Hawaiian Department and the Philippine Department. The latter, beginning in mid-1941, was subordinated in number of reorganizations and gradually

disappeared from the Army establishment in the new concept of the SWPA

(Southwest Pacific Area) this was hastened by the Japanese aerial attacks

and subsequent invasion of the Philippines in December 1941. Much the

same occurred with the Hawaiian Department long after Japanese carrier

planes had attacked Pearl Harbor, when, on 14 August 1943, that department was superseded by the newly created USAFICPA (U.S. Army Forces

in Central Pacific Area). These two departmental or area commands were

joined by third command, USAFISPA (U.S. Army Forces in South

Pacific Area), which was established on July 1942. After that time, for more than year, there these three major areas or theaterlike commands in the Pacific, each having or developing its own veterinary service

organization. Then, on August 1944, USAFICPA and USAFISPA were

consolidated into the new USAFPOA (U.S. Army Forces, Pacific Ocean

Areas), which was established on that date. The USAFPOA with USAFFE

(U.S. Army Forces in the Far East), as the Army Forces in the SWPA

came to be called, comprised the two Army theaters in the Pacific until

the spring-summer of 1945.

Up to this time, supreme command over Allied and joint Army-Navy

operations in the Central and South Pacific Areas was vested in Adm.

Chester W. Nimitz, Commander in Chief, POA, while Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Commander in Chief, SWPA, controlled all military activities in

the SWPA. In April 1945, however, this twofold division of military planning and tactical responsibilities by territorial description of the Pacific

theater was replaced by the redivision of military operations and activities

into an Army component and Navy component, and the Commander in

Chief, SWPA, was given the additional designation of Commander in Chief,

USAFPAC (U.S. Army Forces, Pacific). In the following months,

USAFPAC consolidated or absorbed both USAFPOA and USAFFE, the

latter two being reorganized and continued respectively as the administrative subcommands: USAFMIDPAC (U.S. Army Forces, Middle Pacific)

and USAFWESPAC (U.S. Army Forces, West Pacific). Each area subcom-
284 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

mand included its own veterinary service organization complete with headquarters-assigned staff veterinarian, but it was not until October 1945 that

Veterinary Corps officer was assigned to Headquarters, USAFPAC, to coordinate the two. At this time, the Army Veterinary Service in the Pacific

theater approximated 190 officers, as contrasted with its personnel strengths

at the onset of World War II when the Hawaiian Department had and

the Philippine Department had 12 officers. For purposes of simplifying the

current discussion of veterinary functional organization and activities in the

Pacific theater, reference hereinafter is made usually to the three major

area commands by their geographic descriptive names, because as will be

observed, the USAFPOA was not an all-inclusive Army command for the

Pacific, and there was no U.S. Army Forces, Southwest Pacific area or

theater.

U.S. ARMY FORCES IN CENTRAL PACIFIC AREA

The U.S. Army Forces in Central Pacific Area, with headquarters at

Fort Shatter, Oahu, T.H., was established on 14 August 1943; prior to that

date, it was the Hawaiian Department. On August 1944, USAFICPA

was reduced to the status of subordinate echelon, the Central Pacific Base

Command, and its operational planning staff and air and ground combat units

were transferred to control of the newly created Headquarters, USAFPOA.

This lasted until July 1945 when the latter was absorbed by USAFPAC,

with General MacArthur as commander in chief, and instead, USAMIDPAC

was created as major area subcommand. At the beginning of the war

period, veterinary activities in this CPA (Central Pacific Area) were administered at the staff level by the Veterinary Corps officer—designated

department veterinarian —acting under the jurisdiction of and as assistant

to the surgeon who was assigned to Headquarters, Hawaiian Department

(1). Early in 1942, and continuing until the fall of 1943 and then again

from August 1944 to the end of the war period, the senior veterinarian in the theater was given primary assignment to lower administrative echelon

of the command while acting as nominal theater veterinarian, although on

June 1945, company grade veterinary officer ivas assigned to Headquarters, USAFPOA, to act as “on-ground” assistant to the senior veterinarian. While this was not credit in the general concept of military

organization which had reduced the senior veterinarian in the theater to

subordinate command headquarters during the two periods mentioned (once

to the services of supply organization and later to major base command

headquarters), there was at no time question by senior air, ground, or

other base command veterinarians (and surgeons of most echelons) as to

the status of the aforementioned officer to centrally administer the Army

Theater veterinarians or senior veterinary officers acting in that capacity included: Col. J. D.

Derrick, VC (to 16 July 1942), Col. F. L. Holycross, VC (16 July-23 December 1942), Maj. (later

Col.) W. O. Kester, VC (23 December 1942-12 August 1945), and Col. H. K. Moore, VC (beginning

12 August 1945).
ASIATIC-PACIFIC THEATERS 285

Veterinary Service on tlieaterwide basis; in other words, personal communications and personalities accomplished more to coordinate the theater’s

veterinary service organization than did the established channels of military

command which had divided it.

Before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the Army Veterinary

Service in the Hawaiian Department included the department veterinarian

who was also commanding officer of the Veterinary General Hospital, Fort

Shafter (later removed to Fort Armstrong), and the station veterinarian,

Schofield Barracks, who was also commanding officer of the Veterinary Station Plospital, located there. Both hospitals cared for the 350 horses and

mules in the department and conducted meat and dairy hygiene services at

station levels. Another veterinary detachment, called South Sector Veterinary Detachment, inspected the commercial food establishments and the few

products which were procured locally in Honolulu. Altogether, the department’s veterinary personnel strength in peacetime approximated officers

and 22 enlisted personnel, all stationed in Oahu. During 1941, these personnel numbers were about doubled to total, as of December, officers

and 53 enlisted personnel, and in August 1941, Veterinary Corps officer

had been assigned full-time duty on the island of Hawaii. Subsequently,

all islands of the Hawaiian group gained veterinary personnel: Maui on

11 January 1942, with Molokai and Lanai being included in the jurisdiction

of the Maui District veterinarian; and Kauai on 12 February 1942.

On or about December 1941, both the proclamation of martial law by

the civilian Governor of Hawaii and the military reorganization resulted in

the department headquarters medical staff becoming involved in the Office

of Military Governor for the Territory of Hawaii and its subordination

in the staff of the new Rear Echelon for Supply (later renamed Hawaiian

Services of Supply) the Forward (or Tactical) Echelon was comprised of

the original defense troops. In connection with civilian affairs, the department veterinarian provided technical advice on the storage and handling of

civilian food supplies and the continuation of the local dairy and meat

industries and cooperated with the Territorial Boards of Health and of

Agriculture and Forestry in the maintenance of sanitary standards in the

local food establishments and animal quarantines. In addition, program

for safeguarding the production of fresh milk against deliberate bacterial

contamination, if at all attempted, was instituted under direction of the

department surgeon. Eventually, veterinary antibiological warfare procedures were conducted also in soft beverage plants, ice cream manufactories,

and other commercial food industries, on all of the Hawaiian Islands.

During 1942, the provisional general and station veterinary hospital organizations on Oahu Island were replaced by the South and the North Sector

Veterinary Detachments, and the former district veterinarians on Hawaii,

Maui, and Kauai Islands were reduced (on 12 March 1942) to the status of

service command veterinarians and generally were made subordinate to the
28G ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

respective island district headquarters which now planned for the local

defense of the respective islands and administered the tactical forces (including one or more infantry divisions or part thereof) that were deployed

to them. In the fall of 1942, or after the Battle of Midway (3 to June

1942) which removed the immediate threat of further Japanese aerial attacks or any amphibious invasion of the Hawaiian Islands, the island service

commands were reecheloned from jurisdiction under the respective district

headquarters commands to direct control by Hawaiian Services of Supply

(successor to the department’s original Hear Echelon for Supply), or Hawaiian Service Forces, as this command was named after 10 April 1943.

On these islands, the service command veterinarians inspected all foods

(including fruits and vegetables) which were received and supplied to

Army air, ground, and service troops and to the Marine Corps divisions

that were “staged” on the islands, surveyed and developed sanitary standards

in local dairies and ice cream plants, conducted at-slaughter inspections of

beef cattle such as were surplus to local civilian needs but which could be

used to furnish beef to the Army, operated the Army’s antibiological warfare program in local food establishments, and provided professional animal

services to Army dogs, signal pigeons, and to very small number of horses

or mules (the latter being used only on Hawaii and Kauai) in addition,

they cooperated with the respective island’s Office of Military Governor

and with the local civilian veterinarians and public health authorities. On

November 1942, one veterinary officer was assigned to the Army task force

on Christmas Island. During 1942, veterinary personnel were also included

in the infantry divisions which had been reorganized or activated in the

Hawaiian Department or which arrived from the Zone of Interior and in

the Seventh Air Force for duty at Hickam Field, Oahu. As of the end of

December 1942, the Army Veterinary Service totaled 19 officers and 84 enlisted personnel (table 21).

On 10 August 1943, reorganization of the Hawaiian Department

brought about the abolishment of the Hawaiian Department Service Forces

Command and the consequent redesignation of the outlying Hawaiian Islands

service command veterinarians as district veterinarians. Many services of

supply activities on Oahu were assigned to the newly established Army

Port and Service Command (built up around the 24th Major Port unit),

but until May 1944 no veterinary personnel were assigned there to conduct

veterinary services in the port of Honolulu. Also, even if there had been

any doubt of the status of the department veterinarian after early 1942, he

was now returned with primary duty assignment to the department surgeon’s

office. Somewhat later in 1942, the area or South and North Sector Veterinary Detachments on Oahu were discontinued, and the Veterinary General

Hospital at Fort Armstrong and the Veterinary Station Hospital at Schofield Barracks were again organized. Also, veterinary section was opened

in the 279th Signal Corps Pigeon Company which operated pigeon breed-
ASIATIC-PACIFIC THEATERS 287

ing and training base on Oahu and maintained detachments throughout the

Hawaiian Islands.

On 14 August 1943, USAFICPA was created, with headquarters at Fort Shafter, and the Hawaiian Department was continued but only in an

inactive status. This reorganization and territorial expansion of USAFICPA

did not greatly change the existing theater veterinary organization and, as

of 31 December 1943, it comprised 26 veterinary officers and 153 enlisted

personnel.

By the end of another year (that is, 31 December 1944), these veterinary

personnel numbers were increased to 70 and 288, respectively, and the

veterinary functional organization was vastly more complex and covered very large area of the Pacific. In January and February 1944, the Marshall

Islands (including Kwajalein and Eniwetok) were seized, veterinary officer landing on February 1944 on Kwajalein with the surgeon’s office of

an Army defense battalion (later reorganized as Army Garrison Force,

Kwajalein). This garrison force veterinarian also acted as the veterinarian

for the Gilberts and the Marshall Army Area commands which were organized later. Operation FORAGER to capture the Marianas was next on

the schedule of joint Army-Navy campaigns, but as this campaign was

launched, Headquarters, USAFICPA, revitalized its staff organization, with

primary emphasis on the retention only of small group of personnel for

operational planning while the administrative staff personnel, who were

more concerned with military activities in the immediate Hawaiian Islands

area, were to be subordinated to new base subcommand. Thus, on July

1944, the Central Pacific Base Command was established as major echelon

under USAFICPA. In the next month (or on August 1944), the latter

became USAFIPOA, and nearly all administrative personnel in the original

headquarters not previously reassigned were then transferred to Headquarters, Central Pacific Base Command, with headquarters at Fort Ruger (except the headquarters medical section which was located at Fort Shafter).

Table 21.—Distribution of veterinary personnel, Hawaiian Department, December 1942

Duty assignment Officer Enlisted

personnel personnel

Oahu Sector Veterinary Detachments;

South (including department veterinarian) 34 North 22 Service commands:

Hawaii Islands __

11

Maui, Molokai, and Lanai Islands

Kauai and Niihau Islands

Army Task Force, Christmas Island

24th, 27th, and 40th Infantry Divisions

Seventh Air Force

Total 19 84
288 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

These reorganizations effected the reduction of the nominal theater veterinarian to primary assignment with Headquarters, Central Pacific Base

Command.

This became critical situation because the new USAFPOA also had

assumed jurisdiction of USAFISPA, now reorganized as South Pacific Base

Command (with headquarters at Noumea, New Caledonia) and on the same

level of theater organization as the Central Pacific Base Command. Each

base subcommand had its own veterinary service organization headed by

base command veterinarian, but there was no formal coordination of the two

at the theater headquarters level. In addition to the two base subcommands,

there was the veterinary service with AAF (Army Air Forces), POA,

(which replaced the Seventh Air Force as the senior air command) and

that with the Tenth U.S. Army which in the fall of 1944 began to stage

in the Hawaiian Islands for Operation ICEBERG (or the invasion of the

Ryukyu Islands). Eventually, in mid-1945, junior Veterinary Corps officer was assigned to the Medical Section, Headquarters, USAFPOA, to act

as assistant to the Central Pacific Base Command’s veterinarian who had

been acting as senior veterinary adviser in that headquarters since the summer of 1945. Another feature of the recent reorganization was that the

campaigns in the Marianas group, now coming to close, ended with

veterinary service organization being established on Guam, Saipan, Tinian

and elsewhere in that part of the Pacific areas. As of January 1945, the

Army Veterinary Service with USAFPOA included: The veterinary officers

with medical sections of the Tenth U.S. Army; the AAF; base commands; and 15 district, island command, or Army garrison forces commands; provisional veterinary hospital organizations and separate veterinary detachments or units; the veterinary sections organic to Medical

Department laboratories, Quartermaster Corps refrigeration companies,

Transportation Corps port (which was the nucleus of port and service

command), and Signal Corps pigeon company; and the veterinary inspection personnel with the U.S. Joint Army-Navy Purchasing Board (in

New Zealand). Altogether, TO officers and 288 enlisted personnel were being

utilized. The major echelons of veterinary service organization in the theater

now included:

Attending Veterinarian, Surgeon’s Office, Headquarters, USAFPOA

Veterinary Section, Surgeon’s Office, Headquarters, Central Pacific Base Command

Veterinary Section, Surgeon’s Office, Headqiiarters, South Pacific Base Command

Veterinary Section, 18th Medical General

Laboratory

Veterinary Section, Surgeon’s Office, Army

Garrison Force, Kwajalein

Veterinary Section, Surgeon’s Office, Army

Garrison Forces, for Saipan, Tinian,

Guam, Angaur, and APO 86 (later wo

Jima) Islands

Veterinary Section, Surgeon’s Office, Tenth

U.S. Army

Veterinary Section, Surgeon’s Office, AAF,

POA

During the spring of 1945, veterinary personnel set up station on Iwo

Jima when an Army garrison force moved there and, effective on 25 April
ASIATIC-PACIFIC THEATERS 289

1945, the Army service forces there, together with those on Guam, Saipan, and Tinian of the Marianas group, and on Angaur in the Caroline Islands

group were subordinated under jurisdiction of the newly formed Western

Pacific Base Command—the third and last of the base subcommands formed

by USAFFOA. This base command, with headquarters on Saipan, was

originally provided attending veterinary services by the local Army garrison

force veterinarian, but eventually staff veterinary officer was assigned to

base command headquarters.

With the unification of all Army forces in the Pacific areas under

USAFPAC, effective on June 1945, USAFPOA was reorganized as an

administrative territorial subcommand under the new name of USAFMIDPAC. The latter continued the Central, South, and Western Base Commands, each with headquarters veterinarian, for the remainder of the

active war period, but, on August 1945, it lost jurisdiction over the

Tenth U.S. Army and other forces which had just completed the final phases

of the Kyukyus campaign. Also, just before this time, the original Headquarters, South Pacific Base Command, was reorganized and redesignated

by USAFPAC as Army Service Command-0 and projected for deployment

in the planned invasion of Japan; concurrently, the New Caledonia Island

Command headquarters staff moved in the position vacancy as South Pacific

Base Command headquarters. There was little change in the Middle Pacific’s base command structure immediately after V-J Day, although in

November 1945 the Central Pacific Base Command was discontinued and

its personnel and activities were transferred to the direct control by USAFMIDPAC. As of the end of 1945, the area’s veterinary service organization comprised 21 veterinary officers (and Medical Administrative Corps

officer) and approximately 150 enlisted personnel who were on duty as

follows:

Veterinary Section, Surgeon’s Office, Headquarters, USAFMIDPAC

Veterinary Section, Headquarters, Oahu

Medical Service:

113th Medical Service Company (Veterinary)

Veterinary Station Hospital

Veterinary Section, 18th Medical General

Laboratory

Veterinary Section, Surgeon’s Office, Army

Port and Service Command

Under Oahu Quartermaster Service: Veterinary Section, 51st Quartermaster

Base Depot

Veterinary Section, Quartermaster Supply

Point No.

North Sector 63d, 64th, and 65th Veterinary Animal Service Detachments

Veterinary Section, Surgeon’s Office, Army

Garrison Force, Hawaii

Veterinary Section, Surgeon’s Office, Army

Garrison Force, Maui

Veterinary Section 1, Surgeon’s Office, Army

Garrison Force, Kauai

Veterinary Section, Surgeon’s Office, Army

Garrison Force, Kwajalein

Veterinary Section, Surgeon’s Office, Army

Garrison Force, Christmas Island

Veterinary Section, Surgeon’s Office, Headquarters, South Pacific Base Command

Veterinary Section, Surgeon’s Office, Headquarters, Western Pacific Base Command

Veterinary Section, Surgeon’s Office, AAF,

Middle Pacific

Summarizing veterinary accomplishments in the Central Pacific Area,

the Army Veterinary Service provided veterinary care for an average ani-
290 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

mal (horses and mules) strength of 479. During the period, July 1941

to December 1945, there were 1,625 admissions, and 174 animals died or

were destroyed. More than 865 million pounds of foods of animal origin

were inspected during 1944 and 1945.

Central, South, and Western Base Commands

After mid-1944, the Army Veterinary Service in the CPA evolved

largely about three base subcommands which were established to centralize

the administration and control of groups of island bases. Thus, there were

the Central Pacific Base Command which comprised the Hawaiian Islands, the South Pacific Base Command which included the original defense forces

on the various islands in the South Pacific and most of the former battleground in the Solomons, and the Western Pacific Base Command which

included the Marianas and other island groups on the southern approaches

to the Eyukyus and Japan. Each base command organization had its own

staff veterinarian assigned to the headquarters medical section.

Central Pacific Base Command.—Army service forces activities (training, supply, and related logistic operations) in the CPA, particularly in the

Plawaiian Islands, were administered, after July 1944, by the Central

Pacific Base Command. Its headquarters veterinarian, located in the surgeon’s office at Fort Shafter, supervised the command’s veterinary operations

and technically assisted in preparing the units (such as were temporarily

assigned for administrative purposes) that were to be redeployed into the

Western Pacific and the Ryukyus campaigns. During August 1944, these

activities and personnel of the various components or branches of the Army

service forces on Oahu were placed under command control of their respective chiefs of special staff sections in the base command headquarters;

thus, the Medical Service, Central Pacific Base Command, was created,

effective on 10 August 1944, with the headquarters surgeon as its commanding officer (and likewise, the command’s quartermaster became commanding

officer of Quartermaster Service which controlled quartermaster units and

installations). At about this time, the command’s veterinary service organization included:

Veterinary Section, Surgeon’s Office, Headquarters, Central Pacific Base Command

Under Medical Service, Central Pacific

Base Command:

Veterinary General Hospital (Provisional)

113th Medical Service Company (Veterinary)

Veterinary Station Hospital (Provisional)

Veterinary Section, Surgeon’s Office, Army

Port and Service Command

Under Combat Training Command, Central

Pacific Base Command:

63d, 64th, and 65th Veterinary Animal

Service Detachments

Veterinary Section, Surgeon’s Office, Hawaii

District

Veterinary Section, Surgeon’s Office, MauiMolokai

Veterinary Section, Surgeon’s Office, Kauai

District

Veterinary Section, Army Task Force,

Christmas Island
ASIATIC-PACIFIC THEATERS 291

Figure 24.—Military and civilian veterinarians attending the annual convention of

veterinarians in Hawaii, 21-22 June 1945. Left to right sitting Dr. J. M. Hendershot;

Dr. A. R. Glaisyer; Dr. J. FitzGerald; Dr. E. II. Willers; Col. W. O. Kester, YC; Col. E.

DeCoursey, MC; Mr. C. G. Lennox; Dr. A. A. Julian; Dr. L. A. Weight; Dr. W. H. Pang;

Dr. R. W. Pinfold; Capt. J. F. Winston. Left to right standing) Lt. Col. R. H. Yeager.

YC; Dr. W. F. Parker; Capt. F. Cowley, VC; Capt. F. W. Clark, VC; Lt. Col. J. D. Manges,

YC; Maj. L. T. Fisher, YC; Capt. G. T. Dalziel. VC; Dr. R. N. Beddow; Dr. J. E. Calvin;

Maj. E. F. Fink, VC; Lt. Col. F. L. Molt, VC Dr. C. E. Dow; Maj. R. R. Houser, VC; Maj.

F. I. Hammond, VC; Capt. E. B. Miller, VC; Capt. N. E. Johnston, VC; Lt. Col. C. 1).

Barrett, VC; Lt. G. H. Stuewer, VC; Capt. C. A. Gleiser, VC; Capt. M. Y. Carpenter, VC;

Capt. C. M. Hamilton, VC Maj. H. D. Smith, VC; Capt. A. E. Hancock, VC; Capt. J. A.

Rehkemper, VC; Capt. H. B. Studdert, VC; Capt. P. C. Enge, VC; Maj. E. W. Paul, VC.

This list does not include the veterinary sections for several Army garrison forces commands, medical laboratories (including the 14th Medical

Laboratory and the 18th Medical General Laboratory), and two veterinary

food inspection detachments that were attached for administrative purposes

or were being trained and otherwise processed for redeployment in campaign. Of the units listed, the 113th Medical Service Company (Veterinary)

was activated on 11 September 1944 on Oahu and eventually (on 15 March

1945) replaced its parent Veterinary General Hospital (Provisional), and

the 63d, 64th, and 65th Veterinary Animal Service Detachments which, after their arrival from the Zone of Interior in early December 1944, were

attached to the 4339th, 4340th, and 30th Quartermaster Pack Troops, respectively. The latter were being prepared for use in an amphibious assault

operation that was canceled later. As of 31 December 1944, the Army

Veterinary Service with the Central Pacific Base Command was provided

space authorizations for 27 officers and 192 enlisted personnel (fig. 24).

On 15 March 1945, the Central Pacific Base Command’s Veterinary

General Hospital (Provisional) was disbanded, and its missions and personnel were divided between the 113th Medical Service Company (Veterinary)
292 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

and two new depot veterinary detachments which were improvised for the

Quartermaster Service on Oahu, one for the 51st Quartermaster Base Depot,

at Kapalama Basin, and the other for the Quartermaster Supply Point No.

1, North Sector, at Schofield Barracks. During March 1945, the 3095th

Quartermaster Refrigeration Company (Fixed), with its own veterinary detachment, arrived and as integrated into the operations of the 51st Quar- termaster Base Depot. Then, in May 1945, the Veterinary Section, Surgeon’s

Office, Army Garrison Force, Kwajalein, was transferred from theater control to the jurisdiction of Central Pacific Base Command. Somewhat later, the 306th Veterinary Plospital Detachment arrived on Oahu from the Zone

of Interior and was attached to the Veterinary Station Hospital (for training and administrative purposes), and on August 1945, Headquarters, 38th

Veterinary Animal Service Detachment, was activated and organized locally

to administer the Combat Training Command’s three veterinary animal

service detachments with the three quartermaster pack troops (but it was

temporarily attached to the Veterinary Station Hospital for training and

administration purposes). On September 1945, the quartermaster pack

troops along with their veterinary detachments were reassigned from the

Combat Training Commands to Central Pacific Base Command’s Quarter- master Service; on 15 September 1945, the troops were inactivated and their

animals, now excess to military needs, were placed under caretaking basis

of the 298th Quartermaster Service Company. Concurrently, the 63d, 64th,

and 65th Veterinary Animal Service Detachments grouped their personnel

and services for these animals.

Shortly after the end of active hostilities, on November 1945, Headquarters, Central Pacific Base Command, lost its identity, with the merger

into Headquarters, USAFMIDPAC. The Oahu Medical Service, successor

to the original Medical Service Command, then came under direct supervision of the theater surgeon and included the 113th Medical Service Company (Veterinary), the Veterinary Station Hospital (Provisional); 306th

Veterinary Hospital Detachment (until its inactivation on 30 November

1945) Headquarters, 38th Veterinary Animal Service Detachment (until its

inactivation on December 1945) and the 18th Medical General Laboratory

(which was transferred from theater jurisdiction during October 1945).

The new Oahu Quartermaster Service, USAFMIDPAC, effective on November 1945, continued the two provisional depot veterinary detachments

on subsistence inspection and the three veterinary animal service detachments.

South Pacific Base Command.—-This was the continuation of what

remained of the former USAFISPA after August 1944. When the Army

forces and activities in this original theaterlike Pacific command were reorganized at the organizational level of base subcommand element of the

new TJSAFPOA, their principal activities were to provide some logistic support to the campaigns in the western areas of the Pacific and to “roll up”
ASIATIC-PACIFIC THEATERS 293

the island bases by the removal of excess supplies. Actually, on account of

shortages in shipping space and the great distances to the new areas of

combat in the Philippines, Marianas, and Ryukyus, these excess supplies were

not completely transshipped out of the South Pacific Area and much of

them were disposed of locally. This was particularly true in regard to the

subsistence stockpiles—large quantities of which were too old and too deteriorated or damaged for transshipment. On the other hand, most of the

Army horses and mules formerly on New Caledonia and Guadalcanal were

transshipped to USAFICBI (U.S. Army Forces, China-Burma-India), and

more attention was then redirected by the Army Veterinary Service to

the inspection of the meat and dairy food industries in New Zealand that

were supplying food to the armed services.

On 20 August 1944, Headquarters, Services of Supply, which was administering the service forces organizations, called service commands, on the

several island bases, as discontinued, and the various service commands

were then consolidated with the tactical headquarters or island commands

at these bases to form single island command. This occured on New

Caledonia, Espiritu Santo, Fiji, and Guadalcanal, each having its own island

command veterinarian. At about this time, the Army activities on Efate and

the Russell Islands were reorganized as subbases to Espiritu Santo and

Guadalcanal Island Commands, respectively; also, New Zealand Service

Command was redesignated (on 20 August 1944) as U.S. Army Forces,

New Zealand; Fiji Service Command became (during October 1944) U.S.

Army Forces, Fiji; and Espiritu Santo Service Command became (on 20

November 1944) U.S. Army Forces, Espiritu Santo. Then, during October

and November 1944, veterinary services in Fiji, on Efate, and in the Russell

Islands were terminated. As of 31 December 1944, the Army Veterinary

Service in the SPA (South Pacific Area) had been reduced to strength

of approximately 26 officers and 57 enlisted personnel; these were stationed

as follows:

Veterinary Section, Surgeon’s Office, Headquarters, South Pacific Base Command

Veterinary Headquarters Company, South

Pacific Base Command

Veterinary Section, Surgeon’s Office, New

Caledonia Island Command:

Veterinary Detachment, 292d Quarter- master Refrigeration Company

Veterinary Section, Surgeon’s Office, U.S.

Army Forces, Espiritu Santo

Veterinary Section, Surgeon’s Office, Guadalcanal Island Command:

Veterinary Detachment, 278th Quartermaster Refrigeration Company

Veterinary Section, 6th Medical Laboratory

Veterinary Section, Surgeon’s Office, U.S.

Army Forces, New Zealand

Veterinary Detachment, Joint Army-Navy

Purchasing Board, New Zealand

During the next year, the rollup of the South Pacific island bases was

continued, and as they became available, the Veterinary Corps officers were

transferred from the bases to duty in New Zealand with the joint ArmyNavy Purchasing Board or to the Central Pacific Base Command for redeployment into the Western Pacific campaigns. In May-June 1945, Head-
294 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Figure 25.—Veterinary dispensary and office of Army Garrison Force veterinarian, Tinian, early 1945.

quarters, South Pacific Base Command, was reorganized and renamed Army

Service Command-0 and then moved from New Caledonia to Luzon, pending the activation of plans for its use as logistic support organization during the invasion of Japan. Concurrently, New Caledonia Island Command, with its staff veterinarian, moved into control of and, in fact, became the

new headquarters of South Pacific Base Command.

Western Pacific Base Command.—This command, the last of the three

base subcommands to be established in the CPA, was created, effective on

25 April 1945, to administer the Army garrison force commands which had

followed the joint Army-Navy landings that were made in the Marianas and

Palau groups and on Iwo Jima. Originally, these garrison forces, each

with veterinary officers as assistants to the respective garrison force surgeons, were organized as provisional headquarters groups in the Hawaiian

Islands and were shipped in time to arrive at destination to 10 to 50 days

after the initial assault landings were made. The Army garrison force

veterinarians set up stations on Saipan on 25 June 1944, on Tinian on 11

August 1944 (fig. 25), on Guam on 10 August 1944, on Angaur during

October 1944, and on Iwo Jima in early March 1945. Usually, one or more

veterinary food inspection detachments accompanied the move of these garri-
ASIATIC-PACIFIC THEATERS 295

son force organizations from the Hawaiian Islands, or arrived at later

date directly from the Zone of Interior; others were activated and organized on the islands. These included the 113th (Provisional) and the 742d (formerly JJ) Veterinary Food Inspection Detachments from the Hawaiian

Islands; the 147th and 148th which arrived during March and April 1945

from the Zone of Interior; and the 745th, 746th, and 747th Veterinary Food

Inspection Detachments which were activated and organized effective on 25

June 1945 within Western Pacific Base Command. In addition, on Saipan, there was the 12th Medical Laboratory complete with veterinary section, which arrived from the Zone of Interior during May 1945; during the next

month, veterinary officer with the 821st Hospital Concentration Center

arrived from the Zone of Interior to augment the existing veterinary

service organization on Tinian. As of mid-1945, the Western Pacific Base

Command included:

Veterinarian, Surgeon’s Office, Headquarters, Western Pacific Base Command

Veterinarian, Surgeon’s Office, Army Garrison Force, Saipan:

742d and 747th Veterinary Food Inspection Detachments

Veterinary Section, 12th Medical Laboratory

Veterinarian, Surgeon’s Office, Army Garrison Force, Tinian:

148th Veterinary Food Inspection

Detachment

Veterinarian, 821st Hospital Concentration Center

Veterinarian, Surgeon’s Office, Army Garrison Force, Guam:

174th, 745th, and 74Gth Veterinary Food

Inspection Detachments

Veterinarian, Surgeon’s Office, Army Garrison Force, Angaur

Veterinarian, Surgeon’s Office, Army Garrison Force, wo Jima

113th Veterinary Food Inspection Detachment (Provisional)

These Army garrison forces were comparable to the service commands

which were formed earlier in the war in the outlying Plawaiian Islands or

to the service command organizations on the South Pacific island bases.

Throughout the Western Pacific Base Command, the garrison forces veterinarians provided such professional services as were required by all of the

armed services on the islands, including Marine Corps ration dumps, military dogs, and civil affairs and military government activities which were

Navy-administered. More often than not, the garrison forces veterinarians

acted at the staff level of the respective local island command headquarters,

and at least one Navy-administered island command recognized the Veterinary Corps officer officially on orders as island command veterinarian.

Tenth U.S, Army and Other Ground Forces

The beginning of the found no ground forces units with organically

assigned veterinary personnel in the CPA. There were two divisions, the

24th Infantry Division and the 25th Infantry Division, which were organized in the fall of 1941, but these had no assigned veterinary officers until

the next year or prior to their departure from the Hawaiian Department.
296 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

The 25th Infantry Division departed during July 1942 for participation in the Guadalcanal Campaign, then under operational control of USAFISPA, and the 24th Infantry Division was “lifted out” year later for deployment in the SWPA. The following divisions, each with their own division

veterinarians, came into the Hawaiian Islands: The 27th Infantry Division

in the spring of 1942, followed later that year by the 40th Infantry Division, and then, during 1943, the 7th Infantry Division, which had participated in the Aleutian campaign, and the 33d Infantry Division. Soon after

mid-July 1943, when new War Department T/O’s (tables of organization)

for the standard new type (triangular) infantry division unit discontinued

the veterinary personnel space authorizations, the 7th, 27th, 33d, and 44th

Infantry Divisions dropped their division veterinarians. During April 1944,

Headquarters, XXIV Corps, was activated and organized, but it, too, had

no assigned veterinarian because T/O’s for the standard army corps headquarters, as revised in March 1943, did not authorize corps veterinarian.

Later, the XXIV Corps participated in the Leyte campaign and was returned to the CPA in the spring of 1945 when it was assigned to Tenth

U.S. Army to participate in the Ryukyus operation. The largest ground

forces unit in the CPA, however, did have its own veterinary personnel;

namely, Headquarters, Tenth U.S. Army. This arrived on Oahu from the

Zone of Interior during September 1944, and subsequently, in the spring of

1945, directed the landings and campaign on Okinawa, le Shima, and other

Japanese islands in the Ryukyus chain.

Preparatory to departure for Operation ICEBERG, Tenth U.S. Army’s

veterinary organization was built up, in the Central Pacific Base Command,

to include the veterinary sections of the 14th Medical Laboratory (which

in July 1944 had been activated and organized locally from the former

Hawaiian Department, or Central Pacific Area, Medical Laboratory); the

53d Medium Port (activated and organized during the fall of 1944) the

279th Signal Pigeon Combat Platoon; and several Army garrison forces headquarters. The latter included Army Garrison Force, Okinawa; Army Garrison Force, le Shima; Army Garrison Force, APO 458, which after V-J Day

was diverted from Okinawa to Korea; and Army Garrison Force, APO

457, which did not leave the Hawaiian Islands, it being discontinued on

15 July 1945. There was also joint Army-Navy island command headquarters staff that was planned to regulate all military operations (including the Army Garrison Force, Okinawa) in the areas behind the Tenth

U.S. Army. However, soon after the landings were made, Headquarters,

Island Command, Okinawa, seemed to have absorbed Headquarters, Army

Garrison Force, Okinawa, so that by early May 1945, service forces veterinary activities were being supervised by an island command veterinarian,

who had been elevated in the level of military organization from his former

position as garrison force veterinarian. This administrative change enhanced

the coordination of the rear area veterinary activities with that of the Tenth
ASIATIC-PACIFIC THEATERS 297

U.S. Army and with the separate military government organization in regard to civilian affairs on Okinawa. Also, veterinary services were provided to the Marine Corps combat forces, particularly in the inspection of

their food supply; it may be added that few captured horses were processed for the Marine Corps to mount provisional pack train for hauling

ammunition. During May 1945, the Army Veterinary Service on Okinawa

gained the 142d, 143d, 144th, 145th, and 149th Veterinary Food Inspection

Detachments, and that on le Shima gained the 146th Veterinary Food Detachment—these detachments arriving by direct movement from the Zone

of Interior. Effective on August 1945, operational control over Tenth

U.S. Army, Island Command, and other units and personnel in the Ryukyus

was transferred from USAFMIDPAC to the jurisdiction of USAFPAC;

concurrently, the Okinawa Base Command was created to administer the

local service forces.

Seventh and Twentieth Air Forces

The Seventh Air Force, or the Hawaiian Air Force as it was referred

to before February 1942, originally was provided attending veterinary services at its Hickam Field and Wheeler Field installations. On 19 June 1942,

Veterinary Corps officer was assigned full-time duty at Hickam Field, with

additional duty as the theater’s air forces veterinarian. During this time, senior headquarters organization was superimposed over the Seventh Air

Force which changed its name from AAF, Hawaiian Department, to Headquarters, AAF, CPA, in August 1943, and year later, to Headquarters,

AAF, POA. By the end of 1943, the foregoing included veterinarian in

the headquarters medical section. Sometime later, veterinary detachments as

part of the air service command were established at Hickam, Wheeler, and

Bellows Fields on Oahu.

The other air forces unit in the CPA having its own veterinary service

organization was the Twentieth Air Force, particularly its XXI Bomber

Command. This command operated the long-range bomber (B-29) program against the Japanese mainland and was controlled by the Commanding General, AAF, in Washington, D.C. The XXI Bomber Command

started to move from the Zone of Interior into the Marianas during the

fall of 1944 and, in December 1944, was joined on Guam by the 5th Veterinary Detachment, Aviation (made up of basic detachment and two subsections). The latter provided food surveillance inspection at all B-29 airbases which were established, including those of the Twentieth Air Force’s

XX Bomber Command which came into the Marianas during the early

months of 1945 from the bases in India and China from which it had been

operating since the opening months of 1944. Another air forces organization was the Pacific Wing, Air Transport Command, which operated from

its headquarters established in February 1943 at Hickam Field and covered

the aerial route through the CPA from the United States to Xew Caledonia
298 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

in the SPA. During 1945, veterinary officer was added to the wing sin

geon’s office.

U.S. ARMY FORCES IN SOUTH PACIFIC AREA

The USAFISPA, with headquarters at Noumea, was created on July

1942 to supervise and coordinate the several Army task forces that had

begun to move into the South Pacific islands since the beginning of that year.

By mid-1942, Army troop strength in this area, which was the assigned

command responsibility of the Navy, approximated 60,000 air, ground, and

service units. It included the Americal Division on New Caledonia, the

37th Division in the Fiji Islands, and scattering of smaller defense forces

on New Zealand, on Togatabu in the Tonga Island group, Bora Bora in

the Society Islands, on Upolu and Wallis Islands in Samoa, and, later that

year, on Tongareva and Aitutaki in the Cook Islands. Veterinary personnel

had come into the area with the American First Task Force—later (in

May 1942) reorganized as the Americal Division—which had landed on New

Caledonia on 12 March 1942, and with the 37th Division which arrived during April 1942. On New Caledonia, also, there were the 97th Field Artillery

Pack Battalion and Troop of 252d Quartermaster Remount Squadron,

both with their own veterinary detachments, which had arrived on April

and July 1942, respectively. The veterinary service organization on New

Caledonia continued to expand throughout the remainder of 1942. The 112th

Cavalry Regiment arrived on 11 August, and the 283d Quartermaster Refrigeration Platoon, Fixed, and the 43d Infantry Division arrived during

November; before the end of the year, as the Americal Division was departing for the campaign on Guadalcanal, the 43d Infantry Division arrived

from the Zone of Interior. On Guadalcanal, the Americal Division was

joined, during December 1942, by the 25th Infantry Division, originally

from the Hawaiian Department. These four combat divisions then had their

own assigned division veterinarians. Including the veterinarian with the 1st

Port of Embarkation that set up station on New Zealand in December, the

Army Veterinary Service with USAFISPA, as of the end of 1942, comprised 13 officers.

This number of veterinary officers also included the theater veterinarian, who, soon after his arrival from the Zone of Interior, in late September 1942, was assigned to the Surgeon’s Office, Headquarters, USAFISPA. The assignment did not last for any great length of time because,

on December 1942, he was transferred to the theater’s service of supply

organization that had been developing during the past months. After that,

date, the position of the theater’s chief veterinary officer fluctuated between

Theater veterinarians, or senior veterinary officers acting in that capacity, included: Maj.

,T. H. Boutin, VC (28 September 1942-27 March 1943), Col. H. E. Watson, VC (6 October 1943-

26 May 1944), and Col. E. E. Hodgson, VC (late July 1944-1 August 1944). Capt. R. O. Moore,

VC, served as interim theater veterinarian at the level of Headquarters, Services of Supply (May

1944-July 1944).
ASIATIC-PACIFIC THEATERS 299

Headquarters, USAFISPA, and Headquarters, Services of Supply, SPA,

and for period of months there was none. During March 1943, the

aforementioned veterinary officer was released from his Services of Supply

staff position for reassignment elsewhere, and no successor staff veterinarian

was named immediately. Then, on October 1943, Veterinary Corps

officer newly arrived from the Zone of Inferior was assigned as assistant to

the Surgeon, USAFISPA, and this office of theater veterinarian was continued until May 1944 when (for physical disability) the incumbent was

evacuated to the United States. Somewhat later, the theater's veterinary

service organization was administered by company grade officer, assigned

to Services of Supply headquarters, who was replaced only during the last

few days of July 1944 by senior veterinary officer, the third to be so

assigned, who had arrived from the Zone of Interior for duty as staff

veterinarian in Headquarters, USAFISPA.

During this period, beginning in the fall of 1942, Army and Marine

Corps divisions had moved northward, island by island, through the Solomons and by March 1944 had landed on Emirau in the Bismarck Archipelago; this last operation ended the tactical mission of the SPA. As of the

end of 1943, the Army Veterinary Service in the theater command included

26 officers and 81 enlisted personnel, but new additions of service forces

units during the next few months increased this strength to 40 Veterinary

Corps officers. The additions included the arrivals, during February 1944, of the 278th Quartermaster Refrigeration Company, Fixed, and 6th Medical

Laboratory on Guadalcanal, and, during March 1944, of the 292d Quarter- master Refrigeration Company, Fixed, on New Caledonia—the latter taking

the place of the original 283d Refrigeration Platoon which had departed

from the theater during August 1943 (fig. 26). As of June 1944, the Army Veterinary Service with USAFISPA was distributed as follows:

Surgeon’s Office, Headquarters, Services of Supply, SPA

Veterinary Detachment, South Pacific General Depot

Veterinary Detachment, 292d Quartermaster Refrigeration Company, Fixed

Veterinary Detachment, 112th Cavalry

Regiment (Dismounted)

Veterinary Detachment, Troop B, 251st

Quartermaster Remount Squadron (successor to Troop A, 252d Quartermaster

Remount Squadron)

Medical Section, Guadalcanal Service Command

Veterinary Section, 6th Medical Laboratory

Veterinary Detachment, 2T8th Quartermaster Refrigeration Company, Fixed

Medical Section, New Zealand Service

Command

Medical Section, Fiji Service Command

Medical Section, Espiritu Santo Service

Command

Medical Section, Elate Service Command

Medical Section, Russell Islands Service

Command

Medical Section, Bougainville Service Command

Medical Section, Treasury Islands Service

Command

Medical Section, New Georgia Service

Command

Medical Section, Emirau Service Command

Medical Section, Green Islands Service

Command

Veterinary Detachment, Joint Army-Navy

Purchasing Board, New Zealand

590248 —61——21
300 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Figure 26.—Col. Wayne O. Kester, VC, Veterinarian, Pacific

Ocean Areas, and Col. Ernest E. Hodgson, VC, comparing the keeping qualities of meat and dairy products received on New Caledonia

from the United States and New Zealand.

By June 1944, with the termination of the tactical mission of SPA,

USAFISPA was beginning to be disassembled. During June 1944, the

more northerly located bases of the Solomon Islands group and in the Bismarck Archipelago were transferred to the jurisdiction of SWPA (and

eventually reorganized under the administrative control of U.S. Army

Forces, Northern Solomons), as were most of the air and ground forces

some, however, not moving until much later in the year. Effective on

August 1944, USAFISPA was inactivated and such as remained was reorganized as South Pacific Base Command, as this area was being added to

the CPA Area in the formation of the newly created USAFPOA.

Services of Supply, South Pacific Area

The services of supply organization of USAFISPA originated with

the formation in mid-October 1942 of service command at Auckland, New

Zealand. In September 1942, this service command headquarters was redesignated and moved to Noumea, and, before the end of the year, the nominal

chief veterinarian for the theater was assigned to it. The services of
ASIATIC-PACIFIC THEATERS 301

supply headquarters coordinated and supervised service forces personnel and

activities on the various island bases which were administered by local

service command headquarters—one for each major island base. The service

command acted as the logistic support force, such as for the receiving, storing, and distributing of subsistence, to all Army air and ground troops and

Navy and Marine Corps units which were located on given island, the

latter being centrally grouped under an island command. This organization

in the SPA of an island command and service command at each base

was comparable to the district (or Army tactical) headquarters and the

service commands that were set up in the Hawaiian Islands in early 1942.

(Of course, island commands could be Army, Navy, Marine Corps, or Air Forces administered.)

Unless Veterinary Corps officer belonged to the Army tactical unit

which administered particular island command headquarters, then there

was no island command veterinarian. Thus, until June 1943 on Guadalcanal, the veterinarian of the 25th Infantry Division was detailed additional duty with the Surgeon’s Office, XIV Corps, and then in turn, as

island command veterinarian. Elsewhere, veterinary officers on assignment

to most island bases became service command veterinarians; actually, few

service command veterinarians were ever assigned when the service forces

organizations on the islands were created because there was no base plan

or so-called manning tables for organizing the service command headquarters staffs uniformly on the bases throughout the SPA.

As result, most service command veterinary operations, particularly

those relating to food inspection on the various island bases, were late in

starting, being set up in New Zealand during December 1942, on New Caledonia during November 1942, in the summer-fall of 1943 in the Fiji Islands,

on 10 May 1943 on Espiritu Santo, during February 1944 on Efate, on

18 January 1944 in the Russell Islands, and during June 1944 on Guadalcanal. On New Caledonia, general depot organization was developed

under service command control, and, though large subsistence stockpile was

developed, the theater’s largest ration storage and distribution centers were

located in New Zealand and operated by the Joint Army-Navy Purchasing

Board located there. The Guadalcanal Service Command became major

subsistence supply base in logistic support of the subsequent fighting in the

SPA. As the fighting advanced up through the Solomons and into the

Bismarck Archipelago, additional service commands were formed, and service command veterinarians came on duty on New Georgia in November 1943,

in the Treasury Islands during April 1944, on Bougainville during late

December 1943, in the Green Islands on 23 May 1944, and in the Emirau

Islands on 28 May 1944. Though the dates for veterinary services on many

bases seem to be relatively late, the foregoing relates only to service commands of the Services of Supply. Actually, division or task force veterinarians sometimes had arrived earlier with the landing or assault troops and
302 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

then departed before the service command-assigned veterinarians arrived

the unfortunate situation being that there was interruption in the continuity of veterinary activities at many bases.

Veterinary animal service activities in the SPA originally developed

about remount depot and two mounted combat units, but, before these had

been closed or dismounted and the horses and mules transshipped out of the

theater to TTSAFCBI, the inspections of food had become the major activity.

In regard to animals, the 97th Field Artillery Pack Battalion, on arrival

on New Caledonia, procured an estimated 180 animals locally and began to

receive the first two of nine shipments of 2,032 horses shipped from

USAFIA (U.S. Army Forces in Australia). (Actually, 10 shipments totaling 2,515 horses were made from Australia, but one animal transport was

sunk en route by an enemy submarine.) Later, with the arrival of Troop A,

252d Quartermaster Remount Squadron, which received and processed mule

shipments from the Zone of Interior and Panama Canal Department, the

battalion exchanged most of its horses for the mules and then departed with

947 animals during January-February 1943 for Guadalcanal, but only few

of the animals were actually used before the campaign there was ended.

In March and May 1944, the battalion's animals, such as remained, were

transshipped out of the theater to USAFICBI. In the interim, on New

Caledonia, the depot issued large numbers of horses to the 112th Cavalry

Regiment, which had arrived there during August 1942 and was deployed

to patrol duty along the coastline. However, in May 1943, the regiment

was dismounted and transferred to the SWPA, but its veterinary detachment was retained at the remount depot to assist in the care of the turned-in

regimental animals. The depot unit, Troop A, 252d Quartermaster Remount

Squadron, which in January 1942 was returned on paper to the Zone of

Interior but was replaced by the newly activated and locally organized

Troop B, 251st Quartermaster Remount Squadron, began to ship its holdings of the excess animals to the China-Burma-India theater in September

1943 and, soon after the last animal transport was embarked, was disbanded

(on 15 October 1944). During September 1944, the 112th Cavalry Regiment’s veterinary detachment departed to join its parent unit in the SWPA.

The veterinary service with USAFISPA provided veterinary care for an

average animal (horses and mules) strength of 1,785. During the period

from May 1942 to July 1944, there were 4,313 admissions, and 466 animals

died or were destroyed.

Subsistence supply to USAFISPA originated from the Zone of Interior, from the SWPA, and from sources in New Zealand where Navy- administered joint procurement agency, the Joint Purchasing Board, was

established. At the beginning, these foods were received, stored, and issued

under the technical supervision of divisional veterinarians and veterinary

personnel belonging to the island commands at the various bases. During

the winter months of 1942-43, these veterinary surveillance inspections of
ASIATIC-PACIFIC THEATERS 303

the Army’s subsistence supplies on New Caledonia and Guadalcanal were

formally organized with the arrivals of the veterinary detachments of two

quartermaster refrigeration units, but, elsewhere throughout the South Pacific

bases, except on New Zealand, this kind of surveillance was only temporary

or sporadic. Usually, after the tactical division veterinarian departed from

given base, several months elapsed before another service forces veterinarian

arrived on that island to resume veterinary food inspection program.

This program, pursuant to the definition of responsibilities of the services

of supply organization on the island bases, pertained not only to the food

supplied to the Army and airfields but also, after the spring of 1943, to the

subsistence supply of naval shore installations and Marine Corps units on

the islands. Taking into account the interrupted veterinary food inspection

services, the heat and humid climatic conditions of the area, and the rapid,

haphazard buildup of large stockpiles that were left behind when the tactical

forces departed for another island invasion, it was obvious that considerable

quantities of food became unsuitable for use and ultimately were recommended for condemnation.

Frequently, when the services of supply organization assigned veterinarians to the service commands, the latter on arrival found the subsistence supplies to be in open areas, uncovered except possibly for tarpaulin thrown over the stacks and without flooring and interstack dunnage;

the high piles had buried the lowermost cases into the coral sand. As was

true at the New Guinea bases, the ration dumps were built hurriedly, and

there were no permanent or proper semipermanent structures of any sort

for storage. Deterioration and spoilage, being nonreversible process in

nonperishable subsistence, had already advanced to the degree that little of

the subsistence, now surplus to the rapidly “cutbacked” bases, could be

reclaimed by salvage procedures for reshipment to other bases. Of course,

sometimes there were not enough shipping vessels available to theater control for transporting these supplies from one island base into the next island

campaign. As result, beginning in 1944, the veterinary food inspection activities in the SPA were diverted from that of surveillance to prevent or

minimize food losses and deterioration to that of surveillance to prevent the

distribution of unsound foods to troops. For example, during the first

months of 1944, the quantities of meat and dairy products condemned following veterinary inspection totaled more than 10 million pounds.

Joint Army-Navy Purchasing Board, New Zealand

In New Zealand, the principal rear supply base for feeding the South

Pacific forces, the Army Veterinary Service encountered many problems not

experienced elsewhere in the theater. During the winter months of 1942-43,

veterinary officers assigned to divisional, port, and general hospital units in

New Zealand advised on certain conditions that should have governed the

procurement operations of the Joint Army-Navy Purchasing Board, including
304 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

the development of adequate and proper Army veterinary food procurement

inspection services. However, nothing came of these recommendations, because senior administrators adopted policies of leniency for accepting supplies

at regular prices, with little or no inspection, and generally supported the

contentions by New Zealand officials and food industries that anything from

the country’s export trade was acceptable on the history of past, peacetime

reputation for quality products.

Of course, in New Zealand, there was national agricultural inspection

agency that was recognized by the U.S. Department of Agriculture; therefore, the inception of Army veterinary food inspection services to cooperate with that agency, although these services were primarily to safeguard the

quality of the Armed Forces subsistence supply, seemed to present political

problem (which did not arise) that the Navy command desired to avoid, at least in New Zealand. On the other hand, the Joint Army-Navy Purchasing Board accepted, as perhaps necessary, that the foods after their arrival

at Army bases and before issue to the messhalls would be inspected. The

early studies on Veterinary Corps inspection of subsistence procurement in

New Zealand centered about the quality of the food rather than about its

wholesomeness.

There was no concept, for example, by the Navy-administered agency

that bobby veal livers (from immature calves or calves in the uterus of

cows which were slaughtered) comprised part of the reputable New

Zealand export pack or that the procurement of fresh fluid milk and canned

evaporated milk in New Zealand would have to be terminated because of

Bacillus coli contamination. Also, by the fall of 1944, it had become evident, even to the joint board, that 10 percent spoilage in the canned evaporated milk procured in New Zealand was too great without an investigation of its procurement program, and this factor, together with the B. coli

contamination and the existence in the industry of great many insanitary

practices and equipment that could not or would not be corrected, finally

led to the termination of procurement of this commodity. In regard to

poultry, an undeveloped industry, the Army Veterinary Service alone set

up the standards of sanitary quality control. It was remarkable, also, that

the Navy-administered joint procurement board took no immediate and firm

steps to prohibit the admixture of boric acid to the curing agents used in the

New Zealand production of bacon and ham. In any event, during the

summer-fall of 1943, for the first time, one Veterinary Corps officer was

assigned full-time duty with the joint procurement agency; there were then

15 bacon plants, 38 meat plants, and 20 dairies (involved in the manufacture of cheese) under contractual obligation, and large quantities of subsistence were being held in commercial warehouses and cold storage plants for

reshipment to, or in reserve for, the island bases.

In the instance of both products, the contamination was reported from the island bases and

not by the board or New Zealand agencies who maintained little or no laboratory control.
ASIATIC-PACIFIC THEATERS 305

During February 1044, 10 officers were added to the Inspection Division, Joint Purchasing Board, and were assigned to the six area (or field)

offices at Auckland, Wellington, New Plymouth, Palmerston, Napier, and

South Island. In two areas, the local inspection divisions, consisting of

meat and dairy products branch and vegetable branch, were headed by

veterinary officers. As of June 1945, the Army Veterinary Service with

U.S. Joint Purchasing Board, SPA, totaled 11 officers and 55 enlisted personnel. Between July 1942 and December 1945, more than 500 million

pounds of foods of animal origin were inspected at the time of procurement

or delivery in New Zealand; in the period from July 1942 through 30

November 1944, for which such data are available, the inspection of 366,-

035,144 pounds of this amount (valued at $52 million) included

Pounds

Fresh, frozen meat 195,175,097

Canned meat 61,931,657

Bacon and ham 39,245,261

Butter 37,910,627

Cheese 12,674,182

Canned evaporated milk 19,098,320

Thirteenth Air Force

The Thirteenth Air Force, activated in January 1943, with headquarters

stationed initially on Espiritu Santo, seemed to have had no organically

assigned veterinary personnel during its stay in the SPA. In fact, the position vacancy for that air force headquarters veterinarian, such as was prescribed by T/O’s, was occupied by flight surgeon (2). However, as will

be mentioned later, in the fall of 1944 when the unit moved into the SWPA,

the 4th Veterinary Detachment, Aviation, was activated and organized specifically for duty with the Thirteenth Air Force.

U.S. ARMY FORCES IN THE FAR EAST

Philippine Islands Campaign

The Army Veterinary Service with the USAFISWPA included that

of the original Philippine Department which was lost in the defense of

the Philippines, December 1941 to 10 May 1942, against Japanese aggressors, and that which was established in Australia in x\pril 1942. At the

onset of the war period, the Philippine Department included the department

veterinarian who supervised veterinary food inspection activities and professional animal services at six installations (J, J, 5). There were veterinary

hospitals in operation at Manila, Fort William McKinley, and Fort Stotsenberg, and veterinary officers were assigned to duty with four mounted

units of the Philippine Scouts organization: 26th Cavalry Regiment, Battery

Department veterinarians included Col. Mott Ramsey, VC, from February 1941 to May 1942,

when he was evacuated from Corregidor for return to the United States as hospital patient, and

Lt. Col. J. W. Worthington, VC, who acted as department veterinarian through the last weeks of

the fight on Bataan.
306 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

of 23d Field Artillery Battalion, and 65th and 66th Separate Quarter- master Troops (Pack). In addition, there was veterinary company unit

with headquarters at Fort William McKinley, but this did not become

operational because most of its enlisted personnel were transferred to duty

with the foregoing units. As of mid-1941, Army horse and mule strength in the Philippine Department approximated 1,650 animals. During July

1941, the department’s troops and sucli Philippine Army units, as were

being inducted into military service of the United States, had been regrouped

to better the local defenses and were designated as USAFFE. Therewith, the Philippine Department was reduced to the status of service forces

organization. The headquarters special staff sections, however, were generally left intact, so the department veterinarian was continued as the principal veterinary officer in the area. There were 12 veterinary officers in the

Philippines as of December 1941.

After the Japanese landed in the Philippines (on December 1941),

the life of this veterinary service organization was brief but dramatic.

Before Christmas Day, the U.S. forces started their withdrawal to Bataan

peninsula, and, on January 1942, the Japanese occupied Manila. By the

end of that month, animal losses totaled 501. including those dying or

destroyed on account of disease and injury, wounded and killed in action, or destroyed to prevent their capture. For January 1942, the monthly mean

strength was 894 horses and mules, these being distributed between Fort

Mills (46), the cavalry regiment (300), the field artillery battery (125), and

the two pack troops (268 and 155, respectively). During the next few

months, veterinary officers with these mounted units acted to establish troop

medical aid stations, treated sick and wounded animals, scattered the animals when the Japanese threatened to capture them, and eventually set up

corrals on Bataan from which animals were sent for slaughter to provide

meat to the forces. One veterinary officer was stationed on Corregidor, the island fortress for Manila; another was stationed at the City of Cebu; while

another was redetailed into Cavalry to take command of mechanized troop

of the 26th Cavalry Regiment after it was dismounted. Probably, the most

important activity by the Army Veterinary Service on Bataan concerned

the foraging for carabao and the development of fresh meat supply for

the forces (S).

The inspection of food supplies was modified by the acute shortage of normal army

rations. To augment this supply the slaughter of army horses and mules, of native

carabao, the full development of Bataan’s fishing resources, and the importation of beef

from nearby islands offered the most promising possibilities. With this problem in mind,

upon my arrival in Bataan, made hasty reconnaissance of the peninsula in order to

estimate the total number of carabao available that might he slaughtered for food purposes. Approximately 2,200 were found south of our Abucay-Moron line. As it was

estimated that our consumption on full ration would require at least 1,000 carcasses per

month, made recommendations to the Quartermaster that fifteen to twenty thousand

carabao be immediately herded into the lower Bataan area, from the Abucay-Lubao

region, and held there as an emergency reserve. Since carabao seem to thrive \ipon any
ASIATIC-PACIFIC THEATERS 307

kind of vegetation, the problem of their food supply was of only secondary importance.

The Quartermaster thought it was most excellent idea, but took no necessary steps

towards its accomplishment. Thus the last opportunity for securing full year's reserve

supply of fresh meat soon vanished.

Urgent necessity, however, required that greatest possible advantage be made of the

limited available supply. I, therefore, submitted program, in detail, to the General

of the Bataan Defense Forces, recommending appropriate steps designed to insure the

delivery of fresh meat to troops in the held. This program was approved without

change, and delivery was accomplished with very little trouble, interruption, or irregularity from January 1942 to April 1942.

This program was based upon the utilization of Veterinary Personnel of the Philippine Army, together with civilian laborers, since all Regular Army personnel of the

Veterinary Service, under Colonel Ramsey, was otherwise assigned. Our organization

included 1G veterinarians (officers) and 45 enlisted men (Philippine Army) and approximately 200 civilians. The full program consisted in the procurement, transportation,

and slaughter of carabao, the veterinary inspection of the dressed carcasses, and the

transportation of the fresh meat to the Quartermaster Dumps and to troop kitchens in

the held. All of these functions were performed under my direct supervision, by officers

and enlisted men of the Philippine Army Veterinary Service, since no help from Regular

Army Veterinary Personnel was available except toward the end of the campaign when

certain officers and enlisted men became surplus in their own organizations.

Purchase of the carabao was big undertaking in itself, since properly authenticated

vouchers, by owners and witnesses, were required in each individual case. For this

purpose secured the appointment of Captain Faustino F. Turla, Veterinary Corps (P.A.)

as agent officer. Captain Turla is an exceptionally able, intelligent, and conscientious

officer, with legal training in addition to his veterinary qualideations. Captain Turla

performed all of his duties in very highly efficient and commendable manner. frequently received very pleasing compliments from the Luzon Force Finance Officer regarding the excellence of Captain Turin’s x’ecords and accounts.

Our policy was to operate, on all occasions, as far forward as possible, in order to

secure every available carabao. Native civilian employees, working under my supervision, beyond our lines, helped materially in augmenting the supply, by slow pressure

and by gradual working of animals across the lines. Approximately 1,800 additional

carabao were secured by this method.

The initial price paid for mature carabao, determined upon in conference with the

Governor of Bataan, and Mayors of Pilar, Balanga and Orion, was sixteen pesos

(P 1G.00). Approximately 1,000 carabao were purchased at this average price. Later,

by order of the Quartermaster, the price was hxed at sixty pesos (P 60.00) for fullgrown animals. Even higher prices were paid as the supply finally dwindled toward

the vanishing point.

In few instances carabao were lost after purchase, due to enemy bombing of

temporary enclosures, and to breaks in the Quartermaster corral fences. Branding of

animals at time of purchase was resorted to in order to prevent their possible repurchase since identification was otherwise impossible. Sabotage in at least one instance

seems to have been responsible for the release of carabao after purchase. However, the

average price of all carabao purchased, including losses, would appear to be well within

reason. While accurate figures are unobtainable at the present time, the cost per pound

of the dressed carcass and edible offal is estimated as approximately that for fresh beef

otherwise purchased by the U.S. Army for the same period.

For sanitary reasons our veterinary field abattoirs consisted of bridge or platforms, across swiftly flowing mountain streams, upon which the carabao were slaughtered. The pollution of the stream was prevented by the hauling away of all inedible

offal and refuse, and its burial in deep trenches. At the same time, an ample supply

590248'-—61——22
308 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

of clean, fresh water was always available for cleaning and scrubbing of the killing

floor, so that maximum degree of sanitation was possible at all times. Overhanging

trees and tropical vegetation provided excellent camouflage. Bombing caused us no

inconvenience at any time. Veterinary inspection of carcasses proceeded normally as the

dressing operations progressed. Approximately one per cent (1%) of all animals slaughtered were rejected for sanitary reasons, about 90% of all carabao livers were rejected

because of excessive infestation with liver flukes. Approximately 05,000 pounds of meat

was lost after slaughter, due to the bombing of the cold storage plant on Corregidor

and for other unavoidable causes incident to hostilities.

Dressed carcasses, loaded immediately on waiting trucks, were transferred to Quar- termaster Dumps or field kitchens, wherever trucks could travel in Bataan. Four heavy

trucks were in constant use for this purpose. Deliveries were made daily to Quarter- master Dumps and three times wmekly to hospitals and field kitchens. Approximately

120 separate units received daily delivery service. Because of the absence of any kind

of refrigeration, immediate delivery was imperative. maximum of six to eight hours

from slaughter to delivery could not safely be exceeded. Most of the deliveries were

made in less than four hours from the time of slaughter. Some unavoidable losses

occurred at Q.M. dumps, due to failure of organization in calling for supplies according to prearrangement of schedules.

Thirty to fifty animals daily were required for routine deliveries, but 50 to 60 additional carabao were slaughtered daily and delivered to Corregidor for cold storage whenever refrigeration space was available. Approximately 100 carcasses were also stored

in the refrigeration plant of the submarine tender “Canopies,” lying in Marivales Harbor.

Cold storage facilities on Corregidor were inadequate for the emergency. Bombing put

the plant out of commission at one time before the fall of Bataan, causing the loss of

approximately 300 quarters of beef. With adequate, bomb-proof capacity on Corregidor

we could have procured and slaughtered enough carabao for fresh meat to have carried

us through much longer emergency.

The quality and edibility of the better grades of carabao beef correspond closely

with grades and (“Good” to “Good Medium”) which are the grades usually purchased by the U.S. Army. Much carabao meat was sold on the Manila markets before

the war. Tests have amply demonstrated that practically no laymen and but few

“experts” are able to detect any difference between the properly cooked meats of similar

grades of cattle and carabao. It would appear that the breeding of carabao in the

tropics for beef purposes, should be encouraged, not only because of edibility, but more

especially, because they are easy keepers, thriving in emergency, on most any kind of

tropical vegetation; and also, because they are much more resistant to tropical diseases

than are American or other foreign breeds of imported cattle.

total of approximately 4,000 animals were slaughtered in Bataan for food purposes.

Of these, approximately 320 were horses, 87 mules, 150 cattle, 100 hogs, and the rest

carabao. It is estimated that 1,200 carabao were slaughtered by front line troops located

beyond the reach of our delivery trucks. This method of slaughter was very uneconomical no sanitary inspections were possible, and no records were kept; but due to extreme

shortage of food and the difficulties of transportation it was more practicable to lead

the animals in for local slaughter than to attempt packing fresh meat from the Q.M.

Dumps. No x’easonable objection could therefore be offered to this method, since all the

Veterinary personnel had been withdrawn from these units for service with me, back

at our Field Abattoir.

Approximately 2,800 animals were slaughtered at our Field Abattoirs. Two million

pounds of fresh meat were delivered to troops in the field, and three quarters (%) of

million pounds of edible offal was delivered to refugee camps in Bataan. These amounts

materially augmented the total food supplies in Bataan, and, according to Brigadier
ASIATIC-PACIFIC THEATERS 309

General Allan C. McBride, Commanding General, Bataan Service Command, and others

closely associated with our work, enabled our forces to hold out for from to weeks longer than would otherwise have been possible. Had it not been for the loyal support

given me by the Veterinary officers and enlisted men of the Philippine Army, these

results would not have been possible.

This entire program was undertaken and carried out because there was no other

organization technically qualified, equipped, or ready to volunteer for the emergency.

Strictly speaking, it was Quartermaster activity in its entirety, except the sanitary inspection of the meat supply. The Veterinary Service very gladly performed these additional

duties for the benefit of all concerned.

The importation of meat from other islands was not practicable, because of Japanese

control of all adjacent waters, but the potentialities of fishing resources of Bataan were

recognized from the inception of the Bataan campaign. The Quartermaster attempted

to coordinate all fishing activities but without any tangible success. Later, the com- mander of the Bataan Force Service Command requested that undertake these operations, in addition to my other duties. Accordingly, early in March 1942, was designated

“Coordinator of the Bataan Fisheries” and given complete control of all phases of these

activities.

Inasmuch as the Bataan waters were one of the chief sources of Manila’s fish supply

before the war, it was only matter of time and intensive organization before former

standards could be reached and rapidly surpassed. The chief difficulty was in the fact

that the use of all the 1G immense fish corrals, or traps, located along the Bataan shore

of Manila Bay, had been discontinued. They were all badly in the need of extensive

repairs. The nets, in most cases, had been stored in remote hide-outs and when located,

were also found to be worn and in need of extensive repairs. Lack of cooperation and

coordination, failure to pay owners for fish caught, confiscation of fish after being caught,

and general antagonistic attitude toward the native fishermen, during the early phase

of the Bataan campaign, seemed to be the general excuses for the discontinued fishing

activities of the natives. When it is realized that these 16 traps furnished the Manila

markets with from 10 to 50 thousand pounds of fish daily, before the war, their importance to our beleaguered troops in Bataan cannot be overestimated. Accordingly, my

first object was to get all of these traps back into operation in the minimum possible

time. After locating the troubles, the remedies were largely routine. When the owners

were fully assured that no further interference would be tolerated, they were readily

induced to cooperate in restoring their property to normal use.

Again Captain Turin’s services were invaluable in gaining the confidence and enthusiastic cooperation of the native fisherman. All 16 traps were being rapidly repaired

and full production of every one was contemplated, at the very latest date, by May 1,

1942. Two traps were fully completed and nets were set and in use on April 7th. Others

would have followed in rapid succession.

For guard protection, supervision and operation had placed one officer, four enlisted

men, and varying number of civilians in close proximity to each trap. With necessary

transportation on hand, they were fully prepared to insure scheduled deliveries. It was

planned and confidently expected that delivery of fresh fish to Q.M. Dumps and to field

kitchens would fully replace, and gradually exceed the total amount of fresh carabao

meat which had been regularly delivered, without interruption, throughout the Bataan

campaign. Including approximately 400 mules and 200 carabao still available, the fresh

meat supply was sufficient for at least three weeks longer, by which time the anticipated

quantities of fish were expected to be available to fully replace that supply, volume for

volume.

Other appropriate methods of fishing were also in the process of rapid expansion.

Deep sea fishing by means of basket traps is the usual method employed in the Philip-
310 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

pines in waters too deep for the large corral traps above referred to. We had already

placed large orders with native basket makers and many were already on hand. This

method of fishing was being rapidly organized and expanded, with the help and cooperation of native fishermen. The possibilities of this type of fishing, given reasonable time,

seemed unlimited and it was confidently expected that the total supply of fish would

soon exceed any possible demand from Bataan and Corregidor combined

Still another group was already organized and was receiving daily instruction in

the use of high explosives as an additional means of augmenting our supply of fish.

Enlisted ordnance personnel was loaned to me for this purpose. Satisfactory progress

was being made. Highly interesting developments were anticipated. It was hoped that

this method would prove useful in this emergency.

Other methods of fishing were receiving due consideration but time had not yet

permitted the further organization of enthusiastic anglers. My own experiences in deep

sea fishing suggested several other promising methods, but since time and volume were

of primary importance, our initial efforts were necessarily confined to those methods

which promised the greatest immediate results, and with which the native fishermen were

already familiar.

The fall of Bataan brought all of our efforts to sudden and untimely end *.

On April 1942, the American-Filipino forces on Bataan surrendered,

and less than month later the Corregidor fortress fell into the hands of

the Japanese. Subsequently, during their imprisonment as prisoners of war,

the veterinary officers acted to the benefit of their fellow" men as medical

assistants in hospitals, camp sanitary officers, and operators of small camp

animal farms. Five veterinary officers, of the twelve originally in the Philippine Department, were killed in action or died during their internment.

Development of Veterinary Service in Southwest Pacific Area

On April 1942, the only major Allied area not yet captured hy the

Japanese advances into the southwest POA was Australia, but, even so,

Darwin, in northern Australia, had undergone its first aerial bombing in

February 1942. During March 1942, General MacArthur reached Australia

from the Philippines to take command of U.S. and the Allied Australian

and Dutch military forces which now were grouped under the newly created

General Headquarters, SWPA. Then, on 18 April 1942, the earlier USAFFE

(in the Philippines) was set aside on an inactive status, only to be restored again on 23 February 1943 and continued until rnid-1945 as the U.S.

military theater command in the otherwise Allied, joint Army-Navy theater

called SWPA. Before this time, or since December 1941, new Army

theater organization was developing in Australia. For example, an Army

troop convoy en route to the Philippines was constituted as Task Force,

South Pacific, and diverted to new destination at Brisbane, Australia. On

arrival there (in late December 1941), this task force became U.S. Forces

in Australia, or USAFIA, as it was called after January 1942. Another

task force (Task Force 6814Z), with five veterinary officers and six enlisted

personnel, came into Australia on 27 February 1942, but four of these

veterinary officers were reordered to Task Force 6814, which landed on New
ASIATIC-PACIFIC THEATERS 311

Caledonia, 12 March 1942; subsequently, three of the latter were returned

to Australia, and the senior ranking officer of the group was designated on

April 1942 as veterinarian and assistant to the surgeon of USAFIA, with

headquarters then at Melbourne, having moved from its original location

in Brisbane. In the same month (April 1942), veterinary officer arrived

with the 135th Medical Regiment; during the next months, others came

into Australia from the Zone of Interior, including those with the 2d Port

Headquarters, 41st and 32d Infantry Divisions, and 3d Medical Laboratory.

During this period, Army forces were scattered among seven base section

commands on the Australian Continent and the U.S. Advance Base on New

Guinea.

After April 1942, the central administrative office for the Army Veterinary Service in the SWPA fluctuated between the Army theater headquarters and Headquarters, USASOS, SWPA; of course, the latter headquarters assignment was the best possible location for the nominal chief

or theater veterinarian during the period, July 1942 to February 1948, because then, as will be noted, there was really no U.S. Army theater command.

The headquarters locations for the theater’s central veterinary office were,

briefly, as follows: Headquarters, USAFIA, April to July 1942; Headquarters, USASOS, SWPA, July 1942 to February 1943; Headquarters,

USAFIA, February to September 1943; and again, the supply services

headquarters, from September 1943 until its reorganization (as USAFWESPAC) in June 1945 7).

Effective on 20 July 1942, the American theater command in Australia

was redesignated USASOS, SWPA, and, concurrently, the nominal chief of

the theater’s veterinary service organization, along with the medical and

nearly all other special staff sections, were transferred to the new supply

services headquarters at Melbourne, this headquarters moving about months

later to Sydney. There was then no American theater command to coordinate the U.S. Army air, ground, and service forces; all of this was

being done at the level of the Allied headquarters which at no time added

veterinary officer to its staff. On 26 February 1943, USAFFE was again

activated, with headquarters at Brisbane, to administer all American air,

ground, and service troops in the SWPA; at the same time, senior Veterinary Corps officer who had just recently arrived in the theater was assigned

to Headquarters, USAFFE, to act as veterinary consultant in the chief

surgeon’s office. This did not change the status of the existing services of

supply headquarters veterinarian except to subordinate him under the supervision of the new theater veterinarian and to better coordinate theaterwide

the developing veterinary service organizations in the Sixth U.S. Army

and in the Fifth Air Force, the latter having been activated in September

veterinarians or those acting in that capacity included Lt. Col. Charles M. Cowherd,

VC (4 April 1942 to 15 February 1943), Col. Louis G. Weisman, VC (16 February 1943 to 22 January 1945), and Col. Stanley C. Smock, VC (22 January through June 1945).
312 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

1942. As of early January 1943, the veterinary service organization in the

SWPA included 25 officers and enlisted personnel, at station as follows:

Chief Surgeon’s Office, V8AS0S, SWPA

Medical Section, Base Section (including

officer at Birdum)

Medical Section, Base Section (including

officers at Augusta, Charters Towers,

Cairns, Portland Roads, and at developing remount depot installation)

3d Medical Laboratory

Troop A, 251st Quartermaster Remount

Squadron

Medical Section, Base Section (including

officer at Rockhampton)

Surgeon’s Office, 32d Infantry Division

Surgeon’s Office, 41st Infantry Division

Medical Section, Base Section

Medical Section, Base Section 7: Remount Purchasing Board

Medical Section, U.S. Advance Base (New

Guinea) (including officer at Falls

River)

Medical Section, Fifth Air Force

3d Medical Supply Depot

Actually, this number was far below existing requirements and anticipated

needs, particularly in view of planning for procuring animals and mounting

several ground combat and service units; of course, the recent occurrences of

botulism poisoning in an engineer unit (that was attributed to Australian

canned food) and of an epidemic milkborne typhoid fever among large

city population in Australia only confirmed the reality of shortages in numbers of veterinary personnel. During 1943, planning for the veterinary

service organization in the theater was rapidly advanced. By the end of

the year, the Army Veterinary Service had 100 officers, 37 enlisted personnel,

and 29 civilian employees. Unfortunately, the situation regarding the status

of the theater veterinarian that had been gained in February 1943 lasted

only months. Thus, during September 1943, Headquarters, USAFFE, freed itself of most special staff divisions, including the chief surgeon’s

office and chief veterinarian, who were then returned to primary assignment with Headquarters, USASOS, SWPA, which had recently moved

from Sydney to Brisbane. From that time to mid-1945, there was no

change in the status of the nominal chief veterinarian for the Army Veterinary Service in the SWPA. After the fall of 1944, this headquarters

moved from Brisbane to Hollandia, New Guinea, and then, during the early

months of 1945, to the Philippine Islands, first at Tacloban and, after April

1945, at Manila. On June 1945, Headquarters, Services of Supply, SWPA,

was discontinued, and, concurrently, Headquarters, USAFWESPAC, was

established.

During 1943 and the first half of 1944, USAFFE was made up of the

Services of Supply organization, with its two base section subcommands

which controlled the several bases on the Australian Continent, and, in

New Guinea, of the Sixth U.S. Army and the Fifth Air Force. Each of

these three had its own veterinary service organization, but there was no

technical coordination of them at the level either of the Army theater headquarters or of Allied Headquarters, SWPA, which was retaining operational control separately over the Army air, ground, and service forces. In

the fall of 1944, Headquarters, Far East Air Forces, was created to co-
ASIATIC-PACIFIC THEATERS 313

ordinate the Fifth Air Force with the Thirteenth Air Force which now

was being transferred from the SPA, and Headquarters, Eighth U.S. Army,

together with additional troops received from the Zone of Interior. Also,

certain air, ground, and service forces units, formerly with USAFICPA

and USAFISPA, were added, as was part of the latter’s island bases in the

North Solomons. By the end of 1944, the Army Veterinary Service in the

SWPA included 115 to 118 officers, approximately 300 enlisted personnel,

and 12 or more civilian employees. Obviously, this theater veterinary

strength was relatively large in comparison to troop strength, but, as in other

Asiatic-Pacific theaters, the demands for them could not be measured in terms

of troop strength alone because—

less personnel is needed for 50,000 troops when stationed in one area than for

30,000 troops who are dispersed in many locations.

The availability of cooperating agencies such as local boards of health, meat

inspectors, field dairy supervisors, sanitary inspectors, and city laboratories should be

taken into consideration whenever veterinary officers are to be allocated to theater.

The country where operations are likely to take place with reference to climatic

conditions, availability of storage or refrigeration facilities, should be considered; also,

whether [food] supplies are to be procured from the United States or in country like

Australia where closer scrutiny by veterinary inspecting personnel at the sources of

production was required.

As of mid-January 1945, the veterinary service organization in the SWF

was distributed as follows:

Chief Surgeon’s Office, USASOS, SWPA

Surgeon’s Office, Sixth U.S. Army

Surgeon’s Office, Eighth U.S. Army

Medical Section, Headquarters, Far East

Air Forces

Air Surgeon’s Office, Fifth Air Force

Medical Section, Headquarters, Base Section (Australia)

Medical Section, Headquarters, Intermediate Section (New Guinea)

Service Command, U.S. Army Forces,

Northern Solomons

Medical Section, Headquarters, XI Corps

Service Command, XIV Corps

Veterinary Branch, Procurement Division,

including two branch procurement offices

Medical Sections of Base Headquarters 2,

A, B, E, F, G, H, K, M; U.S. Forces,

APO 320 (of Eighth U.S. Army) and

Army Garrison Forces, APO 248 (of

Sixth U.S. Army)

Medical Sections of Divisions: 1st Cavalry,

6th Infantry, 11th Airborne, 24th Infantry, and 32d Infantry

Veterinary Sections of Cavalry Regiments:

7th and 112th

16th Veterinary Evacuation Hospital

Veterinary Food Inspection Detachments:

95th through 112th, inclusive. (Of these,

the 100th was attached to the 31st Infantry Division, and the 105th was attached to the Fifth Air Force.)

Veterinary Detachments, Aviation: 3d and

4th

Headquarters, Hospital Centers: 27th and

28th

19th Medical General Laboratory

Medical Laboratories: 3d, 5th, 8th, 26th,

and 27th

3d Medical Composite Detachment, Headquarters Concentration Center

Veterinary Detachment, 627th Quartermas- ter Refrigeration Company

Veterinary Detachment, 281st Signal Pigeon

Company

Medical Section, Headquarters, 2d Poi-t

(Transportation Corps)

Medical Supply Service, Base

1st Training Center

59th Service Group, Fifth Air Force
314 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

With the emergence of Headquarters, USAFPAC, to consolidate all

U.S. air, ground, and service units in the Pacific under single command,

the existing command structure in the SWPA was greatly changed. On

June 1945, Headquarters, USASOS, was discontinued, and its place was

taken by Headquarters, USAFWESPAC, with location at Manila, and, on

July 1945, Headquarters, USAFPOA, came under jurisdiction of the consolidated command as the newly organized Headquarters, USAFMIDPAC,

located at Fort Shafter. The latter, on August 1945, lost operational

control over the Ryukyus campaign to the senior command headquarters

so that the Tenth U.S. Army and XXIV Corps became separate echelons

alongside the Sixth and Eighth U.S. Armies in the new Pacific theater.

Summarizing, by September 1945, Headquarters, USAFPAC, included the

following major commands, each with its own veterinary service organization (but uncoordinated theaterwise)

IJSAFMIDPAC

USAFWESPAO

Sixth U.S. Army

Eighth U.S. Army

Tenth U.S. Army

XXIV Corps

Far East Air Forces

In summary of veterinary activities in the SWPA, it may be observed

that the Army horse and mule strength reached peak of 4.945 in July

1943. The average strength during 1943 and 1944 was 2,794. During the

period there were 4,325 admissions and 404 animals died or were destroyed.

During 1943 and 1944, also, more than billion pounds of subsistence

(including non-animal-origin foods) were inspected; approximately 23 million pounds were recommended for rejection from procurement or issue to

the U.S. forces.

U.S. Army Services of Supply, Southwest Pacific Area

The Services of Supply organization, successor in July 1942 to USAFIA,

provided logistic support to the American air and ground forces deployed

in the otherwise joint Army-Navy and Allied theater referred to as SWPA.

At various times during its existence, it comprised the only semblance of

U.S. Army oversea theater command in the SWPA, but, generally, there

was little direct technical supervision by it over the air and ground forces

from theater level. Headquarters, USASOS, SWPA, contained most of

the special staff sections typical of theater headquarters organization, including the nominal chief veterinarian (except for the period from February to September 1943). On June 1945, this service forces organization

was replaced by the newly created USAFWESPAC, which continued to administer the bases that had been set up, since the first year of the war, in

Australia, on New Guinea, and in the Philippine Islands Each of these
ASIATIC-PACIFIC THEATERS 315

three areas had its own group of military bases and its own veterinary

service organization.

Initially, there were seven numbered bases (originally designated base

sections) in Australia and the U.S. Advance Base in New Guinea. As the

Allied combat forces island hopped westward, the original seven bases were

cut back, and Headquarters, USASOS, removed them from its direct supervision by establishing, on May 1944, the Base Section, later renamed

Australia Base Section, for maintaining administrative control over the

bases in Australia. In the meantime, as the fighting for the Solomon Islands

in the SPA and for New Guinea in the SWPA progressed, the U.S. Advance Base set up subbases throughout New Guinea and on the islands nearby—Base at Milne Bay, Base at Oro Bay, Base on Goodenough

Island, Base at Port Moresby, Base at Lae, Base at Finschhafen, Base at Hollandia, and Base on Biak. The first of these (Base D)

was established in the fall of 1942; the last was set up on Biak during

August 1944. Gradually, these bases were grouped under the central administrative control of the newly created Intermediate Section, renamed

later the New Guinea Base Section, which operated on the same organization

level of USASOS as did Australia Base Section. With the return to the

Philippines, additional service forces bases were established there, and these

bases were soon grouped under the central administrative control of the

USASOS’s newly formed Luzon Base Section, later renamed Philippine

Base Section.

In regard to veterinary affairs, these three base section subcommands of

USASOS, SWPA, were comparable to the functional organization of Central, South, and Western Pacific Base Commands in the CPA (as of the

spring of 1945). The Australia, New Guinea, and Philippine Base Sections each included assigned staff veterinarians, in the respective headquarters medical sections, who administered the veterinary activities among

the various bases. The base veterinary service organizations on New Guinea

and in the Philippines generally followed standard plan which was developed in May 1944 but not until after the Army Veterinary Service had

experienced major difficulties, compounded by shortages in numbers of

trained food inspection personnel, with the veterinary service organizations

of the original numbered bases in Australia. This new base plan provided

for each to have one headquarters staff veterinarian, one port veterinarian,

(subsistence) depot veterinarian, one commissary veterinarian (and one

enlisted man for each of the four officers), and one or more veterinary food

inspection detachments at the rate of one detachment per every 25,000

troops up to 100,000 strength, another per every 50,000 troops over 100,000

but not more than 200,000 strength, and an additional detachment per every

100,000 troops over 200,000 strength. There were no changes in this plan

so that its provisions seemed to have been adequate in satisfying the veteri-
316 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

nary requirements, particularly for food inspection services on the Pacific

island bases, during the last year of the war.

However, the plan’s reference to veterinary food inspection detachments

was vague because at the time there were in the theater 1(5 separate veterinary

animal service-type detachments, then acting as food inspection organizations (except for few being utilized in medical depot operations). These

had been brought into the SWPA in connection with the theater’s 1942-43

plan for deploying large numbers of pack-animal transported ground service

and combat units. Nine of them (Veterinary Sections H, I, K, L, M, N, O,

P, and Q), each with one officer and seven enlisted personnel, were organized

as the pertinent sections of standard quartermaster remount troop, and the

other seven (Veterinary Sections I), E, F, G, P, S, and Z), each with two

officers and nine enlisted personnel, were patterned after the organization of

the veterinary section of the field artillery 75-mm. howitzer battalion (horse).

Despite this, after conversion training of the personnel from animal service

to veterinary food inspection service within the theater, these detachments,

beginning in the spring of 1943, were assigned food inspection duties at

installations in Australia and New Guinea and on subsistence procurement

inspections. Then, on October 1944, the 16 detachments were inactivated,

and their personnel were reassigned in the organization of 18 newly activated

veterinary food inspection detachments (table 22).

Table 22.—Newly activated veterinary food inspection detachments, SWPA, October 1944-

Veterinary Food Inspection Former

Veterinary Place of activation

Detachment Section Base Location

95th Oro Bay.

96th __ Hollandia.

97th Milne Bay.

98th Do.

99th Hollandia.

100th __

I__ Brisbane.

101st __ __

II Biak.

102d L_ Finschhafen.

103d _______

II Biak.

104th ___

_____ ___ Oro Bay.

105th Fifth U.S. Air Force.

106th P_ Finschhafen.

107th _________ Brisbane.

108th ___

li Townsville.

109th Finschhafen.

110th Lae.

111th Brisbane.

112th Sydney.
ASIATIC-PACIFIC THEATERS 317

Two of these detachments, the 105th and the 101st, were designated for

organization and use by the Fifth Air Force, while the others were retained

as service forces units and only temporarily attached to the field armies

or army corps in connection with their movement into the Philippine Islands. It may be observed, however, that another such detachment in the theater was

“GO” Veterinary Detachment (Food Inspection), later reorganized and renamed 743d Veterinary Food Inspection Detachment, which set up station

on Leyte on 21 October 1914; this unit originally had come into the CPA

from the Zone of Interior, during June 1944, and then was attached to XXIV

Corps which participated in the original assault landings in the Philippine Islands. Following V-E Day, number of detachments were named for

redeployment from the European and Mediterranean theaters, but only two—-

the 77th and the 166th Veterinary Food Inspection Detachments—actually

came into the Philippine bases before the Japanese surrendered.

At the Services of Supply level of SWPA, the Army Veterinary Service, from May to June 1942, provided professional services and technical

assistance in the procurement of 2,515 horses for shipment to USAFISPA;

in the procurement, processing, and distribution of approximately 3,500

horses in Australia; and in the care of 1,521 mules which were received

on New Guinea from the United States. The procurement program for the

3,500 horses was undertaken in Australia during the fall of 1942 after the

War Department had granted authorization for the development of several

field artillery pack battalions and quartermaster pack troops. It was then

believed that animals alone would have to be deployed to move regimental

combat teams against the Japanese where there were steaming jungles, impassable swamps, and kunai grasses many feet tall that made motor transport impossible. Animals were not deployed, and great quantity of the

military supplies were moved, from the landing beaches to the combat teams,

by natives employed by the Army in New Guinea and in the early Philippine operations. In the interim or by February 1943, however, animal requirements were set at 10,800 mules and 7,500 horses. Of course, the horses

were to be obtained from Australian sources, and the mules, unavailable in

that country, were to be obtained from the Zone of Interior. During the

next month or two, this schedule was abruptly changed when Australian

Government representatives (particularly, the Director-General of Health)

refused the entry of the first incoming shipment of Army mules, and the

Army redirected their disembarkation on New Guinea. This was far removed

from US. military training and staging areas then in Australia. The

Australian action against the mule importations was caused by the belief

that these U.S. Army animals would introduce glanders and equine encephalomyelitis disease from the North American Continent into virgin

Australia and was comparable to the action that was taken later against the

importation of foods of U.S. origin to supply American troops. Conversely, much more could have been expected of the controls exerted by
318 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

the same Australian officials on the war materiel which was exported from

Australia for the Army.

At about this time, there was also major change in the theater’s estimate on the urgency of pack-animal transported service and ground combat

units, so that in April 1943, the horse procurement program in Australia was

terminated (except to supply few replacement animals to the units already

mounted). The last shipments of mules, on requisition from the United

States, arrived during July 1943. During this period, Troop of 251st

Quartermaster Remount Squadron, complete with its own veterinary section,

was activated within the theater (in November 1942) to set up remount

depot at Townsville, Australia, and then in July 1943 to inaugurate its

Forward Echelon Remount Depot at Port Moresby, in New Guinea. The

remount installation at Townsville issued horses of Australian origin to the

61st, 62d, 63d, and 68th Quartermaster Pack Troops and the 167th Field

Artillery Pack Battalion—all being elements of Corps, Sixth U.S. Army.

Before the end of 1943, the units were dismounted, and their animals were

turned in to the remount depot which maintained them on caretaking, or

ranchlike, basis. Veterinary service with these animals in Australia came

to halt when the Australian Army, on request, took over the control of

the animals and remount materiel in the spring of 1941. Later, in August

1944 and continuing through February 1945, approximately 2,300 of the

horses were transshipped to the China-Burma-India theater, but the animals

did not revert to veterinary supervision until after they were loaded on

the animal transports.

The advance depot facility of Troop A, 251st Quartermaster Remount

Squadron, was established at Port Moresby during July 1943, but, by this

time, approximately 1,500 mules had been brought into that area and distributed between the 98th Field Artillery Pack Battalion (arriving in

February 1943) and the 16th Quartermaster Squadron (of the 1st Cavalry

Division, arriving in July 1943). Along with the general dismounting of

ground forces units in Australia, these two units on New Guinea turned

in their animals to Forward Echelon Remount Depot during the winter of

1943-44; before the end of November 1944. the depot processed these mules

(1,340 in number) for transshipment to the China-Burma-India theater and

then ceased operations. The 16th Veterinary Evacuation Hospital, originally

arriving in New Guinea in February 1943 and assigned to the Sixth U.S.

Army, provided the required veterinary animal services to the depot and,

shortly after the depot closed, departed for the Philippine Islands to augment the veterinary food inspection services there.

In the SWPA, the Army Veterinary Service had considerably more to

do with the food supply than it had to do with the military horses and

mules. This was particularly true in Australia where the local food industries furnished the U.S. armed services in that area with the major share of

their subsistence requirements; also, considerable quantities of meat and dairy
ASIATIC-PACIFIC THEATERS 319

U.S. ARMY PHOTO

Figure 27.—The Army Veterinary Service cooperating with the Australian agricultural inspection agencies in supervising the sanitary quality production of cured

and smoked hams prepared for the Armed Forces.

products were transshipped to the Army and Navy in the SPA. Throughout the greater part of 1942, the troops in Australia were rationed by the

Australian Army, though certain items, needed to supplement the Australian ration, were obtained by local Army procurement. Also, small stockpiles of subsistence were built up from excess ships stores and from distress

cargoes on ships that had been diverted to Australia from their scheduled

sailing routes on account of Japanese naval activity. At first, there were

an insufficient number of veterinary personnel available to inspect this food

supply, and some doubt existed at theater headquarters level as to the status

of Army veterinary officers even to conduct inspections on the Australian

Army-supplied foods (fig. 27). In other words, in the beginning this situation here was comparable to that developing and continuing for the greater

part of the early war period in New Zealand by the Joint Army-Navy

Purchasing Board. However, by mid-1942, veterinary officers in many base

sections of Australia, pursuant to local command authority and supported

in their actions by respective surgeons, were convinced of the need for,

and were, inspecting the meat and dairy supply to troops in their areas.

Subsequently, in November 1942. the Quartermaster Corps was authorized to

start the procurement of 200,000 rations of nonperishable subsistence for
320 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

the Army and in February 1943 established depot organization to procure,

store, and distribute these rations, thus replacing the existing Australian

Army supply procedure. Concurrently, the lethargic attitude taken by Headquarters, USASOS, SWPA, toward veterinary procurement inspection in

Australia was dropped, and adequate veterinary meat and dairy hygiene

service was soon developed. There is no question that the recent outbreak

of botulism (with fatal cases) in U.S. engineer regiment, attributed to

uninspected canned beets of Australian origin, and an outbreak of 500 cases

of milkborne typhoid fever (with 28 deaths) in the civilian population of

an Australian town, mentioned previously, both emphasized the need for the

Army to safeguard its town troop health and to recognize this on theaterwide command level. In fact, what might have been Spanish-American

War type of Army embalmed meat scandal in the SWPA was averted by the

theater’s requisitioning for and authorizing the travel by airplane of several

Veterinary Corps officers from the Zone of Interior.

During the period of Australian Army supply, the various local base

section veterinarians conducted sanitary surveys of the Australian meat and

dairy industries and of the national and local regulatory or governmental

controls over them. There was no fluid milk market such as existed in the

United States, and considerable efforts were expended and time elapsed before

the Army Veterinary Service, in cooperation with local Australian officials, could develop such market for most of the military bases. Probably the first

modern fresh-milk shed to be developed in Australia was that set up and

operated under veterinary supervision at Townsville. There, as in other

Australian areas, problems existed, such as the improvement of dairy farms

to operate at standards of sanitation higher than those characteristic of

farms producing for butter and cheese industries, the development of tuberculin-tested and tuberculosis-free dairy herds, the inauguration of adequate

milk transport routes from the milk-producing areas, and the requirement

for proper milk pasteurization equipment (fig. 28). In various areas, the

veterinary demands for such fluid milk markets were criticized. In one area,

Army veterinary officers cooperated, on request, in state program to tuberculin test 15,000 cattle which were included in the milkshed of large city

that also entered in the supply of milk to troops. In another area, the

Army Veterinary Service was faced with Australian claims that the Army

should pay indemnity costs for the conduct of tuberculosis test-anderadication program.

In regard to the fresh meat supplied by the Australian Army, the

Army Veterinary Service alone initiated safeguards to protect the health

of U.S. military personnel and the economic interests of the United States.

At the beginning, sanitary inspections of establishments and ante mortem and

post mortem inspections were conducted in somewhat apologetic manner

to civilian suppliers under Australian Army contract, informally, and with

little or no objections against such Veterinary Corps inspections being
ASIATIC-PACIFIC THEATERS 321

Figure 28.—Pasteurization of fresh fluid milk supply as required by the U.S

Army Veterinary Service in Australia.

raised by the concerned Australian Army supply or liaison officers (7).

During June 1942, base section veterinary officer forwarded recommendations through medical and command channels of communication to Headquarters, USAFIA, for restricting the Australian Army sources of fresh

meat to commercial establishments which were operating under supervision

of the Australian Department of Commerce and for augmenting the theater's

Army veterinary food inspection service with more personnel to be requisitioned from the Zone of Interior. The headquarters adjutant general soon

advised that this was being accomplished, adding that memorandum had

been promulgated on the supply only of meat to the Army from such inspected plants. The Australian Army supply officers, however, were not subjected to such U.S. military regulation, although the memorandum did have

some application in regard to local purchases of meat that were being

made by various U.S. Army commands or units.

During August 1942, the same veterinary officer initiated another recommendation (which was endorsed to the successor Headquarters, USASOS,
322 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

SWPA) for action to amend the Australian contracts (or tenders) to include

requirement for the inspection and identification by the Veterinary Corps

of all foods of animal origin that were being procured for U.S. troops. The

basis for this recommendation was that the two abattoirs supplying fresh

meat locally were “*

decidedly not meeting sanitary inspections of our

Army, and not unlike the slaughter houses seen years ago in isolated rural

communities in the U.S.” and were operating under the part-time supervision of local state, nonprofessionally qualified Australian inspector. The

local base commander had authorized that informal arrangements be made

between the base veterinarian and the Australian contractor for the conduct

of Veterinary Corps ante mortem and post mortem inspections, but Headquarters, USASOS, SWPA, seemed deliberately to have failed to recognize

this problem as one existing at all military bases and thus took no positive

action with regard to the recommendation that was made. As late as 20

October 1942, headquarters assistant chief of staff, G-4 (Supply), acknowledged this and admitted that from what he “*

saw being butchered in

the Darwin area, it [the meat] was all pretty poor; but believe that most

of it was better than horse meat”—further adding that Army veterinary

food inspection activities were problem of local command responsibility,

that these inspections would complicate the procedure of Australian Army

subsistence supply, and that “*

we are bound to have many annoyances

and conflict” which must be excused in the existing supply procedure.

Military logistics now had reached new low point wherewith U.S. Army

medical considerations for protecting troop health and effecting easily attained economies were completely subordinated to supply affairs and niceties

of inter-Allied cooperation.

Eventually, the responsibilities for procuring the Army’s and Navy’s

subsistence were transferred from the Australian Army and were largely

centralized in theater quartermaster organization, complete with its own

veterinary service. This was the Quartermaster Subsistence Depot, later

evolving into the Procurement Division, USASOS, SWPA, with headquarters at Sydney, Australia. It first undertook the procurement, storage,

and distribution of nonperishable (or canned) subsistence in the early

months of 1913 and then gradually assumed the buying of perishable foods

for the Army and Navy. Meat and dairy products which could not be

obtained within the theater were requisitioned from the Zone of Interior. In

the canned meat procurement operations, the Army Veterinary Service reported on many changes that were necessarily made in the Australian meat

industry which in 1942 had only few canning plants and produced little

over million pounds of canned products for the Army. In 1943 and 1944,

veterinary inspections of Army procurements totaled 49,500.000 pounds and

79,632,843 pounds, respectively, of canned meats of Australian manufacture.

In mid-1942, Army veterinary officers successfully advised also on the development of frozen boneless beef production in Australia as means of
ASIATIC-PACIFIC THEATERS 323

Figure 29.—Trier inspection of cured and smoked ham, Melbourne, Australia.

conserving Australian refrigeration space, Allied shipping space, manpower

in military messhalls, and meat scraps and fats that could be used elsewhere.

Probably, the most vexatious inspection problem concerned cured and

smoked products such as bacon and ham, because the TT.S. procurement specifications purposefully were suspended by the quartermaster agency to stimulate the production of these items (fig. 29). Under fhis situation, the Army

Veterinary Service could only stimulate the cooperative interests in contractors to produce cured and smoked products which could be distributed

to the island bases without deterioration and spoilage occurring during their

transshipment from Australia. Actually, there were spoilages and losses of

large quantities of Australian-produced bacon and ham, but the effect of

the veterinary inspection (and educational) program began to show in better

products within year or more. However, the efforts on the 1044 output

were almost nullified when the skipper fly (Piophilia casei) infested many

commercial plants. The butter and cheese production in Australia, as would

be expected, presented no major problems in connection with veterinary

procurement inspections. There was no regulatory control by the Australians

over their production of poultry except that which was set up and maintained
324 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

by the Army Veterinary Service after the fall of 1942. It may be noted

that the theater’s quartermaster supply of the first holiday turkey to Army

troops (on Thanksgiving Day, 1942) was little if any better than was

experienced several thousand miles away in the China-Burma-India theater

at the same time; in Australia, the veterinary inspections were limited to

that conducted after its arrival at the military bases, strictly to determine

if the turkev was fit to eat.

The quantities of subsistence lost on account of deterioration and spoilage were great. There were large number of factors contributing to these

losses, most of them outside of the jurisdiction of veterinary food surveillance inspection within the theater. Under the existing conditions where subsistence deteriorated insidiously, was rehandled many times, most frequently

exposed for varying periods of time to tropical humidity and heat without

protective covering, and was stockpiled on island bases and as reserves which

soon became excess as the combat troops moved westward, there was little

which could be accomplished to lessen the losses. The adverse conditions

affecting subsistence supply in the SWPA were matched only by those influencing subsistence deterioration and spoilage in the SPA and in the

China-Burma-India theater. By the end of the war, the principal veterinary

effort on most island bases was directed at the immediate removal of spoiled

foods from the issues being made to military units, and recommendations

were made against the transshipment of deteriorated subsistence which would

spoil before arrival at another island base.

Australian base sections.—-On the Australian Continent, Army Service

Forces personnel and activities generally were divided between seven regional administrative areas, called base sections or bases (map 3). Between

April and May 1942, the headquarters medical officers in Base Sections

2, 3, 5, and each were assigned staff veterinarians. Base Section 6, comprising western Australia, became largely U.S. Navy base of operations,

and it was not until February 1944 that, on request, Veterinary Corps

officer was assigned there (fig. 30). In fact, Base Section together with

Base Section had so few Army personnel that both were discontinued by

the end of 1942. and, instead, U.S. representatives were named to the

Adelaide and the Perth areas. new, or the second, Base Section with

headquarters at Cairns was established in September 1943 when operations

in Base Section 2, incident to the movement of materiel from northeastern

Australia into the New Guinea Campaign, became so large as to require the

division of the geographical area immediately surrounding Cairns from Base

Section 2; however, in the early months of 1944, this base section became

Base Area Command Two, subordinate to Base Section 2, and then closed

out on 31 May 1944.

By the winter of 1942-43, there were serious shortages in numbers of

veterinary personnel available for assignment to the various base subsections,

but, during the succeeding months, as personnel became available, second
ASIATIC-PACIFIC THEATERS 325

BASES

Milne Boy

Oro Bay

Goodenough I.

Port Moresby

Lae

Finschhafen

Hollandia

Biak

Map 3.—Base sections and bases in Australia (as of June 1942) and New Guinea bases

(as of August 1944).

problem evolved. The personnel space authorizations for base overhead

organizations were found to be numerically inadequate. Actually, most bases

were complex organizations, including, as they did, service command, port

command, and an area command. Although only two veterinary officers (and
326 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Figure 30.—In western Australia, U.S. Navy personnel conducted origin inspections, under Veterinary Corps supervision, of sausages and other foods procured

from the Army Service Forces.

no enlisted personnel) were prescribed in the tables for each base section, in

April 1943, Base Sections 2, 3, and actually had seven, seven, and three

veterinary officers assigned, respectively. With respect to this situation, on

April 1943, Headquarters, USAFFE (G—1, Personnel), was advised by the

theater surgeon that the Services of Supply base section organization should

be revised upward to provide officer and 10 enlisted spaces for Base Section 1, officer and 20 enlisted spaces for Base Sections and and Advance

(New Guinea) Base, and officer and 10 enlisted spaces for Base Sections

and 7. During the fall of 1943, the veterinary food inspection activities

in each of the several base section subcommands were augmented by the

attachment of one or more veterinary detachments which had become excess

to the requirements for service with animals in remount depots and mounted

units.

As the combat area moved through New Guinea, the services of supply

activities in Australia generally became of lesser importance. In mid-1944,

Headquarters, USASOS, SWPA, renamed and reorganized the original base

sections as Bases 1, 2, 3, 4, and 7, subordinating these to the jurisdiction of the

newly established Headquarters, Base Section. Concurrently, Base Section

or the Melbourne area was subordinated as subbase to Base 7, and, on 17 July
ASIATIC-PACIFIC THEATERS 327

1944, Base or the Darwin area was transferred to the jurisdiction of the

theater air forces. On 12 December 1944, Base or the Brisbane area was

absorbed into Headquarters, Australia Base Section, which continued to administer the service forces still remaining in Australia, but it was not until

June 1945 that Bases (at Townsville) and (at Sydney) were closed.

New Guinea bases.—The services of supply organization on New Guinea

started with the establishment in the fall of 1942 of U.S. Advance Base at

Port Moresby. Before the end of that year, subbases were set up at Oro Bay

and Milne Bay, and, during the spring of 1943, another was established on

Goodenough Island which was occupied by the Sixth U.S. Army. Eventually, these several subbases, under jurisdiction of Headquarters, Advance

Base, became Base (at Milne Bay), Base (at Oro Bay), Base (on

Goodenough Island), and Base I) (at Port Moresby). As of January 1943,

one veterinary officer was assigned to the main advance base at Port Moresby

and another at Fall River; in February, the 16th Veterinary Evacuation

Hospital arrived in the area to support two mounted units and remount

depot facility that came into operation there. During the greater part of the

year, the Milne Bay area was the major base for receiving, storing, and distributing subsistence to the combat forces on New Guinea; after the BunaGona campaign, Base became equally active.

As the Allied forces pushed westward along the northern New Guinea

coastline, the original Advance Base or Section staff was reorganized as

Headquarters, Intermediate Section, USASOS (with location at Milne Bay

and then moving several times after that) to coordinate services of supply

activities at Bases A, B, and D. Concurrently, new Advance Section (with

headquarters at Lae and, after January 1944, at Finschhafen) was created to

coordinate these activities at two newly formed bases: Base (at Lae) and

Base (at Finschhafen). The new Advance Section was only temporary

and, in March 1944, it was disbanded; the Lae and Finschhafen bases were

then added to the jurisdiction of Headquarters, Intermediate Section. Actually, by March 1944, Base had replaced the more easterly located bases as

the major subsistence storage and distribution area in New Guinea. During

this time, each New Guinea base was assigned its own veterinary personnel,

and veterinary animal service organizations (later reorganized as food inspection detachments) were received from the bases in Australia and deployed

at ration dumps. The first group of thirteen such detachments in New Guinea

came into Base during February, March, and April 1944, while others were

sent into Base A. This veterinary food inspection organization at the base

level was technically supervised by Veterinary Corps staff officer assigned

to the Medical Section, Headquarters, Intermediate Section.

Eventually, other bases were established at Hollandia in June 1944 and

on Biak in August 1944, Base and Base H, respectively. These, along with

Bases A, B, C, D, E, and F, soon were subordinated under Headquarters,

Intermediate Section. nits in New Guinea, other than the veterinary food
328 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

inspection detachments and those supporting mounted units and remount

depot installations that had assigned veterinary personnel, at one time, included: At Milne Bay, 2d Medical Concentration Center (renamed in December 1944 as 31st Hospital Center) and 5th Medical Laboratory; at Oro

Bay, 3d Medical Laboratory; at Finschhafen, 26th Medical Laboratory and

627th Quartermaster Refrigeration Company; at Hollandia, 3d Medical Composite Detachment (of Headquarters Concentration Center), 3d Medical

Laboratory, 19th Medical General Laboratory, 27th Hospital Center, and

112th Cavalry Regiment (Dismounted) and on Biak Island, 8th Medical

Laboratory and 28th Medical Center. Before the end of 1944, many of these

veterinary personnel and units had already departed from, or were preparing

to leave, the New Guinea bases for the Philippine Islands (table 23),

Table 23.—Deployment of veterinary food inspection detachments, New Guinea bases, Southwest

Pacific Area, 1943-45

Effective on 15 February 1945, Headquarters, Intermediate Section,

became Headquarters, New Guinea Base Section, with location at Oro Bay,

which continued to administer the seven bases in the area until its disbandment on 20 August 1945. Headquarters, New Guinea Base Section, lost its

staff veterinarian (by transfer to the Philippines) in March 1945, and after

that date, veterinary activities at the various bases were rapidly reduced.

With the discontinuance of Headquarters, New Guinea Base Section, the

New

Guinea

Base

Veterinary Food Inspection Detachment Arrival date Departure date Philippine Base assignment

97th April 1944 October 1944 K.

[98th May 1944 0)

|104th Late 1943 February 1945 X. B_

1.95th _____

August 1944 July 1945 M.

99th June 1944 (2) J. 110th _____May 1944 March-April 1945 K.

102d March 1944 July 1945 Unknown.

96th April 1944 )- ---

106th do February 1945 M.

109th do October 1944 K.

96th June 1944 July 1945 R.

108th do June 1945 R.

99th September-Octo- December 1945 M.

ber 1944.

f103d November 1944 do

II 101st October 1944 November 1944 Iv.

1.98th November 1944 July 1945 K.

Assigned to Base H. Assigned to Base G.

Inactivated.
ASIATIC-PACIFIC THEATERS 329

bases were subordinated directly under Headquarters, USAFWESPAC, which more or less closed them by the spring of 1946.

U.S. Army Forces, Northern Solomons.—Another command, comprising

island bases in the vicinity of New Guinea that was never under jurisdiction

of the theater’s service forces organization, was U.S. Army Forces, Northern

Solomons, with headquarters on Bougainville. This was created (under the

operational responsibility of XIV Corps), on November 1944, to consolidate

the administration over the troops and the following areas formerly assigned

to USAFISPA and transferred on 15 June 1944 to jurisdiction of SWPA:

Bougainville, Emirau, Green Islands, New Georgia, and Treasury Islands.

Each included service command veterinarian, but shortly after 31 December 1944 when the service commands were renamed U.S. Army Forces commands, these veterinary personnel gradually departed as the island bases were

rolled up (before June-July 1945). In January 1945, the Bougainville Service Command veterinarian was assigned as headquarters veterinarian, U.S.

Army Forces, Northern Solomons, and, on 20 August 1945, that command

was discontinued.

Philippine Island bases.—In the Philippine Islands which were retaken

from the Japanese after the fall of 1944, the Army Veterinary Service with

USASOS, SWPA, followed much the same pattern of base development used

earlier in Australia and New Guinea. The original Philippine bases were

developed by an Army Service Command organization which originally was

attached to the Sixth U.S. Army (between July 1944 and February 1945).

That organization, while staging at Ilollandia, developed Headquarters,

Base K, which set up station on Leyte, at Tacloban in October 1944, and

Headquarters, Base M, which set up station on Luzon, first at San Fabian in

January 1945 and then at San Fernando. Later, the Army Service Command

created Headquarters, Base R, for operation on Luzon at Batangas (which

was 60 miles south of Manila), and Headquarters, Base S, which was set up

as service forces organization on Cebu (map 4). In February 1945, the

Army Service Command was released from Sixth U.S. Army to control of

USASOS, and, as the newly named Luzon Base Section, it assumed operational control over Bases K, M, and —the latter being located in Manila;

in April 1945, Bases II and were added and the Luzon Base Section was

renamed Philippine Base Section. Throughout this organization, the base

section headquarters or staff veterinarian coordinated the veterinary personnel

and activities in the various subbases.

During June 1945, Headquarters, Philippine Base Section, was transferred as major subcommand to USAFWESPAC, which had replaced the

theater’s service organization. Following V-J Day, on October 1945, it

was discontinued, and the Philippine bases (that is, K, M, X, R, and S)

came under immediate jurisdiction of the recently formed Headquarters,

USAFWESPAC. As of mid-1945, the Philippine Base Section Headquarters and its five bases each included one or two veterinary officers and and total
330 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Map 4. —Army bases in the Philippine Islands, 1945.
ASIATIC-PACIFIC THEATERS 331

of 15 veterinary food inspection detachments. At this time also, the Sixth and Eighth U.S. Armies in the Philippine Islands had set up three divisional

area commands to overcome the minor Japanese resistance in bypassed islands

or wherever small groups of Japanese had fled to hide in caves. One such

area was Morotai, taken over by the Eighth U.S. Army’s 93d Division and

included in Southern Islands Area Command; the 100th Veterinary Food

Inspection Detachment arrived on Morotai during March 1945 and remained

there until 26 December 1945. In August 1945, the Southern Islands Area

Command was released from army control to Headquarters, USAFWESPAC.

Procurement Division.—An activity separate from that conducted at base

level was that of the Veterinary Branch, Procurement Division, USASOS, SWPA, which operated in Australia (5, 9). This procurement agency was

established in mid-February 1943 originally as the Quartermaster Subsistence

Depot, at Sydney, for the purpose of conducting food procurement in Australia for the Armed Forces. For brief period of time, in the fall of 1943, the

original depot organization was expanded into general depot and later

subordinated to Australian Base Section 7’s service command, but, during

January 1944, another reorganization saw the development finally of the

Procurement Division. Later that year, when Headquarters, USASOS,

moved into New Guinea and thence into the Philippines, this Procurement

Division was transferred to administrative control of the Australia Base

Section. When the original depot was established, Headquarters, USAFFE,

obtained War Department authorization as regards the personnel who would

be included, but only one veterinary officer was authorized on the basis of

the theater’s request. As soon as the subsistence depot organization was

shown to be deficient in numbers of veterinary personnel, the aforementioned

headquarters hurriedly made amends to provide for depot veterinary service

—this on suggestion of the chief surgeon’s office which had questioned the

manifest lack of coordination between theater headquarters planning staff

(G-3) and Medical Department staff officers. Later, an overhead personnel

allotment for veterinary officers and 28 enlisted personnel was authorized,

but even this number was inadequate as compared with the situation in mid1944 when there were 18 officers and 52 enlisted personnel assigned or attached

for duty.

These personnel were divided between the division’s headquarters and

the two of three subsistence subdepots or branch procurement offices, as they

were called later, that were set up at Sydney, Brisbane, and Melbourne. In

1944, veterinary officer was assigned to the Navy-administered Perth area

to organize procurement inspections (utilizing Navy enlisted men) of subsistence originating in commercial establishments. Except in the Perth area,

where procurement inspections were extended to all subsistence (including

fruits and vegetables), the Army Veterinary Service with the Procurement

Division was concerned with the inspection only of meat and dairy products.

590248 —61—23
332 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Figure 31.—Slaughtering and packing poultry in Australia, under U.S. Army Veterinary

Corps supervision, for supply to the Armed Forces in the Southwest Pacific Area.

At the beginning, this agency limited its procurement to nonperishable (or

canned) products, but later these operations were extended to the buying of

perishables, and, in fact, quartermaster market center system was created

that paralleled perishable subsistence buying and distribution in the Zone of

Interior. As of the end of 1944, veterinary food procurement inspections

were being conducted in 154 commercial food establishments (including 10

plants under contract to supply foods of nonanimal origin) these were

scattered throughout Australia in 44 cities and towns (figs. 31 and 32). All

such establishments were surveyed and repeatedly inspected for their sanitary

condition by Veterinary Corps officers. During 1944, veterinary inspections

of products at time of delivery to. or acceptance by, the Army totaled

261,186,946 pounds of meat and dairy products and 61,053,237 pounds of

non-animal-origin foods. Of these quantities, 3,470,686 pounds and 1,047,730 pounds, respectively, were recommended as unacceptable for procurement

because of insanitary condition or unsoundness or because of improper grade

or quality.

During 1945, as the combat area moved westward into the Philippines,

the extent of subsistence procurement operations in Australia declined. How-
ASIATIC-PACIFIC THEATERS 333

Figure 32.—U.S. Army Veterinary Corps inspection of the canning of dried egg

powder produced for the Army under reverse lend-lease agreement in Australia.

ever, even during the 3-month period from April through June, the veterinary

inspection workload at time of purchase totaled 38,796,692 pounds of meat

and dairy products and 3,875,324 pounds of non-animal-origin foods, of which

amount total of 63,058 pounds were recommended for rejection. Of course,

by this time, the identity of the Procurement Division was lost in the general

organization of Headquarters, Australia Base Section (actually after February 1945), and such veterinary personnel as remained in Australia were being

utilized not only to conduct subsistence procurement inspections, though this

was their major activity, but also in variety of other service forces activities.

As of 30 June 1945, the Australia Base Section's service included 18 officers,

76 enlisted personnel, and civilian employees.

Okinawa Base Command.—During the early period of the campaign in

the Ryukyu Islands, services of supply activities there were transferred from

jurisdiction of the Tenth U.S. Army and its combat forces to joint ArmyNavy administered Island Command headquarters. Also, two army garrison

forces or logistic support commands accompanied the landing forces on

Okinawa and le Shima Islands, each with its own staff veterinary officers

and one or more veterinary food inspection detachments. About month

after the campaign was underway, the original Army Garrison Force, APO

331, that came into Okinawa was merged in the Island Command organization so that the garrison force veterinarian soon was elevated in his staff
334 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

status to the supervision of veterinary affairs on an island-wide basis. This

included, in cooperation with the Tenth U.S. Army’s veterinarian, maintenance of direct liaison with Marine Corps units in regard to the inspection of

their food supply and with military government officers in connection with

civil affairs. Effective on August 1945, when jurisdiction over the Ryukyu

area was transferred from USAFMIDPAC to USAFWESPAC, the Island

Command was renamed Okinawa Base Command. At this date, the Army

Veterinary Service in the Ryukyus included those few with Tenth U.S. Army

units and the following:

Veterinarian, Surgeon’s Office, Okinawa Base Command:

142d, 143d, 144th, 145th, and 149th Veterinary Food Inspection Detachments

69th and 70th Veterinary Food Inspection Detachments (arriving during August

1945 from the Mediterranean theater)

Veterinarian, Surgeon’s Office, Army Garrison Force, le Shima:

147th Veterinary Food Inspection Detachment

Veterinarian, Surgeon's Office, Army Garrison Force, APO 458

Veterinary Section, 14th Medical Laboratory

Veterinary Section, 53d Medium Port

On 25-26 August 1945, the 142d, 143d, 144th, and 69th Veterinary Food Inspection Detachments were assigned to jurisdiction of Army Service Command-24 (under XXIV Corps) and departed during October for Korea; the

149th left on 21 October 1945 for Japan.

Sixth and Eighth U.S. Armies and Other Ground Forces

The veterinary service organization with ground forces units in the

SWPA was never large and generally was outside the technical supervision

of the nominal theater veterinarian. At the beginning of the war period,

most of the infantry divisions coming into the area had their own division

veterinarians, including the 41st and 32d Infantry Divisions which arrived

in Australia during May 1942. After 1943, when the War Department had

revised tables for the organization of infantry divisions and deleted the

veterinary personnel space authorizations, only few continued to retain

their division veterinarians, and the following observation was made (7)

The need for veterinary officers with Infantry Divisions of the Sixth Army as well

as for other similar units was realized as operations proceeded in the tropical New

Guinea jungles, and was the subject of informal conversation between the liaison officer

of the Sixth Army at Headquarters, United States Army Services of Supply and the

Veterinary Consultant. Much food could have been saved had such veterinary personnel

been available. The following quoted notes made by the Veterinary Consultant on May

[1944] during an inspection at Finschhafen, N.G., are considered pertinent:

Visited Dregget Ration Dump. Veterinary officers reported that when the 41st Division

pulled out, they left 75 tons of loose rations. Some were poorly taken care of. Out of

the 75 tons, 15 tons had to be condemned. The 32d Division and 1st Cavalry Division

also left about 150 tons and the loss after inspection was 15 tons or 10%. All these

supplies were badly weathered and apparently deteriorated while in possession of the

6th Army
SIAT IC-PACIFIC THEATERS 335

Later in 1944 the Commanding General, Sixth Army, finally requested the inclusion

of Major, YC, and enlisted men on the T/O for each Infantry Division of the Sixth

Army. This request was disapproved by the War Department. The War Department

indicated that such veterinary personnel as are needed for divisions in the Southwest

Pacific Area can he secured from those allotted to the theater as whole. Accordingly,

number of veterinary officers were assigned to duty with Infantry Divisions and Task

Forces. This procedure had its drawbacks, inasmuch as these officers were taken from

and charged to the meager overall allotment of grades to United States Army Services

of Supply; also no recognition in the form of promotions could ever be expected by these

officers while in that status.

In the spring of 1913, the 1st Cavalry Division complete with the organic

veterinary detachments for Headquarters Troop, 1st and 2d Cavalry Brigades,

5th, 7th, 8th, and 12th Cavalry Regiments, and 82d and 99th Field Artillery

Battalions, and with its veterinary troop, arrived from the Zone of Interior

but without its animals. Only 20 horses were provided to the division (Au- gust through November 1943) while in Australia, and, during July 1943, the

division’s 16th Cavalry Quartermaster Squadron, accompanying shipment

of approximately 300 mules, disembarked on New Guinea. The latter unit, in November 1943, turned in its animals to the Advance Echelon Remount

Depot installation at Port Moresby as the whole division was being reorganized preparatory to deployment as dismounted cavalry. In this reorganization, Veterinary Troop. 1st Medical Squadron, was redesignated 2d Collecting

Troop, 1st Mountain Medical Squadron, and, generally, the divisional veterinary enlisted personnel were absorbed by other medical units of the division

while the veterinary officers, though utilized for some period of time on

miscellany of duties within the division, were gradually transferred. The

1st Cavalry Division, though the largest, was not the only ground forces unit

authorized to be mounted or to have animals for short period of time. As

was commented upon earlier, the 98th Field Artillery Pack Battalion arrived

on New Guinea in February 1943 with 600 mules from the United States

(and received another 600 mules in June of that year) in Australia, the 61st,

62d, 63d, and 68th Quartermaster Pack Troops and the 167th Field Artillery

Pack Battalion were activated and organized locally and provided with horses

purchased outright or obtained through lend-lease in Australia. These units,

attached to Corps, were included in the composition of the Sixth U.S.

Army, whose mean animal strength, exclusive of 1st Cavalry Division, increased from 1,525.4 for the month of May 1943 to 2,427.8 animals for July

1943. Then, in the late months of that year, the pack horse units in Australia

were dismounted or inactivated, and their animals were returned to the

Services of Supply remount depot installation at Townsville. Before the

end of March 1944, the 98th Field Artillery Pack Battalion on New Guinea

was reorganized without its animals, which were turned in to the Port

Moresby remount depot installation. Thus, with one minor exception, there

was no ground forces unit with horses or mules in the SWPA after the spring

of 1944.
ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

The exceptional circumstance pertains to the 33d Infantry Division during the light for Baguio in the spring of 1945. Because of the shortages

here in numbers of natives available for employment as laborers and the

mountainous terrain which made vehicular traffic useless, the division improvised an animal pack train from 60 or more animals, which were captured from the Japanese, to move ammunition, water, food, and other supplies to its frontline troops. veterinary officer on duty with the XI Corps

was detailed to care for these animals. During June and July 1945, this

pack train was virtually disbanded when one-half of the animals died or

were destroyed because of surra infection.

Throughout this period, Headquarters, Sixth U.S. Army, which had

come into the SWPA in the spring of 1943, had staff veterinarian assigned

to the headquarters medical section. With the actions during the winter of

1943-44 that had led to the dismounting of pack troops and artillery battalions and preparations for deploying the cavalry division without animals,

the army veterinarian centered his attention on the administration of food

inspection services at field supply points.

During July 1944, Headquarters, Eighth U.S. Army, arrived from the

Zone of Interior, but its senior staff veterinary officer was returned to the

United States months later, and the army surgeon made no effort to obtain

replacement officer. However, the junior veterinary officer with that headquarters was continued in his assignment in the capacity as acting army

veterinarian. Generally, Eighth U.S. Army’s requirements for veterinary

services were provided by the Sixth U.S. Army and Services of Supply, but,

lacking central supervision, these veterinary activities were conducted in

only passable manner.

third field army veterinary service organization came into the SWPA

in mid-1945 when the Tenth U.S. Army, just then terminating the Ryukyus

campaign, was received by transfer from the CPA.

Fifth and Thirteenth Air Forces

The veterinary service organization with the air forces in the SWPA

probably began in 1943 when Veterinary Corps officer stationed in the

Darwin area came under the jurisdiction of the Fifth Air Force. The headquarters staff and air service command for Fifth Air Force was organized

in the fall of 1942; initially, both medical sections operated together at

Brisbane. Later in that year, Advance Echelon, Fifth Air Force, became

operational in New Guinea (at Port Moresby), and, by March 1943, it had

staff veterinarian as did the main headquarters in Australia. During the

opening months of 1944, the Fifth Air Force’s veterinary service was augmented by the assignment of Veterinary Section K, later reorganized as

101st Veterinary Food Inspection Detachment, for duty at airbases in the

New Guinea area (such as at Dobodura, Finschhafen, Gusap, Saidor, Nadzab,
ASIATIC-PACIFIC THEATERS 337

Wakde, and Biak). Later, the detachment moved into the Philippines, finally

setting np station at Clark Field on Luzon in April 1945. During August 1944, second such unit, Veterinary Section O, or 105th Veterinary Food

Inspection Detachment as it was called after November, was set up under air forces control at Darwin.

In June 1944, the SWPA gained the Thirteenth Air Force by transfer

from the SPA, and, concurrently, the two headquarters staffs of Fifth Air

Force were reorganized—its advance echelon becoming the new Headquarters, Fifth Air Force, and the main staff group becoming the new Headquarters, USAFFE. Subsequently, two air forces type of veterinary food

inspection detachments were activated in the theaters, the 3d Veterinary

Detachment, Aviation (originally with three sections, and after August 1944

with five subsections), being organized on 11 May 1944, at Nadzab, New

Guinea, for duty with the Fifth Air Force; and the 4th Veterinary Detachment, Aviation (including the basic detachment and two subsections, designated Sections and II), being organized on Morotai Island on 15 October

1944, for duty with the Thirteenth Air Force. Both detachments operated

by dispersion of the component elements to the numerous, widely scattered

bases of their respective air forces and moved frequently to new locations.

For example, the basic detachment or headquarters element of 3d Veterinary

Detachment, Aviation, moved on 11 August 1944, to Biak Island; on 15

February 1945, to Luzon (Clark Field) on 10 July 1945, to le Shima Island;

and then in early September 1945 to airbases in Japan, first at Atsugi and

then on 17 October 1945, at Tachikawa. The 4th Veterinary Detachment,

Aviation, also operating in split sections, moved its basic detachment into the

Philippine Islands during August and September 1945 (replacing the 3d

Veterinary Detachment at Clark Field) its Section opened at Palawan in

the spring of 1945, and Section II moved to station at Samar, both sections

being disbanded at these places on 23 October and 30 September 1945, respectively. There was some coordination of the veterinary services of these

two air forces at the level of Headquarters, Far East Air Forces, because in

November 1944 at least one veterinary officer was released from Base D,

USASOS, for assignment to that headquarters. In late 1945, the theater’s

air forces were augmented by the addition of the Seventh Air Force by

transfer from the CPA, but the Seventh Air Force, with headquarters then

located on Saipan, had no organically assigned veterinary personnel or

detachments.

U.S. ARMY FORCES, PACIFIC

The establishment, on April 1945, of USAFPAC marked the beginning

consolidation of Army commands in the Pacific theater (less that of the

Alaskan Department). Originally, it absorbed USAFFE, and on June 1945, the latter’s USASOS organization was replaced by the new USAFWESPAC, with headquarters at Manila. The USAFPOA was added on
338 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

July 1945, under the new name of USAFMIDPAC, with headquarters

continuing at Fort Shafter. The Western and Middle Pacific commands each

had staff veterinary officers in their respective headquarters medical sections.

Headquarters, USAFPAC, however, did not have staff veterinarian until

after V-J Day when the veterinarian, Western Pacific command, was moved

upward into the position of senior headquarters veterinarian. At the time

of the Japanese surrender, the major commands of USAFPAC having staff

or headquarters veterinarians included:

USAFMIDPAC

USAFWESPAC

Sixth and Eighth U.S. Armies of Occupation for Japan

Tenth U.S. Army (on Okinawa)

XXIV Corps or Occupation Force for Koi'ea

Far East Air Forces (renamed Pacific Air Command, U.S. Army, in December 1945)

Also, there were those veterinary officers on duty or arriving for assignment

and duty with General Headquarters, Supreme Commander for the Allied

Powers, which established military government in Japan and Korea. In

October 1945, Headquarters, USAFPAC, added veterinary personnel to its

medical section, and, during February 1946, that section moved from Manila

to new location in Tokyo, Japan. As of the end of 1945, the Army Veterinary Service in the Pacific theater included 127 officers, but before the end

of another year this number was only 43.

U.S. Army Forces, Middle Pacific

In the immediate postwar period, the Army command of Middle Pacific

(or successor, after June 1945, to USAFPOA) was rapidly reduced. On

November 1945, its Central Pacific Base Command was disbanded and the

latter’s headquarters medical section was merged with the surgeon’s office of

Headquarters, USAFMIDPAC, to form Headquarters, Oahu Medical Service. The Veterinary Section, Headquarters, Oahu Medical Service, comprised

the Middle Pacific’s central office for administering the veterinary service

organization in the Hawaiian Islands and in the South and the Western

Pacific Base Commands. As observed previously, the two base subcommands were also reduced. As of the end of 1945, the Army Veterinary

Service with USAFMIDPAC included 21 Veterinary and Medical Administrative Corps officers and approximately 100 enlisted personnel.

U.S. Army Forces, Western Pacific

During the immediate postwar period, the USAFWESPAC, the second and the larger of the two territorial subcommands of USAFPAC,

administered the veterinary service organization which remained on the

On January 1947, USAFPAC became the Far East Command.
ASIATIC-PACIFIC THEATERS 339

bases scattered from Australia through New Guinea and in the Philippines and Ryukyus. By the end of 1945, the Australia Base Section was only

skeletal organization. The New Guinea Base Section headquarters had been

disbanded (in August) so that its Bases (at Finschhafen), (at Hollandia), and (on Biak) were subordinated directly under the supervision

of Headquarters, USAFWESPAC, as were the Philippines Bases (at

Tacloban), (at San Fernando), and (at Manila) whose immediate headquarters organization, the former Philippine Base Section, had been discontinued (in October 1945); also, there was the Okinawa Base Command.

As of 31 December 1945, the Army Veterinary Service with USAFWESPAC

comprised 39 officers and 83 enlisted personnel. The officers were assigned

as follows:

Surgeon’s Office, Headquarters, USAI^WESPAC:

19th Medical GeneralLaboratory

Procurement Division and Branch Procurement Offices and 2, Australia Base Section

Surgeon’s Office, Base (Hollandia, New Guinea)

Surgeon’s Office, Base (on Leyte Island)

Port, Base

743d Veterinary Food Inspection Detachment

99th Veterinary Food Inspection Detachment (Subbase on Cebu Island)

671st Medium Port (Subbase on Cebu Island)

Surgeon’s Office, Base (San Fernando, Luzon Island)

77th Veterinary Food Inspection Detachment

Surgeon’s Office, Base (Manila, Luzon Island)

100th, 110th, and 166th Veterinary Food Inspection Detachments

3088th and 3094th Quartermaster Refrigeration Companies

Surgeon’s Office, 2d Major Port

Surgeon’s Office, Subbase (Batangas, Luzon Island)

93d Infantry Division Area Command (on Morotai Island)

Surgeon’s Office, Okinawa Base Command: 145th Veterinary Food Inspection Detachment

279th Signal Pigeon Combat Platoon

146th Veterinary Food Inspection Detachment, Army Garrison Force, le Shima

Military Occupation Forces

With the surrender of Japan, USAFPAC moved its Sixth and Eighth

U.S. Armies from the Philippine Islands into the Japanese home islands and

its XXIV Corps (now separated from Tenth U.S. Army control) from the

Ryukyus into Korea. The Sixth U.S. Army with its Army Service Command-0 became the military occupation force for southern Honshu and

Kyushu, and the Eighth U.S. Army with Army Service Command-C occupied northern Honshu and Hokkaido—the first with headquarters at Kyoto,

and the second with headquarters at Yokohama. The two army service commands comprised the basic veterinary service organization in regard to the

occupying military forces. Other veterinary officers were assigned to military government teams and to General Headquarters, Supreme Commander

59 —61 24
340 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

for the Allied Powers, who were concerned with Japanese civilian affairs.

During the early months of 1946, as the Eighth U.S. Army assumed the

occupational role for all of Japan, Army Service Command-C absorbed

Army Service Command-0 and administered the various military bases that

were developed, such as at Kobe, Kure, Nagoya, Fukuoka, and Yokohama.

Headquarters, XXIV Corps, and Army Service Command-24, each with

staff veterinarian, moved into the southern part of Korea (below the 88th

North parallel of latitude) in September 1945. During the first few months,

the corps veterinarian surveyed the local food and animal industries and

cooperated in the conduct of military government operations over Korean

civil affairs. However, before the end of the year, the latter activities were

assumed by the newly formed U.S. Army Military Government in Korea, to

which veterinary personnel were assigned. Headquarters, XXIV Corps,

later referred to as Headquarters, U.S. Army Forces in Korea, set up station at Seoul, while Army Service Command-24, renamed Korea Base Command (in April 1946), set up its headquarters at Ascom City (in the vicinity of Inchon). Other areas of troop concentration were at Taejon and

Pusan. The service or base command’s veterinary organization was augmented by the 69th, 142d, 143d, and 144th Veterinary Food Inspection

Detachments.

Pacific Air Command, U.S. Army

In the immediate postwar period, the FEAF (Far East Air Forces)

continued to expand, and, in December 1945, it was named Pacific Air

Command, U.S. Army. Its headquarters moved from the Philippines into

Tokyo during May 1946. As of December 1945, the Pacific theater’s air

forces command included the Fifth Air Force (with headquarters at Nagoya,

Japan), the Seventh Air Force (with headquarters at Hickam Field), and

the Thirteenth Air Force (with headquarters at Fort McKinley) also, there

were two Army Strategic Air Forces, the Eighth in the Ryukyus and the

Twentieth in the Marianas.

U.S. ARMY FORCES, CHINA-BURMA-INDIA

The Army Veterinary Service with USAFCBI had its origin when

Veterinary Corps officer and two enlisted personnel arrived on troop

transport from the Zone of Interior at Karachi, India, during May 1942

(10). In the fall of 1941, military mission under Brig. Gen. John

Magruder had come into this area to study American lend-lease supply to

Allied China; this was followed (in March 1942) by the U.S. Military Mis- sion to China headed by Brig. Gen. Joseph IV. Stilwell. Both missions

centered their activities in the Nationalist China capital, Chungking. There

was also military observer group with the British Army at New Delhi,

India, and another group of personnel was once assigned to the former U.S.
SIATI O-PACIFIC HEATERS 341

Military Mission to Iran and Iraq under Brig. Gen. Eaymond A. Wheeler

but which had been diverted to Karachi. Each of these groups included

one or two Medical Corps officers to care for the medical needs of mission

personnel, who for the most part eventually became members of important

operational elements of the China-Burma-India theater that was now coming into existence; none had assigned veterinary personnel. During this

early period, however, pursuant to request initiated in China, forwarded

through the offices of two quasi-official Chinese agencies (namely; the Amer- ican Bureau for Medical Aid to China, Inc., and China Defense Supplies,

Inc.), and endorsed by the White House, the Surgeon General’s Office

planned for and obtained the assignment of Veterinary Corps officer and

two veterinary enlisted personnel for duty with the Northwest Epizootic

Prevention Bureau, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Lanchow, Kansu

Province, China {11). They were assigned to the Stilwell China Mission for

administrative purposes, arriving there at Chungking on April 1942, and

departing later that month for Lanchow.

Thus, these special veterinary mission personnel were the first of the

Army Veterinary Service to arrive in the developing China-Burma-India

theater, but, until August 1942, when theater headquarters ordered their

return from Lanchow and their reassignment to the U.S. military training

center at Eamgarh, India, they are not really part, of the beginning

theater veterinary service organization. In regard to this veterinary mission, it may be observed that it readily accomplished its primary objective

to investigate the reported animal disease threat to approximately 20,000

camels and 400 horses along the Eed Caravan Trail through northwestern

China into Eussia, but its energies were soon redirected by local Chinese

officials to develop long-term project to bring into China some American

veterinarians to set up laboratories for producing veterinary biologicals

needed to control indigenous animal diseases, such as rinderpest, anthrax,

glanders, and rabies, and to expedite, of course, the importation of American

laboratory material. The project was of questionable military value and

only start on biologicals production was made before August 1942.

With the formation of USAFCBI, the Stilwell Mission, which had

accompanied the retreat of remnants of the Chinese forces out of Burma in

the spring-early summer of 1942, set up two headquarters at widely separated locations, forward echelon theater headquarters in Chungking and

rear echelon theater headquarters at New Delhi. The latter included the

medical staff for the theater except the theater surgeon himself, who in the

fall of 1942 moved to the advance echelon headquarters at Chungking. No

theater veterinarian was designated at this time, but, in the interim, the

Wheeler Iran-Iraq mission began to form the theater services of supply

organization, complete with headquarters medical section, located first at

Karachi and then soon moving to New Delhi. During July, September, and
342 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

November 1942, new arrivals of personnel from the Zone of Interior increased the veterinary service organization in the China-Burma-India theater to total of 10 officers and 10 enlisted personnel. By the end of 1942,

these were on duty at various services of supply installations including Base

Section (or the Karachi area which was then the major portal of entry

for U.S. forces coming into the theater), Ramgarh training center which

was organized for the training and equipping of the new Allied-sponsored

Chinese Army in India, and the Tenth Air Force. These personnel were

busily engaged in surveying the food industries and developing appropriate

standards for local procurement, in conducting surveillance inspections on

nonperishable subsistence which was arriving from outside the theater or

was being furnished by the British, and in starting the reorganization of

the Chinese Army’s veterinary service organization.

Actually, there was little or no technical coordination of these activities

in India except informally by veterinary officer who, during March 1943,

was ordered, on request of the theater surgeon at Headquarters, Forward

Echelon, USAFCBI, to transfer for duty in China in connection with the

training of the Chinese military forces there (as contrasted with the Chinese military forces in training in India). Four veterinary officers had

already been ordered into China to the new U.S. Field Artillery and Infantry Training Centers at K’un-ming. On April 1943, the officer was designated as theater veterinarian, but, as he was preoccupied with his original

duty assignment and too far distant from the major medical planning staffs

of theater rear echelon headquarters and Headquarters, Service of Supply,

at New Delhi, there was yet no truly operational central office for administering the theater veterinary service organization. This situation continued

until July 1943 when more senior veterinary officer, newly arrived from

the Zone of Interior, was assigned to Headquarters, Rear Echelon, and then

(on 23 July 1943) was designated as theater veterinarian. The latter’s position was strengthened in the spring of 1944 when the forward echelon of

theater headquarters was moved and merged with the headquarters staff at

New Delhi.

In the early months of 1944, the Army Veterinary Service with

USAFCBI had approximately 90 officers and twice that number of enlisted

personnel; numerically, it was almost equally divided between the IndiaBurma and the China sectors (map 5), and only third were on duty at

U.S. services of supply and air force installations, while two-thirds of them

were being utilized for instructing, on liaison duty with, or providing supporting veterinary animal services to, the Chinese armies in India and in

China. By mid-June 1944, the veterinary officer strength was increased to

141. These officers were assigned to duty as follows:

Theater veterinarians included Maj. W. E. Jennings, VC (8 April to 22 July 1943) and Lt.

Col. R. W. Mohri, VC (23 July 1943 to October 1944).
ASIATIC-PACIFIC THEATERS 343

Veterinary

Officers

Theater Surgeon’s Office, Headquarters, USAFCBI

Surgeon’s Office, Headquarters, Services of Supply, at New Delhi

Base Section 1, at Karachi

Base Section 2, at Calcutta

Base Section 3, at Ledo

Advance Section 1, at K’un-ming

Advance Section 2, at Chabua

Station complement, Ramgarh Training Center

War Dog Detachment

Services of Supply Remount Service

Services of Supply General Depot

Services of Supply General Depot

1st Veterinary Company (Separate)

9th Medical Laboratory

Theater troops:

Company (Veterinary), 13th Mountain Medical Battalion 10

5307th Composite Regiment (Provisional)

Ramgarh Training Center (instructional staff)

X-Force Operations Staff

Y-Force Operations Staff 42

Z-Force Operations Staff 27 Surgeon’s Office. Headquarters, AAF, India-Burma Sector

China-Burma-India Air Service Command

Fourteenth Air Force

India-China Wing, Air Transport Command

On 22 August 1944, largely as result of recommendations made by the Yoorhees Mission that had been sent by The Surgeon General to study the theater’s medical department, the medical sections of theater headquarters and services of supply headquarters in New Delhi were physically

merged because there were generally insufficient numbers of personnel avail- able to properly staff both of them. The former theater headquarters veterinarian (as were most of that medical staff) was then reassigned to the

Medical Section, Headquarters, Services of Supply, and concurrently designated as deputy theater veterinarian to administer veterinary affairs in

China-Burma-India on theaterwide basis. During October 1944, the

China-Burma-India theater was separated into USAFIBT (U.S. Army

Forces, India-Burma theater) and USAFCT (U.S. Army Forces, China

theater), and the former theater veterinarian was continued with the staff

of the new India-Burma theater.

In later paragraphs describing the veterinary functional organization

with USAFCBI, it was not always possible to abruptly terminate the story

of certain activities as of October 1944, because generally what occurred,

during the winter of in India-Burma and in China was at least

begun or planned for in the original theater. Futhermore, when the first

truck convoy moved over the new Stilwell Boad, in January 1945, the fight

for Burma was all but ended, and the new India-Burma theater became the
344 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Map 5.—India-Burma theater, showing principal location,
ASIATIC-PACIFIC THEATERS 345

LEGEND

RAILROADS

BURMA ROAD

LEDO ROAD

(LATER CALLED STILWELL ROAD)

operations of the Army Veterinary Service.
346 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

rear service area to logistically support the new China theater. In an analy- sis of the extent of veterinary activities in the China-Burma-India theater, the Army Veterinary Service inspected an unknown quantity of subsistence and treated 1,800 cases of sick and wounded Army horses and mules. Also, in the period from May 1043 through 31 October 1944, its veterinary hospi- tals admitted 3,563 animal cases belonging to the Chinese military forces for

treatment, and the professional treatment of another 9,513 cases was supervised by Veterinary Corps officers on liaison duty with those forces in the

field.

Services of Supply, U.S. Army Forces, China-Burma-India

The China-Burma-India theater’s services of supply organization, established in June 1942, provided for the coordination and supervision of: Veterinary food inspection activities for the U.S. air, ground, and service forces; the veterinary services which were conducted in connection with the receipt,

processing, and distribution of horses and mules to the Chinese Army in India and to U.S. combat teams; and the operation of rear echelon animal

evacuation and veterinary hospitalization system in rear of the Allied combat forces fighting for Burma. Its headquarters medical staff, then at Kew

Delhi, eventually obtained (in October 1942) staff veterinarian who technically supervised veterinary activities and personnel among the various advance and base section subcommands—each also having headquarters medical section. The subcommands included: Base Section (with headquarters at Karachi), comprising the western half of India; Base Section

(with headquarters at Calcutta), located in southeastern India; Base Section 3, later named Advance Section (with headquarters at Ledo) which

administered the service forces immediately in back of the combat areas in

Burma; Advance Section 2, later referred to as Intermediate Section (with

headquarters at Chabua), comprising the northeast India province of Assam; and Advance Section 1, once named Advance Base Section (with headquarters at K’un-ming), including the China sector of the theater. During

the earlier period, the veterinary service was concerned with the inspection

of foods in the Karachi area, but this was gradually extended to the Kamgarh training center and thence throughout the theater. Service forces

veterinary personnel were also involved, during this early period, in remount operations and in the care of animals for the Chinese combat units.

Food inspection.—Actually, the veterinary food inspection services advanced slowly in the theater because senior commanders would not grant

higher or prior consideration for such personnel in contrast to veterinary

animal service personnel. This was of serious importance in view of the

scattering of troops over very large geographic area and because of the

nature of supplying or feeding the troops. It may be noted that until late

1944 veterinary food inspection personnel were only provisionally assigned

or attached to services of supply installations, and neither were their num-
ASIATIC-PACIFIC THEATERS 347

bers nor grades increased, for example, over year’s time ending September

1944, even though the theater’s ration strength had increased threefold to

approximately 200,000 troops. At this time, veterinary food inspection

services were being conducted by only 19 veterinary officers and approximately 75 enlisted personnel. These were located at Agra, Bombay, Calcutta, Chabua, Chakulia, Dinjan, Gaya, Hyderabad, Sind, Jorhat, Karachi, Kharagpur, Kurmitola Lalmanirhat, Ledo, New Delhi, Andal, Ramgarh,

bum Duma, and Tezpur in India, at Shingbwiyang in Burma, and in China

at Cheng-tu, Chungking, K’un-ming, and Kuei-lin. The service forces veterinary service performed nearly all food inspection services in the theater

except at those few places where air forces personnel were available, and

after September 1942 included the inspection also of fresh friuts, vegetables,

and other non-aminmal-origin foods which were brought into the theater or

procured locally.

The Army’s subsistence supply in the China-Burma-India theater was

obtained in various ways: by incoming shipments of regular supplies from

the Zone of Interior and from local sources such as by direct Army purchase, through the Royal Indian Army Service Corps under the general

provisions of United States-British lend-lease agreement, and through the

Chinese War Area Service Corps. Each system of subsistence supply presented variety of serious problems to the Army Veterinary Service, but

the system of supply involving Indian resources proved especially difficult

where better grade and sanitary quality foods were expected than in wartorn China where the U.S. forces were forced to live off the country as

guests of the Chinese Nationalist Government.

In regard to the subsistence supply from local sources in India, it may

be noted that originally the Army in the Karachi area surveyed the local

food industries and developed specifications for the direct purchase by the

Army of fresh meats (beef, mutton, and chicken), fish, butter, eggs, fruits

and vegetables. Eventually, the Royal Indian Army Service Corps was

superimposed over U.S. military purchasing operations, and the former

then bought the foods used by the Army. The Indian Army’s contract

demands for sanitary and other quality factors were below the minimal

American standards, and, although there was no perceptible need for any

U.S. veterinary grading of this locally procured subsistence (because all of

it was substandard), the Army Veterinary Service did—with some objection on the part of British and Indian authorities—conduct inspections for

sanitary quality. Thus, in abattoirs, which were sometimes nothing more

than roofed-over cement platforms, without refrigerated holding rooms, and

where operations were haphazardly conducted if not altogether obscured by

flies and buzzards, Veterinary Corps officers conducted ante mortem and

post mortem inspections and constantly supervised the slaughter of food

animals; there was no other inspection. At times, whole herds of animals
348 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

were rejected from slaughter on account of emaciation. Diseases such as

rinderpest, foot-and-mouth disease, and anthrax were among the causes for

rejecting many animals; also, local laws and religious customs acted to limit the animal supply and to hamper slaughterhouse operations so that

“our troops were not bothered by having to eat beef of high quality.”

In regard to local purchases of butter, the Army Veterinary Service

made “*

no attempt to score native butter, it was either not bad enough

to prevent acceptance or it was too bad. Mottled, undersalted and full of

dirt, it was manufactured mostly from buffalo milk.” The 1943 Thanksgiving Day’s turkey supply into New Delhi as “sickening mess” of turkey,

chickens, ducks, geese, guinea fowl, and other birds in varying degrees of

having been dressed, drawn, and cold slaughtered. However, this occurred

only once, because thereafter the Army did not depend on local Indian supply

to provide Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day dinners in the ChinaBurma-India theater. more constant problem was that pertaining to

fresh eggs as the delivered shipments were subject to inspections or candling

of each egg for edibility; outside shell contamination was generally overlooked in the inspections because all eggs were dirty, but, frequently, 90 or

more percent were rejected from deliveries when candling inspections revealed

inside rots, mold, blood rings, and advanced embryo development. Fruits

and vegetables, of low or inferior grade quality, were supplied under contract, when available and if deemed to be an economical purchase by the

Royal Indian Army Service Corps. Considerable quantities of these items

were lost during shipments in steel, airtight cars of the Indian railroad system that under the heat of the tropical sun became like cooking ovens, and,

of course, there were further losses in the messhalls incident to their preparation. In connection with perishable subsistence supply, it may be added

that refrigerated warehouse space and refrigerated railroad cars were not

available until the fall of 1944, and, up to that time, only limited quantities

of boneless beef, chicken, fish, and ice cream could be processed under veterinary supervision in the Karachi and Calcutta areas, from which points small

amounts were moved by airplane in the northeastern areas of India where

large numbers of troops were located. In August 1944, the U.S. forces

received shipment of perishable subsistence (fresh frozen mutton) for the

first time from extratheater sources, and several carloads were successfully

moved over the Indian railway system from Calcutta to Chabua.

Fortunately, little if any of the local food supply in the India-Burma

sector of the theaterreached the U.S. forces in the China sector where another

foreign agency, the Chinese War Area Service Command provided housing

and fed them, except for few items, which that agency could not obtain

locally, to “round-out” their diet. Gradually, as veterinary personnel became

available, veterinary sanitary inspection controls were set up over the

foods of animal origin provided by the Chinese to U.S. installations, but

the Army Veterinary Service had little if anything to do with the handling
ASIATIC-PACIFIC THEATERS 349

and preparation of these foods in the Chinese-operated messhalls or hostels.

However, in the early period of activities in China (or Advance Section 1),

veterinary officers originally acted as area sanitary inspectors over the water

supply and in the Chinese War Area Service Command-operated messhalls

and managed the operations of an abattoir in K’un-ming which supplied

beef, pork, and chicken to the military personnel there and at Yang-chieh

and Yiin-nan-i {12). In the 6-month period, October 1943 through March

1944, the veterinary inspections at the K’un-ming abattoir were extended to

4,280 cattle, 5,779 hogs, and 74,337 chickens, yielding 1,194,715 pounds of

beef, 549,349 pounds of pork, and 136,139 pounds of chicken; rejections at

ante mortem and post mortem inspections, being made largely on account

of physical condition, tuberculosis, and Cysticercus bovis infestation, aggregated 327 cattle (or beef carcasses), 205 hogs, and 752 chickens. In the

field with the Chinese military forces, U.S. liaison personnel were rationed

with the Chinese army or division to which attached, and, though some

efforts were made to interest the Chinese Army Veterinary Service in the

inspection of food supplies, the field forces food supply was generally uninspected.

Nonperishable subsistence, originating chiefly with the regular supply

from the Zone of Interior, did not seem to exist in the China-Burma-India

theater because large quantities of canned and dry subsistence perished on

account of deteriorating, spoilage, and damage. Following its arrival at the

Karachi or Calcutta ports, the nonperishable subsistence was handled and

rehandled many times, usually by native laborers who ere indifferent to the

need for carefully loading and stacking; it was then transshipped in the

Indian steel railroad cars whose internal temperatures came to be that of

160° F., was en route for periods as long as weeks, and was finally stored,

frequently in the open or in the native bashas which lasted for about

months, after which time the roof began to leak and the building started

to sag and then finally collapsed {10).

The summer monsoon begins in Assam in the latter part of April and continues until

the following November. During this period the rainfall amounts to several hundred

inches. In between rains, the tropical sun beats down relentlessly to make the atmosphere similar to Swedish bath. Metals rust with swiftness that is almost unbelievable. Pin holes appear magically in cans permitting the entrance of bacteria and

molds. Dried subsistence becomes soggy in the tropical atmosphere and rapidly deteriorates from bacterial and chemical decomposition. Insects engage in mass attacks on the

dried products, especially flour which is usually alive with weevils. Sugar is surrounded

by swarms of bees that sometimes have the audacity to hive in the same warehouses.

Add to these factors the damage incurred by countless rodents that are so prevalent in

the tropics and the difficulties of preserving subsistence may be understood.

Though much of the subsistence losses occurred from factors of intratheater origin and some such losses could have been minimized by greater

attention to higher priority on storage warehouse construction as materiel

became available, there is no doubt that losses originated with inherent
350 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

weaknesses in the subsistence as it was shipped from the Zone of Interior.

Such losses were caused by the packing in commercial containers or lightweight cardboard cartons and the packaging in overly large, poorly lacquered, and light-gage tin cans, or in cloth and paper bags that were not

waterproof and were readily bent or torn. During 1943, canned milk products alone accounted for 80 percent of the reported losses of nonperishable

meat and dairy products in the China-Burma-India theater, or 430,326

pounds, indicating that the product had an inherent weakness not shown in

other products. Actually, for that year, veterinary-reported rejections for

nonperishable meat and dairy products totaled 572,781 pounds, but regarding these “*

it should be remembered the list does not include the

hundreds of thousands of pounds of canned fruits, fruit juices, jellies, jams,

vegetables, condiments, flour, rice, beans, and breakfast cereals that were

also condemned during this period, nor the unrecorded losses at stations

where veterinary inspection was not maintained” {10). The condition of

subsistence stores and recommendations for minimizing losses were routinely

reported by veterinary officers, and attempts at reclamation were made, but,

even so, this did not prevent incidents where subsistence was airdropped to

troops fighting in Burma by being simply shoved out of the doors of lowflying airplanes, and sacks of reclaimed food (because box materiel was unavailable) were transported for use in the combat areas.

Animal service.—Another major veterinary activity with Services of

Supply, USAFCBI, concerned the animals which were received in the theater

and used by U.S. combat teams and the Chinese Army in India in the Burma

campaigns. In the fall of 1942, the Chinese forces in training at the U.S.

center at Ramgarh began to receive animals from British sources in India, and

then, as these forces were moved into the Ledo area, preparatory to their reentry into the fight for Burma, sizable remount depot was developed there.

In the spring of 1943, the 1st Veterinary Company (Separate), newly arrived

from the Zone of Interior and as service forces-assigned unit, set up provisional veterinary hospital at Ledo to support this depot and the veterinary

animal service activities of the local X-Force units. During June 1943, this

company also established veterinary hospital at Ramgarh and in October

1943 set up hospital facilities near newly developing remount depot at Shillong. Subsequently, this company’s activities at theRamgarh center were taken

over by three small veterinary units (the 39th,40th, and 41st Veterinary Animal

Service Detachments which were activated and organized within the theater

during July 1944), and its hospital activities at Ledo were augmented in September 1944 by another two veterinary detachments (the 51st and 52d Veterinary Animal Service Detachments which had just arrived from the Zone of

Interior). During December 1944, the 2d Veterinary Company (Separate),

with Negro enlisted personnel, newly arrived from the Zone of Interior, was

moved into the Ledo area, and then the entire 1st Veterinary Company (Separate) was removed to Shillong. At the same time, the 39th, 40th, and 41st
ASIATIC-PACIFIC THEATERS 351

Veterinary Animal Service Detachments were transferred from Ramgarh,

where all animal activities were now discontinued, and were attached to the

company at Shillong. Aside from the foregoing two companies and five veterinary animal service detachments,the services of supply organization in September 1944 activated and organized the T8th Veterinary Hospital Detachment to

operate in the Calcutta area to assist in the disembarkation and transshipment

of Army animals arriving at that port from the Zone of Interior and Pacific

theaters; before this time, animals unsuitable for immediate shipment to the

depots were cared for at the port by an Indian Army veterinary hospital.

The veterinary animal service activities with Services of Supply paralleled

the remount operations in the India-Burma sector of the theater. These operations, prior to March 1944, were conducted by the Army Veterinary Service,

beginning in the fall of 1942, when veterinary officers undertook the supervision

of the British supply of animals to Chinese divisions in training at Ramgarh

and then later atLedo. During November and December 1943, the first few of

30 or more animal transports thatwere to bring approximately 10,000 horses and

mules into the theater during the war were unloaded and the animals processed

for distribution, but it was not until March 1944 that Quartermaster Corps

remount officer was officially named for the India-Burma sector of the theater.

At the same time, provisional remount depot organization (the 5321st Depot)

was being organized at Ledo; this was disbanded during July 1944 when

newly activated 699th Quartermaster Remount Troop was organized to conduct

operations there. Also, in this month, the 698th Quartermaster Remount Troop,

newly arrived from the Zone of Interior, set up operations at Ramgarh —both

troops having organic veterinary detachments. Before the end of 1944 another

two remount troops were brought into the theater services of supply remount

operations: Troop A, 252d Quartermaster Remount Squadron (later redesignated 47’5th Quartermaster Remount Troop) and Troop A, 253d Quartermaster Remount Squadron (later renamed 4T6th Quartermaster Remount Troop).

These four remount troops, each with its own veterinary detachment, were

operating depots at Shillong, Ledo, and Myitkyina (noting, of course, that the

Ramgarh depot facility was now closed), and there was port remount section

(the 3113thQuartermaster Section) at Calcutta.

Laboratory service.—The veterinary requirements for the laboratory

analyses of foods and clinicodiagnostic services in the theater were met by

the 9th Medical Laboratory, complete with its own veterinary section, which

arrived from the Zone of Interior during February 1944 and set up station

as services of supply-controlled unit at Chabua.

Chinese Training and Combat Command

Successor to the original Stilwell China Mission, the Chinese Training

and Combat Command was the U.S. military administrative organization

in the China-Burma-India theater which undertook the training, supplying,

reorganizing, and advising of the Allied-sponsored Chinese military forces.
352 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

When the Japanese captured Burma, the existing Chinese forces were divided, with one group of two divisions retreating out of Burma into northeastern

India and the other and larger group into China; thus, the Chinese Army in India, and the Chinese Army in China. This occurred before the summer of 1942, and the overall Allied strategic plan now became one for

buildup of an aerial supply route over the Himalaya Mountain “Hump”

into China (which would satisfy the most urgent supply needs of the Chinese

forces in China) until northern Burma was cleared of the enemy and the

overland Burma Road route (later renamed Stilwell Road) could be completed to increase the flow of supplies there. Obviously, initial energies

were directed on the reorganizations of the Chinese combat divisions in

India and, subsequently, of the Chinese forces in southwestern China, which

would eventually converge in the fight for Burma. These were referred to

in the code names of X- (or X-ray) Force and Y- (or Yoke) Force.

Later, third group of approximately 30 Chinese divisions in southeastern

China was entered into the sponsorship of the United States, called Z- (or

Zebra) Force; however, the schedule for training and equipping the ZForce divisions was disrupted by the Japanese advances into southern

China in mid-1944, so that these units were merged with the earlier Chinese

Y-Forces, and the two became the Chinese Army in China. Concurrently,

the Allied-sponsored X-Force became the Chinese Army in India. As already

indicated, approximately hundred Veterinary Corps officers, or two-thirds

of the total number in the China-Burma-India theater, came on field duty

with, or in units directly supporting, these Chinese units.

For purposes of administering U.S. activities and personnel with these

Chinese forces, the Chinese Training and Combat Command was established

as major subordinate element of USAFCBI. It was subdivided into

staff group which acted in an advisory capacity to the Chinese General Staff,

training group which maintained schools of instruction for Chinese Army

personnel, and liaison group comprising the U.S. Army teams which were

actually attached to the Chinese units entering the combat areas. Through

this command organization, the Army Veterinary Service soon became involved with the wartime development of the Chinese Army veterinary service and the improvement of Chinese Army animal care and management; for example, for the first time in modern Chinese military history, its

animals were properly shod.

X-Force.—Preparatory training and reorganization of the Chinese 22d and 38th Divisions, remnants of which had straggled out of Burma in the

spring of 1942, was undertaken at Ramgarh. During July 1942, veterinary personnel were deployed there primarily in connection with Services of Supply

food inspection activities, but, before the end of another month, these officers and men were already involved in the survey of 126 ponies—once with the

Chinese units in Burma—that the British had shipped and returned to the two

Chinese divisions. Of this group, the Army Veterinary Service destroyed 13
ASIATIC-PACIFIC THEATERS 353

SC CBI—44—11032

Figure 33.—Supervision of animal sick call in the training center for the Chinese

military forces, Ramgarh, India, 1944.

on account of glanders, 35 for surra, and on account of epizootic lymphangitis

infections. small amount of veterinary equipment and supplies were purchased locally to satisfy immediate needs for the care of the animals, while

requisitions for larger amounts to reequip the Chinese Army Veterinary Service

of X-Force were processed for the British to meet. Beginning in September

1942,British horses, mules, and tonga ponies of Indian Army origin were provided to the Chinese units (100 in September, 700 in November, and 850 in

December 1942), and the assigned veterinary officer was then designated additional duty as the remount officer at the Ramgarh center. He found the animals

to be “decrepit, oversized and undersized, ungroomed, and the outline of every

bone could be clearly seen beneath their shaggy hides,” and in the new arrivals

he reported the presence of surra, strangles, and piroplasmosis {10) “Piroplasmosis accounted for the death of several animals, and, with no facilities

available to dip them or drugs to prepare dipping solution, it was necessary

to manually remove the ticks in order to control the outbreak.”

The program for instructing the Chinese Army Veterinary Service at

Ramgarh was begun in October 1942 and finally came to an end after years

of almost continuous operation (fig. 33). During this period, the Army Veteri-
354 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

nary Service provided instructional services to 345 Chinese personnel (including veterinary officers and enlisted personnel, stable officers, stable sergeants,

and horseshoers) and unit training to 36 veterinary detachments (including

those of four army corps, division veterinary platoons, and variety of detachments for field artillery battalions, infantryregiments and divisions, and animal

transport battalions and regiments). The importance of this training to the

Allied war effort is emphasized by the fact that there truly were no modern

standards for Chinese military veterinary medicine; that animals were used (or

expended) in the Chinese Army until they dropped in their tracks on account of

disease or injury, lack of shoeing, debility, or exhaustion; and that horses and

mules probably would comprise the only means of transport for the Chinese

military units both in the Burma campaigns and inChina.

In the spring of 1943, the veterinary school training program and other

activities at Ramgarh were temporarily increased when the third Chinese combat unit, the 30th Division, was added to X-Force by airlift from China, and

Veterinary Corps officer was temporarily assigned to X-Force Operations

Staff at Ledo. Subsequently, as the original school training program came

to an end, the Chinese X-Force units moved into the northeastern India

province of Assam and thence into Burma, and the operations of the Chinese

Training and Combat Command in that area were then organized under the

new Northern Combat Area Command.

Y-Force.—As the veterinary instructional program for Chinese Army

veterinarians and horseshoers in the Allied-sponsored X-Force was launched,

similar program was inaugurated for the 27 Chinese divisions of the U.S.-

sponsored Y-Force. In early February 1943, the first two of four veterinary

officers were transferred (from Ramgarh )to K’un-ming, China, to establish

veterinary instructional program at the U.S. Yunnan Field Artillery Training

Center, and, on March 1943, another two officers were detailed to inaugurate second veterinary school training program at the U.S. Yunnan Infantry

Training Center, also located in K’un-ming. Later, during March 1943, the

veterinary officer, who was to be designated as theater veterinarian in addition

to other duties (April to July 1943), was assigned from the India-Burma sector

to Y-Foi*ce Operations Staff to supervise the whole veterinary program of instructing the Chinese divisions. Subsequently, in September-October 1943,

as more veterinary personnel became available from the India-Burma sector of

the theater, training program for Chinese Army veterinary personnel and

horseshoers Avas established for two army groups at Ta-li; also, 3,000 Chinese

Army animals were vaccinated against anthrax and were mallein tested for

glanders before this training instructional group ceased operations in February 1944 (fig. 34). similar school training project was inaugurated for another

Chinese Army group at Yen-shan in November 1943; this project lasted until

May 1944. Altogether, the student output from the four veterinary school programs approximated 1,500 Chinese personnel of Y-Force. The schedules for

Chinese Army veterinary personnel included the subjects of animal diseases
ASIATIC-PACIFIC THEATERS 355

U.S. ARMY PHOTO

Figure 34.—A Veterinary Corps officer hoof branding an anthrax-vaccinated Chinese

Army animal.

and injuries, veterinary first aid treatment, restraint of animals, animal care

and management, and horseshoeing.

By December 1943, Veterinary Corps officers were being assigned to

liaison duty with Y-Force’s Chinese divisions, armies, and group armies.

By February 1944, the Army Veterinary Service with the Y-Force Operations Staff totaled 37 officers and 41 enlisted personnel (including 22 horseshoer specialists). The Veterinary Corps officers were distributed as follows

{13):

Surgeon’s Office, Headquarters,

Veterinary

officers

Y-Force Operations

Staff

Field Artillery Training Center

Infantry Training Center

Training Instruction Group 13

Training Instruction Group

Training Instruction Group

Training Instruction Group

93d Division

Guerrillas
356 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Z-Force.—As previously noted, the 30 Chinese divisions of Z-Force were

never fully trained or organized, nor equipped, before they were threatened,

in the summer of 1944, by the continuing advances of the Japanese southward along the Canton-Hankow-Peking railroad corridor and toward the

U.S. airbases in southeastern China. However, after October-November

1943, veterinary school training program had been in operation for ZForce at the U.S. infantry training center in Kwei-lin, and, by January

1944, the Army Veterinary Service with Z-Force was fully organized. Six

months later, or at the time that these personnel were moved westward to

K’un-ming and added to the existing Y-Force, approximately 70 Chinese

veterinary officers and 300 veterinary enlisted personnel and horseshoers had

been trained at Kwei-lin.

Northern Combat Area Command.—-Concurrent with these preparations

of the three Chinese forces, the Army Veterinary Service in the ChinaBurma-India theater planned for augmenting both the Chinese Army veterinary services and that performed by U.S. veterinary liaison personnel on

duty with the Chinese Army units, with small U.S. veterinary animal service detachments (or units) and veterinary companies (separate) which could

evacuate sick and wounded animals from the Chinese frontline divisions and

treat them. In the early summer of 1943, requisition for 30 detachments

was made by the theater on the War Department; each such detachment was

to have two officers and nine enlisted personnel, such as comprised the

veterinary section, medical detachment, of the organization in the artillery

of standard mountain division. The requisition was compromised more

than year later when, in July 1944, the War Department granted authorization for the activation and organization within the theater of 12 veterinary

detachments—each having one officer and four enlisted personnel, such as

were typically provided in the attached veterinary section of standard

75-mm. howitzer pack field artillery battalion—and followed this with the

shipment into the theater during September and October 1944 of another

12 detachments from the Zone of Interior. These included the 39th through the 50th, and the 51st through the 62d, respectively, Veterinary Animal

Service Detachments. Actually, the field artillery battalion-type of organization for the detachments was discontinued after their arrival in the ChinaBurma-India theater, and new T/O’s for teamlike units were prescribed instead. With the exception of three (the 39th, 40th, and 41st) of the 12

locally organized detachments and two (the 51st and 62d) of the 12 detachments received from the Zone of Interior, all were deployed into China; the excepted units, as previously noted, were deployed in India and Burma

with the Services of Supply organization.

During the period that the foregoing veterinary animal service detachments were requisitioned and until they became available, X-Force’s Chinese

divisions were reentered into the fight for Burma, and U.S. long-range

jungle penetration combat team, the 5307th Composite Regiment (also called
ASIATIC-PACIFIC THEATERS 357

Merrill’s Marauders), had been organized and started on its way southward

from North Burma toward Myitkyina, In February 1944, when the campaign started, these divisions with their U.S. veterinary liaison personnel

and the combat team were grouped under the newly organized Northern

Area Command which directed the operations used to clear the Japanese out

of Burma, particularly from that area of the proposed overland route from

India, through Burma, and into China. For the direct support of the

Chinese divisional veterinary services and the Army Veterinary Service

with the 5307th Composite Regiment, Northern Area Combat Command was

assigned Company (Veterinary) of the 13th Mountain Medical Battalion,

which had arrived in the theater from the Zone of Interior in December

1943. The company’s platoons each operated more or less as separate entities, setting up numerous provisional veterinary hospital sites in back of the

advancing United States and Chinese forces. After the capture of Myitkyina

(during August 1944), Company (Veterinary), 13th Mountain Medical

Battalion, continued to support the veterinary services of the Chinese Army

in India as the latter pushed southward into the Central Burma campaign.

The veterinary service organization in 5307th Composite Regiment included regimental veterinarian and three battalion veterinary sections. The

latter cared for the animals of two pack troops (the 31st and 33d Quartermaster Pack Troops, which themselves had no organic veterinary detachments) such as were divided between the regiment’s three infantry battalions. After the capture of Myitkyina, the original U.S. regimental combat team was succeeded by the 5332d Brigade (Provisional) or MARS

Force. The latter, comprising the 124th Cavalry Regiment (Special), 475th

Infantry Regiment, the Chinese 1st Regiment, the 612th and 613th Field

Artillery Battalions, and the 31st, 33d, 35th, 37th, 252d, and 253d Quar- termaster Pack Troops, had 5,810 mules and horses. These were provided

first aid treatment by six veterinary sections, specially attached to the regiments, and the organic veterinary detachments of the two field artillery

battalions, all under the technical supervision of brigade veterinarian.

In the rear areas of the Northern Combat Area Command, the brigade’s

veterinary service organization was supported by the 18th Veterinary Evacuation Hospital which came into the theater from the Zone of Interior in

August 1944, and, of course, Company (Veterinary), 13th Mountain

Medical Battalion, supported the Chinese combat divisions. Before the end

of 1944, the 19th Veterinary Evacuation Hospital, and the 7th, 43d, and

44th Veterinary Companies (Separate) arrived from the Zone of Interior

and were assigned to Northern Combat Area Command, but, of these,

only the 7th was actually deployed; one platoon was attached to the 18th

Veterinary Evacuation Hospital, and the remainder operated provisional

hospitals in back of the Chinese divisions. Of course, by the end of 1944,

the China-Burma-India theater was split, and the 19th Veterinary Evacuation Hospital, after receipt of its equipment, was transferred to the China
358 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

theater. The 43d and 44th Veterinary Companies (Separate) were excess

to requirements (due to belated arrival) in the India-Burma theater and,

being unrequisitioned by the China theater, eventually were inactivated.

In regard to the Army Veterinary Service with the Chinese combat divisions in the Burma campaign, its activities are best described using the actual

report {10) of one Veterinary Corps liaison officer as classic record:

During July and August, 1943, the remainder of the 38th Division arrived in Ledo from

Ramgarh. My duties were primarily concerned with the problems related to animal management in the division. Much time was spent each day in travelling from one animal

unit to another, inspecting animals, stables, and making recommendations to unit commanders and veterinary officers for the correction of defects that were observed. Most

Chinese veterinary officers soon conformed to modern methods of wound treatment, but

drug supplies were often too inadequate to permit full departure from obsolete procedures.

Unit commanders were advised to maintain definite feeding and watering schedules under

the supervision of unit officers to eliminate the numerous cases of digestive disorders from

which their animals suffered. It was custom in the Chinese Army for each individual

soldier to be responsible for his assigned animal and he fed, watered, and cared for it according to his own system. Efforts were also made to discourage the Chinese from bathing

their animals in nearby streams, which reduced the amount of grooming, but resulted in

numerous cases of rhinitis and conjunctivitis.

Controlling flies by convincing the Chinese that stable manure shoxild be buried was one of our more successful achievements and far more successful than getting them to

properly dispose of human excreta. Open latrines were common and often located not

too far from mess kitchens.

Bamboo was the only material available for the construction of stables and corrals.

The best type of stable was open on all sides, with uprights of large bamboo and roof

of bamboo leaves. The standings consisted of split logs sloped to the rear in order to

provide drainage. The texture of the soil in the area sometimes caused the logs to

become dislodged which the Chinese would fail to replace unless constantly coaxed to do

so. Preventive maintenance was Chinese weakness and always problem to the

veterinary liaison officer.

The best managed animal units were those commanded by officers with whom had

been able to make personal friends. They would keep their animals in good condition

and accept my recommendations to save “face” for me. In turn it was necessary for

me to praise their methods to their superior officers.

The division was scheduled to go into combat in the fall of 1943 and made every effort

to instill confidence in the Chinese veterinary officers in their treatment of animal casualties.

At Ramgarh, much of the actual work had been performed by the USE veterinary liaison

officers with the Chinese acting as observers, but with the knowledge that combat operations

were imminent knew that it would be necessary for the Chinese to rely on their training.

Therefore, convinced them to assume the initiative and refused to treat the casualties

brought to my attention, but outlined the treatment and insisted that they perform the

actual work. All veterinary officers were taught to pass stomach tube and were given

instruction in conducting the mallein test. The only conditions which felt should not

be treated by unit veterinarians were diseases of contagious nature and those which required hospitalization. These were evacuated to USE veterinary hospital that supported

the division in Assam after had examined the casualties and issued the necessary

authority.

division school was established and instruction given to unit horse officers and

noncommissioned officers. The management of animals in the field was particularly

stressed, and emphasis placed on the proper fitting of pack saddles and adjustment of equip-
ASIATIC-PACIFIC THEATERS 359

ment. horseshoeing school was also placed in operation to continue the training of unit

horseshoers who had been unable to complete or take the course at Ramgarh. Class instruction was given on the working of metal and anatomy of the horse’s foot. This was

followed by individual instruction on trimming of the feet, fitting the shoes, and nailing

them into position. The last three weeks of the course was devoted to the actual shoeing

of animals by the students under the supervision of an enlisted USE horseshoer. few

students were incapable of absorbing instruction but the majority turned out to be fair

mechanics.

By September, the Chinese veterinary personnel was fairly well trained. Much time

was spent in the inspection of animal equipment and assisting the Chinese quartermaster

in requisitioning the proper supplies. Unserviceable animals were destroyed and every

effort was made to place the serviceable animals in the best condition possible. At the close

of the month, most animal units were ready for combat, although some equipment shortages

still existed. British veterinary supplies were slow in arriving and many that did were

exceedinglypoor in quality.

The month of October was spent principally in securing veterinary supplies and

equipping units moving out from the Ledo area into North Burma. would move up

several days march from Ledo and inspect the animals of units that had been on the

march, recommending the evacuation of casualties that were unable to continue. Many

new USF line officers were arriving to be assigned to liaison duties with the division,

and was given the additional task of orienting them. Few had had any experience

with animal transport troops and it was necessary for me to instruct them in animal

management and packing.

By the end of October, 1943, enough Chinese troops had been massed in North

Burma to begin an advance against the Japanese. reconnaissance had already been

made of part of the region to determine the location and suitability of grazing areas,

because the troops were to be largely supplied by air dropping and transport limitations

would not permit long forage supply. was ordered to make reconnaissance via

obervation plane over the Hukawng valley of North Burma where the first contacts with

the enemy ere expected. After charting the areas which appeared from aerial observation to be suitable for grazing purposes, was to join the advance elements of the

Chinese Army and make ground reconnaissance of the areas as soon as it was tactically possible to do so. When arrived in the northern part of the Hukawng valley,

secured the aid of the native guides to take me to the charted areas and was furnished

platoon of Chinese Infantry for protection.

The Hukawng valley lies in Northern Burma with its long axis running from North

to South. It is the first open country to be reached after crossing the mountains from

Upper Assam to Burma. The campaign had progressed some fifteen miles into the valley

before stiff Japanese resistance was encountered. One central air dropping field was

established where the transport planes flying in from Assam dropped supplies to the

troops. Most of the Chinese animal units were stationed close to the field and were

employed to pack the supplies to forward areas, round trip of about twenty miles

which could be made in day. would alternate making trips with the various units.

Animal casualties were averaging about twenty percent, seven percent of which were

totally incapacitated. The casualties were principally due to pack saddle injuries and

penetrating wounds of the feet and legs due to contact with sharp bamboo stubs which

remained after cutting out trails. Veterinary supplies were air dropped on radio request

as these were needed.

In that it was tactically unsafe to graze animals during this period, it became neces- sary for armed grass cutting details to be sent out daily from each unit to cut about

twenty-five pounds of grass per animal. The grass was principally kunai and elephant

grass which apparently was of good quality*and maintained the animals in good condition. Cracked barley and gram was air dropped and fed on the basis of six pounds of
360 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

the former and two of the latter to our animals that were mostly India tonga ponies

weighing between six hundred and eight hundred pounds. Requests for increases in the

grain ration were recommended to G-4, but refused due to the limited air tonnage. No

animal casualties were evacuated from the units during this period, because the division

veterinary platoon had not yet joined the forward elements and USE veterinary organizations had not arrived. Therefore, regardless of the types of casualties, all were treated

by unit veterinarians in the horse park area and due to the slowness with which the

campaign progressed it was possible to do so without difficulty. However, by the latter

part of December 1943, the number of casualties had increased to the extent that the

division veterinary platoon was ordered forward to establish hospital and relieve the

regimental and battalion veterinary detachments. Animal deaths from October to December 1943 inclusive were less than one percent from all causes.

The first week of January, 1944, the veterinary platoon arrived in the area. Capt.

George E. Burch, VC, junior veterinary liaison officer with the 38th Division had accompanied the platoon forward and the two of us assisted in setting up hospital. The

platoon consisted of two Chinese veterinary officers and eighteen enlisted men and we

considered it to be the poorest trained unit in the division. Therefore, we decided to

make the platoon our headquarters. We convinced the Chinese command that all animals evacuated from units within the division to the veterinary platoon should be

accompanied by soldier caretakers on the basis of one for every two animals, to feed,

water, groom and cut grass for the patients. In few days there were thirty casualties

in the hospital which consisted mostly of back injuries, penetrating wounds of lower

extremities and few cases of influenza from units that had recently moved forward.

Lack of proper veterinary supplies forced us to rely on good nursing and blood transfusions for the influenza cases. The first battle casualties were received in late January,

the result of enemy artillery fire. We managed to procure small quantity of sulfanilamide crystals from portable surgical hospital and covered the wounds with Vaseline

gauze. Most of the cases made uneventful recoveries with the exception of those in

which the injuries penetrated the abdominal cavity.

One of us remained with the veterinary platoon at all times, while the other visited

the units in forward positions to insure that animals were being properly cared for and

that casualties requiring evacuation were sent to the hospital. As general rule,

Chinese line and veterinary officers were reluctant to evacuate casualties, fearing they

would be short of transport, but losing sight of the fact that early evacuation of

casualty would insure the future usefulness of the animal.

In early February, 1944, USF veterinary organization arrived in the area to support the 38th Division. This was one platoon of Co. “E” (Vet), 13th Mountain Medical

Battalion. Our policy was to evacuate serious casualties, all surgery and infectious

diseases to this unit, the lighter cases being kept at the division veterinary platoon for

treatment. The USF platoon was equipped with one 2% ton 6x6 stock rack body truck, but this could not be used as an animal ambulance due to terrain obstacles, and casualties had to be evacuated by leading. The Hukawng valley was essentially level, but

heavily wooded and swampy. Water for animals was not problem, but grass grew

only in clearings and rice paddies.

The grain ration consisted of barley and gram (a legume). This was air dropped

in forty-pound, double-strength burlap bags marked with large “G.” It was impossible

to tell if the bag contained barley or gram, and unless the issuing officer opened each

bag prior to issue, some units would obtain all of one kind. When gram was fed in

excess, it produced severe diarrhea, while full ration of barley was not palatable

and was frequently rejected by the animals. My recommendations to the Services of

Supply to mix the two grains prior to shipping were ignored without reason.

The middle of February 1943 saw the* Japanese resistance in the upper Hukawng

valley broken and due to the heavy human and animal casualties in the 38th division,
ASIATIC-PACIFIC THEATERS 361

ten days were permitted for reorganization. During this phase made numerous inspections of all animals in company with unit commanders. Backs were examined and

saddle pads were adjusted wherever indicated. It was found that the American Phillips

type pack saddle had caused fewer abrasions than the British type, although the latter

was more suitable for animals with thin backs and flat ribs. The British saddle was

particularly damaging to animals with high withers, because of insufficient clearance to

these parts. While the American saddle weighed twice as much as the British, this

factor was not as important as proper fit.

The tonga pony animals were carrying pay load of 130-180 pounds. We also found

that the more compact load, the easier it could be carried, while bulky loads had

tendency to shift. spent three days with the Seagrave Unit (volunteer hospital unit

organized by Lt. Col. Gordon Seagrave, medical missionary to Burma at the outbreak

of the war) breaking their loads into more compact and easily packed units and did the

same for USE Signal Corps units attached to the 38th Division. Unfortunately, staff

members of the USE (CT OC) associated with the Chinese Army in this campaign

had had very little experience with pack transportation and most of them lacked clear

understanding of pack animal’s capabilities. Therefore, it was necessary to bring

these matters to their attention as well as to the Chinese.

In February, trails and roads were sufficiently improved so that the horse carts which

had been developed at Ramgarh Training Center were brought forward to augment the

pack transport. These carts were two-wheeled affairs, built of steel, rubber tires and

equipped with steel shafts that were welded solidly to the body of the cart. One animal was

to be hitched between the shafts and if the going was too difficult, additional animals were

to be hitched in tandem. The carts were supposed to carry between 500-1,000 pounds.

The troubles we had with these carts apparently had not been anticipated at Ramgarh.

First, they were not equipped with brakes and when going down steep hills, the holdback

straps failed to stop the carts which proceeded to gather momentum and usually resulted in

injuring severely the animals that pulled them. The bed of the cart was narrow so that

it could be pulled along the trails, but when loaded it became topheavy and tipped over

carrying the animal with it because the shafts were welded to the frame. The Chinese were

unable to train their animals to pull evenly, so that the ones which were hitched in tandem

to the front of the cart rarely assisted in pulling it. General Stilwell asked my opinion

on the merits of the cart and suggested that it be abandoned until wide, level loads were

available.

The British had developed veterinary chest for the use of small veterinary detachments, the contents of which were supposed to treat 3,000 animal casualties for one day.

These were called Unit Pattern Chests, containing more cotton and bandages than was

necessary, but lacking in drugs. The chests were made of thin plywood which failed

to withstand moisture. The contents of many had deteriorated and were useless by the

time we received them. We tried constantly to train the Chinese to conserve their

veterinary supplies and stretch their use but to no avail. When they had consumed

them, they appealed to us to replenish their stocks and when we failed, we lost

much “face.”

On March 1st, the 38th Division was again ready to continue the campaign. was

ordered to accompany combat team of one regiment of Infantry and battalion of

75-mm. Pack (How) Artillery to which was attached battalion of USE Infantry, part

of Merrill’s Marauders *. The mission was long range penetration project, with

the object of encircling the Japanese forces that held the South entrance of the Hukawng

valley. Chinese Army animals numbered about 400. took with me one Chinese veterinary officer and seven veterinary enlisted men. To reach our destination it was necessary to trek through swamps and over high mountains, and it was expected to take two

weeks to reach our objectives. One veterinary enlisted man was attached to each sepa-
ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE 362

rate contingent of the combat team and supplied with drugs and equipment to last for

the march.

We experienced little difficulty marching through the swamps, but lost number of

animals on the high mountain trails due to slippery footing. Sometimes it was possible

to haul out the animals that had fallen into the gorges below the trails with ropes, but

more often this proved to be impossible due to the injuries suffered by the animals or

the depth of the gorges. It was then necessary for us to climb down and destroy them.

In many places the trail led through dense jungles and had to be cleared by the forward

elements before the column could proceed. In these instances our rate of march averaged only two to three miles day. Several mountains were so steep, that it became

necessary to unpack the artillery loads and carry them manually up the mountain side.

The pack loads of the Seagrave hospital unit were also troublesome due to the width

of the packs which would catch between the trees and bushes on either side of the

narrow trail. When animals became too weak or lame to continue the march, they

were destroyed and their loads distributed among the others. Grain rations were supposed to he air dropped along the way, but Japanese patrolling was so heavy that our

column would be held up for several days at time and the animals forced to do without grain during the hold up. There is no grass in the mountain jungles, so that bamboo

leaves had to be fed exclusively. Bamboo leaves apparently have little nutritive value,

but do supply the necessary bulk. The principal difficulties encountei'ed due to feeding

this type of forage were impactions from feeding excessive quantities. The deteriorated

aloes boluses that had been issued for minor digestive disturbances proved to be adequate

to produce mild catharsis. Chinese soldier who had given three to his suffering

animal without results, finally took one himself with no effect and the aloes boluses lost

much “face.”

After the first week of the march, forty percent of the animals had developed abrasions of the back with varying degrees of severity. This incidence was lower than had

anticipated considering the type of terrain we were forced to march over. Animal

casualties due to enemy action were only ten in number and most of these were due to

small arm sniper fire. Enemy artillery secured direct hit on three animals in the

column and their worries were at an end. Water for both animals and men proved to be

problem at times when we were held up on ridge tops and could not reach the streams

below due to enemy fire. On one occasion we were forced to go two full days without

water which is considerable length of time in the heat of the tropics.

The immediate mission of the combat team was to cut the line of communications

behind the Japanese main position in the Hukawng valley. In order to do this it was

necessary to make night march from the mountains into the valley below using streams

for trails because of the thick jungles. After reaching our destination we were subjected to heavy artillery fire and forced to keep our animals standing in stream for

five days before we could move them. During the three weeks’ march our animals lost

an average of two hundred pounds in weight.

When the Japanese had been forced to retreat, all animals were inspected and

arrangements made to evacuate the more seriously injured to hospital established by

Co. “E” (Vet), 13th Mountain Medical Battalion, which had moved up to point twenty

miles in our rear. During the three weeks’ march, twenty-six of the four hundred

animals we had started with, had died or were destroyed. We evacuated thirty casualties and of the remainder, sixty percent required treatment. located good grazing

area and recommended to the Chinese commander that all animals be given period

of three weeks’ rest before going into service again.

was given my first leave after sixteen months overseas service and did not return

to my organization until April 25th.

Routine inspection of animals, supervising the treatment of casualties in the division

veterinary platoon and evacuating more severe casualties to USE veterinary installations
ASIATIC-PACIFIC THEATERS 363

constituted my principal duties until May 20th. The division veterinary platoon was

now well-functioning unit. Routine treatment of abrasions, thrush and other common conditions were now well take care of by the Chinese personnel.

On May 21st, received orders to inspect the animals of one Infantry regiment and

battalion of pack artillery and eliminate all that were not capable of making an

extended march through the mountains. This combat team had been designated to make

flanking movement and eventually to be responsible for cutting Japanese lines of

communication. few days after the team had departed, the entire division received

orders to move out. During the ten-day march that followed, the division animals

received the equivalent of two days’ grain ration and ate nothing hut bamboo leaves.

The shortage of grain was due to staff officers who had deliberately reduced the ration

without consulting the liaison officers and resulted in fifty pound loss of weight for

each animal in ten days.

finally caught up with the animals of the combat team that had been left behind

in the mountains for purposes of security when the team went down into the valley.

was ordered to remain with these animals until the team had cut the road behind the

Japanese lines and established block. We waited three days and then started on

two-day trip supposedly to .join the road block troops. Due to heavy rains the preceding

48 hours, it was necessary to swim three different swollen streams with the pack train

of three hundred animals. We finally arrived at the Mogaung river which proved to he

too wide and too swift for crossing and had to return to the edge of the mountains

to await further orders.

received orders to proceed to the vicinity of the road block to inspect two hundred

animals which had been captured and to salvage what could from the stores of

captured Japanese veterinary hospital. The animals were of all types and descriptions

and in deplorable condition from lack of forage, mud, rain, no shelter, and overwork.

All but seventy-five were destroyed and buried. The salvaged group were malleined and

all proved to he negative to the test. Some of the animals were affected with dermatitis due to mud, rain, and snnscald and were devoid of hair over the face and croup.

The monsoon was now in full swing and it rained every day.

The Chinese tactical commander called upon me for report on the captured animals. He informed me that unless they could be worked, or he could get his own

animals cross the Mogaung river, it would be impossible for him to hold out much longer

due to the inability of his men to carry ammunition and supplies forward to the fighting

troops from the air dropping field. suggested that the Japanese animals he used and

to improvise pack saddles from riding saddles, blankets and what crude native pack

saddles could be obtained.

Chinese veterinary officer and held daily sick call for the captured animals,

of which about twenty-five percent had wounds badly infested with screw-worms. It was

six-mile round trip from the air drop field to the front lines over the worst trail that

had ever travelled. Over half of the trail led through swamp where the water rose

to the horses’ bellies, and the footing was made treacherous by the roots of trees that

crossed it, and tripped the horses. If horse was strong and not carrying too much

weight upon his back, he could get up when he fell, if not, he drowned before we were able to get the pack off and his head out of water. After ten days of this packing, we

had lost over half of the captured animals and the remainder were in pitiable condition due to loss of hair from standing in the water, and severe lacerations of the coronet

and lower extremities. It was decided to destroy all but three of the animals which

had done little packing and were highly prized by several Chinese officers to whom they

had been assigned. Had it not been for the captured Japanese animals, the Chinese

would have been unable to maintain the road block which was said to have been turning point in the Northern Burma campaign.

590248 —61 25
364 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

After completion of the pack trips, was free to examine and salvage the captured

Japanese veterinary equipment. was surprised to find that both drugs and instruments

were excellent. The equipment was comparable to that of the USE veterinary evacuation hospital and far surpassed that of veterinary company. About fifty percent of the

drugs were of German manufacture and the rest, Japanese. single microscope was

found that proved to be in splendid condition and apparently had been manufactured

in Germany. All of the supplies were distributed to the veterinary units of the 38th

Division.

During the first six months of 1944, animal losses amounted to sixteen percent of

the 2,000 animals in the 38th Division. It is believed that this record is rather remarkable considering the type of terrain over which the division operated, the amount of

packing required of the animals and that all long forage was obtained from uncured

grasses and bamboo leaves. Difficulties in air dropping did not always insure an adequate grain ration for the animals.

In the six months’ operational period, it is estimated that motor transport was used

less than ten percent of the time. Thus, had it not been for pack animal transport,

which permitted heavy equipment to be carried from air dropping fields to forward

elements and artillery to be employed in long range penetration projects, the campaign

in North Burma would have been greatly retarded.

Tenth and Fourteenth Air Forces

The veterinary service organization with the AAF in the China-BurmaIndia theater was limited in numbers of personnel, because veterinary personnel assigned to Services of Supply were available to perform the required

inspections of food supplies to airbases except for few located too far

distant from service forces areas of operations (such as at Agra and Andal).

There was the Tenth Air Force, with headquarters initially at New Delhi,

and its Air Service Command, and the Air Volunteer Group, under Gen.

Claire L. Chennault, in China, which was inducted in mid-1942 into U.S.

military service as the China Air Task Force and later, in March 1943, was

reorganized as the Fourteenth Air Force. Veterinary Corps officer was

assigned to the Medical Section, Tenth Air Service Command, before the end

of 1942, and he acted also in the capacity of air force veterinarian. In

August 1943, Headquarters, AAF. India-Burma Sector, was organized to

coordinate the Tenth Air Force and the China-Burma-India Air Service

Command which was the merger of Tenth and Fourteenth Air Service Commands; the Fourteenth Air Force (less its air service command), however,

continued to operate separately in China but had no veterinary food inspection personnel assigned to it until 1944. Another air forces organization was

the Air Transport Command’s India-China Wing established in December

1942 with headquarters initially at Chabua. This organization was eventually assigned Veterinary Corps officer, who, as of August 1944. was supervising the inspection of the food supply at as many as 12 bases in India and

in China.

U.S. Army Forces, India-Burma Theater

The Army Veterinary Service with USAFIBT, which theater, as noted

earlier, was established in October 1944, was the continuation of that in the
ASIATIC-PACIFIC THEATERS 365

original India-Burma Sector of the former USAFCBI. The central office

for administering the theater’s veterinary service organization was located

in the medical section of Headquarters, Services of Supply, at New Delhi.

This medical section (including its veterinarian) served in dual capacity

or also as the theater headquarters’ medical section because the two had been

merged in August 1944 just before the China-Burma-India command was

divided. This double status of the theater service forces veterinarian lasted

until 15 May 1945, when Headquarters, Services of Supply, was abolished

and the staff veterinarian was moved along with the other medical staff officers

to Headquarters, USAFIBT.

When the India-Burma theater was established, the Allied Chinese military forces in Burma were beginning to clear the Japanese from their last

holdings on the developing overland supply route into China, and, after that

time, the theater was important only to support military operations in China.

Many veterinary personnel were then transferred to USAFCT, as the requirements for them in India and Burma became less urgent. As of November

1944, the India-Burma theater had 92 veterinary officers, but many of these,

plus new arrivals, were redeployed gradually to the China theater. As of

January 1945, this personnel strength reached temporary peak of 118

officers and then was gradually reduced to 74 by July 1945. At the beginning of 1945, the veterinary service organization included:

Veterinarian, Surgeon’s Office, Headquarters, USAFIBT, and Medical Section

Services of Supply

Theater-assigned Troops:

Veterinarian, India-Burma Theater War

Dog Detachment

Sector Veterinarian, Northern Combat

Area Command:

7th, 43d, and 44th Veterinary Companies (Separate)

18th and 19th Veterinary Evacuation

Hospitals

Company (Veterinary), 13th Mountain Medical Battalion

Veterinarian, Surgeon’s Office, 5332d

Brigade (Provisional)

Veterinary Detachment, 124th Cavalry Regiment

Veterinary Detachment, 475th Infantry Regiment

Veterinary Detachments, 612th and

613th Field Artillery Pack Battalions

Veterinary Liaison Officers on duty

with Chinese Army in India

Services of Supply:

Sector Veterinarian, Base Section 1: 94th Veterinary Food Inspection Detachment

American Delhi Military Ai-ea Command: 79th Veterinary Food Inspection Detachment

Sector Veterinarian, Base Section 2:

78th Veterinary Hospital Detachment

80th, 81st, 82d, 83d, 901st, 902d, 903d,

904th, and 905th Veterinary Food Inspection Detachments

Veterinarian, Headquarters, 69th General Depot (or General Depot No. 2)

Sector Veterinarian, Intermediate Section 2:

1st Veterinary Company (Separate)

39th, 40th, and 41st Veterinary Animal

Service Detachments

91st, 92d, 93d, and 906th Veterinary

Food Inspection Detachments

Theater veterinarians and officers acting in that capacity included Col. R. W. Mohri, VC

(October 1944 to October 1945), Maj. N. G. Claus, VC (October 1945 to November 1945), and

Capt. I. Zimmerman, VC (November 1945 through December 1945).
366 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Veterinarian, Surgeon’s Office Headquarters, U8AFIBT, and Medical Section, Services of Supply—Continued

Services of Supply—Continued

Sector Veterinarian—Continued

Veterinarian, 9th Medical Laboratory

Veterinary Detachment, Troop of

253d Quartermaster Remount Squadron

Veterinary Detachments, Troop of

252d Quartermaster Remount Squadron and 699th Quartermaster Remount Troop

Sector Veterinarian, Advance Section 3: 2d Veterinary Company (Separate)

51st and 52d Veterinary Animal Service

Detachments

88th, 89th, 90th, 907th, and 908th Veterinary Food Inspection Detachments

Veterinary Detachment, 098th Quarter- master Remount Troop

Veterinarian, Surgeon’s Office, Air Service

Command, AAF: Veterinarian, 3d Air Depot Group

Veterinarian, 305th Air Service Center

Veterinarian, Surgeon’s Office, India-China

Division, Air Transport Command

The foregoing organizational list includes veterinary food inspection

detachments, then called medical composite sections (food inspection), which

were new to any similar listing for the original China-Burma-India theater.

Sixteen such detachments (the T9th through the 94th Veterinary Food Inspec- tion Detachments) arrived during December 1944 from the Zone of Interior, and an additional eight (the 901st through the 908th, inclusive) were acti- vated on 26 December 1944, within the theater; four veterinary food inspection detachments (84th through the 87th) were immediately transferred to

USAFCT, and twenty were initially deployed in the Services of Supply

organization. Others were activated in mid-1945, on May 1945 (the 916th

and 917th Veterinary Food Inspection Detachments), 14 on 11 June 1945 (the

937th through the 950th, inclusive), and on 17 July 1945 (the 951st through

the 955th, inclusive). The unit activations of June 1945 were made specifi- cally for organization in India-Burma, utilizing personnel drawn from Com- pany (Veterinary), 13th Mountain Medical Battalion, which now was

being inactivated, and for transfer eventually to USAFCT; however, of

these 14, (the 937th through 944th) were actually organized and ordered

to China, but only had departed before V-J Day.

As of August 1945, the veterinary personnel strength included 71 officers who were on duty with the medical sections of theater headquarters, of

Base, Intermediate, and Advance Section subcommands, Northern Combat

Area Command, Air Service Command, and Air Transport Command; veterinary evacuation hospital, veterinary companies (separate), veterinary

animal service detachments, and 31 veterinary food inspection detachments;

medical laboratories; and subsistence storage depots, quartermaster war

dog detachment, and quartermaster remount troops. Following V-J Day,

the India-Burma theater inactivated many of these units, and most of its

personnel were returned to the United States so that by late January 1946

the theater’s veterinary service organization, headed by an acting theater

veterinarian in the grade of captain, totaled but 11 officers, who were assigned

as follows:

Surgeon’s Office, Headquarters, USAFIBT, at New Delhi

American Delhi Military Area Command
ASIATIC-PAC1FIC THEATERS 367

Surgeon’s Office, Base Section, at Calcutta:

94th, 901st, and 955th Veterinary Food Inspection Detachments at Andal, Calcutta, and Karachi

Port of Embarkation, Karachi

Surgeon’s Office, Intermediate Section, at Chabua: 93d Veterinary Food Inspection Detachment, at Chabua

475th and 699th Quartermaster Remount Troops, at Gauhati

Effective on 31 May 1946, USAFIBT was inactivated, and personnel and

activities remaining in that area were taken over by the new Detachment,

U.S. Army Forces, India, with headquarters at New Delhi. By this time, all veterinary personnel and units had been withdrawn.

Summarizing, veterinary animal service activities in the India-Bnrma

theater included the care and treatment of IT.S, military horses and mules

(peak of strength, 7,531 in February 1945). During the period from November 1944 to February 1946, there were 6,347 admissions from an average

animal strength of 4,237; total of 1,552 animals died or were destroyed,

and 93 animals were killed in action. Also, the U.S. forces veterinary hospital installations admitted, in the period from November 1944 through April

1945, more than 2,200 cases of sick and wounded animals from the Chinese

Army in India for treatment, and another 4,791 cases were treated by or

under supervision of Veterinary Corps officers on liaison duty with the

Chinese combat divisions in the field. The accomplishments regarding subsistence inspection, statistically, were not found in available documents.

Services of Supply, U.S. Army Forces, India-Burma Theater.—Headquarters, Services of Supply, with location in New Delhi, included the consolidated medical sections of theater and service forces headquarters until its

disbandment in May 1945. During this time, the Services of Supply field

organization comprised five area or section subcommands originally set up

in the India-Burma Sector of the former China-Burma-India theater: Base

Section (with headquarters at Karachi), Base Section (with headquarters

at Calcutta), Intermediate Section (with headquarters at Chabua, Assam),

Advance Section (with headquarters at Ledo), and the American Delhi

Military Area Command. Each section included staff veterinary officer in

the headquarters medical section who administered the veterinary personnel

and activities within the defined geographic area of the section concerned.

Generally, these activities in the Delhi area and in the two base sections,

Base Section in western India and Base Section in southeastern India,

were largely that of food inspection, although Base Section 2, including the

Calcutta port, necessarily played role in the disembarkation of animal

transports and transshipment of the animals northward. However, in the

northeasterly located Intermediate and Advance Sections, the activities were

divided between veterinary food inspection and veterinary animal service in

the remount depots which provided animals to the Allied ground tactical

troops fighting in Burma. It may be noted that, effective on 15 May 1945,

when Headquarters, Services of Supply, was discontinued, the foregoing sub-
368 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

section commands were transferred to direct control of Headquarters,

USAFIBT. Concurrently, Base Sections and were consolidated into the

new Base Section, with headquarters at Calcutta, and Intermediate Section

and Advance Section were renamed Intermediate Section and Advance

Section, respectively. On November 1945, Advance Section was discontinued and was absorbed bv Intermediate Section.

There was no immediate change in the veterinary laboratory services

during the transition of the India-Burma Sector of the former China-BurmaIndia theater into the India-Burma theater. However, during May 1945,

these activities, then being conducted by the 9th Medical Laboratory, were

augmented when second unit, the 29th Medical Laboratory, complete with

veterinary section, arrived from the Zone of Interior.

Northern Combat Area Command.—In the Northern Combat Area

Command, the continuation of the Allied command organization originally

created during February 1944 in the former China-Burma-India theater, the

Army Veterinary Service provided close-in veterinary animal services support to the 5332d Brigade (Provisional), advisory assistance to the Chinese

military forces, and established chain of animal evacuation and veterinary

hospitalization for sick, injured, and wounded animals. The Allied objective

was to clear the Japanese completely from the projected overland route to

China (the Stilwell Load) and to drive southward through the central part

of Burma to Mandalay. At the beginning of the new campaign in Burma,

Headquarters, Northern Combat Area Command, included sector veterinary

section at Ledo, and there were six veterinary company and hospital units

in the area: Company (Veterinary) of 13th Mountain Medical Battalion,

the Vtli, 43d, and 44th Veterinary Companies (Separate), and the 18th and

19th Veterinary Evacuation Hospitals. Of these, only the Tth Veterinary

Company, Company (Veterinary) of 13th Mountain Medical Battalion,

and the 18th Veterinary Evacuation Hospital were actively deployed. The

43d and the 44th Veterinary Companies (Separate) both arrived in the

theater too late to enter the combat area and were used instead as service

troops until their inactivation (in June 1945) the 19th Veterinary Evacuation Hospital was transferred in February 1945 to the China theater after

receipt of its equipment. During this period of the Burma campaign, the

number of Veterinary Corps officers on liaison duty with the Chinese military

forces increased from in December 1944 to 13 by May 1945, but, by the

end of July 1945, no officers were so assigned within tire theater.

U.S. Army Forces, China Theater

In the fall of 1944 when the China-Burma-India theater was divided into USAFIBT and USAFCT, the veterinary service organization in China

included that with the combined Y-Force and Z-Force Operations Staffs, which were concerned with the Chinese military forces, and the few personnel with the services of supply organization who were inspecting the foods
ASIATIC-PACIFIC THEATERS 369

RAILROADS

BURMA ROAD

ROADS

Map 6.—Locations of veterinary units in the China theater, as of 1945.

supplied by the Chinese War Area Service Command at U.S. installations,

particularly at the larger bases of the Fourteenth Air Force. Headquarters,

USAFCT, was established at Chungking, but in December 1944 this became

the advance echelon staff,and the new Headquarters, Rear Echelon, USAFCT, with location at K’un-ming was established. Only the latter set up supervisory staff controls over Medical Department activities and personnel at

theater headquarters level, and it included the theater surgeon’s office to

which Veterinary Corps officer was assigned and designated (on 27 December 1944) as the theater veterinarian (7J). Of course by this time, the fight

for the reopening of the overland route (or old Burma Road) into China

was all but ended, and the major military effort was being redirected from the India-Burma Sector to further the defense of American airbases in

southeastern China which were being threatened by the Japanese armies.

As of March 1945, the Army Veterinary Service with USAFCT (map 6) totaled 89 officers assigned as follows: Theater surgeon’s office, 2;

Services of Supply (including veterinary food inspection detachments), 7; Air Forces Air Service Command, 2; Chinese Combat Command (including

Theater veterinarians included Col. J. E. Puller, VC (December 1944 to January 1946) and

then Col. E. W. Young, VC.
370 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

19 veterinary animal service detachments), 71; and Chinese Training Command, 7. As of September 1945, this number of personnel had increased

to 123 veterinary officers, then located as follows;

Surgeon’s Office, Headquarters, USAFCT

Theater Headquarters Station Command:

245th Veterinary Food Inspection Detachment

Surgeon’s Office, Headquarters, Services of Supply:

Base Section 1:

87th, 243d, 915th, 917th, 938th, 940th, and 943d Veterinary Food Inspection

Detachments

Base Section 2:

84th, 85th, and 944th Veterinary Food Inspection Detachments

Base Section 3:

82d and 244th Veterinary Food Inspection Detachments

Base Section 4:

80th Veterinary Food Inspection Detachment

Base Section 5:

86th, 913th, and 914th Veterinary Food Inspection Detachments

Surgeon’s Office, Air Service Command, Army Air Forces, China Theater: Station Veterinary Detachment, 315th Service Group

Surgeon’s Office, Chinese Training Command:

Station Veterinary Detachment

Surgeon’s Office, Chinese Combat Command: 7th Veterinary Company (Separate)

19th Veterinary Evacuation Hospital

42d through 50th, and 53d through G2d Veterinary Animal Service Detachments

Veterinary liaison officers

During July 1945, Headquarters, Hear Echelon, of the China theater,

was discontinued and its medical staff section, including the theater veteri- narian, was moved to the advance headquarters group at Chungking; however, following -J Day, the theater surgeon’s office was returned to K’unming where it added the Services of Supply headquarters medical staff to

act as the central administrative office for both theater and service forces

medical personnel and activities. Major efforts were then directed toward

the early and rapid phase-out of activities, the inactivation of units, and the

return of personnel to the United States. On 10 September 1945, the Shanghai Base Command, complete with staff veterinary officer, was established;

during the next month, the theater veterinarian moved with the theater

surgeon’s office from K’un-ming to Shanghai, where the Shanghai Base

Command’s medical section and theater surgeon’s office were merged. Effective on May 1946, USAFCT became U.S. Army Forces, China, and the

few remaining veterinary officers were transferred to the latter’s subordinate element, called China Service Command.

In the China theater, the Army Veterinary Service had considerably

more to do with Chinese Army animals than with U.S. military horses and

mules. In fact, the latter's animal strength reached peak of 1,740 in July

1945, and only 426 cases of diseases and injuries were treated among these

animals. During the period from January to September 1945, 288 animals
AS AT C-rACTFIC THEATE 371

Figure 35.—The horseshoeing shop, Veterinary School, Infantry Training Center,

K’un-ming, China.

died or were destroyed (including 140 destroyed because of surra and 71

because of glanders). The Allied Chinese military forces had an estimated

16.000 to 22,000 animals, and U.S. veterinary officers, in the period from

February through August 1945, treated or supervised the treatment of more

than 11,000 cases of diseases and injuries in Chinese Army animals. Most

of the U.S. animals in the theater were received from the India-Burma

theater for issue to the Chinese combat units; however, few were utilized

in the mounting of U.S. military liaison teams and veterinary units on duty

with the Chinese military forces or in the schools for instructing Chinese

Array personnel in veterinary medicine, animal care and management, pack

animal packing, and horseshoeing (fig. 35). In regard to meat and dairy

hygiene services in the China theater, the Army Veterinary Service inspected, in the period from January through September 1945, approximately

46.740.000 pounds of foods, as follows: Pounds

On delivery at purchase 11,700,000

Army receipt except purchase 9,625,000

Prior to shipment 3,510,000

At time of issue 20,750,000

In storage 1,155,000

590248 —61- -20
372 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Services of Supply, U.S. Army Forces, China Theater.—In China, those

service forces personnel and activities supporting the U.S. commands which

were concerned with the Chinese military forces and American air operations

were grouped under Headquarters, Services of Supply, USAFCT, with headquarters at K’un-ming. The latter’s medical section did not gain staff

veterinary officer until 10 January 1945, who then proceeded to organize and

revitalize the existent meager veterinary services at two or three abattoirs

throughout southern China. By the end of the next month, the Army Veterinary Service with Services of Supply had seven veterinary officers, including

four as commanding officers of veterinary food inspection detachments (or

units). The mission of this veterinary service organization had now become

(1) the inspection of foods being supplied to U.S. personnel by the Chinese

(through its War Area Service Command) and the development and supervision of abattoir construction and operations, (2) the advising on veterinary

supply to the United States-sponsored Chinese military forces, and (3) the

providing of assistance in the procurement and transportation of Chinese

Army animals. Also, veterinary plan for evacuating and hospitalizing

sick and wounded animals and for remounting the Chinese combat units was

being undertaken as the war ended.

To better coordinate these veterinary and other activities with the

Chinese military forces, the Services of Supply organization operated through

five area commands, or base sections as they were named after April 1945.

These were comparable to the territorial subdivision of the Chinese Services

of Supply; in fact, during March 1945, Veterinary Corps officer was

assigned full-time duty with the headquarters of that Chinese Army organization. The latter was responsible for the local and actual procurement of

most of the animals, feed and forage, animal equipment, and horseshoeing

material which were required in the United States-sponsored Chinese armies

and divisions, and for the full supply to the nonsponsored Chinese military

forces. In these operations, the Army Veterinary Service lent assistance to

the extent of formulating quartermaster remount plan, participating in

the specially formed Sino-American Horse Purchasing Bureau, recommending changes in the Chinese system for the procurement and distribution of

forage, developing and starting the manufacture of compressed hay and

compressed emergency ration for animals, inaugurating equipment maintenance units, beginning the manufacture of horseshoes, and advising on changes

in the administration of the Chinese Army veterinary service. The U.S.

base subsections of Services of Supply, as of June 1945, were as follows:

Base Section 1, with headquarters at Yiin-nan-i; Base Section 2, with headquarters at K’un-ming; Base Section 3, with headquarters at Chan-i, India; Base Section 4, with headquarters at Kuei-yang; and Base Section 5, also

at K’un-ming. Following V-J Hay, these were discontinued as U.S. military

activities were recentered in the new Shanghai Base Command. The foregoing base section headquarters staffs generally had no staff veterinarian in
ASIATIC-PACIFIC THEATERS 373

their medical sections, but the veterinary personnel and various activities

within each such subcommand were under the supervision of, and regularly

inspected by, veterinary officers assigned to Headquarters, Services of Supply.

The theater’s veterinary meat and dairy hygiene inspection services were

formally started in early January 1945 when four food inspection detachments

(the 84th, 85th, 86th, and 87th Veterinary Food Inspection Detachments, then

called medical composite sections (food inspection)) arrived from USAFIBT.

These detachments were assigned to station at Chan-i, Yiin-nan-i,Lu-liang, and

Cheng-tu. During the next month, the 913th, 914th, and 915th Veterinary

Food Inspection Detachments were activated locally and, after their organization and orientation, set up operations initially at Pai-shih-i, Kuang-han (in

the Cheng-tu area), and Pao-shan. By September 1945, 27 detachmentswere

authorized for the theater, but 10 detachments that were to be organized by

USAFIBT either were not formed because of shortages in numbers of personnel

(the 945th through 950th) or had not departed for the China theater before

V-J Day (the 937th, 939th, 941st, and 942d). Altogether, 11 veterinary food

inspection detachments were received from or through the India-Burma theater; The 80th and 82d (during April-May 1945), the 84th, 85th, 86th, and

87th (during January-February 1945), the 917th (during August 1945), and

the 938th, 940th, 943d, and 944th (during August-September 1945). Six were

activated and organized locally: The 243d, 244th, and 245th (during June 1945)

and the 913th, 914th, and 915th (during February 1945).

These food inspection detachments, for the most part, were stationed in the

vicinity of major subsistence storage points or depots and at abattoirs, many of

the latter being specially constructed by the Army (such as at Pao-shan, Sian,

Nancheng, Chih-chiang, Lu-liang, Kuei-yang, Pai-shih-i, Chungking, and

Luhsien). 10 The abattoirs, including those operated by the Chinese War Area

Service Command organization (which provided housekeeping services to the

American forces in China), were operated under the full supervision of Veterinary Corps officers to insure that the supplies of fresh beef, pork, and chicken

were clean and sound. The Army Veterinary Service comprised the only inspection agency, and typically theabattoirs had no trained Chinese butcher personnel; serious difficulties were experienced with the supply of adequate potable

water, the procedures for waste disposal, and the handling and distribution of

the meat where refrigerated facilities were underdeveloped. As the U.S. troop

strength increased, theanimals to be slaughtered became more difficult to obtain,

but the grade of beef was never higher than that used in the American meat

canning industry; only the carcass beef was accepted because edible organs

generally revealed extremely heavy parasitic infestations. In the period January through September 1945, the Army Veterinary Service inspected approximately 63,000 live cattle and hogs for slaughter and conducted post mortem

10In the fall of 1944, the Army Veterinary Service was supervising the operation of nine abattoirs

in China, at K'un-ming, Yiin-nan-i, Yang-chieh, Chan-i, and in the Cheng-tu area. Abattoirs were

newly constructed and in operation in places cited in the text, and, as of V-.i Day, abattoir construction was approved or started at Kaiyuan, Meng-tzu, Nan-ning, and Diu-chow.
374 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

inspection on 58,000; also, 361,000 live poultry were inspected ante mortem, and

308,000 carcasses were inspected during the slaughtering operations.

In the nonperishable (or canned) subsistence supply to the China theater,

the Army Veterinary Service experienced an unusually high rate of losses.

Of course, the subsistence was handled many times before arrival in the

theater, and large quantities of it, long stored and now surplus to the Army

in India-Burma, were received in broken containers or with the cans seriously rusted or damaged. The condition of the canned foods was not bettered

when they were hauled over the Stilwell Road. This condition was not

improved when subsistence stocks in Burma were loaded on airplanes without the benefit of preshipment examinations, down over the Hump, and unloaded at destination within minutes and heaped on the airfields. Another

veterinary activity at airbase and services of supply installations was the

supervision of ice cream manufacture, using dried ice cream mix of U.S.

origin or other raw material if the mix product was unavailable. Also,

butcher shop facilities were established and specially equipped to trim and

render fat into lard.

The Services of Supply, USAFCT, also cooperated with the Chinese

Combat Command in the conservation of Chinese Army animal strength by

administering the proper transport of animals rapidly into the vicinity of

active combat areas in China. Under veterinary supervision at the loading

points, along the routes of military animal traffic, and at destination, large

numbers of horses and mules were moved by airplane, road marching, railroad, and truck convoy. In the first major animal movement, approximately

2,200 animals belonging to the Chinese New 6th Army (including the Chinese

14th and 22d Divisions) were redeployed by aerial transport from Burma into

Chan-i. This took place during January-February 1945 and was repeated

when, between 21 April and 11 May 1945, the same animals were airlifted

from Chan-i to Chih-chiang—the last large American airbase which stood

in the path of new Japanese advances into southern China. During June,

July, and August 1945, another 3,164 horses and mules belonging to the

Chinese New 1st Army and 1st Regiment were transported by airplane from

Burma—this time to Nan-ning where the Chinese military forces were preparing for an offensive toward Japanese-held port on the eastern China

coast.

As these aerial movements were taking place and with the ending of the

fight for Burma, approximately 3,000 animals belonging to the Chinese 30th

and 22d Divisions (the latter’s replacement animals only), 10th and 12th

Engineer Regiments, and other units, and more than 2,400 mules and horses

belonging to the two field artillery battalions and six quartermaster pack

troops of the disbanding 5332d Brigade (Provisional) were roadmarched

over the Stilwell route into China, over which Allied traffic had started to

move in January 1945. Feeding-watering-resting bivouacs or camps, overnight stopover points, veterinary aid stations, and truck ambulances were
SIATIC-PACIFIC TH ATER 375

established along the route of march by the Services of Supply. This proj- ect proceeded satisfactorily until early August 1945 when one confirmed case of surra appeared in an American field artillery mule. This led to the test- ing of all animals in the marching columns. Repeated testing during that month eventually led to the outright destruction of 181 of approximately 900 animals in the field artillery units. During September 1945, repeated

testing of approximately 1,500 mules and horses of the six quartermaster pack troops—mostly bivouaced along the march route—was finalized; 453 were

destroyed, 307 because they were known to be infected, and the remaining 46 because their physical condition made it evident that they were particu- larly susceptible to infection. Altogether, 18,480 microscopic examinations were made of animal blood specimens during the months. It had been

determined that only surra-free Army horses and mules would be turned over

to the Chinese military forces. The disease also was uncovered by Veterinary

Corps liaison officers on duty with Chinese divisional units. Also, from

K’un-ming, railroad shipments were made of 5,500 horses and mules belong- ing to the Chinese field armies, divisions, engineer regiments, and field artillery battalions that were then being utilized into the defense of southern China. At Chan-i, or the terminal end of these movements by rail, the animals were transported by truck into the combat area as means of further

conserving their efficiency. In this connection, regular fast-moving truck

convoy system was established and used at first, but the results were disastrous in terms of dead animals on the trucks at final destination. The Army

Veterinary Service soon requested the abolishment of the system, also called

block movement, in favor of somewhat slower movement during daylight

hours only, with stopovers en route, and each truck was to be accompanied by animal attendants.

Within the Shanghai Base Command, established on 10 September 1945,

but soon lost as separate organization entity when the China theater headquarters moved there, the Army Veterinary Service surveyed and established

inspections in local commercial plants which furnished fresh beef, pork, lamb, and chicken to the Armed Forces. The Army Veterinary Service also supervised the manufacture of ice cream and reconstituted milk in dairy plant,

using Army-owned raw materials, and located refrigerated warehouses for

the storage of perishable subsistence. port veterinary service was also inaugurated. Two veterinary food inspection detachments, the 84th and the

87th, were moved into Shanghai, but the 84th was inactivated before the end

of 1945. It may be noted that Joint Army-Navy Preventive Medicine

Service was created to coordinate medical operations, including the veterinary

sanitary inspections of food supplies and restaurants, to safeguard the health

of the large numbers of American military personnel who came into Shanghai

during the immediate postwar period {15).

Chinese Combat Command.—The China sector of the former ChinaBurma-India theater’s Chinese Training and Combat Command, comprising
376 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

the original Y-Force and Z-Force Operations Staffs, which now were merged, was continued within the new China theater as major element of that

theater for only few months. In the winter of 1945, the Salween campaign for reopening the overland Burma-China route was all but ended, and in

eastern China the Japanese southwardly advances had disrupted the schedule for completely training, equipping, and deploying the Z-Force. Thus, on January 1945, the theater’s training and liaison organization for the

Chinese Army was separated into two subordinate theater commands, the

training group, or Chinese Training Command, and the group on liaison duty with the Chinese field forces, designated as the Chinese Combat Command. The latter, with headquarters at K’un-ming, included staff Veterinary

Corps officer, formerly with Headquarters, Y-Force Operations Staff, who

technically administered the U.S. veterinary services with the Chinese field

forces. These veterinary services were conducted by personnel and units

which were assigned to five territorial subcommands (each covering China

provincial area and paralleling the field organization of the Chinese Army)

Eastern, Central, Southern, Kwangasi, and Reserve. Then, below the level

of the five area commands within the Chinese Combat Command, there were

12 army liaison teams and 36 division liaison teams which were attached to, and moved with, the Chinese combat units. All liaison teams were authorized to include veterinary officer, veterinary enlisted man, and horseshoer. As of the end of March 1945, the Army Veterinary Service with the

Chinese Combat Command had 51 officers and 60 enlisted personnel (including 28 horseshoer specialists)—these being distributed among the headquarters, area commands, and liaison teams—and also, 19 veterinary animal service detachments. The latter augmented the liaison team veterinary services

in the Chinese armies and divisions.

The principal objective of the veterinary liaison personnel were to assist “*

in every way possible in improving the methods of animal management, care of sick and injured animals, supervision of packing and shoeing

of all animals” in the Chinese armies and divisions. Schools of instruction

were established within the units, and particular attention was paid to the

development of trained and well-equipped Chinese veterinary detachments.

Under this kind of supervision and instruction, the standards of animal care

and management in the Chinese combat forces was greatly improved, but

it must be noted that before this time there were little or no such standards

practiced and that the Chinese Army Veterinary Service generally had few

really well qualified personnel and was numerically inadequate. In addition

to the liaison personnel and the 19 veterinary animal service detachments,

the Chinese Combat Command also utilized the 19th Veterinary Evacuation

Hospital and elements of the 7th Veterinary Company (Separate), as follows (16)

The 7th Veterinary Company (Separate) was divided into three platoons which

functions separately, one platoon with each division of the New 1st Army. The platoons
ASIATIC-PACIFIC THEATERS 377

of this company assisted in the loading and unloading of animals on planes which were

used to airlift the animals from the IB [India-Burma] Theater to the China Theater.

One platoon accompanied one division (30th Div., 1st Army) on its overland movement from Lashio, Burma to Nanning, China. They furnished the necessary care and

evacuation of animals while en route. The 19th Veterinary Evacuation Hospital established eleven feed and rest stations and Veterinary Aid stations along the Burma road

axis from Wanting, China to Tuhshan, China. This unit designed and supervised the

building of animal racks for all truck shipments, thereby eliminating injuries that heretofore caused great loss of animals from permanent injuries, death and long periods of

treatment. Further, this unit assisted in loading and unloading of all truck and plane

shipments of animals; 13,580 animals were handled by the 19th Veterinary Evacuation Hospital. Due to weather conditions, lack of trucks and planes and shortage of forage

in some areas, the 19th had to maintain 24 hour schedule for handling of all air, truck and overland movements. This hospital unit furnished invaluable assistance in

loading of the 6th Army animals on planes and expediting their shipment from Chanyi

to Chihkiang in April 1945 to halt the advance of the Japanese Army on Chihkiang.

After Y-J Day, the veterinary animal service detachments were assigned

to Services of Supply and then inactivated on 16 September 1945, and the

7th Veterinary Company (Separate) and 19th Veterinary Evacuation Hospital were redeployed to the India-Burma theater for return to the United

States.

Chinese Training Command.—This command, with headquarters at

K’un-ming, was established on January 1945, when, it must be recalled, the training group and liaison group in the China theater’s Chinese Training and Combat Command were divided and two subcommand elements

were formed. The training command headquarters included staff veterinary officer who had once been assigned to Z-Force Operations Staff at Kueilin; it continued the veterinary section of the Field Artillery Training Center which had been opened originally in the spring of 1943 in connection

with the training of the former X-Force Chinese armies and divisions.

Formal school-type courses of training in professional animal service, and

animal care and management were conducted in the center for Chinese

Army veterinary personnel, as were courses for horseshoers and animal pack

masters of the United States-sponsored Chinese Army; also, orientation

training was given to U.S. veterinary liaison personnel prior to assignment

with the Chinese field units. The Army Veterinary Service with Chinese

Training Command totaled seven or eight officers. This number included

the two veterinary officers who were detailed full-time duty, since mid-1944,

as instructors in the Chinese Army Veterinary School at An-shun. That

institution, through the office of the Chinese Ministry of War, urgently

requested additional U.S. veterinary instructors, but no other Veterinary

Corps officers could be spared from the number which were available in the

China theater. In August 1945, however, that school’s 23 recent graduates

and two instructors were accepted at the Field Artillery Training Center

for week’s postgraduate professional course of instruction.
378 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Army Air Forces, China Theater.—The veterinary service organization with the air forces in the China theater never exceeded two or three officers

and few enlisted personnel because the requirements for veterinary services, particularly food inspection, at the airbases were readily satisfied by service

forces’ assigned veterinary officers. This was mutually agreeable to the

Services of Supply and Fourteenth Air Force. Actually, the bases were

widely scattered, sometimes small in size, and were moved frequently so that

great many more veterinary personnel would have been needed than were

available in the theater. Up to mid-1945, the theater's major air forces

organization was the Fourteenth Air Force, with its own China Air Service

Command to which the veterinary personnel were assigned; actually, the

medical sections of the numbered air force and the air service command

were merged after December 1944. Then, during mid-1945, as the Tenth

Air Force arrived from the India-Burma theater, the new Headquarters,

AAF, China Theater, was formed, and the Fourteenth Air Force’s Air Serv- ice Command, with the assigned veterinary officers, became the theater’s

new air service command with headquarters at K’un-ming. Shortly after

V-J Day, the air service command lost its veterinary personnel, and, on

December 1945, both the Fourteenth Air Force and Tenth Air Force headquarters were disbanded.

Another air forces unit in the theater was the Twentieth Air Force’s

XX Bomber Command, which in the spring of 1944 began to operate the

very long range bombing program against the Japan mainland. During

the first half of 1945, it was transferred out of the airbases in China to the

Marianas Islands in the CPA; there was no organically assigned veterinary

detachment with this air forces unit while in China. In the China theater,

there was also an Air Transport Command wing organization to which

veterinary officer was assigned in September 1945.

References

1. History of the U.S. Army Medical Department, Veterinary Service. Headquarters,

U.S. Army Forces, Pacific Ocean Areas. For the period, Dec. 1941 to 30 June 1945.

[Official record.]

2. Link, Mae M., and Coleman, Hubert A.: Medical Support of the Army Air Forces

in World War 11. Washington U.S. Government Printing Office, 1955, p. 732.

3. Letter, Col. Josiah W. Worthington, YC, to The Surgeon General, Dec. 1945,

subject: USAFFE and USFIP Veterinary Activities and Subsequent Experiences as

Prisoners of War.

4. Report of interview, Chief, Operations Service, to Veterinary Division, 11 Apr.

1945, subject: Medical Department Activities in the Philippines.

5. Letter, Capt. Charles B. Frank to The Surgeon General, May 1945, subject:

Veterinary Activities in the Philippine Islands and Experiences as Prisoner of War.

6. Smock, S. C., and Baker, J. E.: History of the Veterinary Service in Southwest

Pacific Area. For the period, [Official record.]

7. Weisman, L. G.: History of the Veterinary Service in Southwest Pacific Area.

For the period, 1942-45. [Official record.]
ASIATIC-PACIFIC THEATERS 379

8. Annual Report, Veterinary Section, Q. M. Branch, Procurement Division, Australia

Base Section, U.S. Army Services of Supply, Southwest Pacific Area, for 1944. [Official

record.

9. Quarterly Report, Veterinary Branch, Headquarters, Australia Base Section, for

April through 30 June 1945. [Official record.]

10. Mohri, R. W.: World War II Historical Report of the Army Veterinary Service

With U.S. Army Forces, China-Burma-India, 1942-45. [Official record.]

11. Letter, Lt. Col. Norman J. Pyle, VC, to Brig. Gen. Raymond A. Reiser, 29 June

1944, subject: Mission to China.

12. Gillespie, J. II.: Historical Reports, Veterinarian, Advance Section 1, for periods,

October to 31 December 1943 (dated January 1944), and January to 31 March 1944

(dated April 1944).

13. Unidentified document, subject: Veterinary Service —Assigned and Attached, dated

26 February 1944, by Lt. Col. W. E. Jennings, VC.

14. The Veterinary History of the China Theater, 1945. [Official record.]

15. Essential Technical Medical Data, Headquarters, U.S. Forces, China Theater, for

October 1945.

16. Jennings, W. E.: Historical Report for Chinese Combat Command (Provisional),

U.S. Forces, China Theater, for period, January-30 August 1945 (dated September 1945).

381

CHAPTER XI

Laboratory Service and Research

An activity of the Army Veterinary Service, paralleling its services

with animals and the inspection of the Army food supply during the war, was its laboratory and research work. Basically, this was part of the

overall Medical Department laboratory system. In the Zone of Interior at

the level of the Army camp or station, professional veterinary requirements

for laboratory services sometimes were referred to the clinicodiagnostic laboratory of the local station hospital. Most often, however, this type of

facility was neither manned nor equipped to meet the veterinary needs, so

that animal specimens and food samples generally were referred directly to

the service command medical laboratories or to the laboratory of the Army

Veterinary School, Army Medical Center, Washington, D.C. These were

manned and equipped to conduct the routine and special clinicodiagnostic

examinations and food analyses for the Army Veterinary Service and were

staffed by Veterinary Corps officers who were specially trained in military

veterinary laboratory services. Other Medical Department laboratories in

operation or nearing completion at the start of the war that had component

veterinary sections were those located in the oversea departments. During

the war, the theaters of operations utilized medical laboratory units. Each

included veterinary section. These laboratories operated with the field

armies and in the theaters’ base commands, and two or more such units in

single theater were supported by larger medical general laboratory unit.

Approximately 50 veterinary officers were assigned worldwide to this veterinary laboratory service within the Medical Department (maps 7, 8, and 9).

Fifty more officers were on duty with the laboratory research and development projects of the Chemical Warfare Service, the Quartermaster Corps,

the Pan American Sanitary Bureau, or were concerned with antibiological

warfare studies and the civil affairs activities in liberated and occupied

countries.

This situation contrasts sharply with that in World War I, when The

Surgeon General in December 1917 inaugurated laboratory service in the

Veterinary Corps that was expanded to include six or seven veterinary laboratory officers ). As of mid-1940, veterinary laboratories were in operation only at the Army Medical Center, at Fort Sam Houston, Tex., and at

the general depot at Fort Mason, Calif. (2). There were also, at this time,

the Medical Department Equipment Laboratory, Medical Field Service

School, Carlisle Barracks, Pa., and the VRL (Veterinary Research Laboratory), Aleshire Quartermaster Remount Depot, Front Royal, Va.

By this time, the functions of the veterinary laboratory service were well

defined to include clinicodiagnostic services, food analyses, production of bio-
382 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

LABORATORY

SERVICE COMMAND BOUNDARY

August 942

Map 7.—Laboratory locations in the Zone of Interior.

logicals; training and instructional services, and research and development. The first-named function or activity related to the conduct of bacteriological,

serologic, and pathological examinations of animal specimens. Food analyses pertained to the chemical analysis and bacteriological examinations of

foods of animal origin and forage for the purpose of determining their

compliance with the provisions of contractual documents. Since 1927, reportedly, the examinations or tests of food samples to determine compliance

with contractual documents and specifications constituted the principal activity of the average laboratory (3). In addition to these activities, the veterinary laboratory service produced certain therapeutic and diagnostic biologicals which were required by the Army. Some of this activity, such as the

production of mallein used in testing horses for glanders, was an outgrowth of operations during World War I. Another activity of the laboratories

was the use of their personnel in the Medical Department’s training program, particularly at the Army Medical Center.

The wartime service was expanded to include, in addition to the expanding research and development program, 34 new medical laboratories

and laboratory units: service command laboratories in the Zone of Interior,

oversea departmental or service command laboratories outside of the United

States, and general and 19 army-type and communications zone medical

laboratory units in the oversea theaters. The war’s end found these labora-
LABORATORY SERVICE AND RESEARCH 383

Map 8.—Laboratory locations in Europe.

tory veterinary sections to be integral and essential in the day-to-day operations of the Army Veterinary Service to degree greater than at any previous

time in its history.

PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES

The principles and the practices of veterinary laboratory service and

research in World War II, like its functions and activities, were the direct

continuation of those developed in World War and perfected in the peacetime period which followed. The document basic to the wartime veterinary

laboratories was an Army regulation dated August 1942. These were
384 ARMY VETERINARY SERVER

Map 9.-—Laboratory locations in the Pacific.
LABORATORY SERVICE AND RESEARCH 385

described originally by the Surgeon General’s Office in circular letters and

were replaced, in 1921, by an Army regulation 5, 6).

At the level of the Surgeon General’s Office, the veterinary laboratory

service in its technical operations was supervised by the Veterinary Division and the Subdivision of Sanitation, Hygiene, and Laboratories of the

Preventive Medicine Division. Frequently, matters of purely technical concern were referred to the Army Veterinary School which operated as

central control veterinary laboratory. Relations between the latter and the

various laboratories were maintained by direct channels of communication.

Within command, the senior veterinary laboratory officer generally acted

as the technical adviser to command veterinarian on policies and problems

relating to laboratory equipment and supplies, veterinary laboratory operations, and the control of animal diseases. In this connection, for example,

the Ninth Service Command Laboratory, Fort Lewis, Wash., prepared and

distributed 14-page Veterinary Laboratory Circular pertaining to the collection, preparation, and shipment of specimens and samples. In another

instance, during World War II, the 18th Medical General Laboratory conducted the preliminary work on the official form letter that was distributed

by the Office of the Surgeon, Headquarters, Pacific Ocean Areas, concerning

the procedures which would be used in the investigation of animal diseases

on island bases in the Central Area (7). There was free interchange of professional and technical information between the laboratory and the veterinary officers in the field who were submitting specimens and samples for

examination.

It was early realized that it was not possible to limit veterinary laboratory officers to strictly veterinary duties; the laboratories were frequently

autonomous and had to do their own administration and housekeeping. In

modern medicine, there is great overlap and interrelationship among specialized fields. Thus, the problems of assignment and utilization of veterinary laboratory officer on nonveterinary work was reevaluated in terms that

he was primarily an Army officer and member of highly specialized

professional team or staff. For example, the veterinary officer who had

specialized in veterinary pathology was an invaluable associate in the experimental studies of the toxic or lethal effects of chemical warfare agents. The

team or laboratory of which the veterinary officer was part required many

specialists in the several fields of medicine, bacteriology, chemistry, entomology, immunology, parasitology, public health, and virology. If qualified

by previous experience or training, the veterinary officer soon found himself

participating in nonveterinary work.

The veterinary section or branch of these laboratories usually did not

function as an independent self-sufficient unit, as might be expected. Hie

veterinary officer was normally in charge of the work or activities which

dealt primarily with animals, animal diseases, and foods of animal origin.

Moreover, he depended upon other sections of the laboratory to assist him
386 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

in his problems; that is, problems in bacteriology were frequently referred

to the bacteriology section, and problems in chemistry to the laboratory’s

chemist, thus allowing the veterinary laboratory officer to utilize the combined skills of the entire staff in handling the veterinary work. However,

the veterinary laboratory officer was usually qualified for such an assignment by his prior civilian experience and education, and by specialized laboratory training within the Military Establishment.

The central administration of the laboratory service included ways and

means of developing uniformity of laboratory methods and techniques, the

training of personnel, the evaluation study of laboratory efficiency, and the

inspection of veterinary laboratory facilities.

Steps for standardizing the methods and techniques that were used in

the various laboratories were begun early in the history of the veterinary

laboratory service and were continued throughout World War II. One such

action was the training publication, Technical Manual No. 8-227, Methods

for Laboratory Technicians, an edition of which appeared on 17 October

1911. This was incomplete in regard to the description of food analytical

procedures, matter of utmost importance to the Army Veterinary Service

in connection with the procurement inspections of foods of animal origin.

This problem was answered, in part for the first time, during the immediate

pre-World War II emergency periods when the Army Veterinary School

prepared the mimeographed text, Methods of Chemical Analysis of Meat

Food Products. At about this time, trend became evident toward the

greater use of laboratory methods and techniques which were developed or

were advanced by quasi-official national organizations.

Thus, in connection with the examination of milk and other dairy products, the veterinary laboratories made reference to the American Public

Health Association’s Standard Methods for the Examination of Dairy

Products and to the Association of Official Agricultural Chemists’ Official

and Tentative Methods of Analysis. These were specified in the Federal

specifications and contractual documents relating to the procurement of

food, and their use was mandatory. As the war progressed, the commercial

food industries and related associations, including the American Oil Chemists Society, National Canners Association, American Dry Milk Institute,

and the Quartermaster Corps, modified their test procedures, as did such

Federal agencies as the U.S. Public Health Service and the Food and Drug

Administration.

Frequently, during the war, new products were developed, and laboratory quality tests had to be developed for them. Even after test was developed or perfected, there remained the problem of interpretation and application of the test results; for example, one could mention the Escherichia

coli contamination in fresh milk, the mycelia count of butter, and the fluorescent value of dried egg powder. These analytical methods and procedures were important, being part of contractual documents relating to the
LABORATORY SERVICE AND RESEARCH 387

procurement of many million pounds of food for the Armed Forces. Also,

the details of the test, which included the naming of specific equipment, had

to be followed since the food analytical work of the Army veterinary laboratory service was subjected to legal review in claims made by contractors.

Allied with the standardization of laboratory methods and procedures,

announced in published manuals and bulletins, was the matter of training.

During World War II, short refresher Special Graduate Course in Clinical

Pathology was organized and conducted for 42 veterinary officers, and

wartime Course for Enlisted Specialists, Veterinary Laboratory Technicians,

was established and conducted for 23 veterinary enlisted personnel. These

courses emphasized training in laboratory work.

In addition to the utilization of published reference texts and training

media, of central training agency, and of programs of research and development, the Army Veterinary School instituted laboratory evaluation studies

as means of obtaining standardization. Briefly, these studies involved the

measurement of efficiency of several laboratories by one central laboratory

(Army Veterinary School Laboratory) and involved the latter’s action of

sending identical food samples (controls) to subordinate or corollary laboratories for analyses and then reviewing and comparing the test results which

were reported. Laboratories that failed to report satisfactory results were

subsequently inspected or requested to assign their veterinary personnel to

the central laboratory for on-the-job training. It was command responsibility to conduct such evaluation studies and was little used until after the

onset of World War II. During the war, the veterinary section of the

Fourth Service Command Medical Laboratory, Fort McPherson, Ga., instituted evaluation studies on hospital laboratories in Army camps conducting

local milk quality control programs.

Steps were taken to standardize veterinary laboratory methods and techniques within the Army Veterinary Service to insure that all veterinary laboratories would or could provide the same end resnlts of analyses on any

given food sample and also to insure that the veterinary laboratory service

could be generally recognized as competent quality-control military agency

of the Government. At times, laboratory seemed to be out of line with

respect to procedure or on report of results of analyses, but this was no

different from the experiences of the food industries with their laboratory

controls. Within the Army, such failures were usually uncovered almost as

soon as they appeared, and aggressive action was undertaken for the correction of the situation immediately. Complaints by the commercial food

industries of inaccuracies of veterinary laboratory reports of analyses did

occur; however, in no instance was complaint substantiated.

The studies and standardization of laboratory methods and techniques

involved studies and standardization of equipment and supplies. During

World War IT, the equipping of veterinary laboratories became major

problem. The problem was quantitative in nature because of the increased
388 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

number of veterinary laboratories. It was also qualitative, particularly in

the Zone of Interior where there was developing emphasis upon the utilization of official test procedures in connection with the expanding veterinary food inspection services. The test procedures, which were agreed to

jointly by quartermaster procurement officials, the food industries and their

quasi-official national organizations, and the Army Veterinary Service, frequently specified type or brand of equipment or laboratory material which

was to be used; it became mandatory that the veterinary laboratories be

properly equipped or supplied to conduct the official test procedures. If

such were not available or used, the results of the analyses conducted by

laboratories which may have used substitute equipment or material were

regarded as unacceptable within the purview of the contractual documents

relating to food procurement. In an instance where special type of electric

mixer, as prescribed in the test for the solubility index of dry milk powder,

was in short supply, the American Dry Milk Institute and the Quartermaster Subsistence Research and Development Laboratory cooperated to test

and to make arrangements for the supply of substitute types of mixers.

The advancements which were made in laboratory test procedures and

equipment were paralleled with changing attitudes toward the importance

of laboratory experimental and test animals. There always existed the

problem in the supply of laboratory animals in terms of quantity, but the

supply of good quality and properly conditioned animals was relatively

modern innovation. It involved the supply of parasite-free animals, sometimes specific pathogen-free animals, or animals which were specially fed or

grown under special environmental conditions. The lack of appreciation of

quality and condition in laboratory animals in past years may have caused

some of the irregularities in the results of animal test procedures in routine

clinicodiagnostic work, and it may be associated with the inability at times

to verify the reports of original research investigations. The developing

importance of laboratory animal supply paralleled the history of the responsibilities and functions of the Army Veterinary Service with the Medical Department laboratory system. The supply of good quality animals in adequate numbers was progressively experienced as being essential to the

clinicodiagnostic procedures and research investigations by the Medical Department (fig. 36).

Requests for the utilization of unserviceable Army horses in connection

with the developmental studies on protective equipment against chemical warfare agents were disapproved by the War Department until 18 March

1941 ). When approval was granted at that time, the War Department

directed that the Chemical Warfare Service employ those criteria of the

American Medical Association that concerned the humane care and use of

laboratory experimental animals.

During World War II, the Army Veterinary Service was active in the care and handling of laboratory animals, not only for the Medical Depart-
LABORATORY SERVICE AND RESEARCH 389

Figure 36.—Experimental surgery on laboratory animals was conducted under

humane, professional veterinary guidance in connection with the studies of missile effects

on soldiers.
390 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

merit laboratory system but also in connection with the antichemical and

antibiological warfare research and development programs of the Chemical

Warfare Service. This was in line with the natural sequence of events and

possibly as the result of the specified requirements by the War Department

in 1941 that veterinary and humane treatment be accorded Army horses

which were utilized in defensive chemical warfare research. On at least

two separate occasions, once in 1943 and again in 1944, the Chemical

Warfare Service requested the assignment of veterinary officers whose

duties were to assist in the interpretation of the pathological changes in

experimental animals and to procure and manage animal colonies 10).

Within the Medical Department laboratory system, the veterinary sections of

new medical laboratories and laboratory units in the Zone of Interior and

oversea theaters invariably operated the animal colonies. The operation included procurement, breeding, maintenance, and issue, as well as the conduct of sanitary programs and professional services. Plans were developed

for the proper housing of laboratory animals. These operations were especially difficult under field conditions where the laboratories were frequently

relocated and in areas where climatic conditions adversely affected the maintenance and propagation of animals. At ports, the Army Veterinary Service

assisted in the oversea movement of laboratory animals. Unfortunately,

laboratory animals did not well withstand the rigors of long voyages on

shipboard; in some instances, the animals were moved by aerial transport

and were accompanied by attendants to assure that they were properly cared

for en route. The procurement of an adequate food supply was frequent

problem.

SERVICE COMMAND MEDICAL DEPARTMENT LABORATORIES IN

THE ZONE OF INTERIOR

This section and the following section comprise the unit histories of

veterinary laboratories and sections during World War II, in the Zone of

Interior and in the oversea theaters, respectively. They relate the veterinary

operations of 34 newly organized or revitalized facilities and units of the

Medical Department laboratory system. The war’s end found the operational responsibilities of the veterinary laboratory service to be of importance equaling the two original missions of the Army Veterinary Service—- the mission concerned with the care of animals and that related to the

inspection of food.

In the Zone of Interior, the veterinary laboratory service was an activity of the Army Veterinary Service that was evolved within the Medical

On 29 July 1944, the Veterinary Division, SGO, initiated action for the transfer of Capt.

A. H. Gaffln, VC, from the 42d Veterinary Company (Separate) to the Dugway Proving Ground,

Tooele, Utah, and of Capt. R. J. Veenstra, VC, from the 23d Station Hospital to the Toxicological Research Laboratory, Edgewood Arsenal, Md.
LABORATORY SERVICE AND RESEARCH 391

Department laboratory system. The onset of World War II found the

Army Veterinary Service dependent upon three laboratories for its clinicodiagnostic work and food analyses: The Army Veterinary School, the

station hospital at Fort Sam Houston, and the general depot at Fort Mason.

The laboratory at the Army Veterinary School was really the parent

laboratory of all veterinary laboratories organized during World War II.

Most of the veterinary officers that were assigned to other laboratories received preassignment training course in this laboratory. It served as the

control laboratory for all service command laboratories and as an appeal

laboratory to arbitrate differences between service command and food industry laboratories. In addition to performing its usual research training,

production of biologicals, and other functions, it provided all veterinary

laboratory service for the Third Service Command. During World War II,

the laboratory examined 51,950 samples of food, making 163,000 separate

determinations. The production of biologicals was as follows:

Mallein doses 1,579,350

Tuberculin doses 537,130

Equine infectious abortion bacterin cubic centimeters 202,200

Equine, encephalomyelitis vaccine cubic centimeters 5,031,228

Japanese encephalitis vaccine cubic centimeters 1,950,335

As the pre-World War TT emergency period saw the formation of hospital laboratories at many new Army camps and airbases, the Surgeon General's Office planned for the establishment of zonal-type laboratories as

supplementary to the hospital laboratories—one for each of the corps areas

and the oversea departments. The planning for corps area and department

medical laboratories in the expanding Medical Department laboratory system

became the nucleus of the wartime organization of the veterinary laboratory

service, because veterinary personnel were too few in numbers for assignment to the numerous hospital laboratories. Such zonal-type laboratories

were recognized as important in the investigation of diseases significant in

military veterinary medicine and in the operation of quality controls over

the foods procured for use by the Army.

Specifically, the Surgeon General’s Office recommended that medical

laboratories be established in the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh,

Eighth, and two in the Ninth Corps Areas and in the Panama and the

Puerto Rican Departments, that the Second Corps Area laboratory which

was then in operation be continued, and that the Army Medical Center

provide laboratory services for the Third Corps Area {11, 12, 13). It was

not believed necessary to establish departmental medical laboratories in the

Hawaiian and the Philippine Departments at that time. The plan, “*

as part of the present program of expansion,” was approved by the War

Department on 30 November 1940. On 15 January 1941, this approval was

supplemented by letter directing corps area and department commanders
392 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

that steps would be taken immediately to establish laboratories in the following locations:

First Corps Area Fort Devens, Mass.

Fourth Corps Area In the vicinity of Atlanta, Ga.

Fifth Corps Area Fort Benjamin Harrison, Ind.

Sixth Corps Area Fort Sheridan, 111.

Seventh Corps Area In the vicinity of Omaha, Nebr.

Eighth Corps Area Fort Sam Houston, Tex.

Ninth Corps Area. In the Puget Sound area, Wash.

Southern California.

Panama Canal Department In the Pacific section.

Puerto Rican Department San Juan, Puerto Rico.

During this time, the surgeons of the relevant commands were asked

to conduct preliminary studies for establishing corps area and department

laboratories. Also, tables of personnel authorizations, special lists of equipment, and plans for housing the laboratories were developed. The tables

of authorizations for each provided for total of 31 personnel (5 officers,

14 enlisted personnel, and 12 civilian employees) of which number the

following were named to the laboratory’s veterinary component: veterinary officer (in the rank of major), sergeant, private, and civilian

employees (f-I).

Veterinary personnel were assigned to the corps area medical laboratories

as they were formed. In 1942, these laboratories were renamed service

command medical laboratories, name which continued until after V-J

Day when they became known as Army area medical laboratories. Within

the laboratories, the veterinary components were variously named as sections, food chemistry branches, or veterinary laboratory (chart 3). Most

of the laboratories soon included veterinary personnel in numbers exceeding that originally planned by The Surgeon General; one laboratory had

as many as 38 persons detailed to veterinary work. total of approximately 30 Veterinary Corps officers were assigned to the nine corps area

laboratories in the Zone of Interior during the war period; some of these

later served in laboratory units which were deployed overseas. Any doubts

as to the value of the expanding veterinary service in the new service command medical laboratories were soon put aside as the war progressed; the

termination of the war found the veterinary clinicodiagnostic and food

analytical services to be major function of the Medical Department laboratory system. In the period from 1942 to the end of active hostilities in

1945, the Army Veterinary Service in the nine service commands of the

Zone of Interior received an estimated 300,000 animal specimens and food

samples, and several thousand water samples and specimens of human

origin for examination. This is exclusive of the veterinary work conducted at the hospital laboratories in the Army camps and airbases, at quartermaster depots, at the veterinary laboratory of the Army Medical Center,

or of organoleptic inspections. The annual workload per laboratory, in terms
LABORATORY SERVICE AND RESEARCH 393

Chart3.—Typical organisation of service command laboratory, showing veterinary service

COMMANDING OFFICER

EXECUTIVE OFFICER

SPECIAL

FUNCTIONS PROFESSIONAL LIBRARY ADMINISTRATIVE

BRANCH

RECEIVING

FORWARDING

PERSONNEL SUPPLY

BACTERIOLOGY SECTION

SEROLOGY

SECTION

VETERINARY

SECTION

VIROLOGY

SECTION

CHEMISTRY

SECTION

CARE AND

BREEDING OF

LAB. ANIMALS

SPECIAL STUDIES

ON ANIMAL

DISEASES

RESEARCH AND

EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES

FOOD

ANALYSIS

TRAINING

LAB. PERSONNEL

of numbers of food samples received, increased from 3,750 in 1942 to 13,600

in 1945 (up to Y-J Day). For each specimen or sample received, the

laboratories conducted one or more tests or determinations.

First Service Command Medical Laboratory

The First Service Command Medical Laboratory, Jamaica Plain, Mass.

{15), was established as the First Corps Area Medical Laboratory, effective

on 19 July 1941. Its veterinary personnel were originally assigned to the

laboratory’s serology department, but, as the result of ever-increasing demands for food analyses, these personnel in March 1943 assumed the operation of the chemistry department. In both departments, the Army Veterinary Service conducted certain clinicodiagnostic examinations concerned

with human medicine. For example, during 1941, all sera received for the

Kahn and Wassermann tests were surveyed for brucellosis agglutinins. In

1944, approximately 900 chemical tests were conducted on blood, spinal fluid,

urine, and stool specimens of human origin. However, the analyses of food

and water, the conduct of laboratory surveys of fresh milk supplies, and

the operation of the laboratory animal colony comprised the major activities

of the Army Veterinary Service. In regard to food analyses and testing

of water, the laboratory’s veterinary service in 1944 conducted 11,050 tests, of which 6,875 were chemical in nature and 4,175 were bacteriological examinations. The examinations of milk and dairy products comprised the

greater part of the bacteriological work; otherwise, the analyses pertained

to food of animal origin, as well as few fruit and vegetable items, and

water. Other veterinary activities at the First Service Command Laboratory

included the conduct of sanitary survey of the milkshed in Vermont and

assistance to the Food and Drug Administration, Federal Security Agency,
394 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

and survey of the supply of water and fresh milk for the Army airbase

on Presque Isle. In addition, limited laboratory services were provided to

local Navy installations.

Second Service Command Medical Laboratory

Veterinary service in the Second Service Command Medical Laboratory, New York, N. Y., began in the spring of 1941; it included veterinary

branch which was completely equipped to render animal clinicodiagnostic

services and food analyses, the latter being its major activity. During the

period from October 1941 to August 1945, the number of food samples received totaled 27,421; the number of food tests or determinations totaled

88,128. The distribution of this workload by years is shown in table 24. The

food samples were representative of foods of animal origin as well as few

fruit and vegetable items. Special veterinary activities included means for

the standardization of test procedures, the operation of the laboratory animal colony, and preliminary research studies on paratyphoid infection of

Army signal pigeons for the purpose of developing suitable prophylactic

serum.

Table 24.—Food samples received and determinations made, Veterinary Section, Second Service Command Medical Laboratory, 19^1-1^5

Fourth Service Command Medical Laboratory

The Fourth Service Command Medical Laboratory, Fort McPherson,

organized on 21 October 1941, included the Fourth Service Command Veterinary Laboratory. Its veterinary strength increased from veterinary officer

and enlisted man to 21 personnel as of early 1945—the latter including

officers, enlisted technicians, civilian technicians, animal attendant,

stenographers, and housekeepers. During World War II, the laboratory’s

veterinary service received 23,769 food samples and 827 animal specimens

(table 25). The food analytical activities pertained largely to the examination of dairy products which were supplied locally to troops, although after

the spring of 1944, as many as 500 samples of canned meats were received

each month for determining compliance with military procurement requireYear Food samples Determinations

1941

Number

821

6, 087

6, 720

7, 063

6, 730

Number

1, 460

17, 645

26, 980

24, 098

17, 945

1942 ...

1943

1944

1945

Total 27, 421 88, 128
LABORATORY SERVICE AND RESEARCH 395

merits. Overall, 22 percent of the food samples failed in one or more particulars to comply with the provisions of contractual documents and specifications. This percentage was significant in that defective food supplies

which might prove injurious to troop health or which may have greatly

deteriorated or spoiled while in Government storage were eliminated. In connection with the examinations of animal specimens, investigational studies

were conducted on three diseases: equine encephalomyelitis, botulism or

forage poisoning, and rabies. The first-named disease was tentatively diag- nosed among animals in Florida and Georgia, but studies by the laboratory

failed to demonstrate the presence of the causative viral agent. Botulism

was clinically suspected in 129 animals at Fort Oglethorpe, Ga., but laboratory studies were inconclusive and only suggestive that the condition could

have been toxemia caused by spoiled forage. Rabies was major clinicodiagnostic problem; of 65 specimens from animals suspected of being

rabid, 21 were positive by the mouse inoculation test. Research studies also

were undertaken for improving laboratory methods used in the determinations of added neutralizer in high acid milk and of added raw milk in

pasteurized milk. Technical papers were prepared on the subjects of container for refrigerating milk samples, and mechanical aids for use in the

direct microscopic method of counting bacteria. Possibly, one of the most

important activities of the laboratory’s veterinary service was its operations

as central control laboratory for the food analyses which were conducted

in hospitals of Army camps and airbases in the Fourth Service Command.

This involved program of training laboratory technicians from the hospitals, particularly in the methods of examining milk and dairy products.

Eighty-three students in 1943 and thirty-seven additional students in 1944

were ordered to the laboratory for 2-week training program. The program of training was augmented by program of continued professional

assistance involving the publication of series of technical letters and the

conduct of evaluation studies on the efficiency of hospital laboratories to

analyze control dairy samples.

Table 25 -Food samples and animal specimens received, Veterinary Section, Fourth Service

Command Medical Laboratory, 21 October 194-1 through 31 September 1945

27

Year Food samples Animal

specimens

1941 (21 Oct.-31 Dec.) __

Number

243

3, 691

4, 936

7, 480

7, 419

Number

23

569

224

1942

1943

1944 ___

_.

1945 (1 Jan.—31 Sept.)

Total ........ 23, 769 827
396 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Fifth Service Command Medical Laboratory

The Fifth Service Command Laboratory, Fort Benjamin Harrison, Ind.,

activated on 15 September 1941, was completed for operations on December 1941. During World War II, the veterinary section conducted 111,715 tests on 38,986 food samples and animal specimens (table 26). During 1943, the laboratory confirmed the report of clinical diagnosis of glanders in an

animal at the U.S. Naval Ordnance Depot in southern Indiana. The veterinary section also operated the laboratory’s animal colony, conducted animal

inoculation tests, and produced some essential serological products. However, the analyses of foods comprised the principal veterinary activity that

reached peak workload during the month of June 1945, when 2,400 food

samples were received and 5,600 analytical procedures were conducted. The

food samples received in the greatest number were those of canned evaporated milk and canned meats and vegetables, along with large number

of samples of butter, cheese, and lard. Food samples which did not comply with the provisions of contractual documents and procurement specifications included canned evaporated milk which was low in total solids content, pork and ground beef with excessive fat, milk and frozen eggs which

showed Esch. coll contamination, and cheese having excessive moisture.

Foodborne outbreaks also were studied. Research and developmental studies

were conducted on variety of analytical tests. For example, it was found

that the copper-reduction test procedure commonly used in the separate determination of the lactose and the sucrose contents of ice cream was unsuitable where syrup, instead of sugar, was used in the manufacture of the

ice cream. In another instance, the laboratory reportedly found that the

official test methods for starch in meat products were not sufficiently accurate.

In connection with the test for added cereals, particularly soybean flour in meat products, the laboratory studied the original chemical test for glycinin

(a globulin protein in the soybean) and developed an improvement to the

serological test for soybean additives {16).

Table 26.—Tests conducted on food samples and animal specimens Veterinary Section, Fifth Service Command Medical Laboratory, 194®~46

Year

Samples and animalspecimens

received

Laboratory

procedures

or determinations

1942 __ ______

Number

2, 460

7, 496

14, 887

14, 143

Number

7, 550

24, 345

45, 258

34, 562

1943

1944

1945

otal 38, 986 111, 715
LABORATORY SERVICE AND RESEARCH 397

Sixth Service Command Medical Laboratory

The Sixth Service Command Medical Laboratory, Fort Sheridan, 111., established on February 1941, included veterinary section which, in time, was expanded to include staff of 38 {17). When the parent unit transferred to Gardiner General Hospital, Chicago, 111. (during November 1944),

the laboratory’s Food Chemistry Section, that is, the Veterinary Section, remained at Fort Sheridan. Its principal activity was the chemical and

bacteriological examination of foods. The veterinary officer in charge also

supervised the laboratory’s serology and media sections, operated the animal

colony, and conducted bacteriological examinations of water samples. During World War II, this laboratory received more than 66,000 food and water

samples (table 27), In 1944, the 29,141 food samples involved the conduction of 120,300 laboratory test procedures. The peak monthly workload

was reach in July 1944 when approximately 4,000 samples were received.

During the war, the laboratory, located in the Nation’s dairy center, was

involved in the analysis of the large quantities of canned evaporated milk,

dried powdered milk, and cheese which were procured for the Armed Forces.

Individually, these commodities presented specific veterinary laboratory problems. In the instance of the milk products, the problem involved one of

rapid reporting of results because they were frequently accepted provisionally

and shipped from the contractors’ establishment to depots and ports before

the laboratory analysis could be completed. In June 1944, the laboratory

began the testing for trace metals (copper and iron) in milk. In the instance of cheese, the problem involved one of establishing the Sixth Service

Command Medical Laboratory for the check control on certain commercial

cheese laboratories. Research studies were conducted on the deterioration of

cheese that occurred as the result of an oiling-off condition and moisture

loss. Other food items requiring considerable study and entailing large

amount of work were dried egg powder and frozen eggs, until March 1945

when laboratory work relative to all Army procurements of dried egg powder

was centralized in the Seventh Service Command Medical Laboratory.

Table 27. Water and food samples received by Veterinary Section, Sixth Service Command

Medical Laboratory, 194-2 through August 1945

Year Water samples Evaporated milk Food samples

1942

Number

2, 295

1, 616

Unknown

171

Number

4, 547

13, 969

11, 957

Number

1, 067

2, 577

15, 172

12, 791

1943

1944 __

1945 (through August)

otal 4, 082 30, 480 31, 607
398 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Seventh Service Command Medical Laboratory

The Seventh Service Command Medical Laboratory, Fort Omaha, Nebr.,

was established on November 1941, with veterinary department which

at one time included 17 personnel 18). During World War II, the latter

department was concerned principally with the analyses of foods, receiving

56,885 food samples on which more than 490,000 laboratory procedures were

conducted (table 28). In regard to the food analyses, the Veterinary Department of this laboratory conducted research studies for improving the

laboratory methods for the bacteriological examination of cereals, flour,

powdered milk, and frozen and powdered eggs. The studies on egg products were undertaken when the laboratory’s veterinary officer was named to

committee at the Chicago Quartermaster Depot which sought improvement in determining the bacteriological quality of powdered eggs. The

results of these studies were integrated into the U.S. military procurement

specifications, and in 1945, the Seventh Service Command Medical Laboratory was named as the Army’s central control laboratory for the analyses of

all powdered eggs procured in the Zone of Interior. The Veterinary Department was also in charge of the animal colony.

Table 28.—Food samples received and determinations made, Seventh Service Command Medical

Laboratory, October 1942 through September 1945

Eighth Service Command Medical Laboratory

The Eighth Service Command Medical Laboratory, Fort Sam Houston,

Tex., established on 15 March 1941, included food analyses branch and

virus laboratory, both of which were supervised and operated by veterinary

personnel. In regard to food analyses, the veterinary branch was divided

into two operational sections whose workloads are shown in table 29.

major portion of these workloads was related to sanitary surveys of local

milk supplies which tvere being procured by the Army. Research studies

were initiated with regard to the mycological and bacteriological quality

of egg products. The operation of the virus laboratory involved certain

clinicodiagnostic laboratory procedures (table 30). The virus laboratory was

mainly concerned with the study of the troop health aspects of such

Year Food samples Determinations

1942 (October through December) Number

3, 381

7, 780

22, 253

23, 471

Number

1943 42, 257

170, 690

279, 244

1944

1945 (January through September)

TotaL 56, 885 492, 191
LABORATORY SERVICE AND RESEARCH 399

diseases as typhus, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, lymphogranuloma venereum, lymphocytic choriomeningitis, rabies, ornithosis, equine encephalomyelitis, and St. Louis encephalitis. Laboratory research projects on rickettsial diseases also were undertaken {19 through 23)

Table 29.—Food analyses conducted by Veterinary Section, Eighth Service Command Medical

Table 30.—Clinicodiagnostic laboratory procedures, Veterinary Section, Eighth Service

Ninth Service Command Medical Laboratory

The Ninth Service Command Medical Laboratory, Presidio of Monterey, Calif., one of two laboratories established in the Ninth Service Command, was established during June 1941, originally at Fort Ord, Calif.,

and then moved during January 1942. Its veterinary section was gradually

expanded from staff comprising veterinary officer, enlisted personnel,

and civilian employees to total of 10 personnel. During June 1945,

Sanitary Corps officer was designated in charge of the veterinary section’s

food analysis branch. This branch conducted the analyses and examinations

of all food and water samples received in this laboratory during World

War II (table 31). The veterinary section also conducted few clinicodiagnostic examinations pertaining to animal diseases and operated the laboraLaboratory, 1942-^5

Year

Determinations

Samples Food Bacteri- ology Section Food Chemistry

Section

1942 Number Number Number

1, 921

8, 888

6, 127

Unknown

1943 7, 167

11, 157

13, 969

8, 890

19, 415

13, 575

1944 ___

1945

Total 32, 293 41, 880 16, 936

Command Medical Laboratory, 1943-45

Year

Clinical pathology Serology Animalinoculations

Specimens DeterminationsSpecimens DeterminationsSpecimens Determina- tions

1943 Number Number

409

2, 225

1, 440

Number Number

2, 707

5, 488

11, 396

Number Number

1, 625

6, 627

9, 159

1944

1945

524

1, 098

2, 841

10, 081

6, 991

8, 354

Total. 1, 622 4, 074 12, 922 19, 591 15, 345 17, 411
400 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Figube 37.—Animal house, Veterinary Section, showing guinea pig housing at the Ninth

Service Command Medical Laboratory, Presidio of Monterey, Calif.

tory animal colony (figs. 37 and 38). In addition to these routine laboratory activities, research studies were conducted on the method of diagnosing

canine filariasis in Army dogs, and sanitary survey was made on the incidence of salmonellosis among Army and civilian dogs. Other studies were

made on the technique of collecting gases from “sweller” cans of food, on

the causes of curdled evaporated milk, and on the efficacy of the Babcock

fat test in samples of homogenized milk to which formalin had been added

as preservative.

The Ninth Service Command Medical Laboratory, Fort Lewis, Wash.,

was the other laboratory facility in the Ninth Service Command. As of

July 1942, it included veterinary section with as many as nine personnel

at times; all were employed in the analyses of foods, water examinations,

veterinary clinicodiagnostic services, and research investigations. The latter

included the bacteriological survey of five dairy plants in the area and the

investigation of an outbreak of paratyphoid infection among Army signal

pigeons. During the period from 1942 through 1943, the laboratory’s veteri-
LABORATORY SERVICE AND RESEARCH 401

Figure 38.—Animal house, stockroom, Veterinary Section, Ninth Service Command

Medical Laboratory, Presidio of Monterey, Calif., showing mice, cotton rats, hamsters,

and rats.

Table 31.—Analyses and examinations of food and water received, Veterinary Section, Ninth

Service Command Medical Laboratory, Presidio of Monterey, Calif., 19f2~43

Year Samples and specimens received Laboratory

procedures Total Food samples

1942 1, 108

2, 781

5, 619

Percent

84

73

100

Number

1943

1944 26, 806

9, 508 26, 806

Food samples only.
402 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Figure 39.—Animal house, Ninth Service Command Medical Laboratory, Fort Lewis,

Wash. All of the noninfected animals and breeding stock were under the supervision

of veterinarian responsible for the handling, housing, feeding, and breeding of white

rats, white mice, cotton rats, hamsters, guinea pigs, rabbits, chickens, and sheep.

nary section received more than 18,000 samples and specimens, workload

that required 32,263 laboratory procedures:

Year Samples and specimens

1942 8,179

1943 5,874

1944 4,042

Total 18,095

In addition to these activities, the veterinary section operated the laboratory animal colony (figs. 39 and 40) and conducted animal inoculation tests.

OVERSEA THEATER VETERINARY LABORATORY SERVICE

During World War II, veterinary laboratory service was organized

and operated at theater level for the first time in military veterinary history. (During World War I, only single veterinary hospital laboratory

as formed.) This service was provided in medical general laboratory units and in 19 field army-type and communications zone medical labora-
LABORATORY SERVICE AND RESEARCH 403

Figtjee 40.—Guinea pig room, animal Rouse, Ninth. Service Command Medical

Laboratory, Fort Lewis, Wash.

tory units. At times, in some oversea areas, the Army Veterinary Service

also utilized or assisted in the operation of military department laboratories, Army hospital laboratories, and civilian facilities. As was explained previously in connection with the organization of the Medical Department’s

laboratory system in the Zone of Interior, the clinicodiagnostic laboratories

in the oversea hospital units constituted the base, the army-type, and communications zone medical laboratories and supplemented the basic hospital

laboratories. Within the theater of operations, the medical general laboratory became the control laboratory, operating somewhat as the Army Medical

Center laboratory did in the United States.

The Field Army and Communications Zone Laboratory

The army-type or communications zone medical laboratory was described

in the T/O’s (War Department tables of organization) which were published from time to time during the peacetime period between World Wars

and II, but no provisions had been made for an organic veterinary service

until October 1940, when new edition of the tables was published.

Since then, these organizational tables have been changed several times;

those changes relating to authorizations for assigned veterinary personnel

are shown in table 32.

590248 —4>1 —2S
404 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Table 32. Tables of organization for veterinary personnel assigned to medical laboratories,

October 1940 through 18 January 1945

During World War II, the 19 such units were activated and deployed

overseas. They were organized as self-contained units, being composed of

headquarters, three mobile laboratories, and the base stationary laboratory

(chart 4). The headquarters and base laboratory, upon which the three

mobile sections were satellited, was composed of several professional sections such as bacteriological, pathological, serologic, and veterinary. These

conducted epidemiological investigations, sanitary surveys, and studies with

the necessary laboratory work. Usually, one such medical laboratory was

assigned to field army or to major command element in the communications zone, there implementing that portion of the Medical Department’s laboratory system contained in the various hospital units. Although

organized to provide three mobile laboratories, few of these laboratory

units w’ere permanently located in an area for long periods of time, while

others operated as the general medical laboratory for theater.

The veterinary personnel of the medical laboratory routinely operated

the veterinary section of the unit’s base stationary laboratory. Its special

functions were described as follows (&£)

This section is commanded by Veterinary Corps officer assisted by enlisted technicians. It is charged with the laboratory examination of foods, animal cultures, including bacteriology of food specimens sent in from other organizations of the army or communications zone.

However, this did not preclude the utilization of veterinary personnel in any

of the mobile laboratories when special veterinary investigations or surveys

had to be conducted in areas not readily accessible to the base stationary

laboratory. Under emergency conditions, the veterinary personnel were

engaged in special laboratory work that was not veterinary in nature, and,

at other times, especially when the unit was more or less in permanent station, the activities of the veterinary laboratory service were greater than the

normal operating capacity of its veterinary facilities and personnel permitted.

Table Title Date

Veter

perse

Officer

inary

nnel

Enlisted

Total strength

T/0 8-234 Medical Laboratory Army or Oct. 1940

Number Number

56

T/0 8-611

Communications Zone,

do Apr. 1942

25 Aug. 1943

62

T/O&E 8-611 Medical Laboratory 58

T/O&E 8-500 Medical Department Service 23 Apr. 1944 55

T/O&E 8-500

Organization.

Medical Service Organization 18 Jan. 1945 53

In the rank of major.
LABORATORY SERVICE AND RESEARCH 405

Chakt 4.—Functional organization of the army-type or communications zone medical

laboratory

HEADQUARTERS

STATIONARY

LABORATORY SECTION

MOBILE LABORATORY

SECTION

MOBILE

LABORATORY SECTION

MOBILE

LABORATORY SECTION

BACTERIOLOGICAL

GROUP

PATHOLOGICAL

GROUP

CHEMICAL

GROUP

SEROLOGICAL

GROUP

VETERINARY

GROUP

The veterinary section of the medical laboratory comprised the basic, and

sometimes the only, veterinary laboratory service available in command

or theater.

The first of these units, the 2d Medical Laboratory, was activated on

September 1940, and was followed on 10 February 1941, by the activation

of the 3d Medical Laboratory. cadre of the latter unit was on shipboard

en route to the Philippine Department at the time of the Japanese attack

on Pearl Harbor. It was recalled and embarked for Brisbane, Australia, in

May 1942. During 1942, eight more medical laboratories were activated and

organized—thus making available the 1st through the 10th Medical Laboratories. Some of these were activated at Camp Pucker, Ala., although the

majority were activated at Fort Sam Houston. All were provided with technical training. While within the jurisdiction of the Third U.S. Army, many

of these laboratories entered into field maneuver training either in Louisiana

or at San Bernardino, Calif.

Beginning in December 1943 and continuing until February 1945, eight

additional numbered medical laboratories were activated in the Zone of Interior, at Camp Ellis, 111., Fort Lewis, or Camp Barkeley, Tex. The nineteenth unit was activated in the Central Pacific Area. Unlike the others, the

last few units were hastily organized and were not given extensive training.

In fact, one medical laboratory was en route to the port of embarkation

within 10 days following its activation.

The Medical General Laboratory

The medical general laboratory of theater of operations was designed

to be the central control laboratory of the theater’s Medical Department
406 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Chart 5.—Functional organization of medical general laboratory

HEADQUARTERS

PROFESSIONAL

DIVISION ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISION

EPIDEMIOLOGY

SECTION

BACTERIOLOGY MESS

SECTION SEROLOGY

PATHOLOGY

SECTION

PARASITOLOGY SUPPLY

SECTION ENTOMOLOGY

BIOCHEMISTRY

SECTION MOTOR

SECTION

SANITARY

ENGINEERING SECT.

BACTERIOLOGY VETERINARY

SECTION PATHOLOGY

laboratory system, which may have included one or more army or communications zone medical laboratories and the various hospital laboratories. During World War II, four medical general laboratories were organized and

deployed in the oversea theaters. Typically, each included the headquarters

and administrative division, and group of professional sections (chart 5).

Ordinarily, one such unit was assigned to theater; its general functions

were described as follows (25)

It conducts epidemiological studies, reseax-ches, technical inspections, and investigations. Specially trained individuals are sent to various parts of the theater of

operations to make epidemiological investigations or assist in the conti’ol of an epidemic

of serious nature or proportions. The laboratory manufactures and standardizes sera,

standard chemical solutions, bacterial antigens, stains, biologicals, etc. It distributes

pertinent technical litex-ature on disease contx-ol and laboi’atory methods. It standardizes

all technique for all laboratory service (hospital and medical laboratory) in the theater

of operations.

Table 33 shows the number of assigned veterinary personnel compared

to total personnel. Ordinarily, the veterinary personnel comprised the veterinary section of the laboratory's professional division, but they could also be

detailed to augment other sections, as required or dependent upon the qualifications of the individuals. The special functions of the veterinary sections

were described as follows (26)

This section is commanded by Veterinary Coi'ps officer assisted by another veterinary officer, noncommissioned officer, and enlisted technicians. It is divided into two

subsections.

1. Bacteriology subsection. This subsection is chai'ged with isolation of bacteria in

specimens (meat, milk, food, cultures, etc., from sick or wounded animals) sent in by

other organizations in the theater.
LABORATORY SERVICE AND RESEARCH 407

2. Pathology subsection. This subsection is charged with giving technical recommendations on meat inspection, acting as consultant on such matters, and the examination of specimens sent in by other organizations in the theater.

The four medical general laboratories, eacli with organic veterinary sections, were organized in the Zone of Interior. The 1st Medical General Laboratory, which was deployed in the European theater, was organized at

Camp Rucker, Ala., on 25 June 1942. The 15th Medical General Laboratory, which set up station in the North African-Mediterranean theater, and the

18th Medical General Laboratory, which was deployed to the Central Pacific

Area, were activated at Fort Sam Houston, on 19 December 1942, and 10

September 1943, respectively. The 19th Medical General Laboratory, which

served in Ilollandia, New Guinea, and then in the Philippine Islands, was

organized at Fort McPherson, on October 1943. With the exception of the

last-named unit which was trained at Fort McPherson, the medical general

laboratories received from to months of technical and unit training at

Fort Sam Houston prior to staging at port of embarkation for shipment

overseas. The Veterinary Corps officers assigned to the units were trained

at the Army Veterinary School.

Deployment of Laboratory Units in the Theaters

North African-Mediterranean theater.—Four laboratory units were de- ployed in the North African-Mediterranean theater. The 2d Medical Laboratory, arriving there during December 1942, set up station in Casablanca, French Morocco, as the communications zone laboratory for the Atlantic

Base Section. The 1st Medical Laboratory, arriving during March 1943 as

the campaign in North Africa came to close, operated for the Eastern Base

Section from its location in Constantine, Tunisia, and the 4th Medical LaboTable 33. Tables of organization for veterinary personnel, medical laboratories, compared to

total personnel strength

Table Date Veterinarypersonnel Total strength

Officer Enlisted

Table 680W 23 Feb. 1927

Number Number

12 Number

125

124

127

99

94

92

T/0 8-504 Nov. 1940

Apr. 1942

June 1943

T/O 8-610

T/O&E 8-610

T/O&E 8-500 23 Apr. 1944

T/O&E 8-500 18 Jan. 1945

T/O 8-504 and succeeding tables authorized veterinary officer personnel in the grades of lieutenant colonel and captain or first lieutenant.

In grades as follows: lieutenant colonel, major, first lieutenant, and second lieutenant.

Indicated as minimal number.
408 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

ratory, coming into the theater in April 1943, was located in Oran, Algeria,

which then comprised the Mediterranean Base Section. During the latter

part of 1943, the 15th Medical General Laboratory arrived from the Zone

of Interior, but it did not become operational as the central and control

facility of the theater’s medical laboratory system until 10 January 1944, when it was transferred from North Africa to the Naples, Italy, area. The

three medical laboratories, as was the general laboratory, were also moved out

of North Africa, the 2d Medical Laboratory becoming operational as Fifth

U.S. Army unit in the campaign on the Italian peninsula. The 1st and the

4th Medical Laboratories, being assigned to the Seventh U.S. Army after

the defeat of the German Afrika Korps and rollup of the North African base

section, were subsequently moved to southern France, which area was soon

assigned under the jurisdictional control of the European theater (20 November 1944). The 2d Medical General Laboratory accompanied the advances

of the Fifth U.S. Army northward through Italy, eventually reaching Florence where it operated for 3-month period ending on June 1945, when

preparations were started in its planned redeployment to the Pacific theater.

European theater.—The Medical Department laboratory system in the

European theater was started with the advance cadre, or General Medical

Laboratory “A” of the 1st Medical General Laboratory, joined later by seven

medical laboratories, two operating in the communications zone, and five with

the field armies. The 1st Medical General Laboratory was the central and

control laboratory for the theater. Originally located in England, it was

replaced in March 1945 by the 361st Medical Composite Detachment (Laboratory) during the move to Paris, France, and then by the 4th Medical

Laboratory when preparations were started for its return from Paris to the

Zone of Interior (during June 1945). The 361st Medical Composite Detachment (Laboratory) and the 4th Medical Laboratory both operated as communications zone laboratories. After Y-E Day, the first-named unit, then

located in the United Kingdom Base command, was inactivated, and the

4th Medical Laboratory moved from location in the Seine section command

in France to Darmstadt, Germany, where it became one of two such laboratories of the U.S. Occupation Forces in Germany; the other was the 7th

Medical Laboratory, this laboratory having served in an outstanding manner

with the Third U.S. Army during combat in the European theater.

In regard to those medical laboratories with the combat forces, the 1st

Medical Laboratory with the Seventh U.S. Army (originally from the North

African-Mediterranean theater), the 7th Medical Laboratory with the Third

U.S. Army, and the 10th Medical Laboratory with the First and Ninth U.S.

Armies moved rapidly, sometimes setting up station at two or three new

areas within 30-day period and frequently rendering laboratory service in

more than one area. The 1st and the 10th Medical Laboratories used their

organic transportation facilities as shuttle service to move equipment and

personnel, whereas the 7th Medical Laboratory was divided into two separate
LABORATORY SERVICE AND RESEARCH 409

sections which leapfrogged from one place to another. The 28th Medical

Laboratory and the 362d Medical Composite Detachment (Laboratory), both

assigned to the Fifteenth and Ninth U.S. Armies, were moved less often than

the other three units deployed with the armies because they did not arrive

until near the completion of the campaigns through northwest Europe into

Germany. Following V-E Day, some few of the units were prepared for

deployment to the Pacific theaters, but only one, the 28th Medical Laboratory,

arrived there. Of the five units which served with the combat armies, only

the 7th Medical Laboratory, as noted previously, was retained in operation

as part of the U.S. Occupation Forces in Germany.

Central and South Pacific Areas.—The laboratory system in these areas

originated in the Hawaiian Department which, during January 1942, established the Hawaiian Department Laboratory, Honolulu, T.H.; this was renamed the Central Pacific Area Laboratory on 10 November 1943. On July

1944, the laboratory was disbanded to form the newly activated 14th Medical

Laboratory which serviced the Central Pacific Area until relieved by the

18th Medical General Laboratory on Oahu, T.H., which arrived from the

Zone of Interior on IT August 1944 (including the veterinary branch). Subsequently, the 14th Medical Laboratory was deployed to the Ryukyus (Okinawa and le Shima), and on 19 September 1945, embarked for Korea. The

18th Medical General Laboratory provided the central veterinary laboratory

service for the Central Pacific Areas. Other laboratories included not only

the 14th Medical Laboratory but also the 6th Medical Laboratory which,

having arrived on Guadalcanal on 16 February 1944, rendered veterinary

laboratory service to the troops scattered on New Zealand, New Caledonia,

Guadalcanal, Fiji, Espiritu Santo, Russell Islands, and other island bases in

the South Pacific Area, and the 12th Medical Laboratory which, having

arrived on Saipan on May 1945, rendered laboratory service to troops in

the Marianas Islands group.

Southwest Pacific Area.—The 3d Medical Laboratory (including assigned

veterinary laboratory officers and technicians) was the first laboratory unit

to be deployed in the SWPA (Southwest Pacific Area), having arrived in

Australia on 18 June 1942. It rendered theaterwide laboratory service and

detached mobile units and advance sections into New Guinea before the

arrival of the 5th Medical Laboratory (on 13 July 1943). This unit relieved

the 3d Medical Laboratory in some areas in Australia and New Guinea and

covered also the Admiralty Islands and New Britain. The 5th Medical

Laboratory eventually was consolidated at Finschhafen, New Guinea (on 13

April 1945). The 8th Medical Laboratory arrived in Australia on 15 August

1943, and, after diversified deployment of its mobile sections to Brisbane

and Townsville in Australia and to Port Moresby and Milne Bay on New

Guinea, it was consolidated on Biak Island in October 1944. Following the

initial landings by U.S. forces in strength on Leyte on 20 October 1944 and

the successful occupation of the Philippine Islands, the laboratory services
410 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

in the SWPA then included the 3d, 6th, and 8th Medical Laboratories; these

and the 19th Medical General Laboratory were transferred to the West Pacific

Area. They were augmented later by the newly arrived 26th and 27th

Medical Laboratories and the 363d Medical Composite Detachment (Laboratory). These laboratory units usually did not function as composite unit

but were deployed as small detachments or advanced mobile sections to two

or more island bases which required laboratory services. Lines of communication and means of travel between these bases were rendered especially difficult by large distances measured by sea miles, so that the laboratory sections

frequently acted in the capacity of medical laboratory. Laboratory services were established during the early phases of operations in the Philippine

Islands; the detachment of the 19th Medical General Laboratory, which

landed on Leyte on D-day, was joined by the 27th Medical Laboratory on

12 November 1944, the latter setting up station at Tacloban. Subsequently,

the Advance Section of the 3d Medical Laboratory and the 363d Medical

Composite Detachment (Laboratory) operated on Leyte. When the U.S.

forces bypassed the major concentration of the Japanese to invade Luzon,

the 26th Medical Laboratory arrived at Lingayen Gulf 12 days after the date

of the invasion (9 January 1945). It was the only laboratory unit on Luzon

for the succeeding 6-month period, although this island operation saw the

largest U.S. force yet employed in the Pacific. The 363d Medical Composite

Detachment (Laboratory) opened station on Luzon on June 1945.

China-Burma-India theater.—The 9th and 29th Medical Laboratories

were the only such units deployed in the China-Burma-India theater. The

first-named laboratory arrived in the theater during February 1944 and established station in Chabua, Assam, The 29th Medical Laboratory, arriving

May 1945, was divided into two sections for operations in New Delhi and

Calcutta, India; after Y-J Day, the latter was designated also to assume the

responsibilities of the 9th Medical Laboratory.

1st Medical General Laboratory.—The central control laboratory for the

Medical Department laboratory system in the European theater was the

1st Medical General Laboratory; its advanced cadre, named the Medical

General Laboratory “A,” originally established operations (in mid-1943) at

the American Bed Cross Harvard Field Hospital in southern England. On

14 August 1944, detachment of the laboratory was temporarily detailed to

Paris, where laboratory services were set up; this arrangement continued

until November 1944 when it was relieved by the 361st Medical Composite

Detachment (Laboratory). The advance detachment in Paris included

veterinary food analysis and chemistry section composed of an officer and an

enlisted man. During March 1945, the remainder of the 1st General Laboratory was transferred from its station in England, being replaced by the

361st Medical Composite Detachment, and relocated in Paris. Following V-E

Day, the unit was alerted for redeployment, and, as of June 1945, its theater

responsibilities were transferred to the 4th Medical Laboratory. On 29 July
LABORATORY SERVICE AND RESEARCH 411

Figure 41.—Veterinary food analysis in the 1st Medical General Laboratory, Salisbury,

England, in the fall of 1944.

1945, the 1st Medical General Laboratory was returned to the United States.

During the period of deployment in the European theater, the veterinary

section of this laboratory (fig. 41) conducted 5,426 analytical and clinicodiagnostic examinations on 2,847 food samples and specimens as shown in

table 34, Special projects included the investigation of outbreaks of foodborne diseases in troops; studies on suspected psittacosis and pigeonosis,

disease of undetermined viral origin in Army signal pigeons; the determination of the suitability of nonperishable (or canned) foods which had been

frozen; the investigation of the bacterial flora of dried egg products; studies

on other foods such as cheese which was infected with mites; and the bacterial contamination (Proteus sp. or Staphylococcus alhus) of canned pork

sausage.

15th Medical General Laboratory.—The 15th Medical General Laboratory, arriving at Oran from the Zone of Interior during the fall of 1943, was

soon transshipped to the Naples area where it opened as the central control

laboratory for the Medical Department laboratory system in the North African-Mediterranean theater. Its organic veterinary section conducted chemical

analyses and bacteriological examinations of foods, water, and locally procured beverages. It supervised the operations of the laboratory animal

colony. Special studies were made of piroplasmosis and epizootic lymphan-
412 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Table 34.—Examinations conducted by the Veterinary Section, 1st Medical General Laboratory, June 1943 through June 1945

gitis which appeared among the horses and mules used by the divisions and

the allied Italian pack companies of the Fifth U.S. Army. As the result of

special qualifications of the personnel involved, the veterinary section of the

15th Medical General Laboratory became the theater’s typing center for

human salmonellosis; in addition, investigations were undertaken in regard

to determining the role of salmonella in infectious hepatitis in troops; also,

special polyvalent, type antiserum for rapid testing of human salmonellosis was developed.

18th Medical General Laboratory.—The 18th Medical General Laboratory, in August 1944, superseded the original Hawaiian Department or

Central Pacific Area Medical Laboratory (later reorganized as the 14th

Medical Laboratory) as the senior laboratory unit in the Central Pacific

Area. It also assumed the duties of the 14th Medical Laboratory when the

latter was assigned to the Tenth U.S. Army. All foods produced in commercial establishments under veterinary food-security (antibiological) supervision in the Hawaiian Islands were chemically tested and bacteriologically examined in this laboratory. During 1945, the laboratory’s veterinary

section analyzed 3,778 food samples and examined 648 animal specimens,

workload that involved 25,635 laboratory procedures. Among its special

projects were the veterinary-entomological investigation, in January-February 1945, of the allegation by the French Colonial Government on New Caledonia that Army horses procured in Australia had introduced cattle ticks

{Boophihis annulatus var. australis) and the veterinary surveys of the animal disease situations in the Marianas Islands group after their capture or

recapture from the Japanese. Original studies were conducted on the efficacy

of BAL (British anti-lewisite) in the treatment of experimental arsenical

poisoning in laboratory animals. Studies were also undertaken to determine

Examinations June-31Dec.

1943 1944 Jan.-5 June 1945

Specimens and food samples. 701 1, 890 246

Nature of determinations;

Animal inoculations 18 38

Bacteriological 439 1, 562

76

177 (Chemical 62 45

Microscopic 44 Parasitological 48 206

Physical 655 1, 581 218

Organoleptic 220

Total. .. 1, 222 3, 463 704
LABORATORY SERVICE AXD RESEARCH 413

the efficacy of DDT for controlling ticks on Army dogs, ectoparasites on

signal pigeons, ear mites of laboratory animals, and the stablefly on horses. 19th Medical General Laboratory.—This unit, after its arrival in August

1944, became the central control laboratory for the SWPA; on 28 June 1945, it was transshipped from New Guinea to station at Manila, Luzon, P.I. The veterinary department of the laboratory operated the food analytical section and the animal colony. During the fall of 1944, the veterinary officer was

detailed as senior officer in charge of virology team which investigated an

epidemic of poliomyelitis in Sixth U.S. Army troops on Leyte. Studies also

were made of scrub typhus infection in troops. 1st Medical Laboratory.—Shortly after its arrival in the North AfricanMediterranean theater in March 1943, the 1st Medical Laboratory was assigned as the communications zone laboratory for the Eastern Base Section.

Its base stationary laboratory was located near Constantine, from which the

three mobile sections were sent out. This activity lasted for approximately

year. During the spring of 1944, the laboratory was transferred to the Italian peninsula and then to the Seventh U.S. Army, accompanying that

command to southern France, As an army-type laboratory, the 1st Medical

Laboratory was transferred to the European theater on 20 November 1944, where stations were established successively at Besangon, Epinal, and Sarrebourg, in France; then at Kaiserslautern, Darmstadt, Tauberbischofsheim, Bad Mergentheim, and finally Augsburg in Germany. After Y-E Day it

as returned to Darmstadt. Its operations there were later assumed by the

4th Medical Laboratory in November 1945. The laboratory veterinarian

conducted examinations and tests of water and locally procured foodstuffs,

including the rendition of ante mortem and post mortem examination of

animals purchased by the Army.

2d Medical Laboratory.—The 2d Medical Laboratory arrived in the North

African-Mediterranean theater on D-plus-45-day and was soon established as

communications zone laboratory at Casablanca for the Atlantic Base Section.

During mid-1943, the laboratory was transferred to the Fifth U.S. Army

and ceased operations pending its movement to the Italian peninsula. As

that army’s medical laboratory, it operated base stationary section with

three satellite mobile laboratories, the former originally located in Naples.

During 1944, the main element of the 2d Medical Laboratory moved to

Yairano, and thence to Anzio, Grosseto, Fabrica, and Florence. It ceased

operations on June 1945, and prepared for deployment to the AsiaticPacific theater. There was only limited demand for veterinary laboratory

work, so that the main duties of the unit’s veterinary officer were, as chief

of the parasitology branch, to render clinical and routine examinations of

fecal and blood specimens (human). Some laboratory work was performed

on the Army dogs in the theater for the diagnosis of Dirofilaria immitis

(heartworm).
414 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

3d Medical Laboratory.—This unit arrived in Brisbane on 18 June 1942, and divided into two sections: the Headquarters Section at Brisbane and the Advance Section at Townsville. This was the only laboratory unit in the SWF and Australia until the arrival of the 5th Medical Laboratory

in mid-1943. Then, pending arrival of the 8th Medical Laboratory in

August 1943, the Headquarters Section moved to the Oro Bay area on New

Guinea; the Advance Section established station at Lae, New Guinea, and

detachment proceeded to Hollandia. In early 1945, the Advance Section

transshipped to Leyte and thence to Mindanao, P.I., and the Headquarters

Section joined up with the detachment at Hollandia. In mid-1945, the

Headquarters Section moved to Manila, arriving on 10 August 1945, fol- lowed with the arrival of the Advance Section from Mindanao on 13 November 1945. Because of the division of the unit into two or three operating

sections, the veterinary laboratory activities were somewhat limited. The

unit veterinary officer served with the Headquarters Section in Brisbane, and

later in Dobodura, New Guinea, and also, as the acting commanding officer

of the special detachment, proceeded to Hollandia. Routine bacteriological

and chemical water and food analyses were rendered by the veterinary officer, and special bacteriological investigations were made of outbreaks of

foodborne diseases.

4th Medical Laboratory.—Within months after arrival overseas, the

unit established station as the Mediterranean Base Section laboratory in

central North Africa. It was transshipped to France, arriving at Marseilles in September 1944, and, on 20 November 1944, it was transferred to the

European theater. The 4th Medical Laboratory functioned as communications zone laboratory in the European theater’s SOLOC (Southern Line

of Communications) and then in the Seine section. On 30 May 1945, it

moved to Paris, and on June 1945, it assumed the duties of the 1st Medical

General Laboratory which was then preparing for redeployment to the

Pacific theater. Routine veterinary laboratory procedures included total

of 1,707 tests during 1944 and 3,344 tests during the first months of 1945.

Most of these pertained to the bacteriological, chemical, and physical examination of water and food. Certain diagnostic biologicals were prepared for

limited distribution to hospitals in southern France.

5th Medical Laboratory.—This unit operated laboratory sections in Brisbane and Townsville, but in November 1944 the unit established laboratory

facilities in the Milne Bay, New Guinea, area where it remained until April

1945, when it left for Finschhafen preparatory to staging for transfer to

Manila, leaving on July 1945. No extensive laboratory activities were

engaged in while on Luzon, and following Y-J Day it embarked for Kyushu,

Japan. The veterinary personnel performed all bacteriological examinations

of water, parasitological examinations of human fecal specimens, and bacteriological examinations of food. Special laboratory investigations were

made of two foodborne outbreaks among troops. Table 35 shows the work-
LABORATORY SERVICE AND RESEARCH 415

load of the Veterinary Section, 5th Medical Laboratory, and is typical of

the Army Veterinary Service in many medical laboratories which were

deployed in the theaters overseas during World War II.

6th Medical Laboratory.—This was the only medical laboratory unit in

the South Pacific Area, arriving on Guadalcanal in February 1944. It rendered laboratory service to theAmerican bases on New Zealand, New Caledonia,

Espiritu Santo, and the island groups of Fiji, Solomon, Russell, New Hebrides,

and others. Veterinary examinations of food products that were obtained in

New Zealand by the U.S. Joint Army-Navy Purchasing Board, South Pacific

Area, constituted the main activities of the veterinary section. This activity

was largely responsible, by laboratory test procedures, for the improvement of

foods supplied to the Armed Forces who were subsisted on the foods procured

by thisNavy-controlled jointpurchasing board.

7th Medical Laboratory.—This laboratory was assigned to the Third

U.S. Army for operations in the European theater. As an army-type mobile

laboratory, it left for the Normandy Beachhead (Utah) in July 1944 and then

moved to Muneville-le-Biengard, Tirepied, and Vitre (where it picked up its lost equipment), reaching Orleans on 22 August 1944. It was divided into two

sections, one on each flank of the Army, that leapfrogged along as the army advanced. The first section set up station successively at Metz, France; and at

Bad Kreuznach, Bebra, Lauf, and finally at Grafciting in Germany, where it

was joined by the second section which had proceeded through Luxembourg,

Frankfurt, andLauf.

8th Medical Laboratory.—In the SWPA, the laboratory divided into an

Advance Section which set up laboratory facilities in Townsville, while the

Headquarters Section proceeded to Brisbane. detachment was later deployed to New Guinea. On 29 August 1944, the two sections in Australia

embarked for Biak Island where they were joined by the detachment from

New Guinea, the entire unit finally coming together in October 1944. The

Table 35. Examinations conducted by the Veterinary Section, 5th Medical Laboratory 1943-45

Examinations 1943 1944 1945

4th Quarter 1stQuarter 2d Quarter 3d Quarter 4th Quarter 1st Quarter

Bacteriological water examinations 86 300 413 154 64

Parasitological examinations of

human stools 121 82 272 186 21

Bacteriological food examinations. 47 41 16 44 15

Miscellaneous (Zondek test;

rabies examinations, etc.) 21 12 17

Total 254 432 722 396 117 14
416 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Advance Section of the laboratory in May 1945 was transshipped to Luzon, setting up station at San Fabian, followed by the Headquarters Section

which moved to San Fernando in August 1945. The unit ceased operations

on 18 December 1945, and on 10 February 1946, was inactivated. Both the

Headquarters and Advance Sections of the laboratory while in Australia

were provided with veterinary officers. During the 1-year period in Australia, the Advance Section rendered routine laboratory tests on an average

of 82 food samples per month, whereas the base section, which reported in different manner, conducted an average monthly total of 82 bacteriological,

158 chemical, and 101 physical tests and examinations on food products,

including canned meats which were being procured in Australia. Veterinary

personnel supervised the animal section of the laboratory (including up to

900 animals), rendered routine analysis of all water samples, and, in addition, prepared biologicals for theaterwide distribution. Special laboratory

investigations were conducted on outbreaks of foodborne infections, and

veterinary officers assisted in the isolation and study of human influenza

viruses and in the purification of test antigen for the diagnosis of filariasis

in troops.

9th Medical Laboratory.—The 9th Medical Laboratory, after its arrival

in the China-Burma-India theater in early 1944, set up station at Chabua and

continued operations there until 30 September 1945, when its activities were

stopped and preparations were made for return to the United States. An insight into the activities of this laboratory’s veterinary section may be gained

from the review of summary statement for the 6-month period ending

December 1944 (27)

3. Following tests were conducted during this period

a. Water and ice (completed tests) 1, 904

1>. Foods and beverages (bacteriologic) 58

c. Forage specimens

d. Veterinary bacteriology 51

Smear examinations only

Autogenous bacterins

Anthrax vaccine tests 15

Cultural studies 28

e. Veterinary serology 26

f. Veterinary pathology 57

Autopsies 27

Rabies examination

Other histopathology 19

Hematology

Urine examination

g. Veterinary parasitology 281

Blood specimens 171

Fecal specimens 103

Miscellaneous

(No duplications. Cultures and sections from autopsies, etc., not listed

separately.)
LABORATORY SERVICE AND RESEARCH 417

4. Three field investigationsmade during this period are listed below

a. During period 16 July-2 Aug. 44 visited Co E, 13th Med Bn Mtn at Warazup,

22nd Chinese Div. at Kamaing, and 38th Chinese Division at Mogaung, diagnosing surra in the latter unit.

b. During period 16-18 Oct. 44 visited Ramgarh Training Center, diagnosing “vaccination anthrax.”

c. During period 21-26 Nov. 44 visited the 38th Chinese Division at Momauk and

Si-in near Bhamo, Burma, diagnosing infectious equine anemia.

5. Miscellaneous items of veterinary interest follow

a. Three out of four dog heads examined were positive for rabies.

b. In 101 examinations of dog feces (mostly from War Dogs) found the following

infections:

Hookworm 75

Trichuris vulpis

Dipylidium caninum

Toxascaris leonina

Negative stools 23

c. In 20 examinations of blood from War Dogs found four infected with Dirofilaria immitis.

d. Found Taenia echinococcus in three sets of beef organs (liver, lungs, heart)

Cheilospirura hamulosa in lot of several chicken gizzards; and Taenia hydatigena in the liver capsule of pig. Commonest parasites noted in autopsies of

Chinese and American Army horses and mules were stomach worms Habronema

sp.), strongyles, and Oastrophilus larvae. few Setaria equina, Oxyuris equi,

and flukes were also observed.

e. Have received four horse or mule brains from China (Y-Force) from animals

showing nervous symptoms suggestive of equine encephalomyelitis. Sections

showed no definite lesions of encephalitis. Cultures and animal inoculations

were negative. At least two of these animals had liver damage (flukes in one),

with incomplete autopsy reports on the others. It is thought that these are

cases of hepatogenous toxic encephalopathy.

f. An outbreak of salmonellosis in Chinese Army horses and mules near Ledo was

diagnosed 13 Nov. 44. The etiologic agent was culturally and biochemically

Salmonella, and was serologically typed by C. D. Cox, 1st Lt., SnC, of this organization, as 8. rotfbus. Ten or dozen animals were affected before the outbreak was checked by sulfaguanidine and sanitation measures. g. group of nine cases of nervous symptoms, resembling encephalitis, in dogs is

being studied. Eight were War Dogs and one pet. Of four deaths only one

brain has been obtained. This, in addition to the complete autopsy of the pet

animal, shows severe encephalitis of unusual type. Cultures and the inoculation of usual lab animals have been negative. If further cases can be obtained

it is planned to use puppies and mongooses if available in time. Lesions are

limited almost entirely to the brain and the two sets of slides represent one early

and one late case, but the picture is still somewhat incomplete.

h. scattering of swollen cans of food has been examined. Hydrogen swells and

some due to thermophilic anaerobic bacteria have been the chief causes. This

laboratory is somewhat limited in equipment and materials for anaerobe culture

work, but the procedures have been recently extended and more satisfactory

results are anticipated.

10th Medical Laboratory.—On arrival in the European theater in March

1944, this laboratory was assigned to the First U.S. Army. As an army-type
418 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

laboratory it proceeded to the Normandy beachhead (Omaha) on D-plus-11-

day, where for almost month it operated at 50 percent capacity as the only

Army medical laboratory on the European Continent. It then set up station

successively at Saint-Lo, Alengon, La Capelle, and then at Eupen, Belgium,

where it was subjected to enemy bombardment from 16 through 19 December

1944, and again during March 1945. During the first part of 1945, it moved to

Godesberg, Germany, and later to Jena. After V-E Day, it took all the workload of the 362d Medical Laboratory in the Ninth U.S. Army area, but it ceased

operations on 31 May 1945, On 12 June 1945, it was returned to France in

preparation for redeployment, but on 12 November 1945, it was inactivated.

The veterinary section of the laboratory, during theIDJj-month period of operation under field conditions on the European Continent, rendered total of

7,348 examinations and tests, mainly in connection with the examination of

water. Over 1,500 examinations and tests procedures were conducted on animal

specimens and food samples (or about 25 percent of the total number of laboratory tests performed in the veterinary section).

12th Medical Laboratory.—The 12thMedical Laboratory with its organic

veterinary section was established on Saipan in the Marianas Islands group

during July 1945. Its location there was dependent upon plan for its utilization as communications zone laboratory for supporting many large

hospitals which were being grouped in the Western Pacific Base Command

(including the Army bases on Angaur, Guam, Saipan, Tinian, and Iwo

Jima) in connection with the planned assault on the Japanese homeland.

14th Medical Laboratory.—The 14th Medical Laboratory was the only

unit of this type to be activated overseas. It was organized to include personnel formerly assigned to the Central Pacific Area Laboratory. The new

unit continued to operate as the central and control laboratory in the Central Pacific Area until relieved by the 18th Medical General Laboratory in late 1944. At about this time, the 14th Medical Laboratory was reassigned

to the Tenth U.S. Army and was subsequently deployed to Okinawa. Following Y-J Day, it was redeployed as service command-type laboratory to

Korea- The laboratory ceased operation on 16 February 1946, and was inactivated on 31 May 1946. The assigned veterinary personnel, for the most

part, maintained the laboratory’s animal colony, and after December 1945 the

veterinary officer assumed duty as commanding officer.

26th Medical Laboratory.—This unit, upon its arrival in New Guinea,

was assigned to the Sixth U.S. Army and disembarked in Luzon, soon after

the start of that campaign (22 January 1945). It comprised the only laboratory service available on Luzon until June 1945, when it was joined by

the 363d Medical Composite Detachment (Laboratory). After V-J Day,

the 26th Medical Laboratory was transferred to Kyoto, Honshu Island,

where it operated as service command laboratory for the U.S. occupation

troops in Japan.
LABORATORY SERVICE AND RESEARCH 419

27th Medical Laboratory.—The 27th Medical Laboratory, upon its arrival in the SWPA in August 1944, was staged at Hollandia and then deployed

for operations during the Leyte campaign. It established station at Tacloban, Leyte, soon after the landings got underway. During October 1945, the 27th Medical Laboratory was transferred to Hokkaido Island, Japan, to

set up service command-type laboratory at Otaru. The laboratory’s veterinary section, while on Leyte, operated the laboratory’s animal colony and

conducted clinic for the care of Army dogs and animal pets. 28th Medical Laboratory.—The 28th MedicalLaboratory, upon its arrival in December 1944 in Salisbury, England, was stationed near the 1st Medical

General Laboratory, but, during March 1945, it was assigned to the Fifteenth

U.S. Army. It was actively deployed as that army’s laboratory, located

first at Heer Agimont in Belgium and then moving to Bergheim, Germany,

and to Bad Kreuznach. Following Y-E Day, the laboratory was selected

for redeployment to the Asiatic-Pacific theaters, leaving through the Marseilles port on 30 July 1945, being routed through the Panama Canal, and

arriving on Luzon Island on 12 September 1945. In the next month (after

Y-J Day) the laboratory was transshipped to Yokohama, Honshu, Japan.

29th Medical Laboratory.-—This laboratory was divided into two sections;

one section was at Delhi and the other at Calcutta. After October 1945, with the closure of the 9th Medical Laboratory at Chabua, this unit was set

up as the India-Burma theater’s medical laboratory and served the laboratory requirements of the China theater. The professional services of the

unit veterinary officer were used as sanitary inspector of Allied in-bounds

restaurants in Calcutta for the period from 10 September to 29 December

1945.

361st Medical Composite Detachment (Laboratory).—The 361stMedical

Composite Detachment (Laboratory), upon its arrival in the European theater in the fall of 1944, became one of the two such units that operated in the

communications zone (in the Seine Base Section). Preparatory to its deployment, it was staged at Yalognes, France, from whence it was moved to

Paris, beginning operations there on 30 October 1944. During March 1945,

the 361st Medical Composite Detachment (Laboratory), in an exchange of

locations with the 1st Medical General Laboratory, was moved to Salisbury,

where it became the major medical facility of that kind for the United

Kingdom Base Section. During June 1945, the 361st Medical Composite

Detachment (Laboratory) ceased to operate and was inactivated several

months later. The laboratory’s veterinary section received 185 samples and

specimens during the period from January through May 1945, involving

992 laboratory procedures. Of this number of procedures, 54 percent were

bacteriological in nature.

362d Medical Composite Detachment (Laboratory).—The 362d Medical

Composite Detachment (Laboratory), upon its arrival in the European

theater (in October 1944), was staged at the 1st Medical General Labora-
420 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

tory and then, on October 1944, was assigned to the Ninth U.S. Army.

Departing from England and en route for little less than month, it established station first in Rouen, France. Divided into two sections, this army

laboratory moved successively to Wittem, Holland, and then to Ilelenbrunn,

Beckum, and Helmstedt in Germany. During May 1945, shortly after V-E

Day, the 362d Medical Composite Detachment (Laboratory) discontinued

operations. Up until this time the organic veterinary section participated

in studies of foot-and-mouth disease and conducted the analyses of captured

German foods in search for possible intentional contamination.

363d Medical Composite Detachment (Laboratory).—The 363d Medical

Composite Detachment was provided on-the-job training with the 27th Medi- cal Laboratory on Leyte, and then, during April 1945, was transferred to

Luzon. On June 1945, the laboratory established station at Dagupan,

continuing there for several months past V-J Day. Food analyses comprised the major activity of the laboratory’s veterinary section; 1,092 procedures were conducted during the 5-month period, June to November 1945.

review of the veterinary activities of the 23 numbered laboratory units

that were deployed in the major oversea theaters shows that the scope of

activities and the accomplishments of the veterinary laboratory service

varied greatly among the separate laboratory units. These laboratories

were developed for operations under field conditions and to that end were

organized, equipped, and trained in manner facilitating their adaptation

to meet the military requirements for almost any type of medical and veterinary laboratory service which could be placed upon them. In the instances

of the general medical laboratories and of many of the army-type medical

laboratories that operated more or less in permanent station, the veterinary

personnel of the laboratory provided routine clinical and diagnostic and

research laboratory facilities that were valuable to meet the special laboratory needs of the Army Veterinary Service in that area. Under those field

conditions, however, where the army-type medical laboratories operated in

two or more sections and changed locations frequently to keep up with the

tactical situation, the veterinary section frequently lost its true identity, and

its personnel were used to operate in other sections or departments of the

laboratory. In some instances there were only few purely veterinary laboratory problems except to maintain the animal colony of the laboratory. In

other laboratories and theaters, veterinary personnel were engaged in far

more extensive veterinary laboratory work.

There were many reasons for this variation in the scope of deployment

and in the extensiveness of the veterinary laboratory facilities and work.

Although there were certainly definite requirements for veterinary laboratory service in each theater or area overseas, the failure on the part of

veterinary officers to properly plan, supervise, and coordinate these activities

from theater or staff level accounted for some variations. Many veterinary

officers, also, were too preoccupied with immediate day-to-day operations and
LABORATORY SERVICE AND RESEARCH 421

frequently overlooked matters which might well have been referred to laboratory for further investigation.

Veterinary Laboratory Service in Minor and Other Oversea Commands

In only two or three other areas during World War II was there an

urgency of requirements for veterinary laboratory service which was not satisfied by Medical Department laboratory system as existed in the major theaters. In the South Atlantic area, in New Zealand of the South Pacific

Area, and in Iceland, the veterinary laboratory requirements were placed upon hospital laboratories, quartermaster facilities, and foreign civilian university and medical laboratories. In the South Atlantic and the South

Pacific Areas, where sizable quantity of foods were procured by the Armed

Forces, veterinary food analytical laboratories were required, but the troop

strengths of the relevant areas precluded the deployment of any of the foregoing medical laboratory units. In the South Atlantic Area, utilization was

made of the 200th Station Hospital, Recife, Brazil. In the 2-year period, 375 food samples were referred to this hospital laboratory.

In New Zealand, where the U.S. Joint Army-Navy Purchasing Board, South Pacific, procured millions of pounds of foods for the Armed Forces

under the provisions of reverse lend-lease agreement, the Army Veterinary

Service in and about the Auckland area depended upon the clinicodiagnostic

laboratory of the 30th General Hospital for conducting most of the food

analyses. After December 1944, however, the Purchasing Board established

its own laboratory, with veterinary officer in charge, that assumed most of

the workload previously handled by that hospital. Recourse was made to

the utilization of local civilian medical laboratories elsewhere throughout

New Zealand.

Much the same occurred with the U.S. forces located in Iceland, where

cooperative program for improving the local animal livestock and food

industries was conducted with the assistance from the Government of Iceland. The Army Veterinary Service established and operated veterinary

laboratory at the University of Reykjavik (figs. 42 and 43). This veterinary laboratory conducted the analyses of foods procured by the Armed

Forces and sought program of laboratory control over the local civilian

food industries, particularly of dairy products. Also, clinicodiagnostic services and research studies of diseases common to the animal population were

carried out.

Medical laboratories comparable to those established in the corps areas

or service commands in the Zone of Interior were established in the Northwest Service Command and the oversea departments. In the Hawaiian Department, responsibility for the medical laboratory system originally devolved

upon two hospitals, but, during January 1942, the Hawaiian Department

Laboratory was organized with location in Honolulu, On 10 November 1943,

this department laboratory was redesignated the Central Pacific Area Labo-
422 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Figure 42. Laboratory building of tbe University of Reykjavik, Iceland, 1941.

Veterinary laboratory of the U.S. forces was located in lower left corner room

on front.

ratory and continued as the theater’s central laboratory until late 1944, when

the 18th Medical General Laboratory arrived from the Zone of Interior. The

Central Pacific Area Laboratory, on 30 June 1944, was assigned to the Central Pacific Base Command and, on July 1944, was reorganized and redesignated as the 14th Medical Laboratory.

Another department laboratory was that of the Puerto Rican Department, later redesignated the Antilles Department Medical Laboratory, located in San Juan. It was organized to include veterinary section to which

an officer and two enlisted personnel were assigned for years or more;

with the removal of veterinary personnel during 1944, the veterinary activities within the laboratory were delegated to the bacteriology section. During World War II, the veterinary laboratory service was extended to the

conduct of sanitary surveys of beach sites for recreational purposes and to

the establishment of sanitary control over local food procurements.

Within the same classification as the medical laboratories of the Hawaiian

and the Puerto Rican Departments there was third laboratory outside the

Zone of Interior in which veterinary services were rendered. This was the

Northwest Service Command Laboratory located in Edmonton, Canada —a

veterinary officer being assigned there during the period from June 1943 to

April 1944 in charge of the laboratory’s Food Analysis and Examination
LABORATORY SERVICE AND RESEARCH 423

Figure 43.—Veterinary laboratory at the University of Reykjavik, Iceland, in 1941,

Section. Its most outstanding contribution was its establishment of an original laboratory quality control program over the local fluid milk industry.

RELATION WITH OTHER LABORATORIES

Another problem of major concern to the Army Veterinary Service was

its relationship to the laboratory services of the other services of the Army

(such as the Chemical Warfare Service, Quartermaster Corps), of the other

Armed Services (Air Force and Navy), of the Federal agencies (such as the

U.S. Department of Agriculture), and of State or local governmental and

private industrial laboratories. Collectively, they could not meet the laboratory demands of the Army Veterinary Service; during World War II, some

few laboratories which had been used in the preceding peacetime period

withdrew their services for the Army because of their own personnel shortages and 'wartime peak workloads. This occurred in the vicinity of the

Seattle, Wash., and Mira Loma, Calif,, depots {28, 29). Also, many local

public health laboratories which were being used in connection with the inspection of the fresh milk supply to Army camps gradually withdrew or curtailed their services during the war. Commercial or civilian laboratories

were often too limited in their facilities, personnel, and time to provide

complete food analytical service and sometimes used short-cut test proce-
424 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

dures giving results which no central control laboratory could have properly interpreted in any survey of such laboratories’ efficiency. During the war

period, Army contractors were urged to maintain their own quality-control

laboratories, but only certain of the food industries (such as the milk canning, dried milk, and egg drying plants) accomplished this with any degree of merit; the smaller establishments and most of the Army’s canned meat contractors could not or would not (probably for economic reasons) estab- lish plant quality-control laboratories. The latter depended on the rapid collection and shipment of samples by in-plant Army veterinary inspection

personnel located in their establishments and then at times voiced criticism of veterinary food inspection service when the concerned Army laboratory

did not immediately report analytical test results on the submitted samples.

Quartermaster Corps Depot Laboratories

The veterinary laboratory service as component of the Medical Department laboratory system constituted the official facilities for the analyses of

meat and dairy products when procured by the Army Quartermaster Corps.

This relationship to the Quartermaster Corps led to the development of

military veterinary laboratory service that needed to be accurate as well as

rapid. The laboratories had to be located, properly organized, and adequately

equipped to satisfy the laboratory requirements of the food supply chain that extended from contractors’ plants, through the depots and ports, to the

distribution points in all parts of the world. The purposes were the assurance of food quality as related to the monetary payments and the assurance

of the safeness of the foods for troop issue. In addition to participation in

food procurement inspections, the veterinary laboratory service assisted in

the Army surveillance program against serious loss of Government-owned

foods in storage and conducted cooperative programs of research on quality

control and the storage life of foods.

The Quartermaster Corps developed laboratory system of its own,

suitable to its needs, but, unfortunately, this at times threatened to expand

into the mission of the Medical Department laboratory system. For example, the quartermaster depot system during World War II developed laboratories which were little less active in their scope of operations, including

food analyses, than the service command laboratories in the Zone of Interior.

On the other hand, there was no veterinary problem in connection with

quartermaster laboratories concerned with the examination and developmental studies of packing and packaging materiel, or such analyses of nonanimalorigin foods that did not involve health problem, or the development of

assembled rations. Seemingly, the new assignment of veterinary officers into

the quartermaster depots during the early part of the war period seemed to

have been the signal for the establishment or development of many such

laboratories inside the depots. When it became evident that the corps area

(later renamed service command) medical laboratories would be able to
LABORATORY SERVICE AND RESEARCH 425

satisfy all veterinary laboratory requirements, the depots either modified their original plans or continued to establish general testing laboratory, but other depots proceeded to establish subsistence laboratory. This conflict with the Medical Department’s laboratory system was generally apparent, but the Surgeon General’s Office approached the problem with the attitude that no veterinary laboratory service of permanent nature would exist

outside the Medical Department.

The Surgeon General’s Office, however, differentiated between the quartermaster responsibilities and the medical responsibilities in connection with

food analyses, generally accepting the fact of veterinary officer participation

in the subsistence testing laboratories which were being developed in the

quartermaster depot system, but specifically refused the deployment of qualified and trained veterinary laboratory personnel and the utilization of medical equipment and supplies at the quartermaster depots and sections of

general depots {30).

Subsistence laboratories, however, were established and operated under the

supervision of depot-assigned veterinary personnel (wdio were then under

the control of the Quartermaster General) at the depots located in xltlanta,

Ga., Oakland, Calif., Charlotte, N.C., Jersey City, K.J., Kansas City, Mo.,

Memphis, Tenn., Mira Loma, Calif., and Seattle, Wash. major factor influencing this development included the assignment to them of food procurement inspection responsibilities in the larger metropolitan areas, the difficulties of shipping food samples to far-distant medical laboratories, and the

urgency of rapid laboratory reporting system in connection with food

procurement. The timelag between the shipment of food samples and the

receipt of the laboratory report of analysis was constant problem which

some quartermaster procurement officers believed could be overcome by

quartermaster food laboratory service. Of the foregoing laboratories, six

evolved as expansive medicotechnical laboratories under the supervision of

the depot veterinary service. These were equipped, funded, and manned by

the Quartermaster Corps, including for the most part, one to three civilian

bacteriologists and chemists in each. The civilian staff in the Jersey City’s

Miscellaneous Subsistence Laboratory totaled 30. In the Mira Loma depot’s

Subsistence Laboratory, the chemical analyses of food was conducted by

civilian employee, and food bacteriology was accomplished by the Army

veterinary officer.

Among these depot subsistence laboratories, the Oakland depot's food

laboratory was probably the most active and best equipped facility of its

kind. It was the continuation of food analytical laboratory which had

been established just before the war at the former San Francisco Port of

Embarkation and General Depot, Fort Mason. During the period from 1939

through 1945, this depot facility conducted more than 143,000 laboratory

examinations and tests. Referring to the conduct of 40,050 tests in 1944, it

is noted that these involved 14,630 samples which were representative of more
426 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

than 78 million pounds of food. On the basis of the results of the tests, 69 million pounds of food were recommended as satisfactory for Army procurement; million pounds were recommended as unsatisfactory. Of the

total number of tests, the bacteriological examinations and the chemical

analyses numbered approximately the same, 20,425 and 19,625, respectively. Incidental to the laboratory examination of milk samples from the milkshed of the so-called Metropolitan Bay Area, Calif., it was found that 90.53 percent of raw milk samples from 581 milk producers supplying the Army had bacterial count under 50,000 per cubic centimeter on standard plate count

in 1944. It also conducted laboratory investigation of foodborne infections

among troops in the area and was largely responsible for the development of formula which was used in the manufacture of fruitcake for oversea

shipment into the Pacific theaters.

Two or three other depot laboratories were established for reasons none

other than that the depot veterinary service, conducting relatively large

amount of food procurement inspections in contiguous metropolitan areas, seemed to have required convenience of facilities which were not available

through the Medical Department’s laboratory system. This was true of the

Kansas City depot food laboratory which before its closure in January 1946

was used in veterinary quality-control program for the milk supplies

coming out of that area for the Armed Forces and in connection with the

procurement inspection of Army boneless beef {31). It was in operation for

little less than years. At the Memphis depot subsistence laboratory was

opened in mid-1942, and at the Charlotte depot subsistence inspection branch

laboratory was opened during 1941, which in time became general service

laboratory under veterinary supervision.

The laboratory services previously rendered for the depot in Mira Loma

by the Food and Drug Administration, Federal Security Agency, were withdrawn in January 1945, and, in June 1945, the depot established its own

laboratory. Much the same occurred in regard to the utilization of that

Federal agency’s facilities in Seattle, for in 1942 the depot made use of the

Ninth Service Command Medical Laboratories. However, in August 1943,

the Seattle Army Service Forces depot established the Laboratory Section,

Veterinary Inspection Branch, which gradually developed into general service laboratory. In 1945, it assumed the workload of the Ninth Service Command Medical Laboratory, Fort Lewis, following its discontinuance. In the

period of its operation, August 1943 to December 1945, 18,000 samples were

processed through this laboratory. Its most notable contribution was the

cooperative study with the American Can Company on canned dogfood

which was used in feeding Army dogs.

Aside from the developmental studies on cake formula at the Oakland,

Calif., depot and those on canned dogfood at the Seattle depot, possibly the

only other work of importance in military veterinary research in these quartermaster subsistence laboratories was the development of simple method
LABORATORY SERVICE AND RESEARCH 427

by the Atlanta depot of testing the efficacy of dishwashing procedures. This

study was conducted in cooperation with the Fourth Service Command Medi- cal Laboratory, Atlanta {32).

Commercial Laboratories

In various commercial food establishments producing for the Armed

Forces, the Army Veterinary Service had no recourse other than to provide

the necessary routine food analytical services. What was desired was that

the Army Veterinary Service conduct program of check control over local

governmental and plant laboratories. It is matter of record, however, that

many food establishments depended on the Army Veterinary Service to provide the plant quality controls because the service came free of any direct

charge. Of course, where plant laboratories were maintained, difficulties

arose over the interpretation and use of that laboratory’s results, keeping

in mind that these could be influenced by the plant’s management or by

improper analytical procedures.

Few, if any, steps were taken to minimize the problems attendant to the

lack or failure of food establishments to establish or maintain their own plant

laboratories. The war saw the beginning of such demands on the members of

at least two food industries—the cheese manufacturers and the dried egg

producers. The demands on the cheese manufacturers came about during the

latter part of the Army’s 1943 cheese procurement and storage program. At

that time, the Office of Price Administration scheduled ceiling prices for

cheese according to the moisture content; cheese with moisture content of

under 33.2 percent was marketed at premium price. The Army’s cheese

buying program was then amended to add to the regular organoleptic examinations by the Army Veterinary Service, the requirement for determining

the moisture content of cheese. Thousands of laboratory analyses were foreseen; in the beginning, hundreds of cheese samples were submitted to the

Veterinary Food Chemistry Section, Sixth Service Command Medical Laboratory, Fort Sheridan, 111. {17)

This did not prove satisfactory, however, since “oiling” and loss of moisture usually

occurred in the samples during transit.

substitute procedure was then arranged by the Sixth Service Command Veterinarian whereby the required cheese analyses were obtained from certain warehouse

laboratories at points where the products were inspected. The Army Laboratory Veterinarian checked the equipment and methods of these laboratories, and the inspectors submitted cheese samples to them under coded identification. The results of the laboratory’s

tests on coded samples then were compared with company records which were submitted

to the Army inspector before the latter personally selected his samples, coded them, and

submitted them for local testing. Significantly, veterinary officers qualified to do so

conducted their own tests utilizing the facilities of commercial or warehouse laboratories,

and in other instances supervised the conduct of the tests.

Some duplicate cheese analysis was continued by the Food Chemistry Service, 6th

Service Command Laboratory, for confirmation of field reports. Close liaison was main590248''—61 29
428 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

tained with technicians from other laboratories for correction of any discrepancies. The

new method saved time, gave accurate analysis, and was continued to the end of the

war with excellent results.

The same veterinary program of dependence on the industry’s laboratories and check analyses in the Army veterinary laboratories was repeated in the subsequent cheese procurement and storage programs. These programs

approximated 70 million pounds in 1943 and 150 million pounds in 1944.

Even with only the so-called check samples, the Army Veterinary Service

experienced heavy workload in its laboratory at Fort Sheridan, 111., as

follows:

Cheese samples

1943 431

1944 4,856

1945 2,052

Total 7,339

During the peak of the seasonal buying, samples approximated 750 each week,

at therate of check control samples per carlot of cheese.

In the year after the development of the check control by the Army

Veterinary Service on the commercial cheese laboratories, the Surgeon General’s Office was assisted by the Quartermaster Subsistence Research and

Development Laboratory, Chicago, 111., in developing similar program with

respect to the Army’s dried egg procurement. The new program was announced during August 1944 and seemed to have gained some importance as

the first official acknowledgment that the food industries which entered into

the Army supply program should establish and maintain their own qualitycontrol laboratories subject to surveillance by the Army Veterinary Service

{33).

An Army Collaborative Powdered Whole Egg Test was conducted preparatory to this August 1944 announcement by the Surgeon General’s Office. It

had for its purpose the survey of the capabilities of the various veterinary

and plant laboratories to conduct certain analyses. In February 1945, the

Surgeon General’s Office named the Seventh Service Command Medical

Laboratory, Omaha, Nebr., as the sole control laboratory for the review of

the quality controls maintained in all plants which were producing dried

egg for the Armed Forces {3J±)

Other Laboratories

Public health laboratories.—In addition to the commercial or in-plant

laboratories, there were the public health and local hospital laboratories which

were utilized by the Army Veterinary Service, particularly in connection

with safeguarding the milk supply to Army camps and airbases. Unfortunately, many of these withdrew or curtailed their services during the war.

In fact, according to nationwide survey by the U.S. Public Health Service,

many became deficient in facility or technique, so as to raise the question
LABORATORY SERVICE AND RESEARCH 429

of their capability to perform complete laboratory examination and test on

milk samples (35). This was particularly inopportune when the Army supply program was extended into new areas and food establishments wherein

the standards of sanitation and quality control had not been previously

measured.

Transportation Corps port laboratories.—During World War II, the

Army Veterinary Service with the ports at Boston, Mass., Charleston, S.C.,

Hampton Eoads, Va., and New Orleans, La., improvised small laboratories

(36, 37, 38, 39) These were developed under much the same conditions that

contributed to the organization of many veterinary laboratories inside the

quartermaster depot system during the war. They were less active, however,

and were directed, for the most part, toward the development and improvement of local fresh milk supplies. The Charleston port discontinued its veterinary laboratory operations when Stark General Hospital undertook the

milk analyses work. In the 2-year period from June 1943 through June 1945,

the Hampton Eoads port conducted more than thousand tests.

Civil affairs and military government.—The veterinary laboratories in

liberated and occupied areas were seldom used to support the Army veterinary

laboratory service. In civil affairs and military government activities, however, great emphasis was given to the rehabilitation and operation of the

veterinary laboratories of the various countries. Army veterinary officers,

especially trained in laboratory work, frequently assigned to civil

affairs and military government duties to assist in such rehabilitation. Indirectly, this helped the Army veterinary laboratory service to the extent that

without these rehabilitated laboratories the civil demands in liberated and

occupied areas for veterinary clinicodiagnostic services and food analyses

would have been passed to the Army,

LABOEATOEY EESEAECH AND INVESTIGATIONS

This section of the record of the Army Veterinary Service concerns its

research and development activities within the scope of military medicine.

large share of these activities were conducted by the Medical Department

laboratory system and related independent agencies or facilities which were

specifically established for the purpose of conducting research; some activities, including development, were centered in laboratories of the Medical

Department school system.

Veterinary Research Laboratory

Veterinary research and developmental activities were greatly accelerated

and expanded when The Surgeon General, just before the onset of World

ar II, projected the plan for studies of certain animal diseases that led to

the establishment of the VEL (Veterinary Eesearch Laboratory) at the Front

Eoyal, Va., remount depot (J+0, The laboratory was most active in con-
ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

ducting important research investigations throughout the subsequent war

period; in the fall of 1945, it was relocated at the Fort Robinson, Nebr.,

remount depot, and then, in mid-1947, was transferred on an inactive status

to the Army Medical Center.

The first project, sometimes later referred to as Project No. AVRL-2,

had for its objective the development of means of eliminating equine influenza as cause of morbidity and mortality of Army horses and mules. The

project included several subprojects:

Clinical laboratory studies of cases

(blood picture)

Pathology

Utilization of sulfonamides and other

therapeutic agents

Transmission studies of the viral agent

and its complementary secondary invaders

Neutralization studies of the virus of

the human, swine, and equine influenzas

Methods of immunization

The research studies on equine periodic ophthalmia encompassed not

only the object for developing means of its elimination as cause of losses

among Army animals but also the object for determining its etiology. The

project, originally designated as V-3, and later as AVRL-3, included several

subprojects:

Pathology

Relation to bacteria (brucellosis)

Clinical laboratory studies

Transmission studies

Relation to viruses, attempts at isolation

Relation to parasitic helminths

Development of diagnostic tests

Relation to hypersensitivity

Role of ascorbic acid in ocular lesions

Relation to nutrition

In 1940, following the relocation of the laboratory at the Fort Robinson,

Nebr., remount depot, third major research project pertaining to diseases

of the horse and mule was assigned: No. AVRL-7, Equine Infectious Anemia.

The project was undertaken for the purpose of better understanding the disease and with view toward the development of biologic control program.

In 1945, toxicological studies were started on trypanocidal drugs—one

drug being Antrypol which the Army Veterinary Service in the China-BurmaIndia theater was using to control trypanosomiasis (surra), and the other

being para-arsenosophenylbutyric acid, or Formula 70-A, which the U.S.

Public Health Service had developed and suggested for veterinary use. In

another instance, detailed case history of sporotrichosis in horses was also

prepared for publication. It was indicated that the present military use of

horses and mules in tropical countries where equine skin infections are common makes the differential diagnosis of sporotrichosis matter of importance

because it may closely resemble the skin form of glanders (farcy), epizootic

lymphangitis, and ulcerative lymphangitis {If.2).

Aside from the studies of diseases of horses and mules, the Veterinary

Research Laboratory studied several diseases common to the dog. These were

undertaken as the result of its location at one of the six Army dog centers

in the Zone of Interior. Canine filariasis, the infestation of dogs with cereal
LABORATORY SERVICE AND RESEARCH 431

mites from dogfood 4-3), and canine leptospirosis were included in this

research. Most of the pathological studies of the animal diseases were conducted in collaboration with the Army Institute of Pathology.

In addition to the research on purely animal diseases of importance in

military veterinary medicine, the laboratory studied problems for safeguarding troop health. The comparative study of the antigenetic differences of

the human, swine, and equine influenzas was one such problem. Another

was the conduct of series of experiments to confirm reported beneficial

effects of bovine lung extracts on the healing of wounds. Also, in collaboration with the International Health Division of the Rockefeller Foundation

and the Preventive Medicine Division, Surgeon General’s Office, detailed

study was made of the infectivity of the human viral agent of infectious

hepatitis (catarrhal jaundice) for the horse; subsequently, the horse was

determined to be an unsuitable experimental animal for the study of this

disease. These studies, started in August 1942, were discontinued on 14 May

1943 (U)-

The wartime research and developmental activities at the VRL were

influenced by two factors: The threatened early closure of the Front Royal

remount depot as military installation and the belief by few that the

lessened military utilization of horses and mules nullified the requirement

for the VRL. In connections with the first problem, the Surgeon General’s

Office, which had been alerted to tentative plans for the inactivation of the

depot, obtained special authorization from Headquarters, Army Service

Forces, to continue the laboratory at Front Royal until its current projects

could be completed (I/.5) This occurred during the fall of 1944, and, in

April 1945, the Surgeon General’s Office recommended that the laboratory

be relocated at the Fort Robinson remount depot (J/S).

Headquarters, Army Service Forces, on September 1945, ordered the

movement of the VRL to Fort Robinson (Ifl). Two officers, seven enlisted

personnel, and two civilian employees accompanied the movement which

was made during September. During the period of its stay at Fort Robinson, the studies on the original research projects, equine influenza and equine

periodic ophthalmia, were continued. little progress was made on the

development of method for immunizing animals against equine influenza.

Other Research Facilities and Projects

Other veterinary research programs were undertaken at the Medical

Field Service School, Carlisle Barracks, which was the parent organization

of the Medical Department Equipment Laboratory, and at the Army Veterinary School. Also, outside the sphere of the Medical Department laboratory system, the Army Veterinary Service cooperated with, and provided

personnel to, the laboratory systems and programs of research of the Chemical Warfare Service, the Quartermaster Corps, the Signal Corps, the

other Armed Forces, nonmilitary Federal agencies, international organiza-
432 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

tions, and foreign governments. The laboratory system and research programs were related to equipment and supplies, animal disease control, and

quality food control methods.

Gorgas Memorial Research Board.—There were at least two international

organizations which, on their request, were provided with veterinary officers

for the purpose of conducting laboratory investigations and surveys of animal diseases in foreign countries; namely, the Gorgas Memorial Laboratory

and the Pan American Sanitary Bureau. In addition, veterinary officer

was detailed with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to the Joint MexicanAmerican Commission for the Eradication of Aphthous Fever (1949-51),

and, during World War II, six officers were detailed to the research program on rinderpest that was established under the jurisdiction of Joint

United States-Canadian Commission. The latter is considered under the

broader aspects of veterinary participation in the antibiological warfare

programs of research and development.

Within the scope of research and studies on tropical animal diseases of

importance in military veterinary medicine, the Army Veterinary Service

seemingly has centered attention on the survey and investigation of animal

diseases in the Central American republics. In 1931, such were first undertaken in Panama at the request of the Gorgas Memorial Research Fund.

During 1934, the Army Medical Department Research Board transferred

from the Philippine Islands to the Panama Canal Department and remained

there until November 1939. And then, during the 2-year period, May 1943

to June 1945, survey of the animal disease situation along the Pan American Highway route from the United States through six Central American

republics to Colombia, South America, was conducted on the request of the

Pan American Sanitary Bureau.

Pan American Sanitary Bureau.—In the mid-1920’s, conferences were

held among North American, Central American, and South American countries on the construction of Pan American Highway. In 1925, the United

States provided funds to start construction of that portion from the United

States to Panama. Upon the outbreak of the war, plans were made to

speed up the construction in order to improve hemispheric defense. The

Pan American Sanitary Bureau anticipated an increase of animal disease

from the increased traffic. In April 1943, this Bureau requested Secretary

of War Stimson to assign an Army veterinary officer to make an animal

disease survey on the Central American countries. The Surgeon General

designated Lt. Col. John IT. Kintner, VC, for this task, and he stated his

assignment in June 1943. Veterinary Survey Group, Caribbean Sector,

Pan American Sanitary Bureau, was established with headquarters at Guatemala City, Guatemala. Two more Army veterinary officers and two civilian

employees were added to the Group. mobile veterinary laboratory was

furnished by the Army Medical Department, and its equipment was supplied by the Pan American Sanitary Bureau.
LABORATORY SERVICE AND RESEARCH 433

The actual survey started in December 1948. The plan of the survey

(48, 49) included considerable laboratory work in order to make diagnoses.

Included in the tests were agglutination tests for brucellosis of 11,000 cattle,

5,000 goats, and 4,000 hogs, and tuberculin tests of some 500 cattle.

Antibiological warfare research and development.—In addition to these

relations to such international agencies as the Joint Mexican-American Commission for the Eradication of Aphthous Fever, the Gorgas Memorial Laboratory, and the Pan American Sanitary Bureau, the Army Veterinary

Service also participated in programs of antibiological warfare and research.

During December 1941, in the Hawaiian Islands, the veterinary service,

under the supervision of the Hawaiian Department Surgeon, began program of antibiological warfare which was soon extended to all “sensitive”

foods processed locally for civilian and military alike. In another theater,

the senior veterinary officer was named the antibiological warfare officer.

While this was taking place overseas, there were other developments in the

Zone of Interior (50). Reportedly, during 1941. the Secretary of War

requested the National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C., to survey

the current situation in regard to biological warfare and its future possibilities. committee, designated briefly as the WBC Committee, was named

by the National Academy of Sciences, in October 1941, to study this assigned

problem, and, in February 1942, the committee reported that biological warfare was feasible and submitted recommendations that appropriate steps

should be taken by the United States against it. Brig. Gen. Raymond A.

Kelser, Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office, was appointed as

member of the WBC Committee. In action subsequent to the committee’s

report, which was referred to the President, War Research Service was

organized in the summer of 1942. On 19 November 1942, Lt. Col. A. T.

Thompson, VC, on duty with the Chemical Warfare Service since March

1942, was detailed as the Army’s technical aid and executive officer of the

War Research Service.

This Federal agency was civilian controlled, attached to the Federal

Security Agency, and depended entirely on facilities, personnel, and experience that already existed in private institutions and in Federal agencies

such as the War Department and the Navy Department. It established

liaison also with the U.S. Public Health Service, the U.S. Department of

Agriculture, and the U.S. Department of the Interior. Briefly, the War

Research Service functioned and operated only as Federal planning and

coordinating agency. Technical and professional assistance to this War

Research Service was provided by the National Research Council through

newly appointed ABC Committee, which included General Kelser as

liaison member. The service assumed the major task of establishing antibiological programs in the water supply systems and among the milk and

food industries in the United States, as had been done in the Hawaiian

Islands, and later in other oversea theaters. Its major accomplishment,
434 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

however, was the organization of the program of development and research

on the many aspects of biological warfare and protection against it. Research studies were carried out for the most part in civil institutions, laboratories, and universities; however, additional developmental operations on

larger scale were soon required. To this end, the War Research Service

requested the Army’s Chemical Warfare Service to establish laboratories and

pilot plants for more exhaustive research and development program.

As result of reported enemy interest in biological agents, the War

Research Service, in January 1944, stepped up its activities and transferred

some of its responsibility to the Chemical Warfare Service. In June 1944,

all responsibility in connection with biological warfare activities in the

United States were transferred to the War Department. The pace of biological warfare research and development was accelerated, and the War

Department set up new U.S. BWC Committee, which included the former

director of the War Research Service as chairman, representatives of the

Chemical Warfare Service and the Medical Department, and personnel from

the Navy’s Bureaus of Medicine and of Ordnance, the New Developments

Division of the War Department Special Staff, and the Army’s Office of

Strategic Services. The former ABC Committee, appointed jointly by the

National Research Council and the National Academy of Sciences to provide

technical scientific aid to the War Research Service, gave way to new

committee, the DEF, which provided technical assistance to the War Department’s U.S. BWC Committee. General Kelser was appointed as member

of the last-named committee.

In the assumption of the role of supervising the biological warfare

program, the Chemical Warfare Service organized Special Projects Division with base of operations, in April 1943, at Camp Detrick, Md. Field

testing installations were set up on Horn Island, Miss., in mid-summer 1943,

and at the Dugway Proving Ground, Tooele, Utah, in the summer of 1944.

pilot plant for the investigation of large-scale production was established

in early 1944 at Vigo Plant, Terre Haute, Inch During this time, several

Veterinary Corps officers were detailed to the Chemical Warfare Service

and acted in the capacity of consultants for the veterinary aspects of the

projects that were carried on, as bacteriologists and research workers, and

as supervisors of the development and maintenance of much-needed experimental animal colonies. The specific details of their activities and of the

projects with which they were associated are classified and cannot be revealed, but it is known that the veterinary profession, represented to large

part by Army veterinary officers, contributed much to the success of the

projects as they were related to veterinary aspects of biological warfare.

Veterinary officers detailed to these installations included Lt. Col. A. T. Thompson and Lt. Col.

N. J. Pyle; Majors L. C. Ferguson, A. N. Gorellck, and C. E. Venzke; Captains K. H. Martin,

V. W. Nieman, C. J. Nordon, A. S. Rosenwald, and G. A. Young; and First Lieutenants R. C.

Fish, R. H. Hoyt, and C. O. Seward.
LABORATORY SERVICE AND RESEARCH 435

Not all biological warfare research and development activities were

delegated by the War Department to the Chemical Warfare Service. There

were other organizations that assumed considerable responsibility under the

program originally set up by the War Research Service and later continued

by the Army. They were related to Chemical Warfare Service only from

budgetary standpoint. Of interest to the veterinary profession were the

special animal-disease research projects on Newcastle disease and fowl

plague that were conducted at Harvard University. These projects were

begun in 1943 when they were set up by the War Research Service, After

September 1944, until their termination in November 1945, these projects

were under the direction of the War Department Commission, which in- cluded General Reiser as member {51 through 55). The actual research and work was performed by civilian veterinary specialists, and no Veterinary Corps officers were assigned to this project.

War Disease Control Station, Grosse lie, Canada.—Allied in its purpose

to the wartime research project on Newcastle disease of poultry was the

project on rinderpest that was conducted under the direction of Joint

United States-Canadian Commission {56). Its purpose was “*to develop ways and means of protecting the livestock industry of the North

American continent against foreign plague that might be introduced

intentionally, as an enemy method of biological warfare, or accidentally.”

The Commission was appointed by the U.S. Secretary of State and the

Canadian Minister of National Defense in July 1942. It consisted of

Canadian section and an American section—the latter including R. E. Dyer

of the U.S. Public Health Service, E. B. Fred of the University of Wisconsin, General Reiser of the Army Veterinary Service, and H. W. Schoening

of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

War Disease Control Station was established on Grosse lie, Province

of Quebec, Canada, where rigid quarantine and safety procedures were

enforced as means of confining the disease to the experimental area. The

actual work was conducted by joint United States-Canadian scientific staff

including six U.S. Army Veterinary Corps officers, one from the Medical

Corps of the U.S. Navy, and two Canadian Army scientists. Their first

objective was to produce rinderpest vaccine in quantities that might be

needed immediately should the disease occur. This was accomplished by

February 1944, as follows:

We have prepared (chloroform-inactivated bovine tissue) vaccine which, so far

as can be told from tests under experimental conditions, is satisfactory for use in protecting cattle against rinderpest. The vaccine, as prepared, is very slight modification

of the one developed and used successfully in the Philippines by Kelser and his coworkers.

We have on hand sufficient amount of finished vaccine to combat initial scattered outbreaks of the disease and we have, further, in frozen storage relatively large amount

of infected tissue which can, on short notice, to be made into vaccine.

The veterinary officers included Lt. Col. M. W. Hale, Maj. F. D. Maurer, and Captains J. A. Baker, H. K. Cooper. D. L. Jenkins, and T. O. Roby.

590248 —61 30
436 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

If our vaccine is to be employed at all in Canada or the United States, it will be

only as an emergency procedure and in the face of an outbreak of rinderpest. Under

such circumstance, there are very obvious disadvantages to the use of vaccine

requiring multiple inoculations to immunize. We have, therefore, directed our efforts

towards the production of one which will confer satisfactory immunity after single

administration. So far as we can determine under experimental conditions, single

injection of 10 cc. of the vaccine is adequate to confer protection. However,

because of the possibility that during transportation the vaccine may be submitted to

deleterious conditions and, as an added protection in the face of an emergency, it would

be safer to place the recommended field dose at 20 cc. per head subcutaneously.

After completing the first objective, investigations were begun on the

development of an efficient vaccine which could be produced more economically. These studies actually gave way to virus research wdiich contributed

to scientific advances with other diseases. Before the end of 1945, these

investigations were concluded with the finding that the rinderpest virus

could be adapted to embryonating hens’ eggs and attenuated for use in

cattle with retention of long-lasting, high antigenic properties; the new

avianized vaccine was developed in consideration of its keeping qualities

during periods of storage. Subsequently, techniques were developed for the

large-scale production of the “live” attenuated-virus rinderpest vaccine (of

chick-embryo origin). The successful outcome of the laboratory research

and development work at Grosse lie constituted an outstanding contribution to veterinary science by the development of highly efficient, economical, and safe vaccine which was shown to produce solid and lasting immunity against rinderpest in cattle. The postvaccination reaction in animals

was shown to be mild and of short duration, and the immune response was

prompt. Although not then proved by extensive field trial, this new avianized rinderpest vaccine was believed to be safe for use in virgin areas, such

as in the United States, should an outbreak occur and to be efficient when

used in areas where the disease existed or was rampant.

During the period of years, the scientific staff on Gross lie rendered

periodic progress reports and deposited 16 papers with the Joint United

States-Canadian Commission for publication when the existent security

procedures regarding the rinderpest project were changed. These papers

{57) covered the following studies:

I. The Cultivation of Rinderpest

Virus in the Developing Hen’s

Egg

II. Certain Immunity Reactions

III. Immunization Experiments With

Inactivated Bovine Tissue Vaccines

IV. Infection of the Embryos and the

Fluids of Developing Hens’ Eggs

V. Attempts To Prepare an Effective

Rinderpest Vaccine From Inactivated Egg-Cultivated Virus

YI. The Persistence of Virus in

Chicks Hatched From Infected

Eggs

VII. The Attenuation of Rinderpest

Virus for Cattle hy Cultivation

in Embryonating Eggs

VIII. Rinderpest Infection in Rabbits

IX. Neutralization Tests in Rabbits

as Measure of the Immune

Responses in Calves to Vaccination Against Rinderpest
LABORATORY SERVICE AND RESEARCH 437

X. The Response of Guinea Pigs to

the Virus of Rinderpest

XI. Tiie Survival of Rinderpest Virus

in Various Mediums

XII. The Successful Use of Young

Chicks To Measure the Concentration of Rinderpest Virus Propagated in Eggs

XIII. The Production of Rinderpest

Vaccine From an Attenuated

Strain of Virus

XIV. Immunization Experiments With

Attenuated Rinderpest Vaccine,

Including Some Observations on

the Keeping Qualities and Potency Tests

XV. Morphological Changes in the

Blood of Young Cattle During

Rinderpest and After Vaccination With Attenuated Virus Vaccine

XVI. Complement Fixation Test for

Rinderpest

In 1946, the United States and Canadian Governments jointly donated

million doses of the avianized rinderpest vaccine to the United Nations

Relief and Rehabilitation Administration for use in China.

References

1. Meriliat, L. A., and Campbell, D. M.; Veterinary Military History of the United

States. Chicago: Veterinary Medicine Corporation, 1985.

2. Annual Report of the Surgeon General, U.S. Army. Washington: U.S. Government

Printing Office, 1940.

3. Annual Reports of the Surgeon General, U.S. Army. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1927, 1928, 1929, 1930, and 1931.

4. Veterinary Circular Letter No. 58, Surgeon General’s Office, Nov. 1920.

5. AR 40-2140, Dec. 1921.

G. AR 40-2140, Aug. 1942.

7. Letter, Surgeon’s Office, Headquarters, Pacific Ocean Areas, 21 Mar. 1945, subject:

Veterinary Technical Guide for Animal Disease Investigation.

8. Letter, The Adjutant General to The Surgeon General, 18 Mar. 1941, subject:

Use of Live Animals for Experimental Purposes.

9. Letter, Lt. Col. .1. R. Wood, MC, to The Surgeon General, Apr. 1943, subject:

Assignment of Veterinary Officer.

10. Letter, Maj. J. B. Costello, CWS, Military Personnel Division, to The Surgeon

General, 20 July 1944, subject: Request for Orders.

11. Letter, Col. L. B. McAfee, MC, Surgeon General’s Office, to The Adjutant General,

30 Oct. 1950, subject: Activation of Corps Area Laboratories.

12. Letter, Col. L. B. McAfee, MC, Surgeon General’s Office, to surgeons of 1st, 4th,

5th, Gth, 7th, 8th, and 9th corps areas and of Panama Canal and Puerto Rican Departments, 27 Dec. 1940, subject: Establishment of Corps Area and Department Laboratories.

13. Letter, The Adjutant General’s Office to commanding generals of corps areas and

Puerto Rican and Panama Canal Departments, 15 Jan. 1941, subject: Establishment of

Corps Area and Department Laboratories.

14. Letter, Col. L. B. McAfee, MC, Surgeon General’s Office, to surgeons of corps

areas and departments, 16 Jan. 1941, subject: Corps Area Laboratories.

15. Derrick, J. D.: World War II Historical Report of the Army Veterinary Service,

First Service Command, Army Service Forces, Sept. 1939 to 14 Aug. 1945. [Official

record.

1G. Hale, M. W.: Determination of Soybean Flour in Meat Products. Food Research

10: GO-65, January-February 1945.

17. Shook, L. L.: World War II Historical Report of the Army Veterinary Service,

Sixth Service Command, September 1939 to December 1941. [Official record.]
438 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

18. Egan, H. E.; History of the Veterinary Service, Seventh Service Command, World

War II. [Official record.]

19. Reynolds, F. H. K., and Pollard, M.: The Employment of Rickettsial Vaccine

for Antigen in the Diagnostic Complement-Fixation Test. Am. J. Trop. Med. 23: 321-

323, May 1943.

20. Livesay, H. R., and Pollard, M.: Laboratory Report on Clinical Syndrome

Referred to as Bullis Fever. Am. J. Trop. Med. 23: 475-479, September 1943.

21. Livesay, II. R., and Pollard, M.: Serological Studies of Bullis Fever. Am. J.

Trop. Med. 24: 281-284, September 1944.

22. Pollard, M., and Augustson, F. F.: Serological Entomological Survey of Murine

Typhus. Am. J. Trop. Med. 25: 31-32, January 1945.

23. Pollard, M.: The Employment of the Chick Embryo in Virus and Rickettsial

Disease Problems. Texas State J. Med. 40: 480-481, January 1945.

24. FM 8-5, 31 May 1945, par. 154G.

25. FM 8-5, 31 May 1945, par. 254.a.

20. FM 8-5, 31 May 1945, par. 254.b.

27. Cordy, D. R.; Historical Report of the Veterinary Section, Ninth Medical Service

Detachment (Laboratory), APO 029, July-31 December 1944. [Official record.]

28. Clark, R. H.: History of Office of the Depot Veterinarian, Mira Loma Quarter- master Depot, May 1942-15 August 1942. [Official record.]

29. Betzold, C. W.: Depot Veterinary History, Seattle Army Service Forces Depot.

[Official record.]

30. Letter, Col. J. F. Crosby, VC, Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office, to

Lt. Col. P. II. Hand, VC, Kansas City Quartermaster Depot, Kansas City, Mo., 17 Jan.

1940.

31. Letter, Lt. Col. P. II. Hand, VC, Depot Veterinarian, Kansas City Quartermaster

Depot, Kansas City, Mo., to Col. J. F. Crosby, VC, Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s

Office, 10 Jan. 1940, and letter of reply, 17 Jan. 1940.

32. Pounden, W. D., Ferguson, L. C., and Sunderville, E. J.: Methylene Blue Food

Utensil Test. North Am. Vet. 20: 271-273, May 1945.

33. Letter, Maj. Gen. N. T. Kirk, The Surgeon General, and Brig. Gen. R. A. Kelser,

Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office, to service command veterinarians, and

Aug. 1944, subject: Veterinary Corps Inspection of Desiccated Eggs.

34. Letter, Deputy The Surgeon General, and Brig. Gen. R. A. Kelser, Veterinary

Division, Surgeon General’s Office, to headquarters, 3d, 4th, 0th, and 8th service commands, 24 Feb. 1945, subject: Laboratory Examination of Desiccated Eggs.

35. Black, L. A.: Surveys of Milk Laboratories in War Areas in the United States.

Pub. Health Rep. 58: 1005-1623, 1041-1056, 1081-1089, 1943.

30. Case, L. I.: Veterinary History of the Port Veterinarian’s Office, Boston Port of

Embarkation, Boston, Mass. [Official record.]

37. History of the Veterinary Branch, Medical Division, Charleston Port of Embarkation. [Official record.]

38. Richter, J. B.: History of Veterinary Service at Hampton Roads Port of Embarkation, Newport News, Va., August 1942 to June 1945. [Official record.]

39. Smith, E. J., and Crawford, A. W.: History of the Veterinary Service at the

New Orleans Port of Embarkation, New Orleans, La. [Official record.]

40. Jones, T. C.: History of the Army Veterinary Research Laboratory, Front Royal

Quartermaster Depot (Remount), Front Royal, Va. [Official record.]

41. Jones, T. C.: Research in Animal Diseases at the Veterinary Research Laboratory, Army Remount Depot, Front Royal, Va. Mil. Surgeon 96: 310-314, April 1945.

42. Jones, T. C., and Maurer, F. D.: Sporotrichosis in Horses. Bull. U.S. Army M.

Dept. No. 74, pp. 63-73, March 1944.
LABORATORY SERVICE AND RESEARCH 439

43. Schuelle, G. B., and Jones, T. C.: Occurrence of the Cereal Mite in War Dogs.

J. Am. Vet. M. A. 104: 213-214, April 1944.

44. Jones, T. C., and Maurer, F. D.: Attempts to Produce Jaundice in Horses by

Inoculation of Yellow Fever Vaccine. Bull. U.S. Army M. Dept. No. 76, pp. 115-120,

May 1944.

45. Memorandum, Lt. Col. R. J. Carpenter, MC, and Col. J. F. Crosby, VC, for The

Surgeon General, to Plans and Operations Division, Headquarters, Army Service Forces,

1944, subject: Temporary Retention of Veterinary Research Laboratory, with 1st indorsement thereto, Maj. Gen. W. D. Styer, Headquarters, Army Service Forces, to The Surgeon General, 11 Nov. 1944.

46. Letter, Lt. Col. R. J. Carpenter, MC, for The Surgeon General, to Commanding

General, Army Service Forces, subject: Relocation of Veterinary Research Laboratory.

47. Letter, Adjutant General’s Office to Commanding General, Third Service Command, Sept. 1945, subject: Movement of Personnel and Equipment of Veterinary Research Laboratory.

48. Kintner, J. II.: History of the Veterinary Survey in Mexico and Central America.

[Official record.]

49. Report, Col. John H. Kintner, VC, Maj. Wilfred S. Benthram, VC, and Capt.

Stephen B. Hitchner, VC, Veterinary Survey Group, Pan American Sanitary Bureau, to

Brig. Gen. R. A. Kelser, Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office, through Hugh S.

Gumming, Director, Pan American Sanitary Bureau, Washington, D.C., subject: Report

of Veterinary Survey, Colombia, June 1945.

50. Norden, C. J., Jr.: “B-W” Biological Warfare. The Norden News 20: 4-5, JulyAugust 1946.

51. Brandly, C. A., Moses, II. E., Jungherr, E. L., and Jones, E. E.: Epizootiology of

Newcastle Disease of Poultry. Am. J. Vet. Research 7: 243-249, July 1946.

52. Jungherr, E. L., Tyzzer, E. E., Brandly, C. A., and Moses, H. E.: The Comparative Pathology of Fowl Plague and Newcastle Disease. Am. J. Vet. Research 7: 250-288,

July 1946.

53. Brandly, 0. A., Moses, IT. E., Jungherr, E. L., and Jones, E. E.: The Isolation

and Identification of Newcastle Disease Virus. Am. J. Vet. Research 7: 289-306, July 1946.

54. Brandly, C. A., Moses, H. E., Jones, E. E., and Jungherr, E. L.: Immunization

of Chickens Against Newcastle Disease. Am. J. Vet. Research 7: 307-332, July 1946.

55. Brandly, C. A., Moses, H. E., and Jungherr, E. L.: Transmission of Antiviral

Activity Via the Egg and the Role of Congenital Passive Immunity to Newcastle Disease

in Chickens. Am. J. Vet. Research 7: 333-342, July 1946.

56. Rinderpest, the Preparation of Tissue and Egg Vaccines. Am. J. Vet. Research 7: 133-134, April 1946.

57. Am. J. Vet. Research 7: 135-237, April 1946.

441

CHAPTER XII

Civil Affairs and Military Government

DEVELOPMENT

The Army Veterinary Service with CA/MG (civil affairs and military

government) was an innovation of World War II; it was developed without

precedent and prewar planning. Nowhere before had Veterinary Corps officers been involved in any kind of administrative, supervisory, or surveillance

duties over the veterinary affairs of foreign country, its government and economy. During the war, in the Allied-liberated countries and recaptured

areas and in the occupation of surrendered countries, these personnel succeeded in the application of civilian public health and veterinary measures

which protected the health of the American fighting forces and its animals

against the threats of indigenous animal and foodborne diseases, and concurrently aided in the early restoration and beginning rehabilitation of the

respective countries’ veterinary public health and agricultural livestock industries. As will be observed in the following paragraphs, the extent or

degree of veterinary CA/MG activities varied among the theaters and, from

time to time, from that of minimal observance (or surveillance) and assistance in civilian affairs to that of direct military government or of actually

conducting or supervising the immediate veterinary services.

The missions and functions of the Army Medical Department were

early defined in Army Regulations to include “the preservation of health and

the prevention of disease among personnel subject to military control, including the direction and execution of measures of public health among the

inhabitants of occupied territory” (i). Then, in 1940, the War Department

in its field manual on military government described the type organization

for civil affairs section of the staff of theater commanders as including

public health department with doctor of medicine in charge (2). It further

stated that “this department will exercise supervision over the public health,

including sanitation, the control of communicable diseases, the protection of

food, milk, and water supply drugs, the practice of veterinary

medicine, diseases of animals, and similar matters.” Later, in December

1943, the foregoing publication was adopted in revised form as joint

Army and Navy manual on military government and civil affairs, and the

reference to veterinary matters, especially food inspection, was repeated in

the description of the public health and sanitation functions of civil affairs

(3). The Navy had no veterinary personnel, but this reference to veterinary

matters in the joint publication undoubtedly gave origin to the unexpected

utilization of Army Veterinary Corps officers by the Navy-administered

CA/MG on islands in the Pacific theater.
442 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Within the Army organization, overall policy matters concerning the

administration and government of areas occupied or liberated as result of

military operations were handled by the Civil Affairs Division, War Department Special Staff. This was established in the spring of 1943 and

included medical or public health section as part of that division’s

Civilian Relief Branch. Previously, the War Department General Staff’s

Operations Division (predecessor to the War Plans Division) had been

processing such matters as arose at the time of the invasion of North Africa

in November 1942. Even before then, however, the Assistant Chief of Staff, G-l (Personnel) of the War Department General Staff was assigned responsibility for selecting military personnel who were to be used in CA/MG activities, but, after the start of the war, the Provost Marshal General actually selected and trained the personnel for such assignments. Liaison and

channels of communication were maintained with these by The Surgeon

General, who in January 1944 established the Civil Public Health Division

as component of the Preventive Medicine Service, Surgeon General’s

Office. Earlier, or in June 1943, within that office, medical planning for

supply aid to civilians in liberated countries was undertaken in the newly

designated CAD (Civil Aid Division) Board. Eventually (in February

1944), this CA/MG planning by both the Preventive Medicine Service and

CAD Board was coordinated and centralized in specialized branch of the

Operations Service, Surgeon General’s Office. Pertinent matters were referred to the Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office, for review and

comment, although one veterinary officer was designated part-time membership on the aforementioned supply planning board.

The decision to use veterinary officers in CA/MG operations during

World War II was made in the summer of 1943 by the Civil Affairs Division, upon recommendation of The Surgeon General. Ever since the development of modern veterinary medicine, the veterinarian has been an important factor in livestock economy through the preservation of animal health.

healthy livestock industry means increased animal work power; increased

meat, milk, eggs, and other foods of animal origin; and increased nonfood

products, such as wool, leather, and pharmaceuticals. In more recent years,

the veterinary profession has been increasingly active in public health functions such as food inspection and control of animal diseases transmissible to

man. All of these functions are highly important to CA/MG operations,

both in combat and occupation.

Outside of the Army organization, there were two major policy-making

agencies concerned with CA/MG activities. One was the Joint Chiefs of

Staff (Army and Navy), which referred its problems to the War Department’s Civil Affairs Division and the Joint Post-War Committee but, in

March 1945, established its own Joint Civil Affairs Committee. These committees were wholly military and considered matters for geographic areas

of joint Army and Navy responsibility, as in the Pacific theaters. The other
CIVIL AFFAIRS AND MILITARY GOVERNMENT 443

agency was the Combined Chiefs of Staff (United States and United Kingdom) which in July 1943 created its own Combined Civil Affairs Committee.

The latter, with office location in Washington, D.C., and London Subcommittee (established in January 1944) coordinated civil and military interests in furnishing directives and guidance regarding the administration

and government of the civil populations in those geographic areas or

countries which were liberated or occupied incident to combined AmericanBritish operations, as in the European and Mediterranean theaters. chief

working group of the Combined Civil Affairs Committee was its Supply

Committee, created in August 1943; Veterinary Corps officer was detailed

to duty with the latter’s Veterinary Working Party. In those military operations carried on by Army alone, or where the Navy or the Allied forces did

not participate, the concerned Army theater commander conducted his own

detailed planning and established CA/MG pursuant to policy control by the

War Department.

MEDITERRANEAN THEATER

Allied Control Commission (Italy)

The Army Veterinary Service with CA/MG in the Mediterranean theater began on 18 August 1943, when one Veterinary Corps officer in the Zone

of Interior was selected for such an assignment (J). Soon, following the

latter’s arrival and orientation training in North Africa at Tizi-Ouzou (on

October 1943), he came on duty with Headquarters, ACC (Allied Control

Commission), as Chief of Veterinary Section, Public Health Sub-Commission, which was established on 10 November 1943, with initial station at

Palermo, Sicily. This headquarters organization, or armistice control group

as it was commonly referred to, was ordered into existence by AFHQ (Allied

Force Headquarters) which had obtained the Italian armistice and an “instrument of surrender” from the Italian Government on September of that

year. It must be recalled that by this date the Allied military forces had

already cleared North Africa, seized Sicily, and were landing at the “toe

and heel” of the Italian peninsula. The ACC was constituted pursuant to

the terms of surrender and thus comprised an armistice control agency over

the Italian Government. Armistice control was essentially military government but was complicated by the continued operations of national government, though it had surrendered, and was further confused when the Italian

Government announced its standing as cobelligerent to the Allied war effort.

Headquarters, ACC, was one of two CA/MG organizations in the Mediterranean theater; it was not the first, though it was the only one having

assigned veterinary personnel to be organized under control of AFHQ. The

latter, it must be recalled, was the American-British command which had

directed the assault landings on North Africa on November 1942. There,
444 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

veterinary CA/MG seemed to have been unrecognized; in fact, an indeterminable political situation in French Morocco and Algeria, and the interposition of the Office of Foreign Relief and Rehabilitation Operations, U.S.

Department of State, had now at the start of the war truly complicated the

description of American military responsibility in CA/MG. However, in

the planning for Operation HUSKY and following the landings, on 10 July

1943, on Sicily, this responsibility was without question assumed by the 15th

Army Group (including the Seventh U.S. Army). This army group utilized

its own AMGOT (Allied Military Government for Occupied Territory)

organization—the first of such organized in the Mediterranean theater.

Then, with the assault landings which were made on the Italian peninsula

in early September 1943, the AMG organization set forth the pattern for

military government operations in the combat areas of the field armies (including the Fifth U.S. Army) as they advanced northward through Italy.

In the CA/MG operation that took place after the surrender of the

Italian Government, the AMG, 15th Army Group, conducted true military

government in the combat areas, and, as the armies advanced, AFHQ transferred these areas to “armistice control” by the new ACC which then restored the administration of the respective areas to the Italian Government.

This last action took place rather slowly at first because of early weaknesses

in the Italian Government in administering the restored areas or before the

Allies had captured Rome (in mid-1944), and, of course, the turnover was

dependent on the successes of the campaigns against the Germans until their

surrender in northern Italy on May 1945. In Sicily and areas on the

Italian mainland, the Veterinary Section, Public Health Sub-Commission,

of the ACC, originally functioned to supervise, coordinate, and assist the

Italian civil veterinary services in their restoration and beginning rehabilitation of the country’s animal food and livestock industries. Of course, this

was secondary to the primary requirements that the Italian Government

must conform to the terms of its surrender and conduct sanitary controls

over its food and livestock industries as would not jeopardize the health of

the Allied armies and their animals. These veterinary activities related not

only to the areas which were under jurisdiction of the ACC but also to

degree in the combat areas wherein AMG had control jurisdiction. The latter had no assigned American veterinary officers, but its headquarters was

so integrated after the winter of with that of the ACC in its new

location at Naples, and then in Rome, as to permit the Veterinary Section,

Public Health Sub-Commission, to function for both; of course, the duality

of veterinary affairs was affirmed later when the ACC was assigned technical

control over all military government operations.

In those areas restored to the Italian Government, the ACC veterinary

functions were originally one of supervisory control; in November 1944, this

relationship to the civilian veterinary services was changed. During that

month, as the result of continuing progressive demonstrations by Italy as
CIVIL AFFAIRS AND MILITARY GOVERNMENT 445

pro-Ally in the war effort, the armistice control group was renamed AC

(Allied Commission) and its functions were changed to advisement only.

Thus, after that time, the Veterinary Section, Public Health Sub-Commission, acted only as adviser to the government in regard to its veterinary matters in the restored Italian areas and provided such assistance as was

requested. Now, supply for rehabilitating the Italian economy became

major AC activity. The cessation of active hostilities (in May 1945) led to

the early restoration of more areas to the Italian Government so that by the

end of 1945 the latter was controlling all its national territory except in the

Trieste area. There, Yugoslavia was questioning an international boundary

line. The AC, however, remained operational until its abolishment on 31

January 1947, although the Italian surrender terms which had chartered the

agency were not fully terminated until the Allied governments ratified the

Italian Peace Treaty on 15 September 1947.

Headquarters, AC, patterned its functional organization of components

after the organization of the Italian Government over which armistice control was being maintained. The Veterinary Section was part of the Public

Health Sub-Commission, and the latter, in turn, was only one of several

sub-commissions which was headed by chief or director of the Headquarters’

Administrative Section (chart 6). Another chief or directorate section, the

Economic Section, included the Agriculture, Forests and Fisheries SubCommission, but the latter had little if anything to do with veterinary affairs.

The Veterinary Section’s officer, as were all U.S. personnel on duty with any

CA/MG organization in the area, was assigned for administrative purposes

to the 2675th Regiment (Overhead). After January 1944, the Veterinary

Section obtained the employment of an Italian civilian veterinarian who

accomplished much in establishing working liaison with the Italian veterinary profession.

Civil Veterinary Services in Italy

The functional organization of Italian veterinary affairs at the national

level was centered in the Ministry of the Interior, and within that ministry

it was part of the Public Health Division. However, the Ministry of

Education regulated the employment of the instructional staffs in the country’s veterinary schools. There were no veterinary personnel with the Ministry of Agriculture, and even at the lower, or provincial and communal,

levels of government, the veterinarians had little working relationships with

agricultural officials. At these lower levels of government, veterinary affairs

were handled as an entity separate from, but coordinate with, public health

matters, and the provincial veterinarian—one for each province—regulated

or supervised the activities of 20 to 50 communal veterinarians. The latter

were responsible for the supervision of slaughterhouses, the control and prevention of animal diseases pursuant to the provisions of sanitary police laws

and regulations, and the conduct of private practice. Of course, the state
446 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Chart 6.—Organization of Allied Commission and Allied Military Government, Italy,

October to September 19If5

Chief, G-5 Division

Allied Force Headquarters and MTOUSA

Commanding Officer 2675th Regiment (Overhead), MTOUSA

All military personnel of Allied Military

Government and Allied Commission

Senior Civil Affairs Officer

Allied Military Government

Headquarters Fifth U.S. Army

Chief Commissioner

Allied Commission

Senior Civil Affairs Offices Deputy Commissioner

Vice President

Administrative Section

Vice President

Economic Section

Provincial Communal

Sub-Commissions

Education

Interior

Legal

Monuments and Fine Arts

Property Control

Public Health

Welfare Section

Venereal Disease Section

Public Health Section

Hospital Section

Veterinary Section

Medical Supply Section

Public Safety

Sub-Commissions

Agriculture

Finance

Food

Industry and Commerce

Internal Transportation

Labor

Public Works and Mines

Shipping

Other Sections

and

Independent Sub-Commissions

of socialism that had prevailed throughout Sicily and Italy after 20 years of

Mussolini’s Fascist rule was now showing in the veterinary service which

was not especially efficient, lacked initiative, and was unaccustomed to hard

work; the farmers needed, but could not obtain, professional veterinary

services.

Until after the capture of Rome (in mid-1944), the AMG and ACC

more or less administered the Italian veterinary services in the provinces of
CIVIL AFFAIRS AND MILITARY GOVERNMENT 447

Sicily and southern Italy. The original (or Badoglio) Italian government was scarcely more than name, without archives and complete ministerial

staffs, and it was inevitable that some veterinarians once occupying important positions in the Fascist government organization had fled with the

enemy, were removed by Italian patriot groups, or were necessarily dismissed from their offices. The removal of pro-Nazis and Fascists from the Italian

Government, was not energetically enforced in Sicily and southern Italy because the Allies did not have the military personnel to conduct local administration and the Badoglio government had not the political strength to

reestablish an administration with the personnel who were then available. In fact, the Italian Government soon assumed operational control over

screening of its personnel. After the capture of Rome, new chief of

Italian Government veterinary service was appointed, but even this appointment was made temporary, pending the naming of veterinarian who was

politically acceptable.

In Sicily and Italy, animal diseases were controlled, pursuant to national veterinary sanitary police regulations which were promulgated in 1914

and revised slightly in 1932. As was true in other European countries, regulatory enforcement was actually the responsibility of communal police

personnel and the local veterinarians who conducted the necessary profes- sional services. Many of the factors involved in the breakdown of regulatory controls during the period of hostilities manifestly continued into the

early part of the occupation period, so that animal diseases which once

seemed to have been well controlled now presented major problems to the

Allied occupation forces. As the result, horses and mules, so urgently

needed by the Allied armies and in the Allied programs for restoring the

Italian economy, were untested for glanders in fear that they would be

destroyed; draft animals, infected with equine epizootic lymphangitis, or

food animals with brucellosis and tuberculosis, were kept alive, and diseased

animals and anthrax-infected cadavers became sources of food to the human

populace. Other factors contributing to the breakdown of animal disease

controls were the shortages in communications and transportation facilities

and of veterinary supplies, the wartime increases in traffic of animals, and

the war weariness of socialized people in their destroyed country. Under

these conditions, and until they could be improved, CA/MG operations were

directed only at the restoration of animal disease controls to prewar levels

pursuant to the Italian regulations and past practices. Early attempts for

improvement (or modernization) of control measures failed as sometimes

did local governments in complying with direct orders when given by AMG

officers. Generally, there was no change or improvement made in any Italian

veterinary activity—or at least nothing comparable to that observed in the

postwar occupation of Germany, Japan, and Korea—because the period during which such could be impressed on the country was relatively brief, and,
448 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

as shown earlier, the Allied civilian affairs operations were limited after

November 1944 to that of advising and assisting the Italians.

The existing veterinary sanitary police regulations and disease control

practices of the Italian veterinary service were adequate with regard to only few animal diseases, particularly those which could be regulated by programs of animal immunization. There were, however, greater number of

other diseases—equally serious and also possessing public health threat—-

against which little or no truly effective controls were established. The first

group of animal diseases included anthrax, blackleg, and swine erysipelas;

the latter group included brucellosis in sheep and goats, equine glanders,

bovine tuberculosis, sheep scabies, and rabies. Anthrax enzootics first occurred in two provinces of Italy in which the provincial officials had delayed

the reinstitution of annually recurrent programs of animal vaccination. In

another province, including the Cassino battleground, starving civilian

population attempted to recover the carcasses of infected animals for food.

Swine erysipelas was controlled by immunization with “living” nonvirulent vaccine. It may be mentioned that the early action by the AC to

rehabilitate local Italian Government veterinary laboratories made possible

the start of these annual or seasonal programs for animal disease control;

frequently, military courier service was made available for delivering the

required veterinary supplies in the provinces. Brucellosis of sheep and goats

was differentiated from bovine brucellosis by the Italian veterinary service to

the extent that the latter was generally disregarded, even after the AC

veterinary officer had introduced vaccinal agent that was being successfully

used to control this disease in the dairy industry of the United States, Ovine

brucellosis, on the other hand, was granted more consideration, and locally developed diagnostic test agent (Mirri’s brucellin) was used to segregate “nonreactors” from infected milking goats, whose output was required

to be pasteurized, or the goats destroyed.

Summarizing, the veterinary service in postwar Italy successfully accomplished restoration of several animal disease control programs at the

level of their prewar standards. However, it manifested no immediate interest in the establishment of more modern controls that would eradicate or

completely remove these diseases which would continually threaten the Italian agricultural economy and public health for many more years.

Animals were tested for glanders, but routinely only those showing clinical signs or symptoms of the disease were destroyed: the “reactor” animals

were placed in sort of working quarantine. This kind of control was not

effective as test-and-eradication program but seemed to have comprised the

only practical procedure in postwar Italy where the high price and the lack

of transport facilities placed each horse and mule beyond any value of

animal disease control. Bovine tuberculosis—like brucellosis—was quite

prevalent, probably involving 50 to 80 percent of Italy’s dairy cows. Only

in northern Italy was there any organized program underway for its control
CIVIL AFFAIRS AND MILITARY GOVERNMENT 449

—the program including the segregation of uninfested animals from “reactors'’ that were shown by subcutaneous tuberculin test to be infected, the

vaccination of young cattle with Calmette Guerin vaccine (which possessed

questionable protective value), and the addition of known tuberculosis-free

cattle into existent dairy herds. Sheep scabies came into prevalence when

the country’s supply of nicotine sulfate was disrupted, and farmers could

ill afford the high expense of buying this antiscabies dip product in an illicit

market. As substitute, the American technique with lime-sulfur dipping

solution was demonstrated and successfully introduced as means of effectively controlling sheep scabies. Rabies, the last of the diseases to be briefly

noted here, became enzootic in parts of Italy; in Rome, alone, 400 suspect

cases and 58 laboratory-confirmed cases in dogs were reported in the 12-month

period ending June 1945, and 2,000 civilians were treated for dogbite wounds.

Military government proclamations were issued for impounding stray dogs,

and owners were ordered to muzzle or restrain their dogs by leash. Antirabic

vaccine was unavailable at the time, but the procedures which were set forth

in the proclamations were sufficiently enforced as to effectively stop the

enzootic.

In addition to the foregoing diseases, there were others which, once well

regulated or controlled, now reappeared in virulent form among the Italian

animal population. The reinstitution of controls was made difficult because

of the untimely appearances of these diseases, when communications and

transport facilities had been disrupted; furthermore, the local veterinary

service was generally unacquainted with the specific diseases or unprepared

for organizing effective programs. These diseases included dourine, equine

epizootic lymphangitis, hog cholera, Newcastle disease (of poultry), piroplasrnosis, and bovine trichomoniasis. Actually, some few diseases such as sheep

scab and rabies—previously described—may be included in this group.

Dourine, the syphilislike disease of the horse, was first observed in

May 1945 among captured German army horses, but steps were taken early

to control rather than to eradicate the disease, which involved the institution

of quarantine and treatment for the infected.

Equine epizootic lymphangitis was handled in much the same manner.

However, the disease became so commonplace in the Naples area as to require AMG to intervene with regulatory prohibition against the public

appearance of diseased animals.

Foot-and-mouth disease (also called aphthous fever), originally reported

during May 1944 among dairy herds and sheep flock in three widely

separated places (Taranto, Foggia, and Salerno), gradually spread over an

area of 15,000 square miles within four months (fig. 44). This epizootic

spread continued into the Siena province, by February 1945, and then by

August 1945, into the Perugia, Rieti, and Terni Provinces. The only production laboratory for Waldmann-type vaccine, which was used in Italy,

was not uncovered and did not become operational until September 1944;
450 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Figure 44.—Ulcerous lesions of foot-and-mouth disease (Rome, April 1945).

but from that time until August 1945, vaccine to immunize 140,000 animals

was produced there. The same vaccine was also used to protect animals in

Sardinia. However, even though the animals there failed to show immunity,

no earnest studies were made to confirm an Italian postulation that the Astrain virus of foot-and-mouth disease was involved, whereas the Italian

vaccine was protective only against the O-strain virus. The immunization

program was necessarily restricted—due to the limited quantity of vaccine

available—to work cattle and dairy herds. Among these herds, the disease

mortality rates in the cows and young animals averaged percent and 25

percent, respectively; the abortion rates of pregnant cows approximated

100 percent, and the milk production was reduced by TO percent for periods

up to month. Beef cattle, other than breeding stock, received little attention because the meat of the infected and dying (or dead) animals was

entered into regular trade channels.

Hog cholera—once considered nonexistent in Italy—appeared in virulent epizootic form, first in the Foggia area during April 1944 and then

throughout liberated or occupied Italy. In the instance of establishing con-
CIVIL AFFAIRS AND MILITARY GOVERNMENT 451

trols over this disease, the Italian veterinary service accepted the suggestions

given by the AC veterinary officer that anti-hog-cholera serum of U.S. origin

he imported at once for immediate local use and that the American-developed

Boynton crystal violet product be studied for production and distribution

by Italian veterinary laboratories for nse throughout the Italian swine industry. The results were successful; approximately half million swine

were vaccinated during the 12-month period ending June 1945.

Newcastle disease of poultry-like hog cholera—was regarded as nonexistent in Italy or as an atypical laryngotracheitis; however, confirmatory

studies were made of specimens submitted to the laboratory of the Army

Veterinary School, Army Medical Center, Washington, D.C. In the control

of this disease, which was causing heavy losses in the Italian poultry industry (a mortality of 50 to 100 percent in infected flocks), the Italian

veterinarians administered locally produced vaccine which conferred shortperiod immunization.

The tick-transmitted piroplasmosis was common summertime disease

among cattle in Sardinia and in the southern and central Italian provinces.

Rather than the organization of programs for its prevention, such as are

known to be effective, the Italian veterinary service preferred to treat the

infected animals. The German-made Acaprin or English Pireven was administered intramuscularly (in single 6-cc. dose) to infected animals with

almost spectacular success.

In regard to the meat and dairy industries, the Italian veterinarian

exercised little or no sanitary control over production. Of course, in the

situation of food shortages that existed in occupied Italy during the war,

animals frequently were not slaughtered in the abattoirs, neither was the

meat entered into regular market channels. great many abattoirs were

scattered throughout the country, usually inadequate in their facilities, and the ante mortem and post mortem inspections, when they were conducted, were performed by random selection of organs from various animals for

inspection and with no examination of lymph glands. On the other hand, each Italian abattoir was required to operate under veterinary supervision.

In the coastal cities, the Italian veterinarian also inspected the fish which

were landed, but their standards were not the same as those commonly observed in the American fishing industry. The dairy industry was completely

outside the sphere of veterinary activities except for the control of diseases

among the dairy herds; in Palermo and in the Italian metropolitan cities, such as Rome and Naples, milk control was invested with non-public health

personnel and politicians, but there was no sanitary control. Raw milk, with contaminants of manure and flies clearly visible, was received at the

dairies and treated with hydrogen peroxide in lien of pasteurization. It was

bottled or otherwise handled in equipment which had been washed in cold

water. In one city, AMG employed milk specialist and provided such

material as was needed to properly operate the local dairy.
452 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Figure 45.—Cattle, later used for food, being artificially infected with suspensions

of the viral agent of foot-and-mouth disease, injected under the mucous membrane of the

top of the tongue to produce vaccine to combat this disease. The rehabilitation of biologicproducing-laboratories in Italy posed major problem in reestablishing the disease control

program against foot-and-mouth disease.

The Italian veterinary biologic-producing laboratories were the focal

point for the animal disease control programs which were evolved in occupied

and postwar Italy (fig. 45). There were 11 government-owned laboratories and privately owned; all suffered some war damage, but energetic

action was taken for their early rehabilitation. This feature of CA/MG operations probably originated in November 1943 when the veterinary laboratory at Palermo was employed in the manufacture of smallpox vaccine for

human use in controlling an epidemic of this disease that occured in Naples;

by August 1945, smallpox vaccine production in Italian veterinary laboratories

had totaled 10 million doses.

Aside from the supply of veterinary biologicals mostly from indigenous

sources, veterinary medicines and equipment were urgently needed. In

Sicily and southern Italy, the problem was largely one of locating existing

stockpiles and arranging for their distribution, but, as the more populous and better agricultural areas were reached, the supply needs had to be

satisfied by importations. An American-British Combined Chiefs of Staff

supply committee, in Washington, D.C., had previously planned for this
CIVIL AFFAIRS AND MILITARY GOVERNMENT 453

supply, and eventually some shipments of so-called Civil Affairs Division

supplies arrived. Unfortunately, the delivery of the first shipment was generally unsuccessful because the material was not specifically marked for

veterinary use, was proselyted into regular medical supplies which were

being received in quantities below' requirements of Italian medical needs,

and included items which the Italian veterinarians had little or no use for

because of normal variations from American methods of veterinary practice.

Following their arrival in Italy, these veterinary supplies were assigned to

the Italian Government veterinary laboratories for distribution because this

action assured their proper receipt and improved the chances for their reaching the Italian veterinarian in regular civilian trade channels.

Other Civil Affairs and Military Government Operations of Allied Force

Headquarters

The same Allied military headquarters that organized the CA/MG operations in Italy also became involved in the planning for Albania, Greece,

and Yugoslavia, and participated with SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters,

Allied Expeditionary Forces) in the European theater on matters relating

to southern France and Austria. In Albania, Greece, and Yugoslavia, the

Allied military forces, which were principally British, only entered after

the Germans had vacated, and AFHQ, through newly organized AMG

(Balkans), operated as an interim agency to provide emergency relief supplies until the UNRRA (United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration) could assume the supply responsibility. No Veterinary Corps

personnel were assigned, although during the period of military responsibility some few' veterinary supplies and equipment of U.S. origin are known

to have been made available for distribution in the three countries. The

foregoing situation was equally applicable to CA/MG veterinary activities

in southern France which was invaded by the Seventh U.S. Army in midAugust 1944. Planning for Operation ANVIL-DRAGOON, which w'as the

invasion of southern France, as conducted by AFHQ within the overall

policy described by SHAEF; the latter, on November 1944, took over

operational control of the military forces in that area from the Allied headquarters of the Mediterranean theater. In the military occupation of Austria,

American troop units and personnel of the Mediterranean theater w'ere originally planned for, but wdien the Third and Seventh U.S. Armies

through Germany and entered Austria (in the last week of April 1945)

the original planning as changed. In fact, as will be observed later, the

U.S. military forces in Austria were now created as semi-independent

command within the European theater, but matters relating to occupation

and administration of the Austrian civil government were separately reported to the Joint Army and Navy Chiefs of Staff in Washington, D.C.
454 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

EUROPEAN THEATER

General Military Government in Germany

Months before the surrender of Germany, the U.S. forces in the European theater were preparing for occupation tasks (5). Specific planning

for the occupation began in the spring of 1943, when the Allied governments decided on the launching of cross-Channel invasion in early summer of 1944 (Operation OVERLORD). This decision led to the creation

of the strategic planning agency, GOSSAC (Chief of Staff, Supreme Allied

Command). Posthostilities Planning Section of COSSAC w’as designated to consider the responsibilities of the commander in chief after the

close of combat. G-5 staff division was also created in COSSAC to handle

military government matters. At the intergovernmental level, EAC (European Advisory Commission), consisting of the foreign ministers of the

United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union, was organized to make

recommendations to the member governments on terms of surrender and

occupation matters. The EAC prepared draft of surrender terms, an

agreement on control machinery for Germany, and an agreement on zones

of occupation. In January 1944, COSSAC was absorbed into the newly

organized SHEAF, and General Dwight D. Eisenhower was chosen as

Supreme Commander. The G-5 division was continued in SIIAEF and

was the hub of all military government planning for Germany.

German County Unit was formed in March 1944 and prepared

Handbook for Military Government in Germany which became basic

guide for early occupation. In the summer of 1944, the German Country

Unit was absorbed into the USGCC (U.S. Group Control Council)—a new

planning agency created to prepare for the American component of future

Allied Control Group for Germany. (The Allied Control Council was approved at the Yalta Conference in February 1945 and activated in June

1945.) Operation ECLIPSE was formulated as the plan to be put into

effect as areas of Germany were uncovered and at the final surrender. The

plan dealt with such matters as terms of surrender, the application of sanctions, the disarmament and disbandment of the German armed forces, the

disarmament and control of paramilitary organizations, the safeguarding and

disposal of captured enemy material, the trial of war criminals, the control

of transportation and communications, the disarming and control of police,

the establishment of law and order, the control of governments and military

organizations, the institution of military government, the execution of intelligence functions, the control of public information media, the care of

displaced persons, and the repatriation of Allied prisoners of war.

While planning for occupation was in progress, experience in military

government operations was being gained during combat in Germany. The
CIVIL AFFAIRS AND MILITARY GOVERNMENT 455

LEGEND,

Seventh Army Area

Third Army Area

Map 10.—Occupied areas of Germany and Austria

German frontier was crossed on 11 September 1944, and, by mid-December, elements of the First, Seventh, and Ninth U.S. Armies were holding

narrow strip along the western border. Then, after temporary setback in

mid-December 1944 by the German counteroffensive in the Ardennes, the

Allies pushed across Germany until she surrendered on May 1945. American forces were scattered over Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia but
456 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

were soon deployed to the U.S. Zone of Occupation (map 10). All types

of CA/MG functions were in operation during combat.

As hostilities on the European Continent drew to close, arrangements

were made to separate the combined headquarters of SHAEF and prepare

for unilateral zone command. SHAKE was dissolved on 14 July 1945, and

American combat troops were placed under operational control of USFET

(U.S. Forces, European Theater). All but the Third and Seventh U.S.

Armies were redeployed or made nonoperational. The Third U.S. Army was

assigned jurisdiction of the eastern part of the U.S. Zone of Occupation and

the Seventh U.S. Army the western part. The Seventh U.S. Army was

inactivated in March 1946 and the Third U.S. Army in March 1947. After

this time, the American forces designated to preserve order were the U.S.

Constabulary.

In accord with the Yalta Agreement, the ACA (Allied Control Authority) was established in June 1945; its executive organ was the ACC (Allied

Control Council), made up of the commanders of the four occupying military

forces who first met on 30 July 1945. The original U.S. element of ACA was

the USGCC, later (on October 1945) redesignated as OMGUS (Office of

Military Government, United States). The ACC formed directorates covering

broad areas of civilian activity (such as Directorate of Economics), Functioning under the directorates were many technical committees and working

groups. Such committees covered every important area of German civilian

matters. The general policy of ACA was to consider those matters that had

application throughout the country as whole or which had international

aspects. When decision for action was reached by the ACA, unilateral action

was then taken by each of the powers in its zone. In the U.S. Zone, this action

was assumed by the Assistant Chief of Staff, G-5, USFET.

By January 1946, military government activities were generally centralized and removed from the occupational activities. Offices of Military Government were created to administer all military government in three military government areas: Bavaria, Wiirttemberg-Baden, and Greater Hesse into which

the U.S. Zone had now been divided, and in the Bremen Enclave and the U.S.

Sector of Berlin (map 10).

Since Y-E Day and before the advent of the top-level administrative

agencies, military government control was carried on at Kreis (county),

Regierungsbezirke (district), and Land (province) levels by military government detachments which—though operating under the general supervision

of EC AD (European Civil Affairs Division) of SHAEF—were attached to

tactical divisions. As there was no central German Government left to do

the task, the main functions of these detachments were to restore local German governments and to aid them in reviving their general utility and other

municipal services. The Germans were very energetic so that the more

urgent rehabilitation was accomplished with remarkable speed. As the occupation proceeded, control by military government detachments was increas-
CIVIL AFFAIRS AND MILITARY GOVERNMENT 457

ingly shifted to higher levels of German government, and the type of control was moved from specific matters to broad guidance.

Civil Affairs and Military Government During Combat

Since Germany had overrun all of Western Europe, the Allies were

obligated to pay attention to civil matters in these countries during the

combat and immediate postcombat phases. Skeleton governments-in-exile for

France, Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, Denmark, Norway, Poland, and

Czechoslovakia had been formed in England between 1940 and 1944. SHAEF

now created military missions for these governments, each comprised of

approximately equal members of British and American military personnel.

The missions were organized into sections corresponding to the ministerial

elements of the country concerned; they studied the countries and maintained

liaison with the governments-in-exile to obtain military intelligence on the

conditions under Nazi domination. Civil Affairs Handbook also was prepared for use of the Allied military forces during the period of administration immediately following liberation of each country. Then, after the

Allies invaded the European Continent and pushed eastward into Germany,

control by each SHAEF mission was turned over to the respective governments as soon as the country was liberated. All of the missions functioned

very effectively both before and after liberation of the countries they represented.

Veterinary civil affairs and military government personnel.—Planning

for veterinary CA/MG in the European theater started when six specially

trained Veterinary Corps officers from the Zone of Interior arrived in England early in 1944 for assignment to CA/MG duties (6). The senior officer

of this group was assigned to SHAEF G-5 and for the duration of the

war was the nominal chief of veterinary CA/MG activities in the European

theater. The remaining five officers were assigned to various SHAEF military missions. Initially, requisitions had been made for 15 veterinary officers

for assignment to CA/MG duties at SHAEF, each SHAEF mission, the

German Country Unit, ETOUSA Headquarters, Communications Zone Headquarters, UNRRA, 12th Army Group, the field armies, the Army Air

Forces Headquarters, and ECAD. Requisitions for these officers, however,

were not filled. After D-day, when the field forces requested assistance of

CA/MG veterinarians, four of the officers originally assigned to the SHAEF

With the increasing friendliness of the Western Powers toward Germany and the increasing

animosity from the Soviets, the former took steps to free their military occupational forces from

civil responsibilities and to concentrate on defense against the Soviet threat. The Occupation

Statute was promulgated on 21 September 1949, by the Western Occupying Powers as substitute

for the earlier German surrender terms and other Allied policies that were made in 1945. The

Statute led to the creation of the German Federal Republic, encompassing the three western zones

of occupation, but excluding Berlin. It granted to this area of Germany all governmental powers

but reserved the right to maintain Allied troops there for defense purposes. On this same date

(21 September 1949) the Office of HICOG (U.S. High Commissioner for Germany) was created

under the U.S. State Department, and OMGUS was inactivated, with its civil affairs matters being

transferred to HICOG. Thus ended military government of Germany in World War II.—E.B.M.
458 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

missions were transferred to the field forces. As result of this redistribution of veterinary officers during the combat period, the single SHAEFassigned officer had to assume full responsibility for giving whatever advisory services he could to the various organizations in that area.

While the foregoing officers had been oriented in general military government affairs, they had almost no information on European veterinary

activities at the time of their arrival in England. Therefore, they took

steps to gain such information by reading library material, by talking to

English veterinarians, by visiting English veterinary installations (which

were fairly representative of continental places), and by talking with exiled

European veterinarians. These officers also underwent the minimum general

combat training required for all CA/MG personnel.

Veterinary CA/MG operations will be described hereafter from the

viewpoint of the organizations to which the officers were assigned. The

officer assigned to SHAEF, G-5 Division, directed the technical activities

of all veterinary military government officers in the theater. In addition,

liaison was maintained with other SHAEF organizations, with the U.S.

embassies of Allied countries, with Headquarters, ETOUSA, with Communications Zone, with the three army groups (U.S. 6th, U.S. 12th, and

British 21st), with the four U.S. field armies (First, Third, Seventh, and

Ninth), with the U.S. Army Air Forces (8th and 9th), and with UNERA.

After arrival on the Continent, the chief military government veterinary

officer established contact with the veterinary officials of Allied countries

and gave needed assistance and advice.

Because of the limited numbers of personnel available, veterinary officers

were assigned only to the SHAEF military missions for France, Belgium, and Holland, and the German Country Unit during the pre-D-day period

in England. These officers made plans for administering the civilian veterinary service in the respective countries upon their liberation. Such plans

were prepared in the form of civil affairs handbooks. Because of the change of personnel assignments noted above, only the Holland Mission retained its

veterinary officer. Holland remained partly occupied by the Germans until

almost the end of combat so that there were more serious problems from the lack of national government. France and Belgium were quickly liberated, and the native governments soon assumed their own administration. The

officer assigned to the Holland Mission carried out operations as planned,

restoring local veterinary administration, reestablishing temporary national

administration, animal disease control, food inspection services, and obtaining

emergency veterinary supplies.

The veterinary CA/MG officers helped with the planning while they were in England and assisted in determining requirements and in distributing of veterinary supplies after they arrived on the Continent. Belgium

and Holland used more of the supplies than the other countries of northwest Europe. Stocks of captured German army veterinary supplies were
CIVIL AFFAIRS AND MILITARY GOVERNMENT 459

frequently turned over to CA/MG for distribution to Allied and German civilian veterinary service. Close liaison was maintained with UNRRA before and after the invasion to coordinate supplies.

Experiences in combat units.—The single veterinary officer assigned to

CA/MG duties with the Communications Zone coordinated various veterinary CA/MG activities in that area. In the conduct of his mission, he was

assisted by the Zone's base section-assigned veterinary personnel who reported outbreaks of animal disease, sources of veterinary supplies, and

gathered information about civilian veterinary officials. The Army Air

Forces veterinarians also were helpful in CA/MG liaison. When the foregoing veterinary CA/MG officer was transferred to Headquarters, 12th Army

Group, he directed his efforts toward coordinating the operations of the

three veterinary CA/MG officers who were assigned to the field armies of

that army group (namely, the First, Third, and Ninth U.S. Armies). lie

also conducted many field investigations to augment Army personnel.

Those officers assigned to the field armies were in the most forward areas.

One of their primary functions was intelligence because they had first contact with the civilian veterinary service, both in Allied countries and in

Germany. Information on all aspects of veterinary functions thus obtained

was passed to the next higher echelons. Some information, such as presence

of animal diseases, was passed to adjacent armies to assist in control measures. The kinds of activities covered every type of CA/MG functions.

During the lull along the German border in late 1944, it was possible to

complete some operations, but then, in the spring of 1945, when the armies

advanced so rapidly, their activities were mostly that of gaining military

intelligence. typical activity of each major function will be cited as an

example.

Intelligence.—In the First U.S. Army area, the veterinary officer obtained Directory of German Veterinarians published in 1939. This gave

also the administrative organization of all levels from Reich down to the

Kreis, description of veterinary colleges, listing of veterinary laboratories, livestock census data, military veterinary service, manufacturers of

veterinary supplies, and so forth. While some changes had taken place in

years, most of the data were still valid. This booklet was soon obtained

by the other veterinary officers and served as an important guide for operations in Germany.

Local veterinary administration.—During the German Ardennes counteroffensive, the veterinary administration of Luxembourg collapsed. Veterinarians sympathetic with the Germans had gone over to Germany, while

those who opposed the Germans had fled to Brussels. Foot-and-mouth

disease was present in the area and it was imperative that control measures

be reestablished. The veterinary military government officer with the Third

U.S. Army traveled to Brussels, located five refugee veterinarians, and assisted them to return to Luxembourg to control the outbreak.

590248 —61 31
460 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Disease control.—On 26 October 1044, an outbreak of foot-and-mouth

disease was reported on the Holland-German border north of Aachen, then

in the combat area of the First U.S. Army. The latter’s veterinary CA/MG officer investigated and verified the report. One complication of control was

that the site of the outbreak was just behind the front line. German minefields had not been cleared. Many animals were loose. The SHAEF veterinary officer went to the area to direct operations. He first contacted the

Holland district veterinarian who, fortunately, was still on the job. Working together, and mindful of combat dangers, they planned and executed

the following operations: All Dutch and German veterinarians in the vicinity were assembled with the aid of military commanders and local burgermeisters and directed to evacuate the cattle westward into Holland. Upon

arrival at the border, veterinary examinations for disease were made. Diseased animals were destroyed, whereas the remainder were grouped into those

suitable for breeding and milking and those suitable for slaughter to feed

the civilian population. The breeding and milking animals were kept under

observation of Dutch veterinarians who conducted the usual measures for

handling communicable diseases. Extensive spread of disease was prevented,

and valuable food resources were preserved.

Food inspection.—Slaughterhouses and milk plants frequently showed

serious war damage because of their location near railroad yards. Veterinary

CA/MG officers assisted in rehabilitating these establishments by supporting actions for the release of needed repair materiel and labor, by contacting

local veterinary meat and milk inspectors, and by liaison with other CA/MG officers.

Animal husbandry.—The veterinary CA/MG officers actively cooperated

with food and agriculture CA/MG officers in reassembling livestock, controlling the hygiene of livestock sales, reestablishing normal veterinary practice, and advising on hygienic aspects of animal foods and animal breeding

problems.

Indigenous veterinary supplies.—During the foot-and-mouth disease

outbreak in the Luxembourg area, as previously noted, the local supply of

the specific vaccinal agent used in controlling the disease was soon exhausted. This was reported to the SHAEF G-5 veterinary officer who

learned that the nearest source of vaccine was veterinary laboratory in

Switzerland. After clearances were obtained from military and civilian officials, the veterinary CA/MG officer with the Third U.S. Army and Luxembourg veterinarian traveled to the laboratory in truck and returned with

new supply of vaccine.

Veterinary education.—The first German veterinary college was visited

by the veterinary military government officer, Ninth U.S. Army, at Hannover few days after the city Avas captured. While the school Avas badly

damaged and classes AA ere not in session, it was found that animal clinics

could be operated for treatment of community animals and laboratories could
CIVIL AFFAIRS AND MILITARY GOVERNMENT 461

be used for disease diagnosis and vaccine production. Authority was obtained through CA/MG to continue these types of services.

International Institute of Epizootics.—Mention also must be made of

the International Institute of Epizootics. This organization, located in

Paris, France, was created in 1927 to collect and disseminate information on

animal diseases throughout the world. During the Nazi occupation of

France, it had continued to operate on restricted scale. Soon after Paris

was liberated, the SIIAEF G-5 veterinary officer visited the Institute and

learned that it was prepared to operate on prewar level. Prior to D-day,

UNRRA had proposed the organization of veterinary group in Europe to

aid in the rehabilitation of veterinary services, especially animal disease

control. When the Institute was found to be intact, it was supported by

both UNRRA and SHAEF in the continuance of its mission. After the start

of occupation of Germany, the chief veterinary CA/MG officer, now assigned

to OMGUS, continued to assist the Institute by forwarding German animal

disease data.

Civil Affairs and Military Government During Occupation

Upon the collapse of Germany, steps were taken to acquire additional

Army veterinary officers for CA/MG. Several officers were reassigned from

combat units, from supply units, from the Mediterranean theater, and from

the Zone of Interior. Each new officer was given briefing and short

on-the-job training before taking over his new duties, total of 31 officers

and civilian veterinary consultant from the United States were assigned

to military government in ETOUSA. The peak strength was reached in

October 1945 when personnel were distributed from the ACA down to the

Regierungsbezirke level (charts and 8). Late in 1945, it became obvious

that the German veterinary administration would and could carry out the

wishes of CA/MG. Thus, phase-out of veterinary officers—as well as other

CA/MG personnel—was instituted over the next few months, starting with

reductions from the lower echelons. By June 1946, only three officers remained—two assigned to OMGUS in Berlin and one at the Behringwerk

plant. By November 1947, only the senior veterinary CA/MG officer remained. lie stayed on until July 1947 when plans for transfer of OMGUS

to IIICOG were finalized.

Due to the limited numbers of available veterinary CA/MG officers and

to the rapid reestablishment of the civilian veterinary service, the functions of

the veterinary CA/MG officers soon became essentially liaison between the

German veterinary service and CA/MG. Almost all civilian veterinary functions were desirable, so that the liaison was directed toward rehabilitation

rather than revision of them. The officers were assigned as individual specialists in field operations and functioned usually under the public health CA/MG officer. Much liaison was, of course, maintained with other CA/MG officers,

especially food and agriculture, education, and general administration. Direct
462 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Chart 7.—Distribution of veterinary civil affairs and military government officers in

occupied Germany, October 1945

United Nations Relief and

Rehabilitation Administration NetherlandsMilitary Mission (Public Health and WelfareSection)

AlliedControl Authority

Office of MilitaryGovernment, United States

(Public Health and Welfare Section)

U.S. Forces, European Theater (Theater Veterinarian)

veterinaryofficer veterinary officers civilian veterinarian

Office of Military Government, U.S. Zone

(Public Health and Welfare Section)

Behringwerke

Serum Plant

veterinary officers veterinary officers

Eastern Military District (Public Health and WelfareSection) Berlin District

(U.S. Sector)

Western Military District (Public Health and Welfare Section) Bremen Enclave

veterinaryofficer veterinaryofficer

Land Greater Hesse Land Wiirttemberg-Baden Land Bavaria

veterinary officers veterinaryofficer veterinaryofficer

Regierungsberzirke Regierungsbezirke

Kassel Darmstadt Wiesbaden Mainfranken Oberpfalz Oberbayern

veterinaryofficer veterinaryofficer veterinaryofficer veterinary officers veterinary officer veterinaryofficers

Regierungsbezirke Regierungsbezirke

WUrttemberg Niederbayern Schwa ben

veterinaryofficer veterinaryofficer veterinary officers veterinaryofficers

Regierungsbezirke

Oberfranken Mittelfranken OMGUS veterinarians maintainedliaison with these organizations.

veterinaryofficer veterinaryofficer

technical contact between veterinary CA/MG officers at various echelons was

encouraged and freely used. Reports on the veterinary activities were prepared in all organizations where veterinary personnel were assigned. These

were forwarded through CA/MG channels to OMGUS, where summary reports were prepared for publication.

Chart 8.—Veterinary Corps officers assigned to civil affairs and

military government in the European theater, 1943-48
CIVIL AFFAIRS AND MILITARY GOVERNMENT 463

Allied Control Authority.—Mention has previously been made of the

CA/MG policy for occupied territory to maintain the structure of government as little changed as possible. While the national veterinary administration ceased functioning at surrender, two of its technical organizations were permitted to continue: The Reichsgesundheitsant (National Health Institute) in Berlin, and the Paul Ehrlich Institut in Frankfurt am Main used

for standardization of biologicals.

In lieu of the national veterinary service there was set up veterinary group in ACA. This group, called the Veterinary Subcommittee, was originally activated under the Public PTealth and Welfare Committee of the

Directorate of Internal Affairs and Communications, first meeting in session on IT December 1945. Later (or in February 1946), because so much of the

early rehabilitation dealt with agricultural matters, the Subcommittee was

transferred to the Food and Agriculture Committee of the Directorate of

Economies. Such arrangement continued until the dissolution of the Subcommittee in 1948. Regular meetings were held, monthly and special meetings as required. The Subcommittee was composed of the chief veterinary

CA/MG officer of each of the four Allied zones; alternate members sat in

the absence of the regular member. The chairmanship was rotated monthly

among the delegates, and each delegate had secretary, interpreters, and

advisers, as required. Terms of reference for operation of the Subcommittee

were prepared and amended from time to time. While most of the activities

were conducted in Berlin, the members occasionally made trips into the field

to observe operations at first hand. Activities of the Subcommittee involved

all aspects of the German veterinary service; the following are cited as

examples:

1. Preparation of special veterinary health certificate for interzonal

movement of livestock.

2. Preparation of dictionary of animal diseases in Latin, English,

French, Russian, and German.

3. Collection and consolidation of animal disease statistics.

4. Promoting standardization of veterinary biologicals.

5. Survey of needs, current availability, and production facilities for

veterinary supplies (drugs, instruments, biologicals, and so forth).

6. Survey of German veterinary laws to check influence of Nazism.

7. Survey of bovine tuberculosis and control measures.

8. Survey of brucellosis and control measures.

While it was never possible during the military government phase to set

up central veterinary service, the Subcommittee helped to point the way.

For example, it arranged for central meetings in Berlin of the chief civil

veterinary officials of the four zones. These meetings started in October 1947

and continued until the breakup of quadripartite control in 1948. When

Bizonia was formed, it included German veterinary official who coordinated

veterinary activities in the U.S. and British zones.
464 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

German Veterinary Service Before Surrender

Before the war, Germany had one of the outstanding veterinary services

of the world. The administrative organization was very complete, with official offices at Reich, Land, Regierungsbezirke, and Kreis levels. Before 1934

the national veterinary office was in the Ministry of Agriculture, Lands, and

Forests, but in 1934, this office was moved to the Ministry of Interior and

designated as Department III. Then, in early 1945, governmental reorganization saw the veterinary, public health, and public welfare services

grouped under State Secretary in the Ministry of the Interior; however,

this organization had little time to function before the collapse of Germany.

There were eight sections in the Reich veterinary office, covering major functions. The provincial veterinary office was also located in the Province Ministry of Interior. The Regierungsbezirke veterinary official worked directly

under the principal administrator. At the Kreis level, the official veterinarian was called the Kreistierarzt or Veterinserrat. There was usually one

official to Kreis, but larger Kreise sometimes had two or more, and, infrequently, only one would cover two or more Kreise. The Kreis official was

the mainstay of the veterinary service since he was responsible for the execution of all major functions.

General veterinary laws were made by the Reichschancelor, and executive regulations were prepared by the Minister of the Interior’s Veterinary

Department. Lower echelons were not permittted to deviate from the national

laws and regulations, except in special circumstances.

As in other countries, the two major activities of the veterinary service

dealt with animal health and food hygiene. The former was mainly economic

since it dealt with the preservation of livestock resources through animal

disease control and related animal health and welfare matters. The latter

was mainly human health since it dealt with meat and milk hygiene as

related to human food. The two areas frequently overlapped. The principal functions of the German veterinary service, as specified in the Reich

laws, dealt with official administration; animal disease control; veterinary

police at border stations; veterinary aspects of animal husbandry; administration of animal indemnity funds; knackery service (carcass disposal) animal slaughter and meat inspection; milk hygiene; hygiene of other foods;

animal protective service (human matters) examination and appointment

of public veterinary officials; examination and licensing of veterinary practitioners administration of the veterinary professional association; veterinary

education; supervision of horseshoeing; operation of provincial veterinary

laboratories; operation of special laboratories for research, vaccine production, and so forth; administration of the veterinary drug dispensing laws; and collecting, evaluating, and reporting of veterinary statistics. Some of

the more important of these functions will be discussed in the next topic,

together with their relation to CA/MG operations.
CIVIL AFFAIRS AND MILITARY GOVERNMENT 465

German Veterinary Service During Occupation

In accord with general CA/MG policy, the German veterinary administration was continued at Province, Regierungsbezirke, and Kreis levels. If

the presurrender official was present, he was continued in office; otherwise,

the best available substitute was designated. serious barrier in obtaining

officials was the denazification program. At first, the very strict interpretation of Nazi party affiliation caused great difficulty in obtaining cleared

personnel because nearly all governmental officials at all levels had been

required to join the party by 1939. Later, AC made distinction between

simple membership and extensive activity in the party. This permitted most

veterinary officials to occupy offices. The denazification program did not

affect practitioners very much. All Reich veterinary laws were continued as

far as practicable in each zone. In the U.S. zone, the officials were very

energetic and cooperative in getting the veterinary service reestablished.

It is not practicable to discuss all of the activities of the German veterinary service during the occupation. The following have been selected as the

more important and typical ones.

Veterinary personnel.—There were some 7,600 civilian veterinarians in

Germany before the war, employed as follows;

Veterinary practice 4,600

Meat inspection 1,040

Public officials 960

Retired and miscellaneous 570

Laboratory and research 290

Education 140

Total 7,600

These numbers were reduced somewhat during the war due to combat casualties and to smaller output of the colleges. In late 1945, the ACA made an

agreement in which some 6y million persons of German blood would be

transferred from Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Poland into the four

zones of occupied Germany. Some of these people were veterinarians; thus,

there was no shortage of veterinary personnel during occupation.

The public service operated through well-organized civil-service system.

Before approval for regular position, the applicant must have graduated

from veterinary college, must have been in general practice for several

months, and must have been an assistant in public veterinary service for at

least years. Before receiving license to practice, the graduate must have

spent at least months in slaughterhouse inspection and months as an

assistant to practitioner. Licenses were valid throughout Germany.

All veterinarians were required by law to belong to the national veterinary chamber (or union). There were 16 regional chambers and 57 district

chambers. The functions of these included investigating legal liability cases,

advising on veterinary education, operating courts for alleged veterinary mal-
466 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

practice, administering welfare funds and health insurance for veterinarians

and their families, and allocating practice areas. During the occupation, all

chambers except that at the national level were kept in operation. Only

rarely did their activities conflict with CA/MG policies and practices.

Animal disease control.—Animal disease control was based on the Reich

animal disease law of 26 June 1909, and amendments. This law covered the

usual control measures such as diagnosis; reporting of animal diseases; quarantine; destruction of infected animals; indemnity payments; hygienic disposal of animal products such as meat, milk, and hides; vaccination; hygiene

of animal shipments; hygiene of animal markets; and disinfection of premises. At the time of the German collapse, there were interruptions in the

normal disease control measures due to lack of national government, lack

of communications, lack of supplies, and displacement of officials. Before

long, however, fairly normal measures were in effect.

Many reports and records were used by the Germans in disease control

work. All those originating below national level were continued in the occupation. The only one required to be submitted to ACA was the semimonthly

communicable disease report. This had been formerly submitted directly to

the Reich veterinary office from each Kreis veterinarian. Procedure was now

altered to have the Kreis report sent to the Regierungsbezirke veterinarian

who prepared consolidated report. This report was then sent to the Province (Land) veterinarian who transmitted it to the Zone veterinary CA/MG officer. The ACA Veterinary Subcommittee received the Zone reports and

prepared grand summary report somewhat like the former Reich report.

The ACA report was sent back to Land veterinarians, to the International

Epizootics Institute in Paris, and to the chief veterinary officials of the

European countries.

The veterinary border police continued their duties as well as possible,

carrying out the former laws. There were great difficulties in view of the

free movements of military organizations and materiel and large movements

of displaced persons.

While some animal diseases had increased during the war, the quick

reestablishment of the German veterinary service after V-E Day brought

them under reasonable control. Anthrax appeared in isolated cases but

caused no serious problem. Brucellosis of cattle continued to be an endemic

disease. Through the efforts of OMGUS, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the newly developed strain-19 brucella vaccine was

made available to the Germans. This enabled them to start long-range

control program. Dourine and glanders of horses were introduced late in

the war, when German army horses and captured animals were brought from

areas in North Africa, Italy, Poland, and the Balkans. Upon the collapse of Germany, these animals were demobilized and distributed to the civilians.

vigorous testing and examination program prevented spread of the diseases

and finally resulted in their eradication. Infectious anemia of horses per-
CIVIL AFFAIRS AND MILITARY GOVERNMENT 467

sisted throughout the occupation despite control efforts. Swine erysipelas

increased greatly in the summer of 1945 because combat conditions had prevented the conduct of the recurring spring vaccination program. Through

the direct assistance of veterinary military government officers, vaccine and

sera were obtained early after Y-E Day and greatly assisted in bringing this

disease under control. In 1947, an infectious anemia outbreak among the

Behringwerke horses caused temporary loss in the principal source of

erysipelas serum. Foot-and-mouth disease continued to plague all of Europe

after the war. Intensive control measures by the Germans and CA/MG veterinarians kept reducing the disease, but small outbreaks occurred throughout the occupation from time to time. Germany was more fortunate than

some other European countries where the disease was more prevalent. Rabies

was not prevalent during the occupation, probably due to general good control of dogs in Germany. Scabies of horses was very prevalent at the end of the war and continued during the first year of occupation before intensive

measures brought the disease under control. Hog cholera continued to be

mildly prevalent during the occupation. Through the efforts of the OMGUS

veterinary officer, techniques for manufacture of crystal violet-attenuated

cholera vaccine were introduced into Germany. This new immunization

method was used especially in Bavaria. Tuberculosis of cattle in Germany

at the end of the war was estimated as high as 30 percent, with certain areas

almost 100 percent infected. Immediate widespread test-and-slaughter methods were impracticable. Thus, long-range eradication programs were prepared by the Germans, with the full support of the ACA. Considerable

progress for its eradication had been accomplished by the end of occupation.

Emphasis was placed upon the pasteurization of milk and inspection of meat

as measures for preventing human infection.

Meat inspection.—The inspection of slaughter animals and meat was

highly organized and was based on the Reich law of June 1900, as amended.

There were some 500 slaughterhouses in Germany before the war, almost all

being city owned. The law required that specially trained veterinarian be

the director; this was in addition to the usual veterinary and lay meat inspectors. The law covered the customary functions such as organization, qualification and appointment of personnel, slaughter permits, ante mortem and

post mortem inspection procedures, inspection of meat outside of regular

slaughterhouses, laboratory examination of meat, inspection of import and

export meat, transportation and storage of meat, records and reports, control

of Freibank meat, handling of glands used for pharmaceuticals, and supervision of public sale of meat. While the higher echelons exercised general

supervision, the Kreis veterinarians and slaughterhouse directors were responsible for routine meat inspection service. In rural areas, where there were

no public slaughterhouses, certain butchers were licensed to slaughter animals

under the inspection of trained lay inspectors.

590248 —61 32
468 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Slaughterhouses sustained considerable aerial-bombing damage during

the war because of their usual location near railroad yards. Early occupation efforts were directed toward minimum rehabilitation to get plants in

operation. One problem arose in connection with slaughter methods. The

law required that large animals be stunned by captive-bolt pistol, using

blank cartridge. At the beginning of occupation, the ACA prohibited the

manufacture of explosives as part of the demilitarization program. The

pistol method requirement of the law was, therefore, overlooked temporarily,

and stunning by hand methods was authorized. The OMGUS veterinary

officer appealed successfully to the ACA to permit limited and controlled

manufacture of the required ammunition.

After few difficult months early in the occupation, adequate numbers

of veterinary and lay meat inspectors became available and were able to

carry on relatively normal inspection operations. OMGUS required the submission of monthly meat inspection reports to CA/MG veterinary offices for

general information on this activity.

Milk inspection.—Milk inspection was based on the Reich law of 31 July

1930, as amended. Veterinary inspection was limited to health examination

of cows, laboratory examination for pathogenic bacteria (tuberculosis), and

sanitary inspection of milk pasteurizing plants. The Kreis veterinarian did

most of the milk inspection work personally. There were some 8,000 dairy

plants in Germany before the war.

Milk plants sustained some war damage, especially in larger cities.

Equipment was in poor repair due to wartime shortage of material. Fuel

was in short supply. The danger from tuberculosis-infected raw milk made

proper pasteurization imperative. Thus CA/MG gave high priority to the

rehabilitation and operation of milk plants early in the occupation. Veterinary service as related to milk inspection was soon reinstated to satisfactory degree. monthly summary report of veterinary milk inspection from

each Kreis veterinarian was required by CA/MG in the early months of the

occupation.

Other food inspection.—Various Reich laws required veterinarians to take

part in inspection of fish, eggs, game, food plant hygiene, and so forth. Such

activities continued in the occupation, with difficulties similar to other control work.

Carcass disposal.—Plants (knackeries) for the disposal of animal carcasses and similar materials were located throughout the country. Products

derived were hides, fat for soapmaking, and meat meal for animal feeding

and fertilizer. The veterinary service was involved in these operations as

part of the disease control program. The knackeries posed no special problems except for fuel needs in early occupation. Since the products from

them were in short supply, priority was given to their operation.

Veterinary laboratories.—Veterinary laboratories were provided for disease diagnosis, food testing, and research and production of biological prod-
CIVIL AFFAIRS AND MILITARY GOVERNMENT 469

nets. Most of the research and specialized laboratories were operated by the Reich government. Routine disease diagnosis and food testing were

done in the provincial laboratories. Veterinary and agricultural colleges

also had laboratories for special problems, as did the larger slaughterhouses.

Before the war there were 10 national and 34 provincial laboratories.

Despite some war damage, most laboratories were operative. They, too, suffered from short supply of fuel, old equipment in need of repair or replacement, and lack of enough technically trained personnel. Thus, ACA and

the German veterinary service gave considerable priority to rehabilitation

of the laboratories. In the beginning, most attention was given to the most

important functions of the laboratories such as disease diagnosis, food testing, and certain biological production. All research work was deferred.

Veterinary education.—Veterinary colleges were located at Hannover,

Berlin, Leipzig, Giessen, and Munich. The schools had excellent facilities

and faculties. Admission requirements and curriculums were similar to those in other modern countries. In line with the general CA/MG policy, all

schools were closed temporarily at the collapse of Germany in order to

survey the influence of Nazi teaching materials and instructors. First attention was given to elementary education and last to universities. Soon after

the beginning of occupation, CA/MG surveys were made of the veterinary

schools and plans made for their reopening. The policy of the ACA was

soon changed to permit full operation of higher technical schools (including

veterinary) within few months. The Munich school had been closed by

the Germans in 1939. All of the schools, except Leipzig, had suffered heavy

war damage both to buildings and equipment. Because of the very widespread destruction everywhere, there was great competition for repair materials and labor. After some months, however, the schools were repaired for

limited operations. During the first year or two, one of the requirements

for the students was the donation of labor time for repair work. Many

members of the prewar faculties had gone into military service and had

been killed or injured. The Nazi influence had been pushed deeply into all

educational levels; thus, many instructors were unacceptable to CA/MG. As

in the United States, the Germans soon established policy of giving priority

to education of war veterans. Thus there were large numbers of applicants

to the veterinary schools but inadequate facilities.

During the war years, world veterinary literature had almost ceased to

enter Germany, partly because of lack of outside communication and partly

because of Nazi attempts to keep out non-German literature. When the

Allied armies entered Germany, great desire among professional people

for outside literature was encountered. In the case of veterinary operations,

the OMGUS veterinary officer arranged with the American Veterinary Medical Association, American veterinary schools, U.S. Government agencies, and

other organizations to send to Germany large quantities of textbooks, magazines, and so forth. There had been great war damage to German publish-
470 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

ing houses and stocks of books. CA/MG gave considerable priority to

rehabilitating publishing facilities after several months. The Germans reopened the Munich school later in the occupation.

Veterinary supplies.—Prior to the war, Germany was not only selfsupporting in veterinary supplies, but exported considerable amounts. The

large chemical industry easily supplied veterinary drugs. The extensive

metal industry furnished veterinary instruments. Several large commercial

biological manufacturers and some government laboratories furnished necessary biologicals. There was national biological certification laboratory.

German army veterinary supplies remaining at V-E Day were soon turned

over for civilian veterinary use. These provided for minimum requirements

during the first few months when industrial production facilities were being

rehabilitated. The ACA Veterinary Subcommittee assisted in rehabilitation

of veterinary supply production and shipping from production areas to

using areas.

Fortunately, biologicals were in ample supply. Before the entrance into

Germany, it was learned that very large commercial vaccine and serum

production plant (the Behringwerke) was located at the small city of Marburg in the area to be part of the U.S. Zone of Occupation. This plant

supplied some 80 percent of the medical and veterinary biologicals in prewar Germany. Instructions were given to the combat commanders in the

Marburg area to prevent damage to the plant. The plant was captured intact, but several hundred serum-producing horses were killed for food by

displaced persons liberated from nearby detention camp by U.S. troops.

veterinary CA/MG officer was placed in complete control of the plant

soon after occupation began, partly because of its medical supply importance and partly because it belonged to the I. G. Farben cartel which was

being broken up by ACA policy. This firm, together with smaller commercial biological laboratories and the Land veterinary laboratories, supplied all needed veterinary biologicals except foot-and-mouth disease vaccine. This vaccine had been produced at the Reich Institute on the island

of Riems, now in the Russian Zone of Occupation. The Russians had partially dismantled the plant after the German collapse but later permitted

the Germans to rehabilitate it to limited extent. Because of the cutting

off of this source of supply, the Behringwerke, with the aid of CA/MG, soon constructed foot-and-mouth disease vaccine producing department.

Animal husbandry.—The German veterinary service had many activities

in connection with livestock raising and care. Some of these were advice

and assistance in animal hygiene, feeding, stabling, horseshoeing, artificial

insemination, and prevention of cruelty.

All types of livestock decreased during the war years (table 86). This

was due to interference of all aspects of animal husbandry activities, although considerable numbers were killed during the bombing and land combat

in Germany. The decrease was particularly noticeable in swine and poultry.
CIVIL AFFAIRS AND MILITARY GOVERNMENT 471

The early policy of CA/MG and the German Food and Agriculture officials

was to stimulate an increase to approximately the prewar level. This increase was evident even by late 1946.

Table 36.—Numbers of German livestock, 1938, 1945, and 1946

Military Government in Austria

Austria, occupied and integrated into Germany by the Nazis in their

Anschluss of 1938, was overrun and liberated by the Allied military forces

during the last week of April 1945, Soon after Y-E Day, the American

combat units that had begun the early restoration of law and order were

reorganized under control of the European theater as United States Forces

in Austria, with headquarters at Salzburg in the American Zone of Occupied

Austria. Austrian civil matters, as contrasted to military occupational activities, now became the responsibility of quadripartite Allied Control

Commission comprised of representative members from Britain, France,

Soviet Union, and the United States. The last-named representative, the

U.S. Commissioner, Austria, reported direct to the Joint Chiefs of Staff,

Washington, D.C. Aside from the four zones of military occupation, quadripartite control was set up in Austria’s capital city under the organization

of the Vienna Area Command (map 10). Within the organization of the

U.S. element, or civil affairs section of the Allied Commission, Austria, matters relating to the sanitary situation among the Austrian meat and dairy

industries and the country’s animal disease controls were handled by one or

more Veterinary Corps officers who were assigned to the Public Health

Branch, Internal Affairs Division, and in cooperation with the Agriculture

and Forestry Branch, Economic Division. In mid-1946, when military

government activities at the level of political states (or Laender) were withdrawn in favor of only limited, or central, direction of the Austrian Government—pursuant to new Allied control agreement—the foregoing organization was revised to better conform to the Austrian civil government;

public health activities were transferred to the control of the Labor Division, which was redesignated Social Administration Division. At about this

time, the Army Veterinary Service with the civil affairs organization in

Austria ended.

Livestock 1938 (March) 1945 (March) 1946 (December)

Horses

Cattle

Thousands

2, 380

15, 840

18, 000

5, 950

76, 790

Thousands

2, 200

13, 690

7, 140

4, 600

32, 560

Thousands

2, 220

13, 980

8, 410

5, 090

38, 920

Swine

Sheep and goats

Poultry

Source: Official German censuses.
472 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

In the U.S. area of occupied Austria, the civil veterinary profession

administered the sanitary operations of abattoirs and the production of milk.

As of December 1945-January 1946, the area animal population approximated 73,000 horses, 551,000 cattle, 117,000 sheep and goats, 197,000 pigs,

729,000 poultry (chickens), and 77,000 beehives. Due to shortages of cereals

arising as these were diverted to feeding the human population, animals

were required to be moved out of the American Zone; in Vienna, the shortages of animal feed became especially critical.

Rabies occurred sporadically for the first time since 1926, and horse scabies

—newly introduced—reached enzootic proportions during the first winter

months of occupation. Other diseases reported in the Austrian animal population as of June 1946 were foot-and-mouth disease, glanders, swine erysipelas,

foul pest, bovine tuberculosis, and so-called poliomyelitis of swine. Biologicals for controlling these diseases were generally obtainable from plant

in the Russian Zone; other supplies and veterinary equipment were provided

through Army supply channels. It may be mentioned, also, that the veterinary profession in the American Zone was numerically half of that reported in 1939.

PACIFIC THEATERS

Central Pacific Area

In the Central Pacific Area, CA/MG activities first were experienced by

the Army Veterinary Service when, following the attack on Pearl Harbor,

the Territory of Hawaii was declared under the rule of the Commanding

General, Hawaiian Department, as the Military Governor (7). The degree

of military government over the Hawaiian Islands was greatly lessened as

the war progressed, and, without doubt, this was not the same kind of

military government operation as applied to any other area which was liberated or occupied by the Army. However, one of the first activities undertaken by the Army Veterinary Service following the Japanese aerial attack

was the testing of fresh milk supplies in Honolulu for detection of possible

sabotage by the addition of bacterial or chemical poisons. This testing Avas

accomplished on request of the Department Surgeon for the purpose of

protecting the civil population against mass infection, which necessarily

would have involved the utilization of the existent, but limited, Army hospitals and other medical treatment facilities. What occurred thereafter

was more descriptive of the antibiological warfare program that soon saw

the integration of military veterinary personnel as civilian laborers in key

points within the island’s dairy plants, ice cream factories, sandwich assembly shops, and soda bottling plants. This veterinary activity, coming into

operation on all of the Hawaiian Islands for the remainder of the following

period, sufficiently accomplished the primary mission to safeguard the local

food supply but also did much more than that. It aided the civilian indus-
CIVIL AFFAIRS AND MILITARY GOVERNMENT 473

tries in keeping their labor, obtaining critically needed equipment and supplies, and adding improvements (some being greatly needed) in sanitary and

other quality production techniques. In addition to this, in the capacity of

military assistant and adviser to the Office of the Military Governor, the

Hawaiian Department veterinarian aided in the maintenance of the civilian

food supplies that were now being stored as “reserve,” and cooperated with

territorial governmental agencies and the civilian veterinary profession in

the operation of agricultural quarantines against the introduction of diseases

by indiscriminate importations of animals into the Hawaiian Islands. The

veterinary officers with the Army garrison commands on Kauai, Maui,

Molokai, Lanai, and Hawaii Islands also cooperated with local veterinarians

and government authorities in matters concerning civilian food supplies and

animal quarantine, and all Army veterinary personnel and supplies would

have been made available in the event of need to control any disease enzootic

among the civilian livestock population.

Outside of the Hawaiian Islands and until after the assault landings

were made on Okinawa (on April 1945), CA/MG operations in the islands

of the Central Pacific Area were administered by the Navy. Though there

was no central planning for the use of the Army veterinary personnel in such

operations, each naval civil affairs administrator or military governor seemed

to have requested the assistance of the veterinary officer(s) who accompanied

the Army garrison force command which established itself on an island following recapture or seizure from the Japanese enemy. This occurred when

the Marshall Islands (Kwajalein, Majuro, and Eniwetok atolls) were seized,

after the summer of 1944 when the Marianas (Guam, Saipan, and Tinian)

were invaded, and then on Angaur in the Palau groups. Earlier experiences,

rather than official information, on Navy planning for the occupation of the

Marianas were causes for the Army Veterinary Service to informally prepare

to assist the Navy in its CA/MG there. In fact, the Veterinarian, USAF,

Central Pacific Area, successfully obtained personnel space authorizations

and materiel in the Army garrison force commands for these islands such as

were believed needed to satisfy the more urgent demands for Army veterinary assistance. Also, limited quantities of various veterinary supplies and

equipment, including some few selected biologicals for the control of animal

diseases, were procured from the Zone of Interior and stockpiled by the

Army Medical Department, but it was intended that the Navy would procure these for the Army Veterinary Service if the initial Army supply

should be depleted in the naval activities. It may be noted that no Veterinary Corps officer was expressly assigned with primary duty in CA/MG

in the Central Pacific Area, or even for the Okinawa campaign, so that these

CA/MG activities, as well as all military matters within the geological limitation of each island, were conducted under the singular supervision of the

headquarters veterinarian of the respective Army garrison force or Armyadministered island command. This joining of the two activities was an
474 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

exception to basic Army policy that they would be the separate Army responsibilities of two staff groups of personnel (£), but the nature of joint

Army-Navy operations in the theater and the extent of CA/MG activities,

together with numerous shortages of Army veterinary officers, necessitated that veterinary officers be utilized in this dual capacity.

Army Veterinary Corps officers usually were the only veterinarians available after the Army-Navy-Marine Corps task forces landed in the MarshallGilbert, Marianas, and Palau groups. Two civilian Japanese veterinarians

were captured on Saipan—formerly Japanese-mandated island—but these

were not released from the internment camps for use in CA/MG operations.

On Guam, following Y-J Day, veterinarian was brought in from the United

States as civilian employee to supervise the development of local dairy

herd and operation of milk plant as part of project of the Federal Economics Administration. On Kwajalein, Guam, Saipan, and Tinian, the

Army garrison force veterinarians surveyed the local animal situation, usually

supervised the handling of the livestock for the Navy, and treated the animals which were sick, injured, or wounded. In the combat areas, animals

frequently were targets of small arms and artillery fire, proved especially

troublesome to patrols and guards at night, tangled in the communications

wires lying on the ground, and, if confined, were unwatered and nearly

starved. They were assembled as soon as the frontline combat situation

permitted, examined for physical condition and health, treated as required,

and then disposed of in variety of ways. They were slaughtered for supplying meat to interned civilians and prisoners of war, redistributed to the

native civilian population, or established in animal farms. Actually, the

animals were so disposed of without reference to any particular policy

because military priorities both for new airfield construction and for shipping troops and supplies had reduced the available grazing areas and had

prevented the importation of animal feeds; further, base development plans

for the postwar civilian economy in these islands were unknown. The inspection and supervision over reclamation of captured Japanese foods comprised another veterinary CA/MG activity, and, on some islands, the native

fishing industry was reestablished as soon as problems of military security

and facilities, including ice refrigeration, were met.

As might be expected, the livestock populations in the islands of the

Central Pacific Area were numerically small, and there were no major meat

and dairy industries. In fact, neither the natives nor the Japanese were

consumers of much meat (except fish), and the islands were unsuited to

support many more animals than were found there after the American landings. Frequently, many animals on the islands were slaughtered by the

Japanese military forces during the last few months of their occupancy.

For example, on Guam—United States territory which was occupied by the

Japanese in December 1941 and then recaptured in 1944—the cattle population had decreased from 4,000 to 1,776, and that of carabao from 900 to 429.
CIVIL AFFAIRS AND MILITARY GOVERNMENT 475

Figure 46.—Hog farm belonging to the U.S. Navy-administered civil affairs and military government on Saipan was established and operated under the supervision of the

Veterinarian, Army Garrison Force.

As of January 1945, there were also on Guam 69 goats, 688 swine, and 2,512

poultry. The former Japanese-mandate islands of Saipan and Tinian each

had 500-700 cattle, 300-500 goats, 100-300 swine, and more than thousand

poultry, when they were captured (fig. 46). On Kwajalein, 50 swine and

some few chickens, which had belonged to the Japanese military forces there,

were transferred to the native Marshallese, and on Angaur, much the same

disposition to the native population was made of few pigs, chickens, and

many goats which were captured. In regard to horses, only two were captured on Saipan and three on Angaur.

In addition to the veterinary CA/MG activities concerning livestock

and the feeding of interned personnel and prisoners of war, the Army Veterinary Service investigated the local animal disease situation and developed

plans for rabies control and the operation of quarantine procedures. Actually, the animals on most islands were shown to be free of diseases that were

common to Japan and which might have been introduced by the enemy.

Unfortunately, shortly following V-J Day, Guam was selected as the offshore quarantine station to process and test shipment of Brahma cattle of

Indian origin being brought into the United States by the U.S. Department

of Agriculture; on request, the local Army veterinary officer supervised the

receipt, processing, and shipment of these animals. On Saipan, an enzootic

of erysipelas occurred in August-September 1944 and resulted in the loss of
476 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

70 swine among group of 120 before the disease could be controlled.

professional team from the 18th Medical General Laboratory and U.S.

Navy laboratory unit completed an animal disease survey on the same island.

Bovine brucellosis was uncovered among native cattle, and liver fluke

(.Fasciola gigantica) tick BoopTiilus sp.), and common ectoparasites and

endoparasites were demonstrated in the various animal species; however, the

more serious animal diseases, such as anaplasmosis, glanders, Johne’s disease,

piroplasmosis, and tuberculosis, were not demonstrated in the animals which

were examined.

Okinawa

At about the time the active fighting in the Marianas was over, the

Army Veterinary Service in the Central Pacific Area (after August 1944,

designated as U.S. Army Forces, Pacific Ocean Areas) was well prepared

to assist in nearly any CA/MG activity which would arise in forthcoming

campaigns. For the planning of Operation ICEBERG, the Army and Navy

assault on the Ryukyu Islands (including Okinawa and le Shima) in April

1945, the Navy had transferred its CA/MG to the jurisdiction of the Army.

Thus, before the invasion, Headquarters, Tenth U.S. Army, established its

own civil affairs staff section, later renamed Military Government Section.

The latter was the nucleus of Military Government Headquarters, Island

Command, that was formed during January 1945 in the Hawaiian Islands

where most of the ground forces were. Military Government Headquarters

for Okinawa was assigned responsibility for all civil matters on Okinawa,

even in the combat divisional areas of the Tenth U.S. Army. Veterinary

Corps officer was not assigned to this military government organization,

however, because its veterinary activities were to be integrated into the

overall military veterinary service on Okinawa that would be conducted

under the singular supervision of the Veterinarian, Headquarters, Island

Command (8).

The Headquarters, Island Command, had the personnel and was provided with the equipment such as were needed to meet the needs of all

military government activities on the island. In the beginning of the campaign, the Tenth U.S. Army veterinarian cooperated with the Island Command's veterinary organization in caring for and treating captured animals

and in inspecting the foods and food animals which were used in the feeding of civilians who were interned. Furthermore, in June 1945, Tenth

U.S. Army veterinary officer was placed on temporary duty with Military

Government Headquarters, with station at Ishikawa, to serve as attending

veterinarian to the internment camps in the area and certain Okinawan district headquarters. Simultaneously, Headquarters, Island Command, deployed the 145th Veterinary Food Inspection Detachment to military government activities in the Taira district to cooperate in the military government operations of the 6th Marine Division in Tago, P.I. The Okinawa
CIVIL AFFAIRS AND MILITARY GOVERNMENT 477

campaign ended on 22 June 1945, and the number of Okinawans under

immediate military control then approximated 200,000. The functional organization and activities of the civil veterinary profession on Okinawa before the American landings apparently compared

with that observed later in the occupation of Japan—the latter having annexed Okinawa in the late 1800's. Only six Japanese-educated veterinarians

came under the jurisdiction of military government, and these, in August

1945, were utilized to care for the animals which were assembled and maintained in the internment camps. Interrogations of these personnel indicated

that the animal disease situation on Okinawa was better than might have

been expected and confirmed the results of preliminary investigations which

were made by the Army Veterinary Service. The mallein test of 835 horses

showed glanders not to be present, and tuberculin test of 90 cattle and

goats showed no tuberculosis although the captured veterinarians had indicated that the two diseases were present—of course, many of the 40,000

cattle that were once present were killed for food by the Japanese during

the last year of their occupancy. Boynton-tissue vaccine of U.S. origin

was used to vaccinate the local swine population against hog cholera. Anthrax, equine infectious anemia, and rabies were nonexistent, but there were

number of equally serious contagions that were reportedly present, including equine encephalomyelitis, piroplasmosis, scabies, swine erysipelas, bovine brucellosis, and liver duke infestation.

Te Shima—another island of the Ryukyu group and situated northwest

of Okinawa—was invaded by divisional element of the Tenth U.S. Army

in mid-April 1945, and, before the end of the next month, the Army garrison

force veterinarian there had 375 horses, 30 cattle, 60 swine, and 100 goats

under his supervision.

Southwest Pacific Area

Generally, the Army Veterinary Service had little or nothing to do

with CA/MG operations in the Southwest Pacific Area. In August 1944,

GIIQ, SWPA (General Headquarters, Southwest Pacific Area), which was

an Allied command, added Civil Affairs Section to its organization which

included health and sanitation component and five other components but

nothing directly relative to agriculture or veterinary matters. Similar staff

sections were soon established in the field armies headquarters (namely, that

of the Sixth and Eighth U.S. Armies) and in Headquarters, USAFFE

(U.S. Army Forces in the Far East). In the next month, on New Guinea,

the USAFFE command established parent organizational unit, the Philippine Civil Affairs Division; this division was to organize, train, and otherwise administer Philippine Civil Affairs Units, each with 10 officers and 39

enlisted personnel, such as were to be attached to field armies and the service

or base commands. Eight such units accompanied the Sixth U.S. Army in

the landings and campaign on Leyte, on 20 October 1944. Eventually, 30
478 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

units were organized before the Philippine Islands were completely retaken

from the Japanese. These units established civil administration and provided relief supplies to civilians, but as soon as the local combat situation

permitted, the civil administration was given up to representatives of the

Commonwealth of the Philippines; assistance was provided when requested,

but there was no interference with civil operations. The supplies of food

provided by the Army were inspected, but beyond this there was no professional activity undertaken by the Army Veterinary Service, such as rehabilitation of the civil veterinary organization or the food and livestock industries

in the Philippines. At least one veterinary officer, arriving in New Guinea

for eventual assignment in civil affairs duties—pursuant to War Department orders—was ordered into Philippine Civil Affairs Unit (the 21st)

but was utilized as the unit supply officer when the unit was deployed to

the Philippines. It was observed that the organization of Philippine Civil

Affairs Units was too fixed fo permit the integration of veterinary officers,

and that: “Nowhere in the SOP (Standing Operating Procedure) of Philippine Civil Affairs has provision been made for rendering to the livestock

industry service similar in nature to what the medical officer will render

to the civilian population nor could any high staff officers give any

assurance that such consideration was contemplated” ).

As the postwar occupation of Japan got underway, the responsibility

for the U.S. program of supply assistance in the area was transferred from

the Army to U.S. civil agencies.

As this was taking place, or in August 1945, the Philippine civil affairs

organization of Headquarters, USAFFE (now called Headquarters, U.S.

Army Forces, Pacific) was abolished, and the concerned personnel were transferred to, or came under control of, the newly created Military Government

Section, GHQ, USAFPAC (General Headquarters, U.S. Army Forces in the

Pacific). The section included Public Health and Welfare Division, to

which Veterinary Corps officer was assigned following his arrival, in that

month, at Manila, P.I., from the Zone of Interior. Preparations now were

well underway for early military occupation of Japan.

Japan

The Army Veterinary Service with military government in Japan and

Korea had its start on August 1945, when, in connection with the planning for Operations OLYMPIC and CORONET (or the assault and landings

on Kysuhu and on the Tokyo Plain of Honshu), Veterinary Corps officer

reported for duty in the War Department’s Civil Affairs Division {10). Later in the month, this officer was transferred to, and included in, the

Military Government Section, GHQ, USAFPAC, that—as was mentioned

in the preceding paragraph—was now being organized at Manila. Of

course, the sudden capitulation of Japan (on 14 August 1945) saw major

changes in the foregoing plans which had contemplated kind of military
CIVIL AFFAIRS AND MILITARY GOVERNMENT 479

government operation as was experienced in Italy and continental Europe.

As the new Operation BLACKLIST, which established the pattern of the

military occupation, got underway, USAFPAC’s Public Health and Welfare

Division lost its personnel, including the aforementioned veterinary officer

(who arrived in Japan on 23 September), to the newly organized GHQ, SCAP (General Headquarters, Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers).

These personnel now comprised newly formed Public Health and Welfare

Section which acted as adviser to the Supreme Commander for all nonmilitary medical activities in occupied Japan. The section was headed by

Medical Corps officer as chief of section and was internally organized to

include several divisions, one being the Veterinary Affairs Division.

Under the direction of the chief of the Public Health and Welfare

Section, the chief of the Veterinary Affairs Division functioned as adviser

on veterinary matters which would prevent disease and unrest among the

Japanese civilian population; protect the health and further the accomplishment of the mission of the occupation forces; satisfy the minimal or essential humanitarian, public health, and welfare requirements of the civil population; and aid in the repatriation of displaced Japanese. More specifically,

veterinary professional and technical recommendations were made (1) with

respect to the adequacy of the controls over animal diseases transmissible

to man that threatened the military occupation troops and civil populations

or that might impair the Japanese livestock and transport animal industries, and (2) as to the efficacy of the country’s sanitary control over its meat,

dairy, and fish industries. Liaison was maintained with, and professional

assistance was provided to, the General Headquarters’ Natural Resources,

and Economic and Scientific Sections and, within the Public Health and

Welfare Section, to the Medical Supply Division. Essentially, only recommendations were made by these headquarters sections to SCAP who alone

could order compliance by the Japanese Government; in practice, the Japanese Government was allowed to continue the governing of Japan because,

unlike in Occupied Germany, the central government was not abolished nor

the country’s laws discarded and replaced by true military government by

Army personnel; SCAP was established as superior to the Emperor of Japan

and the Imperial Japanese Government. This was commonly referred to as

indirect military government. The staff's Veterinary Affairs Division was

augmented by another officer in November 1945, but the latter was replaced

in the summer of 1946 by an American veterinarian employed in civilian

capacity.

Below the level of GHQ, SCAP, there were military government teams

which observed or acted as surveillance inspectors of the Japanese Government organizations at the regional level and in the prefectures, including

the Tokyo-Kanagawa District. The teams were administered by Headquarters, Eighth U.S. Army (located at Yokohama) or the latter’s IX Corps

(with headquarters at Sendai) and Corps (with headquarters at Kyoto),
480 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

each having its own military government staff section. (USAFPAC comprised the truly military occupational troops, but it had nothing to do

with military government over the Japanese.) veterinary officer was

assigned to the Eighth U.S. Army’s military government section in November 1945, and during June 1946, others came on duty with two military

government teams, now called the 105th Military Government Group, at

Sendai and the 74th Military Government Company, at Sapporo. The

SCAP veterinary officer had requested one officer for each of the eight regional military government teams, but this request was denied due to the

policy of reducing military government personnel.

The duties and functions of military government veterinary officers in

Japan were expressly defined by GHQ, SCAP, as being those “of surveillance of Japanese veterinary and livestock officials to ascertain if the directives of the Supreme Commander are being complied with” and “of giving

professional guidance to the Japanese” ). In regard to the first-named

function and duty, the following summary notes were added:

The surveillance responsibility of Military Government Veterinary Officers will require

frequent detailed investigations at local levels to determine status of compliance by local

Japanese veterinary and livestock officials with the instructions of the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers to the Imperial Japanese Government. Control of epidemic

animal diseases is of primary importance. Personal investigation of significant outbreaks

accompanied by civilian officials is necessary in order to determine the efficacy of control

measures in effect and the rendition of required reports.

Slaughterhouses, milk plants and dairy farms must be visited in order to determine

the existence and adequacy of inspections. The frequency and adequacy of reports must

be investigated in order to insure authentic statistical data. Any failure on the part of

the Japanese agencies to carry out adequately all instructions will be reported immediately through channels whenever the irregularities cannot be corrected locally.

The basic document relating to civil veterinary organization and activities in occupied Japan was promulgated by GIIQ, SCAP, on 30 October

1945 {12). By memorandum to the Imperial Japanese Government, the latter was directed to: (1) Inaugurate or reestablish measures for the control

of animal diseases and the inspection of meat and dairy products; (2)

preserve statistical records relating to animal diseases and to meat and dairy

hygiene inspections; (3) prepare and submit special periodic reports on certain contagious diseases, monthly reports on meat and dairy hygiene inspections, and an annual report on the production of veterinary biologicals;

and (4) report by the end of the next month on those steps which the

Japanese Government had taken to comply. This directive was followed

on 18 March 1945, by another to the Commanding General, Eighth U.S.

Army, and to military government personnel concerning their supervisory

actions and surveillance over the Japanese, who now were to “promptly

reestablish self-sufficient, indigenous veterinary service in occupied areas

{13, Ilf). In so doing, the Japanese veterinary service was to accomplish four objects: “(1) Prevention and control of animal diseases transmissible
CIVIL AFFAIRS AND MILITARY GOVERNMENT 481

to man which might seriously affect the health of the Occupation Forces or

the civil population; (2) prevention and control of animal diseases which

might interfere with indigenous food supplies or draft animals; (3) inspection of foods of animal origin in an efficient manner; (4) rendition of reports containing reliable statistical data concerning veterinary affairs.” In

the accomplishment of these objectives, the Japanese activities were only to

be under the surveillance of the military government teams who would collect, analyze, and act as field agencies reporting through military channels

to General Headquarters; the teams also were to stimulate or insure that

the Japanese officials were rendering an efficient service and enforcing the

provisions of the directives of SCAP and of their own laws and regulations.

Of course, key points and special areas of disease control, meat and dairy

hygiene inspections, and veterinary laboratory service and research were

described as requiring surveillance. Later in that year (1946), new regulations relating to meat inspection and dairy hygiene that had been adopted

by the Japanese Ministry of Health and Social Affairs—on recommendation

by the Army Veterinary Service—were promulgated in two Public Health

and Welfare Technical Bulletins and set forth as guide to military government personnel to stimulate the sanitary improvement in Japan’s meat

and dairy industries (iJ, 16).

Military government terminated in Japan soon after the signing of

peace treaty on September 1951.

Civil veterinary services.—The functional organization of Japanese veterinary affairs at the level of national government was divided among three

ministries; Ministry of Health and Social Affairs (or Welfare), Ministry

of Agriculture and Forestry, and Ministry of Education. Also, there was

the Japanese army veterinary service, with approximately 5,000 veterinarians,

but this was demobilized. At the onset of the occupation, the first-named

ministry included Sanitary Bureau, and the latter, the Veterinary Hygiene

Section which regulated the country’s meat and dairy hygiene inspection

services and conducted laboratory examinations and analyses of food. On

the other hand, animal disease control, port quarantine, and licensing of

veterinary personnel were handled by the Ministry of Agriculture and

Forestry through its Animal Hygiene Section, and its Laboratory Section

administered clinicodiagnostic laboratories, animal disease research, and the

production of veterinary biologicals. The Japanese Ministry of Education

controlled the school or educational phase of veterinary medicine. Below

the level of the national government, there were more than 40 prefectures

(or kens) the prefecture veterinary service organization was similar to the

national organization with its health and welfare section controlling the local

meat and dairy hygiene services and the prefecture agricultural section in

charge of animal disease control.

Japan’s veterinary profession numbered 21,000 members at the start of

the occupation period and were regulated as regards their licensure by the
482 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. license was granted without examination to graduates from universities or colleges approved by and functioning under control of the Ministry of Education, whereas nongraduates

could gain license by examination. However, this procedure was being

changed, on recommendation of the Japanese Council on Veterinary Education—which was created by direction of military government—so that only

graduates would be examined and licensed. There were 23 educational institutions, having normal student body of 4,000. Two of these institutions

were the Tokyo Imperial University and the Hokkaido Imperial University

which were the best of their kind in regard to veterinary education in Japan.

The others included national and prefecture colleges of agriculture and forestry,

private colleges, and number of prefecture “middle” agricultural schools—-

the last having minimal entrance requirements and operating an Americantype high school course mostly in agriculture. Steps were undertaken to

raise the level of veterinary education to more closely parallel that of the

Imperial universities and to revise the regular 3-year courses by adding

fourth year in the professional veterinary college curriculum. Many of the

graduates were employed on governmental work or by private agricultural

groups and conducted private practice in addition to other employment.

About fourth of the licensed veterinarians were members of the Japanese

Veterinary Medical Association, which functioned under the control of the

Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry; it, as well as professional journals,

had become inoperative during the war period, but efforts were undertaken

early during the occupation for their revival.

Though Japan is an agrarian country, its livestock industry was relatively small one. Actually, the Japanese are not consumers of much meat

(except fish), probably because the Buddhist religion discourages the killing

of animals, and the amount and nature of tillable soil is not adequate to

support the pasturage or the raising of cereals for feeding animals. The

Japanese requirements and the national interest in sports stimulated the

breeding and raising of horses, but, for the most part, horses and cattle

were used for draft purposes on the small Japanese farms. There were not

many dairy-type cows or meat-producing-type animals, although some few

goats, swine, poultry, and rabbits were raised to augment the food supply

in certain areas. The war did not result in any serious depletion of the

number of animals in Japan except possibly of poultry and swine. The

Japanese estimated the livestock population for 1945 as including 1,250,000

horses, 2,320,000 cattle, 180,000 sheep, 250,000 goats, 250,000 swine, 23,000,000

chickens and ducks, and 3,200,000 rabbits. It may be noted that 67,000 to

80.000 horses belonging to the former Japanese army were disposed of by

sale to civilians soon after military occupation got underway; however,

30.000 of these were slaughtered (outside of legitimate supply channels)

because of the existent shortages in food supplies. Also, the horses were of

unsuitable type or in poor physical condition for use on the farms. The
CIVIL AFFAIRS AND MILITARY GOVERNMENT 483

animal disease situation had not reached critical point when the Allied

forces began the military occupation of Japan, even though the normal

regulatory controls over animals were curtailed or disrupted by the wartime

shortages in facilities and number of personnel. Of course, it must be emphasized that the Japanese islands were not subjected to concerted aerial

attacks until after the winter of 1944-45, which ended when the atomic

bombs were dropped over Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The control of animal diseases was the subject of number of Japanese

laws and regulations which were administered by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry; however, responsibility for actual law enforcement was

decentralized to the prefectural governments. The military occupational

forces concerned with military government made no changes in the laws

but. only conducted surveillance of each Japanese prefecture official in his

manner of performing the prescribed regulatory activities. The most important of the Japanese legal documents was the Law for the Prevention of

Infectious Diseases of Domestic Animals, which provided for the actions

to be taken when disease appeared, including quarantine, immunization,

sanitation and disinfection, disposal of infected animals and carcasses, reporting, reimbursement to owners of the affected animals, and penalties if

the law’s provisions were violated. Two other laws expressly concerned the

control of equine infectious anemia and bovine tuberculosis, and Japanese

Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry regulation (in effect since 1923) governed the performance of port quarantine of animals at 12 locations. GHQ,

SCAP, assumed responsibility to limit any postwar importations of animals

in view of the hazards of introducing diseases into Japan and the inability

of the Japanese economy to support them. Also, there was an Imperial

ordinance for collecting money from the national and prefecture governments and individual owners to pay for these animal disease controls. The

principal, or reportable, diseases of animals reported in Japan were anthrax,

blackleg, brucellosis (or bovine infectious abortion), equine encephalomyelitis,

equine infectious anemia, erysipelas, fowl cholera, fowl pest, glanders, pullorum disease (or white diarrhea of chickens), rabies, scabies, swine cholera,

swine plague, Texas fever, and trichomoniasis.

Regulatory sanitary controls over the Japanese meat and milk industries were maintained by the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, but the

actual supervision of the country’s meat inspection law (or slaughterhouse

law, which was originally promulgated in the 1870’s and revised in 1906)

and the dairy hygiene regulations (or milk code, which was adopted in

1933) were the responsibility of the local prefecture government. The latter

employed the milk inspectors and as many as 625 inspectors who worked in

the 712 slaughterhouses throughout Japan. The two industries were made up

of great number of small slaughterhouses and of dairy farms and milk

plants, but their total output was relatively small for feeding the Japanese

population as compared to the production of the same industries to satisfy
484 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

consumer demands in the United States. The estimated output of the

Japanese meat industry for 1945 covered the slaughter of 70,000 horses,

120,000 cattle, 30,000 calves, 1,000 sheep and goats, and 40,000 swine, but

this was only quarter of the total number of these animals slaughtered in

prewar Japan (in 1941) the country’s milk production dropped to 43,000,000

gallons of fresh milk, or less than 50 percent of the quantity recorded

years earlier. Usually, the establishments had the facilities to produce

satisfactory products, but the state of repair in equipment and the nature

of processing procedures were such that the output frequently failed to

meet minimal modern sanitary requirements. In the slaughterhouses and

meat plants, the Japanese veterinary ante mortem and post mortem inspections were conducted efficiently, but there was no inspection in subsequent

meat processing procedures nor were refrigerated facilities available. The

cattle slaughter included large numbers of animals that had outlived their

usefulness on the farms for draft purposes or as milk producers. Diseases

causing condemnations of slaughter animals included actinomycosis, cysticercosis, and distomatosis. In regard to the milk plants, only small part

of their production was pasteurized—or actually boiled—and there was little

laboratory control over the product or during its production. The raw milk

supply was required to originate from cattle tested and found free of

tuberculosis, but the herds, including goats, were not tested for brucellosis

unless such tests were requested by the herd owner concerned. Official bacterial standards and butter fat content were prescribed for four types of

fresh milk: special, ordinary, manufacturing, and goat milk.

The Japanese veterinary laboratory service was found to be adequate,

with greater part of it under government control. There were only few

privately owned laboratories. The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry

operated clinicodiagnostic and biologic-producing laboratories in the prefectures, while the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs controlled the food

analytical laboratories. The former agency, through its own Veterinary

Laboratory Section, also established research programs on the diagnosis,

treatment, and preventive measures of animal diseases, whereas similar

program relating to the sanitary control of foods was conducted in the

Laboratory of Veterinary Hygiene, Institute of Infectious Diseases, which

operated under the supervision of the Tokyo Imperial University.

Korea

Postwar Korea, or Chosen, as this country Avas called in 1910 when

annexed by Japan, was planned by the Allies for development into an independent sovereign state. Its Allied military occupation was begun in September 1945 when Russian troops entered Korea above the 38th Parallel

and American occupational troops under control of the XXIV Corps entered

Seoul and the southern area of Korea. The XXIV Corps, later becoming

the U.S. Army Forces in Korea, was responsible to GHQ, SCAP. This
CIVIL AFFAIRS AND MILITARY GOVERNMENT 485

occupation of South Korea was terminated soon after the new Republic of

Korea was proclaimed (in August 1948), but the Soviet occupation zone

developed another political entity at about this late date so that the wartime Allies’ objective for postwar, single Korean state Avas not reached.

At the start of the American occupation, Headquarters, XXIV Corps, had its own military government staff section which became the Office of

Military Governor, U.S. Army Forces in Korea; by January 1946, CA/MG

operations were centered in the newly organized U.S. Army Military Government in Korea, with headquarters located at Seoul 10 17, 18). The

XXIV Corps Veterinarian originally acted as military government adviser

on veterinary affairs in Korea, but, by December 1945, five veterinary officers had arrived for primary duty assignment with the military government

organization; other officers Avere added later. This personnel comprised the

Veterinary Department, Avhich Avas established Avithin the organization of

the Public Health and Welfare Bureau, Headquarters, U.S. Army Military Government in Korea, and those avIio Avere placed on duty with the eight

provincial military government organizations. They Avere concerned Avith

the control of animal diseases, meat and dairy hygiene inspections, civil

veterinary education, laboratory activities and research, and the supply of

professional materiel. These civil affairs activities Avere directly controlled

and supervised by Veterinary Corps officers during the early occupation

period because the Japanese veterinarians who had once occupied key positions in the Korean A’eterinary organization noAv Avere being repatriated or

returned to Japan. Summarizing, the veterinary situation here more or less

paralleled that observed in the occupation of Germany where denazification

procedures had removed the principal veterinarians from the German civil

administration, but it Avas materially different from that in Japan Avhere

military government operated through the existent Japanese civil administration, Later, of course, as Korean veterinarians were brought into

training program and assumed self-governing responsibilities, the Army

veterinary officers gradually changed their duties to that of only advising

and assisting in Korean veterinary civilian affairs.

Civil veterinary services.—The civilian veterinary profession in Korea

at the start of the occupation approximated thousand members, but many

of these Avere graduates of the 10 or more agricultural schools having

veterinary departments that lacked the facilities and faculties necessary for

the proper education of veterinarians. The profession’s efficiency Avas further

reduced by the shortages in supplies and the losses of Japanese veterinarians

who Avere being repatriated by Japan. In the early civil affairs programs

for South Korea, the Army Veterinary Service sought to the

veterinary educational activities, particularly at the neAv Seoul National

University Avhere Army Veterinary Corps officers Avere assigned as instructors (fig. 47). Also, Korean veterinarians Avere trained at various echelons

of civil gOA ernment to replace the Japanese who had once controlled almost
48f> ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

AFIP 28642-0

Figure 47.—Veterinary officers with U.S. Army Military Government in Korea pioneered and provided clinical instructional services to students in the new postwar

veterinary college at Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea.

all veterinary affairs in Korea. Before these programs got underway, however, the American military governor provided for the organization of

provincial national government and the reestablishment of governmental

veterinary services under new Korean Bureau of Public Health.

Korea’s livestock population, in 1943, totaled 35,000 to 50,000 cattle (of

which only 2,000 were of the dairy type), one-half million each of sheep

and goats, more than million hogs, and several million chickens and

rabbits. No animal census regarding South Korea was reported, although

it may be noted that the Japanese had slaughtered many animals during the

last few years of the war. Dogs, once important in the supply of food

and fur clothing, were totally destroyed, pursuant to Japanese directive

of 1945; also, the former Japanese-owned poultry raising centers about

Seoul and Pusan were now practically nonexistent. In the regulation of

animal diseases, Japanese laws and regulations were used throughout Korea;

in the military occupation period, the Koreans were directed to continue
CIVIL AFFAIRS AND MILITARY GOVERNMENT 487

them. The more serious animal diseases in Korea included actinomycosis,

anthrax, blackleg, fowl pest, glanders, rabies, rinderpest, and tuberculosis.

Anthrax and blackleg were controlled by the conduct of annual vaccination

programs in the enzootic areas, and fowl pest was controlled to moderate

extent by the use of locally developed chicken-tissue vaccine, administered

intravenously. Glanders and rinderpest—normally present in North Korea

were more or less avoided in the American zone of occupation by the initiation of energetic controls. In the instance of rinderpest, the threatened

movement of cattle across rivers, when frozen over, at points where there

were no regularly operating quarantine stations, brought recognition to this

as wintertime disease. In the period from November 1945 through January

1946, all cattle located in geographic area, 10-15 miles wide, immediately

below the 38th Parallel were vaccinated with killed tissue vaccine produced in laboratory at Pusan. Research studies on new rinderpest vaccine of rabbit-tissue origin were well advanced. Rabies unfortunately appeared and became widespread during 1946, but the shortages in the supply

of rabies vaccine made impossible the reinstitution of disease controls at

the time. In fact, this as well as certain other biologicals and general

veterinary supplies were difficult to obtain because the Japanese sources were

no longer available. Considerable efforts were directed toward locating and

distributing captured Japanese military stockpiles and for obtaining an early

delivery of U.S. Army civil affairs materiel.

In regard to the Korean meat and dairy industries, such sanitary controls as existed were enforced by police authorities with the technical assistance of veterinarians, pursuant to outdated laws and regulations. Approximately tenth of the 1,500 abattoirs in Korea were city or provincial

owned and were operated under the supervision of veterinarians. There

were only two milk pasteurizing plants (at Seoul and Pusan) in South

Korea; but, other than the periodic testing of cattle for tuberculosis, there

was no real sanitary control over the production from dairy farms and goat

dairies. During the war years, 10 to 15 percent of the cattle, except native

cattle which were not required by law to be tested, were shown to be infected

with tuberculosis.

References

1. AR 40-5, 15 Jan. 192G.

2. FM 27-5, Military Government, 80 July 1940.

3. FM 27-5/OPNAV 50E-3, United States Army and Navy Manual of Military Government and Civil Affairs, 22 Dec. 1943.

4. Rushmore, Rowland W.: History of the Veterinary Service in Civil Affairs, Italy.

[Official record.]

5. Frederiksen, Oliver J.: The American Military Occupation of Germany, 1945-53.

Historical Division, HQ, USAFET, 1953. [Official record.]

6. Todd, Frank A., and Carter, Philip R.; History of the United States Army Veterinary Service in Civil Affairs/Military Government in the European Theater in World

War II. [Official record.]
488 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

7. Kester, Wayne O., and Miller, Everett B.: History of the U.S. Army Medical

Department, Veterinary Service, United States Army Forces, Pacific Ocean Areas. [Official record.]

8. Seymour, Raymond T.; Veterinary History, Tenth Army (20 June 1944-15 October

1945). [Official record.]

9. Letter, Maj. C. A. Woodhouse, VC, Philippine Civil Affairs Unit 21, to Brig. Gen.

R. A. Kelser, Chief, Veterinary Division, SCO, 1G Dec. 1944.

10. Dixon, Oness H., Jr.: History of Veterinary Civil Affairs in Japan and Korea.

[Official record.]

11. Public Health and Welfare Technical Bulletin, TB-PH-VET 1, GHQ, SCAP,

February 1947.

12. Memoi’andum, Public Health and Welfare Section, GHQ, SCAP, to the Imperial

Japanese Government, 30 Oct. 1945, subject: Information on Japanese Animal Disease

Control.

13. Letter, Public Health and Welfare Section, GHQ, SCAP, to CG, Eighth U.S. Army,

18 Mar. 1946, subject: Animal Disease Control.

14. Memorandum, Public Health and Welfare Section, GHQ, SCAP, for information

of all concerned, subject: Information of General Application Pertaining to Directive

Number (SCAPIN-214), 30 Oct. 1945, subject; Information on Japanese Animal Disease

Control.

15. Public Health and Welfare Technical Bulletin, TB-PH-VET 2, GHQ, SCAP, 22

Nov. 1946.

16. Public Health and Welfare Technical Bulletin, TB-PH-VET 3, GHQ, SCAP,

December 1946.

17. Essential Technical Medical Data, USAFPAC, for November 1945 through June

1946.

18. Weekly bulletins, Public Health and Welfare Section, GHQ, SCAP.
489

CHAPTER XIII

Animal Procurement

The Army Veterinary Service concerned with the professional and technical supervision over the procurement and processing of remount animals

for the U.S. Army in World War II included as many as 50 Veterinary Corps

officers. They were assigned to purchasing boards, remount areas, remount

depots, and quartermaster units and organizations in the Zone of Interior

and in such oversea theaters as the South and Southwest Pacific areas, the

China-Burma-India, Mediterranean, and European theaters. This personnel,

included in the organic composition of the worldwide remount activities and

organization, provided professional services for, and supervisory care over,

140,000 horses and mules coming into U.S. Army remount depots (including

returned animals) and during the tenure of their stay until issued, sold, or

transferred. The animals actually procured included the 60,000 purchased

in the Zone of Interior, the 6,000 purchased or obtained by reverse lend-lease

in Australia, and the many thousands which were captured, requisitioned,

or received from the Allied military forces in the China-Burma-India, Mediterranean, and European theaters. In China, animals were procured for the

Chinese military forces by Sino-American Horse Purchasing Bureau whose

U.S. veterinary officers were sent into far-distant Tibet. Additional animals

were purchased by the U.S. Army in the Hawaiian Islands, New Caledonia,

and Fiji Islands,

The Army Remount Service, under the control of The Quartermaster

General, was responsible for the procurement of animals and animal feed

for the Army; the control over the care, training, and issue of animals at the

remount depots, and the supervision of the Army Horse Breeding Plan (1, 2).

However, those professional and technical aspects relating to the health and

efficiency of animals within the Army Remount Service were matters properly

referred to the Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office, and were supervised by the veterinary service with purchasing boards, remount areas, depots,

and quartermaster remount units.

ANIMAL PROCUREMENT IN THE ZONE OF INTERIOR

For the administration of animal procurement activities in the Zone of

Interior, the United States (and its territories) was divided into several

remount purchasing zones or areas. Originally, four such zones were described but these, becoming involved in the administration of the Army Horse

Breeding Plan after World War I, gave way to remount purchasing and

breeding areas, each with an area headquarters. As many as seven such

areas were designated during World War II, and their headquarters locations
490 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

and geographically defined limits varied from time to time, but by the end

of the war only six were named. Each such area included headquarters

veterinarian who was responsible to the officer-in-charge for the conduct

of the veterinary service of the remount area (3). This included the investigation of the sanitary conditions surrounding the procurement and

transportation of military animals in the area, the supervisory control over

the veterinary officers assigned to the one or more purchasing boards that

may be operating within the area, and the furnishing of professional services

for the Army Horse Breeding Plan. Some few headquarters were located

in remount depots, but many of them had their own veterinary dispensary

facilities where disabled animals from the purchasing boards could be treated

or where Government-owned stallions could be wintered and reconditioned

for reissue to civilian stallion agents.

During World ar II, no major difficulties were experienced by the

headquarters veterinarians in the animal procurement programs throughout

the remount areas. Dourine was the only disease occurring in the civil horse

population that caused temporary halt to procurement in three States during 1940-41; glanders, mange, and ringworm were unreported. However,

equine influenza and the related diseases were observed at many civilian assembly points, but steps were taken to lessen their seriousness. The latter

included requests for contractors to furnish clean and suitable sales barns

or stables and to assemble their offerings of animals just before the scheduled

times of visit by the purchasing boards, which then transshipped the newly

purchased animals into the remount depots as soon as was possible. Another

action taken to minimize the chances of infection among animals being offered

to Army procurement was the naming of as many as 12 to 80 inspection and

shipping points within remount area rather than asking contractors to concentrate any large number of animals at one or two points. This matter

was of great importance when mules were purchased because most of them

were obtained through dealers; on the other hand, where horses were bought

direct from breeders and ranches, these problems did not arise. The “art of

bishoping,” which made the determination of the animal’s age more difficult,

and the traffic of rejected animals into the other remount areas was observed

in only few instances. large number of mules were rejected from procurement on account of deformities of the feet which were caused seemingly

by improper or neglectful trimming by the original owners.

In the remount area where animal procurement was not an extensive

activity, the headquarters veterinarian also served on the animal purchasing

board within that area. Usually, only one such board operated at any time

within remount area; the examination of animals for procurement could be

made concurrently on the same itinerary of travel which was followed to

inspect the Government-owned stallions standing at stud within the remount

area. However, the two together more frequently comprised too great
ANIMAL PROCUREMENT 491

workload so that most headquarters veterinarians were furnished an additional veterinary officer who was assigned to the purchasing board.

The quartermaster purchasing board included the Veterinary Corps

officer as board member, who was given the title of purchasing board veterinarian. Under the technical supervision of the headquarters veterinarian of the remount area wherein the board was operating, he conducted the physi- cal examinations on all animals offered for Army procurement and supervised

the sanitary conditions under which the animals were collected by contractors

and their subsequent handling and shipping by the purchasing board. The

purchasing board veterinarian also conducted the mallein test for glanders

on all animals, whose ownership actually was not transferred to the Army

until the test results became known, and identified the animals in accordance

with the Preston brand system. Under the conditions of rapid procurement

of large numbers, the animals were identified with temporary brand (with

paint or silver nitrate) at the purchase points and then branded and mallein

tested on arrival at the receiving remount depot. In all matters, the veterinary officer was directly responsible to the officer-in-charge or the purchasing officer of the board (^).

The veterinary officer’s physical examination of each animal was made

for the purpose of determining the animal’s age, physical condition, health,

and soundness, and was followed by specific recommendation of acceptance

or rejection from purchase by the board. This was conducted in positive,

thorough, and systematic manner, without bias of any kind and with the best

professional judgment: sometimes, it was made concurrently but usually

followed that inspection by the purchasing officer which included the determination of the animal’s type, conformation, color, height, weight, sex, and

mannerisms as specified in the regulations of the Army and procurement

documents (5, 6). The procedures and the physical health standards used

by the Army Veterinary Service during World War II were quite similar

to those originally developed in 1918.

During World War II, or for the calendar years 1940 through 1945, the

Army Veterinary Service examined 129,949 horses and mules for procurement; of this number, 60,230 (or 46.35 percent) were recommended for acceptance (table 37) (7, 8). Rejections totaling 18,085 animals (or 13.8 percent) were made on account of improper age (3,911) and variety of pathological disqualifications such as diseases of bone and the organs of locomotion

(approximately 8,100 animals), diseases of the nervous system and the organs

of special sense, particularly the eye (1,700 animals), wounds (1,200 animals), diseases of the skin and cellular tissue (1,200 animals), and infectious

and parasitic diseases (1,000 animals), mostly equine influenza and related

diseases of the so-called shipping fever group. The remaining number of

This acceptance number compares favorably with the Quartermaster Corps information {18)

on the procurement of 56,926 animals (26,403 horses and 30,523 mules) in the fiscal years 1941-45.

590248 —61 33
492 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

unaccepted animals included rejections which were made on account of improper type or class of animal as determined by the purchasing officer.

Table 37.—Veterinary physical examinations conducted on mules and horses procured for the

Army in the Zone of Interior, by year, 1940-4B

REMOUNT DEPOT SYSTEM

The remount depot system operated under the control of the Army Remount Service as the intermediary between the animal purchasing boards

and the mounted units of the Army. The onset of World War II found this

system in the Zone of Interior as comprising three permanent quartermaster

remount depots; these were located at Front Royal, Va., Fort Reno, Okla.,

and Fort Robinson, Nebr. Their holdings, as of July 1940, totaled 861 animals. fourth facility was acquired during October 1943, when the Kellogg

Arabian Nursery, received as donation, was established as quartermaster

remount depot at Pomona, Calif, (fig. 48). Other than the depot at Pomona,

which became the U.S. center for the furtherance of the Arab breed of horses

and was integrated into the Army Horse Breeding Plan, the depots were

operated mainly for the purposes of receiving remount animals from the

purchasing boards and maintaining them during the periods of their processing, conditioning, and training prior to issue to mounted units and organizations. Including the newly purchased remounts and the animals which were

returned from Army camps and the units which were dismounted during the

war, the animals coming into the four depots approximated 100,000 animals.

In connection with the remounts, the depots alone were specially equipped

and organized to process animals with minimal amount of so-called administrative losses,- estimated not to exceed percent of the number of animals

newly purchased (9, 10. 11).

The cumulative administrative losses for the period from July 1940 to 30 June 1942, cover

ing the processing of 29,930 horses and mules in the remount depots, was 2.27 percent.

Year Animalsexamined Animalsrecom- mended for acceptance

Animals recommended for rejection

1940 Number

39, 112

31, 853

14, 224

20, 260

17, 514

6, 986

Number

18, 545

13, 565

7, 219

10, 746

7, 368

2, 787

Number

6, 390

5, 657

1, 564

2, 254

1, 587

633

1941

1942

1948

1944

1945

Total 129, 949 60, 230 18, 085

Sources; (1) Annual Report of The Surgeon General, U.S. Army. Washington; U.S. Government Printing Office

1941. (2) Reports, Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office, 1942-46.
ANIMAL PROCUREMENT 493

Figure 48. Veterinary dispensary and horse-breeding building, Headquarters, Western

Remount Breeding and Purchasing Area, Pomona, Calif.

The remount depot requirements of World War IT were met with the

expansion of the existent facilities at Front Royal, Fort Reno, and Fort

Robinson to capacities for 12,500 animals {12). This expansion was started

after the fall of 1940 when the Office of the Quartermaster General announced

plans for processing 28,860 animals for the Army, including the National

Guard that came into active military service, during the remainder of that

fiscal year ending 30 June 1941.

Outside of the reception, processing, and issue of animals, the remount

depots also functioned as centers for breeding animals that would demonstrate

the type animals most desired by the Army, aided in the operations of the

Army Horse Breeding Plan, and conducted programs of research on animal

diseases {13). These several operational activities were guide to the

operational organization of the depot's veterinary service (fj. 15, 16, 17)

which included the depot veterinarian under whom veterinary hospital was operated. The depot veterinary hospitals were authorized stall capacities equal to 10 percent of the depot’s animal strength, but, as of December
494 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

1941, they aggregated 233 hospital stalls and another 48 on loan against

total animal strengths of 10,000 in the three remount depots. The depot’s

veterinary service was further divided into section of receipt, quarantine,

and issue; breeding and nursery section; and another concerned wth the

medical supplies, food inspection for the depot command, and the inspection

of animal feeds and forage. The depots also were sites for veterinary officer

replacement pools and were centers for training in remount operations. The

actual operational personnel of remount depots reached peak of 20 veterinary officers and 200 enlisted personnel.

The veterinary service was continuous during the tenure of stay of the

animals in the remount depots. The incoming animals were inspected at the

time of their unloading from railroad cars or trucks and then were placed in

specially selected corrals where they were maintained in quarantine status for

21 days under veterinary supervision. During the quarantine period, the remount animals were identified against the original purchase descriptions, and

their temporary identifications (made by purchasing board veterinarians with

white paint or silver nitrate) were replaced with the actual Preston brands.

If not mallein tested for glanders before shipment into the depots, the animals

were so tested, and again at the termination of the 21-day period. Including

those also conducted on animals before shipment from the depots, the number

of mallein tests that were conducted at the Fort Reno and Fort Robinson

depots during World War II alone aggregated more than 200,000. Glanders

did not become the disease problem of remount depots such as was experienced

in previous wars and actually was reported only on two occasions. One involved suspect clinical case noted at Fort Robinson during February 1942

but was not confirmed by intradermic mallein test or the laboratory complement-fixation test on samples of the animal’s blood serum. The other involved

21 animals at Fort Reno that reacted as suspects to the intradermic mallein

test; of these, animals were positive to the complement-fixation test and were

destroyed.

Equine influenza and related respiratory disorders occurred with great

frequency and resulted in the need to hospitalize large numbers of animals for

relatively long periods of time. For example, equine influenza and pneumonia

accounted for 58.2 percent of the total cases of disease and injury reported at

Fort Reno during the period from September 1939 through 31 December

1941. However, the medical era of sulfonamide therapy was just beginning,

so the case fatality rate at all depots was kept moderate. Then, as the war

progressed and animals coming into the depots mainly included “seasoned”

animals which were being returned from camps or dismounted units rather

than “green” remount animals, the respiratory disease rate declined. At this

late period of World War II, the incidence for injury exceeded that for disease. In fact, the only significant diseases appearing among depot animals in

this late period was equine infectious anemia and peculiar kind of toxemia

which was named forage poisoning, at Fort Robinson. Table 38 shows the
ANIMAL PROCUREMENT 495

numbers and rates of animal disabilities experienced by the Army Veterinary

Service at two remount depots.

Table 38.—Sick and wounded animals of the Fort Reno, Okla., and Fort Robinson, Nebr., Remount Depots, September 1939 to 31 December 1945

The prophylactic inoculations made against equine encephalomyelitis,

tetanus, and anthrax comprised large part of the veterinary workload in the

remount depots; at Fort Reno and Fort Robinson these aggregated more than

200,000 inoculations during the war period. For example, as part of the

annual vaccination program against equine encephalomyelitis that was developed for Army horses and mules in the Zone of Interior beginning in 1938,

Period

Average

animal Incoming Animals

issued or Admissions for disease and injury Died

or de- strength animals sold Total Disease Injury stroyed

FORT RENO REMOUNT DEPOT

Number Number Number Number Number Number Number

Sept. 1939-7 Dec. 1941_ 3, 261 15, 763 11, 045 5, 807 4, 668 1, 139 495

Dec. 1941-15 Aug. 1945_ 9, 029 38, 605 34, 871 14, 028 7, 356 6, 672 770

16 Aug. 1945-31 Dec.

1945 7, 424 1, 665 4, 039 552 186 366 13

Total 6, 885 56, 031 49, 955 20, 387 12, 210 8, 177 1, 278

FORT ROBINSON REMOUNT DEPOT

Rate Rate Rate Rate

Sept. 1939-31 Dec. 1939_ 1, 324 763 509 2, 021. 1, 645. 376. 29.

Jan. 1940-30 June 1940_ 983 75 845 1, 147. 722. 425. 20.

July 1940-31 Dec. 1940_ 2, 606 7, 287 2, 108 1, 993. 1, 714. 279. 100.

Jan. 1941-30 June 1941_ 3, 334 3, 063 5, 053 956. 719. 237. 61.

July 1941-31 Dec. 1941_ 3, 747 1, 535 1, 532 964. 668. 295. 62.

Jan. 1942-30 June 1942_ 3, 781 4, 435 316 634. 331. 303. 42.

July 1942-31 Dec. 1942. 9, 085 3, 345 571 401. 191. 210. 39.

Jan. 1943-30 June 1943_ 11, 403 5, 092 1, 706 350. 194. 155. 77.

July 1943-31 Dec. 1943_ 10, 913 1, 866 2, 176 284. 146. 138. 86.

Jan. 1944-30 June 1944_ 8, 103 3, 902 4, 955 333. 167. 165. 86.

July 1944-31 Dec. 1944_ 8, 688 5, 637 4, 778 354. 176. 178. 97.

Jan. 1944-3 Sept. 1945- 9, 444 3, 370 3, 137 345. 164. 180. 69.

Sept. 1945-31 Dec. 1945_ 8, 459 71 4, 288 201. 90. 111. 56.

Total 6, 471 40, 441 31, 974 480. 290. 189. 71.

The arrival of animals into the Port Robinson depot influenced the trend of the morbidity rate to the extent that

newly purchased remount animals are demonstrably more prone to disease than the “seasoned” animals which may be

returned from the Army camps and dismounted units. In this connection, mention must be made that the arrivals

comprised remount animals only, for the periods, Sept. 1939-31 Dec. 1939 through July 1941-31 Dec. 1941. After the

latter period, arrivals includedboth remount animals and somewhatgreater number ofreturned or “seasoned’ animals.

Animalrate per 1,000 animal strength.
496 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

the Army Veterinary Service vaccinated (and re vaccinated) the animals being

maintained in the depots during each spring-summer season. At the two depots just named, 124,305 inoculations were made against this viral disease.

The inoculations with tetanus toxoid, including the initial double injection and

the stimulating (or booster) dose, totaled 81,242 at Fort Reno and Fort Robinson. The latter were part of the protective vaccination program—-of Armywide application, started in early 1941—-that was taken to give permanent

immunity against tetanus and replaced the former use of antitetanus toxin in

special cases of traumatic wounds. The third group of inoculations—single

doses of intradermic anthrax spore vaccine—against anthrax was started at

the depots in 1944 when the Veterinarian, China-Burma-India theater, asked

that animals shipped into that theater be previously immunized against anthrax. Up to the end of 1945, the Fort Reno and Fort Robinson depots had

made 12,628 such inoculations.

The same quarantine procedures and such prophylactic immunizations as

were indicated were applied to horses and mules which were returned from

camps and dismounted units. In fact, beginning in 1942, the processing of returned animals became as great an activity as had been the processing of

newly purchased remount animals during the first few years of World War

II, although mule procurements were undertaken during the later period when

horse buying had been stopped. The remount depots thus became reservoirs

of large numbers of animals surplus to military needs. Under these circumstances, the Front Royal depot was almost closed out by mid-1944 when many

of its animals were transshipped to Fort Robinson or issued to mountain

division at Camp Swift, Tex., and the remainder were disposed of by sale.

With this trend, the average animal strength at Fort Robinson increased from

3,781 for the first months of 1942 to 9,085 for the next months and remained at about that level for the succeeding years. The animal strength of

the Fort Reno depot was 9,029 for the war period, as contrasted with the

average of 3,261 animals therein during the period from September 1939 to

December 1941.

After the termination of their 21-day quarantine and processing, the animals were reinspected at regular intervals. At any time, sick and wounded

animals were removed from the corrals to the depot veterinary hospital for

care and treatment. Preparatory to issue or sale, the animals were mallein

tested and physically examined. It was an inviolate rule that no animal would

be shipped from the depots unless it was sound, healthy, and particularly free

of diseases of the respiratory system, and ringworm or other diseases of the

skin. The depot veterinarians and the depot commanders together reviewed

the last-minute preparations on the issues and sales of 88,000 or more horses

and mules from the depots during World War II. This number (for the fiscal

years 1941-45) included 49,600 issued (or reissued) in the Zone of Interior,

Only one case of tetanus was reported among animals in the remount depots during World War

II. This involved remount animal days after its arrival at Fort Reno and before vaccination

against tetanus was begun. The case was successfully treated with antitetanus toxin.
ANIMAL PROCUREMENT 497

7,800 issued for oversea supply, 4,000 issued to the Coast Guard and other

armed services, 300 issued to foreign governments, 3,507 supplied on lend- lease to the United Kingdom, 17,000 sold (excluding 9,400 animals which were

sold at Army camps or by the Coast Guard), and 6,500 dying or destroyed within the depots (that is, administrative losses) {18). The animals within

the remount depots on 30 June 1945, totaled 16,992 (or 12,454 mules and 4,538 horses).

OVERSEA THEATER REMOUNT OPERATIONS

Remount operations comparable to those conducted in the Zone of Interior

came into existence in the South and Southwest Pacific Areas and in the

China-Burma-India, Mediterranean, and European theaters. The mobilization

planning relative to such operations in war theater, that was undertaken during the peacetime years preceding World War II, was centered on the study of two types of quartermaster field units, the remount squadron and the remount troop. The remount troop was developed before World War II as

unit capable of receiving, conditioning, and issuing 400 animals and was designed primarily to establish and operate so-called army corps remount depot. Three or more such troops were to be joined to form remount squadron

which was designed to operate field army’s remount depot (of 1,200-animal

capacity) or depot (of 7,200-animal capacity) in the area behind the army

or communications zone. The units’ organic veterinary detachments were

equipped to establish veterinary dispensaries within these depots, but their

primary mission was not so much the treatment of disabled depot animals as

it was to maintain the depots free of disabled animals—these being evacuated

to veterinary hospitals outside of the depot area {19, 20). The experiences of

the Army Veterinary Service in World War had shown that the remount

depot was no place for disabled animals.

These two quartermaster remount units—the squadron and the troop

were continued in the organization of the Army throughout World War II.

However, pacing the developments in the dismounting of the Army and the

streamlining of tactical forces that had taken place during the 1930’s, these

units were removed from the type field armies and army corps. In fact, the

beginning of the war found them classed as reserve units which would be deployed only where specifically needed. At this time, the internal organization

of the remount squadron was standardized as comprising squadron headquarters, four operational elements or troops, and veterinary detachment of

officers and 24 enlisted personnel; it was designed to operate field remount

depot of 1,600-animal capacity 21 22). The troop as separate unit could

operate 400-animal depot and was organized to include troop headquarters

and veterinary detachment of one officer and seven enlisted personnel {23,

During the war, two small cellular teams or detachments were developed and described in new T/O 10-500: Team B1 or Remount Detachment, and Team BJ or Augmentation Remount

Detachment. The former could operate 100-animal depot, which could be expanded into 200- animal depot if joined by the augmentation unit; neither included attached veterinary personnel.
498 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Figuke 49.—New shipment of American mules in the corrals of the U.S. Army Remount

Station, Grosseto, Italy, 25 April 1945.

24, &5)- While number of these type units were activated in the Zone of

Interior, only two troop elements of remount squadrons were sent overseasone to the South Pacific Area, but this unit was returned as “paper organization” and then redeployed with the second unit to the China-Burma-India

theater. Other oversea requirements for such units were met with the additional activations of two squadron troops and two separate troops within the

South and Southwest Pacific Areas and the China-Burma-India theater. In

These units included the following: Troop A, 251st Quartermaster Remount Squadron, activated in November 1942 in Southwest Pacific Area and disbanded in August 1944. Troop B, 251st

Quartermaster Remount Squadron, activated in February 1943 in the South Pacific Area, utilizing

personnel and equipment of Troop A, 252d Quartermaster Remount Squadron, which was returned

during January 1943 as “paper organization” to the Zone of Interior, and inactivated in October

1944 in the South Pacific Area. Troop A, 252d Quartermaster Remount Squadron, activated in May

1941 in the Zone of Interior, deployed to the South Pacific Area during May 1942, returned to the

Zone of Interior as “paper organization,” and redeployed during April 1944 to the China-BurmaIndia theater where it was redesignated on January 1945, as the 475th Quartermaster Remount

Troop, which was inactivated in February 1946 in the India-Burma theater. Troop A, 253d Quartermaster Remount Squadron, activated in March 1943 in the Zone of Interior, deployed in fall of

1944 to the China-Burma-India theater where it was redesignated the 476th Quartermaster Remount

Troop, which was inactivated in December 1945 in the India-Burma theater. 698th Quartermaster

Remount Troop, activated in July 1944 in the China-Burma-India theater and inactivated during

November 1945 in the India-Burma theater. 699th Quartermaster Remount Troop, activated in July

1944 in the China-Burma-India theater and inactivated in February 1946 in the India-Burma

theater. (The 528th Quartermaster Remount Troop, activated in December 1942 and disbanded in

July 1944, was not deployed from the Zone of Interior.)
ANIMAL PROCUREMENT 499

the European and Mediterranean theaters, the remount activities were organized under locally improvised depot organizations which followed the pattern

of the typical field unit (fig. 49). Each such quartermaster remount squadron

element, troop unit, and provisional organization had its own organic veterinary detachment.

Southwest Pacific Area

The Army Veterinary Service in the Southwest Pacific Area had its start

with remount activities in April-May 1942 when the Quartermaster, U.S.

Army Forces in Australia, requested the inspection of Australian Army animals at Goulburn, Australia, as to their suitability for riding or pack purposes

{26). During the next months, horse-buying program was conducted, and

2,515 Army horses were transshipped from Australia to New Caledonia (in

the South Pacific Area) {27, 28). With the exception of the single shipment

of 477 horses on U.S. animal transport which as accompanied by Veterinary Corps officer, Australian personnel, including veterinarian, were

employed to assemble and transship these animals to New Caledonia.

Just as this buying program in Australia was nearing completion, another

was started in connection with plans to activate several quartermaster pack

troops and field artillery pack battalions within the theater {29, 30). Requirements were set as high as 18,000 mules and horses, and, by the end of 1942,

the U.S. Army Horse Purchasing Board (including veterinary officer who

soon became the board president), with station at Toowoomba, Queensland,

had procured 216 horses and shipped 194 of these to remount depot which

was being established at Townsville. During the early months of 1943, the

original planning on the use of pack troops and artillery battalions in the

fighting on the jungle islands of the Pacific was abruptly cut back, and the

objective of the buying program in Australia was reduced to 3,550 horses.

These were transshipped from purchase points by railroad to Townsville where

they were processed for issue. The mules, unavailable in Australia, were requisitioned from the Zone of Interior, but the two mule-mounted units which

came into the Southwest Pacific Area were refused entry by Australian public

health and animal regulatory officials on their expressed belief that the mules

might introduce such diseases as equine encephalomyelitis, equine infectious

anemia, and glanders. Instead, the two units—the 98th Field Artillery Battalion and Troop D, 16th Quartermaster Squadron—were diverted to New

Guinea.

»Nine shiploads, totaling 2,048 horses, were loaded out of Brisbane, Melbourne, New Castle,

and Sydney, Australia, on the Australian S.S. Jansenn during the period from May through 30

November 1942. The shipment of 477 horses on the U.S. Animal Transport Tjinegara, departing on

20 July 1942, from Brisbane, was lost by enemy action against that transport (on 26 July 1942).

While en route to Noumea, New Caledonia, the animal losses, on account of disease and injury, on

the S.S. Jansenn totaled 16; thus, only 2,032 horses of Australian origin were received in the

South Pacific Area.

590248 —61 84
500 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

The horse buying in Australia was halted during May 1943, although depot receipts of newly purchased horses were continued until mid-June 1943.

The rate of procurement had been slowed down by seasonal rains, the distances

of travel between purchase points even though an airplane was used, and the

earlier limitations that only broken (or trained) horses be procured {31). Of

course, the remount depot at Townsville had to be built and expanded and,

lacking sufficient numbers of experienced personnel, could not receive any

large numbers of untrained horses until after the spring of 1943, Incomplete

reports indicated that 68 percent of the horses examined in Australia were

accepted for Army procurement.

The Remount Depot, Townsville, was an operational facility of Troop A,

251st Quartermaster Remount Squadron, which was activated during November 1942. The depot was built largely through the labors of veterinary personnel (32), and, for many months (November 1943 through April 1944), its

animal population averaged more than 3,200 horses and few burros or donkeys. Through June 1943, the remount depot received approximately 3,600 newly purchased animals; later in that year, 1,200 animals, which were previously issued to mounted units, were returned. Including veterinary detachment within the depot unit, veterinary dispensary was established, but

this was operated as type of veterinary hospital which cared for the depot

animals as well as those more seriously disabled among the few mounted units

which were stationed in the vicinity of the depot. Attempts to gain separate

veterinary hospital outside of the depot area, that would operate in support of

the remount depot’s and other unit’s veterinary detachments, were not approved by the theater headquarters {33). Instead, the depot veterinary detachment was augmented by the temporary assignment of five separate veterinary detachments which were obtained from the Zone of Interior for assignment to mounted units. These were Veterinary Sections E, F, G, H, and I.

Depot issues (and reissues) of approximately 1,600 horses were made, beginning in February 1943, to the 61st, 62d, 63d, and 68th Quartermaster Pack

Troops and the 167th FieldArtillery Battalion. The units were provided with

separate veterinary detachments, but many of these returned their sick animals

to the depot’s veterinary dispensary for care and treatment.

Beginning in August and continuing through November 1943, during

which time it had become evident that pack-mounted units were not essential

to the fighting on Japanese-held islands in the Pacific, the four quartermaster

pack troops and the field artillery battalion in Australia were dismounted or

inactivated, and their horses were returned to the remount depot. Being advised by the War Department that the 3,200 animals in the depot were not

needed elsewhere, arrangements were completed for their transfer to the Australian Army; the depot veterinary dispensary was closed on 28 April 1944, and the remount squadron troop was disbanded few months later.
ANIMAL PROCUREMENT 501

Up to the time that the veterinary dispensary, Remount Depot, Townsville, was closed, 1,883 cases of disease and injury were reported {3If) as follows

During the first months of the period when the depot was receiving large

numbers of remount animals from the purchasing board and processing them

for issue, diseases rather than injuries constituted the major cause of animal

morbidity. In fact, through June 1943, only 259 injury cases were recorded, whereas disease accounted for 1,041 cases. The latter, as would be expected

among newly procured animals, included hundreds of cases of equine strangles,

infectious rhinitis (or “colds”), and pneumonia The animals had been procured during the seasonal cold and rainy season, but the more important factor contributing to the relative high rate of these respiratory diseases was that

the Australian railroads were not equipped to unload, feed, and rest the animals at regular intervals during the long shipments from the purchase points

to the remount depot. After the summer of 1943, when the depot’s animal

population had become “seasoned” and was being placed or maintained more

or less on ranch basis, the animal disease situation improved considerably.

However, keratitis began to make its appearance among many animals, probably caused by wind and dust or by awns of certain grass seeds. Other commonly occurring diseases trichophytosis (or ringworm) and tick infestations which were controlled by dipping or spraying the animals with limesulfur solution; gastrointestinal parasitisms were treated by the administration

Average mean strength 2,329

Admissions:

For disease 1,297

For injury 586

Total 1.883

Treatment days 67,025

Average days per admission 36

Died or destroyed 241

Number admitted per 1,000 average animal strength per year:

For disease 419.4 For injury 189.4

Total 608.3

Number per 1,000 average animal strength per year died or destroyed 78.1

Data include veterinary services rendered by the depot veterinary section

ing to the 62d Quartermaster Pack Troop (January-September 1944) and the

Pack Troop (January-July 1944).

for animals belong63d Quartermaster
502 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

of phenothiazine. During April 1943, the immunization program against

tetanus was undertaken, but, before this was completed, three fatal cases of

that disease were reported among the depot horses. Glanders—-a disease from

which Australia claimed to be free—was tested for in 1,400 newly purchased

animals, and the test results were negative.

As the transfer of the horses to the Australian Army was nearing completion (in April 1944), the China-Burma-India theater expressed an urgent

need for the animals; 2,336 of these were transshipped to that theater during

the winter of 1944-45. Actually, the horses were processed for this movement

by the Australian Army and then embarked on U.S. animal transports pursuant to the animal export laws and quarantine regulations of Australia; once loaded, the horses returned to the technical jurisdiction of the Army Veterinary Service or its Veterinary Corps officers who were assigned to these

transports {35, 36, 37)

On New Guinea (in the Southwest Pacific Area), quartermaster remount

activities were started during July 1943 when Troop A, 251st Quartermaster Remount Squadron (with station in Australia) established forward echelon

depot at Port Moresby. Mounted units on this island base were the 98th Field

Artillery Pack Battalion, with approximately 1,200 mules, which had come

from the Zone of Interior during February and June 1943, and Troop D, 16th

Quartermaster Squadron, with 323 mules, which had arrived on 23 July 1943.

Subsequently, with the dismounting of the latter unit (in October 1943) and

the reorganization and subsequent dismounting (in March 1944) of the battalion, these unit animals were turned in to the remount depot—a peak

strength of 1,352 mules being reached by mid-1944. The advance depot, having no assigned veterinary personnel, was originally dependent on the organic

veterinary detachment of the quartermaster squadron’s pack troop, but, after

October 1943, its veterinary needs were met solely by the 16th Veterinary

Evacuation Hospital which had set up station on New Guinea during February 1943. As illustrated in the following tabulation, from August 1943,

through November 1944, that hospital treated 1,139 animal patients; most of

these originated from the advance remount depot, although few were evacuees from the pack troop and artillery battalion 38)

These shipments included the Peter Silvester, with 30 horses, departing on August 1944; the Virginian, with 640 horses, departing on November 1944 the Charles W. Wooster, with 235 horses, departing on November 1944 the Henry Dearborn and the Joshua Hendy, each with 320 horses, departing during November 1944 the Gyrus W. Field and the John J. Crittenden, each with

320 horses, departing during December 1944 and the William S. Halstead, with 151 horses, departing during February 1945. With the exception of the first shipment, all shipments originated at Townsville; the first originated from Brisbane. The Peter Silvester and the Charles W. Wooster

also received mules at Port Moresby, New Guinea, before proceeding from the Southwest Pacific

Area.
ANIMAL PROCUREMENT 503

No serious animal diseases were reported among the mules while ou New

Guinea. few clinical cases of botrytimycosis were treated; cutaneous habronemiasis and thrush of the feet caused losses of animal efficiency, but these were

reduced when the mules under treatment could be isolated in screened-in

veterinary stables or removed from the muddy corrals during the rainy season.

The healing of wounds, any kind of wound, seemed to take long period of

time and was usually marked with exuberant granulations of the healingtissues 39 JfO).

Under much the same conditions that the horse-mounted units in Aus- tralia were canceled from the tactical planning and their animals were not

needed in the Southwest Pacific Area, 1,340 Army mules on New Guinea were

transshipped from the Advance Remount Depot, Port Moresby, to the ChinaBurma-India theater during the fall of 1944. With the fourth or final shipment of these mules (during November 1944), the 16th Veterinary Evacuation

Hospital closed station and began preparations for movement into the Philip- pine Islands where it was to be used in the theater’s food inspection service.

These shipments included the following: (1) 650 mules on the Virginian, departing on

August 1944, and accompanied by 1st Lt. E. W. George, VC. (2) 285 mules on the Peter Silvester, departing on 14 August 1944, and accompanied by 1st Lt. H. L. March, VC. (3) 320 mules,

departing October 1944, and accompanied by 1st Lt. W. McClaskey, VC, (name of the transport

was not determined; the transport casual detachment was designated 6629A). (4) 85 mules on

the Charles W. Wooster, departing on November 1944, and accompanied by 1st Lt. I. I. Franklin,

VC. An additional 30 mules on New Guinea were disposed of by transfer to the ANGAU on October 1944. The Peter Silvester and the Charles W. Wooster also received horses in Australia

before proceeding from the Southwest Pacific Area.

Average mean strength 746

Admissions:

For disease

For injury

465

Total 1.139

Treatment

Average days per admission

Died or destroyed

38

Number admitted per 1,000 average animal strength per year:

For disease 593 For injury ..

744.O

Total 1,337.8

Number per 1,000 average animal strength per year died or destroved 73

Only for period from December 1943 to Nov. 1944.

During August-November 1943, the 16th Veterinary Evacuation Hospital treated only those disabled animals as were evacuated by the attending veterinarian for the depot, including 43 cases also received from the 98th Field Artillery Battalion and from Troop D, 16th Quartermaster Squadron. In the period from December 1943 to Nov. 1944, the 16th Veterinary Evacuation

Hospital alone provided the veterinary services required by the depot and also received 37 cases

evacuated from the 98th Field Artillery Battalion (December 1943-March 1944), the latter being

included in the statistical data.
504 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

South Pacific Area

On New Caledonia (in the South Pacific Area), quartermaster remount

activities were begun and remount depot was established on 6-7 July 1942,

when Troop A, 252d Quartermaster Remount Squadron, with 481 mules, arrived from the Zone of Interior (J7). By this date, the 97th Field Artillery

Battalion—having arrived months earlier—already had obtained few animals from local sources and received some shipments of U.S. Army horses

from Australia (in the Southwest Pacific Area). Most of these horses were

turned in by the field artillery battalion to the remount depot in exchange for

the American mules, and the horses then were reprocessed and issued to the

112th Cavalry Regiment which arrived on New Caledonia during August

1942. By the end of that year, approximately 3,000 horses and mules were

assembled on this Pacific island base—781 mules coming in from the Zone of

Interior and the Panama Canal Department, 2,032 horses being received from

Australia (in the Southwest Pacific Area), 10 and 180 animals being bought locally.

During the early months of the next year, the 97th Field Artillery Battalion, with 947 mules and horses, departed for Guadalcanal where tactical

operations had come under U.S. Army command, and, on 13 May, the 112th

Cavalry Regiment returned 1,481 horses and mules to the remount depot prior

to its departure for the Southwest Pacific Area. Therewith, the remount depot gained peak animal population of about 1,700 horses and mules. These

animals were cared for by the veterinary section included in the organic composition of Troop A, 252d Quartermaster Remount Squadron; this unit, during January 1943, was returned as “paper organization” to the Zone of Interior, but its equipment and personnel were retained and used in the organization of the newly activated Troop B, 251st Quartermaster Remount Squadron. The latter’s veterinary section was augmented by the Veterinary Detachment, 112th Cavalry Regiment, when that regiment was dismounted.

After mid-1943, the remount depot was concerned mainly with the examination of the horses and mules for combat serviceability and their processing for oversea shipment to the China-Burma-India theater. Beginning in

September 1943 and continuing through the next 12 months, 1,571 animals

(including 1,554horses and 17 mules) were embarked on five animal transports

departing from Noumea, New Caledonia. 11

The mules arrived in two shipments; The Tjinegara, arriving on 6—7 July 1942, with 100

from the Zone of Interior and 381 from the Panama Canal Department, and the Peter Silvester,

arriving during November 1942, with 300 mules.

10 See footnote 6, p. 499. The first shipment of these horses was received on 25 May and the

last on Dec. 1942.

11 These shipments included the Virginian, with 590 horses, departing on 23-26 September 1943

the Peter Silvester, with 308 horses, departing on 2-3 November 1943, and at another time, on 11

May 1944, with 152 animals; the Samuel H. Walker, with 352 horses, departing on June 1944;

and the Santiago Iglesias, with 169 animals, departing on 13 September 1944. The Peter Silvester’s

second voyage and the last-named shipment also included horses and mules being transshipped to the China-Burma-India theater from Guadalcanal and the Zone of Interior.
ANIMAL PROCUREMENT 505

During the period from January 1943 through IT September 1944, the

depot's veterinary section, as augmented by the Veterinary Detachment, 112th

Cavalry Regiment (Dismounted), treated 1,096 animal cases of disease and

injury (42) as shown in the following tabulation

Disease conditions of common occurrence included thrush and separation of

the sole of the feet, arthritis, and dermatitis of fungus origin. All mallein

tests for glanders were negative. Shortly after the last animal shipment was

made, the depot’s veterinary dispensary was closed (on IT September 1944)

and theremount unit—Troop B, 251st Quartermaster Remount Squadron—was

disbanded on 14 October 1944. During mid-November 1944, the Veterinary

Detachment, 112th Cavalry Regiment, departed from New Caledonia.

China-Burma-India Theater

The Army Veterinary Service in the China-Burma-India theater became

concerned with remount activities first in connection with the lend-lease supply

of animals to the Allied-sponsored Chinese Army in India (J-5, 44, J). The

latter included remnants of the Chinese 22d and 38th Divisions, which, having

been forced out of Burma, were being reorganized to fight against the Japanese

enemy. As early as September 1942, veterinary officers at the Ramgarh, India,

training center for the Chinese were supervising the receipt and distribution of

British animals for these divisions. This activity lasted for more than year.

Then, in connection with the plans to deploy U.S. combat teams, with animals, into Burma, quartermaster remount organization was improvised. This was

the 5321st Remount Depot Detachment (Provisional) which established station

during November 1943 at the Ramgarh training center; ittransferred its operations northward to Ledo, during May 1944, where it was soon disbanded, being

replaced on 13 July 1944 by newly activated quartermaster remount troop.

Average mean strength 746

Admissions:

For disease 684

For injury 412

Total 1,096

Treatment

Average days per admission 27

Died or destroyed 188

Number admitted per 1,000 average animal strength per year:

For disease 534.9 For injury 321.7

Total 856.6

Number per 1,000 average animal strength per year died or destroyed 147.5
506 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

At both depot sites, veterinary dispensaries were established by the 1st Veterinary Company (Separate) which had arrived in the China-Burma-India theater

during the spring of 1943. Until the provisional remount organization had

become operational, the Army Veterinary Service—utilizing Chinese military

personnel—had received and processed the original shipments of U.S. Army animals arriving from the South Pacific Area.

During the latter part of 1944, the theater’s remount service was gradually

expanded to include four separate remount troops and remount section.

These were needed in connection with the continuation of plans to provide animals to the U.S. combat teams that were being deployed against the Japanese

enemy in Burma and with new requirements to complete the mounting of the

Chinese Army in India as the British animal supply dwindled. In fact, between June 1944 and July of the next year, approximately 5,300 mules and

horses were supplied under lend-lease to this Chinese Army. These animals

were brought into the China-Burma-India theater from the Zone of Interior

and from the South and the Southwest Pacific Areas where they were surplus

to military needs. Altogether, 29 animal transports with 10,703 animals arrived. Upon their disembarkation at Calcutta, India, after September 1944,

the animals were processed for transshipment from the port to the remount

depots in India and Burma by the 3113th Quartermaster Remount Section

which was activated within the theater. The remount section, without its own

attached veterinary personnel, referred its disabled animals to the 78th Veterinary Hospital Detachment which was activated at about the same time (in

September 1944) and had established station in the port. Prior to September

1944, the disabled animals which had been disembarked from the transports

and which could not be removed from the port area were cared for by an Indian Army veterinary hospital.

The remount troop units included the 698th Quartermaster RemountTroop

which, upon activation during July 1944 within the theater, replaced the original depot detachment organization at Ledo, and the 699th Quartermaster Remount Troop which was organized at Ramgarh. The Ramgarh depot was augmentedby Troop A, 252d Quartermaster Remount Squadron, which had arrived

earlier with shipment of animals from the Zone of Interior; during December

1944, the two units were transferred from Ramgarh to Shillong, India. Troop

A, 253d Quartermaster Remount Squadron, also accompanying shipment of

animals from the Zone of Interior, arrived and, during November-December

1944, established depot at Myitkyina, Burma. On January 1945, the foregoing two remount squadrons’ lettered troops were redesignated, respectively, as

the 475th and the 476th Quartermaster Remount Troops. Though each of the

four remount troops had its own veterinary detachment, separate veterinary

units, including two companies and five animal service detachments, set up

hospital facilities in the vicinity of each remount depot (table 39).

Of the animals arriving in the China-Burma-India theater, half of the

4,760 mules from the Zone of Interior actually belonged to the quartermaster
ANIMAL PROCUREMENT 507

Table 39.—Period of stay of veterinary animal service units in support of quartermaster remount depots in the China-Burma-India theater

pack troops and field artillery battalions which on arrival were assigned directly to the U.S. tactical forces (or the theater’s Northern Combat Area

Command). Otherwise, the animals arrived as “casuals” and were processed

by the remount depot system of the theater's Services of Supply organization.

Another 872 animals, mostly horses, were received from the British or the

Indian Army on reverse lend-lease basis. The veterinary situation applicable to these animals inside of the remount depots could not be determined.

Before V-J Day, 5,300 animals—as previously noted—had been supplied to the

Chinese Army in India, and 2,300 to 2,450 were transshipped to the China

theater; after V-J Day, the animals remaining in the depots were disposed

of by the transfer of 103 to the British and the sale of more than 1,000 through

Foreign Liquidation Commission.

In the China theater (formerly sector of the China-Burma-lndia theater

which was discontinued in the fall of 1944), the remount activities were limited to the supply of animals for the American liaison teams on duty with the

Chinese armies and divisions, and the turnover to these activities of 2,300 to

2,450 animals which were marched over the Stilwell Road during the summer

of 1945. The Chinese military forces in China, unlike the Allied-sponsored

Chinese Army in India and Burma, had kind of remount service of its

own in China. However, with the increased emphasis on the combat preparation of some of the Chinese armies and divisions, Sino-American bureau was

organized for the purchasing and transportation of military animals in northern China and Tibet {J>6. 48) Army veterinary personnel were included

in the membership of this bureau. Beginning in April 1945, the first of

group of 2,000 or more such horses were shipped into Hsi-ch’ang, China; others were assembled elsewhere in the Sikang Province as of Y-J Day. The

45th and the 62d Veterinary Animal Service Detachments and elements of the

19th Veterinary Evacuation Hospital provided veterinary services for the

Veterinary unit Ramgarh Ledo Shillong Myitkyina Calcutta (port)

1st Veterinary Company

(Separate).

2d Veterinary Company

(Separate).

40th Veterinary Animal

Service Detachment.

51st Veterinary Animal

Service Detachment.

52d Veterinary Animal

Service Detachment.

78th Veterinary Hospital

Detachment.

June 1943-July

1944.

May 1943-December 1944.

December 1944-

V-J Day.

October 1944-

V-J Day.

July 1944-December 1944.

December 1944-

V-J Day.

September 1944-

August 1945.

September 1944-

V-J Day.

August 1945-

V-J Day.

September 1944-

July 1945.

The parent 1st Veterinary Company (Separate) was located at Ledo for the period from May 1943 to December

1944 when it was transferred to Shillong. The other dates relate to the detachments of that companyunit.
508 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Chinese animals in remount stations at Hsi-ch’ang and Kuei-yang. Most of

the animals, as the result of 6-week overland movement, arrived at these

stations in poor physical condition and required prolonged period of

reconditioning.

Mediterranean Theater

In the Mediterranean theater, animals were procured by purchase, capture,

requisition, confiscation, and shipment from the Zone of Interior; others were

obtained by transfer and the evacuation of disabled horses and mules from the

Allied military forces. Approximately 16,000 or more such animals, including

those returned from units and organizations, were received and processed by

the remount depot system of the Peninsular Base Section, an element of the

theater’s Services of Supply organization which supported the Fifth U.S.

Army’s northward advances against the German enemy on the Italian peninsula. 12 This depot system had its start unexpectedly and shortly after that

Army’s combat divisions, landing at Salerno Gulf (on September 1943),

had called on their division veterinarians to organize and maintain animal

pack trains (J5, 50). Only pack trains could transport the needed supplies to

the outpost positions in the rugged, roadless terrain of the Southern Apennine

Mountains. At about the same time, with the uncovering of an Italian Army

remount station at Persano (in mid-September 1943), the Veterinarian, Fifth

U.S. Army, undertook the replacement of the animal losses in the divisional

pack trains. hundred animals belonging to the Italian station were collected

from the countryside and were prepared for issue. During the next few

months, Italian Army animals were requisitioned, and others were purchased

from civilian owners; altogether, 1,100 mnles and horses were obtained before

the end of 1943. By this time, the newly assembled animals that became

seriously sick and the disabled animals were being evacuated from the pack

trains to the Fifth U.S. Army Provisional Veterinary Hospital which was organized with Italian personnel during December 1943 and to French Army

veterinary ambulance company.

During this early period, material assistance in the development of an

animal supply was given by the Veterinarian, Peninsular Base Section, and

then by that command’s Quartermaster Remount Division which, in January

1944, gave way to remount squadron type of organization, the 6742d Quar- termaster Remount Depot (Overhead) with its own attached veterinary detachment {59). The depot organization assumed operational control over the

procurement, processing, and issue of animals for the U.S. forces in the theater

and set up station at the remount depot sites when vacated by the Fifth U.S.

Army. Depots, other than the one at Persano, were soon established at Santa

Maria (on 15 November 1943) and at Bagnoli (on 16 December 1943). The

12While remount operations in the Mediterranean theater seem to have first originated at this

time, combat divisions had procured and used animals earlier during the campaigns in North Africa

and then in Sicily.
ANIMAL PROCUREMENT 509

depots, each having its own veterinary personnel, included veterinary dispen- saries which also served as veterinary hospitals for many months, receiving

disabled animals evacuated from the three or four veterinary evacuation hospitals that were deployed by the Fifth U.S. Army, as well as providing definitive care and treatment for depot issue animals. share of their professional

workload, however, was referred to U.S.-supervised Italian veterinary general hospital, but it was not until the spring of 1945 that the depot veterinary

dispensaries were completely relieved of their operational functions as base

veterinary hospitals. At that late date, two U.S. provisional veterinary hospitals and two U.S.-supervised Italian veterinary hospitals were brought into the

Peninsular Base Section and deployed to support the depot veterinary dispensaries and the Fifth U.S. Army’s veterinary evacuation hospitals. (These

new hospital organizations were the 2604th Veterinary Station Hospital

(Overhead), 2605th Veterinary General Hospital (Overhead), Italian 1st

Veterinary Station Hospital, and Italian 2d Veterinary General Hospital.)

Although the remount activities in the Mediterranean theater originated

with the problems of maintaining the pack trains which were improvised

within the combat divisions during the fall of 1943, they soon were redirected

toward the supply of animals for U.S.-supervised Italian Army pack mule

trains (or companies). These were assigned under the operational control of

the Fifth U.S. Army’s corps and divisions, and, coming into the army from

Sardinia first during December 1943, eventually replaced all of the provisional

pack trains of the divisions. The utilization of these units was based on the

recommendations following survey of Sardinia by the Veterinarian, Fifth

U.S. Army, where 5,000 mules and 1,500 horses were found, together with

much needed equipment, including two veterinary hospitals. By April 1944,

veterinary personnel on Sardinia had embarked 1,262 mules and 53 horses on

ships for Italy.

During the summer and fall of 1944, the remount depot system was

greatly changed. The original facilities at Persano, Santa Maria, and Bagnoli

were closed during May-June 1944, and, following the Fifth U.S. Army’s

breakthrough into Rome, one depot was set up for short period of time at

racetrack in that city. Subsequently, remount depots were established at

Grosseto and Pisa, with capacities for 4,000 and 600 animals, respectively.

Then, on 14 September 1944, the 6742d Quartermaster Remount Depot (Overhead) was divided into two parts: The l/2-6742d Quartermaster Remount

Depot (Overhead) which was transshipped with the Seventh U.S. Army to

Southern France and then transferred to the European theater, and the

6742d Quartermaster Remount Depot (Overhead)-1/2, which continued to

operate the depots at Grosseto and Pisa in Italy. The latter were later augmented with Italian Army remount units which were under the technical supervision of new remount organization, the 2610th Quartermaster Remount

Depot (Overhead), formed on 21 January 1945. This new organization, on
510 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

July 1945, replaced the 6742d Quartermaster Remount Depot (Overhead)

1/2 which was disbanded during the following month (on 25 August 1945).

Through June 1945,the remount depot holdings of animals reached peak

of more than 3,600 mules and horses. The Army Veterinary Service with the

remount depot system of the Peninsular Base Section had treated 4,741 cases

of diseases and injury {51. 52) the admission rates as based on the depot’s

animal strength by month had become considerably less after the winter of

when the depots were first filled with almost any kind of animal that

could be procured, and the depot veterinary dispensaries constituted the major

veterinary treatment facilities in back of the Fifth U.S. Army. The animal

disease rate within the depots was not unusually high considering that the

average mean strength of 1,725 mules and horses over 19-month period

actually represented constantly changing animal population. Arrivals, including returned animals and some animal patients, approximated 15,600, and

issues, sales, administrative losses, and evacuated patients totaled 12,400. The

15,600 animals received included at least 3,900 from Allied British and French

forces, 1,100 from Italian sources, 2,400 from Sardinia and Sicily, 2,881 mules

brought in from the Zone of Interior, 1,000 recovered animal patients from

Services of Supply veterinary hospitals, 90 from miscellany of service units,

and the remainder from the Fifth U.S. Army’s field remount depots, pack

companies, and field artillery battalions. The 12,400 animals disposed of included 1,500 for the British forces, 700 sold, 600 for the remount depot which

was transferred to the European theater, 500 to Services of Supply veterinary

hospitals for treatment, 90 for variety of service units, 306 which died or

were destroyed on account of disease or injury, and the remainder for the

Fifth U.S. Army.

Despite the constant changes of the animal populations and the assembly

of such large numbers from wide variety of sources, the animal disease situation within the depots was relatively secure. On arrival, the animals were

mallein tested for glanders and held in quarantine, during which time they

were examined for physical condition. Stallions were ordinarily castrated.

The more serious diseases reported among the depot animals included piroplasmosis and epizootic lymphangitis. The latter disease was controlled by the

destruction of those animals found to be affected and led to the loss of

hundred horses and mules; it was seen in animals obtained in Italy as well as

in those imported from Sardinia and Sicily. Piroplasmosis was reported in 70

animals, but only 21 of the cases terminated fatally or had to be destroyed because some success was obtained in their treatment with trypanocidal drug,

Acaparin. As would be expected, cases of mange, glanders, and tetanus occurred, but these were almost rarity; in fact, clinical diagnoses of mange

could not be confirmed by laboratory examinations. The respiratory disorders

that are commonly seen in remount animals did not cause any great loss because most of the animals had been already “seasoned’’ or conditioned before

coming into the depots.
ANIMAL PROCUREMENT 511

During the last months of 1945, the major effort of the Mediterranean

theater’s remount organization was directed at the disposition of its mules and

horses. During this period, the 2610th Quartermaster Remount Depot (Overhead) —which had superseded the 6742d Quartermaster Remount Depot

(Overhead)-1/2—closed out the Grosseto depot (in September 1945) and centered its activities in Pisa. On 10 October 1945, the depot organization was

discontinued, but the disposition of the animals was continued by the Remount

Division, Office of the Quartermaster, Peninsular Base Section. By December

1945, only 50 horses and mules remained; dispositions had been made by the

transshipment of 280 horses to Marseilles, France (in the Delta Base Section,

European theater), the sale of 700 horses and mules to Italian governmental

agencies, and the transfer of 2,800 mules (originally received from the Zone

of Interior) to the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration

for supply to Yugoslavia {52. 53 55).

European Theater

The Army Veterinary Service concerned with remount activities in the

European theater evolved about the 6835th Quartermaster Remount Depot,

which was the successor organization to the l/2-6742d Quartermaster Remount

Depot (Overhead) {55. 56). It may be recalled that the latter originated with

the 6742d Quartermaster Remount Depot (Overhead), in the Mediterranean

theater, when it was divided into two parts; subsequently, this one part—including its own veterinary detachment—was transferred as Seventh U.S.

Army unit to Southern France, arriving at Marseilles on 20 October 1944.

With the 600 to 700 mules and horses which were obtained in Italy and had

accompanied the movement of the organization, remount depot operations

were set up first at Is Surtille on 17 November 1944; month later, these operations were moved to Chaumont, France. Through May 1945, the 6835th

Quartermaster Remount Depot had received and processed 1,800 animals and

had issued more than 750 of these, mostly mules, to the 513th Quartermaster Pack Troop. In the spring of 1945, the organization was designated to purchase 700 horses from the French in the European theater’s Normandy Base

Section area for transshipment to the Mediterranean theater, however, it

turned out that no purchases were actually made {57).

After V-E Day, few hundred captured German horses were processed

by the depot organization which had reestablished station at Dornholzhausen,

Germany, and another 650 animals, mostly mules, were disposed of either by

sale to the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration or issue

to military government. Only 275 horses and 45 mules were in the depot as

of the end of 1945. Throughout the period since its organization in Italy, the

depot’s veterinary detachment had treated 1,036 cases of animal diseases and

injuries, as shown in the following tabulation:
512 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

By the end of 1945, also, U.S. military government controls were being enforced over the former German horsebreeding establishments at Kaisheim,

Bergsteten, Altefeld, and Monsbach {58).

ARMY HORSE BREEDING PLAN

The Army Horse Breeding Plan, started in 1920, had for its objective the

encouragement of the breeding of horses of the type which could best be used

by the Army ). It was operated to make available large number of Government-owned stallions of suitable type and good breeding, which, in the

hands of civilian stallion agents, could be bred to privately owned mares

throughout the Nation, In December 1941, the number of such stallions approximated 566; all were kept under the professional care and technical supervision of the Army Veterinary Service.

Though operating on reduced scale caused by manpower shortages, rising costs, and reduced military demands for horses, the Army Horse Breeding

Plan during World War II gave origin to 39,000 foals. 13 In the 1945M6

breeding-foaling season, 450 to 500 Government-owned stallions were bred to

more than 11,000 civilian-owned mares; the resulting foal crop totaled 7,293 horses 59). It may be mentioned that the authority for the Army to conduct

remount breeding was abolished on July 1948, at which time, also, the Army

Remount Service was transferred to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (60).

The distribution of Government-owned stallions and administrative controls over the Army Horse Breeding Plan were made by the same quartermaster remount area headquarters that supervised the procurement of animals in

the Zone of Interior. The several remount area headquarters veterinarians, in

addition to their responsibilities concerning animal procurement, conducted

13 See footnote 1, p. 491.

Average mean strength 7,752

Admissions:

For disease 470

For injury 566

Total 1,036

Treatment days 19.686

Average days per admission 19

Died or destroyed 42

Number admitted per 1,000 average animal strength per year:

For disease 46.7

For injury 56.2

Total 102.9

Number per 1,000 average animal strength per year died or destroyed 4.1

Includes 80 battle casualty cases admitted during the months of December 1943 through June

1944 in March 1944 alone, 23 such cases were reported.
A.XIMAL PROCUREMENT 513

physical examinations on the stallions when coming into Government ownership, investigated the sanitary conditions under which the stallions were kept and used by the civilian stallion agents in order to maintain animal health and

efficiency, examined the privately owned mares in order to protect the stallions’ health and to discourage the mating of unsound animals, and assisted

in the instructional program for bettering the principles and techniques used

in the Nation’s horse industry. The stallions—quite few of which were

donated by civilian owners—were specially examined against acceptances of

any having diseases of bones and the organs of locomotion, chronic respiratory

disorders, evidences of having been “nerved,” congenital deformities, diseases

of the reproductive organs, and those defects which were hereditary in nature.

The Thoroughbred breed was predominant on the list of Government-owned

stallions, but registered Morgan and Standardbred animals also were obtained.

The Arabian stallions were especially advanced in the Plan after the fall of

1943 when the Kellogg Arabian Nursery was donated to the Army and became the location of the Pomona Kemount Depot. On arrival at the remount

area headquarters or depots, the new stallions were mallein tested for glanders,

examined for fertility, and their blood specimens were laboratory tested for

dourine and, if not recently immunized, for equine infectious abortion; these

procedures were followed by branding and prophylactic inoculations against

equine encephalomyelitis, equine infectious abortion, and tetanus. It was

obligatory that only healthy and sound stallions be issued to the civilian stallion agents.

Following their issue, the stallions were reexamined in their places of

standing at least once each year by the headquarters veterinarian. They

were mallein tested, reexamined for fertility, revaccinated as might be indicated, treated for internal parasitism, and their blood samples were forwarded for laboratory examination for dourine and equine infectious abortion; also, such dental treatment and foot care as was required was given

{61). Concurrent with this, the veterinary officer investigated and advised

the civilian agents on environmental sanitation and the methods used in

breeding and handling the stallions, including the technique of artificial

insemination. To the extent that it was practical, the civilian-owned mares

which were scheduled for servicing to the Government-owned stallions were

examined for soundness. The mares, except those in the areas specifically

exempted by the Surgeon General’s Office, had to be tested and found free

of dourine, but the mallein test for glanders was not mandatory. Periodically, these stallions were returned to the Army remount depots for reconditioning, physical examination, and test for fertility. During the war years,

1940 through 1945, approximately 700 to 800 agent stallions were examined

at the Army remount depots.

At one time, brood mare band of 50 animals was prescribed for each

of the three remount depots, but, as of December 1941, the depots had aggregated 199 mares, together with 458 foals and few stallions. In many ways,
514 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

these were cared for and handled according to certain principles of veterinary

sanitation and zootechnics, including artificial impregnation. In the five

breeding-foaling seasons of 1940-41 through 1944-45, the depot-produced

living foals numbered 557 (table 40). This number, when used in the computation involving the number of mares bred to determine living foal

percentage of 69.8, was an impressive index to the efficiency of the breeding

techniques, brood mare band management, and programs of disease control.

The most singular disease was equine infectious abortion (Salmonella abortive equina which since the early twenties was controlled by administering

bacterin agent to both mares and stallions (62). so-called equine virus

Table 40.- Breeding-foaling results among remount depot brood mare bands, by year, 194-0-45

Breeding-foaling results 1940-41 1941-42 1942-43 1943-44 1944-45

Number Number Number Number Number

Stallions bred 10 11 16 12 15

Mares:

Bred ____

161 162 194 168 113

Conceived 139 133 168 132 83

Aborted;

Equine virus

abortion 23

Streptococcus

genitalium

Salmonella abortivo

equina

Other causes 12 13

Total __ 13 36

Died before foaling 12

Died as result of foaling

oals:

Living at birth 126 126 121 119 65

Living foal percentage. 78. 77. 62. 70. 57.

Died within 30 days;

Pyosepticemia

neonatorum.

Premature

Deformity of legs or

joints

Other causes

Total

Not normal at birth Unknown Unknown

Source: Jennings, W. E.: TwelveYears of Horse Breeding in the Army. J. Am. Vet. M. A. 116: 11-16, January 1950.
ANIMAL PROCUREMENT 515

abortion, reported first in 1937-38,reappeared in endemic proportions during

1942 at Fort Reno, causing 23 of the 49 pregnant mares to abort.

Equally as important as the animal disease controls were the studies

conducted on the techniques of breeding and methods of managing brood

mare bands and young horses. Higher rates of conceptions were shown

among foaling mares than in the group of maiden (or virgin) mares and

were more readily assured if the mares were selected on the basis of prebreeding bacteriologic examinations of the genital tract and if the foaling

mares were not routinely bred during the foaling heat period (that is, ninthday breeding). References

1. TM 10-395, 18 Dec. 1941.

2. AR 30-405, 15 May 1942.

3. AR 40-2045, 16 Sept. 1942.

4. AR 30-435, 29 May 1942.

5. AR 30-440, Jan. 1929.

6. AR 30-440, 18 June 1942.

7. Annual Report of the Surgeon General, U.S. Army. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1941.

8. Annual reports, Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office, 1942^6.

9. Letter. Col. Edwin N. Hardy, QMC, Office of the Quartermaster General. 10 Dec.

1940. to officers in charge of remount areas and commanding officers of remount depots,

subject; Ratings by Receiving Units.

10. Letter, Col. Edwin N. Hardy, QMC, Office of the Quartermaster General, Feb.

1941, to officers in charge of remount areas and commanding officers of remount depots,

subject: Administrative Losses in Issue Animals During Period, July 1940 to 15 January 1941.

11. Letter. Col. Edwin X. Hardy. QMC, Office of the Quartermaster General, 18 July

1941, to all remount depots and remount areas, subject: Statistical Data Reference

Processing of Animals at Remount Depots.

12. Letter. Col. Edwin N. Hardy, QMC, Office of the Quartermaster General, to The

Surgeon General. Oct. 1940, subject: Veterinary Hospital Facilities at Depots.

13. AR 30-415. June 1942.

14. Miner, John W.: Veterinary History of the Reno Quartermaster Depot (Remount), Fort Reno, Oklahoma, September 1939 to 31 December 1945. [Official record.]

15. Sager, Floyd C.: History of the Veterinary Service at the Robinson Quartermaster Depot (Remount), Fort Robinson, Nebraska, September to 31 December 1945.

[Official record.]

16. Wolfe, William R.: Veterinary Service, Front Royal Quartermaster Depot (Remount), Front Royal, Virginia. Period: September 1941 to December 1944. [Official

record.]

17. Shipley, Wayne D.: History of the Veterinary Service. World War II, Veterinary

Service With Quartermaster Remount Depots: The Pomona Quartermaster Depot (Remount). [Official record.]

18. Report. Remount Branch, Service Installations Division. Office of the Quartermaster General. Quartermaster Corps Accomplishments in World War II. [Official

record.]

19. Koon, G. II.: Organization and Functions of the Veterinary Service of the

Medical Department in Campaign. Vet. Bull. 13: 39-108, 13 Feb. 1924.

20. The Veterinary Service. Army M. Bull. No. 19, pp. 183-185, 1926.

21. T/O 10-95, Apr. 1942.
ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE 516

22. T/O&E 10-95, 21 July 1943.

23. T/O 10-97, Apr. 1942.

24. T/O&E 10-97, 21 July 1943.

25. T/O&E 10-97, 22 Jau. 1944.

26. Check sheets, Lt. Col. C. M. Cowherd, VC, to Chief Surgeon, Hqs., USAFIA, 30

Apr. 1942, and to Chief Quartermaster (Col. Gardiner, QMC), May 1942.

27. Letter, Lt. Col. Robert II. Yager, VC, 18th Medical General Laboratory, to CG,

USAFPOA, Mar. 1945, subject: Tick Piroplasmosis Investigation, APO 502.

28. Whitehead, Jack O.: Veterinary History of New Caledonia. In History of the

U.S. Army Veterinary Service, Pacific Ocean Areas, December 1941-30 June 1945, by

Wayne O. Kester and Everett B. Miller. [Official record.]

29. Smock, Stanley C., and Baker, Jack E.: History of the Veterinary Service in

the Southwest Pacific Area, 1942-1945. [Official record.]

30. Weisman, Louis G.: History of the Veterinary Service in the Southwest Pacific

Area, 1942-1945. [Official record.]

31. Letters, Lt. Col. Joseph H. Dornblaser, VC, President, U.S. Army Horse Purchasing Board, to Lt. Col. W. E. Hamrick, QMC, Office of the Chief Quartermaster,

SWPA, 20 Dec. 1942, and Jan., 23 Jan., Feb., 15 Feb., and 27 Feb. 1943.

32. Annual Report, Department Veterinarian, U.S. Army Remount Depot, APO 922,

1943.

33. Letter, Col. John A. Considine, QMC, Remount Depot, APO 922, SWPA, to CG,

USASOS, APO 501, 31 Mar. 1943, subject: Need for Veterinary Hospital at the Remount

Depot.

34. Veterinary Reports of Sick and Wounded Animals, Troop A, 251st Quartermaster Remount Squadron, January 1943-July 1944.

35. Letter, Australian Quartermaster General Military Board, Department of the

Army, Melbourne, Australia, to General Purchasing Agent, USFFE, 14 Sept. 1944, Subject;

Shipment of Horses.

36. Check sheet, Office of the Chief Quartermaster, to Chief Surgeon, Headquarters,

USASOS, SWPA, 30 Sept. 1944, subject: Examination of Horses, with comment 2, Oct.

1944. and comment 3, Oct. 1944.

37. Letter, Capt. David Erlich, VC, Base Service Center, Base 2, APO 922, to Surgeon, Base Section, USASOS, SWPA, 22 Jan. 1945, subject: Transportation of Horses.

38. Veterinary Reports of Sick and Wounded Animals, 16th Veterinary Evacuation

Hospital, August 1943-2 Nov. 1944.

39. Quarterly Reports, Commanding Officer, 16th Veterinary Evacuation Hospital,

July-September 1943, October-December 1943.

40. Annual Report, Commanding Officer, 16th Veterinary Evacuation Hospital, 1944.

41. Kester, Wayne O., and Miller, Everett B.: History of the U.S. Army Medical

Department Veterinary Service, Headquarters, United States Army Forces Pacific Ocean

Areas, December 1941 to 31 December 1945. [Official record.]

42. Veterinary Reports of Sick and Wounded Animals, 112th Cavalry Regiment, January 1943-17 Sept. 1944.

43. Mohri, Ralph W.: History of the U.S. Army Veterinary Service in the ChinaBurma-India Theater. [Official record.]

44. Veterinary Reports of Sick and Wounded Animals, CBI, Nov. 1943-Sept. 1944.

45. Veterinary Reports of Sick and Wounded Animals, IBT, October 1944-December

1945.

46. The Veterinary History of the China Theater. [Official record.]

47. Shea, Richard A.: Activities in Tibet of American Personnel of the SinoAmerican Horse Purchasing Bureau, 30 September 1945. [Official record.]
ANIMAL PROCUREMENT 517

48. Letter, Lt. Col. Ilia A. Tolstoy, AUS, to Col. J. G. Fuller, YO, Theater Veterinary

Officer, Headquarters, USFCT, 19 May 1945, subject: Commendation of Officer—Major

Bert Reinow —0-379830 VC.

49. History of the Army Veterinary Service in the North African and Mediterranean

Theater of Operations. [Official record.]

50. Letter, Col. C. B. Pickering, VC, Veterinarian, Office of the Surgeon, Hq, Fifth

U.S. Army, to Lt. Col. R. S. MacKellar, Jr., VO, Surgeon General’s Office, 26 Feb. 1944.

51. Veterinary Reports of Sick and Wounded Animals, Quartermaster Remount Division, Headquarters, Peninsular Base Section, MTO, December 1943-January 1944.

52. Veterinary Reports of Sick and Wounded Animals, 6742d Quartermaster Remount

Depot (Overhead), February 1944-June 1945.

53. Veterinary Reports of Sick and Wounded Animals, 2610th Quartermaster Remount Depot (Overhead), July-10 Oct. 1945.

54. Veterinary Reports of Sick and Wounded Animals, Remount Division, Office of

the Quartermaster, Hq, PBS, 20 Oct.-December 1945.

55. Veterinary Reports of Sick and Wounded Animals, l/2-6742d Quartermaster Remount Depot (Overhead), 14 Sept.-31 Oct. 1944.

56. Veterinary Reports of Sick and Wounded Animals, 6835th Quartermaster Remount Depot, November 1944-December 1945.

57. Semiannual Report, Veterinary Division, Office of the Chief Surgeon, USFET,

January-June 1945.

58. Report, Veterinarian, Office of the Chief Surgeon, USFET, 1945.

59. QMC Manual 22-2, May 1947.

60. Public Law 494, 80th Congress, 2d Session, approved 21 Apr. 1948.

61. Letter, Col. Edwin N. Hardy, QMC, Office of the Quartermaster General, 27 Dec.

1942, to remount areas, subject: Inspections of Stallions in Hands of Agents.

62. Annual Report of The Surgeon General, U.S. Army. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1920.

519

CHAPTER XIV

Animal Care and Management

During World War II, the care and management of animals was an

inherent and real supervisory activity of the Army Veterinary Service.

There was no theater or area, including the Zone of Interior, in which some

type of veterinary animal service was not conducted. This service was directed at the improvement of the physical efficiency of animals of the Army

and the protection of troop health against animal diseases.

The term “Army animals” generally was used when referring to the

Army’s horses and mules, whose mean strength during the war years averaged

more than 44,000 (table 41). However, more appropriately the term referred

to number of classes or groups of animals that would include also the 500

to 700 Government-owned stallions which were used in the Nation’s Horse

Breeding Plan, the K-9 Corps of 10,000 or more Army dogs, the 54,000

birds used in the Signal Corps’ Pigeon Service, the hundreds of livestock

and poultry maintained by the Quartermaster Corps and Army Exchange

System on food-producing farms or by the Medical Department and Special

Services at rehabilitation and rest centers, and the undeterminable thousands

of mice, rabbits, and other laboratory animals; also, it would include captured

military animals. Other animal groups, but of lesser official status, were the

officers’ private mounts (or horses), the Olympic equestrian teams of the

prewar and postwar periods, and the troop mascots and privately owned dogs,

cats, and animal pets belonging to military personnel. In addition, veterinary

animal service was furnished to such animals as were entered into lendlease, civilian supply, and military aid programs, or as were uncovered by

Civil Affairs and Military Government in liberated and occupied areas.

Other animals coming under the professional supervision of Veterinary

Corps officers at times were the “devil dogs” of the Marine Corps, the horses

and dogs used in the Coast Guard’s beach patrols, and the livestock on the

Navy-administered island bases in the Pacific.

This listing of animal groups is key to the scope of veterinary animal

service during World War II. However, because of the diversity of the

problems encountered with each, the groups are described separately in other

chapters, and the term Army animals, as used, will ordinarily refer to Army

horses and mules but may include also the Array dogs and signal pigeons.

Veterinary Corps officers investigated or surveyed the hygiene and

sanitary conditions of the environs surrounding military animals and advised military commanders on the principles of veterinary sanitary science

and on those methods of animal care and management related to health and

efficiency. As there were many causes for animal disability and physical
520 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Table 41.-—Mean strengthfor Army horses and mules in the U.S. Army, 1940-45

inefficiency, these veterinary supervisory functions and responsibilities necessarily covered great number of factors: The sanitary condition of picket

lines, corrals, stables, and stable practices; forage and the feeding and watering procedures; restraint; grooming; the care of the feet and shoeing; the

care and fit of equipment; exercise, conditioning, training, and work; the

disposition of disabled animals; quarantine; and the qualifications and suitability of personnel who were taking care of the animals. In all of these

matters, the duties of the Veterinary Corps officer were divided befween

that of veterinary practitioner, staff officer with responsibilities to keep

superior military authority informed and advised, and military commander

with responsibilities for governing the command’s veterinary service. These

duties will probably be better understood after description of the veterinary

service with animals of an Army camp or station in the Zone of Interior.

STATION VETERINARY SERVICE WITH ANIMALS

The veterinary service with animals at camp or station 2) was

somewhat analogous to the medical service for troops. This station veterinary service was continuous for the animals from the time they were received until transferred, sold, or otherwise disposed of; however, it was not

furnished to the animals which belonged to units and organizations having

their own attached veterinary personnel. The latter group of animals was

cared for by the unit or organizational veterinary detachment in manner

comparable to station veterinary service. On their arrival at an Army camp

or station, the animals were inspected; those found to be sick or wounded

were sent to the station veterinary hospital, whereas the others were placed

in special corral or stable and confined under the conditions of veterinary

supervised quarantine. This quarantine ordinarily lasted for 21 days during

which time the station veterinarian examined the animals for contagious diseases, including the administration of the mallein test for glanders.

After release from quarantine, the animals belonging to the organizations

Year Mean strength

Total Horses Mules

1940 25, 175

46, 520

49, 701

56, 287

20, 604

39, 703

4, 571

1941 6, 817

1942 41, 297 8, 404

1943 40, 917

22, 264

15, 370

1944 43, 334

35, 200

21, 070

1945 13, 280 21, 920

Sources: (1) Annual Report of The Surgeon General, U.S. Army. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office,

1941. (2) Annual reports, Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office, 1942-46.
ANIMAL CARE AND MANAGEMENT 521

of the station were inspected daily in the corrals or stables; in fact, the

station veterinarian had access to all animals at all times. It was necessary

that disabilities in the animals be detected promptly and be properly treated

at the earliest practical moment after their discovery and that the disabled

animals be segregated from the well until their health was restored. With

their presentation at veterinary sick call, the disabled animals were divided

into three groups: (1) Those admitted to the station's veterinary hospital for

treatment; (2) those with less serious diseases and injuries which were treated

and then returned to the organizations as stable cases (or outpatients) and

(3) the recovered patients that were returned to full duty status. In these

activities, the Veterinary Corps officer alone was responsible for determining

when an animal was physically incapacitated and would be placed on veterinary sick call and when the patient was to be discharged to duty status; he also determined the nature of the treatment or curative measures which

were used. Where the disability was severe, involving suffering, or would

cause permanent total loss of the animal’s usefulness, the station veterinarian performed euthanasia or submitted the animal for review and destruction by proper military authority, as was indicated.

Though the veterinary sick call and veterinary hospitalization were

professionally interesting and outstanding events in the daily routine of the

station veterinary service with animals, animal hygiene and veterinary sanitation—like quarantine—were more important to the Veterinary Corps officer and to the Army as whole. These were corrective measures applied

in prompt, energetic, and efficacious manner. They prevented or diminished

the disability and physical inefficiency of Army animals. Military commanders alone were responsible for the enforcement of animal hygiene and

veterinary sanitation within their organizations, but the station veterinarian

was responsible for supervising these activities. The latter supervised these

to the extent that, under the terms of conducting veterinary sanitary inspections, the hygienic conditions and sanitary environs were investigated, and

recommendations were made for the correction of observable defects in animal care and management {3, 4)- The survey findings and recommendations

were assembled into Veterinary Sanitary Reports 7). The report was

sent as letter report through military command channels to The Adjutant

General. With the onset of World War II, this report was rendered at the

end of each month, but, in November 1942, as it became evident that no great

number of animals might be used, the distribution of the report was limited

to the surgeon of the command; after the end of the war, the Veterinary

Sanitary Report was described for inclosure to surgeon’s Monthly Comprehensive Sanitary Report (Reports Control Symbol MCE-132).

ANIMAL QUARANTINE

Animal quarantine within the Army refers to the 21-day segregation

of Army horses and mules on arrival at station, command, or area under
522 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

military jurisdiction, or may mean detention of those exposed to or suspected of having communicable disease. It played an important part in

preventive veterinary medicine and in the supervisory care and management of animals, being one of the major procedures which the Army Veterinary Service used in carrying out its responsibility to protect the health

and preserve the physical efficiency of Army animals. The procedure had

gained its importance in the Army under the conditions that relatively large

numbers of animals were assembled or collected from wide variety of

sources and then moved frequently, sometimes into far-distant places. It

was conducted at the place of receipt of animals in order to protect the local

health situation and to lessen the chances of introducing or disseminating

communicable animal diseases from the point of origin or points along the

route of the movement; such diseases could be those transmissible to animals

of military command or to the civilian animals in an area of military operations, or could be those dangerous to troop health. In wider sense,

veterinary quarantine practices within the Army imposed certain responsibilities also on the Veterinary Corps officer at point of origin to avoid the

shipment of diseased animals.

The animal quarantine within the Army was routinely applied at the

moment of arrival of horses and nudes at station or in command, regardless of their source, and pertained equally to Army animals, privately

owned horses, and captured animals (1). The animals in quarantine ordinarily were taken care of by the organization to which they belonged; in

fact, the organization commander was responsible for the enforcement and

operation of the quarantine procedures, and the veterinary officer only supervised the procedures. The latter recommended whether newly purchased

or captured animals should be placed into absolute quarantine and when

seasoned animals should be placed into working quarantine status. Daily

inspections were made of the quarantined animals, and, as indicated, the

quarantine measures were modified. While period of 21 days was mandatory for all new arrivals of animals, quarantine of variable length was

imposed on recommendation of the veterinary officer in any event that

communicable disease appeared among Army animals (.£, <?, 9). Animals

suspected of having such disease or in the proximity to positive or suspect

case also were quarantined until shown to be free of the disease. Animals

found to be infected with glanders, anthrax, dourine, or surra were destroyed

immediately; if infected with any other communicable disease, they could

be isolated until they were completely recovered and comprised no threat

of spread to animals or to troops.

During the emergency periods preceding World War II, the Army Veterinary Service successfully recommended the discontinuance of Army animal buying until the U.S. Department of Agriculture could effect cooperative test-and-eradication program against dourine in three States in which

that disease had appeared among the civilian animal populations; as soon
ANIMAL CARE AND MANAGEMENT 523

as the Federal quarantine restrictions against the extrastate movement of

animals were lifted, Army buying was resumed.

Federal quarantine regulations included restrictions, and sometimes prohibitions, against the importation of animals which might introduce or dis- seminate exotic or other diseases among the Nation’s animal population. These were applied upon Army animals which were imported from the European Continent after World War and World War II. Probably best referred to as import quarantine, the Federal quarantine procedures were im- posed on these animals just as were the Federal or interstate quarantine procedures because they were mandatory on all incoming animal traffic pursuant

to the Nation’s laws and the regulatory controls that were developed by the

U.S. Department of Agriculture pursuant to these laws.

During World War II, there was little or no traffic of military animals into the United States. However, after Y-E Day, the problems of import

quarantine arose with the importation of captured horses from the European Continent. shipment of 152 horses on the S.S. Stephen F. Austin

was processed through Newport News, Ya., on 31 October 1945, and was

quarantined at the Front Royal Remount Depot (10). second shipment of

83 animals on the S.S. American Ranger arrived in mid-August 1946 11

12, 13 14-)- The precautionary procedures which were taken by the Army

Veterinary Service in the country of origin and during the quarantine period

in the United States were conducted to the satisfaction of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Another type of animal quarantine included the restrictions or prohibi- tions which originated with the animal disease control or import laws and

regulations of the U.S. territories and foreign countries into which Army horses and mules were moved. Referring to this as foreign quarantine, such

restrictions and prohibitions were familiar subjects with the Army Veterinary

Service for many years before World War II. However, there is no evidence

available that would indicate that foreign quarantine was once thought of

as likely to influence the traffic of Army animals across international boundaries as it did during the war. During the preceding peacetime period, the

Army Veterinary Service with the oversea departments routinely quarantined all incoming military animals pursuant to Army regulations and continued to do so even after the local governments in the Hawaiian and Philippine Islands and in the Panama Canal Zone had promulgated their own animal import laws and quarantine regulations. However, where such laws

and regulations were developed, the Army Veterinary Service acted as an

agency for the civilian governments to conduct the quarantine over the importations of Army animals. Routinely, the observance of such quarantines

was matter of local concern, beginning more or less as subject of professional concern between Army Veterinary officers and the local or governmental quarantine or veterinary authorities. These involved matters of re-

,590248 —61——35
524 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

spect, appropriate relationship, and avoidance of usurpation of civilian responsibilities. It was more beneficial for the oversea department military

commanders to cooperate with, rather than unnecessarily assume, the responsibilities of, civilian regulatory officials for protecting the territorial

public health and the livestock populations from animal diseases that might

be introduced. This original and informal understanding in time gave way

to official military directives upholding the interests and responsibilities of

civil animal quarantine laws and procedures.

The foreign quarantine problem of World War II was recognized soon

after the consummation of the destroyer-leased base agreement of 1940 between the United States and Great Britain which led to the development of

new defensive screen of military island bases in the Atlantic and Caribbean

areas. By July 1941, the Army Veterinary Service was studying the entrance

of horses into the new Bermuda Defense Command in such manner as to

comply with the animal import laws of Bermuda {15, 16 17). Then, during the fall of 1941, the War Department informed and requested compliance

by all concerned with the import requirements of the governments of Bermuda, Antigua and St. Lucia of the British West Indies, Trinidad, Tobago,

Jamaica, British Guinea, and Newfoundland {18, 19 20, 21). In 1941, the

Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office, also studied the problem of

exporting few horses into Peru 22 23).

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, thousands of horses and mules were

shipped from the Zone of Interior into the war theaters for the Allied

armies, and the observation and compliance with the animal import laws

and regulations of foreign countries did not become as great problem as

those concerning the traffic of Army dogs, signal pigeons, and the animal

pets belonging to military personnel. However, that foreign quarantine

might hamper military operations which were dependent on the utilization

of animals seems to have escaped all comment. The closest approach to such

situation occurred during World War II when the civil quarantine officials in Australia, which was major staging and defensive area in the

SWPA (Southwest Pacific Area), forced the diversion of three shipments

of approximately 1,500 Army mules of U.S. origin to New Guinea. In

contrast, little or no quarantine procedures, other than those regularly prescribed by the Army on all its movements of horses and mules, were imposed

on the animals brought into the South Pacific Area, China-Burma-India

theater, and the Mediterranean theater. In the Central Pacific Area (comprising the original Hawaiian Department), incoming animals were quarantined under Army veterinary supervision to the satisfaction of the Board

of Agriculture and Forestry, Territory of Hawaii (£J). The action which

was taken with respect to the 1,500 Army mnles paralleled similar threat

against the importation of foods for feeding the American soldiers sent to

assist in the defense of Australia. The same Australian governmental health

officials also imposed their own export laws and regulations on the movement
ANIMAL CARE AND MANAGEMENT 525

of military horses from Australia, but events proved that these were not followed in as meticulous manner as might have been when approximately

2,500 horses were purchased by the Army in Australia and transshipped to

the American forces on New Caledonia (in the South Pacific Area) {25, 26).

Between June 1942 and February 1943, the Australian health officials’ request for the Army to observe that country’s prohibition against the importation of any animal from the North American Continent grew into almost

pretentious demands that reached into diplomatic channels. By this time,

the original planning to use animal pack trains and mounted field artillery

battalions—evidently once believed to be essential for fighting the Japanese

enemy on jungle islands of the Pacific—was canceled, and the mules of U.S.

origin were diverted to New Guinea.

FEEDS AND FEEDING

Another supervisory activity of the Army Veterinary Service with animals concerned their feed and forage supply. The quantity and quality of

this supply received no less attention than did the food which was procured and issued to troops. There can be no question that the use of sound,

nutritious, and good-quality feeds and forage as well as the practice of sound

feeding principles were essential to the health and well-being of Army

horses and mules. The technical supervision over feeds and feeding, including inspection, was the assigned responsibility of the Army Veterinary

Service. The inspection or examination consisted of an inspection for the

grade quality and other characteristics as were specified, and sanitary

inspection.

Forage inspection activities were the continuing responsibilities of the

Army Veterinary Service in World War II, when they were practiced not

only in the Zone of Interior but also were established and conducted in such

oversea theaters as the Southwest Pacific, China-Burma-India, Mediterranean, and European. An index to the extent of these activities may be seen in the quantities of grain, hay, and straw which were inspected incident to their

procurement by the Army (table 42). The grand total of 2% billion pounds

for the war period, on year-to-year basis, was two to three times the amounts

which had been inspected each year in the preceding peacetime period, 1922

through 1939. During World War II, forage procurement inspections were

also conducted over the supply for the Coast Guard mounted beach patrols

which were provided with Army horses under the joint Army-Navy agreement of 18 September 1942 {27) In addition, more than 130 million pounds

of hay and straw were inspected when harvested from the so-called Army

forage farms which were maintained at remount depots and larger camps

{28, 29).

During World War II, insofar as it was practical, forage inspection was

conducted routinely by Veterinary Corps officers who were specially trained and qualified. By mid-1941, National Guard officers and 112 veterinary
526 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Table 42 —Procurement inspection of animal feeds and forage procured by the U.S. Army

19AOofficers of the Regular Army had qualified as forage inspectors following

completion of course of instruction at the Army Veterinary School. During the war period, 66 additional officers were qualified. During World War

II, the Federal specifications for grains, feeding hay, bedding hay and

straw, and concentrated feedstuffs were revised; the Veterinary Division,

Surgeon General's Office, on request, reviewed these Federal specification

changes before they were put into effect {30 through 3J[).

Though the official U.S. grade standards and Federal specifications were

major influences, equally important demands concerning bacteriological

quality and nutritional values were placed on the forage supply for Army

horses and mules by the Army Veterinary Service. For example, after 1942, the supply that originated from areas in which anthrax was indigenous or

under quarantine jurisdiction {2). Also, the feed and forage could be submitted to Army veterinary laboratories for examination for molds, harmful

bacteria, parasites, and adulteration, or for chemical or nutritional analyses

(. 35 36 37).

The procurement-inspection system that was used in World War II emphasized point-of-origin inspection of the forage in the contractor’s establishment. This system, more or less, followed pattern that was established

in 1928 when the Quartermaster Corps imposed mandatory procurementinspection system upon its feed and forage supply program for the Army

{38, 39). Formerly, pursuant to the regulations of the Army, procurement

inspection was conducted only when veterinary officer was available at the

procurement point and was expressly requested by the receiving quartermaster officer to inspect the forage for compliance with Government specifiYear Passed

Rejected

Total

Causes of rejection

Not type, class or grade

Insanitary

or unsound

1940 Pounds

235, 086, 263

404, 959, 058

Pounds

12, 772, 997

23, 822, 332

Pounds

9, 185, 990

16, 614, 604

Pounds

3, 587, 007

1941 7, 207, 728

1942

1943 664, 038, 593

505, 613, 420

90, 917, 176

43, 864, 175

24, 388, 771

2, 624, 086

22, 424, 787

14, 566, 095

1, 036, 705

21, 439, 388

9, 822, 676

1, 587, 381

1944

1945

Total 1, 900, 614, 510 107, 472, 361 63, 828, 181 43, 644, 180

Includes months of January and Februaryonly.

Sources: (1) Annual Report of The Surgeon General, U.S. Army. Washington; U.S. Government Printing Office,

1941. (2) Annual reports, Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office, 1942-46.
ANIMAL CARE AND MANAGEMENT 527

cations {4-0). Under the new inspection procedure and as operated throughout World War II, the point-of-origin inspection was accomplished, either

by Federal hay inspectors who were licensed by the U.S. Department of

Agriculture for the grading of hay and straw procurements only, by Federalemployed grain supervisors for the grading of grain procurements only, or

by Veterinary Corps officers who, however, could determine the grade quality

of any animal feed and forage and at the same time conduct the examination of the sanitary qualities of the product as well as make the sanitary

inspection of the contractor's establishment (4-0. those instances in which

the grade was properly established, the inspection which was made at the

point of delivery to the Army (or destination inspection) included the acceptance of the previously determined grade quality, except in unusual

circumstances, and the inspection only for the sanitary condition of the

forage. Where the grade quality was not determined at point of origin,

the destination inspection, as conducted at the Army camp or remount depot,

included both the grading and sanitary inspection. Any destination inspection was considered as final insofar as Army procurement procedures were

concerned and was always conducted by the Army Veterinary Service. The

reports of the inspections were forwarded to the concerned Quartermaster Corps contracting officer, who alone was responsible for the decision of acceptance or rejection of the feed and forage for the Army.

Forage Ration Studies

Studies were conducted on the protective procedures of safeguarding

Army animals against biologic and chemical contamination of their feed and

forage supply 4-5, 44? Some of the studies concerned the nutritional

qualities and military acceptability of sugar cane, algarroba bean, rice hay,

and other feeds which were indigenous in the Hawaiian and Philippine Departments. During World War II, the intensive studies on equine periodic

ophthalmia at the Veterinary Research Laboratory, Front Royal, Va., led

into the study of the riboflavin deficiency syndrome. Studies also were made

on the mineral requirements, especially the calcium-phosphorous ratio in

the ration of horses and mules, as well as on sporadic outbreaks of plant poisoning, continuing search was made for economical and suitable substitutes for components of the animal ration; namely, barley for oats; soybean

meal for linseed meal, molasses; lespedeza hay; and sawdust, pine needles,

peanut hulls, bearded wheat, and millet for bedding straw and hay.

Of particular importance were the studies on forage ration needed for

emergency or field use. The scientific study on the roughage requirements

of the dietary was undertaken after the onset of World War II when the

Army Veterinary Service and the U.S. Department of Agriculture cooperated in the experimental development of new complete Army horse and

mule feed.
528 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

These veterinary studies were undertaken upon the request of the Office

of the Quartermaster General of December 1941, indicating that ration

was needed which would possess the necessary nutrient qualities for animals

but would be considerably smaller in bulk to transport (J ). This matter

of bulk in the forage ration had become major argument against the planned

oversea deployment of horses and mules in World War II because of the

great demands on Army shipbottom space for other military supplies. By

January 1942, the Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office, and the

Bureau of Animal Industry, U.S. Department of Agriculture, the latter

being requested to assist in the development project, had established preliminary feeding experiment with commercially prepared concentrated

animal feed at the Agricultural Research Center, Beltsville, Md. This experiment was soon extended to feeding trials with the horses and mules of

several cavalry regiments and field artillery battalions at station or in maneuver training at Fort Bliss, Fort Bragg, Fort Riley, and Camp Hale. The

feeding trials were subsequently reported upon by the 1st Cavalry Division

Board, Field Artillery Board, and Field Artillery School but with such

conflicting summaries and doubt on the efficacy of the feed under study that

on July 1942, Headquarters, Army Service Forces, directed the continuance

of theresearch project. This research project was resumed on feed prepared

in pellet form after formulas which were developed jointly by the Army

Veterinary Service and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. One such

formula included oats (47 percent by weight), sugar beet pulp (35 percent),

dextrinized starch or amidex (10 percent), alfalfa meal (7 percent), and salt

(1 percent) another used corn and timothy hay along with lesser percentage of the oats component. After feeding experiment with the pelleted

feeds at the Agricultural Research Center, larger scale feeding trials were

authorized during the fall of 1942 by Headquarters, Army Services Forces,

and Headquarters, Army Ground Forces, to be conducted at Fort Bliss and

Camp Hale {47, J5, 49). The conditions of these trials were established by the Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office, and included the comparison of the experimental pelleted feed with the Army’s regular forage ration

and with doubly compressed mixture of hay, oats, and salt. The test boards

of the Army Ground Forces showed the pelleted feeds to be completely unsatisfactory and asked that the Army’s emergency forage ration be one comprising doubly compressed bale of hay, oats, and salt {50, 51). The Army

Service Forces concurred in this matter, and the wartime research activities

on complete horse and mule feed were canceled, effective 16 August 1943

{52, 53).

Forage Supply in Oversea Theaters

The studies on the Complete Army Horse and Mule Feed were matched

by developments in the oversea theaters which reduced the bulk and facilitated the handling and transportation of animal feeds and forage. For
ANIMAL CARE AND MANAGEMENT 529

example, veterinary officers of the SWPA urged the use of compressed oat

hay chaff in lieu of the regular hay component of the forage ration, the

former being available locally in bales or packed in bags for the Australian

Army (A£, 55). In the spring of 1943, assistance was given to the Quarter- master Corps in the investigation, inspection, and development of Australian

feed sources on double-compressed forage ration or baled mixture of oats

(28 pounds), oat hay chaff (40 pounds), and alfalfa or lucerne hay chaff

(16 pounds). Both offered great reductions in bulk; the latter weighed 84

pounds and occupied space of only cubic foot 56 57). In the China

theater, the Army Veterinary Service took energetic steps in requisitioning

hay-baling machines from the United States and having them airlifted over

the Himalayan Hump into China in order to introduce and to provide hay

in baled form to the American-sponsored Chinese military forces which had

been using unbaled loose hay (58). Also, compressed emergency animal

ration developed there that seemed to be satisfactory for short-time feeding or use as long as the animals would eat it. It was mixture of barley

(2.2 pounds), wheat bran (2.12 pounds), straw (1.1 pound), sugar (6.6

pounds), and salt (0.66 ounces), that was steamed and compressed into small

cakes, the cakes then being wrapped with paper and packed in boxes which

were made waterproof with covering of pig blood-tar mix. For the

aerial supply or airdrop support to the mounted combat teams in the jungles

of Burma, the grain components of animal rations were packaged in doublestrength burlap bags (59).

Though the bulk reduction and packing of animal forage had become

matters of great importance wherever animals were deployed, the Army

Veterinary Service in the oversea theaters was also concerned with the investigation or uncovering of local resources, the study of indigenous forage

and feeds, and with surveillance over the storage and methods of feeding.

large share of the forage used overseas originated within the theaters;

veterinary procurement inspections in the European theater, for example,

approximated million pounds during the first months of 1945 (60). In

the SWPA, forage was obtained on reverse lend-lease basis from Australian

suppliers and was inspected wdienever veterinary officers were available, particularly that forage which was transshipped to New Guinea. This supply

was generally adequate and included oat hay, lucerne or alfalfa hay, oats,

bran, and salt; however, the hays which were available were field matured

so that they were obtained in chaffed form. In line with the feeding

methods used in the Australian Army, these chaffed hays were mixed with the

grain and salt components of the forage ration and were given to the animals

by nosebag or feedbag. Bran, easily fermented in the feedbags and difficult to store under humid tropical conditions, was withdrawn from the ration

for the mules on New Guinea.

Considerably greater difficulties were experienced in the Mediterranean

theater where the use of animals had come about unexpectedly and the Allied
530 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

animal strength of the Fifth U.S. Army rose to peak of 12,000 animals

by the spring of 1944 {61). Under the condition of unexpectedness that

was made worse by the scorched-earth policy of the retreating German enemy,

feed and forage soon became short in supply. The veterinary officer with

the 36th Infantry Division’s provisional pack train, with approximately 750

animals, complained that the feed, consisting mainly of barley and straw, was very poor. Toward the end of the 1943-44 winter campaign, the supply

shortages were reflected in the physical condition and efficiency of the animals; malnutrition was causing the loss of many old animals. This situation

was moderately corrected with the uncovering of 8,800 tons of roughages

and grains in southern Italy and of feed manufacturing plant in Maddaloni,

Italy. Then, with the increased importations of feed and forage into Italy

and reestablishment of crop production on the Italian farms during the

following summer, the supply became adequate. Of course, whenever possible, the animals were grazed.

In China 58), the feed and forage supply was no worse than that encountered by the Allied armies in the Mediterranean theater during the

winter of 1943-44. The veterinary officers on liaison duty with the Americansponsored Chinese military forces found it to be so short that its supply

probably lessened the animal strength and efficiency in the units which deployed against the Japanese enemy in certain areas. The existing tactical and

transportation conditions prevented the importation of the required forage

into such areas. Along with shortages normally encountered where forage

was extensively used for food, fuel, and building construction by the native

population, the Chinese forage ration as below the nutritional standards

believed necessary to maintain Army animals and was provided under

monetary allowance system which was far less efficient than the issue-in-kind

system used by the other Allied armies. Changes that were recommended

in March 1945 for the ration to be issued in kind and with increases in the

quantities of its components ere reluctantly approved by the Chinese

Ministry of War, and the effective date was considerably delayed.

Elsewhere in the Asiatic theater, the supply of feed and forage presented

variety of other problems {59). The supply for the Allied-sponsored

Chinese military forces in India and Burma originated with the British

Army and included roughages such as bhoosa, paddy straw, and Indian grass

hay, and concentrates such as barley, cowpeas, gram, maize, rice, and wheat

bran. Bhoosa, the straw of cereal or leguminous crops, was received in the

form of rope-tied bales weighing 60 to 70 pounds, but, like the paddy straw

which was threshed rice straw, it had little nutritive value. The paddy

straw was usually cut in short lengths and mixed with grain in order to in- duce animals to eat it. The Indian grass hays were generally unsatisfactory,

being overripe, overcured, and contaminated. Of the concentrates, barley

and grain were the principal ones and were usually fed in combinations of

to pounds of barley and to pounds of grain. This supply was aug-
ANIMAL CARE AND MANAGEMENT 531

merited in the advance combat areas with grazing or foraging operations. In

these areas, kunai and elephant grass were found to be satisfactory, but, in

the mountains and jungles where these did not grow, bamboo shoots and

leaves were used. The bamboo leaves had little nutritive value and when

fed in too great quantity seemed to cause intestinal impactions in the animals.

The uncovering or finding of feed and forage resources in the advance

and combat areas of the India-Burma theater seemed to have been principal veterinary activity. During June-July 1943, veterinary officers set

out on foot “*to make reconnaissance of Northern Burma to determine

the condition of the trails, locate and mark areas where animals might he

grazed, map route over which the animals of the Chinese Army in India

might be taken into Burma, and to determine whether animals would be

able to subsist entirely off the land without supplementary forage.” In

October 1943, the Veterinary Corps officer on liaison duty with the Chinese

38th Division conducted an aerial survey in the Hukawng Valley with much

the same objectives. Following the surveys, the Chinese military forces and

American combat teams (that is, Merrill’s Marauders and MARS Brigade)

routinely depended upon the grazing of their animals on the trails and in

the vicinity of aerial supply dropsites along the lines of advance against

the Japanese in Burma. Though the grazing provided the roughage component of the animal ration, the grain component was supplied along the

route of march at dropsites and included grain and barley, separately packed,

40 pounds in double-strength burlap bag. Concerning the supply to the

Chinese 38th Division during the Hukawng Valley operations, the liaison

veterinary officer reported:

Cracked barley and grain were air dropped and fed on the basis of six poimds

of the former and two of the latter to our animals that were mostly India tonga ponies

weighing between six hundred and eight hundred pounds. Requests for increases in the

grain ration were recommended to G—4, but refused due to limited air tonnage.

It was impossible to tell if the bag contained barley or grain, and unless the

issuing officer opened each bag prior to issue, some outfits would obtain all of one kind.

When grain was fed in excess, it produced severe diarrhea, while full ration of barley

was not palatable and was frequently rejected by the animals. My recommendations to

the Services of Supply to mix the two grains prior to shipping were ignored without

reason.

Other troubles arose when aerial dropsites could not be reached on schedule

or where the animal ration was reduced below the previously cited poundages.

HORSESHOES AND SHOEING

Just as forage inspection and animal feeding had comprised an important

supervisory activity of the Army Veterinary Service, so did the care of the

feet and shoeing of horses and mules. Horseshoeing, the supply of horseshoes and horseshoe-making equipment, as well as the training of horseshoers, were critical problems with veterinary officers in the China-Burma590248 —61—-—36
532 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

India theater where Allied Chinese military forces were sponsored in the

fighting against Japan. Comparable but less extensive problems were experienced in the Mediterranean theater where large numbers of animals were

used {61). With the same degree of unexpectedness that horseshoeing had

become problem in these Asiatic and European areas during active military

operations, horseshoeing again came to the forefront in occupied Germany

when the latter in returning to peacetime agricultural economy saw its

draft horses and draft cattle unshod or wearing wornout shoes {62). The

postwar supply of iron and nails was soon reestablished, but the reconstruction of shoeing schools, along with the development of new German group

of farriers who were properly trained, qualified with an apprenticeship and

examination, and legally licensed to practice “hoof and claw shoeing,” was

not nearing completion until 1947.

In nearly all of these activities, the veterinary officers were far afield

from the prescribed responsibility of the Army Veterinary Service to exert

only such supervisory controls over Army horseshoeing as would improve

animal health and efficiency. Horseshoeing, as number of other details

concerned with the care and management of animals, may not seem to be

important in the motorized and mechanized Army such as fought in World

War II, but it was particularly important to the Allied military forces that

were dependent on animal transport or in the occupied countries which were

returned to agricultural pursuits.

With the onset of World War II, there was an evident need for increased

numbers of horseshoers in the Army, but there is no veterinary record of

the continuation of the station or unit horseshoeing schools in the Army

camps or mounted units after they had found their animals to be surplus and

had returned most of the horses and mules to quartermaster remount depots

in the Zone of Interior. The Cavalry School, Fort Riley, Kans., continued

to train horseshoers for the Army, utilizing veterinary officers as instructors

who later (in January 1945) came into complete control of that facility’s

Training School for Horseshoers.

In the China-Burma-India theater, the Army Veterinary Service was

confronted with great number of serious problems that arose when, for the first timein the modern history of the Chinese military forces, proper attention

was given to the care of the feet and shoeing of its animals {58, 59, 63). At

about the time that they came under the sponsorship of the Allies in India and Burma and of the United States alone in China, the Chinese armies and divisions ordinarily had by far too small number of horseshoers, and only 10 percent of their animals were shod. Neither the horseshoe-making equipment nor

the horseshoes and nails were available to give any immediate assistance toward

On November 1946, the Cavalry School was redesignated the Ground General School, the

latter then becoming the Army General School on January 1950. Although the Army had lost

most of its animals since World War II and Cavalry was amalgamated into the armored forces, it

is interesting to note that the Army School Catalog of 1949 made reference to an official course of training for Army horseshoers (Course 2—B—1).
ANIMAL CARE AND MANAGEMENT 533

improving the horseshoeing situation of the Allied Chinese forces. Under the

conditions that these forces were to be trained and supplied, or otherwise prepared, to fight the Japanese in Asia, efforts were directed first in the training

of Chinese personnel as horseshoers. By the fall of 1944, veterinary officers had

given formal instructions to approximately 750 Chinese personnel in the training centers at Ramgarh, India, and in China atK’un-ming, Ta-li, and Yen-shan.

Others were trained in the unit horseshoeing shops which were supervised by

veterinary officers and veterinary animal service detachments that were attached

in liaison capacity to the various Chinese armies and divisions. Instructional

activities, as well as the establishment of the Chinese horseshoeing shops, were

extraordinarily difficult owing to lack of horseshoe-making equipment, which

had to be improvised; in fact, itwas not until after May 1945 that limited quantities of such equipment of U.S. origin began to arrive in the China theater.

The horseshoe supply comprised another major problem in the horseshoeing situation of the Allied Chinese forces. While some shoes were available from local sources and were used, the increased military demands were

largely satisfied through horseshoe factories established and operated by the

Army Veterinary Service in Kuei-yang and Chih-chiang; these supplemented

larger factory that was established in K’un-ming. Eventually, they were

turned over to the control of the Services of Supply, Supreme Headquarters,

Chinese Army. This local development of the horseshoe supply had been

made necessary under the condition that the requirements when first made

totaled 250,000 shoes per month—a quantity that could not well be flown

over the Himalayan Hump even if they had been requisitioned from the

United States. Horseshoe nails, unavailable in the quantity or quality desired, were brought into the China theater in amounts totaling as much as

10,000 pounds per month by June 1945.

DISPOSITION OF ANIMALS

It must be understood that veterinary care and management was continuous for the horses and mules throughout their life of service in the Army.

This was discontinued or terminated only with their death, their removal

from active military service on account of age or physical disability, or other

disposal when no longer needed by the Army. The deaths of Army horses

and mules due to disease and injury have been referred to as “veterinary

losses,” which numbers included also the animals destroyed on account of

their having, or developing, physical disabilities which had made them mili- tarily unserviceable. During the ar (for the years 1941 through 1945), such

veterinary losses totaled 12,916 horses and mules which had died or were destroyed on account of disease and injury. Other animals were destroyed but

for nonpathologic causes such as old age or as being temperamentally unfit.

Destruction ordinarily was the prerogative of command and was accomplished under prescribed administrative procedures of I.C. (inspection and

condemnation). I.C. animals, however, were not always destroyed because
534 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

they, as much of the other Army property and supplies which had become

unserviceable, could also be sold or transferred. Another animal disposition

procedure was that concerned with the transfer or sale of those which were

surplus to military needs, as occurred in the dismounting of cavalry units

during World War II. In the Zone of Interior only, disposal sales, aggregating 17,000 animals surplus to Army needs, were conducted at the Army remount depots during the war, and another 9,400 animals (including some

previously transferred to the Coast Guard) were sold at the camps (&£).

Other thousands of animals that were not otherwise issued or transferred

to Allied military forces in the oversea theaters were disposed of locally by

sale or turnover to foreign governments, the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, or the Foreign Liquidation Commission.

The major veterinary considerations in the death, destruction, and other

disposition of Army animals were: (1) The investigative study of the cause

of death of any animal, (2) the sanitary disposal of cadavers, (3) the giving

of professional opinion on the physical disabilities of sick or wounded animals, (4) the conduct of euthanasia or protective humane care over experimental animals, and (5) the certification of the physical health of animals

being transferred from the military service.

Whenever an animal died or was destroyed, the method selected for the

disposal of the animal cadaver was not only recommended but was also

supervised by the veterinary officer. Where profitable, Army salvage plants

could be operated or the cadavers could be removed by civilian contractors,

the latter being expressly cautioned to comply with applicatory civilian

regulations and to operate in manner which would not disseminate infectious disease. Any animal, dying or destroyed because of anthrax,

glanders, rabies, surra, or other disease of equivalent hazard to troop health

or to animals, was burned or buried immediately, and this was followed

by program of veterinary disinfection and quarantine.

When animals became unserviceable, I.C. procedures were taken to remove them from the Army. Being function of command, these procedures

were performed by inspectors general or other specially designated officers

of the Army. The latter could dispose of unserviceable horses and mules

by transfer to another Federal agency, by sale, or by destruction. The disposition by destruction was mandatory under conditions where it would

terminate suffering from disease and prevent contagion; or where the animal

had an incurable disease or injury, was totally blind, or was too old; or for

other good and sufficient reason; or where to sell it for work in the hands of

irresponsible persons would be cruel and cause suffering to the animal. In

these disposition procedures, the veterinary officer assisted the inspectors

general in evaluation of the degree of liability an animal had become, frequently applied the I.C. brand to the animal being sold or transferred, and,

more often than not, actually destroyed the animal. By regulations of the

Army, this destruction was accomplished in humane manner, preferably
ANIMAL CARE AND MANAGEMENT 535

by shooting. The Army Veterinary Service supported these inspection and

condemnation procedures to the extent that the removal of unserviceable

animals was reflected in the improvement of the physical efficiency of the

Army’s horse and mule strength.

The disposition of I.C. animals was variable and changed from time to

time. During World War II, inspection and condemnation procedures emphasized the removal of large number of aged animals which were carried

over from the preceding peacetime period when they could not be disposed

of, though unserviceable, because of the lack of sufficient congressional appropriations to procure replacement animals. The wartime mounted units

also required more serviceable animal, and in the oversea theaters serviceability alone was not always adequate; combat serviceable horse or mule

was demanded, which meant that unusually stringent inspection and condemnation procedures were imposed. In the Zone of Interior, particularly,

the Army made use of many unsalable I.C. animals in the feed supply for

Army dogs, the animals being slaughtered under veterinary supervision.

Others wnre sold.

The disposition of Army animals surplus to military needs came at an

early period in World War II when the thousands of horses, which had

been procured in the emergency periods, were not sent overseas from the

Zone of Interior. The dismounting of Cavalry that began in the spring of

1942 and the later stress on more mule transport were the cause for conducting horse sales that eventually led to the closeout of the quartermaster remount depot at Front Royal by the middle of 1944. After the end of the

war, Army mules became as much surplus as had the horses. An estimate

of the numbers surplus to the military needs is possibly reflected in the

downward trend of the entire Army’s animal strength from an annual mean

average of 44,696 for 1941 to 19,939 for 1945. The disposal of the surplus

animals involved certain economic, public health, and political considerations,

the one of veterinary importance being that no such animal would introduce

or disseminate animal diseases into agricultural livestock populations, wffiether

of the United States or foreign country. Another consideration was that

the animal would be physically healthy or serviceably sound so that no buyer

or recipient of surplus animal could complain about its lack of general

usefulness.

During World War II, the animals ere declared surplus to the Procurement Division, U.S. Department of the Treasury, and its wartime successor agencies, including the War Assets Administration, which actually

conducted most of the dispersal sales in the Zone of Interior. The latter,

during July 1947, expressly asked that only those animals examined and

found to be sound by Army veterinary officers would be declared surplus for

sale {65) the degree of soundness referred to an animal which was serviceably sound. However, the veterinary certificate of soundness was not to refer

to disease or injury which required microscopic, laboratory, or radiological
536 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

examination to determine its existence. About months later, the War

Assets Administration relaxed its requirements and announced that both

sound and unsound animals could be declared surplus to that agency, each

with proper veterinary certificate (05). Since the Army could not reasonably be expected to supply to that agency those animals found to be unserviceable or unusable, regardless of the degree of unsoundness, these animals were disposed of pursuant to the existent military administrative procedures governing inspection and condemnation. Though the veterinary

certificate of soundness had become the major criteria in the post-World War

II disposals of Army animals, individual veterinary officers, however, continued to render veterinary health certificates on the animals just as had been

accomplished with such satisfactory results against the spread of disease after

World War I.

References

1. AR 40-2035, 15 Apr. 1922.

2. AR 40-2035, 18 Dec. 1942.

3. AR 40-2080, 20 Jan. 1940.

4. AR 40-2090, 15 Sept. 1942.

5. AR 40-2255, Feb. 1934.

6. AR 40-2235, 27 Nov. 1942.

7. AR 40-2235, Changes No. 2, 16 Nov. 1942.

8. AR 40-2090, 12 Nov. 1921.

9. AR 40-2090, 15 Sept. 1942.

10. Letter, Maj. H. F. Sibert, VC, HQ, Detachment A, 6835th Quartermaster Remount

Depot, USFET, to The Surgeon General, Nov. 1945, subject: Transportation of

Animals.

11. Veterinary Health Certificate, U.S. Army Remount Service (Field), 6835th

Remount Depot, APO 807, 25 July 1946.

12. Letter, Col. J. A. McCallum, VC, Veterinary Division, SGO, to The Quarter- master General, 26 July 1946, subject: Disposition of Animals on Arrival From Europe,

with 1st indorsement thereto, Aug. 1946.

13. Letter, Col. J. A. McCallum, VC, Veterinary Division, SGO, to Col. F. C. Sager,

VC, Veterinarian, Front Royal Quartermaster Depot (Remount), Aug. 1946, subject:

Disposition of Animals on Arrival From Europe.

14. Letter, Col. J. A. McCallum, VC, Veterinary Division, SGO, to C. L. Gooding,

Quarantine Division, Bureau of Animal Industry, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 12 Aug.

1946, subject: Disposition of Animals on Arrival From Europe.

15. Letter, S. O. Fladness, Chief, Field Inspection Division, Bureau of Animal

Industry, U.S. Department of Agriculture, to Col. R. A. Kelser, VC, Veterinary Division,

SGO, July 1941.

16. Letter, Col. R. A. Kelser, VC, Veterinary Division, SGO, to Depot Veterinarians,

Quartermaster Depots (Remount), at Front Royal, Va., Fort Reno, Okla., and Fort Robinson, Nebr., July 1941, subject; Shipment of Animals to Bermuda.

17. Letter, Maj. A. J. Hastings, FA, Adjutant, Bermuda Base Command, to Commanding General, 2d CA, Governors Island, N.Y., Aug. 1941, subject: Certificate on

Shipment of Horses to Bermuda.

18. WD Circular No. 173, 18 Aug. 1941.

19. WD Circular No. 199, 23 Sept. 1941.

20. WD Circular No. 186, Sept. 1941.

21. WD Circular No. 210, Oct. 1941.
ANIMAL CARE AND MANAGEMENT 537

22. Letter, Capt. E. L. Hogan, QMC, Office of the Quartermaster General, to The

Surgeon General, 27 Aug. 1941, subject; Shipment of Horses to Peru.

23. Letter, Lt. Col. J. F. Crosby, VC, Veterinary Division, SGO, to Veterinarians at

Front Royal, Va., Remount Depot, New York, N.Y., Port of Embarkation, Fort Riley,

Kaus., and Fort Sill, Okla., 22 Aug. 1941, subject: Shipment of Animals to Peru.

24. World War II History of the Army Veterinary Service, Central Pacific Area.

[Official record.]

25. Letter, Lt. Col. R. H, Yager, VC, 18th Medical General Laboratory, to Commanding General, USAF, POA, Mar. 1945, subject: Tick Piroplasmosis Investigation, APO 502.

26. Smock, S. C., and Baker, J. E.: History of the Veterinary Service in Southwest

Pacific Area. [Official record.]

27. Letter, 464th Coast Guard, to Office of the Quartermaster General, 16 Oct. 1942,

subject: Forage for Horses Assigned to U.S. Coast Guard for Coastal Patrol.

28. Annual Report of The Surgeon General, U.S. Army. Washington; U.S. Government Printing Office, 1941.

29. Annual reports, Veterinary Division, SGO, 1942-45.

30. Letter, Office of the Quartermaster General, to The Surgeon General, 13 Aug.

1943, subject: Proposed Federal Specification for Feedstuff, Concentrated, with 1st indorsement thereto, dated 16 Aug. 1943.

31. Memorandum, Technical Division, SGO, for Veterinary Division, SGO, 17 Nov.

1944, subject: Federal Specification N-H-131 for Hay and Straw; (or) Bedding-revision,

with 1st indorsement thereto, dated 20 Nov. 1944.

32. Memorandum, Technical Division, SGO, for Veterinary Division, SGO, 23 Nov.

1944, subject: Proposed Federal Specification N-H-121 for Hay; Feeding-revision, with

1st indorsement thereto, dated 25 Nov. 1944.

33. Memorandum, Technical Division, SGO, for Veterinary Division, SGO, Oct.

1944, subject: Proposed Revision of Federal Specification N-F-211a for Foodstuffs, Concentrated, with 1st indorsement thereto, dated Oct. 1944.

34. Memorandum, Technical Division, SGO, for Veterinary Division, SGO, Oct.

1944, subject: Federal Specification N-G-651 for Grains, with 1st indorsement thereto,

dated 12 Oct. 1944.

35. AR 40-2140, Dec. 1921.

36. AR 40-2140, Aug. 1942.

37. AR 40-2145, 10 Dec. 1921.

38. Annual Report of The Surgeon General, U.S. Army. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1926-28.

39. Office of the Quartermaster General, Circular Letter No. 2, 10 Jan. 1928, subject:

Inspection of Forage. Reprinted, Army Vet. Bull. 21: 48-49, February 1928.

40. Beeman, II. N.; Grain Inspection. Army Vet. Bull. 12: 118-121, October 1923.

41. WD Supply Bulletin 10-47, Apr. 1944, with Changes No. 1, Sept. 1944.

42. Dildine, S. O.: The Use of Chemical Warfare Agents on Animals. Army Vet.

Bull. 28: 8-32, January 1934.

43. Taylor, C. L.; The Effect of Chemical Warfare Agents on Food Products. Army

Vet. Bull. 29 310-320, October 1935.

44. Mace, D. L.; Horses in Chemical Warfare. Army Vet. Bull. 34: 95-112, March

1940.

45. Chemical Warfare School Mimeo No. 180: Veterinary Considerations of Chemical Warfare. Chemical Warfare School, Edgewood Arsenal, Md., March 1943.

46. MacKellar, R. S., Jr.: World War II History of the Animal Service Branch,

Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office. [Official record.]

47. Letter, Veterinary Division, SGO, to HQ, SOS, 17 Oct. 1942, subject: Feed, Army

Horse and Mule, Complete, with 1st indorsement thereto, dated 17 Oct. 1942.
538 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

48. Letter, IIQ, AGF, to 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Bliss, Tex., Nov. 1942, subject:

Test of Compressed Feed and Forage Ration.

49. Letter, HQ, AGF, to Mountain and Winter Warfare Board, Camp Carson, Colo.,

13 Nov. 1942, subject: Test of Compressed Feed and Forage Ration.

50. Finley, G. S.: Reports of Field Test of Compressed Complete Horse and Mule

Feed, by 1st Cavalry Division Board, Fort Bliss, Tex., with 4th indorsement, Col. H. L.

Flynn, Cav., Cavalry Board, Fort Riley, Kans., to HQ, AGF, dated 16 Mar. 1943.

51. Anderson, B. C.: Report of Test of Compressed Feed and Forage Ration, Test

64, by Mountain Winter Warfare Board, Camp Hale, Colo., July 1943, with 1st indorsement, dated July 1943, HQ, AGF, to Development Branch, Requirements Division, ASF;

and 2d indorsement, dated July 1943, HQ, ASF, to The Quartermaster General, undated.

52. Memorandum, Lt. Col. R. G. Prentiss, Jr., MC, Research Coordination Branch,

SGO, for Veterinary Division, SGO, undated, subject: Review of Research and Development Project.

53. Memorandum, Research Coordination Branch, SGO, to Veterinary Division, SGO,

16 Aug. 1943, subject: Cancellation of Development Project V-4, Complete Army Horse

and Mule Feed.

54. Letter, Lt. Col. C. M. Cowherd, VC, Veterinary Section, Chief Surgeon’s Office,

USASOS, SWPA, to Chief Quartermaster, USASOS, SWPA, 15 Jan. 1943, subject: Forage

for Animals, Types of Hay, and Methods of Feeding.

55. Check Sheet, Veterinary Section, Surgeon’s Office, HQ, USASOS, SWPA, to The

Quartermaster General, Mar. 1943, subject: Forage.

56. Check Sheet, Lt. Col. C. M. Cowherd, VC, Veterinary Section, Chief Surgeon’s

Office, HQ, USASOS, SWPA, to The Quartermaster General, 15 Apr. 1943, on basic letter,

Col. J. A. Considine, QMC, Quartermaster Remount Depot, APO 922, Apr. 1943, subject:

Hay.

57. Letter, Lt. Col. C. M. Cowherd, VO, Chief Surgeon’s Office, HQ, USASOS, SWPA,

to Veterinarian, Office of the Surgeon, APO 924, 14 Apr. 1943, subject: Forage, Compressed.

58. The Veterinary History of the China Theater, 1945. [Official record.]

59. Mohri, Ralph W.; History of the U.S. Army Veterinary Service in the ChinaBurma-India Theater, World War IT, 1942-45. [Official record.]

60. Report, Col. C. B. Perkins, VC, Veterinary Division, Chief Surgeon’s Office,

ETOUSA, 1945.

61. History of the Army Veterinary Service in the North African and Mediterranean

Theater of Operations. [Official record.]

62. Reports, Veterinary Section, Public Health and Welfare Section, Internal Affairs

and Communications Division, Office of Military Government for Germany, 1946-47.

63. Letter, Lt. Col. W. E. Jennings, VC, Veterinarian, HQ, Chinese Combat Command,

USFCT, to Commanding General, HQ, Chinese Combat Command, USFCT, 12 June 1945,

subject: Report of Inspection.

64. Remount Branch, Service Installations Division, Office of the Quartermaster

General: Quartermaster Corps Accomplishments in World War II.

65. WD Memorandum No. 40-2235-1, 11 July 1947, 29 July 1947, Feb. 1948, 19

Mar. 1948.
539

CHAPTER XV

Transportation of Animals

During World War II, the animals of the Army were transported in

number of ways: By road marching, in railroad cars, on transports (ships),

by motor vehicles, and in airplanes. The first two means were used extensively in the movement of animals overland prior to World War I. In

connection with the transportation by motor vehicle, records of World War

point to the common existence of veterinary ambulances, but many years

passed before motorized portee was tried in maneuvers as means of tactical

deployment of mounted units. The transportation of an animal on an airplane was given headline news in veterinary publications during the late

twenties (7), but it was not until World War II that this was used under the

conditions of tactical deployment.

The transportation of animals, regardless of the means, proved veritable

hardship on animals. However, with proper care and management, animals

were moved or transported—covering great distances and involving long periods of travel time—without seriously lessening their physical condition or

without too great loss from disease and injury, certain loss of animals

was normally expected, but the experiences of World War II indicated that

such losses can be minimal, such as 2.6 percent losses of animals when road

marched in the tropical jungle areas of southeastern Asia, 0.25 percent in

railroad shipments in the Zone of Interior, less than 0.3 percent in longdistance overwater movements, and almost no losses when animals were

transported by airplane. An aggregate 60,000 horses and mules—U.S. and

Allied—were involved in these movements. Whatever the means of movement, the successes in World War II involved the practice of certain veterinary principles. These included the examination of animals for physical

condition prior to embarkation, the technical supervision over those methods

and facilities which had bearing on animal health, and the duty assignment of personnel to accompany the animals while en route.

TRANSPORTATION BY SHIP

The principles of veterinary service concerned with the overwater movement of animals in World War II were developed during World War I.

The practice of these principles was the assigned responsibility separately of

the port veterinarian, the veterinarian of the animal embarkation depot, and

the transport veterinarian. Of course, the port veterinarian was recognized

as the central coordinating officer. Their responsibilities were described in

AR (Army Regulations) 40-2055, March 1922, and AR 40-2060, March

1922. The two peacetime regulations were rewritten into the superseding
540 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

AR 40-2055, 29 September 1942, but no changes were made on the assigned

functions of the Army Veterinary Service.

During World War II, animal shipments originated from four ports of

embarkation in the Zone of Interior (Los Angeles, Calif., New Orleans, La.,

New York, N.Y., and San Francisco, Calif.) and from dozen or more

points in two oversea theaters (the South and the Southwest Pacific Areas).

The animal embarkations at New York included 2,227 mules which were procured by the Indian Army Supply Mission under the U.S. lend-lease program of supply to the United Kingdom (#, 3). With the exception of the

shipments from ports in Australia (Brisbane, Melbourne, Newcastle, and

Townsville) of 2,525 horses to New Caledonia during 1942 and of 2,336

horses to the China-Burma-India theater, the veterinary services at all embarkation ports were somewhat alike. The situation in Australia was occasioned by shortages in the numbers of Veterinary Corps officers (1942)

and by the imposition of civilian export and quarantine procedures on demands of the Australian Government. Altogether, port loadings under the

technical supervision of the Army Veterinary Service totaled 15,000 horses

and mules, this number including the aforementioned lend-lease mules which

were shipped to India.

Port veterinary service ordinarily began with the inspection of the animal transports and the technical supervision over their cleaning and other

preparations for each voyage. The transport inspection, also conducted after

the loading of the animals but just before the ship’s departure, was made on

variety of details which had bearing on animal health and management

as follows: The ship’s capacity and stall accommodations; loading and unloading facilities; feeding, watering, lighting, and ventilating systems;

sanitary and waste disposal facilities; quantity and quality of the feed and

water supplies; equipment and ship’s fittings; and facilities equipment to

care for sick and wounded animals. The veterinary space requirements were

expressed as percent of the number of stalls on shipboard; these stalls

were conveniently located near the hatchways. Timely reports of veterinary

transport inspections were rendered to the port commanders for such corrective action as was indicated. Generally, such reports were favorable; of

course, certain deviations from the most desirable facilities and systems were

tolerated in view of the fact that none of the American animal transports

in use during the war was constructed for such use; at least 18 of them

(with carrying capacity for 6,600 horses and mules) were converted vessels.

Actually, the shipments were made from the stockyards, Jersey City, N.J., originally with the

technical assistance of the port veterinarian, New York Port of Embarkation, but later the Army

Veterinary Service, Second Service Command, assisted in the embarkation of these mules.

The difference between the 15,000 animals loaded under the supervision of the Army Veterinary

Service at ports and the total number of horses and mules embarked was occasioned by the fact

that approximately 5,000 animals did not come under the supervision of the Army Veterinary

Service until after they had been loaded on animal transports.

Between the two wars, the U.S. Army Transports Dix, Meigs, Kenowis, and Ludington were used in the transportation of animals; however, they were not used as such during World War II.
TRANSPORTATION OF ANIMALS 541

SC NOPE 143T—1-45

Figure 50.-—The S.S. Virginian, converted animal transport used in World War II.

As matter of fact, many of these conversions—made by the War Shipping

Administration and involving for the most part the Liberty EC-2-type ship—-

were based on plans which were reviewed by port veterinarians. larger

proportion of the converted transports had stall capacities of 320; few

could carry more than this number of animals, the S.S. Virginian having the

greatest carrying capacity (679 stalls) (fig. 50).

Another prerequisite to overwater shipping -was the selection and preparation of the animals. These actions usually were begun at the quartermaster

remount depot which shipped the horses and mules to the port or to the

latter’s animal embarkation depot. By regulatory authorization, no disabled,

unserviceable, or unsound animals were moved into transport, and such animals, if not withdrawn previously, were rejected on the recommendations of

the port veterinarian during the actual loading operations. The preparations

included the shoeing of the animals (usually on the front feet only), the

clipping of the hair coat, and special feeding and watering in the or days

preceding embarkation. The individual record cards of the animals were reviewed as to the status of the prophylactic immunizations against equine

encephalomyelitis, in the Zone of Interior only, and against tetanus, and of the

mallein test for glanders (within the preceding 21 days). During the latter

part of the war, on request of the Army Veterinary Service in the ChinaBurma-India theater, animals scheduled for oversea movement were routinely
542 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

vaccinated against anthrax. Because greater part of this selection and preparation was accomplished in the quartermaster remount depots during World

War II, no large port embarkation depots came into existence—at least, none

which were comparable to those established at Newport News, Va., and

Charleston, S.C., in World War However, two animal embarkation depot facilities were established and operated by the Army Veterinary Service:

The Animal Depot, Puente, Calif., of the Los Angeles Port of Embarkation

(S) and the Animal Remount Station, Camp Plauche, La., of the New Orleans

Port of Embarkation (6). Animals for the San Francisco port were held at

(he Presidio of San Francisco, Calif., under the control of the Ninth Service

Command (7). In the oversea theaters, movements were usually made directly

to the transports from the held remount depots. The lessening dependence on

animal embarkation depots during World War II was conditioned by the fact

that no unexpected withdrawals or shortages of ships were experienced which

necessitated the holding of large numbers of animals for long period of time

and that no newly purchased, or “green” (unconditioned) animals, which were

highly susceptible to the shipping fever complex, were sent to the ports.

The port veterinarian also exercised technical supervision over the veterinary service on the animal transports. This service included the development of standing operational procedures which were used on shipboard; the

selection, training, and assignment of veterinary transport personnel; and the

provision of veterinary equipment and supplies. In World War II, these personnel on the transports included specially qualified personnel of the port

veterinarian’s office or the veterinary units and animal service detachments

which were en route to an oversea theater. The temporary detail of so-called

casual personnel to accompany the overwater movements of animals was

avoided.

Once en route, the transport veterinarian was responsible for the sanitary

discipline in that part of the ship occupied by the animals, and he technically

supervised the care and management of the animals, including their feeding,

watering, exercising, and treatment. In these activities, the transport veterinarian was provided detachment of enlisted personnel including staff

sergeant and private (or private first class) for each hundred animals on

shipboard, and an additional noncommissioned officer for each four privates.

The detachments established routine as soon as the transport departed from

the port, and this routine was continued throughout the voyage. There were

variety of details to attend to, such as the covering of floors to improve foothold, removal of manure and flushing of decks, adjustment of the ventilating

system, use of chloride of lime saturated cloths to counteract the ammoniacal

urine odors, special and reduced feeding, and the care and treatment of sick

and injured animals.

The actual losses of horses and mules on board animal transports which

were accompanied by the Army Veterinary Service during World War II were

less than 0.3 percent of the 20,815 animals involved; that is, only 60 animals
TRANSPORTATION OF ANIMALS 543

died or were destroyed on account of disease and injury (table 43). xln additional 1,152 animals were lost in the sinking of three transports—the S.S.

Jose Navarro the S.S. Peter Silvester and the USAT Tjinegara. Eecords

and reports are not available to complete study on specific diseases and injuries which were encountered on all voyages of the animal transports. At

least 18 shipments were completed without any losses; in others, more difficulties were encountered. For example, of the 77 cases reported on the shipment

of 648 mules and horses on the S.S. Mexican en route for 58 days from the

New Orleans Port of Embarkation to Calcutta, India, during the fall of 1944,

there were 57 cases (3 terminating in death) of heat exhaustion, 19 cases (1

ending fatally) of gastrointestinal disturbances, and nonfatal case of tetanus.

Then, in 28-day shipment of 640 former Australian Army animals to Calcutta, India, on the S.S. Virginian the U.S. transport veterinarian reported

Table 43.—Movements and losses of horses and mules on animal transports accompanied by

the U.S. Army Veterinary Service

Destination of transport Number of shipments

Number of animals

Embarked Veterinary losses Lost by

enemy

action

From Zone of Interior to:

Central Pacific 916

400

1, 523

2, 885

7, 679

2, 334

3, 364

477

381

265

152

439

South Pacific and partial

Southwest Pacific

17

21

15

Mediterranean

China-Burma-India

From South Pacific to:

China-Burma-India

From Southwest Pacific to:

China-Burma-India

20 and partial

and partial

__

675

South Pacific 477

From Panama Canal to:

South Pacific partial

Zone of Interior

From European to:

Zone of Interior

Unknown

Total 55 20, 815 60 1, 152

Involves only the intertheater overwater movement of both the U.S. and Alliedmilitary animals. The total 20,815

animals, which were embarked, included 5,420 horses and 15,395 mules; losses on account of disease and Injury (that is,

veterinary losses) totaled 38 for horses and 22 for mules.

Includes shipments, totaling 2,227 mules, which were procured by the India Supply Mission underthe U.S. lendleaseprogram of supply to the United Kingdom.

Includes shipmentsand partial shipments, totaling 2,336 horses, whichhad beenprocured originally (by purchase

and reverse lend-lease) and then transferred from the U.S. Army to the Australian Army which then transshipped them

fromAustralia to the U.S. Army in the China-Burma-India theater.

Excludes shipments, totaling 2,048 horses, which were procured in Australia and shipped on anAustralian transport accompanied by Australian personnel to the U.S. Army on New Caledonia.
544 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

63 cases of disease and injury, including cases of strangles and 24 contused

and lacerated wounds; in addition, mare foaled.

In report on 438 cases for the 4-year period, 1942—45, of the diseases and

injuries of Army horses and mules on animal transports, the animal strength

involved in the appearance of these cases is unknown, but the case mortality

rate was more than percent. These 438 cases of disease and injury, by

species of animal, included 116 horses, of which number 16 cases were terminated by the death or destruction of the animal, and 322 mules, including

fatal cases. No one disease or injury constituted an entity that could not be

expected among animals which were closely confined for long periods of time

(up to 65 days) in an environment of extreme heat (up to 110° F.) and humidity. The more common ailments were heat exhaustion, gastrointestinal

disturbances, abnormal conditions of the feet and legs due to long-continued

standing on wet floors (urine and salt water), and many kinds of injuries

caused by biting, equipment, or slipping. The shipping fever complex was

not observed among animals on transports loading out of the Zone of Interior, and no serious animal disease was reported.

On arrival at destination, the transport veterinarian’s responsibilities terminated with the debarkation of the animals. Routinely, the debarkation

procedures were jointly observed by him and by the veterinary officer of the

receiving port or other oversea command. Quite frequently, civil quarantine

officials observed the debarkations to satisfy themselves that the Army was not

“landing” disease. However, there was no report of such introduction of

new diseases into any area where the Army Veterinary Service alone technically supervised the overwater movements from and including the port of embarkation to the point of destination. The unloadings were made in variety

of ways as follows: By ramps, by flying box stall, by sling, by rope nets, in

the Mediterranean theater (fig. 51) (5), or by transfer to intermediary barges

or boats which operated between the ship and shore in the South Pacific Area.

Another method of unloading from transports was by swimming the animals to shore. However, due to the hazards of such an undertaking, this was

seldom considered except in training for amphibious assaults. It was tried

during the joint Army-Navy maneuvers in the Hawaiian Islands during the

early thirties ), and again in the Central Pacific Area during World War

II, in connection with plan, later discontinued, that called for landing pack

mule troops during an amphibious assault on Japanese enemy-held shore

(fig. 52). combat landing procedure that was used successfully by the 36th

Infantry Division in the Mediterranean theater, at Anzio, Italy, 20 May 1944,

involved the loading of animals into trucks, these trucks then moving into

and out of LST’s (landing ship, tank) ).

The overwater transportation of animals was described in the terms of

intertheater movements. However, intratheater movements, including the

combat amphibious methods of unloading, were conducted under much the

same degree of technical supervision by the Army Veterinary Service. Ob-
TRANSPORTATION OF ANIMALS 545

SC MM—44—3226

Figure 51.—Loading mules by rope net at Naples, Italy, September 1944.

viously, because of the shorter travel periods and distances covered, the intratheater movements were made ordinarily without animal losses or without

evoking problems of foreign quarantine. In the Central Pacific Area, few

animals were moved from Oahu to Hawaii and Kauai, and livestock were

moved to establish “living-food reserves” or animal farms on Canton and

Christmas Islands. In the South Pacific Area, the Veterinary Detachment,

97th Field Artillery Pack Battalion, assisted in the movement of the battalion’s 753 mules and 194 horses from New Caledonia to Guadalcanal—this

being made in three shipments leaving on 16 January, March, and April

1943 (76>, 11). After V-J Day, in the China theater, the Army Veterinary

Service cooperated with the Navy in the modification of LST’s (each with

carrying capacity for 220 but not exceeding 285 animals) and in the movement of several thousand Chinese military animals along the China coastline

{12, 13). An even greater activity in the movements of animals occurred

within the North African and Mediterranean theater. Aside from the aforementioned movement of the U.S. 36th Infantry Division’s pack train from

Salerno to Anzio, thousands of Allied military horses and mules, and sheep

for feeding British and French colonial troops, were unloaded under the

technical supervision of the Army Veterinary Service in the port at Naples,
546 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Figure 52. Training for amphibious landing.

Italy {14). In the period from February through April 1944, ship arrivals

numbered 23, and 1,261 horses, 5,760 mules, 310 sheep, and few cattle and

dogs were disembarked {15). The U.S. 8th Port, replacing the U.S. 6th Port

at Naples, in mid-1944 processed 31 animal transports during the last months

of that year; 13,650 animals were embarked, and 10,118 animals were disembarked {14.. 16).

TRANSPORTATION BY RAILROAD

The transportation of horses and mules by railroad—“at best

wrecking ordeal” {17) —was accomplished in World War II with minimal
TRANSPORTATION OF ANIMALS 547

amount of animal losses. In series of all veterinary reports covering 135

shipments during 1945 in the Zone of Interior, 9,500 Army horses and mules

were moved by railroad with the loss of only animals (or 0.05 percent)

(18). In another series of reports, covering the entire war period, on 48 shipments that were selected because each involved more than 200 animals or

travel period of more than days and were accompanied by Veterinary

Corps officer, the losses numbered 64 horses and mules or 0.25 percent of the

25,072 animals which were involved 18). In this series of 48 railroad shipments, 39 were completed without loss, and shipment alone accounted for

51 animal losses. These successes reflected the efficacy of animal care and

management in rail transport.

The later successes in the transportation of animals by railroad evolved

about the application of the same principles of animal care and management

that were perfected on the overwater movements; namely, the preshipment

examinations of animals, technical supervision over the transportation methods

and facilities, and the duty assignment of personnel to accompany shipments

in transit.

In rail transport, the health of the animals was given primary consideration. Thus, veterinary technical supervision over such transportation began

at the point of origin of the shipment. This included the physical examination of animals prior to shipment and certification as to their health, the inspection of the transport methods and facilities, the assignment and training

of veterinary personnel who accompanied the shipment to destination, and the

review of the train schedule and routing. By the regulations of the Army,

minimal 48-hour period was given to the Veterinary Corps officer at the point

of origin. The professional examination of the animals was made to withdraw those which were sick or infected with serious contagion (such as

glanders), and as prelude to the rendition of the veterinary health certificate.

This certificate was normally accepted by the railroads and by the various

State or other disease regulatory agencies as proof that precautions had been

taken within the Army to minimize or prevent the dissemination of animal

diseases. Of course, the Army Veterinary Service inspected the railroad cars

as to their suitability, state of repair, and sanitary condition before the loading operations were started. The railroad was responsible for the cars being

kept in good condition, cleaned and disinfected, and bedded with floor covThe average shipment approximated 70 animals, but 14 shipments comprised more than

hundred animals (including two of 700 animals each, and others with 696, 588, 468, and 440

animals). The smaller shipments were unaccompanied by veterinary personnel.

The salient features of the 48 shipments were averaged as comprising 90-hour shipment of

522 animals. The largest shipment included 1,258 horses departing on 14 June 1942, from Fort

Riley, Kansas. Two 8-day shipments included one departing on February 1944, from Fort Robinson, Nebr., for Los Angeles, Calif., and another departing on 25 December 1944, from Fort Reno,

Okla., for Jersey City, N..T. long-distance movement involved the 99th Field Artillery Pack Battalion, departing on 22 July 1942, from Fort Bragg, N.C., for Camp Carson, Colo. This series included the shipment of those mules, accompanied by Veterinary Corps officers, that were procured

by the Indian Supply Mission under the U.S. lend-lease program of supply to the United Kingdom.
548 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Figure 53.—Unloading of horses by Troop B, 252d Quartermaster Remount

Squadron, Camp Polk, La., for Third U.S. Army maneuvers in the fall of 1SM2.

ering of sand or straw; on request, tlie carrier covered the cars with paper or

other material to protect the animals in transit from exposure to cold.

The loading of the railroad cars was conducted in an orderly manner.

Whenever obtainable and justified, Arms-Yager horse cars were used; however, most shipments were made in open (or slatted) stock cars of the kind

which were used in the normal civilian traffic of livestock (fig. 53). Usually,

22 riding-type horses or pack-type mules were loaded onto 36-foot stock car,

and 25 animals onto 40-foot stock car. These car loadings were reduced in

hot weather and where heavier weight animals were loaded. The interchange

of car sizes in train led to difficulties in the “spotting” of the car doors at

unloading ramps of certain rest stations and terminals {19). The train length

(or number of cars) was regulated by the capacity of the feeding, watering,

and rest stations and the unloading facilities along the route of travel and,

before World War II, was expressly limited to 30 cars per train. However,

during the war, the train length was not limited, but proportionally greater

number of injuries was observed in animals of the longer trains when routed

through mountainous areas (20).

The Arms-Yager Palace Horse Car was equipped with 18 stalls, feed mangers, and water tanks;

the Arms-Yager Commercial Horse Car was divided into three large compartments without stalls.
TRANSPORTATION OF ANIMALS 549

Following the departure of the train from the point of origin, the accompanying veterinary personnel became responsible to the train commander

for the conduct of the professional and supervisory veterinary service to the

animals in transit. In the movement of mounted units to maneuver areas or

ports of embarkation, this service was rendered by the relevant veterinary detachments sometimes, movements from the remount depots were accompanied

by separate veterinary detachments which proceeded with such horses and

mules to their final oversea destination. In the instance of shipments of casual

animals, the assignment of these personnel was the responsibility of the pointof-origin veterinarian; however, after August 1943, the Quartermaster General’s Office required that casual shipments of hundred or more animals

originating from the remount depots would be accompanied by Veterinary

Corps officer, and by veterinary enlisted man when the shipments comprised

lesser number of animals {21). Their principal activities were centered at

the feeding, watering, and resting stations, or stockpens, along the route of

travel. In this connection, it must be remembered that the routing and schedule for the shipments were developed at the point of origin, with special consideration of the adequacies of the railroad stockpens along the route as enabled stopover at intervals of 20 hours of train travel but not exceeding 28

hours. Such scheduling was mandatory by the so-called 28-hour law. From

the records which were available, violations of this law were exceptional during World War II. In fact, no violations were reported in 1941; in 1942, only

one was reported (22). At the stopover points, preparatory to the unloading,

the accompanying Veterinary Corps officers conducted sanitary inspection of

the pens, chutes, yards, feed racks and mangers, and water troughs, and examined the feed and water supplies (figs. 54 and 55). The carrier was normally responsible for the cleanliness and disinfection of these facilities and

for providing the necessary feed and water. Whenever possible, prior arrangements were made with the Bureau of Animal Industry, U.S. Department

of Agriculture, to supervise this cleaning and disinfecting by the railroads, but

where that agency’s inspectors were unavailable, the Army Veterinary Service

alone was responsible for obtaining corrective action, if indicated, by the railroad before the animals were detrained. As the war progressed, the standards

of stockpen cleaning and disinfection w’ere lowered when the general manager

of railroad indicated the carrier’s inability to meet the military requirements

because the facilities along the route were actually owned by private companies which could not or would not clean and disinfect 23 24) In recommendation to the Chief of Transportation, and approved by him, the VeteriBefore August 1943, it seems to have been policy or practice to detail veterinary enlisted

man to accompany shipments of officers’ private mounts and Army remount stallions.

This involved the shipment of animals from the Fort Robinson, Nebr., remount depot to the

San Francisco, Calif., port, during December 1942. The train was sidetracked by higher priority

traffic; what was normal 27-hour trip became one lasting 40 hours.

The railroad carrier provided all feed and forage to the animals while en route, except in cases

of less-than-carload shipments and in the movement of mounted units with their own animals.
550 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Figure 54.—Unloading stock cars at Puente, Calif.

nary Division, Surgeon General’s Office, on IT August 1943, suggested that in

these cases the railroad need only maintain the stopovers in “satisfactory

state of sanitation.”

In summary of the specific causes of animal losses encountered in the

transportation of animals by railroad during World War II, the statistical

data are limited necessarily to of the aforementioned 48 shipments, wherein

64 animals died or were destroyed, and to an additional shipments which

were unaccompanied by Veterinary Corps officers. The losses among these 12

shipments totaled 96 animals—including found dead in the railroad cars,

left at or dying in stopover stations, and 81 dying after arrival at destination.

Of the total losses, 86 were attributed to exhaustion from overexposure and

equine influenza; to gastroenteric disturbances; and each for pneumonia,

hemorrhagic septicemia, suffocation, wound, fracture of cervical vertebrae,

and unknown causes. Actually, the greater proportion of these losses was encountered in but of these 12 shipments; 15 were lost in shipment of 540
TRANSPORTATION OF ANIMALS 551

Figure 55.—Mule being processed for oversea shipment. During their stay at the

animal depot, the horses and mules were exercised daily and were processed for oversea shipment, including clipping of hair coats, mallein testing for glanders, and

checking of the condition of their teeth.

horses, 16 were lost in shipment of 551 horses, and 51 were lost in shipment

of 370 mules. 10

The transportation of horses and mules by railroad in the oversea theaters

was an entirely different matter. In World War II, this method of transporting animals was used in the India-Burma and the China theaters and in Aus- tralia where newly procured horses were shipped into the remount depot at

Towmsville. The latterrail shipments were made frequently with little regard

for the proper handling of these horses in transit—thus contributing to the unusually high rates of incidence and animal losses from equine influenza that

were experienced in the remount depot during the early part of 1943 {25, 26).

The situation in India was without comparison—after to 10 days’ continuous

travel, the animals could not be reconditioned within 30 days {27, 28). In

India, dependent upon the railroad gage, to 10 animals were loaded on

single freight car or so-called animal wagon. Within each car, the animals

were placed in both ends and faced toward the car’s center where they

10 The two horse shipments were made from the Fort Robinson, Nebr., remount depot to Camp

Lockett, Calif., in the early spring of 1943 the mule shipment was made from the same depot to

Jersey City, N.J., in the winter of 1944-45. Veterinary Corps Investigations of the shipments determined that the losses were caused by exhaustion from overexposure or equine influenza as the result

of long periods of train travel (6 to days) and exposure to subfreezing weather.
552 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

were fed and watered. The interior heat of the cars, which were constructed of steel and without adequate ventilation fixtures, and the irregular and limited availability of water along the route of travel caused the development of

gastroenteric disturbances in many animals. In the northeastward movement

from Calcutta, India, of those American horses and mules which came from

the Zone of Interior and the South Pacific and the Southwest Pacific Areas, the animals were unloaded from the cars only to change to railroad of another gage track and at certain river crossings. However, to complete their

1,450 mile travel into Burma, the same animals also were herded or trucked.

In China, the 19th Veterinary Evacuation Hospital assisted in the technical

supervision over the tactical movement by rail of 5,000 Chinese military animals eastward from K’un-ming to Chan-i during the late summer of 1945 {29).

TRANSPORTATION BY TRUCK

During World War II, large number of horses and mules were transported by truck in the Zone of Interior and overseas in the Mediterranean and

the China-Burma-India theaters. Regulatory controls, such as those which

governed the transportation of animals by ship and railroad, were not placed

over this shipping. However, where this shipping was accomplished with

proper regard for the health of the animals, no serious difficulties ere experienced. In the Zone of Interior, for example, veterinary reports covering 87

separate shipments during 1945 indicated that 724 horses and mules ere

trucked from purchase points, remount depots, and Army camps without any

animal losses {18). In the Mediterranean theater, animals of the provisional

pack trains and U.S.-supervised Italian pack mule companies were moved successfully in the Fifth U.S. Army area on standard trucks which were specially

equipped with stock racks. Later, the veterinary evacuation plan for that

Army’s 10th Mountain Division operated to send replacement animals forward

on the same trucks that were used to collect and evacuate animal casualties

{30) (figs. 56 and 57).

Truck transport was used also in the India-Burma theater and in China.

In the China theater, special plan was developed to move the animals of the

American-sponsored Chinese armies and divisions by “block” or convoy system {29, 31). Though it was invaluable for moving equipment and supplies,

the convoy system proved so disastrous to horses and mules that the Army

Veterinary Service recommended discontinuance almost as soon as it was

started (in April 1945). No imagination is required to understand that the

careless and rapid handling by inexperienced drivers of the trucks in such

convoys, which stopped only at scheduled relay points along the way, would

cause animal losses. On the curving dirt roads, the trucks turned over, or, on arrival at their destination, some of the animals were dead or in comatose

condition. Such losses approximated 10 percent of the animals in single

shipment by truck convoy.
TRANSPORTATION OF ANIMALS 553

SC 5/MM-44-5358

Figure 56.—Fifth U.S. Army truck at an animal ambulance loading point, Costel De

Rio, Italy, 30 September 1944, accepting load of wounded animals for evacuation to

veterinary hospital.

TRANSPORTATION BY AIRPLANE

An innovation in the military transportation of horses and mules during

World War II was the use of the airplane. In three separate situations, more

than 7,000 animals which belonged to the Allied-sponsored Chinese military

forces were transported by airplane in the China-Burma-India theater {27,

29, 32, 33). Previously, this means of moving mounted units and animals was

seldom studied. In 1932, however, the veterinary officer instructor at the

Cavalry School, Fort Riley, Ivans., expressed the thought—“it is not unreasonable to assume that in relatively few years may expect to witness the

practical rapid movement of limited numbers of horses by airplane or dirigible” {3Jf) Many years later, during May 1943, an original actual test on the

movement of mounted unit was conducted on New Guinea (in the Southwest

Pacific Area) by the 98th Field Artillery Pack Battalion and the 3T4th Troop

Carrier Group {35) (fig. 58).

year and half later, the Army Veterinary Service in the India-Burma

theater assisted in the planning for an “over the Himalayan Hump” movement
554 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICI

SC 5/MM—44—5345

Figure 57.—Fifth U.S. Army truck at Scarperia, Italy, in September 1944, loaded

with mules for transport into the frontlines, showing side stock racks of the truck and

methods of tying the halter ropes.

of animals which belonged to the U.S.-trained Chinese New Sixth Army. 11

This Allied Force, then in Burma, was urgently needed in the operations that

led to the clearing of portions of the China side of the Burma Koad which

had been held by the Japanese enemy. The U.S. Tth Veterinary Company

(Separate) and detachment of the 19th Veterinary Evacuation Hospital

supervised the original shipments and actually loaded the airplanes at the

Sahmaw and Nansin fields in Burma (fig. 59). In two series of shipments

completed by February 1945, the animals which had been airlifted into China

totaled 2,213 horses and mules. The same group of animals, then numbering

2,154, were airlifted during April and May 1945 within China, from Chan-i

to Chih-chiang, in the operations to stem the Japanese advances on the bases

of the Fourteenth Air Force. In the third airlift, or the second one over the

Himalayan Hump, 2,751 animals of the Chinese 38th and 50th Divisions (of

the Chinese New First Army) and regiment were moved during July and

11 The Allied British military forces originally used the airplane to transport animals in

tactical situation. In the spring of 1944, an airlift of 1,350 animals was made during Wingate’s

second expedition in Central Burma.
TRANSPORTATION OF ANIMALS 555

Figure 58. Experimental trials on the feasibility of airlifting field artillery pack

battalion, New Guinea, May 1943.

August 1945 from Burma into Nan-ning, China. Losses incident to these airlifts numbered two animals; one was fatally injured during loading and the

other was destroyed en route when it endangered the safety of the airplane

and its crew.

The type of airplane used in these operations was the Douglas C-47, each

carrying four to six animals together with attendants, equipment, and 5-day

forage supply, but not exceeding 6,500 pounds per load. The floor of the airplane was covered with plywood sheets, over which was placed waterproof

paulin and matting of straw. The animals were loaded two at time and

faced forward; as the loading progressed each two animals were fitted into

temporary stall, complete with front, rear, and top crossbars, made by tying or

wiring bamboo poles together (fig. 60). An 18-inch space was allowed in the

front of each pair of animals to provide headroom and space for the attendants. Loading was accomplished in 10 to 20 minutes and was made directly

over the tailgates of trucks which were backed to the door of the airplane or

by ramp. Prior to loading, the animals were newly shod, mallein tested for

glanders, and their blood samples were examined for trypanosomiasis and

piroplasmosis. Those animals which were unserviceable, sick or injured, or

nervous in temperament were withdrawn from shipment. Once airborne, the

37
556 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Figure 59.—Loading animals from truck to airplane at the Sahmaw, Burma, airstrip

in February 1945 for “over-the-Hump” movement to Chan-i, China.

animals became quiet, dozed at altitudes of 14,000 to 20,000 feet, were unmindful of rough travel, and pushed forward instead of bracing themselves to the

rear when the airplane lost altitude.

ROAD MARCH

The road march was one of the several methods used to move animals

from one place to another. One of the most notable experiences of the Army

Veterinary Service during World War II was had by the group of Veterinary

Corps officers who accompanied the march of 5,397 horses and mules over the

famous Burma Road and Stilwell Road from Central and North Burma into

K’un-ming, China {29, 36). These animals belonged to the Chinese 22d and

30th Divisions, an animal transport regiment, and two engineer regiments,

and to the following U.S. units: The Artillery Detachment of the 5332d

MARS Brigade (including the 612th and 613th Field Artillery Pack Battalions) and the 31st, 33d, 35th, 37th, 252d, and 253d Quartermaster Pack Troops.

The units were accompanied by their veterinary detachments and separate veterinary animal service detachments or by casual personnel totaling 15 Veteri-
TRANSPORTATION OF ANIMALS 557

SC 205040—S

Figuke 60.—U.S. Army airplanes were rigged with temporary, bamboo stall-like

partitions in moving Allied-sponsored Chinese mounted units from Burma over the

Himalayan Hump into China, 1944.

nary Corps officers, who with the Chinese mounted units comprised the only

members of the U.S. liaison teams that accompanied them during this march.

The departures from Burma of the march column—made up of about 20

serials (or groups of animals) —started on May 1945, with the Chinese 30th

Division out of Lashio and continued until July 1945, when the Chinese Animal Transport Regiment cleared Myitkyina; animals began to arrive in

K’un-ming after 22 June 1945. At one time, more than 80 percent of these

animals were actually on the road.

Preliminary planning covered the survey of the animal feed and forage

resources along the routes of march and in areas of planned deployment of

the animals, the increase in the Chinese Army’s animal ration to subsist the

larger American mule and Australian horse, the reduction in the number of

animals which carried pack loads to 50 to 75 percent of unit animal strength,

the establishment of rate of march at 15 to 20 miles per day, and the location
558 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

of overnight bivouacs along the road, including feed depots, first aid stations,

and 1-day campsites for feeding, resting, and, if needed, reshoeing after every

days of travel {29, 37, 38) Much of the planning necessarily was made by

the Army Veterinary Service against the original beliefs that the animals, each

with pay load of 250 pounds, should be marched at the rate of 25 miles per

day until the destination had been reached. Preparatory to their moving out, the animals were examined for infectious disease, were newly shod, and

grouped into serials of 200 to 300 animals each. Screening for unserviceability

removed an estimated 10 percent of the animals from the units before they

started the march. Whenever possible, animals showing temporary disability were relieved of their pack loads or were moved by truck transport to the

next bivouacs; others becoming actually sick or wounded were evacuated to

veterinary unit which accompanied the march or to one located at terminus

of the route {39, 40, 41)- Such units included the 2d Platoon, 7th Separate

Veterinary Company; the Veterinary Company E, 13th Mountain Medical

Battalion; the 18th and 19th Veterinary Evacuation Hospitals; and the U.S.

veterinary liaison group with the Chinese 2d Army at Pao-shan. Animals

which were evacuated numbered 178 in the Chinese 30th Division (with 1,679 animals) and 98 from the U.S. field artillery and quartermaster pack units

(with approximately 2,300 mules and horses). Many of these were returned to

their units during the march, but others were transported by truck for the remainder of the distance.

The march of the 5,397 mules and horses in the moist, tropical heat of the

jungles and mountains in southeast Asia proved as much hardship on animals as it did on man. The American mule seemed to fare much better than

the Australian horses and local tonga ponies which were in the same march

column. Disabilities along the way included, for the greater part, exhaustion,

contact abrasions and wounds due to pack saddle equipment, and lameness and

foot troubles due to improper shoeing. Of course, there were number of

losses caused by landslides, falling otf cliffs, drowning at river crossings, and

theft. From the information which was available, the losses totaled 142 animals (or 2.6 percent) dying or destroyed on account of disease, as follows:

Cause of loss Number of animals

Infectious and parasitic diseases

Anthrax suspect

Piroplasmosis

General diseases: Laminitis

Diseases of the nervous system

Paraplegia

Spasms (diaphragm)

Diseases of the circulatory system: Lymphangitis

Diseases of the respiratory system

Pneumonia, lobar

Pulmonary emphysema
TRANSPORTATION OF ANIMALS 559

This excluded the loss of an additional hundred or more animals after midAugust 1945 as the latter elements of the march column (composed of the

U.S. field artillery and quartermaster pack units) approached their destination. In these animals, surra was uncovered, and an intense program of test

and eradication against the disease was undertaken.

References

1. Move Horses by Airplane. Army Yet. Bull. 22: 206-207. November 1928.

2. Hershberger, F. C.: World War II History of the Army Veterinary Service, New

York Port of Embarkation. [Official record.]

3. World War II Historical Report of the Army Veterinary Service, Second Service

Command, Army Service Forces. [Official record.]

4. The Medical Department of the U.S. Army in the World War. The Surgeon General’s Office. Washington Government Printing Office, 1923, vol. I.

5. Kunnecke, R. P.: World War II History of the Army Veterinary Service, Los

Angeles Port of Embarkation. [Official record.]

6. Smith, Edwin J., and Crawford, Andy W.: History of the Veterinary Service at

the New Orleans Port of Embarkation, New Orleans, Louisiana. [Official record.]

7. Rife, C. J.: World War II History of the Army Veterinary Service, San Francisco Port of Embarkation. [Official record.]

8. Annual Report, Army Veterinary Service in the Mediterranean Theater, 1943.

9. Nye. E. L.: Veterinary Service With Grand Joint Army and Navy Maneuvers in

Hawaii. Army Vet. Bull. 27 32-41, January 1938.

10. History of the U.S. Army Medical Department, Veterinary Service. Headquarters, U.S. Army Forces, Pacific Ocean Areas. For the period Dec. 1941 to 30 June 1945.

[Official record.]

11. Reports of Sick and Wounded Animals. 97th Field Artillery Battalion, January

and April 1943.

12. Personal letter, Lt. Col. E. W. Young, VC. Surgeon’s Office, China Service Command, to Col. J. A. McCallam, VO, Veterinary Division, SGO, May 1945.

Cause of loss

Diseases of the digestive system

Number of animals

Choke

Colic

Impaction and torsion

Peritonitis

Diseases of the skin and cellular tissues: Fistula

Diseases of the bones and organs of locomotion: Separations of frog and sole

Tendinitis

Injuries (violent and accidental causes)

Dislocation

Drowning

Exhaustion (and emaciation) 41

Fracture of hone 10

Wounds

Miscellaneous

Unclassified 34

Total 142
ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE 560

13. Veterinary History of the China Theater, 194G. [Official record.]

14. Annual Report, Army Veterinary Service in the Mediterranean Theater, 1944.

15. Letters, Lt. Col. W. H. Shannon, VC, Port Surgeon’s Office, 6th Port, to SGO,

March, April, and May 1944, subject: Report of Animal Transports.

16. Letters, Maj. J. W. Upchurch, VC, Port Surgeon’s Office, 8th Port, to SGO,

Dec. 1944 and Jan. 1945, subject: Report of Animal Transports.

17. Merillat, L. x\., and Campbell, D. M.; Veterinary Military History of the United

States. Chicago Veterinary Magazine Corporation, 1935.

18. Miller, E. B.: Compilation of Veterinary Health Certificates and Memorandums. July 1950.

19. Letter, 1st Lt. R. L. Griffith, VC, 76th Field Artillery Battalion, to SGO, Aug.

1942, subject: Report of Veterinarian Accompanying Shipment of Army Horses (AR

40-2035, par. 35).

20. Letter, 1st Lt. W. L. Pinckard, VC, Veterinary Station Hospital, Fort Riley,

Kans., to SGO, July 1942, subject: Report of Veterinary Officer Accompanying Shipment of Public Animals.

21. Letter, Col. E. M. Daniels, QMC, Office of the Quartermaster General, to commanding officers, quartermaster remount depots, 24 Aug. 1943, subject; Veterinary Personnel To Accompany Shipments of Animals.

22. Letter, Headquarters, Western Defense Command and Fourth U.S. Army, Presidio

of San Francisco, Calif., to Chief, Transportation Corps, Jan. 1943, subject: Transportation of Animals.

23. Letter, W. G. Templeton, General Manager, Nashville, Chattanooga St. Louis

Ry., Nashville, Tenn., to SGO, 23 Mar. 1943.

24. 3d indorsement, Lt. Col. R. S. Mackellar, VC, Veterinary Division, SGO, to Office

of Chief of Transportation, 14 Oct. 1943; in reply to 2d indorsement, General Manager,

Nashville, Chattanooga St. Louis Ry., 17 Aug. 1943.

25. Memorandum staff paper, Lt. Col. C. M. Cowherd, VC, Chief Surgeon’s Office,

U.S. Army Forces in Australia, to Chief Quartermaster, U.S. Army Forces in Australia,

24 Feb. 1945, subject: Animals, Rail Shipment of.

26. Weisman, Louis G.: History of the Veterinary Service in the Southwest Pacific

Area, 1942-45. [Official record.]

27. Mohri, Ralph W.; History of the United States Army Veterinary Service in the

China-Burma-India Theater, World War II. [Official record.]

28. Woodward, H. C.: Animal Transport Training in India. Cavalry Jour. 54 :23-25,

July 1945.

29. The Veterinary History of the China Theater, 1945. [Official record.]

30. Monthly Sanitary Report, Surgeon’s Office. 10th Mountain Division, April 1945.

31. Memorandum, Lt. Col. L. C. Tekse, VC, 19th Veterinary Evacuation Hospital, to

Commanding Officer, Chan-i Area Command, U.S. Armed Forces, China Theater, 14 Apr.

1945, subject: Report on Condition of Animals.

32. Mohri, R. W.: Flying Animals Over the Burma “Hump.” Cavalry Jour. 54 ;42-45,

September-October 1945.

33. La Veve, A.; Pegasus. Cavalry Jour. 54:48-49, November-December 1946.

34. Caldwell, G. L.: Animal Management-Transportation of Animals. Army Vet.

Bull. 28 :46-70, January 1934.

35. Smock, Stanley C., and Baker, Jack E.: History of the Veterinary Service in

Southwest Pacific Area, 1942-45. [Official record.]

36. Rand, J. A.: Mules for China. Quartermaster Review 25 ;25-26 and 91, JanuaryFebruary 1946.

37. Letter, Lt. Col. W. E. Jennings, VC. Headquarters, Chinese Combat Command,

USFCT, to Commanding General, Chinese Combat Command, 18 July 1945, subject:

Inspection of Animals From Burma to China.
TRANSPORTATION OF ANIMALS 561

38. Letter, Lt. Col. W. E. Jennings, YC, Headquarters, Chinese Combat Command,

USFCT, to Commanding General, Chinese Combat Command, 25 Aug. 1945, subject:

Movement of 30tb Division (Chinese) Animals From Burma to China.

39. Letter, 1st Lt. C. H. Burnham, VC, 612th Field Artillery Battalion, Chinese

Training Command, USFCT, to Veterinarian, Chinese Combat Command, 13 Sept. 1945,

subject: Animal Movement From India-Burma to China Theater.

40. Letter, Capt. W. R. Fetzer, VC, 613th Field Artillery Battalion, Chinese Training

Command, USFCT, to Veterinarian, Chinese Combat Command, 13 Sept. 1945, subject:

Animal Movement From India-Burma to China Theater.

41. Letter, Capt. C. L. Nowlin, VC, Headquarters, Quartermaster Pack Troops,

Chinese Combat Command, USFCT, to Veterinarian, Chinese Combat Command, 21 Sept.

1945, subject: Report of Movement of Quartermaster Pack Troops From Myitkyina,

Burma, to Siakwan, China.

590248 —61 38 563

CHAPTER XVI

Evacuation and Hospitalization

In the Army of World War II—the day of the jeep, armored force, and

airplane—it may be surprise to many to know that the Army Veterinary

Service provided 2,065,289 days of hospital treatment to Army horses and

mules, operated veterinary hospital system in the Zone of Interior that

totaled stall capacity of 2,500 for disabled animals, and developed animal

evacuation plans for oversea theaters comprising 72 separate detachments,

companies, and hospitals, and several provisional organizations (1) The veterinary hospital was the central establishment, whether at station in the Zone of Interior or in the field in war theater, for the collection,

shelter, segregation, care, and treatment of sick and wounded animals. In the

U.S. Army, reference to it may have been made as early as 1868 when the

War Department ordered the establishment of an animal recuperation depot

at Fort Leavenworth, in the military division of Missouri (2). The veterinary hospital system and animal evacuation plan that came into existence during World War was studied, tried in maneuvers, and further perfected in

the peacetime years following the Armistice and then was used when the need

arose in World War II.

VETERINARY HOSPITAL SYSTEM IN THE ZONE OF INTERIOR

The veterinary hospital system in the Zone of Interior included stall accommodations for 2,500 horse and mule patients and was operated in manner

closely paralleling the Medical Department's hospitalization program for

troops. The veterinary system included facilities located in more than hundred camps, training centers, remount depots, purchasing and breeding zone

headquarters, and ports. Together, these provided 1,700,769 days of hospital

treatment during the 5-year period, 19-11 through 1945 ). lesser number

disabled animals were treated as stable cases and not admitted into the hospitals. These veterinary hospitals, for the greater part, were operated as

Medical Department activity under the control of the camp surgeon.

The beginning of World War II found the Army’s horse and mule

strength at about 22,000 and its veterinary hospital system comprising patient capacity for 5.4 percent of the animal strength or 1,188 stalls. Of this

number of hospital stalls, 970 were located in the Zone of Interior and 218 in the oversea departments. These stalls were distributed among general veterinary hospitals, 41 station veterinary hospitals, and 32 veterinary dispenDuring the preceding peacetime years (1936 through 1940), hospital treatment days totaled

1,631,463. Sick and wounded animals not admitted to the veterinary hospitals were classified for

treatment as “stable cases” and their total days of treatment (stable days) were considerably less

than the number of hospital days of treatment.
ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE 564

saries 3) but those having accommodations for 10 or more animal patients

numbered only 30 (table 44).

Table 44.—Veterinary hospitals and dispensaries with animal patient capacities for 10 or

more animals, mid-1940

Beginning in the fall of 1940 and continuing through the fiscal year ending 30 June 1942, wartime building program added more than 1,450 stalls

to the veterinary hospital system in the Zone of Interior (J, 5). The 2-year

program—costing $933,500—included veterinary hospital (10-stall); 17 dispensaries; 16 surgical clinics; colic buildings; 54 medical, contagious, and

surgical wards; and variety of accessorial structures such as autopsy slabs,

dipping vats, squeeze chutes, 16 corrals, 18 sheds, and barrack accommodations for 482 enlisted personnel. These comprised the establishment of new

hospitals and dispensaries at 12 Army camps (table 45) and addition to the existent facilities at camps and the remount depots. The additional construction at the depots included the expansion of the hospital ward capacities,

and at Forts Bliss, Bragg, Clark, Riley, and Sill, included dispensaries, surgical clinics, and ward buildings. The 12 new veterinary facilities each inLocation Stall capacity Location Stall capacity

Zone of Interior; Zone of Interior (Cont.):

Fort, Bliss, Tex 90 Fort Belvoir, Va 24

Front Royal Remount De- Fort Knox, Ky __ 22

75 Fort Myer, Va 21

Fort Francis E. Warren, Fort Hoyle (Edgewood Ar58 senal), Md_ 21

Fort Sill, Okla_ 55 Fort Leavenworth, Kans 20

Fort Riley, Kans 51 Fort Ringgold, Tex 20

Fort Brown, Tex__ __ 50 Fort Snelling, Minn_ 18

Presidio of Monterey, Fort Bragg, N.C 16

Calif 49 Fort Sam Houston, Tex 13

Fort Robinson Remount West Point, N.Y 12

Depot, Nebr 45 Fort Sheridan, 111 10

Fort Des Moines, Iowa 37 Oversea Departments:

Fort Clark, Tex __35 Fort Stotsenberg, PhilipPresidio of San Francisco, pine __ 83

Calif 35 Fort McKinley, PhilipFort Reno Remount De- pine 35

pot, Okla 31 Fort Clayton, Panama

Fort Ethan Allen, Vt 31 Canal __

26

Fort Oglethorpe, Ga__ 28 Schofield Barracks, HaFort Benning, Ga_ 26 waiian, 20

Additional construction during fiscal years 1941 and 1942 Increased the ward capacities at Fort Bliss by 150, atFront

Royal by 80, at Fort Sill by 30, at Fort Riley by 200, at Fort Robinson by 80, at Fort Clark by 30, at Fort Reno by 140,

and at Fort Bragg by 110.

Source: Report, Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office, June 1940, Stations and Service, United States and

Foreign, Arranged in Approximate Order ofAnimal Strength.
EVACUATION AND HOSPITALIZATION 565

eluded surgical clinic, one or more wards, sometimes colic building and corral, and few other structures; however, the facilities at Camp Carson and

Camp Hale, Colo., were the larger of these and included also new dispensaries

(4 and 10, respectively) for mounted units which were in training.

Table 45.—Veterinary hospitals and dispensaries newly established in the construction

programs, fiscal years and 1942

The above construction program was completed with degree of rapidity

and ease that reflected favorably on the preparatory planning which had taken

into account such matters as the determination of requirements and the development of construction plans. There were also matters of inspecting the

buildings during construction, and, later, the assigning of operational personnel. The urgency of the moment in which these problems seemed to arise made

necessary the finalization and centralization of many matters in the Veterinary

Division, Surgeon General’s Office. The latter alone could obtain firsthand

information from the War Department staff on pending plans to augment the

Army’s horse and mule strength or to organize and train mounted unit at

particular camp. The requirements were stated in terms of the kind, capacity,

and location of the veterinary hospitals and dispensaries 7). Actually, the

capacities of the facilities w'ere not fixed, but were designed to include as many

stalls as were needed to hospitalize 3.5 percent of the animals in camp or

unit and to provide 360.5 square feet of corral space for each stall (8). The

station veterinary hospital was designated ordinarily to serve the local camp

of which it was part, but where the requirements were quite small or were

extended to include large number of widely dispersed mounted units, the

camp was provided with dispensary only or with number of dispensaries

supplemental to the hospital. The latter were designated regimental dispensaries and served specific mounted units. The camps selected for the approved

building program were recommended by the Surgeon General’s Office in requests to The Adjutant General or the War Department Bureau of the Budget

for the necessary appropriations of money and were influenced by the exAn exception to this was the provision by AR 30-415, June 1942, that the hospital at

remount depots would have capacity equal to 10 percent of the normal animal strength.

Location Ward capacity Location Ward capacity

Camp Bowie. Tex 20 Fort Jackson, N.C 50

Carlisle Barracks, Pa 10 Fort Lewis, Wash 60

Camp Carson, Colo 110 Camp Livingston, La 20

Fort Devens, Mass 20 Camp Lockett (El Campo),

Camp Hale, Colo 190 Calif 30

Indiantown Gap Military Fort Ord, Calif 60

Reservation. Pa 20 Camp Peay, Tenn 20

Source: (1) Annual Report of the Surgeon General, United States Army. Washington: U.S. Government Printing

Office, 1941, pp. 166 and 194. (2) Annualreports, Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office, U.S. Army, 1942.
566 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

pressed intentions of The Quartermaster General and chiefs of the mounted

services.

With few exceptions, the hospitals, dispensaries, clinics, wards, and other

veterinary structures built during World War II followed the construction

plans which, since 1937, were developed or perfected by the Office of the

Quartermaster General in cooperation with the Surgeon General’s Office (4).

There were at least 11 approved plans as of the fall of 1941 (table 46). As

these were entered in the building projects, the Surgeon General’s Office encouraged the local camp veterinary officers to inspect them and, also, to

requisition those items of Medical Department supply that would have to be

iixed in the structure (such as Ajax dressing stocks and operating tables)

(0). Under the provisions of Army regulations, the station veterinarian was

responsible to The Surgeon General for expressing his opinion on the exact

sites and arrangements of the new hospital or dispensary and for reporting

on the compliances of any construction with the approved plans 7, 10). As

the building program progressed, number of corrective suggestions in the

plans were made by the station veterinarians {11 through 17), and these, after

review jointly by the Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office, and the

Office of the Quartermaster General, were incorporated into changes to the

plans and were referred to the civilian contractors for compliance.

In the same manner that it influenced the hospital capacities, the animal

strength was used also to determine the personnel space authorizations and the

assignments of operational personnel to the station veterinary hospitals. During World War II, Army regulations provided for the assignment of at least

four enlisted personnel in the grade of private or private first class when the

camp’s animal strength totaled 200 animals, and one additional such enlisted

personnel for every additional 75 animals. Noncommissioned officers were

allotted one for each station, and one for every four privates first class. The

station complement for veterinary officers was expressed at one per station having 200 to 600 animals, another one where the station strength was between

601 and 1,100 animals, three for station with 1,101 to 1,600 animals, and thus

in graduated increases up to six veterinary officers where the station strength

Actually, certain construction plans were studied by the Veterinary Division, during the early

thirties. Later, during 1941, the responsibility for this construction planning was transferred from

the Quartermaster Corps to the Corps of Engineers, which up to then was responsible only for con- struction planning in theater of operations. The exceptional structures were remount depot ward

buildings which were constructed pursuant to modified plans approved by the Chief, Remount Division, Office of the Quartermaster General. This action seemingly was based on the situation that an unexpected program for 28,860 horses and mules had been approved for immediate procurement in October 1940. However, before the construction became available, The Quartermaster General had leased several buildings for veterinary use at the depot.

One particular problem was that contractors attempted to place tar paper and wood lathe strip

on buildings.

Changes recommended included the sloping and adding of drains to the clinic floors, the lowering of the feedboxes from 41 to 34 inches above the floor, the replacing of metal feed racks

with wooden troughs so as to provide head room and to lessen interference with the ventilators,

the lowering of the bails (separating bars) between stalls from 48 to 36 inches above the floor,

and the lowering of the bottom boards of box stalls from to inches above the floor.
EVACUATION AND HOSPITALIZATION 567

was between 2,801 and 3,500 animals (18, 19). These regulatory provisions

were actually used by the Surgeon General's Office in planning requirements

or recommending assignments of veterinary personnel to certain Army camps.

ANIMAL EVACUATION PLAN

In contrast to the hospital system in the Zone of Interior, the Army Veterinary Service in the oversea theaters and during maneuver training operated

an animal evacuation plan. This included, of course, the hospitalizing of sick

and wounded animals in the field or during campaign but such was only part

of the evacuation plan. The other major action was the progressive movement

of disabled animals rearward from the frontline tactical units. For the accomplishment of this operational responsibility in World War II, 72 veterinary

units of 11 different kinds were organized (table 47). With few exceptions,

these were deployed in the Central and the Southwest Pacific Areas, supported

the Fifth U.S. Army in the Mediterranean theater, the Seventh U.S. Army in

the European theater, Merrill's Marauders and the MARS Brigade in the

Burma campaigns, or were superimposed on the Allied-sponsored Chinese military forces in the China-Burma-India theater. Altogether, these supported

U.S. animal strength in the oversea theaters that increased from yearly mean

of 3,009 in 1941 to 11,121 in 1945 there were untold thousands of animals

in the U.S.-supervised Italian Army pack trains and in the Allied-sponsored

Chinese military forces. Wherever formed, the veterinary evacuation plans

successfully provided for the early and prompt discovery, treatment and segregation of disabled animals, their orderly movement to areas in back of the

combat units, and their restoration to full duty status in veterinary hospitals,

and conserved animal strength and efficiency.

Animal evacuation generally paralleled the Medical Department system

for evacuating troop casualties. However, there was the difference that animals disabled beyond the chance for recovery into the status of serviceable

duty or infected with serious communicable disease were destroyed.

Following World War I, the units planned for animal evacuation in

theater of operations were changed to satisfy the needs in planned field force

or theoretical field army whose composition also was changed from time to

time. The units were the veterinary company of the medical regiment, the

veterinary troop of the medical squadron, and the veterinary evacuation, convalescent, general, and station hospitals (20). The veterinary company was

designed to collect disabled animals from the veterinary detachments included

in the composition of the divisional units and supply trains and to operate

veterinary aid station within the infantry division. The same veterinary unit

was planned also for assignment in the ratio of one per corps and four in each

field army when the so-called corps troops and army troops each had certain

The annual mean strength for the oversea theaters was 2,193 animals in 1942, 6,963 animals

in 1943, and 9,786 animals in 1944.
568 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Table

46.

Veterinary

construction

plans,

1941

Designation

Type

Drawing

number

Date

Authorization

and

construction

features

Veterinary

hospital

(10-stall)

VH-1

800-1300

10

May

1941

Authorized

per

camp

having

small

animal

strength.

Included an

office,

latrine,

rooms for

attendants, supplies

and

heater,

dispensary, treatment

room

with

operating

table

and

dressing

stocks,

and

10

stalls.

Regimental veterinary

dispensary

VD-1

800-1301

do

Authorized per

separate

mounted

unit

of

squadron

size

or

larger.

Included an

office,

heater

room,

dispensary, and

dressing

floor.

Clinic,

veterinary,

medical

C-5

700-271

May

1937

Authorized

to

supplement

the

surgical

clinic

where

the

animal

strength

warranted its

need.

Included an

office,

latrine,

rooms

for

supplies

and

heater,

dispensary, and

dressing

floor

with

stocks

and

hitching

rails.

Clinic,

veterinary, surgical

C-6

700-272

do

Authorized

per

camp.

Included an

office,

latrine,

rooms

for

supplies

and

heater,

dispensary,

laboratory,

and

room

with

operating

table

and

hitching

rails.

Veterinary

colic

building

VCB-1

800-1308

18

Sept.

1941

Authorized

per

camp

for

each

3,000

animal

strength.

Included

colic

room

and

rooms

for

supplies

and

heater.

Veterinary

ward

VW-30

800-1303,-04,

-05

24

Sept.

1941

Authorized per

camp for

each

600-1,200

animal

strength.

Included

rooms

for

attendants

and

heater,

treatment

room

with

dressing

stocks,

and

24

single

and

box

stalls.
EVACUATION AND HOSPITALIZATION 569

VCW-20

800-1306,

-1307

800-1302

do

Authorized

per

camp

for

each

300-600

V.

A.

S.-l

17

May

1941

animal

strength

as

substitute

for

the

veterinary

ward.

Included

rooms

for

attendants

and

heater,

treatment

room,

and

16

single

and

box

stalls.

Authorized

per

camp and

additional

D.

T.-l

700-341,-342,

-343

May

1937

for

camps having

more than

3,000

animals.

Included

concrete

platform

and

adjoining

firepit.

Included

dipping

vat

and

building

for

heating

and

mixing

dip

solutions.

1.

Planning

for

veterinary

hospital

construction

included

also

stable,

closed,

types

S-l

through

S-9,

drawing

700-320,

and

stable,

open, types

S-10

through

S-19,

draw

ing

700-321,

both

dated

May

1937.

Types

S-l

and

S-10

each

had

stall

capacity

of

20;

these

capacities were

increased in

increments

of

stalls

so

that

the

closed

stable,

type

S-9,

had

rated

capacity

of

52

stalls,

and

the

open stable,

S-19,

had

rated

capacity

of

56

stalls.

2.

Drawings 800-1301

through

800-1308

superseded

drawing

700-486,

dated

Nov.

1940,

Veterinary

Station

Hospital:

Veterinary

Ward;

Veterinary

Contagious

Ward;

and

Colic

Building. 3.

Superseded

by

drawings 700-4400

through

700-4403,

Construction Division,

Office

of

Chief

of

Engineers, 16

July

1942.

Source:

Memorandum,

Col.

J.

F.

Crosby,

VC,

Veterinary

Division,

Surgeon

General’s

Office,

for

Director,

Historical

Division,

Surgeon

General’s Office,

Nov.

1944,

subject;

History

of

Wartime Research and

Development.
570 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Table

47

.—Veterinary

evacuation

and

hospital

units

organized

and

deployed

in

World

War

II,

by

period

and

by

theater

Units,

grouped

by

functional

organization

Number

active

on

date

shown

Number

deployed, by

theater

Totalnumber

31

Dec. 1910

31

Dec. 1941

31

Dec. 1942

31

Dec. 1943

31

Dec. 1944

V-E

or

V-JDay

ZI(unde-ployed)

ETO

MTO

CPA

SWPA

CBI

CDC

Collecting

and

treatment: Separate

veterinary

company.

12

10

Veterinary

troop,

medical

squadronVeterinary

company, medical

battalion

(mountain)

Veterinary

animal

service

detachment, Team

DC

43

16

27

27

16

24

Veterinary

evacuation detachment,

Team

CD

__

Veterinary

evacuation detachment,

Team

CE

Hospital: Veterinary

evacuation

hospitalVeterinary

convalescent

hospital Veterinary

general

hospital

Veterinary station

hospital

Veterinary

hospital

detachment,

Team

DA

Veterinary

hospital

detachment,

Team

DB
EVACUATION AND HOSPITALIZATION 571

Administration: Headquarters,

animal

service,

Team

AR

Total

72

13

35

41

41

32

18

33

The

table

excludes

the

named

hospitals

in

the

oversea

departments and

the

provisional

organizations

formed

during

the

war in

the

oversea

theaters;

it

enumerates

only

those constituted

by

War

Department authorization and

then

activated

and

organized

pursuant

to

T/O&E’s.

Includes

the

4th

Veterinary

Company

(Philippine

Scouts).

Includes

units

transferred

from

Mediterranean the

theater.

Includes

the

predecessor veterinary

sections

and

detachments organized

pursuant

to

pertinent

portions

of

T/O’s

for

field

artillery

pack

battalions

and

quartermaster remount

troops, but

excludes

those detachments included

in

certain

veterinary

composite

units

such

as

the

78th

Veterinary

Hospital

Detachment, and

the

113th Medical

Service

Company

(Veterinary). The

T/O’s

for

the

veterinary

convalescent

hospital

were canceled on

14

May

1954.
572 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

number of animals (2,000 and 1,700 animals, respectively). The veterinary

company of the medical regiment of an infantry division was substituted in

the cavalry division by the veterinary troop of medical squadron.

It was planned that the division, corps, and army aid stations were to

be relieved of their more seriously sick and wounded animals by three armyassigned veterinary evacuation hospitals. The hitter, unlike its World War

II successor, had twofold operational function: To collect or evacuate from

the aid stations and to provide hospitalization normally for 250 animal

patients. From such evacuation hospital, the recovered animals could be

issued into the army’s remount depot system, and those requiring rest and

recuperation could be moved into the army-controlled 1,000-patient veterinary

convalescent hospital. However, any animal requiring longer convalescent

period or definitive treatment was to be evacuated out of the area of the field

army into the theater’s communications zone to the veterinary general hospital. Ordinarily, three such general hospitals, each with normal patient

capacity of 500 animals, were planned to support field army. Another communications zone installation, but not part of the evacuation chain, was

the 150-patient veterinary station hospital. It was designed to render the

veterinary animal service for ports of debarkation and remount depots in

the rear areas of theater. Evacuation out of theater of operations into

the Zone of Interior was not contemplated.

The internal organization of these veterinary units remained constant

for many years. However, resulting from the programs of increasing mechanization and motorization, the forecasted requirements of the numbers of

veterinary units were lessened appreciably. Actually, these reductions were

made rapidly during the years preceding World War II. The veterinary

units were moved out of the new streamlined tactical army and transferred

into the General Headquarters Reserve. The latter’s veterinary hospitals

and other units were gradually reduced in parallel with the reductions taking

place in the cavalry and with the motorization of other mounted units. During 1940 and 1941, the projected animal strength for mobilization planning

was decreased from 45,500 to 31,221 animals—the latter including cavalry

divisions (15,988), cavalry brigade (3,225), cavalry regiments (5,166),

and 12 field artillery battalions (6,852) (£7, 22. 23). The War Department

Munitions Program, 1940, provided for separate veterinary companies and

10 evacuation, convalescent, general, and station hospitals 24 ), but reductions were suggested for the next year.

The internal organization and the assigned operational functions of veterinary units were changed. The changes were made in recognition that

relatively few animals which were being retained in the newer field forces

would be widely scattered, this requiring long-distance evacuation practices

and smaller units. At about the beginning of the pre-World War II emergency periods, the functional organization of the veterinary evacuation

hospital was amended so that it became only field hospital installation of
EVACUATION AND HOSPITALIZATION 573

reduced patient capacity (of 150 animals) its evacuating functions were

transferred to the veterinary company, medical regiment {25, 26). short

time later, the medical regiment was completely reorganized, including the

disassociation of its veterinary element—the latter becoming the separate

veterinary company {27).

The new T/O's (tables of organization) for the separate veterinary company and veterinary evacuation hospital were subsequently changed from

time to time during the war period, as were also the tables for the veterinary

troop and veterinary convalescent, general, and station hospitals {28 through

45) (table 48). Some of the changes included the removal of Medical Department detachments from the larger hospitals, the conservation of Veterinary Corps officers in certain unit assignments by their replacement with

Medical Administrative Corps officers, and the increase in the rank of hospital commanders. Equally important were the unit reorganizations: The

veterinary company of five platoons became unit of three collecting and

treatment platoons and motor evacuation section in 1943; the veterinary

troop became unit of two collecting and treatment platoons and one clearing

platoon; and the station hospital was reorganized in 1942 from one of

normal patient capacity of 150 animals to one that could operate also as

300-patient hospital. Also, the convalescent hospital was reduced in 1943 to

normal operational capacity of 500 patients; the latter’s T/O, however,

was canceled during May 1945 {46) Of course, another divisional collecting

and treatment unit came into existence during the war in connection with

development of the new light (pack) or mountain division—this being the

veterinary company, mountain medical battalion 47. 4$)- It was comparable to the former veterinary company in the peacetime infantry division or to

the existing veterinary troop in the cavalry division. In addition to the

foregoing changes, there were many pertaining to the equipment of these

veterinary units, including the addition of arms and armament.

With these wartime changes, other planning for newer and smaller veterinary units was undertaken. Up to that time, needless to say, the hospitals

and evacuation units were studied on the concept of single theater of operations where relatively large number of animals might be used. The

newer planning took into consideration the needs of animal evacuation chains

in one or more theaters where the animal strengths would be relatively small

or widely dispersed. Actually, this multitheater concept and small task force

planning was little considered in veterinary mobilization planning prior to

the war. In fact, the original demands for operating small-scale evacuation

plans in the Southwest Pacific Area, and later in the China-Burma-India

Internally, the company was organized into the headquarters, the 1st, 2d, and 3d (collecting

and treatment) platoons, and the 4th (motor evacuation) platoon; it was planned to evacuate and

provide first aid treatment for divisional animal strength of approximately 6,000 horses and

mules. The mountain division was developed from the original light division which was studied

for specialist warfare (jungle, alpine, and amphibious) and was specific type comparable to the

infantry, cavalry, armored, or airborne divisions.
574 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Table 48.—Personnel space authorizations for veterinary evacuation and hospital units

theater and the Central Pacific Area, were met necessarily by the organization and deployment of separate veterinary detachments such as were described in the existing T/O’s for field artillery units and quartermaster remount troops. Beginning in 1942 and continuing to mid-1944, 43 of these

detachments were organized: lettered sections (each with two officers and

nine enlisted personnel) and 27 numbered detachments (each with one officer

and four enlisted personnel) being organized pursuant to the T/CTs for

field artillery pack battalion, and lettered sections (each with one officer

and seven enlisted personnel) being organized as described in the T/O’s of

quartermaster remount troop. Of these, 27 were reorganized and redesignated at later date as numbered veterinary sections animal service, or veterinary animal service detachments, Teams DC (each with space authorizations of one officer and four enlisted personnel). The latter was one of six

kinds of veterinary cellular teams concerned with animals that came into

existence after mid-1943.

The others included veterinary team, type 1, or veterinary hospital detachment, Team DA (with officer and 23, later 19, enlisted personnel),

Units, grouped by functional organization Last wartime T/O&E Personnel

Number Date Officer Enlisted

Collecting and treatment:

Separate veterinary company 8-99 25 Nov. 1944 59

Veterinary troop, medical squadron 8-89 30 Sept. 1944 61

Veterinary company, medical battalion

(mountain) 8-139 Nov. 1944 117

Veterinary animal service detachment,

Team DC 8-500 18 Jan. 1945

Veterinary evacuation detachment, Team

CD 8-500 do._

Veterinary evacuation detachment, Team

CE 8-500 do 10

Hospital:

Veterinary evacuation hospital ..

8-780 19 May 1945 79

Veterinary convalescent hospital. 8-790 30 Aug. 1943 158

Veterinary general hospital.. 8-750 14 May 1943 10 243

Veterinary station hospital:

150-patient 8-760 20 July 1942 64

300-patient 8-760 do 86

Veterinary hospital detachment, Team

DA 8-500 18 Jan. 1945 19

Veterinary hospital detachment, Team

DB 8-500 do 35

Administration;

Headquarters, animal service, Team AR__ 8-500 do__

Canceled on 14 May 1945.
EVACUATION AND HOSPITALIZATION 575

having patient capacity of 30 animals, and the veterinary team, type 2, or

veterinary hospital detachment, Team DB (with officers and 46, later 35, enlisted personnel), having patient capacity of 75 animals. later edition

of the original 23 July 1943 tables for these cellular team organizations added

two different-sized motor evacuation sections or detachments: Team CD

(with three enlisted personnel) was designed to evacuate animals at time

on single semitrailer truck, and Team CE (with an officer and 10 enlisted

personnel) was designed to handle 24 disabled animals. The T/O’s also

provided for the assignment of certain administrative personnel to command having three or more veterinary animal service detachments, but it was

not until 18 January 1945 that the tables described these personnel in new

Team AR or headquarters, veterinary animal service (with an authorization

for one officer and two enlisted personnel).

Thus, during World War II, the type units developed for animal evacuation in the theaters numbered thirteen. Of these, 11 were actually used in

the organization of 72 T/O units—there being no convalescent hospital and

small veterinary evacuation detachment (table 47). Of this number of

units, only were in active military service at the time of Pearl Harbor,

and, during the war period, 49 were newly organized in the Zone of Interior,

and 17 were organized in the oversea theaters. Eight units organized in the

Zone of Interior were undeployed to an oversea theater, and 26 were reorganized into wholly different units, inactivated, or disbanded prior to V-E

or Y-J Days (table 49). The manner in which these veterinary units were

deployed in the animal evacuation plans of the oversea theaters is described

in the following pages.

OVERSEA DEPLOYMENT

Mediterranean Theater

An animal evacuation plan was developed to meet the urgent needs of

the Fifth U.S. Army after its landing on the Italian peninsula at Salerno

Gulf (9 September 1943). Though few animals were used earlier in the

American combat divisions in North Africa and during the Sicilian campaign (49), little, if any, thought had been given previously to veterinary

hospitals and evacuation units in the Mediterranean theater. Six months after

the landing, U.S. veterinary evacuation hospital arrived from the Zone of

Interior and was deployed into the Fifth U.S. Army area at Teano. In the

interim, that Army’s animal strength grew from almost nothing to 1,078

mules and horses which were included in two field artillery battalions and

In Africa, the 3d Infantry Division, Corps, Fifth U.S. Army, had 10 burros during May

1943 and gained an additional 82 burros during the next month of these, burros were destroyed

on account of severe injury, and few were lost, stolen, or strayed. Sixty burros accompanied the

division in its landing on Sicily (10 July 1943), but all died on account of heat exhaustion and

overexertion before the end of July 1943. In the drive along the north coast of Sicily (3—10 Aug.

1943), 487 mules and 219 horses were procured locally (by requisition or confiscation) 43 percent

of these animals were killed in action.
576 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Table

49.

—Historical record

of

veterinary

evacuation

and

hospital

units

activated

in

World

War

II

Activation

Oversea

deployment

Postwar

disposition

Unit

Date

Place

Date

of

departurefrom

ZI

Date

of

arrival

Theater

Date

Action

and

place

Veterinary

Company

(Separate): 1st

Prewar

19

Jan.

1943

Mar.1943

CBI

(IBT)

12

Jan.1946..Sept.

1945__

10

Nov

1943

Inactivated in

IBT.

Do.

2d

25

June

1942

Fort

Bliss, Tex. (2)

Oct.

1944__

14

Dec.1944

3d

Prewar

Panama

6th

10

Mar.1943— Fort

Bliss, Tex. Camp

Hale, Colo.

Canal.

18

May

1943- Oct.1945...

Panama.Redesignated 36th

Sep.

Vet.

Co.

Departed for

ZI.

7th

17

Dec.

1942—

Oct.

1944

14

Dec. 1944

IBT

14

Aug.

1945— Sept. 1945.

14

Apr.

1945.. CT IBT

Dec.1945

Inactivated at

Camp

Kilmer,

N.J.

Inactivated in

MTO.

Disbanded. Do. Do. Do

36th

18

May1943- (2)

Fort

Bliss, Tex. (2)

Apr.

1945

MTO

Oct

1945

37th

11

Apr.

1944, do

38th

(2)

41st

(2)

(2)

30

Apr.

1944..do

42d

(2)

(2)

43d

10

Oct.

943_

Fort

Clark, Tex. do

22

Oct.

1944

19

Dec.1944

IBT

June

945

Inactivated in

IBT.

Do

44th

do

do

do

do.

45th

16

July

1944— MTO

MTO

Feb.

1946._. Inactivated in

ETO.

20

Nov. 1944

ETO
EVACUATION AND HOSPITALIZATION 577

Veterinary

Troop,

Medical

Squadron: 1st

Prewar.

May-June 1943.

12

July

1943.. SWPA

Dec.

1943— id-1

942

Redesignated 2d

Collection

Troop,

1st

Medical

Squadron.

Disbanded. ). ).

Inactivated in

IBT.

Disbanded in

SWPA.

Do.

2d

Nov. 1941

February 1943. 15

July

1943.. Fort

Riley,Kans. Fort

Clark, Tex. Camp

Hale,Colo. do

3d

February 1944. (2)

March 1944

6-20

Jan. 1945.December1943

Mar.1943- do

MTO

1944

Veterinary

Company,

Moun- tain

Medical Battalion: 10th

MTO

(2)

13th

(2)

CBI

(IBT). SWPA.-._

26

June

1945.. Oct.1944... do

Veterinary

Animal Service

Detach- ment

Dec.1942 do

Fort

Bliss, Tex. do

12

Feb.1943- do

do

do

do

do

„. do

.do

do

Do.

do

do

do

do

do

.do

Do.

H_

do

do

do

do

do

do

Do.

do

_do

do

do

do

do

Do.

18

Jan.

1943.

.-do

23

Aug.

1943--

Sept.

1943-

do

do

Do.

do

do

27

Aug.

1943— 16

Sept.

1943-

do

do

Do.

M__

__do

_do

do

do

do

do

Do.

__

do

do

28

Aug.

1943— 29

Sept. 1943-

do..

do

Do.

do

do

do

do

do

do

Do.

do

do..

do

-_ _.do

do

do

Do.

..do

do

do

do

do

do

Do.

do

do

do

do

do

do

Do.

See

footnotes

at

end

of

table.
578 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Table

49.

—Historical record

of

veterinary

evacuation

and

hospital

units

activated

in

World

War

II

—Continued

Activation

Oversea

deployment

Postwar

disposition

Unit

Date

Place

Date

of

departurefrom

ZI

Date

of

arrival

Theater

Date

Action

and

place

Dee.

1942

Fort

Bliss, Tex

12

Feb

1943

Mar

1943

SWPA

Oct.

1944

Disbanded in

SWPA.

Do. Departed

for

ZI.

Inactivated at

Camp

Kilmer,

N.J.

Departed

for

ZI.

Inactivated at

Camp

Kilmer, N.J.

Departed for

ZI.

Inactivated at

Camp

Kilmer, N.J.

Inactivated in

CT.

39th

July

1944... CBI

CBI

(IBT).

18

Sept.

1945.

24

Oct.

1945

40th

.do.

.do.

18

Sept. 1945.

24

Oct.1945

(2)

41st

do.

do.

18

Sept.

1945.

24

Oct.

1945

(2)

42d..

do

do.

CBI

20

Sept.

1945.

(2)

CT

43d

do

do

CBI

Do.

(2)

CT

44th

do.

do

CBI

Do.

(2)

CT

45th

do

do

CBI

Do.

18

July

1944.. CT

46th

CBI

do

Do.

8-23

July 1944.

CT

47th

CBI

Do.

July

1944

CT

48th

do

do.

CBI

Do.

24

July

1944.. CT

49th

CBI

do

Do.

(2)

CT
EVACUATION AND HOSPITALIZATION 579

50th

do

do_

CBI

.do

Do.

22

July

1944

CT

51st

12

Apr.

1944..

Camp

Hale,

16

July

1944— 26

Sept.

1944.

CBI

(IBT).

28

Oct.

1945.. Inactivated

in

IBT.

Colo.

52d

do_

do

22

July

1944- 23

Sept.

1944

do

19

Oct.

1945

Do.

53d

do_

.do

22

July

1944-

do

CBI

20

Sept.

1945.

Inactivated in

CT.

3-8

Nov.

CT.

1944.

54th

do

do

29

June

1944—

Sept.

1944.

CBI

do

Do.

Nov. 1944.

CT

55th

do

do

28

July

1944

Oct.

1944—. CBI

do

Do

15

Dec.1944— CT

do

do

do

Oct.1944... CBI

do

Do.

Nov.1944

CT

57th

do

do

Aug.

1944. __

30

Sept.

1944.

CBI

do

Do.

Nov.1944

CT..

58th

do

do

do.

30

Sept.

1944.

CBI

.do

Inactivated in

CT.

Nov, 1944

CT

59th

do

do

June

1944

Oct.1944... CBI

do

Do.

Dec.1944... CT

60th

do

.do

Aug.

1944...

Oct.1944... CBI

do

Do.

CT

do

do

Aug.

1944

11

Oct.1944— CBI

do

Do.

Dec.1944

CT.

62d

do

do_

16

Aug.

1944.. 19

Oct.1944— CBI

do

Do.

22-29

Nov.

CT

1944.

63d

30

June

1944

Camp

Carson,

13

Nov. 1944..

Dec.1944... CPA

14

May1946— Inactivated in

CPA

Colo.

64th

do

.do

do

do.

do

do

Do.

65th

dn

do

do

do

do

.. do

Do.

See

footnotes

at

end

of

table.
580 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Table

—Historical 49.

record of

veterinary

evacuation

and

hospital

units

activated

in

World

War

II

—Continued

Activation.

Oversea

deployment

Postwar

disposition

Unit

Date

Place

Date

of

departurefrom

ZI

Date

of

arrival

Theater

Date

Action

and

place

Veterinary Evacu- ation

Detach- ment

(Team CE): 643d

12

Mar.1945.

MTO

MTO

September 1945. 15

Oct.

1945

Inactivated in

MTO.

644th

do

do

do

Do.

Veterinary

Evacuation

Hospital: 16th_

June

1941.

Fort

Bliss,

27

Dec.1942

30

Jan.1943

SWPA

Nov.1945

Inactivated in

SWPA.

17th

15

Jan.1943.

Tex. do

22

Feb.1944.. 12

Mar.

1944

MTO

Feb.1946

Inactivated in

ETO.

20

Nov. 1944.

ETO

18th.

do

do

31

May

1944..

22

Oct.1944..

Aug.

1944... 23

Nov. 1944

CBI

Oct.

1945

Departed

for

ZI.

Inactivated

at

Camp

Kilmer,

N.J.

Departed

for

ZI.

Inactivated

at

Camp

Kilmer,

N.J.

Redesignated 19th

Veterinary

Evacuation

Hospital.

19th

11

Aug. 1944.. June

1941

Fort

Ord, Calif. Fort

Bliss, Tex.

IBT

24

Oct.1945.. 10Oct.

1945

Veterinary General Hospital: 30th

27

Feb.1945.. CT

Nov.1945.. 11

Aug.

1945..
EVACUATION AND HOSPITALIZATION 581

Veterinary

Station Hospital: 23d

25

Jau.

1943

do

23

Oct.1945. do

Disbanded at

Fort

Riley,

Kans.

Disbanded at

Fort

Reno,

Okla.

Inactivated in

IBT.

Inactivated in

CPA.

Do.

24th

15

July

1943

Veterinary

Hospital

Detach- ment

(Team DA); 78th

Sept.

1944__

15

Feb.1945.. Aug.

1945

CBT..

CBT

(IBT)

CPA

25

July

1945.. 10

Nov. 1945. Dec.1945

Veterinary

Hospital

Detach- ment

(Team DB): 306th

Fort

Lewis, Wash. CPA

(2)

10

June

1945..

Headquarters, Animal

Service (Team

AR):

38th

CPA

The

theater

designation is

the

major

area of

deployment.

Not

known. The

7th

Veterinary

Company

(Separate) was activated

in

two

Increments,

its

1st

and

2d

platoons on

24

Dec.

1942,

and

its

Headquarters

Section

and

3d,

4th,

and

5th

platoons

on

15

Jan.

1943.Redesignation of

6th

Veterinary

Company

(Separate).

The

45th

Veterinary

Company

(Separate) followed

the

6482d

Veterinary

Company

(Separate)

(Provisional) which

was organized

in

the

Oran

area,

Algeria,

on

24

May

1944.

Veterinary

Sections

D,

E,

F,

G,

R,

S,

and

were

organized

in

the

Zone

of

Interior

pursuant

to

T/O

6-155,

Apr.

1942.

The

39th

through

50th

Veterinary Detachments were

organized

in

China-Burma-India the

theater,

and

the

51st

through

65th

Veterinary Detachments were

organized

in

the

Zone

of

Interior

pursuant

to

T/O

6-155,

May

1943.

Veterinary

Sections

H,

I,

K,

L,

M,

N,

0,

P,

and

were

organized

in

the

Zone

of

Interior

pursuant

to

T/O

10-97.

All

lettered

units,

some

never being

used

in

animal

service,

were

disbanded

later,

and

their

personnel were assigned to

food

Inspection

detachments, whereas

all

numbered

units

were reorganized later

as

animal

service

detachments, Team

DC,

with

the

same

numerical

designations.Redesignation of

30th

Veterinary General

Hospital.

The

78th

Veterinary

Hospital Detachment was activated

originally

as

Team

DA;

in

April

1945, it

was

reorganized as

composite

unit

including

Team

DA

and

Team

DC.
582 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

the pack trains which were improvised by the 3d, 34th, 36th, and 45th Infantry Divisions, and another 1,835 animals with Italian Army pack mule

trains which were operating in the divisional areas. The Italian trains were

manned and equipped originally by the Italian Government and then were

deployed under the control and supervision of the U.S. forces in the theater.

At this time also, the Fifth U.S. Army included the French Expeditionary

Corps, with approximately 4,300 animals—this number increasing to more

than 9,000 mules and horses before July 1944 when the control over that

Allied force was transferred to the Seventh U.S. Army for entry into the

southern France campaign. In the course of time, the pack trains of the U.S.

combat divisions were discontinued and replaced by the Italian pack mule

trains (or companies) the latter’s animal strength, beginning after December

1943, was gradually increased to peak of 4,391 mules and 158 horses (as

of March 1945). Altogether, the Fifth U.S. Army’s mean animal strength

in the period from December 1943 through June 1945 averaged 5,150 mules

and horses (table 50) (5(9, 51). Its disabilities approximated 3,000, including 795 battle casualties, of which number 5.9 percent died or were destroyed

on account of disease and injury; another 1,300 animals were killed in action.

For the collection and treatment of these 3,000 or more disabled animals, an

evacuation plan was developed and operated that included as many as separate veterinary companies, veterinary company of mountain division,

evacuation detachments, and at least hospital organizations and units, in

addition to complete remount operation. portion of this plan involved,

of course, the Mediterranean theater’s Peninsular Base Section and U.S.-

supervised Italian veterinary hospital organizations.

During the first few months on the Italian peninsula, the U.S. combat

divisions hurriedly and unexpectedly had begun to assemble animals—almost

any kind of mule or horse—that could be used in the conduct of reconnaissance or to transport ammunition, medical supplies, and rations to the outpost positions in the southern Apennine mountains {52). By December 1943, such animals numbered more than thousand and were organized by the

divisions into so-called provisional pack trains. These were operated,

equipped, and controlled by the division veterinarians because other personnel

were unavailable. The animal losses in these divisional trains were evidently

great. For example, the Provisional Reconnaissance Troop, Mounted, of the

3d Infantry Division, with 620 mules and horses, during October 1943 lost

108 animals, 88 being killed by gunfire and 20 being destroyed on account

of severe gunshot wounds (^ ). In the 34th Infantry Division, only 30 animals remained from group of 75 after little less than months of operations. These losses could be expected under the conditions under which the

During January 1944, the provisional pack trains included 906 mules and 257 horses. These were divided between the U.S. combat divisions as follows 463 in the 3d Infantry Division, 204 in the 34th Infantry Division, 169 in the 36th Infantry Division, and 327 in the 45th Infantry Division.

The trains were discontinued at about the time the divisions prepared for movement from the

Naples-Foggla battlefront to the diversionary attack at Anzio however, at least one divisional pack

train—that of the 36th Infantry Division—was moved by LST to Anzio (20 May 1944). The 1st Armored Division also had pack train.
EVACUATION AND HOSPITALIZATION 583

Table 50.—Sick and wounded animals of the Fifth U.S. Army, Mediterranean theater,

December 1943 through June 1945

trains were assembled and used. The animals, removed from the Italian

countryside, were unconditioned and not suitable for military campaign; the

divisional personnel were inexperienced in animal care and management; the

local resources of feed, horseshoes, and veterinary supplies had been removed

or destroyed by the retreating Germans; the pack trains Avere the select

Year and month Meananimal

strength

Admissions Died or

destroyed Killed in action Treatment days Total Disease Injury Battle

casualty

1943 December 1, 083 80 23 44 13 12 442

(1, 083) (80) (23) (44) (13) (12) (0) (442)

1944 January 4, 229 101 40 51 10 15 547

(894) (101) (40) (51) (10) (5) (15) (547)

February 5, 111 151 36 82 33 16 50 1, 483

(872) (86) (17) (45) (24) (13) (50) (681)

March 6, 295 263 81 96 86 2, 238

(1, 078) (118) (56) (59) (3) (6) (1) (304)

April 11, 229 145 52 83 10 17 1, 684

(822) (93) (43) (50) (0) (10) (0) (1, 081)

May 12, 659 259 28 177 54 19 24 5, 209

(1, 189) (120) (8) (104) (8) (8) (24) (1, 843)

une 11, 906 114 39 62 13 2, 231

(1, 075) (106) (36) (57) (13) (5) (0) (1, 215)

July 2, 126 274 57 193 24 14 6, 732

(827) (50) (16) (34) (0) (5) (5) (349)

August. 2, 729 200 500

September 2, 837 150 14 74 62 197 533

October 2, 739 305 26 136 143 13 252 4, 920

November 2, 965 164 27 90 47 10 286 4, 781

December 2, 980 143 34 76 33 175 2, 765

1945 January- 3, 507 166 77 62 27 122 1, 598

February 4, 389 120 17 61 42 104 1, 188

March 4, 549 253 74 120 59 16 29 5, 568

April 4, 447 202 48 117 37 86 6, 660

May_ 4, 013 83 25 58 1, 516

June 4, Oil 66 32 34 1, 843

The parenthetical datarelate only to U.S. Army animals for the period that such were in the army, with the exception of the period after April 1945 when the 10th Mountain Division was provided with approximately 850animals. The

data for the period from December 1943 through June 1944 relate to United States, French, and U.S.-supervised Italian

Army animals. Beginning with July 1944, the data pertain to U.S.-supervised Italian Army pack companiesSources: (1) VeterinaryReports of Sick and Wounded Animals, U.S. Units, Fifth U.S. Army, December 1943through

June 1944. (2) Veterinary Reports of Sick and Wounded Animals, ConsolidatedAllied Units, Fifth U.S. Army, February 1944 through June 1945.
584 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

targets of artillery tire and mortar barrage; and the animals which became

disabled could not be removed from the divisional areas.

Foreseeing that the combat divisions were not to be denied their animal

transport, the Veterinarian, Fifth U.S. Army, supported and developed plans

for an orderly supply of animals and the care of those becoming disabled

{52) Breeding stations, remount depots, racetracks, and stables, as they were

uncovered in the northward advances of the Allied forces, were set up as

hospital and remount depot sites; these depots later were operated by provisional remount organization identified as an activity of the Peninsular Base

Section. Originally, remount depots were established at Persano (September 1943), Santa Maria (November 1943), and Bagnoli (December 1943),

each with veterinary section which operated depot dispensaries. Contrary

to the accepted principles of animal evacuation, for more than year these

dispensaries received disabled animals directly from the combat divisions and

veterinary evacuation hospitals of the Fifth U.S. Army. In the beginning,

Fifth U.S. Army provisional veterinary hospital, organized on December 1943, and manned by Italian Army veterinary personnel, and French

Army veterinary ambulance company (the 541st) opened station in the

vicinity of these remount depots, but both units were soon lost to the French

Expeditionary Corps.

The most singular gain in the early growth of the Mediterranean theater's

animal service plan came during December 1943 when the first of several

Italian pack mule trains and two veterinary evacuation hospitals were received on the Italian peninsula from Sardinia. The former had approximately

1,600 mules and horses which were transshipped and used in the Italian campaigns. They were deployed to augment, and later to replace, the provisional

trains of the U.S. combat divisions. 10 The two Italian veterinary evacuation

hospitals—the 110th and the 130th—established stations at Treponti and

Nocelleto in back of the divisional trains and Italian pack trains of the II

Corps, Fifth U.S. Army. 11 third hospital unit—the U.S. 17th Veterinary

Evacuation Hospital—newly arrived from the Zone of Interior, 12 established

station on April 1944, at Teano {52). These hospitals forwarded replacement animals in exchange for the disabled animals received from the pack

trains and evacuated those animals requiring further treatment out of the

army area to the remount depot dispensaries.

10At this time, the Italian pack mule trains each included line officers, veterinary officer,

400 enlisted men, and 325 animals. year and half later, they were U.S.-equipped and were

provided with 269 animals. 11 These Italian hospital units each included veterinary officers, administrative officer, and

100 enlisted men. When equipped by the Military Ministry of the Italian Army, the units were designated, for example, as the ITI—ITI 110th Veterinary Evacuation Hospital; during February

1945 such units were equipped by the United States, and the unit was redesignated as the US-ITI

Veterinary Evacuation Hospital.

12 The 17th Veterinary Evacuation Hospital arrived on 12 March 1944, at Oran. Algeria, and

then transshipped on 16—28 March to Naples, Italy. En route to Naples, one enlisted man was

killed during an enemy aerial attack on the ship.
EVACUATION AND HOSPITALIZATION 585

With the beginning of the spring 1944 operations, the evacuation hospitals were supporting four Italian pack trains, the 36th and 45th Infantry

Divisions’ trains, and the 601st and 602d Field Artillery Battalions—their

aggregate animal strengths approximating 3,000 mules and horses. The

601st and 602d Field Artillery Battalions, having arrived from the Zone of

Interior during March 1944, were deployed in the Fifth U.S. Army until

mid-July 1944 when they were transferred to the Seventh U.S. Army; each

included an organic veterinary detachment.

In the offensive that started on 11 May 1944, and culminated with the

capture of Borne (4 June), the three evacuation hospitals continued their

support of the Italian pack trains, which now numbered seven (with 1,964

mules and horses), and the 601st and 602d Field Artillery Battalions and the

36th Infantry Division’s provisional train (with 1,189 animals). fourth

hospital organization—the Italian 210th Veterinary Hospital—joined the

Fifth U.S. Army on May 1944, but was disbanded during the next month.

In this offensive, taking place in the mountains about the Garigliano Biver,

the hospitals remained fixed in their original positions because no suitable

sites could be found in the advanced areas.

The Fifth U.S. Army made little use of animals during the latter part

of the Borne-Arno Campaign or in the “battle of pursuit” across the plains

area to the Gothic Line in the northern Apennines. During this time, however, the 17th Veterinary Evacuation Hospital moved six times in the wake of

the 601st and 602d Field Artillery Battalions, reaching Pontiginione in midJuly 1944 and then closing station on 12 August 1944. The unit received

251 animal patients; 194 were evacuated for further hospital treatment, 51

were returned to duty, and died or were destroyed. Also, the Italian 110th

and 130th Veterinary Evacuation Hospitals were moved out of Treponti

on 20 June and Nocelleto on July, respectively, and then through Borne

and northward to take stations at Vaglia on 14 September and at Cafaggiolo

on 22 September, respectively.

The 1944 summer lull in animal utilization saw the reorganization of

the Italian pack mule companies under an Italian 20th Pack Mule Group

and the attachment of U.S. veterinary officers as supervisory personnel.

Other changes were made in the Fifth U.S. Army incident to the preparations

for Operation ANVIL (the Allied invasion of southern France). These

included the transfer of the two field artillery battalions (with 800 animals)

and the French Expeditionary Corps (with 8,000 animals) to the Seventh

U.S. Army, as well as the 17th Veterinary Evacuation Hospital and the new

45th Veterinary Company (Separate) (52). The last-named unit was the

continuation of the 6482d Separate Veterinary Company (Provisional), which

had been formed on 24 May 1944, at Oran, transshipped on 18-23 June to

Naples, and then redesignated the 45th Separate Veterinary Company effective 16 July 1944.
ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE 586

At the beginning of the new campaign to penetrate the Gothic Line (10

September 1944), the Fifth U.S. Army’s evacuation plan included two

Italian evacuation hospitals: The 110th at Vaglia and after 17-18 October

at Pitramala and the 130th at Cafaggiolo. The latter was joined on October by the Italian 212th Veterinary Evacuation Hospital, which was then

moved on 6-8 January 1943, to Lucca. 13 fourth, the Italian 211th Veterinary Evacuation Hospital, established station at Pontepetri on 24 February 1945.14 In this period, the number of Italian pack trains under the operational control of American divisions and corps increased from (with

2,706 mules and 131 horses as of 30 September 1944) to 11. Up to 31 December, these companies had lost more than 700 disabled animals to the evacuation hospitals for additional treatment, and another 461 animals were killed

in action. During February 1945, the 11 pack companies were assigned to

the divisional units of the two army corps in the Fifth U.S. Army, each

corps being supported by two evacuation hospitals, as shown below:

II Corps

Italian 110th and 130th Veterinary Evacuation Hospitals

34th Infantry Division 13th Italian Pack Mule Company

1st Armored Division 11th and 15th Companies

91st Infantry Division 1st, 9th, and 16th Companies

IV Corps

Italian 211th and 212th Veterinary Evacuation Hospitals

10th Mountain Division 5th and 17th Companies

92d Infantry Division 12th Company

6th South African Armored Division 10th Company

Brazilian Expeditionary Force 18th Company

The corps assignment of divisions and the divisional assignments of the

Italian pack trains were changed frequently. In the next month (March

1945), the pack trains numbered 14, and their animal strength reached

peak of 4,549 mules and horses.

During April 1945, the number of Italian pack mule companies with the

Fifth U.S. Army was increased to 15, and the four Italian veterinary evacuation hospitals were moved northward—the 110th moving to Polvrifitto on

26-28 April; the 130th moving to Verona on 28-30 April, the 211th moving

on 1-3 April to Eiolo and then to Ghisione on 26 April, and the 212th moving on 20-22 April to Pal. Beceadelli. These trains and hospitals were assigned as follows: II Corps

Italian 110th and 130th Veterinary Evacuation Hospitals

1st Armored Division 10th Italian Mule Pack Company

34th Infantry Division 15th Company

88th Infantry Division 1st, 2d, 13th, 10th,and 21st Companies

91st Infantry Division 11th and 19th Companies

33 The Italian 212th Veterinary Evacuation Hospital arrived at Cafaggiolo (from the Florence

staging area) for training purposes and was not equipped for field operations at this time. 11 The Italian 211th Veterinary Evacuation Hospital arrived in the Florence staging area on

January 1945, and then moved out to Pontepetri.
EVACUATION AND HOSPITALIZATION 587

IV Corps

Italian 211th and 212th Veterinary Evacuation Hospitals

10th Mountain Division 5th and 17th Companies

85th Infantry Division 9th Company

92d Infantry Division 12th Company

Brazilian Expeditionary Force 18th and 20th Companies

At about this time, which marked the beginning of Operation GRAPESHOT (the capture of Bologna and the subsequent breakout into the Po

River Valley), the evacuation plan of the Fifth U.S. Army was augmented

with the 36th Separate Veterinary Company and the beginning operations of

the veterinary animal service organic to the 10th Mountain Division. This

company, arriving in Italy on 14 April 1945, during the next months received 118 animal patients from the Italian veterinary evacuation hospitals

and other units, and provided 1,377 hospital treatment days {53). The 10th

Mountain Division, arriving in Italy during January 1945, was provided

with few Italian pack companies, and, in addition, during April, its 86th

Mountain Infantry Regiment, 10th Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop, and 605th

Field Artillery Battalion were provided with 841 pack mules and cavalry

horses {52, <5J). 15 The latter animals, when becoming disabled, were collected by the division’s Veterinary Company, 10th Mountain Medical Battalion. Until the end of that month, the disabilities within the division

numbered 67 animals (including 14 battle casualties) of these, 45 animal

patients were evacuated out of the combat area to the 2605th Veterinary

General Hospital.

In back of the Fifth U.S. Army, the foregoing evacuation plan was supported by veterinary hospital system controlled by the Peninsular Base

Section, services of supply organization. Approximately 1,500 disabled

animals were evacuated from the combat divisions and Allied units. This

hospital system originally included remount depot dispensaries {52) 16 and

the Fifth U.S. Army Provisional Veterinary Hospital which was renamed

the Italian 210th Veterinary Hospital and then transferred to the French

Expeditionary Corps. The latter’s hospital operations at Grosseto, after

mid-1944, were resumed by the new Italian 213th Veterinary General Hospital, renamed the Italian Veterinary General Hospital and later, on 31

March 1945, the Italian 1st Veterinary General Hospital. This organization,

operating under the technical supervision of U.S. Army veterinary officers,

received more than thousand animal patients (5*5, 56, 57) during the period

15 In mid-May, following the surrender of the Germans in Italy, the division transferred its

mules to the 3298th Quartermaster Service Company and on 15 July transferred its horses to

quartermaster remount unit. Until the last date, the 10th Mountain Division’s veterinary service

in the Mediterranean theater had reported on total of 116 cases of diseases and injuries and had

provided 433 treatment days.

18 The remount depots were located originally at Persano, Santa Maria, and Bagnoll. These

were closed in mid-1944, and newer ones were established at Grosseto and Pisa. After the capitulation of the German armies, thousands of captured animals were assembled at San Martino and

Mirandola.

590248 —61 39
588 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Table 51. Sick and wounded animals admitted into the U.S.-supervised Italian 213th Veterinary General Hospital, Italian VeterinaryGeneral Hospital, and Italian 1st Veterinary General

Hospital, Peninsular Base Section, Mediterranean theater, July 1944 through 20 July 1945

of year or until its inactivation on 20 July 1945 (table 51). Of this number of patients, 599 were received direct from the Fifth U.S. Army’s veterinary evacuation hospitals. In the spring of 1945 also, the evacuation plan

of the Peninsular Base Section was augmented by four veterinary hospitals

and two evacuation detachments. The latter, including the 643d and the

044th Veterinary Evacuation Detachments, were activated and organized

on 12 March 1945, at Leghorn, Italy, and were used in the moving of hospitals to new locations and of animal patients out of the army area or to

other hospitals (fig. 61). The new hospitals were the 2604th Veterinary

Station Hospital (Overhead) 17 organized on 15 March 1945, at Leghorn

{58) (fig. 62); the 2605th Veterinary General Hospital (Overhead),18 organized on 15 March 1945, at Naples {59) the Italian 1st Veterinary Station

Hospital, formed on April 1945, at Bagnoli; and the Italian 2d Veterinary

General Hospital. Each of the Italian units were attached to the respective

American station and general hospital organizations for operational control.

17 The hospital was organized as modification of standard T/O unit but had only officers

and 19 enlisted personnel. It was disbanded on 20 July 1945, at Leghorn, Italy.

18The hospital was organized as modification of standard T/O unit, with officers and 31

enlisted personnel. It was disbanded on 30 July 1945, at Leghorn, Italy.

Year and month Total

Admi

Disease

ssions

Injury Battle

casualty

Died or

destroyed Treatment

days (in hospital)

Hospital

stall capacity

19U

July 124 59 49 16 247 100

August 41 13 19 4, 255 100

September 21 4, 723 100

October 84 32 28 24 5, 152 100

November 2, 972 139

December 252 108 91 53 5, 832 186

19^5 January 115 88 18 12 8, 126 176

February 94 55 32 5, 536 192

March 78 30 27 21 7, 213 192

April 89 48 41 6, 157 192

May 30 18 12 5, 387 192

June 69 26 39 3, 772 152

July 18 12 2, 112 152

Total 1, 023 498 375 150 68 61, 484

Sources: (1) Veterinary Reports of Sick and Wounded Animals, Italian 213th Veterinary General Hospital, July

through September 1944. (2) Veterinary Reports of Sick and Wounded Animals, Italian Veterinary General Hospital,

October 1944 through March 1945. (3) Veterinary Reports of Sick and Wounded Animals, Italian 1st Veterinary General

Hospital, April through 20 July 1945.
EVACUATION AND HOSPITALIZATION 589

SC MM-45—21533

Figure 61.-—Capt. L. T. Lacey, VC, commanding the 643d Veterinary Evacuation

Detachment, supervising the unloading of wounded animals for admission to the U.S.- equipped Italian 2605th Veterinary General Hospital, Mirandola, Italy, on May 1945.

SC MM—45—21518

Figure 62.—U.S. Army Veterinary Corps officers with the 2604th Veterinary Station

Hospital (Overhead) examining and giving treatment to captured sick and wounded

animals at the Fifth U.S. Army Remount Station, San Martino, Italy, 10 May 1945.
590 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

The 2604th and Italian 1st Veterinary Station Hospitals, joining on 11 April

1945, were scheduled to take station at Cafaggiolo to replace the Fifth U.S.

Army’s Italian 130th Veterinary Evacuation Hospital, but the change in the

battlefront and lack of hospital sites prevented the movement; instead, on

May 1945, the two units moved to San Martino. The 2605th and the Italian

2d Veterinary General Hospitals, however, were moved during April 1945 and

set up station in the vicinity of Pontepetri; on 1-2 May 1945, they closed station and were moved to Mirandola. During the period from 19 April to

May, the 2605th Veterinary General Hospital admitted 99 animal patients—41

from the Italian 211th Veterinary Evacuation Hospital and the remainder

from the veterinary company of the 10th Mountain Division. In May 1945,

with the surrender of the German armies in Italy, these four hospital units

were engaged in supporting remount operations. During the next month,

the Fifth U.S. Army’s Italian pack mule companies and veterinary evacuation hospitals were returned to the Military Ministry of the Italian Army,

effective on 30 June 1945.

European Theater

The veterinary evacuation plan, which included the deployment of the 17th

Veterinary Evacuation Hospital and the 45th Separate Veterinary Company in

the European theater, originated with the preparations taken during mid-1944

in the Mediterranean theater for Operation ANVIL (the invasion of southern

France). Both units were reassigned in mid-August 1944 from the Fifth U.S.

Army in Italy to the Seventh U.S. Army and subsequently transshipped to

southern France. The hospital established station at Grenoble, France, on 26

September 1944, and the company, moving in two shipments through Vars, proceeded to Saint-Raphael by September and then moved to Lons-le-Saunier on

14 September and to Sisterone on 17 September. The two Seventh U.S. Army

units were attached to the First French Army for operational control, effective

on 21 September 1944, and, on 20 November 1944, all former Mediterranean

theater units were transferred to the control of the European theater.

Other units with animals that came into the European theater through

southern France included provisional quartermaster remount organization

and the 601st and 602d Field Artillery Battalions, each with its own veterinary detachment. The battalions, arriving in France during September and

October 1944 with approximately 800 mules and horses (60, 61), served under

the 44th Antiaircraft Brigade, 6th Army Group, in southeastern France

until mid-March 1945 when they were dismounted.19 During the time that

19 The 601st Field Artillery Battalion moved on 31 August 1944, from Nemi, Italy, to Lake

Avernus; it departed on 13 October 1944, from Pozzuoli, Italy, arriving in Nice, France, on 15

October 1944. While in France, battalion elements were stationed at LeSuquet, Peira-Cava, Drap,

and Blausaso. On 16 March 1945, its animals were transferred to the French 1st Division.

Detachment of the 602d Field Artillery Battalion moved from Nemi, Italy, to Lake Avernus,

arriving on September 1944; it departed on 18 September 1944, from Naples, arriving at Marseilles, France, on 24 September 1944. While in France, it moved to Saint-Raphael, then to Nice,

and set up station at Val de Gorbio (Menton area). On 17 March 1945, its animals were transferred to the Quartermaster, Delta Base Section.
EVACUATION AND HOSPITALIZATION 591

the two battalions with animals were part of the Seventh U.S. Army

(August 1944 through mid-March 1945), their disabled animals totaled 197, including battle casualties, and another 14 animals were killed in action,

as shown in the following tabulation:

The more seriously sick and injured animals in these two battalions were

evacuated to platoon of the 45th Veterinary Company (Separate) that was

located at Nice.

As unit under the operational control of the First French Army, the 45th

Veterinary Company (Separate) established its headquarters at Gap,France, on

29 September 1944,remaining there until after V-E Day {62). Its three platoons were deployed as follows: The 1st to Chateauroux (40 kilometers east of

Gap) in support of the French Army; the 2d in support of the 513th Quarter- master Pack Company (Separate), moving to Ville, France, to Dossenheim,

Germany (early January 1945), to Hangerville, France (in mid-January 1945),

and also to Liestadt, Germany; and the 3d Platoon, after December 1944, at

Nice, where it supported the two field artillery battalions until their dismounting, and then the French 1stDIM Division. The 1st and 2d Platoons returned

601st Field Artillery Battalion

Average mean strength

Admissions:

For disease

For injury

Total

Number

385

20

*124

144

Treatment days 1,250

Average days per admission

Died or destroyed

Killed in action

Number admitted per 1,000 average animal strength per year:

For disease 83.1

For injury 514.3

Total 597.4

Number per 1,000 average animal strength per year died or destroyed

602d Field Artillery Battalion

23.4

Average mean strength

Admissions:

362

For disease 21

For injury 32

Total 53

Treatment days 597

Average days per admission 11

Died or destroyed 14

Killed in action

Number admitted per 1,000 average animal strength per year:

For disease 77.3

For injury 118.8

Total 196.1

Number per 1,000 average animal strength per year died or destroyed

Includes battle casualties.

32.5
592 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

to the parent headquarters at Gap, on 27 April and May 1945, and were relieved fromFrench Army control on 19May 1945; the 3d Platoon was reassigned

to Seventh U.S. Army control few days laterand rejoined the companyat Gap

on 31 May 1945. Until this late date, the 45th Veterinary Company (Separate)

received 285 animal patients 20 for treatment, of which number 31 died or were

destroyed and 57 were evacuated to the 17th Veterinary Evacuation Hospital

or to the 6835th Quartermaster Remount Depot for additional treatment; the

other 197 patients were returned to duty {52) Stable treatment days totaled

4,688.

The 17th Veterinary Evacuation Hospital operated under the operational

control of the French Army at Grenoble, France, for the period from 26

September 1944 to 30 April 1945, when it was moved into Germany as

Third U.S. Army unit. During its stay in France, the hospital received 400

animal patients, including 28 battle casualties, from French Army organizations and from evacuees from the 45th Veterinary Company (Separate) 21

hospital treatment days totaled 23,442 {63). After release from the French

Army control, the 45th Veterinary Company (Separate) and the 17th Veterinary Evacuation Hospital departed for Germany on 30 April and June

1945, respectively. 22

China-Burma-India Theater

The animal evacuation plans in the China-Burma-India theater began

inauspiciously during August 1942 when hospital operation was established

at the Ramgarh, India, training center. It had for its objective the care

and treatment of animals being issued to the Chinese 22d and 38th Divisions

which, having been driven out of Burma by the Japanese enemy, were being

Allied equipped and U.S. trained for new deployment. The sponsoring of

these Chinese units—sometimes referred to as the X-Force or the Chinese

Army in India—was diversion from the original Allied strategy which included assistance to the Chinese military forces in China. However, until

Burma was cleared of the Japanese and the overland route into China was

reopened, material assistance, except by aerial transport, was not generally

possible. Thus, in time, U.S. combat teams (that is, Merrill’s Marauders

and, later, the MARS Brigade) and the U.S.-trained Chinese military units

entered in campaigns against the Japanese in Burma. plan of animal

evacuation was operated for each. third plan came into existence in the

theater’s services of supply organization to support the remount service that

20 The sources of these 285 animal patients were as follows 37 from the French First Army,

from the French 27th Alpine Division, 104 from the French 1st DIM, 96 from the U.S. 513th

Quartermaster Pack Company, 35 from the U.S. 601st and 602d Field Artillery Battalions, and from

other sources.

21 Of the 400 animal patients, 350 originated from French Army sources. 22 The hospital unit moved to Geislingen (7 June 1945), Heidenheim (7 June to August 1945),

Rohrbach (8 August to 22 September 1945), and then to Kirchheim. During this time, no animal

patients were treated. The company unit proceeded to Augsburg (arriving on May 1945) and

then to Rosengarten and to Heidelberg.
EVACUATION AND HOSPITALIZATION 593

was started during November 1943 when the first of 30 incoming shipments

of approximately 10,000 U.S. Army mules and horses was disembarked at

Calcutta, India. These evacuation plans were actually begun during May

1943 with the arrival of the 1st Veterinary Company (Separate) from the

Zone of Interior; months later, the Veterinary Company, 13th Mountain

Medical Battalion, came into the China-Burma-India theater. After mid1944, new unit activations within the theater and additional arrivals saw the

Army Veterinary Service include as many as separate companies, veterinary company of mountain medical battalion, evacuation hospitals,

hospital detachment, and 24 animal service detachments (as of December

1944). In that month, the U.S. animal strength alone averaged 5,981 mules

and horses in the India-Burma theater. Of course, it must be understood that

the China-Burma-India theater was divided into two separate theaters during

October 1944, and number of the foregoing veterinary units had been transferred or moved into China by that time. In the China theater, the units

were attached and superimposed upon the Chinese armies in liaison capacity and as an exemplary chain of animal evacuation. The U.S. animal

strength in the India-Burma theater continued to increase, reaching peak

monthly mean of 7,531 mules and horses during February 1945, and of as

many as 1,730 mules and horses in the China theater during July 1945. At

no time were the true Chinese military animal strengths known.

The animal evacuation plan for the Chinese Army in India was dependent

almost entirely on the Chinese veterinary platoons included in the organic

composition of the field army and division. 23 These veterinary platoons were

comparable in their functional organization to the former U.S. “square” division’s veterinary company, included Chinese personnel trained by the Army

Veterinary Service, and in the subsequent Burma campaigns were technically

supervised by U.S. liaison veterinary officers (dj). The movement of disabled

animals rearward from the Chinese divisional army and veterinary platoons

was not impressed during the earlier training periods of the Chinese Army in

India because of the known reluctance of Chinese tactical commanders to move

any kind of animal outside of their immediate jurisdiction and the belief that

the Burma terrain (including jungles and mountains) would make impossible

the movement of evacuation and location of veterinary hospital sites. However, when these Chinese units entered Burma, U.S. veterinary units were

deployed to support the Chinese veterinary platoons, and an evacuation plan

was made operational through the assistance of the U.S. liaison teams with

the Chinese tactical divisions. Originally, the 1st Veterinary Company (Separate) of the theater’s services of supply organization was so deployed, but

during December 1943 it was replaced by the newly arrived Veterinary Company, 13th Mountain Medical Battalion (figs. 63 and 64). The latter moved

23 Each such platoon was authorized officers, warrant officer, and 24 enlisted personnel;

the animal strengths of the Chinese division approximated 1,600 and that of the army, 850 horses

and mules.
594 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

SC 1B,T—45—82105

Figure 63.—Ambulance loading point of the 2d Platoon, Company (Veterinary), 13th Mountain Medical Battalion, in March 1945, at Lashio, Burma. This

veterinary unit was providing rear echelon veterinary services to mounted units

of the Chinese 38th Division.

about in the theater’s Northern Combat Area Command in support of the

Chinese Army in India throughout the North and the Central Burma Campaigns, until its inactivation on June 1945.

Other units, including three separate veterinary companies and an evacuation hospital, were used in the animal evacuation plan of the Northern Com- bat Area Command during December 1944. However, by that time these

were more urgently needed elsewhere, and the needs of the Chinese Army in India were considerably lessened—a few of the Chinese divisions soon being

moved out of Burma into China. The veterinary units included major part

of the 7th Veterinary Company (Separate) which assisted in the aerial movement of some 5,000 Chinese military animals into China; its 3d Platoon element, however, was used in the Central Burma Campaign to support the

MARS Brigade. The other two companies, the 43d and the 44th—once removed from the schedule for redeployment into China because of Chinese

objections against Negro troops—were used in miscellany of service duties

and then were inactivated during June 1945. The hospital unit was the 19th

Veterinary Evacuation Hospital, but it was not operational until its equipment arrived when it was transferred to the China theater (February 1945).
EVACUATION AND HOSPITALIZATION 595

SC IBT—45-82104

Figure 64.—Animal ambulance of the 2d Platoon, Company (Veterinary), 13th

Mountain Medical Battalion.

There was no accurate accounting of the animal morbidity and mortality

in the Chinese Army in India. United States veterinary officers on liaison

duty with the Chinese armies and divisions frequently provided professional

assistance only where the disease and injury were of more serious nature.

The numbers of such cases and the numbers of Chinese animals admitted to

U.S. veterinary hospitals, however, totaled more than 20,000 (table 52).

Another plan of animal evacuation was operated for the U.S. tactical organizations that fought in Burma (&£). The first of two such organizations

was the GALAHAD Force or the 5307th Composite Regiment (Provisional),

or the more popularly known Merrill’s Marauders. It depended on the 31st

and the 33d Quartermaster Pack Troops to transport supplies, including artillery pieces which were airdropped after the regiment entered the Burma

jungles.21Beginning at the head of the Hukawng Valley (during February

1944) with 360 horses and 230 mules, the Merrill’s Marauders by August 1944

24 The 31st Quartermaster Pack Troop came into the theater from the Zone of Interior on

Jan. 1944, aboard the animal transport Samuel H. Walker which departed New Orleans Port of

Embarkation, 14 Oct. 1943, with 329 mules and 26 horses. The 33d Quartermaster Pack Troop came

into the theater during December 1943, but its animal transport, Jose Navarro, departing New

Orleans Port of Embarkation with 330 mules and 28 horses, was sunk en route (26 Dec. 1944).

Bach shipment was accompanied by transport veterinary detachment. For the campaign in North

Burma, the latter pack troop was remounted with horses newly arrived from New Caledonia.

590248 —61 40
596 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Table 52.—Sick and wounded animals of the Allied Chinese armies observed or treated, or

admitted for hospital treatment, by the Army Veterinary Service, China-Burma-India and

India-Burma theaters

lost 90 percent of these animals in the southward drive to Myitkyina, Burma.

The losses were as follows (65, 66 67)

Number

Died 160

Destroyed 45

Killed in action 220

Strayed 50

Transferred 70

Unknown 30

The battle casualties were suffered for the most part in battalion of the

Merrill’s Marauders that was surrounded for 14 days and subjected to enemy

mortar and artillery fire; injuries received in combat additionally resulted in 20 percent of the animals lost by death and 70 percent of those which were

destroyed. Exhaustion from overexertion accounted for 70 percent of the

deaths and 20 percent of the animals destroyed. Diseases, principally thrush

of the feet and some few cases of sand colic and plant poisoning, and injuries due to marching and saddle sores accounted for the remainder of the deaths

and destruction. The mules outperformed the horses during the campaign

and seemed to better tolerate the noise of gunfire and aerial bombardment. It

was believed that nonbattle diseases and injuries would have been lessened by

90 percent had the animals been acclimatized and conditioned before being

entered into campaign and had the combat troops been better trained in animal

care and management.

Cases

Admissions

Total Disease Injury

Observed or treated by U.S. veterinary liaison officers:

China-Burrna-India (16 May 1943 to 31 Oct. 1944)_

India-Burma (1 Nov. 1944to 30 Apr. 1945)

Admitted into U.S. veterinary hospitals:

China-Burma-India (16 May 1943 to 31 Oct. 1944)_

India-Burma (1 Nov. 1944to 30 Apr. 1945)

Total

9, 513

4, 791

3, 563

2, 213

4, 320

1, 731

2, 093

1, 482

5, 193

3, 060

1, 470

731

20, 080 9, 626 10, 454

Of the 5,776 cases admitted for hospital treatment, 576 animals died or were destroyed for disease and injury, including: Surra and surra suspect, 113; wounds,all varieties, 63; fistula, 48; laminitis, 27; under observation, 19; epizootic

lymphangitis, 18; fracture of bone, 18; equine infectious anemia, 17; malnutrition, 17; pneumonia, 16; quitter, 15; anemia,

13; intestinal fermentation, 13; cicatrix, 12; enteritis, 11; septicemia, 9; piroplasmosisequorum, 8; and each for fllariasis,

glanders, and strongylosis.

For the period from April through 31 July 1945 (noting the overlap of the month of April in the table), the cases

observed or treated in the India-Burma theater totaled 1,370 (723 for disease and 647 for injury), and the hospital cases

totaled 1,229 (516 for disease and 713 for injury). For the period from 16 May 1943 through 30 April 1944 alone, hospital

treatment days totaled 31,121.

Source: Mohri, R. W.; World W'ar II History ofthe Army Veterinary Service, China-Burma-India. [Officialrecord.]
EVACUATION AND HOSPITALIZATION 597

Following the capture of Myitkyina, the Merrill's Marauders were succeeded by the 5332d Brigade (Provisional), effective on 10 August 1944 68).

The latter, also called MARS Force, comprised the 4T5th Infantry Regiment,

124th Cavalry Regiment (Dismounted), and the Chinese 1st Infantry Regiment, as well as the 612th and 613th Field Artillery Battalions (Pack) {69, 70) 25 and six quartermaster pack troops, the 31st, 33d, 35th, 37th, 252d, and

253d. 2a Their animal strength aggregated 2,960 mules and 2,850 horses. For

this number of animals, brigade veterinary service was organized to include

brigade veterinarian, six veterinary sections, each with veterinary officer,

for the regiments to which the pack troops were attached, and the organic

veterinary detachments of the two field artillery battalions. 27 This was supported by the 18th Veterinary Evacuation Hospital (fig. 65) which established

station at Myitkyina on 26 September 1944, and by the 3d Platoon, 7th AVterinary Company (Separate) {71). Up to 27 December 1944, that hospital

received 350 cases of disease and injury, including great number of so-called

foot cases (infested, underrun soles); the latter disappeared, however, after the

end of the rainy season. Hospital collection and treatment stations were

set up after December 1944 at Nalong and Myothit, but the main body of the

hospital was located at Bhamo, Burma.

AYith the termination of Japanese resistance in central Burma, the 5332d

Brigade (Provisional) was disbanded. Its two field artillery battalions with

25 The 612th Field Artillery Battalion came into the theater from the Zone of Interior on three

animal transports, as follows: (1) on the Cyrus W. Fields, departing New Orleans Port of Embarkation, 22 July 1944, with 304 mules and horses, arriving at Calcutta, 23 Sept. 1944 (2) on the

Henry Dearborn, departing New Orleans Port of Embarkation, 16 July 1944, with 313 mules and

horses, arriving at Calcutta, 26 Sept. 1944 and (3) on the William S. Halstead, departing New

Orleans Port of Embarkation, 28 July 1944, with 314 mules and horses, arriving at Calcutta,

Oct. 1944. Veterinary transport services were rendered by the 52d and 53d, the 51st, and the

55th and the 56th Veterinary Animal Service Detachments, respectively. The 613th Field Artillery

Battalion, less its animals, arrived on 23 Nov. 1944. The two battalions were activated in the Zone

of Interior at Camp Gruber, Okla., during December 1943 to January 1944 just before their movement to Camp Carson, Colo., in February 1944, each was assigned battalion veterinary officer. 26 The 35th Quartermaster Pack Troop came into the theater, Sept. 1944, on the animal trans- port Charles Wooster which departed New Orleans Port of Embarkation, 29 June 1944, with 310 mules and horses, and was accompanied by the 54th Veterinary Animal Service Detachment. The

37th Quartermaster Pack Troop, departing on Aug. 1944, from the New Orleans Port of Em- barkation, arrived on 30 Sept. 1944, on the animal transport Joshua Hendy, with 311 mules and horses, and was accompanied by the 57th and 58th Veterinary Animal Service Detachments. The

252d Quartermaster Pack Troop came into the theater on 11 Oct. 1944, on the animal transport

Zone Gale, which departed New Orleans Pont of Embarkation on Aug. 1944, with 298 mules and

horses, and was accompanied by the 61st Veterinary Animal Service Detachment. Elements of

the last two troops also arrived in the theater on Oct. 1944, on the animal transport John J. Crittenden, which departed New Orleans Port of Embarkation on Aug. 1944, with 320 mules, and

was accompanied by the 59th and 60th Veterinary Animal Service Detachments. The 253d Quarter- master Pack Troop arrived on 19 Oct. 1944, on the animal transport Santiago Iglesias, accom- panied by the 62d Veterinary Animal Service Detachment; 141 mules were embarked on 16 Aug.

1944, at New Orleans Port of Embarkation and another mules and 161 horses were embarked on

11 Sept. 1944, at Noumea, New Caledonia (in the South Pacific Area). See also footnote 24, p. 595. 27 These officer personnel included Brigade Veterinarian, Lt. Col. F. M. Bolin 475th Infantry

Regiment, Capts. H. C. Phelps, P. E. Smith, and C. L. Nowlin 124th Cavalry Regiment, Capts. W. R. Fetzer, A. M. Pickard, and A. P. Wilson 612th Field Artillery Battalion, Capt. K. L. Etchinson

(evacuated on 28 Jan. 1945) and his replacement, Capt. J. E. Mouw; and 613th Field Artillery

Battalion, Capt. J. T. Martin.
598 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

SC IBT—45—81826

Figure 65.—Veterinary officers with the 18th Veterinary Evacuation Hospital. Left to right: Lt. Col. E. W. Young, Maj. Edward 0. Phipps, Capt. Charles

W. Tate, Capt. John H. Scruggs, Capt. Waldemar T. Berner, and Lt. Alton M.

Coddington.

900 animals departed for the China theater during the latter part of May

1944, followed during the next month by the 1,550 animals belonging to the

six quartermaster pack troops.

The support for the remount operations of the theater’s services of supply

began at Ramgarh when the Army Veterinary Service assisted the U.S.-trained

Chinese divisions in their lend-lease receipts of animals from the British and

Indian Armies (). Though veterinary hospital was in operation more or

less since August 1942, this Ramgarh facility was given formal recognition

when detachment of the 1st Veterinary Company (Separate) was detailed

there on 27 July 1943. After November 1943, when the first of 10,000 U.S.

military animals came into the China-Burma-India theater and the Chinese

forces were moved into northeastern India, the center of remount activities was

moved northward into the Assam and Burma areas. There the remount depot

at Ledo was being serviced by the 1st Veterinary Company (Separate), less its

detachment at Ramgarh. Another detachment of the same company unit established hospital services for new remount depot at Shillong, Assam, during

October 1944, in which area the 1st Veterinary Company (Separate) was fully
EVACUATION AND HOSPITALIZATION 599

re-formed during December 1944. In the interim, the hospital operations by the company at Eamgarh were taken over (on July 1944) by three locally

activated animal service detachments—the 39th, 40th, and 41st—but, in December 1944, these, too, were moved to Shillong, and the original hospital was

closed. The veterinary service at the Ledo remount depot was continued by

the 2d Veterinary Company (Separate) and the 51st and 52d Veterinary Animal Service Detachments in December 1944, these units arriving from the Zone of Interior at about this time and replacing the 1st Veterinary Company (Separate) which had transferred toShillong.

Aside from these remount depot hospitals, the Army Veterinary Service

established one in Calcutta, where the incoming animals were disembarked.

The port hospital facility was operated by the 78th Veterinary Hospital Detachment, beginning in October 1944; before that time, animals coming off the

transports and found disabled or too sick for immediate movement northward

to Assam and Burma were cared for by the Indian Army’s 41st Veterinary

Hospital.

China Theater

The veterinary evacuation plan for the Chinese Army in China was one

of superimposing U.S. units, in addition to the attachment of liaison veterinary officers, on the Chinese tactical armies and divisions (72). The plan was

at variance with that used earlier in India to the extent that 19 veterinary animal service detachments were brought into the China theater for attachment

to the Chinese armies and divisions, but the rear echelon support of these with

U.S. veterinary hospitals and evacuation units was not fully developed. In

the beginning, there was program of sponsoring so-called Y-Force of 27

Chinese divisions; another program was scheduled later for Z-Force of additional Chinese divisions in eastern China. However, the southerly advances

by the Japanese enemy toward the American airbases disrupted the schedules

of preparing the Chinese forces which were necessarily entered into combat

when the needs arose. Until this occurred, however, the Chinese units were

reorganized and equipped and trained as much as was possible after the pattern of the U.S. Army. Such training was given to more than 300 Chinese

Army veterinary officers and to 1,600 enlisted technicians, horseshoers, and

stable sergeants of the Chinese military forces (fig. 66), The U.S.-sponsored

Chinese army and division were reorganized to include veterinary detachment, comprising officers and 24 enlisted men, which was designed to collect

and treat disabled animals within the relevant army or division. This detachment was complete entity in itself, uncoordinated with any other veterinary

detachment in the Chinese field forces, and was not expected to participate in

any sort of an evacuation plan because the Chinese tactical commanders, uncertain of the supply of replacement animals, would use the animals in spite

of their inefficiency, or until they died. This frontline Chinese military veterinary service organization was further hampered by the fact that some
600 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Figure G6.—U.S. Army veterinary personnel training Chinese military personnel by

on-the-job training in better animal care and management, including horseshoeing.

Chinese armies and divisions had no veterinary detachment or one which had

only 40 percent of the number of personnel normally authorized.

In orderto improve the Chinese unit veterinary service, the China-BurmaIndia theater, in May 1943, planned for the deployment of at least 30 U.S.

veterinary detachments with the Chinese forces {64). An unaccountable delay

was experienced in the execution of the plan. During July 1944, the War

Department approved and ordered the theater to organize 12 veterinary animal service detachments from local resources and began the transshipment of

another 12 detachments from the Zone of Interior, the latter arriving during

September and October 1944. Of the 12 locally activated detachments (the

39th through the 50th Veterinary Animal Service Detachments), were retained in the India-Burma area, and the 42d through the 50th were moved to

the China theater. There, as new elements of that theater’s Y-Force Operations Staff, they were immediately attached to artillery regiments, transportation regiments, and the U.S. liaison teams with the Chinese forces participating in the Salween campaign, which led to the opening of the China side of

the Burma Hoad {73 through 81). Of the 12 veterinary animal service detachments received from the Zone of Interior, were retained in India and

Burma (the 51st and 52d Veterinary Animal Service Detachments), and the
EVACUATION AND HOSPITALIZATION 601

53d through the 62d Veterinary Animal Service Detachments were deployed to the China theater. The latter, after period of indoctrination and orientation at the Yunnan Field Artillery Training Center, China, were subsequently attached to the U.S.-sponsored Chinese field armies {82 through 91). By the

end of January 1945, nearly all animal service detachments were attached to Chinese army (table 53) few were deployed in the U.S. services of supply centers of veterinary training and remount activities in China. Later, however, with the increased enemy activity against U.S. airbases, all detachments were attached to the Chinese armies and were moved into eastern and

then into southern China. In the period from February through August

1945, these detachments and the U.S. veterinary officers with the liaison teams

on duty with the Chinese military forces registered 11,105 cases of disease and

injury among the animals of the Chinese forces that averaged monthly

strength of more than 21,000 (table 54). During the times that the relevant

Chinese units were relatively inactive, the veterinary animal service detachments assisted in programs of training Chinese personnel in veterinary medicine, horseshoeing, and the packing of animals.

During the spring of 1945, the original veterinary planning was extended 28 to superimpose additional units on the Chinese military forces {72).

Large units, surplus to the needs of the India-Burma theater, were to be

brought into China, and complete U.S. animal evacuation plan was to be

established. In fact, the 19th Veterinary Evacuation Hospital and the 7th

Veterinary Company (Separate), less its 3d Platoon, had been transferred into

China during February and March 1945. Other units were scheduled for

movement into China but did not arrive because of more urgent needs at the

time for services of supply food inspection detachments and the swift series of

events which led to V-J Day, Neither the hospital nor company was used in

any evacuation plan on arrival in China; instead, they were used to operate

stations along the westward route of the mounted Chinese military forces moving to halt the Japanese advances on Chih-chiang and to open the subsequent

offensives in and about Liu-chou {92).

In addition to the support of the Chinese military forces, the Army Veterinary Service also cared for U.S.-owned animals which were procured locally

or brought into the China theater for transfer to the Chinese {93). The latter

included approximately 1,500 mules and horses belonging to the two field

artillery battalions and six quartermaster pack troops of the MARS Brigade,

which was being disbanded following the completion of the Central Burma

Campaign, Until these animals began to arrive from the India-Burma theater

after traversing the Burma and Stilwell Roads, the China theater’s animal

strength had gradually increased from monthly mean in January 1945 of 96

horses and mules to 379 horses and mules by May 1945. These were used in

the mounting of the liaison teams and the veterinary units with the Chinese

28Plans were prepared to deploy veterinary companies (separate) and 56 veterinary animal

service detachments—the latter for each of the 14 Chinese armies and 42 Chinese divisions.
602 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Table

53.

—Deployment

of

veterinary animal service detachments with

the

Allied

Chinese

military

forces

in

the

China

theater

Veterinary

Animal

Service Detachment

anuary 1945

May

1945

Chinese unit

Area

command

Chinese

unit

Area

command

42d

Fifth

Army.

Reserve.

Fifty-fourth Army

No

change.

43d

(Detached service)

(India-Burma

Theater,

Services

of

Seventy-first

Army

Central.

Supply).

44th

Second

Army__

Western

No

change

No

change.

45th

(Detached service)

(India-Burma Theater,

Services

of

_do

Do.

Supply).

46th

Fifth

Army.

Western

Eighth

Army

Reserve.

47th

Seventy-first

Army

do

No

change

Central.

48th

Eighth

Army

Reserve

do

No

change.

49th

Fifty-third Army

Western

do

Do.

50th

Headquarters area command

Southern

Eighteenth Army

Eastern.

53d

7th

Artillery

Regiment

Reserve

No

change

Central.

54th

Headquarters area command

Southern

do

No

change.

55th

(Detached service) ...

(Chinese

Training

Center)

Fifth

Army

Reserve.

56th

Sixth

Army.

Reserve

New

Sixth

Army

Eastern.

57th

Fifty-seventh Army

do

Ninety-fourth

Army

Central.

58th

Thirteenth

Army

Central

No

change

No

change.

59

th

Yiinnan-Kwei-lin Pacification AdReserve

Seventy-fourth

Army..

Eastern.

ministration.

60th

Second

Route

Army

Southern.

No

change

No

change.

61st

Sixth

Army.

Reserve

New

Sixth

Army

Eastern.

62d

(Detached service)

(India-Burma Theater,

Services

of

Seventy-third Army

Eastern.

Supply).

In

the

fall

of

1944,

the

42d

through

the

50th

Veterinary

Animal

Service Detachments saw service

with

the

Chinese

Second,

Fifth,

Sixth,

Eighth,

Fifty-third,

Fifty-fourth, and

Seventy-first Armies

along

the

Burma-China border.

Additional

changes

in

the

period

from

June

through

August 1945 included

only

the

49th

Veterinary

Animal

Service Detachment

with

the

Chinese

Fifty-third Army,

being

attached

to

the

Reserve Command,

and

the

54th

Veterinary

Animal

Seruice

Detachment, being

attached to

the

Chinese

Fifty-second Army,

Southern

Command.
EVACUATION AND HOSPITALIZATION 603

Table 54.—Sick and wounded animals of the Allied Chinese Army in China, treated by the

U.S. Army Veterinary Service, China theater, February—August 1945

armies and divisions. With the arrival of animals of the field artillery battalions and quartermaster pack troops belonging to the former MARS Brigade, this strength increased to peak of 1,740 mules and horses for July

1945. By the end of September 1945, all animals were transferred to the

Chinese Army.

Central Pacific Area

Evacuation plans comparable to those operated in the Mediterranean, European, and China-Burma-India theaters were developed in the several areas

of the Pacific theater where the animal strengths aggregated peak of 8,900

horses and mules. These animals belonged to cavalry regiment, cavalry

quartermaster troop, field artillery battalions, quartermaster pack troops, and

remount troops, each including an organic veterinary detachment or serviced

by small veterinary unit. The veterinary units in few areas were supported by veterinary hospital. However, the original strategic or tactical

planning which led to the assemblage of this number of animals and this

staging of veterinary units was changed so that most were not actively deployed into any real campaign.

The carrier-based aerial attack on Pearl Harbor (on December 1941)

found most of the 350 animals in the Hawaiian Department assigned to the

Hawaiian Department Pack Train (94-). This organization, with station at

Schofield Barracks, Oahu, T.H., was divided into small reconnaissance patrols

and pack detachments which were used to improve the trails, lay signal communications, and transport supplies to mountain observation posts; their required professional services were rendered by the department’s veterinary staDate Mean Admissions Died or de- strength Total Disease Injury stroyed

1945 February _____ 16, 031 646 320 326 21

March 21, 344 566 348 218 112

April 21, 344 1, 106 388 718 49

May 21, 426 2, 755 1, 045 1, 710 73

June 22, 346 1, 965 651 1, 314 80

July 22, 346 2, 680 746 1, 934 186

August 22, 346 1, 387 605 782 209

The strengths are approximated from those obtained from the Chinese military forces.

The specific causes of the loss of 730 animals included the following diseases and injuries: Glanders and glanders

suspects, 296; surra, 76; malnutrition, 46; encephalitis andencephalomyelitis, 33; fractureof bone, 33; anthrax, 32; strangles,

16; exhaustion from overexertion, 15; intestinal fermentation, 14; pneumonia, 13; paralysis and paresis, 11; epizootic lymphangitis, 11; and ulcerative lymphangitis, 11.
604 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

tion hospital {95). small group of animals was stationed at Fort Shafter,

Oahu, and were serviced by the department’s veterinary general hospital which

was moved to Fort Armstrong and then was replaced during March 1945 by

the newly activated 113th Medical Service Company (Veterinary).

On 30 June 1944, the Hawaiian Department Pack Train was disbanded,

and the 4339th and 4340th Quartermaster Pack Troops were activated at Schofield Barracks. third pack troop—the 30th—and the 63d, 64th, and 65th

Veterinary Animal Service Detachments, one for each pack troop, arrived on

December 1944, from the Zone of Interior. At this late date, 916 mules and

horses also arrived from the Zone of Interior 29 and were added to the original

group of pack train animals to mount the three pack troops. These units

were being staged for Operation LONGTOM (an amphibious assault and

landing on the southeastern coast of China) which was canceled at later

date; on 15 September 1945, the three pack troops were inactivated. During

the 9-month period, the attached veterinary detachments treated 456 cases of

disease and injury among the pack troop animals and could refer those of

more serious nature to the veterinary station hospital {96. 97 98).

Before the end of the war, the Central Pacific Area’s animal evacuation

plan for the pack troops was furthered with the activation (on August 1945)

of the 38th Headquarters, Veterinary Animal Service. This unit established

administrative control over the 63d, 64th, and 65th Veterinary Animal Service

Detachments. The four units were assigned to the theater’s Combat Training

Command on Oahu. Another unit, the 306th Veterinary Hospital Detachment, arrived from the Zone of Interior during June 1945. However, on account of its late arrival (after the discontinuance of Operation LONGTOM

planning), this hospital team was attached to the Veterinary Station Hospital,

Schofield Barracks, for training, and then was scheduled for deployment to

Okinawa when the Japanese surrendered.

With the inactivation of the quartermaster pack troops after V-J Day, the

animals were placed on caretaking basis in the quartermaster service units on

Oahu—a few being sold locally, and the remaining 900 being held for UNBRA

(United Nations Belief and Kehabilitation Administration). The three veterinary detachments formerly with the pack troops were kept intact at this

time in connection with plans for them to accompany the shipment of the

UNBBA animals to China. 30

However, before the end of 1945, both the 38th

Headquarters, Veterinary Animal Service, and the 306th Veterinary Hospital

Detachment were inactivated.

29 These animals arrived in two shipments originating from the San Francisco Port of Em- barkation The F. J. Luckenbach, departing on 13 November 1944, with 587 mules and 13 horses,

and the William J. Palmer, departing on 20 November 1944, with 316 mules. Mention may be made

that another shipment, originating from the same port, had provided 30 mules to the former

Hawaiian Department Pack Train during January 1943. 30 The 63d, 64th, and 65th Veterinary Animal Service Detachments were inactivated on 14 May

1946. In the preceding month, 792 mules were shipped as planned.
EVACUATION AND HOSPITALIZATION 605

South Pacific Area

On New Caledonia, where approximately 2,800 horses and mules were assembled by late 1942, no animal evacuation plan or hospital was established

(94-)- Instead, the veterinary animal service was limited almost entirely to

the level of battalion or regiment, beginning soon after the American First

Task Force (later becoming the Americal Division) landed at Noumea. On

April 1942, the 97th Field Artillery Battalion (less its animals) arrived from

the Zone of Interior and was partially mounted with few animals obtained

locally and 490 horses which arrived from Australia in two shipments, on 25

May and 24 June 1942. The battalion’s horses were replaced by mules arriving from the Zone of Interior and the Panama Canal Department on and after

July 1942. On this date, remount unit—Troop A, 252d Quartermaster Remount Squadron, redesignated in January 1943 as Troop B, 251st Quarter- master Remount Squadron—arrived from the Zone of Interior and established

depot on the Ducos Peninsula; it processed all subsequent animal shipping

on New Caledonia. Altogether, 781 mules were received, and 2,048 horses arrived from Australia (in the Southwest Pacific Area).

The second of two mounted units, the 112thCavalry Regiment, arrived 11

August 1942, and was provided with approximately 1,500 animals from the

remount depot. While on New Caledonia this regiment, along with the 97th

Field Artillery Battalion, and each with its own organic veterinary detachments, was part of the Americal Division. However, with the transfer of

that division to Guadalcanal during November 1942, the two tactical units

were subordinated into the so-called First Island Command, South Pacific

Area. Up through December 1942, that command’s battalion and regimental

veterinary detachments treated more than 1,400 cases of disease and injury in

the animals of their units (table 55) (99).

After January 1943, the number of animals on New Caledonia decreased.

The 97th Field Artillery Battalion, with its animals, was transferred to Guadalcanal. The 112th Cavalry Regiment was dismounted during May 1943 and

then was transferred to the Southwest Pacific Area; until this time the regimental animal disabilities had totaled 717 cases (table 55) (100). However, the regimental animals were turned in to the remount depot on New Caledonia, from which they were transshipped to the China-Burma-India theater over

1-year period starting in September 1943. In these remount operations, the

112th Cavalry Regiment’s veterinary detachment assisted in the operation of

the depot’s veterinary dispensary. Having been detached from its parent unit

since May 1943, the detachment finally departed from New Caledonia during

November 1944. At this time, only few animals remained on New Caledonia,

and these were used for administrative purposes, there being only two horses

as of June 1945.

The 97th Field Artillery Battalion, with its 947 mules and horses, was

moved from New Caledonia to Guadalcanal in three shipments during the
606 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Table

55.

—Sick

and

wounded

animals of

tactical

units

South

Pacific Area

Unit

Period

Average mean strength

Admissions

Died

or

destroyed

Treatment days

(in

stables)

Total

Disease

Injury

Americal

Division and

First

Island

Command. 112th

Cavalry

Regiment__ 97th

Field

Artillery

Battalion

May-December 1942

January-May 1943

__ January

1943-May 1944

1,

631 1,

334 746

1,

439 717 920

201 447

516 473

114 45 124

22,

033 19,074 23,012

The

specific causes of

the

loss

of

45

animals

included

the

following

diseases and

injuries:

Fractures, 12;

and

wounds, 12.

he

S4>eclflc

lse

of

the

loss

of

124

animal

included

the

following

diseases and

injuries:

Cachexia

and

malnutrition, 14;

separation

of

the

sole

of

the

foot,

14;

ossification

of

the

lateral

cartilages

of

the

foot,

12;

fractures,

10;

and

heat

exhaustion, 8.
EVACUATION AND HOSPITALIZATION 607

early months of 1943. It was briefly employed in that campaign. 31 Then, for

more than year, the animals were kept on caretaking basis, during which time (January 1943 through May 1944) the number of cases of sick and

injured animals totaled 921; the number of animals dying or destroyed on account of disease and injury was 124 (table 55). During March 1944, when

preparations were started for transshipment out of the South Pacific Area to

the China-Burma-India theater, survey of the animals for combat serviceability led to the finding of 83 mules and horses as unsuitable; these were destroyed and another four were transferred to the Guadalcanal Service Command. Then, in two shipments, one on 25 March 1944, and the other on May

1944, the 97th Field Artillery Battalion’s animals, totaling 763, were transshipped from Guadalcanal. 32

Southwest Pacific Area

At the time of the attack by Japan, the Philippine Department’s animal

strength approximated 1,550 horses and mules {101). For the most part,

these were located at Forts William McKinley and Stotsenberg, each with

station veterinary hospital, or belonged to four tactical units: The 26th Cavalry Regiment, the 23d Field Artillery Battalion (Battery A) (Philippine

Scouts), and the 65th and 66th Separate Quartermaster Pack Troops (Philippine Scouts), each with veterinary detachment. During December 1941, the

Army Veterinary Service in the Philippine Islands treated 297 disabled

animals, including 35 battle casualties, of which number 50 died or were

destroyed. Another 419 animals were lost by release from corrals or killed

in action. During the next month the tactical unit animal strengths approximated 850 animals. During March 1942, the surviving animals which were

not in the best condition were being slaughtered to provide food to the troops

defending Bataan and Corregidor {102, 103 104).

Following the surrender of the Philippines, the tactical planning in late

1942 for the newly established Southwest Pacific Area included the mounting

of seven field artillery battalions and the activation of nine quartermaster

pack companies (troops). Animal requirements were estimated at 10,792 mules and 7,541 horses {105). It was believed that each battalion and troop

should be provided with small veterinary detachment or section, and the

latter, in turn, was to be augmented by three veterinary evacuation hospitals.

This planning was changed and finally discontinued during late 1943. During

July 1943, the 1st Cavalry Division (less its animals), with complete divi31 The first shipment, including 222 mules and 78 horses, departed on 16 January 1943, from

New Caledonia; the second shipment, comprising 257 mules and 63 horses, was en route, 4-11 March

1943; and the third shipment, comprising 274 mules and 53 horses, was en route, 6-12 April 1943.

32 The 25 March 1944 shipment, comprising 570 mules and 30 horses, was made on the animal

transport, Virginian, accompanied by 1st Lt. E. W. George, VC. The May 1944 shipment of 61

mules and 102 horses was made on the Peter Silvester, accompanied by 1st Lt. H. L. Marsh, VC.

(The latter shipment included an additional 152 animals loaded, on 11 May 1944, at New Caledonia.)

The transports arrived at Calcutta, India, during May and June 1944, respectively.
608 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

sional veterinary service, came into the theater from the Zone of Interior,33

but it received only 20 animals which were retained for few months (J06).

Before this tactical planning came to stop, approximately 3,500 horses were

procured in Australia by April-May 1943 and were assembled at Townsville

by Troop A, 251st Quartermaster Remount Squadron, and another 1,521 mules

were received from the Zone of Interior and were diverted to New Guinea

when the Australian governmental health officials refused to permit their

landing on Australia. The horses were issued to field artillery battalion

and four quartermaster pack troops in Australia, and, on New Guinea, the

mules were issued to another field artillery battalion and quartermaster

troop.

Against the originally planned requirements, 16 veterinary sections or

detachments arrived in Australia during March and September 1943; however, only few were actually deployed in animal service activities. The latter

included Veterinary Sections D, E, F, G, H, and which were used in the

operations of the veterinary dispensary of Troop A, 251st Quartermaster Remount Squadron, at Townsville, or were attached to newly activated or

converted mounted tactical units. The units receiving horses from the remount

depot were the 62d and 63d Quartermaster Pack Troops and the 167th

Field Artillery Pack Battalion, first during February 1943, and then, during

April 1943, the 61st and the 68th Quartermaster Pack Troops. 34 The veterinary requirements of these five units were met by the dispensary of the

remount depot or by the units’ own veterinary detachments—the latter

treating more than 800 sick and wounded animals (table 56) {107, 108 109

110). The situation did not last for any great length of time because, beginning on 24 September 1943, the pack troops were dismounted and their animals were returned to the remount depot, and the field artillery battalion

was finally dismounted on 11 November 1943. Within short time after this,

the depot was discontinued and the animals were transferred to the Australian Army; subsequently, many were transshipped to the China-Burma-India

theater. The veterinary sections, including those which arrived during September 1943 and were deployed from the onset in veterinary food inspection

and medical supply operations (that is, Veterinary Sections K, L, M, N, O, P,

Q, R, S, and Z), were disbanded on October 1944, and their personnel were

reassigned into several newly activated food inspection detachments.

The 1,521 mules on New Guinea were received in three shipments from

the Zone of Interior—those of the 98th Field Artillery Battalion arriving on

23 February and June 1943,35 and the 323 mules of Troop D, 16th Cavalry

33 The 1st Cavalry Division was continued in active service in dismounted status throughout

World War II. 34The 61st and 68th Quartermaster Pack Troops came into the theater from the Panama Canal

Department and the Zone of Interior, respectively.

35 The 23 February 1943 shipment of the 98th Field Artillery Battalion departed on 14 January

1943, from the San Francisco Port of Embarkation, with 600 mules on the Virginian animals

died en route (heat exhaustion). The June 1943 shipment also originated from the San Francisco Port of Embarkation.
EVACUATION AND HOSPITALIZATION 609

Table

5G.

—Sick

and

wounded

animals

of

the

61st,

63d,

and

68th

Quartermaster

Pack

Troops

and

the

98th

and

167th Field

Artillery

Battalions

Unit

and

location

Period

Average mean

Admissions

Died

or

Treatmentdays

(in

strength

Total

Disease

Injury

destroyed

stables)

Australia:

1,

088

61st

Quartermaster

Pack

TroopJune-September 1943

170

71

12

59

12

63d

Quartermaster Pack

Troop

August-September 1943_-

241

54

48

793

68th

Quartermaster Pack

Troop

May-September 1943

291

146

54

92

15

2,

404

167th FA

Battalion

New

Guinea:

February-November 1943-.

398

570

161

409

26

8,

210

98th

FA

Battalion

February1943-11 March

1944.

683

129

52

77

17

1,

966

The

data

for

the

62d

Quartermaster Pack

Troop

are

not

shown

because

they

were

integrated

into

the

reports of

sick

and

wounded animals

of

the

veterinary

dispensary, Troop

251st

Quartermaster Remount Squadron,

as

were the

earlier

data

of

the

other

units

in

Australia.

Likewise, the

May

1943 data

for

the

61st

Quartermaster Pack

Troop

are

not

shown

because

they

were

integrated

in

the

report

of

disabled animals

of

the

68th

Quartermaster Pack

Troop.

The

specific

causes of

the

loss

of

57

animals in

Australia

included

the

following diseases and

injuries: Fractures of

bone,

8;

laminitis,

8;

pneumonia,

8;

disease

of

bone,

4;

exhaustion,

4;

emphysema,

3;

hemorrhage,

2;

and

injury,

2.

The

specific

causes of

the

loss

of

17

animals on

New

Guinea

included

the

following

diseases and

injuries:

Wounds,

6;

fractures

of

bone,

2;

hemorrhage,

2;

and

each

on

account

of

bradycardia, drowning,

heat

exhaustion,

septicemia,

strangles,

sunstroke,

and

tumor.
610 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Quartermaster Squadron (Horse) being disembarked on 23 July 1943 111).36

Both units contained their own veterinary detachments, and that of the

squadron also, for brief period of time, provided professional services to

the remount depot facility which was organized at Port Moresby in mid-1943

by the Advanced Echelon of the parent Troop A, 251st Quartermaster Remount Squadron, in Australia. The battalion and troop veterinary detachments were supported by the 16th Veterinary Evacuation Hospital which

had arrived and established station on this island base on 17 February 1943

(112). 37 Until Troop D, 16th Cavalry Quartermaster Squadron (Horse)

was dismounted (20 October 1943), its veterinary detachment reported on 116

disabled animals, including dying or destroyed; most of these were sent to

the evacuation hospital for treatment. During year’s period of general

inactivity, the animal disabilities of the 98th Field Artillery Battalion totaled

129, including 17 animals dying or destroyed on account of disease (table 56).

Of this number, 25 to 30 percent were sent to the 16th Veterinary Evacuation

Hospital for additional treatment. The 98th Field Artillery Battalion during

this period was reorganized at least twice, with cutbacks in its animal

strength, and finally was dismounted on 11 March 1944.

With the dismounting of both the squadron and battalion units, the

mules on New Guinea were placed in caretaking status at the remount

depot. After October 1943, the professional services of the depot were provided by the 16th Veterinary Evacuation Hospital. That hospital, in the

period from August 1943 through October 1944, received more than 1,100

animals for treatment, most of these originating from the remount depot.

The latter date marked the closure of the 16th Veterinary Evacuation Hospital on New Guinea and the start of preparations by it to move into the

Philippine Islands where it was entered into the theater’s food inspection

service. By the time of the movement, most of the mules on New Guinea were

transshipped to the China-Burma-India theater.

References

1. SGO Forms 215 and 215a, Veterinary Division, SGO, 1941^15.

2. Merillat, L. A., and Campbell, D. M.: Veterinary Military History of the United

States. Chicago Veterinary Magazine Corp., 1933.

3. Annual Report of The Surgeon General, United States Army. Washington: U.S.

Government Printing Office, 1940.

4. Annual Report of The Surgeon General, United States Army. Washington: U.S.

Government Printing Office, 1941.

5. Annual reports, Veterinary Division, SGO, 1942-46.

6. AR 40-2065, 31 Oct. 1921.

7. AR 40-2065, 18 Dec. 1942.

36 The troop departed on 18 June 1943, from the San Francisco Port of Embarkation, with

these mules on the Peter Silvester. The unit arrived in Australia on 14 July 1943, departing 19 July

for New Guinea.

37 The hospital unit arrived on 31 January 1943 in Brisbane, Australia, setting up camp at Camp Carina; it departed on 10 February 1943 on the S.S. Bushnell and arrived on 17 February

1943 at Port Moresby, New Guinea.
EVACUATION AND HOSPITALIZATION 611

8. Report, Maj. C. S. Greer, VC, 27 Dec. 1940, subject: General Considerations in

the Recommendations for Construction of Veterinary Hospital Facilities.

9. Letters, Maj. C. S. Greer, VC, Veterinary Division, SGO, to corps area and station

veterinarians, 26 May and 26 June 1941.

10. AR 40-585, 16 July 1931.

11. Letter, Lt. Col. S. C. Dildine, VC, Ft. Lewis, Wash., to Col. R. J. Foster, VC,

9th CA, Presidio of San Francisco, Calif., July 1941.

12. Letter, Maj. E. L. Watson, VC, Indiantown Gap Military Reservation, Pa., to

Maj. C. S. Greer, VC, Veterinary Division, SGO, 26 July 1941, and letter of reply, Aug.

1941.

13. Letter, Maj. E. L. Watson, VC, Indiantown Gap Military Reservation, Pa., to

The Surgeon General, 15 Sept. 1941, subject: Report of Inspection of Veterinary Hospital Construction.

14. Letter, Col. I. O. Gladish, VC, Fort Sill, Okla., to Maj. C. S. Greer, VC, Veterinary

Division, SGO, Aug. 1941.

15. Letter, Col. A. C. Wight, VC, Fort Ord, Calif., to Maj. C. S. Greer, VC, Veterinary

Division, SGO, Aug. 1941, and letter of reply, 11 Aug. 1941.

16. Letter, Lt. Col. H. E. Hess, VC, Fort Devens, Mass., to Col. J. F. Crosby, VC,

Veterinary Division, SGO, 11 Oct. 1941.

17. Letter, Lt. Col. H. E. Hess, VC, Fort Devens, Mass., to Maj. C. S. Greer, VC,

Veterinary Division, SGO, 24 Nov. 1941, and letter of reply, 28 Nov. 1941.

18. AR 40-2035, 13 Apr. 1922.

19. AR 40-2035, 18 Dec. 1942.

20. Koon, G. H.: Organization and Functions of the Veterinary Service of the

Medical Department in Campaign. Army Vet. Bull. 13: 39-108, February 1924.

21. Letter, Adjutant General’s Office to Commanding General, General Headquarters,

commanders of armies, corps areas, and chiefs of arms and services, 14 Aug. 1940, subject Cavalry Requirements.

22. Memorandum, Col. R. A. Kelser, VC, Veterinary Division, SGO, for Planning and

Training Division, SGO, 28 Feb. 1941.

23. Memorandum, Lt. Col. J. F. Crosby, VC, Veterinary Division, SGO, for Planning

and Training Division, SGO, Sept. 1941.

24. Memorandum, G-3, War Department, for The Surgeon General, 23 Nov. 1940.

25. T/O 8-211, 16 Jan. 1939.

26. T/O 8-235, Nov. 1940.

27. T/O 8-99, May 1939.

28. T/O 8-99, Nov. 1940.

29. T/O 8-99, Apr. 1942.

30. T/O 8-99, May 1943.

31. T/O&E 8-99, 25 Nov. 1944.

32. T/O 8-780, Apr. 1942.

33. T/O&E 8-780, 19 May 1945.

34. T/O 8-89, Mar. 1939.

35. T/O 8-89, Nov. 1940.

36. T/O 8-89, Apr. 1942.

37. T/O&E 8-89, 30 Sept. 1942.

38. T/O 8-237, Nov. 1940.

39. T/O 8-790, 20 July 1942.

40. T/O&E 8-790, 30 Aug. 1943.

41. T/O 8-509, Nov. 1940.

42. T/O 8-750, Apr. 1942.

43. T/O&E 8-750, 14 May 1943.

44. T/O 8-560, Nov. 1940.
612 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

45. T/0 8-760, 20 July 1942.

40. WD Circular 142, 14 May 1945, see. IV.

47. T/O 8-139, Apr. 1942.

48. T/O&E 8-139, Nov. 1944.

49. Reports of Sick and Wounded Animals, 3d Infantry Division, May through August, and October 1943.

50. Reports of Sick and Wounded Animals, U.S. Units, Fifth U.S. Army, December

1943 through July 1944.

51. Reports of Sick and Wounded Animals, Consolidated Allied Units, Fifth U.S.

Army, February 1944 through June 1945.

52. History of the Veterinary Service in the North African and Mediterranean

Theaters of Operations. [Official record.]

53. Reports of Sick and Wounded Animals, 36th Veterinary Company (Separate),

May through July 1945.

54. Reports of Sick and Wounded Animals, 10th Mountain Division, April through

16 July 1945.

55. Reports of Sick and Wounded Animals, Italian 213th Veterinary General Hospital, July through September 1944.

56. Reports of Sick and Wounded Animals, Italian Veterinary General Hospital,

October 1944 through March 1945.

57. Reports of Sick and Wounded Animals, Italian 1st Veterinary General Hospital,

April through 20 July 1945.

58. Reports of Sick and Wounded Animals, 2604th Veterinary Station Hospital (Overhead), May 1945.

59. Reports of Sick and Wounded Animals, 2605th Veterinary General Hospital

(Overhead), April through July 1945.

60. Reports of Sick and Wounded Animals, 601st Field Artillery Battalion, August

1944 through 16 Mar. 1945.

61. Reports of Sick and Wounded Animals, 602d Field Artillery Battalion, July 1944

through 17 Mar. 1945.

62. Reports of Sick and Wounded Animals, 45th Veterinary Company (Separate),

August 1944 through December 1945.

63. Reports of Sick and Wounded Animals, 17th Veterinary Evacuation Hospital,

August 1944 through May 1945, Septemberthrough November 1945.

64. Mohri, R. W.: World War II History of the Army Veterinary Service, ChinaBurma-lndia. [Official record.]

65. Still, D. E.: report of the 5307th Comp. Regiment (Provisional), January

to 27 July 1944, prepared on request of 2d indorsement, Surg Off, HQ USAF, CBI, by

Lt. Col. R. W. Mohri, to Veterinarian, 5307th Composite Squadron. 18 July 1944.

66. Letter, Capt. W. T. Bell, VC, Unit Veterinarian, to Theater Veterinarian, CBI,

26 June 1944, subject: Veterinary Reports for Provisional Unit 5307.

67. Letter, Capt. P. W. Smith, VC, 475th Infantry Regiment, to Lt. Col. R. W. Mohri,

VC, HQ CBI, 22 Aug. 1944.

68. Veterinary Medical History, Headquarters, 5332d Brigade (Provisional), APO 213.

[Official record.]

69. Reports of Sick and Wounded Animals, 612th Field Artillery Battalion, February

through May 1944.

70. Reports of Sick and Wounded Animals, 013th Field Artillery Battalion, February

through May 1944.

71. Young, E. W.; History of the 18th Veterinary Evacuation Hospital. [Official

record.]

72. The Veterinary History of the China Theater, 1945. [Official record.]
EVACUATION AND HOSPITALIZATION

73. Kelber, W. J.: World War II History of the 42d Veterinary Animal Service

Detachment. [Official record.]

74. Gemberling, A. R.: World War II History of the 43d Veterinary Animal Service

Detachment. [Official record.]

75. Snyder, L. D.: World War II History of the 44th Veterinary Animal Service

Detachment. [Official record.]

76. Hovland, R. B.: World War II History of the 45th Veterinary Animal Service

Detachment. [Official record.]

77. Adams, D. S.: World War II History of the 46th Veterinary Animal Service

Detachment. [Official record.]

78. Hill, J. K.: World War II History of the 47th Veterinary Animal Service Detachment. [Official record.]

79. Cleveland, II. J.: World War II History of the 48th Veterinary Animal Service

Detachment. [Official record.]

80. Kuzewski, H. J.; World War II History of the 49th Veterinary Animal Service

Detachment. [Official record.]

81. Barron, H. T.: World War II History of the 50th Veterinary Animal Service

Detachment. [Official record.]

82. Cook, R. A.: World War II History of the 53d Veterinary Animal Service

Detachment. [Officialrecord.]

83. DuBois, H. S.: World War II History of the 54th Veterinary Animal Service

Detachment. [Official record.]

84. Stockton, A. E.: World War II History of the 55th Veterinary Animal Service

Detachment. [Official ecord.]

85. Dodge, J. R.: World War II History of the 56th Veterinary Animal Service

Detachment. [Official record.]

86. Wanner, K. W.: World War II History of the 57th Veterinary Animal Service

Detachment. [Official record.]

87. Newton, W. H.; World War II History of the 58th Veterinary Animal Service

Detachment. [Official record.]

88. Thomas, O. E.: World War II History of the 59th Veterinary Animal Service

Detachment. [Official record.]

89. Bone, J. K.: World War II History of the 60th Veterinary Animal Service

Detachment. [Official record.]

90. Hansell, W. H.: World War II History of the 61st Veterinary Animal Service

Detachment. [Official record.]

91. Walker, J. D.: World War II History of the 02d Veterinary Animal Service

Detachment. [Official record.]

92. Tekse, L. C.: World War II History of the 19th Veterinary Evacuation Hospital.

[Official record.]

93. Reports of Sick and Wounded Animals, U.S. Forces, China Theater, January

through September 1943.

94. Kester, W. O., and Miller, E. B.; World War II History of the Army Veterinary

Service, Central Pacific Area. [Official record.]

95. Reports of Sick and Wounded Animals, Veterinary Station Hospital, APO 957,

January 1943 through December 1944.

96. Reports of Sick and Wounded Animals, 63d Veterinary Animal Service Detachment (4339th Quartermaster Pack Troop), January through 15 Sept. 1945.

97. Reports of Sick and Wounded Animals, 64th Veterinary Animal Service Detachment (4340th Quartermaster Pack Troop), January through 15 Sept. 1945.

98. Reports of Sick and Wounded Animals, 65th Veterinary Animal Service Detachment (30th Quartermaster Pack Troop), January through 15 Sept. 1945.

99. Forms SG-345A and SG-345B, Veterinary Division, SGO.
614 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

100. Reports of Sick and Wounded Animals, 112th Cavalry Regiment (First Island

Command), January through May 1943.

101. Form M61-SGO, Veterinary Division, SCO, December 1941 and January 1942.

102. Worthington, J. W.: Personal notes as prisoner of war.

103. Frank, C. W.: Personal notes as prisoner of war.

104. Biennial Report, Chief of Staff, U.S. Army, to Secretary of War, July 1941-30

June 1943.

105. Smock, S. C., and Baker, J. E.; World War II History of the Army Veterinary

Service, Southwest Pacific Area. [Official record.]

106. Reports of Sick and Wounded Animals, 1st Cavalry Division, August through

December 1943.

107. Reports of Sick and Wounded Animals, 61st Quartermaster Pack Troop, June

through 25 Sept. 1943.

108. Reports of Sick and Wounded Animals, 63d Quartermaster Pack Troop, 14 Aug. through 25 Sept. 1943.

109. Reports of Sick and Wounded Animals, 68th Quartermaster Pack Troop, May

through 24 Sept. 1943.

110. Reports of Sick and Wounded Animals, 167th Field Artillery Battalion, February through 11 Nov. 1943.

111. Reports of Sick and Wounded Animals, Troop D, 16th Cavalry Quartermaster

Squadron, June through October 1943.

112. Reports of Sick and Wounded Animals, 16th Veterinary Evacuation Hospital,

January through March, and May 1943, August 1943 through Nov. 1944.
615

CHAPTER XVII

Army Dogs

The Army dogs of World War II marked the first use of large numbers

of dogs in the U.S. military forces. In the Zone of Interior, 10,368 trained

dogs were issued by dog centers to the U.S. Army and the U.S. Coast Guard;

1,891 of these were transshipped to oversea commands and theaters (i). In

the Central Pacific Area, two dog training centers issued and reissued 344

trained dogs. Another 200 dogs were obtained or raised in Greenland, and

500 or more trained dogs were borrowed from our Allies and used at the

American airfields, bases, and depots in the European theater and the Southwest Pacific Area. These animals received professional care and supervised

management from the Army Veterinary Service similar to that provided for

the Army’s horses and mules—having for its objectives the protection of dog

health, preservation of physical efficiency, and the safeguarding of troop

health against those diseases transmissible to the human being. These objectives were accomplished by physical examinations; establishment of quarantine procedures; treatment and hospitalization of disabled dogs; practice of

preventive veterinary medicine; technical supervision over animal management, including their food, shelter, and transportation; and technical training

of dog-handling personnel. In-service deaths, or destructions on account of

disease and injury, of trained Army dogs from the Zone of Interior were

1,267 {2).

Before World War II, the Army Veterinary Service was concerned with

dogs only to the extent that individual veterinary officers at the Army camps

provided professional care for troop mascots and animals privately owned by

military personnel. At times, there were matters of operating rabies control

program and of supervising the quarantine of pet dogs being shipped, particularly to or from the oversea departments. In 1938 the Veterinary Division,

Surgeon General’s Office, was asked to furnish medicines for the care of 44

sled dogs at Chilkoot Barracks, Alaska {3, 4-)- In mid-1941, the Army

Veterinary Service made arrangements for the care and reconditioning of 40

sled dogs which had been given to the Army by the Byrd Antarctic Expedition, and later, conducted physical examinations of few sled dogs which

were being procured to augment the Byrd dog teams—these then being transshipped to Greenland (5, 7). small project of dog procurement and

training was started by the Coast Artillery Corps at Fort MacArthur, Calif.,

in December 1940 (8).

After January 1941, this group of dogs was transferred to Fairbanks, Alaska
616 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

DOG PROCUREMENT

The foregoing antedates the official recognition which is generally given to Army dogs, 13 March 1942, when the Under Secretary of War granted

approval to the Quartermaster Corps to accept 200 trained guard dogs that

were offered by the American Theater Wing, Inc. 10). The civilian

project, dependent upon the volunteer efforts of dogs owners and trainers and

without potential to expand if more dogs were needed, was soon replaced

by the War Dog Program (If, 12). Under this program, Dogs for Defense,

Inc.—representing the interests of the Nation’s patriotic dog owners—was

named as the agency to procure dogs, other than sled dogs, by donation from

civilian dog owners 13 ij), and the Quartermaster Corps undertook their

training. Sled dogs were to be obtained by Army purchase. During July

1942, the Secretary of War asked for an expansion of the Army War Dog

Program, and, months later, the War Production Board named the Army

Quartermaster Corps as the sole agency to supply trained dogs to the armed

services and other Federal agencies {15, 16, 17). On March 1945, Dogs for

Defense, Inc., ceased its dog procurements for the Army; thenceforth the

Quartermaster Corps purchased or received gift donations of all dogs direct

from the civilian owners. Until this time, Dogs for Defense, Inc., had

accepted the voluntary donation of approximately 40,000 dogs. After preliminary examination at dog assembly and shipping centers, 18,000 of these

dogs were sent at Government expense to the Army dog reception and training centers. The Army procurement numbered 1,380 dogs as of late August

1945.

The veterinary service for these dogs after they had been accepted by the

Army, was continuous. It began with the physical examinations that were

conducted on the sled dogs and at procurement points on all other Armyprocured dogs after March 1945. However, the 18,000 recruit dogs received

from Dogs for Defense, Inc., were not examined by the Army Veterinary

Service until after their arrival at the Army dog centers. The latter group of

dogs may have been examined by civilian veterinarians on volunteer basis at

the Dogs for Defense, Inc., assembly areas and shipping points {18, 19, 20).

An estimated 1,500 recruit dogs died, or were destroyed with the owner’s consent, for physical disability, or on account of disease or injury before being

actually entered into the Army dog centers {2). One recruit dog developed

rabies within few days after its arrival at the Fort Robinson, Nebr., dog

training center {21), and an investigative survey of dogs for leptospirosis at

the Front Royal, Va., center showed that leptospirosis was far more widespread in the United States than was suspected {22). Unfortunately, both

the American Veterinary Medical Association and the American Kennel Club

total of 2,500 recruit dogs were destroyed on account of temperament. An unknown number of recruit dogs, rejected for temperament or physical disability, were returned on request of

the civilian dog owners.
ARMY DOGS 617

could accomplish little to prevent this flow of disabled and diseased recruit

dogs into the Army dog centers.

In the Zone of Interior, six Army dog centers (table 57)-—originally

designated war dog reception and training centers—were established (21. 23

through 28). Their mission was to receive, train, and issue dogs and to

instruct dog-handling personnel. The Camp Rimini center was designed

particularly for processing only sled and pack dogs, and the installation at

Beltsville was established within the Agricultural Research Center for purposes of conducting research on dog nutrition and developing an Army dog

ration. These dog centers, with the exception of the Cat Island installation

(24) which was originally an activity of the Army Ground Forces (September 1912 to April 1943), were operated by the Quartermaster Remount

Service in manner comparable to the operation of remount depots (for

horses and mules). Each dog center organization included veterinary

detachment which operated dog dispensary or hospital. Drawings for the

construction of these dispensaries were prepared during November 1942 by

Table 57.-—Location of Army dog centers, Zone of Interior, 19^2~^5

the Office of the Chief of Engineers (29). The veterinary hospitals, on

recommendations made by the Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office,

were constructed outside of the dog training areas and, wherever possible,

near existent veterinary (horse and mule) hospitals (fig. 67) in order to effect

economies of certain services and supplies (30 31). The veterinary hospital

requirements were described as comprising an office, storage room, an examining-operating room, and number of hospital kennels equal to percent of

the center’s dog population. The capacity of the veterinary facilities newly

constructed in the six dog centers in the Zone of Interior approximated 400.

few Army-owned pack or sled dog teams were trained for the Army at civilian dog

kennel. The Army Veterinary Service experienced difficulties in establishing program of preventive veterinary medicine for these dogs until after an enzootic of canine distemper had caused

the loss of many dogs.

The Army Ground Forces project on training dogs was conducted by civilian-employee trainer

whose methods proved to be undesirable, including disregard for the veterinary and humane

treatment of the animals during their training. The project was located in an area where fllariasis

was indigenous, and, on its discontinuance, the center’s dogs were refused admission into at least

one other dog center.

Location Opening date Closing date

Front Royal, Va Aug. 1942 17 Nov. 1944

December 1945

15 July 1944

20 June 1944

31 Oct. 1944

August 1944

Fort Robinson, Nebr __

Oct. 1942

Cat Island, Gulfport, Miss_.

Camp Rimini (Helena), Mont.

San Carlos, Calif._ ___

Beltsville, Md_

September 1942.

11 Dec. 1942

28 Dec. 1942

January 1943
618 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Figure 67.—Interior of the Front Royal, Va., dog center hospital, showing the

aisleway into the surgical ward.

During the first years, dogs received in the Army dog centers were

representative of great number of breeds. At one time 18 dog breeds were

listed by Dogs for Defense, Inc., as being acceptable for donation to the

Army. Later, only breeds of dogs were accepted: German shepherd, Belgian

sheep dog, Doberman pinscher, farm collie, Siberian Husky, Malemute,

Eskimo, and crosses of these breeds. Regardless of their breeding, the dogs

were examined individually by Veterinary Corps officers as to physical condition, age, height (as measured at the shoulder), sex, and color. The dog

most desired was one between 14 months and years of age, 20 to 26 inches

tall, weighing 40 to 80 pounds, and possessing neutral-colored haircoat (that

is, no solid white or black color). male dog was preferred, although

spayed bitch (unsexed female dog) was acceptable. At the beginning, female

dogs were recruited, but after the fall of 1943 many of these were spayed

pursuant to policy agreeable to Dogs for Defense, Inc. {32). Other features of this veterinary examination included observations for general conformation, freedom from unsoundness and clinical signs of disease, and

classification as to suitability for particular kind of military work such as

The female dog during periods of oestrus unaccountably caused the disruption and lengthening

of the dog’s training. Manifestly superior breeding bitches, including sled types of dogs, were not spayed. Dog owners were to be advised of this action by Dogs for Defense, Inc.
ARMY DOGS 619

attack (or police), cart, messenger, pack, sentry, scout, sled, or trail. Specialty dogs were those trained in mine detection and chemical warfare agent

detection, and the so-called casualty dog.

Veterinary physical examination procedures relating to health status of

the recruit dogs were enunciated first in the letter, dated March 1943, from

the Veterinary Division, Surgeon General's Office, to Veterinary Corps officers

at the Army dog centers in the Zone of Interior. This directed that examinations be made for the following diseases: Leptospirosis, filariasis, demodectic

mange, sarcoptic mange, and general parasitism. Dogs shown to be infected

with leptospirosis were to be destroyed, and those having filariasis, mange,

or any physical defect which could impair their usefulness were to be disposed

of in manner deemed to be in the best interests of the Army and the

civilian dog owner. However, where the recruit dogs had the normal intestinal parasitic infestations or showed clinical symptoms of an acute infectious

or contagious disease (such as canine distemper), they were to be treated and

held until recovery.

Following the physical examination, the acceptable recruit dogs were

placed under 21-day quarantine. During this time, the dog center veterinarian initiated dog record card, identified the dog with tattoo on the dog’s

left ear or flank, in accordance with the Preston brand system used in horses

and mules, administered anthelmintics for the treatment of intestinal parasitism, and dipped the animals to control external parasites. Prophylactic inoculations were administered against canine distemper, if the dog was less than

years of age, and against rabies.

ARMY DOG CARE AND MANAGEMENT

Following theirreception, processing, and training, the dogs were issued

by the Army dog centers. During the advanced stages of the training, the

potential dog-handling personnel were ordered into the centers to become

acquainted with the dogs and to receive on-the-job instructions in dog care and

management. The dog issues were made individually to camps, depots, ports,

and airbases, or by groups, such as to casual detachments and platoons. These

issues from the Army dog training centers in the Zone of Interior totaled

10,368 dogs—of which number, 7,665 went to the Army and 3,174 were issued

to the Coast Guard. It was axiomatic that only healthy dogs in good condition be issued. Following issue, the pertinent commander became responsible

for the use, care and management, and veterinary service for the trained dogs.

This veterinary service normally was provided on call by the nearest assigned

and most readily available Veterinary Corps officer, although the larger dog

The mine detection dog, developed by the Quartermaster Corps, did not prove to be very

satisfactory. The gas detection dog was studied by the Army Veterinary Service. The casualty

dog was one trained in the locating of casualties. In field service tests, such dogs failed to differentiate casualties from the unwounded personnel. The casualty dog was rejected by the Army

Ground Forces.

590248 —61 41
620 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

detachments and platoons had their own organically assigned veterinary personnel.

Whether in the Army dog centers or in the field, in the Zone of Interior

or overseas, the problems of managing, feeding, sheltering, and transporting

dogs were common to all concerned throughout the Army. Methods of assuring proper approach to these included the dissemination of technical information, the operation of programs of training, and the inspection and reporting on Army dogs on duty with troops. The beginning of the war found

single technical publication relating to dogs—the Army field manual on the

care of transport dogs in Arctic areas {33, 34.) For the purpose of advancing

good zootechnics in the developing Army dog program in the Hawaiian Department (Central Pacific Area), veterinary officer and civilian dog trainer

prepared training memorandum in booklet form on dog handling, feeding,

and care; it was given Army-wide distribution in circular letter by the Office

of the Quartermaster General during November 1942 35 36). In the following year, the Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office, provided professional assistance in the revision of the technical manual relating to pack and

sled transport dogs and in the development of another relating to the care and

management of Army dogs in general {37, 38, 39).

These publications were used in programs of training for all dog-handling

personnel when ordered into the dog centers to receive dogs. In the Zone of

Interior this training was received by 2,100 Army personnel and 2,700 Coast

Guard personnel. Closely related to this training was the integration of certain veterinary subjects in the mobilization training programs which were

developed for the qualification of officer and enlisted specialists as dog trainers

for the Army {40) 15 percent of their technical training period included instructions in first aid, preventive veterinary medicine, foods and feeding, kennel sanitation, transportation of dogs, and use of the dog gas mask.

Another control feature over Army dogs was the veterinary inspection and

reports on their efficiency and health. Its usefulness in the command evaluation of Army dog deployment was recognized in the Central Pacific Area

where specially devised report was used and in the European theater where

the inspections were recorded in monthly recurring sanitary reports {41, 1$)

Unfortunately, the control was not practiced Army-wide because the Control

Division, Army Service Forces, rejected the recommendations made by the

Surgeon General’s Office for initiating veterinary reporting system on Army

dogs such as was being maintained for the Army’s horses and mules {43).

During May 1944, the existent Veterinary Report of Sick and Wounded Animals was revised to include an entry of the dog mean strength, but this new

report form did not become available in most areas until late in the war or

after V-J Day.

Also referred to as WD AGO Form 8-129, Control Approval Symbol MCV-22, which super

seded the former WD MD Form 102.
ARMY DOGS 621

The food for Army dogs was of good quality, nutritious, and clean. The

same quality and sanitary control over the dogfood supply was maintained by

the Army Veterinary Service as was applied to the feed and forage supply for Army horses and mules. Sometimes this dogfood originated with the food

supply for troops. For example, canned evaporated milk, canned salmon, and

canned meat components of Type rations were fed to Army dogs, and in the Central Pacific xCrea, daily issue of pounds of fresh frozen ground beef

was authorized for each dog (AO Actually, the dogfood supply throughout the Army was quite variable and presented number of nutritional and sanitary problems. The feeding of raw rabbit meat, for example, caused serious

outbreak of taeniasis (or tapeworm) among dogs in the Northwest Service

Command (45). In the United Kingdom (in the European theater), the

Army Veterinary Service required that all meats be cooked, after finding that

some of the supply included meats rejected for human use on account of tuberculosis (40).

In the Zone of Interior, during November 1942, the Quartermaster Corps

authorized the procurement of commercial dogfood and meat—the latter to

supplement the diet (J7). The commercial dogfoods then available and specifically marketed for sale to the owners of household pet dogs and cats could

not, without supplementation, maintain an Army dog in good working condition (4 ). The dogfood manufacturers later experienced difficulties in maintaining high-quality products under the conditions of wartime shortages and

priority allocations of raw material. This as taken into account during

March 1944 when the War Department amended the Army’s dogfood supply

and authorized meat as the principal component of the dog ration. All kinds

of meats and meat by-products were suggested, but special reference was made

to horsemeat. Horses and mules found unserviceable and condemned by the

Army were mallein tested for glanders (49) and slaughtered under veterinary

supervision at number of Army camps, dog centers, and commercial establishments. Particular attention was paid to interstate movements of the horsemeat, pursuant toFederal laws and regulations, as well as to its special labeling

(“Horse Meat for War Dogs Only”) and handling separate from the troop

food supply. At the Seattle, Wash., depot, the Army Veterinary Service developed canned dogfood by combining ground horsemeat and herring; this

was supplied to the Alaskan Department (50).

Notwithstanding the great variety of dogfoods used during the war, it

must be understood that the Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office,

undertook the study of dogfood in July 1942 or soon after the official start of

the Army dog program. In November 1942, the Office of the Quartermaster General expressed requirements for complete Army dog ration (51). TechThe meat components of the Type ration were meat and vegetable hash, meat and vegetable

stew, and meat and beans. These were trial-fed to dogs at three centers in the Zone of Interior

pursuant to the request of the Office of the Quartermaster General, dated 25 May 1944. The Army

dog center veterinary officers, reporting on the trial feeding, found that Type ration meat com- ponents were satisfactory supplements.
622 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

nical assistance was sought from the civilian Joint Committee on Feeds,

American Veterinary Medical Association and American Animal Hospital

Association {52, 53), and from members of the dogfood industry. In cooperation with the II.S. Department of Agriculture, studies made on the nutritional

requirements of dogs led to the development of at least five dogfood formulas.

Many of these were trial-fed in tests conducted by the dog centers at Beltsville, Fort Robinson, and Front Royal {51, 54). Considerable difficulty was

experienced with the procurement of ration components that were inexpensive

and available under the conditions of wartime supply and in obtaining

suitable binder {55, 56, 57, 58). The trial feeding was stopped in mid-1944

after the test rations were shown to have poor palatability and to cause diarrheal conditions and weight losses among Army dogs when working {59, 60,

61, 62).

Studies on the defensive measures and protective equipment against chemical warfare were initiated {63). Beginning in August 1942, research by veterinary personnel of the Medical Section, Office of the Chief of Chemical Warfare Service, Edgewood Arsenal, Md., Avas conducted on the anatomical and

physiological features that increased the dog’s susceptibility to chemical

agents. This led to the engineering of dog gas mask which, after service

testing at the San Carlos dog center, Avas standardized and procured for issue

to Army dogs in the oversea theaters (64) During 1944, these research studies led to the approval by the Surgeon General’s Office of the issue of BAL

(British anti-leAvisite) e\e ointment to dog handlers in the cwersea theaters

{65).

The housing problem for Army dogs, much like the feeding problem, Avas

met in variety of Avays throughout the Army. The Front Royal dog center

maintained large number of dogs in individual kennels constructed about

Avooden barrel and front porchlike addition. At Fort Robinson, doublecompartment kennel Avas deAUsed for protection against the cold and included

roof on hinges Avhich could be turned back for ease of cleaning. Individual

kennels Avere favored over buildings which could house several dogs. Later, the Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office, cooperated Avith the Office

of the Chief of Engineers in the development of plans for single dog kennel

and kennel building 10 with capacities up to 80 dogs (figs. 68 and 69) {66,

67, 68). IIoAvever, the development did not prevent the heterogeneous array

of dog kennel construction that appeared in the Zone of Interior and in overTentative U.S. Army specifications for dogfood ration (dry), were dated 14 October 1942, November 1942, December 1942, 22 February 1943, and 19 November 1943. The latter comprised

the following ingredients, in pounds Yellow corn meal, wheat gray shorts, 10 wheat red dog

flour, 16; second clear red wheat, 20; meat meal, 15; animal liver and glandular meal, 6; dried

skim milk, 4; soybean oil meal, 5; peanut oil meal, 5; hydrogenated shortening, alfalfa leaf

meal, bone meal, dried brewer’s yeast, 1.37 iodized salt, fish oil, 0.63 and water. The

composition of the final product was not under 28 percent protein, percent fat, and 40 percent

nitrogen-free extract, and not over percent fiber and percent moisture. 10 The plans for the kennel buildings could be used also in constructing veterinary dog hospital at Army dog centers and camps, the former being attached to the type of veterinary dispensary

as previously described.
ARMY DOGS 623

Figure 68.—A multiple-kennel unit at the Front Royal, Ya., clog center.

Figure 69.—Cleaning and disinfection of Army dogkennels, Front Royal, Va., dog

center.
624 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

sea theaters. In the Panama Canal Zone, so-called tropical kennel—screenenclosed and elevated above the ground—was developed. collapsible-type

wooden kennel was developed in the Central Pacific Area. The War Dog Detachment, China-Burma-India theater, sheltered its dogs from the tropical

heat by hanging canvas over the kennels which were placed in an elevated

position over freshly dug holes in the ground.

In the matter of transportation of dogs, the Army Veterinary Service assured the movement of only those which were in good physical condition and

free of infectious or contagious diseases, and provided veterinary health certificates to cover the shipments. Within the Zone of Interior, no law or civilian

regulatory agency existed that could prevent the interstate, export, or import

shipment of Army dogs—in fact, almost any dog—on account of health reasons. The Army Veterinary Service alone took steps against the dissemination

or introduction in the United States by Army dogs of such diseases as filariasis

and leptospirosis. Actually, few Army dogs were returned to the Zone of Interior from the oversea theaters. Other than quarantine requirements which

affected the deployment and disposition of Army dogs, transportation presented no real problem, whether by truck, railroad, airplane, or ship. Veterinary reports on seven truck shipments in the Zone of Interior during 1945

showed no losses on account of disease and injury among the 71 dogs involved.

Railroad shipments were equally successful—no losses being reported among

1,043 dogs in 130 shipments during the war period. Likewise, no real problem

was experienced in connection with their movement by airplane. 11 As matter of fact, the sled dog teams with the Air Forces Arctic search and rescue

units were trained for routine movement by airplane. During the Burma campaigns, disabled dogs of the China-Burma-India War Dog Detachment were

evacuated by airplane {69).

Records on 10 overwater movements by ship involving 341 animals indicated that only four dogs were lost. The Army Veterinary Service at the ports

of embarkation routinely examined the dogs prior to their loading and

assisted in the supervision of those preparations of ships that had bearing

on animal health and management {70 through 77). Ordinarily, the kennel

crates which were used in bringing the dogs to the ports were installed on the

ship's deck (fig. 70). certain amount of gastroenteric disorders and dermatitides was reported in the dogs while en route, but these were caused by

the dogs licking or being in contact with salt water which was used in flushing

the kennel area on the ship 78 79 80). In the voyages through tropical

waters, it became necessary to clip the heavier-coated dogs and to keep the

dogs off the hot sun-heated steel decks.

The Army Veterinary Service also cared for dogs outside of Army control, including those issued from the dog centers for use in the protection of

civilian establishments which were engaged in manufacture of critical supplies

So far as is known, no studies were made on the dropping of dogs from airplanes by parachute as were conducted in the British Army.
ARMY I>OGS 625

SC LAPE 9SC-44-26

Figure 70.—Special shipping crates for dogs, stowed aboard

ships loading out of the Los Angeles, Calif., port. The processing of

dogs for oversea deployment in World War II was under the supervision of the port veterinary service, using the same principles of

preventive veterinary medicine that have been developed over

quarter of century for the shipment of horses and mules.

or were vital to civilian economy. However, in the Zone of Interior, in instances where Veterinary Corps officers were not readily available, service

command commanders were authorized to obtain the services of local civilian

veterinarians to treat Army dogs at civilian establishments (81). large

number of the Army-trained dogs that were issued to the Coast Guard came

under the professional supervision of Veterinary Corps officers—these being

attached to Coast Guard districts under the original provisions of wartime

agreement, between the Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Navy in

September 1912, relating to the mounting of beach patrols (82 through 86).
626 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

The Coast Guard dogs used in the Central Pacific Area 12 were given professional services on request (JJ). There too, F.S. Marine Corps “devil dog'

platoons, arriving during September 1944, were cared for by the district veterinary officers on the islands of Maui and Hawaii. Special veterinary quarantine and professional services were rendered in the Hawaiian Islands for

seeing-eye dogs 13 belonging to discharged veterans (JJ, 87, 88. 89)

The diseases and injuries reported in Army dogs were of the variety which

are observed in household dogs. The diseases and injuries commonly observed

in trained Army dogs included digestive upsets, respiratory disorders, and bite

wounds; also filariasis which was cause for the return of many from the Army

camps to the dog centers for disposition. In the Zone of Interior, actual

losses of the dogs at Army camps were negligible {90, 91, 92, 93). For example, in the First Service Command with 563 dogs during 1943, only dogs

died or were destroyed on account of disease and injury.

However, the losses and the morbidity rates were greater at the Army dog

centers where recruit dogs were assembled, conditioned, and trained, as seen

in the following tabulation of dog morbidity and mortality at the Front Royal

dog center:

The dog morbidity and mortality at the Front Royal dog center may be

compared with those reported at Fort Robinson where, with an average mean

strength of 1,340 dogs in the period from January 1943 through December

1945, the losses on account of disease and injury approximated 783.4 per 1,000

12 Between October 1944 and June 1945, more than 50 Coast Guard dogs were entered into

quarantine under the supervision of the Army Veterinary Service at Fort Armstrong, Oahu, pursuant to the animal quarantine laws and regulations of the Territory of Hawaii. 13 The veterans’ seeing-eye dogs were obtained from civilian sources through the facilities of

the Veterans’ Administration. One such dog, on arrival from the Zone of Interior, was found to have filariasis.

Average mean strength

Admissions:

For disease 696 For injury 174

Total 870

Treatment days 14,354

Average days per admission 18

Died or destroyed 308

Number admitted per 1.000 average animal strength per year;

For disease 965.7

For injury 241.7

Total 1.207.4

Number per 1,000 average animal strength per year died or destroyed 427.5

The specific causes of the loss of 308 dogs included the following diseases and injuries:

Filariasis, 223 leptospirosis, 19 and sarcoptic mange, 7.
ARMY DOGS 627

average dog strength per year {21). This loss included the death or destruction of 536 dogs with canine distemper or its complications. Based on reports

of 1,826 cases of canine distemper for 1942 through 1945, the case fatality rate

for this disease approximated 31 percent. At the San Carlos dog center, admissions for veterinary hospital treatment in the period from January

through August 1943 totaled 1,183 of which number 87 animals died or were

destroyed; an estimated 4.5 percent of that dog center’s animal strength was in

the veterinary hospital at all times (PJ). These 1,183 hospital cases included

211 for enteritis, gastritis, and gastroenteritis, 198 for coryza (colds) and

pneumonia, 113 for canine distemper, and 31 for eczema. At all dog centers, the control of external parasites (fleas, sand gnats, and ticks) and the

treatment for internal parasitism were continuing problems. Bites of venomous snakes at the Cat Island center and burns in 92 dogs at the San Carlos

dog center, which was partially destroyed by windstorm and fire (in December

1943), were the more unusual cases of dog wounds.

Aside from the routine professional veterinary services, programs of

disease research and development on disease control were undertaken. The

Front Ifoval dog center and the Army Veterinary Research Laboratory, with

the assistance of the Army Institute of Pathology, collaborated in studies on

leptospirosis and filariasis. Detailed necropsy protocols were made on 340

dogs during the period from December 1942 through 20 October 1944, with

results as follows (95. 96)

Pathological diagnosis Number

Infectious and parasitic diseases

Ancylostomiasis

Canine distemper

Filariasis 60

Leptospirosis 63

Sarcoptic mange

General diseases:

Diabetes

Jaundice

Septicemia

Tumors

Diseases of the nervous system and organs of special sense: Amaurosis

Amblyopia

Cataract

Encephalitis and encephalomyelitis 23

Encephalomalacia

Keratitis

Myelitis

Paraplegia

Others

Diseases of the circulatory system

Endocarditis

Myocarditis

590248 —61 42
628 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Diagnostic tests on filariasis were studied at the San Carlos dog center in

cooperation with the Ninth Service Command Medical Laboratory—some of

these eventually finding their way into the research on human filariasis in the

Southwest Pacific Area.

OVERSEA DEPLOYMENT

Army dogs were deployed in most of the oversea theaters during World

War II. These included the 1,894 animals in casual detachments, replacement

shipments, mine detection company, and 15 dog platoons that were sent

from the Zone of Interior. One of the earlier dog detachments shipped

overseas was the eight-dog organization that was used in the Southwest

Pacific Area to test the dog in jungle warfare. Larger detachments—each

with attached veterinary personnel—were shipped to New Caledonia (in the

South Pacific Area) and the China-Burma-India theater, and an Engineer

Corps company of mine detection dogs was sent to the Mediterranean theater

(fig. 71). Other dogs were sent to the Alaskan Department, the Caribbean

Defense Command (including the original Panama Canal and Puerto Rican

Departments), the Northwest Service Command (in western Canada), and

the oversea base commands in Greenland and Newfoundland. Hundreds of

others were trained locally in the Central Pacific Area and were procured

from Allied sources in the European theater and the Southwest Pacific Area.

Local procurement was occasioned by the imposition of restrictive or prohibitive quarantines against dog importations into the Territory of Hawaii, the

United Kingdom, and Australia.

Pathological diagnosis—Continued Number

Diseases of the respiratory system:

Pneumonia 81

Diseases of the digestive system

Dilation of stomach

Enteritis gastroenteritis 34

Torsion of small intestine

Diseases of the urinary system

Calculus

Cystitis _____

Nephritis 10

Diseases of the skin and cellular tissues:

Acanthosis nigricans

Dermatitis varicelliform

Eczema

Ill-defined diseases:

Rahies suspect __

Injuries (violent and accidental causes)

Heat exhaustion

Suffocation

Sunstroke

Total 340
ARMY DOGS 629

SC CBI—44—21298

Figure 71.—A guard dog party of the War Dog Detachment,

China-Burma-India theater, detrucking in the Myitkyina,

Burma, area in July 1944.

The early reports of the apparent successes with dogs in certain kinds of

military work gave origin, in the spring of 1944, to unit suitable for assignment and deployment with the ground forces. This was the Quartermaster War Dog Platoon (including 24 messenger and scout dogs as well as mine

detection dog) later, in that year, it was redesignated 14 as the Infantry Scout

Dog Platoon (including 27 animals) 97 98 99). The platoon included the

space authorization for one veterinary enlisted man in the grade of sergeant,

who was trained and equipped to provide first aid care and treatment to the

platoon dogs. Additional professional assistance as to be sought by the

enlisted technician from the nearest available veterinary officer in the theater

of operations. total of 21 such dog platoons were activated in the Zone of

Interior; of these, 15 were deployed overseas, as follows: to the Southwest

Pacific Area, including platoons which were transferred from the Central Pacific Area and another platoon which arrived first in the South Pacific

Area; to the Central Pacific Area; to the Mediterranean theater; and to

the European theater. Platoons which were not deployed overseas were six

in number, the 46th through the 51st Infantry Scout Dog Platoons.

14 The mine detection dog was removed from the platoon, the number of messenger dogs was

decreased from 12 to 6, and the number of scout dogs was increased from 12 to 18.
630 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Another type of unit having dogs was the Army Air Forces Arctic Search

and Rescue Squadron (100, 101). The squadron Flights B, C, and D, each

with veterinary enlisted personnel, were each authorized 36 dogs to mount

dog sled teams. Dog sled rescue teams were used by the Alaskan and the

North Atlantic Divisions of the Air Transport Command {102).

Wherever deployed, the dog detachments and platoons—many with

attached veterinary personnel—were provided all assistance possible by the

Army Veterinary Service in the theaters and oversea commands. This

included aid in the procurement of dogfood, veterinary supplies, professional

treatment, and obtaining command attention to matters relating to zootechnics

and animal health. The outstanding problem was quarantine. The latter

probably ranked second only to the more important and basic factor of

military usefulness or tactical efficiency in determining whether or not dogs would be deployed. Animal quarantine gained its importance with respect to

its influence on the shipment of U.S. Army dogs from the Zone of Interior.

None were sent to the United Kingdom, and all were prohibited entry into

Australia; in the Territory of Hawaii, initial requirements were satisfied with

the output from locally developed Army dog procurement and training program.

European Theater

In England, the military needs for dogs were met by the loan of trained

sentry dogs from the British Ministry of Aircraft Production {4-6, 103 104)

These dogs were received by the U.S. Guard Dog Training School, Gloucestershire, England, established in late 1943, where program of instruction in

dog handling was conducted for American soldiers. For short period of

time, veterinary officers were assigned to the school to register the dogs (or

tattoo them for purposes of identification) and to vaccinate the dogs against

rabies {105). The dogs, issued in teams of eight, became the responsibility

of the commands to which assigned, and the Army Veterinary Service was

assigned the responsibility to provide first aid or emergency treatment for

those becoming disabled and to supervise the care, management, and feeding

of the dogs within such commands. Unfortunately, the theater’s veterinary

service was handicapped because the Quartermaster Corps could not advise

on the location and the expected deployment of the dogs and the Chief

Surgeon’s Office withheld early approval on requisitioning the necessary

veterinary supplies {106, 107). The former situation was overcome somewhat during October 1943 when monthly sanitary reports were required from

commands having British-trained dogs {42). The other problem was lessened

when the shipping of supplies from the Zone of Interior became less critical

and veterinary animal service equipment and medicines were stockpiled. In

the interim, authorization was granted for calling upon the British civilian

veterinarians to treat the disabled dogs and for the return to the British of

seriously disabled dogs. By the end of 1943, an estimated 22 teams of these

dogs were on duty with the U.S. forces.
ARMY DOGS 631

large number of the British-trained guard dogs accompanied the U.S.

forces in the campaigns on continental Europe. Before their departure from

the United Kingdom, the dogs were immunized against rabies and again at

yearly intervals {108). During 1944, the Army Air Forces had an estimated

250 dogs 109), and another 50 were used by the First U.S. Army. Locating

the dogs was major veterinary problem. Records of those becoming sick

or injured seemed to have not been kept. In December 1944, on request,

disabled dogs requiring extensive care or treatment were evacuated to

British veterinary hospital located in the vicinity of Rouen, France.

It was not until some time after the cross-Channel invasion of the European Continent that Army dogs of U.S. origin were brought into the European theater. Coming directly into France, these dogs could be deployed

at once without holding them in quarantine, as would have been imposed if

the dogs were landed in the United Kingdom for staging and subsequent

use on the Continent. As of August 1944, dog unit—the 42d Quarter- master War Dog Platoon (Mine Detection) —was being used by the First

U.S. Army, which also had British-trained guard dogs {110) During the

early months of 1945, 23 dog sled teams were flown into an airfield at Thionville, France, from the Dog Rescue Unit, North Atlantic Division, Air Transport Command. These were to be used to assist in the medical evacuations

from the frontline areas which were covered with snow at the time; however,

the snow soon disappeared, and the teams were little used. These teams were

assigned to the First and Third U.S. Armies.

Southwest Pacific Area

Australia (in the Southwest Pacific Area) refused the entry of animals

from the Zone of Interior {111). An eight-dog detachment sent there in

early 1943 was redeployed to New Guinea and then to Goodenough and

New’ Britain Islands. Pending their preparations for return to the United

States, sometime after February 1944, three dogs were destroyed for reason

of having been used in an area where scrub typhus was prevalent among

troops, and no factual information was available on the transmission of this

disease by dogs harboring the insect vector (mite). 15 Subsequently, seven

war dog platoons came into the Southwest Pacific Area and ere used in the

campaigns in New Guinea, Northern Solomons, Philippines, and Ryukyus

Islands. The demands in Australia were met in part with local dog program, evolving about the Quartermaster Dog Kennels, which was established

in mid-1943. As of the fall of 1943, the Veterinarian, Base Section 3, Brisbane, was providing professional care for 35 dogs assigned to quartermaster

unit {112).

The dog platoons coming into the Soutluvest Pacific Area included the

25fh Quartermaster War Dog Platoon on Bougainville and the 26th Quar15The cause of loss of the other five dogs previously included two destroyed for gun-shyness,

one ran off, and two died (cause unknown).
632 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

termaster War Dog Platoon on Morotai; subsequently, both were entered

into the Philippine campaigns. The 39th and 43d Quartermaster War Dog

Platoons arrived later, as did the 40th and the 41st Quartermaster War Dog

Platoons which came into Leyte from the Central Pacific Area during late

1944. Gastrointestinal disorders without apparent cause or due to changeover to type rations, ancylostomiasis, and eczema were experienced as the

more common diseases of the dogs in the tropical Pacific islands {113). Kevaccination against rabies became necessary after the dogs arrived in the

Philippine Islands. The 40th, 41st, and 45th War Dog Platoons—the latter

having had stopover on Espfritu Santo (in the South Pacific Area) —were

deployed with the Tenth U.S. Army after the landings on Okinawa (1 April

1945) {114).

Central Pacific Area

The Territory of Hawaii, unlike Australia, permitted the entry of Army

dogs from the Zone of Interior but imposed 120-day quarantine period under the provisions of local laws and regulations which had been in effect for

many years {44)- Thus, during September 1944, two dog platoons (the 40th

and 41st Quartermaster War Dog Platoons) came into the Territorial Animal

Quarantine Station, Honolulu, but before long the platoons were transshipped

to Leyte (in the Southwest Pacific Area). Of course, any holding of dogs

inactive during quarantine was detrimental to the unit’s efficiency. Thus, in the spring of 1945 when third unit—the 44th Infantry Scout Dog Platoon—arrived, the Governor of Hawaii relinquished civilian responsibility to

the Army to maintain “working quarantine” over these trained Army dogs

{115). However, the responsibility of maintaining the quarantine outweighed

other factors, and the platoon was soon transshipped to Saipan (in the

Marianas group) for continued training. Actually, the original requirements for Army dogs in the Central Pacific Area were met entirely by local

program of dog procurement and training which was comparable to that

established in the Zone of Interior,

The Army dog program in the Central Pacific Area (the successor command to the Hawaiian Department) was separate from that undertaken in

the Zone of Interior and originated on 24 May 1942, with the approval by

the Headquarters, Hawaiian Department, of plan submitted by the department veterinarian {116. 117). On August 1942, the provisional Veterinary

General Hospital, Fort Armstrong, established dog training center on the

premises of the Territorial Animal Quarantine Station; subcenter was

established, with the assistance of the district or service command veterinarian, on Maui about months later. In December 1942, the local dog program had become Quartermaster Corps responsibility; Quartermaster Corps employed dog trainer (Mr. E. Humphreys, of Seeing Eye Dogs, Inc.,

Morristown, N.J.) and local dog owners added much to the early development and success of the program. Trained dogs were sent initially to Guadal-
ARMY DOGS 633

canal, and within year more than 400 dogs were deployed at depots, outpost

positions, and vital civilian centers on all of the Hawaiian Islands as well

as on Baker, Canton, Christmas, Midway, and Palmyra Islands; later, few

dogs were deployed to Guam, Saipan, and Okinawa. Altogether, the Army

Veterinary Service conducted physical examinations on 3,259 dogs recruited

from the civil population, of which number 815 were accepted for training

and 344 completed their training. 16 The major causes for rejecting recruit

dogs on preliminary physical examinations at assembly areas or procurement

points included otitis media, mange, ringworm, current disability, dental

irregularities, and abnormalities of conformation, Filariasis was diagnosed

in 12 percent of the original 310 recruit dogs which were examined, but the

disease did not constitute cause for rejection except where the dog manifested clinical symptoms; filariasis was an indigenous disease. Dogs accepted for training were inoculated against canine distemper but not against

rabies since the disease was not existent in the Hawaiian Islands. After

April 1944, by amendment to the original quarantine laws and regulations of

the Territory of Hawaii, the importation of all animals, except direct from

the Zone of Interior, Australia, and New Zealand, was prohibited (445), but,

by special waiver, many locally trained Army dogs which had seen service

on the Pacific island bases were returned to the Hawaiian Islands.

South Pacific Area

In the South Pacific Area, 120-animal Casual Dog Detachment—complete with its own veterinary detachment—was deployed on New Caledonia.

During the to months following their arrival on 21 March 1943, the dogs

were used at airfields and depot facilities; others were sent to Guadalcanal

and Espiritu Santo where they were retained for only brief period of time

{119). By November 1943, the dogs were placed in caretaking status, and, in late 1944, the detachment was disbanded. The principal causes of animal

inefficiency included heat exhaustion, ancylostomiasis (hookworm infestation), and canine filariasis {120). The last-named disease appeared in severe

form, seemed to resist treatment, and was cause for the disposition of the

dogs locally rather than returning them to the Zone of Interior.

China-Burma-India Theater

The War Dog Detachment, China-Burma-India theater, included casual

detachment of 100 dogs shipped from the Zone of Interior during the early months of 1944; another detachment with 25 replacement animals joined during the spring 17 of the next year 80 121). Stationed originally at

19 The number of dogs volunteered by civilian owners totaled 7,359. More than 50 percent of

the applications of volunteered dogs were rejected after review showed the dog to be unsuitable

in one way or another. 17The detachment departed, on 27 January 1944, from the San Francisco Port of Embarkation

on the S.S. Benjamin Ide Wheeler and arrived on April 1944, at Calcutta, India. En route, two dogs died.
634 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Kanchrapara (near Calcutta), India, the detachment, however, was deployed for the greater part of the time in the Assam area (at Thanai, and

later at Raidang). Groups of the dogs were deployed in the Burma campaigns with the 5307th Composite Regiment (or GALAHAD Force) and

the 5332d Provisional Brigade (or MARS Force) and were used also by the

Office of Strategic Services, in China. The principal activities of this unit’s

veterinary detachment was the selection of kennel areas and the arrangement for veterinary animal service for the various groups of dogs that were

assigned to services of supply facilities and the combat forces throughout

the theater. Diseases and injuries causing the most trouble, including the

common parasitic infestations (such an ancylostomiasis and taeniasis), were

Lucilia macellaria infestation of wounds, filariasis, and diseases of the skin

(dermatitis and eczema) gastroenteric disturbances occurred with great

regularity. The most serious contagions included the tick-transmitted

babesiasis (or piroplasmosis) and case of rabies in dog, previously inoculated with rabies vaccine of local manufacture, that may have been bitten

by wild animal. During the period of operations in the theater, 369 cases of

disease and injury were treated, of which number 45 dogs died or were destroyed, as shown in the following tabulation:

Other Commands

The Army Veterinary Service rendered professional and technical supervisory services for Army dogs in many other oversea commands and theaters.

For example, there was the 228th Engineer Mine Detection Company (Dog),

complete with its own organic veterinary detachment, which was deployed

in the Mediterranean theater to test the efficacy of dogs in detecting land

Average mean strength 76.9

Admissions:

For disease 330

For injury 39

Total 369

Treatment days 3.801

Average days per admission ______ 10

Died or destroyed 45

Number admitted per 1,000 average animal strength per year:

For disease 2.610.4 For injury 311.7

Total 2,922.1

Number per 1.000 average animal strength per year died or destroyed 350

The specific causes of the loss of 45 dogs included the following diseases and injuries Encephalitis, 12 piroplasmosis, unreported, wounds, all kinds, and fllariasis, 3.
ARMY DOGS 635

mines. 18 Two clinical cases of rabies were reported in that company during

the fall of 1944 {122). At about this time, six dog platoons came into the

theater from the Zone of Interior (the 33d through the 38th Quartermaster War Dog Platoons, of which the 36th was specialized in mine detection).

serious outbreak of taeniasis was reported among group of 30 Army

sled dogs during 1943, at Camp Prairie, Alberta, Canada (in the Northwest

Service Command). This parasitism—attributed to the feeding of raw

rabbit meat—was brought under control by removing rabbit meat from the

dog diet and by the feeding of cooked meats {4-5).

In the Alaskan Department, Army dogs were maintained at number

of places, including the Aleutians. During the period from January 1943

through May 1944, the veterinary officer at Ladd Field, Alaska, aided in the

care and management of 42 to 58 sled dogs, as follows:

The United States Forces in Newfoundland received 35 Army dogs from

the Zone of Interior during 1942, and the 3d Infantry Division at Harmon

Field had sled dogs as of September 1943 {123, 124) There the dogs were

vaccinated against canine distemper each year due to the constant presence

of highly virulent form of the disease among the civil dog population. At

Sondre Strom Fjord, Greenland, another 125 military dogs were stationed,

as of December 1943 {125). program of vaccination against canine distemper was begun in Greenland during the fall of 1944 when an enzootic of

that disease led to the loss of 53 dogs {126, 127). Up to that time, canine

distemper, as well as rabies, was reportedly nonexistent in Greenland.

relatively large number of Army dogs were stationed throughout the

Caribbean Defense Command. The Puerto Rican Department received 24

guard dogs from the Zone of Interior during November 1942 and used them

18 The company was activated and organized during November 1943 at the Cat Island dog

center it was disbanded about year later.

Average mean strength 49.9

Admissions:

For disease 38

For injury 28

Total 66

Treatment days 555

Average days per admission

Died or destroyed

Number admitted per 1,000 average animal strength per year:

For disease 540.0

For injury 400.0

Total 940.0

Number per 1,000 average animal strength per year died or destroyed 80.0
636 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

at Fort Buchanan and on Jamaica and Antigua {128. 129). The Panama

Canal Department received dogs during December 1942 {130, 131 and lost

28 dogs on account of disease and injury, as shown in the following tabulation

Dog Disposition

The return of Army dogs from the oversea theaters and the disposition

from Army dog centers of those found unsuitable or to be surplus to military

needs Avere continuing problems. Disposition, normally, was made after the

dog owner, who had originally volunteered the dog, advised the Army dog

center of his desire concerning the return of the dog; if the dog owner did

not desire the dog, the Army took the option of issuing the dog to military

organization as mascot, giving it to breeders’, organization, or destroying

it {132). Where the dog had been given to the Army (that is, not volunteered) or purchased, the disposition was made pursuant to that usually

prescribed for Army horses and mules. The volunteered dogs were fully

reconditioned, demilitarized, and examined for freeness from contagious or

infectious disease. Emphasis was placed on releasing dogs in state of well

being possibly better than that obseiwed at the time the animal Avas recruited.

high degree of importance Avas attached to precautions against the release

of dogs harboring disease that could be disseminated or introduced among

the civilian dog population.

So far as the health status of the released dogs Avas concerned, no differentiation Avas made betAveen the recruit dogs coming from Dogs for Defense,

Inc., and the trained Army dogs Avhich had seen active military service. Unfortunately, large number of recruit dogs—many of the younger age

group-—found unacceptable upon arrival at the Army dog center Avere incubating or exposed to canine distemper; these Avere treated at GoA’ernment

expense and then sent back to the OAvner. On the other hand, of the 18,372 received at the Army dog centers, 1,500 recruit dogs Avere destroyed, with

Average mean strength 59.0

Admissions:

For disease 149

For injury 44

Total 193

28

Number admitted per 1,000 average animal strength per year:

For disease 830.5

For injury 254.2

Total 1,084.7

Number per 1,000 average animal strength per year died or destroyed 152.5
ARMY DOGS 637

the owner's consent, or had died on account of their physical health, including great number of cases with filariasis and few of mange. 19 Leptospirosis-infected dogs were destroyed, and the owners were so advised. These

diseases, particularly filariasis, could not be kept out of the Army dog centers

and, not being amenable to treatment, caused losses among Army dogs in

active military service. They presented another problem when the Army,

after December 1943, started to release volunteered dogs to civilian owners.

Owners of dogs which were infected with filariasis were advised of the condition of their animals, the difficulty in successful permanent treatment, the

threat of recurrence, and the dangers of possibly spreading the disease to

other dogs in the civilian community. Few dog owners desired the return

of their dogs when so advised {133, 13J). Later, this disposition policy for

filariasis-infected dogs was changed; after January 1944, all Army dog centers in the Zone of Interior were authorized to destroy filariasis-infected dogs

whenever found {135).

Under existing Federal laws and regulations almost any dog—healthy or

diseased—could be legally imported; however, the Army established effective

controls against the return of Army dogs from the oversea commands, except

those which qualified, after physical examination by Veterinary Corps officers, as being “*

not infected with or carriers of disease harmful to

man or animal” 136 137). Mainly for these quoted reasons, the Army dogs

used in scrub typhus areas in the Southwest Pacific Area and filariasis-infected dogs in the South Pacific xlrea were destroyed locally rather than returned to the Zone of Interior. In the winter of 1945-46, the Army required

that war dogs be vaccinated against rabies prior to return to the Zone of

Interior.

References

1. Memorandum, Col. W. O. Kester, VC, Veterinary Division, SGO, for Historical

Division, SGO, Jan. 1948, subject: War Dog Statistics.

2. Letter, Brig. Gen. R. A. Reiser, Veterinary Division, SGO, to Leo Pollock, King

Features Syndicate, New York, N.Y., 31 Aug. 1945.

3. Letter, Surgeon General’s Office, to Surgeon, Chilkoot Barracks, Haines, Alaska,

16 Dec. 1938, subject: Report on Treatment of Dogs.

4. Letter, Surgeon, Chilkoot Barracks, Haines, Alaska, to The Surgeon General, 31

Jan. 1941, subject: Final Report on Treatment of Dogs.

5. Letter, Col. G. H. Koon, VC, Veterinarian, HQ 1st Coast Artillery, Boston, Mass.,

to Veterinary Division, SGO, 26 May 1941.

6. Letter, Newfoundland Ease Command, HQ 1st Coast Artillery, to The Adjutant

General, June 1941, subject: Transfer of Dogs and Equipment to Newfoundland, with

indorsements thereto.

7. Letter, Veterinarian, HQ 1st Coast Artillery, 15 Sept. 1941, subject: Examination

of Sledge Dogs Prior to Purchase.

8. Reynolds, F. H. K.: K-9 Command, Fort MacArthur, Calif. In: World War II

History of the Army Veterinary Service in the Ninth Service Command, Zone of Interior.

19 See footnote 2. p. 616. Also, an estimated 450 trained Army dogs, which had become vicious

or which could not be demilitarized for return without risk to the owners, were destroyed pursuant

to the owners’ requests or to the findings of an Army board of officers.
638 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

9. Letter, R. Crothers, American Theater Wing, War Services, Inc., 730 Fifth Avenue,

New York. N.Y., to The Quartermaster General, 28 Jan. 1942.

10. Memorandum, Office of the Quartermaster General, for the Undersecretary of

War, 29 Jan. 1942, subject: Acceptance-Gift of Dogs, with 1st indorsement of reply, 10 Feb. 1942.

11. MacKellar, R. S., Jr.: World War II History of the Animal Service Branch,

Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office.

12. Quartermaster Corps Accomplishments During World War II. Remount Branch,

Service Installations Division, Office of the Quartermaster General.

13. Going, C. G.: Dogs at War. New York The MacMillan Company, 1946.

14. Dogs for Defense, Inc.: We’re in the Army Now

15. Memorandum, Lt. Col. F. C. Foy, Purchasing Division, HQ SOS, for The Quarter- master General, no date, subject: Training and Issuing of Dogs for War.

16. QMG Circular 1-20, 30 Nov. 1942.

17. SR 10-115, Sept. 1944.

18. Special Commission on Diseases of Small Animals. Report adopted at 8th Annual

Meeting, American Veterinary Medical Association, 25-26 August 1943. J. Am. Vet. M. A.

103 344-345, November 1945.

19. Sentry Dogs for National Defense. J. Am. et. M. A. 100: 365, April 1942.

20. Letter, Office of the Quartermaster General, to The Surgeon General, 16 Sept.

1943, subject: Veterinary Hospital Statistics at San Carlos, Calif.

21. Sager, F. C.: World War II History of the Army Veterinary Service, Fort Robinson Quartermaster Remount Depot, Fort Robinson, Nebr. [Official record.]

22. Jones, T. C., Roby, T. O., Davis, C. L., and Maurer, F. C.: Control of Leptospirosis in War Dogs. Am. J. Vet. Research 6: 120-128, April 1945.

23. Wolfe, W. R.: World War II History of the Army Veterinary Service, Front

Royal Quartermaster Depot (Remount), Y"a. [Official record.]

24. Williams, G. A.: World War II History of the Army Veterinary Service, Cat

Island War Dog Reception and Training Center, Gulfport, Miss. [Official record.]

25. Annual Report, Army Veterinary Service, War Dog Reception and Training

Center, CampRimini, Mont., 1943.

26. Twisselmann, N. M.: World War II History of the Army Veterinary Service,

War Dog Reception and Training Center, San Carlos, Calif. [Official record.]

27. Harris, F. M.; World War II History of the Army Veterinary Service, Western

Remount Area. [Official record.]

28. Merenda, J. J.: Report, Army Veterinary Service, War Dog Reception and

Training Center, Beltsville, Md., 15 Jan. 1946.

29. Drawing No. 1100-725, Construction Division, Office of the Chief of Engineers, 21

Nov. 1942.

30. Memorandum, Requirements Division, SOS, to Chief Engineer, SOS, 12 Aug.

1942, subject: Establishment of Dog Reception and Training Centers.

31. Letter, Veterinary Division, SGO, to Requirements Division. SOS, 24 Aug.

1942, subject; Establishment of Dog Reception and Training Centers.

32. Letter. Office of the Quartermaster General, to Commanding Officer, Front Royal

Dog Center. 13 Nov. 1943, subject: Spaying of Unspayed Bitches.

33. FM 25-6, Jan. 1941.

34. FM 25-6, 19 Aug. 1941.

35. Training Memorandum 19, HQ Hawaiian Department, subject: War Dogs:

Notes on Their Handling, Feeding, and Care.

36. Circular Letter 415, Office of the Quartermaster General, 19 Nov. 1942, subject:

Handling, Feeding, and Care of War Dogs.

37. Letter. The Surgeon General, to Office of the Quartermaster General. 26 Nov.

1943, subject; Dog Transportation Manual, with 1st indorsement dated Dec. 1943.
ARMY DOGS 639

38. Letter, Office of the Quartermaster General, to The Surgeon General, May

1943, subject: Proposed Technical Manual on War Dogs, with 1st indorsement dated

24 May 1943.

39. TM 10-396, July 1943.

40. Mobilization Training Program 10-5, July 1944.

41. Letter, HQ Hawaiian Department, 28 Jan. 1943, subject: Veterinary Service

for War Dogs.

42. Letter, Col. E. M. Curley, VC, Veterinarian, Chief Surgeon’s Office, ETOUSA, to

veterinary officers, ETOUSA, 16 Oct. 1943, subject: Veterinary Sanitary Report on Guard

Dogs and Pigeons.

43. Letter, Lt. Col. R. S. MacKellar, Jr., VC, Veterinary Division, SGO, to Control

Division, ASF, Apr. 1944, subject: The Veterinary Canine Report, with 1st indorsement dated Apr. 1944 and 2d indorsement dated Apr. 1944.

44. Kester, W. O.. and Miller, E. B.: World War II History of the Army Veterinary

Service, Central Pacific Area. [Official record.]

45. Bills, W. E.: Annual Report, Army Veterinary Service, Northwest Service

Command, 1943.

46. Curley, E. M.: Annual Report, Veterinary Division, Chief Surgeon’s Office,

ETOUSA. 1943.

47. OQMG Circular 1-20, 20 Nov. 1942, subject: Remount.

48. Letter, Lt. Col. F. W. Koester, QMC, Army Dog Center, San Carlos, Calif., to

Remount Division, Office of the Quartermaster General, 16 Apr. 1943, subject: Test of

Dog Food.

49. QMC Miscellaneous Letter 7, HQ Eighth Service Command, Dallas, Tex., 22 Dec.

1943, subject: Mallein Test of Animals Prior to Sale or Processing for Dog Food.

50. Betzold, C. W.: World War II History of the Army Veterinary Service, Seattle.

Wash., Army Service Forces Depot. [Official record.]

51. Letter, Office of the Quartermaster General, to The Surgeon General, 12 Nov.

1942, subject; Development of Complete Dog Ration, with 1st indorsement dated 17 Dec.

1942.

52. Letter, Maj. R. S. MacKellar, Jr., VC, Veterinary Division, SGO, to M. L. Morris,

Joint Committee on Foods, American Veterinary Medical Association and American

Animal Hospital Association, New Brunswick, N.J., 24 July 1942, and letter of reply dated

27 July 1942.

53. Letter, M. L. Morris, Joint Committee on Foods, to Brig. Gen. R. A. Kelser,

Veterinary Division, SGO, Oct. 1942.

54. Letter, Richmond ASF Depot, Richmond, Va., to The Quartermaster General,

Oct. 1943, subject: Specification for Dog Food Ration (Dry), with 1st indorsement

dated 20 Nov. 1943.

55. Vitamin Order Revised by War Production Board. J. Am. Vet. M. A. 101: 313-314, October 1942.

56. Alternative Dog Foods. The National Provisioner 107; 22, 31 Oct. 1942.

57. Letter, T. B. King, Grain Products Branch, Marketing Programs Division. Food

Distribution Administration, U.S. Department of Agriculture, to Lt. Col. R. S. MacKellar,

Jr., VC, Veterinary Division, SGO, 27 Oct. 1943.

58. Letter, P. E. Quintus, Administrator of FDO 54, Food Distribution Administration, U.S. Department of Agriculture, to Lt. Col. R. S. MacKellar, Jr., VC, Veterinary

Division, SGO, 20 Nov. 1943.

59. Letter, Maj. C. D. Barrett, VO, Veterinarian, Fort Robinson Dog Center, Nebr.,

subject; Experimental Feed Test.

60. Letter, Capt. G. B. Schnelle. VC, Front Royal Dog Center, Va., IS July 1944.

subject: Field Test of Dog Rations (Dry), Type I.
640 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

61. Letter, Lt. Col. C. D. Barrett, VC, Veterinarian, Fort Robinson Dog Center,

Nebr., 20 July 1944, subject: Experimental Feeding Test.

62. Letter, Capt. G. B. Schnelle, VC, Front Royal Dog Center, a., Aug. 1944, subject Feeding of Type Dog Feed Wet.

63. Mace, D. L., and Wagers, R. P.: Veterinary Historical Activities in Chemical

Warfare Research and Training, Edgewood Arsenal, Md. [Official record.]

64. TB 3-205-6, Sept. 1944.

65. Letter, Office of the Quartermaster General, to The Surgeon General, 29 Apr.

1944, subject: MRL (EA) Report No. 17, with 1st indorsement dated 15 June 1944.

66. Preliminary Drawing TO 700-6035, Construction Division, Office of the Chief of

Engineers, 28 Nov. 1942.

67. Drawing TO 700-6035 and -6036, Construction Division, Office of the Chief of

Engineers, Dec. 1942.

68. Drawing TO 700-6037 and -6038, Construction Division, Office of the Chief of

Engineers, Aug. 1943.

69. Reports of Sick and Wounded Animals, CBI War Dog Detachment, December

1944 through March 1945.

70. Case, L. I.: World War II History of the Army Veterinary Service, Boston Port

of Embarkation. [Official record.]

71. Richter, J. B.: World War II History of the Army Veterinary Service, Hampton Roads Port of Embarkation. [Official record.]

72. Kunnecke, R. P.: World War II History of the Army Veterinary Service, Los

Angeles Port of Embarkation. [Official record.]

73. Rife, G. J.: World War II History of the Army Veterinary Service, San Francisco Port of Embarkation. [Official record.]

74. Kingdon, E. G.: World War II History of the Army Veterinary Service, Seattle

Port of Embarkation. [Official record.]

75. Tierney, W. F.: World War II History of the Army Veterinary Service, Fort

Hamilton, N.Y. [Official record.]

76. Letter, 1st Tit. W. T. Oglesby, VC, to Port Veterinarian, New Orleans Port of

Embarkation, no date, subject: Report on Ten Dogs Received at New Orleans PE

Evening of 20 Nov. 1942.

77. Letter, 1st Lt. A. A. Moore, VC, to Port Veterinarian, New Orleans Port of

Embarkation, 28 Dec. 1942, subject: Shipment of Sentry Dogs.

78. Letter, 1st Lt. P. Myers, VC, New Orleans Port of Embarkation, 25 Nov. 1942,

subject: Resume of Voyage Covering Shipment of 34 Sentry Dogs.

79. Letter, 1st Lt. J. B. Key, VC, Presidio of San Francisco, Calif., to The Surgeon

General, 20 Apr. 1943, subject: Surgeon’s Report of Voyage.

80. Letter, Capt. G. G. Miller, Jr., VC, CBI Casual Dog Detachment, to Veterinarian,

CBI. 21 July 1944.

81. Memorandum S30-15-42, Adjutant General’s Office, SOS, 22 Dec. 1942. subject:

Feed and Veterinary Care for War Dogs.

82. Derrick, J. D.: World War II History of the Army Veterinary Service, First

Service Command, Zone of Interior. [Official record.]

83. Wight, A. C.: World War II History of the Army Veterinary Service, Eighth

Service Command, Zone of Interior. [Official record.]

84. Letter, Forward Echelon. HQ Ninth Service Command, to Fort MacArthur,

Calif., Mar. 1943, subject; Veterinary Service for Dogs Assigned to Coast Guard Patrol

Duty.

85. Letter, Veterinary Division, SGO, to Veterinarian, HQ Ninth Service Command,

12 Mar. 1943.

86. Finance and Supply Circular 125-43, U.S. Coast Guard, 15 June 1943, subject:

Procurement of Veterinary Supplies for Horses and Dogs.
ARMY DOGS 641

87. Hawaii Defense Act Rule 131, Territory of Hawaii, 23 Feb. 1945.

88. Hawaii Defense Act Rule 144, Territory of Hawaii, Sept. 1945.

89. Miller, E. B.: History of the Army Veterinary Service, USAF, Middle Pacific,

July-31 Dec. 1945. [Official record.]

90. Derrick, J. D.: Annual Report, Army Veterinary Service, First Service Command, Zone of Interior, 1943.

91. Caldwell, G. L.: World War II History of the Army Veterinary Service, Third

Service Command, Zone of Interior. [Official record.]

92. Shook, L. L.: World War II History of the Army Veterinary Service, Sixth

Service Command, Zone of Interior. [Official record.]

93. Reynolds, F. H. K.: World War II History of the Army Veterinary Service,

Ninth Service Command, Zone of Interior. [Official record.]

94. Memorandum, Col. F. W. Koester, QMC, San Carlos Dog Center, for Col. Daniels,

Office of the Quartermaster General. Sept. 1943.

95. Jones, T. C.: Annual Reports, Veterinary Research Laboratory, Front Royal,

Va., 1943^5.

96. Jones, T. C.: World War II History of the Army Veterinary Research Laboratory, Front Royal, Va. [Official record.]

97. T/O&E 10-397T, Mar. 1944.

98. T/O&E 10-397T, 24 June 1944.

99. T/O&E 7-167, 14 Dec. 1944, as amended.

100. Advance copy, T/O 1-618, 26 May 1943.

101. T/O&E 1-618, 15 Sept. 1943.

102. Karr, J. R.: Duties of the Veterinary Officer in the Air Transport Command.

Air Surgeon’s Bull. 394-395, November 1945.

103. Sperry, J. R., and Huebner, R. A.: World War II History of the Army Veterinary Service, European Theater of Operations. [Official record.]

104. Letter, PGA, Headquarters, SOS, ETOUSA, to Base Sections and the Eighth

and Ninth Air Forces, 21 Dec. 1943, subject: Guard Dog Training School.

105. Letter, Col. J. II. McNinch, MC, Executive Officer, Chief Surgeon’s Office, HQ ETOUSA, to British Ministry of Aircraft Production, London. Eng., July 1944.

106. Letter, Maj. J. G. Eagleman, VC, Surgeon’s Office, Eastern Base Section, SOS,

ETOUSA, to Chief Surgeon, ETOUSA, Jan. 1944, subject: Medical Supplies for Veterinary Officers Kits, with indorsements thereto.

107. Info Routing Slip, Veterinary Division, Office of the Chief Surgeon, HQ

ETOUSA, 17 Apr. 1944, subject: Equipment for Veterinary Care of Guard Dogs, with

four numbered memorandums.

108. Circular 57, HQ ETOUSA, 27 May 1944, subject: Vaccination of Dogs.

109. Blood, B. D.: History of the Army Veterinary Service with the U.S. Strategic

Air Forces in Europe During 1944. [Official record.]

110. Letters, Col. R. G. Yule, VC, Surgeon’s Office, HQ First U.S. Army, Feb.,

10 Mar., and Apr. 1945, subject: Veterinary Report on Guard Dogs, War Dogs, and Sled

Dogs.

111. Smock, S. C., and Baker, J. E.: World War II History of the Army Veterinary

Service, Southwest Pacific Area. [Official record.]

112. Report of Sick and Wounded Animals, Base Section 3, SWPA, September

through December 1943.

113. Quarterly historical reports, Veterinary Service, IIQ Sixth U.S. Army, 16 Feb.

and 28 Apr. 1945.

114. R. T. Seymour. Surgeon’s Office, HQ Tenth U.S. Army, Report on the Veterinary Service, Okinawa, for the Period April to 30 September 1945.

115. Hawaii Defense Act Rule 136, Territory of Hawaii, May 1945.
642 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

116. Cranfield, J. G.: Veterinary History of the War Dog Program in the Central

Pacific Area, 1945. [Official record.]

117. Miller, E. B.: World War II History of the Army Veterinary Service, Maui

Island, Central Pacific Area. [Official record.]

118. Stainbach, I. M., Governor of Hawaii: Proclamation Pursuant to Section 211.

R.L.H. 1935, Apr. 1944.

119. Hodgson, E. E., and Moore, R. O., Jr.; World War II History of the Army

Veterinary Service, SoPac Area. [Official record.]

120. Annual Report, Surgeon, Island Command; New Caledonia. 1944.

121. Mohri, R. W.; World War II History of the Army Veterinary Service, CBI.

[Official record.]

122. Reports of Sick and Wounded Animals, 228th Engineers Mine Detection Company (Dog), September through November 1944.

123. Carter, P. R.; World War II History of the Army Veterinary Service, NewfoundlandBase Command. [Official record.]

124. Reports of Sick and Wounded Animals, 3d Infantry Division, September 1943.

125. Letter, Capt. G. R. Donahue, MC, 190th Station Hospital, to Base Veterinary

Officer, APO 858, 31 Dec. 1943, subject: Veterinary Report.

126. Letter, HQ Greenland Base Command, to The Surgeon General, 29 Jan. 1944.

subject: Prophylactic Immunization of Dogs in Greenland, with 1st indorsement dated

Feb. 1944.

127. Letter, Capt. B. W. Larsen, VC, HQ Greenland Base Command, to Base Surgeon,

Jan. 1945, subject: Monthly Veterinary Sanitary Report.

128. Annual Report, Veterinary Service, Surgeon’s Office, Puerto Rican Department,

1942.

129. Annual Report, Veterinary Service, Surgeon’s Office, Antilles Department, 1945.

130. Stewart, R. B.: World War II History of the Army Veterinary Service, Panama

Canal Department. [Official record.]

131. Annual Reports, Veterinarian, Surgeon’s Office, Panama Canal Department,

1943-45.

132. Letter, Office of the Quartermaster General, to Army dog centers, 20 Dec. 1943,

subject; Disposition of Surplus Donated Dogs.

133. First indorsement, Lt. Col. R. S. MacKellar, Jr., VC, Veterinary Division. Surgeon General’s Office, to 1st Lt. G. A. Williams, VC, Veterinarian, Cat Island Dog Center,

15 May 1943, in reply to basic letter, 10 May 1943, subject: Disposition of Animals

Known to Have Filariasis.

134. Second indorsement, Brig. Gen. R. A. Kelser, Veterinary Division, SGO. to

Office of the Quartermaster General, Feb. 1944, on basic letter, Capt. II. M. Rhett. Jr..

QMC, Cat Island Dog Center, to Remount Branch, Office of the Quartermaster General,

subject: Disposition of Dogs Infested With Microfilaria Immitis.

135. Letter, Office of the Quartermaster General, to Army dog centers, 29 Jan. 1944,

subject; Disposition of Dogs Infected With Filariasis.

136. First indorsement, Maj. Gen. C. L. Corbin, Acting Quartermaster General, to

Commanding General, CPBC, Feb. 1945, subject: Disposition of War Dogs Overseas;

basic letter not available.

137. Second indorsement, San Carlos, Calif., to 25th QM War Dog Platoon, 25 Sept.

1944; in reply to basic letter, 21 Sept. 1944, subject: Return of War Dogs Not Suitable

for Tactical Use.
643

CHAPTER XVIII

Army Signal Pigeons

The veterinary service for Army signal pigeons was an innovation of

World War II, beginning in 1941 when Veterinary Corps officer was assigned

to the Fort Monmouth, N.J., pigeon-breeding and training center. Signal

pigeons for the Army were procured, bred, trained, and issued under the

supervision of the Pigeon Service, an element of the Army’s Signal Corps

(/, 2, 3). These activities may be compared with those of the Quartermaster Corps Remount Service which was concerned with the supply of horses, mules, and dogs; they had their beginning in World War when pigeons were

authorized for use as means of communication in the U.S. Army (4).

Seemingly, the earliest reference to any kind of veterinary service for

pigeons in the Army concerned Medical Department supplies (5). During

August 1922, the Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office, developed list of equipment and certain medicines (including disinfectants) which could be used by Pigeon Service personnel to maintain loft sanitation and to control external parasites. Sodium fluoride was suggested for the control of

pigeon lice. However, medicines for internal use or biologicals were unlisted for the expressed reason that “it is better to destroy sick bird than to treat it unless qualified veterinarian is available.” Two years later, veterinary

officer, in an article on pigeons that appeared in the Army Veterinary Bulletin

suggested that the care and management of signal pigeons may “become another more or less important development of army veterinary activity” (d).

This became true after IT years when at least 17 Veterinary Corps officers could be identified with the Signal Corps pigeon organizations and units.

SIGNAL PIGEON PROCUREMENT

The beginning of World War II found the Army’s pigeon center located

at Fort Monmouth where it had been since 1919 when the latter—then named

Camp Alfred Vail—began program for developing the type of pigeon most

suitable for military purposes (7). During 1942 this center, including its

veterinary personnel which had just joined, moved to Camp Crowder, Mo.,

where it remained until after V-J Day when it was reestablished at Fort

Monmouth. By this date, the Army Veterinary Service had become well

established in the Signal Corps activities related to pigeons in the Zone of

Interior (8. 9).

1st Lt. (later Capt.) C. I. Angstrom, VC, was ordered into active military service on 24 April

1941, with initial station at Fort Monmouth. He was transferred with the pigeon center to Camp

Crowder, Mo., during September of the following year. Another veterinary officer, 1st Lt. L. M.

Greene, VC, joined on November 1942.
644 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

SC H/CPA-44—310

Figure 72.—Pigeoneers cooperating with Veterinary Corps officers to maintain

healthy birds. The military utilization of pigeons depended on their health and freedom

from disease. Birds were developed as “night fliers,” also as two-way birds (that is,

fly one way for water and return home for food).

Pigeons for the Army were procured by in-service breeding and the

acceptance of voluntary donations (fig. 72). An estimated 40,000 pigeons were

received from American pigeon breeders, fanciers, and owners during the war

(10) in fact, an Army Pigeon Service Agency, with headquarters in Philadelphia, Pa., was organized and operated for this purpose (11). In the Central

Pacific Area, where civilian owners experienced wartime shortages of feeding

grains and were placed under restrictions relating to the ownership of pigeons

in areas of military operations, hundreds of pigeons were obtained locally.

Thousands of other pigeons were procured from British sources and later

from Belgian fanciers’ organization. In the European theater large numbers

of captured pigeons were used by Signal Corps units with the field armies;

only few Japanese Army pigeons were captured in the Pacific areas.

PIGEON CARE AND MANAGEMENT

During World War II, as the Army’s pigeon strength rose to 54,000 birds

(10), the objectives of the Army Veterinary Service concerned with signal

pigeons became the protection of pigeon health, the preservation of their

physical efficiency, and the safeguard against introducing or disseminating
ARMY SIGNAL PIGEONS 645

pigeonborne diseases affecting other animals and the human being. These

objectives were obtained by furnishing professional services and supervisory

assistance in the care, feeding, housing, and transporting of pigeons; conducting laboratory diagnostic and investigative studies on pigeon diseases; establishing controls against the diseases of pigeons by prophylactic inoculations

and quarantine procedures; inspecting and reporting on factors having

bearing on pigeon health; and giving technical assistance in the training of

pigeoneers (pigeon handlers). Although 36,000 pigeons were deployed overseas, the foregoing veterinary services were not practiced uniformly in all of

the theaters and oversea areas because of the newness in the concept of military

veterinary medicine for the Army Pigeon Service. However, when practiced,

the Army Veterinary Service contributed materially to the success of signal

pigeon deployment.

Aside from the actual treatment of disabled pigeons, providing veterinary

instructional services for pigeoneers who were in training was an effective

means of introducing military veterinary medicine into the Army Pigeon Service, The 8- or 9-week mobilization training program that was used in the

Army Service Forces Signal Corps training center at Camp Crowder included

25 hours of instruction on veterinary subjects (12, 13). In an evaluation of

the success of this instruction, it seems probable that the keen interest shown

in scientific zootechnics and veterinary medicine was balanced by the layman’s

views or preconceptions on these matters by the pigeoneer trainees, most of

whom were pigeon breeders or fanciers in civil life but had never been in contact with veterinarian. Unfortunately, the veterinary instructional services were handicapped at the start due to the fact that the Army’s training

text—Technical Manual 11—410, dated 10 September 1940—was neither accurate nor up to date in its discussions on pigeon diseases and their control.

Pigeon-pox vaccine, for example—discovered in the early thirties—was not

mentioned, and neither was salmonellosis (or pigeon paratyphoid) which was

the most devastating disease of signal pigeons during World War II. The

situation was ameliorated by Veterinary Corps officers to the extent that

lecture notes were prepared which were published by the Signal Corps at

later date 15), these then being incorporated into the January 1945

revision of the Technical Manual, The Homing Pigeon.

The next event of importance in the advancement of veterinary service

for Army signal pigeons came in the spring of 1942 when the field unit—the

Signal Pigeon Company—was authorized its own organic veterinary detachment. However, the most effective means of insuring that good zootechnics

was being practiced in these units—whether in the Zone of Interior or overseas—was the use of system of veterinary inspection and reporting. Most

frequently, these reports of inspections were rendered in letter form as

recurring monthly sanitary report (Id), but others were submitted as in- closures to those report forms prescribed by the Army for pigeon company

commanders. Vo veterinary reports on individual pigeons were maintained.
646 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

SC ETO-SBS-PRO-44-1123-26-7

Figure 73.—Maintaining pigeon efficiency by the use of clean and good-quality pigeon feed.

Although there were number of factors of interest to the Army Veterinary Service bearing on the health of signal pigeons, the more common ones

included their feed supply and housing. balanced feed and good feeding

practices were essential to the well being of the signal pigeons and had direct

bearing on their homing proficiency (fig. 73). The feed was procured in the

Zone of Interior by the Signal Corps; unfortunately, large quantities of it,

packed in burlap bags, were found deteriorated or unusable after arrival in

the oversea theaters (i'7, 18). The bags were torn by rough handling or were

readily eaten into by rodents, and the grain contents became damp, moldy,

or vermin infested. Certain grain components of the feed mixtures were

damaged more often than others, but any large-scale salvage effort to remove

the damaged grains could not be conducted without causing an imbalance of

the feed's nutritive values. Pigeon feed which was fumigated and packed in

hermetically sealed tin containers was suggested and arrived overseas during

the late period of the war. The apparent successes of the 281st Signal Pigeon

Company, at Fort George G. Meade, Md., in the treatment of sick pigeons by

administering vitamins-—suggestive of vitamin deficiency in the regular pigeon

feed supply—led to authorization of quarterly Medical Department allowances of 45,000 multivitamin capsules for each pigeon company (19).
ARMY SIGNAL PIGEONS 647

SC CPA-44—33G7

Figure 74.—Pigeon lofts were specially designed in adaptation to the climatic environs

in the Hawaiian Islands. The original loft with four sides closed, so commonly recommended for use in the United States, caused respiratory illnesses in the birds when they

first arrived. Almost no respiratory diseases occurred after this new type of wellventilated loft was put into use.

Proper housing for signal pigeons was problem, particularly in the

oversea theaters. Though mobile lofts of standard design accompanied the

units arriving from the Zone of Interior, some were remodeled to meet the

variable climatic conditions which were encountered in the Central Pacific

Area (20), and open-front lofts were constructed (fig. 74). Emphasis was

placed on having lofts which were exposed to sunlight, dry, and draft-free,

and on keeping the lofts in good state of sanitation. Usually, the loft

facilities were adequate in capacity for the number of pigeons being used,

although temporary shortages arose when breeding was undertaken. In an

exceptional instance, the 277th Signal Pigeon Company, arriving at Periers,

France (in the European theater), during August 1044, constructed open

aviaries to augment its regular loft facilities. However, at the time of the

seasonal rains, it experienced sickness in 2,500 of its 3,500 pigeons.

The diseases and injuries of signal pigeons were not recorded with the

same degree of regularity as were those of Army horses and mules, and dogs.

From the reports that could be studied, losses on account of disease and injury

were about one-half less than the number of pigeons which were lost in training and operational flying. In the Zone of Interior, at Pope Field, N.C., the
648 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

1306th Signal Pigeon Company (Aviation), with an end-of-month strength

averaging 3,317 pigeons during the period from April 1943 through August

1944, the veterinary losses were 922 pigeons, as contrasted with in-flight losses

of 1,102 {21, 22). In the same unit, but for the period from August 1943

through August 1944, the company veterinarian treated 4,036 cases, admitting

1,390 of these into the veterinary hospital loft where 738 pigeons died or were

destroyed. It was apparent that the veterinary losses increased following the

reception of replacement pigeons into these units. Wherever possible, particularly at the pigeon-breeding and replacement centers, and at the headquarters

area of units and organizations, veterinary lofts and isolation (or quarantine)

facilities were established.

The specific infectious diseases causing the most losses and inefficiency of

signal pigeons during World War II were pigeon pox, salmonellosis, and

trichomoniasis (“canker”). The first-named disease—encountered in all parts

of the world—was readily controlled by prophylactic vaccinations of the

pigeons each year.

Pigeon-pox vaccination programs were undertaken first by the Pigeon

Service in some areas of the Zone of Interior in 1941 (23) and were developed

later by the Army Veterinary Service in the Central Pacific Area and then

in the European theater.

Trichomoniasis and salmonellosis, however, could not be as well controlled

and thus, unlike pigeon pox, caused considerable inefficiency and direct loss of

the affected pigeons. Trichomoniasis—a protozoan disease—was seen as lowgrade infection, mostly involving the squabs (or young pigeons), and,

although amenable to treatment, the course of treatment, lasting up to weeks,

resulted in the loss of training time {23, 24)

Salmonellosis—a bacterial infection—presented another kind of problem,

frequently causing permanent disability (such as lameness and “wing droop”).

It as the leading cause of pigeon mortality (including deaths and destructions to control the disease) in many units. For example, the 280th Signal

Pigeon Company at Camp Claiborne, La., lost 200 pigeons in 7-month period

beginning December 1942 23 ). Another 141 salmonellosis-infected pigeons

were lost by the 1306th Signal Pigeon Company (Aviation) in the period

from April through August 1944 (22). These losses were 40.2 percent of the

total of 351 pigeons which had died or were destroyed because of diseases and

injuries. This disease was investigated by veterinary laboratories of the

Medical Department and by few civilian agencies, including the American

Salmonella Center, Lexington, Ky., with the view to identifying the salmonella

organism, improving diagnostic methods, and possibly developing protective

vaccine. No real advances were made, however, and the controls against the

disease included emphasis on loft sanitation and the removal of pigeons which

showed clinical symptoms or seemed to be carriers of the disease (as might be

indicated in review of the breeding records). Salmonellosis in pigeons
ARMY SIGNAL PIGEONS 649

gained some respect as potential threat to troop health, but no proved cases

of the disease seemed to have been reported among Army pigeoneers during

the war {17).

Other pigeon diseases included hexamitiasis—a protozoan disease—which

was reported in 87 pigeons among shipment received at Pope Field from

Camp Crowder in early 1944 {22) Ilaemoproteus infection, sometimes

called pigeon malaria, in the 279th Signal Combat Platoon while at station

in the Hawaiian Islands (in the Central Pacific Area) {24) and an enzootic

of toxoplasmosis in the Panama Canal Department that was investigated by

the Gorgas Memorial Laboratory {25). Probably more important than these

were the few diseases which could be carried by the pigeon to other animals or

to troops. These were equine encephalomyelitis, foot-and-mouth disease,

and ornithosis; however, there were no reports of the diseases being introduced

or spread by Army signal pigeons during World War II.

OVERSEA DEPLOYMENT

For their deployment in the oversea theaters, Army signal pigeons were

incorporated into specialized unit—the Signal Pigeon Company. While such

type units have been described in War Department tables of organization since

1918, it was not until after April 1942 that this field unit included personnel

space authorizations for an organic veterinary detachment. The latter comprised Veterinary Corps officer in the grade of 1st lieutenant or captain and

one enlisted technician {26 through 31). The company unit could be subdivided into three combat platoons, each with 1,500 pigeons; in fact, few

separate platoons with attached veterinary personnel were deployed. Later,

equipment tables were formulated for the pigeon company veterinary service, including number of needed medicines and surgical instruments 32 33).

Approximately 12 pigeon units were activated during the war including

the 829th Signal Pigeon Service Company, the 829th Signal Pigeon Replacement Company, and the 1306th and 1310th Signal Pigeon Companies (Aviation) —the latter being Army Air Forces units located at Pope Field, and at

Baker Field, Calif. These, however, and another—the 283d Signal Pigeon

Company—were not sent overseas. The following companies were deployed

to the European theater: The 277th (originally designated the 1307th), the

278th (successor to the original 1308th), the 282d, the 284th (successor to the

1309th), the 285th (successor to the 1311th), and the 280fh’s 2d Platoon. The

In the instance of an endemic of diarrheal conditions occurring among pigeoneers in com- pany unit in the European theater, the company commander expressly asked his personnel to wash

their hands after handling pigeons and before eating. Personnel assigned to permanent duty in the company kitchen included men who would not be in direct contact with pigeons.

This should not be confused with the true malarial infection caused by Plasmodium relictum,

also infectious to man.

The pigeon is known natural reservoir of the viral agent of equine encephalomyelitis.

With respect to the carrier status of the pigeon for the viral agent of foot-and-mouth disease,

the British Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries made no restrictions against the Incoming traffic

of U.S. Army pigeons into the British Isles from the European Continent where the disease was

enzootic.
650 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

280th Signal Pigeon Company was activated on June 1941, originally as the

2d Pigeon Company, at Camp Claiborne; the unit, less its 2d Platoon which

was sent during September 1942 to the European theater, was deployed into

the China-Burma-India theater (in June 1944). The 279th Signal Pigeon

Company (less its 3d Platoon) was deployed to the Central Pacific Area and

then was reorganized during July 1944 as the 279th Signal Pigeon Combat

Platoon; the 1st Combat Platoon component of the 281st Signal Pigeon Company was sent from station at Fort George G. Meade to the Southwest Pacific

Area, and the parent company in the Zone of Interior was soon inactivated

(during August 1944). Provisional pigeon organizations and detachments

also were established, or were received from the Zone of Interior, in the

Mediterranean theater (including the 209th Signal Pigeon Company and

the Provisional 6681st Signal Corps Pigeon Company), on New Caledonia (in

the South Pacific Area), at Ladd Field (in the Alaskan Department), and in

the Caribbean Defense Command (including the original Panama Canal

Department). The last-named group, however, had no attached veterinary

personnel. Of these theaters, the Central Pacific Area and the European

theater saw the greatest advances in the veterinary services for signal pigeons-—

handicapped only to slight degree in that the pigeons of each company unit

were widely scattered and the professional requirements were of highly

specialized nature.

Central Pacific Area

In the Central Pacific Area, veterinary service for signal pigeons began in

July 1942, when component elements of the 279th Signal Pigeon Company,

with 1,920 birds, arrived from the Zone of Interior (fig. 75) (JJ). pigeon base and breeding center was established at Fort Shafter, T.H., wherefrom 27

tactical lofts were soon set up on all the Hawaiian Islands: on Oahu, 10 on

Hawaii, on Kauai, on Maui, and each on Molokai and Lanai. Veterinary service was furnished by the Veterinary General Hospital, Fort Armstrong,

Oahu, T.H., and by the district or service command veterinarians on the other

island bases. During the fall of 1942, vaccination program against pigeon

pox was started—birds as young as to weeks of age were vaccinated, and

all pigeons were vaccinated prior to their transshipment from the Hawaiian

Island group (75, 20). Salmonellosis, originally referred to as “lameness” or

“wing droop,” occurred quite regularly and was controlled by the destruction

of those pigeons showing clinical symptoms. The pigeon strength in the

Central Pacific Area was 2,278 as of December 1942, and 3,426 as of December

1943. During the next year, the pigeon company was reorganized and redesignated as the 279th Signal Pigeon Combat Platoon, with 1,365 birds as of

December 1944. Approximately 2,300 pigeons which were surplus to the new

unit were shipped during September 1944 to the Southwest Pacific Area and

the Zone of Interior. In December, the signal platoon was assigned to the

Tenth U.S. Army and subsequently was deployed to Okinawa. Before the last move, Veterinary Corps officer was assigned to this unit.
ARMY SIGNAL PIGEONS 651

SC CPA-44-3370

Figure 75.—Lofts of the 279th Signal Pigeon Company were set up on all the islands

of the Hawaiian group. District veterinarians on Hawaii, Maui, Molokai-Lanai, and

Kauai rendered technical care and treatment. The base camp, located on Oahu, was

visited daily by veterinary officer from the Veterinary General Hospital. No serious

communicable diseases ever appeared in any of the lofts.

The deployment of the 279th Signal Pigeon Combat Platoon to Okinawa

brought into the Southwest Pacific Area the second such unit. The other was

the 1st Combat Platoon, 281st Signal Pigeon Company, complete with its own

veterinary detachment. This unit saw service in the Philippine operations.

European Theater

In the European theater, the beginning of Army Veterinary Service with

signal pigeons began in the fall of 1942 with the arrival of the 2d Platoon, 280th Signal Pigeon Company, with 1,391 pigeons from the Zone of Interior

(35, 36. 37) The latter’s arrival brought two veterinary problems: First, 20

percent of the pigeons were sick with colds, “rattles,” and lameness; and second, the British military medical services were questioning the likelihood of

these pigeons having and introducing ornithosis into the United Kingdom

(38, 39, 4-0, 41)- With regard to ornithosis, the British services made reference to new reports of the discovery of ornithosis among the pigeon popula590248 —61 43
652 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

SC ETO-SBS—PRO-44—1132—26

Figure 76.—Examination and treatment of Army pigeons at the Signal Pigeon

Center, Tidworth, England. This was part of the European theater’s veterinary

program to obtain and maintain an efficient Army Pigeon Service in the armies

and divisions in continental Europe.

lion in the United States and suggested that no medical problems would arise

if the Army would obtain its pigeons locally. Veterinary quarantine procedures and research investigations by the British National Institute of Medical

Research and the U.S. Army General Medical Laboratory (predecessor to

to the 1st Medical General Laboratory) failed to show ornithosis infection; later, the civilian pigeon population in the United Kingdom was found to be

infected with the disease. In time, the 2d Platoon, 280th Signal Pigeon Company, established and maintained pigeon-breeding and replacement center at

Tidworth, Eng., as an element of the theater’s services of supply organization

(fig. 76). It furnished birds to the several pigeon companies which were

deployed with the armies on the European Continent. Veterinary service was

provided to the pigeon center by Veterinary Corps officers on part-time duty

status—a situation that was criticized by the tactical pigeon companies who,

having full-time assigned veterinary personnel, at times received nnsatisfac-
ARMY SIGNAL PIGEONS 653

tory shipments of replacement birds (J£). For example, program of protective vaccination against pigeon pox—though considered first within the European theater during the summer of 1944—was originally limited to use only

in the tactical pigeon companies in the instance of threatening enzootic {43,

44)- In January 1945, however, the pigeon-breeding base in England began

to vaccinate all replacement pigeons before shipment to the European Continent during that month alone, 7,809 pigeons were vaccinated.

Following Y-E Day, the tactical pigeon companies were required to turn

in their pigeons to the 285th Signal Pigeon Company which released them to

British pigeon depot at Montoire-sur-le-loire, France; others were sent to the

United Kingdom {J$). As of June 1945, the pigeon-breeding and replacement

center at Tidworth had 14,000 pigeons, these soon being released to the British

{45). The forementioned company, departing during November and December 1945 from the European theater (via England), returned to the Zone of

Interior with approximately 1,000 pigeons.

Reference

1. AR 105-200, July 1930.

2. AR 105-200, 20 Dec. 1946.

3. SR 10-380-1, 21 Oct. 1949.

4. World War Group, Historical Division, OCMII: Order of Battle of the United

States Land Forces in the World War (1917-19). Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1949.

5. Memorandum, Lt. Col. C. F. Morse, MC, Veterinary Division, SGO, for Coordination, Organization, and Education Division, SGO, 11 Aug. 1922, subject: Table of Basic

Allowances, Pigeon Service.

6. Sperry, J. R.: The Homing Pigeon. Army Yet. Bull. 13: 249-251, June 1924.

7. Ross, T.: The Origin and History of Homing Pigeons. Army Vet. Bull. 25: 47-53, January 1931.

8. World War II History of the Army Veterinary Service, Second Service Command,

Zone of Interior. [Official record.]

9. World War II History of the Army Veterinary Service, Seventh Service Command, Zone of Interior. [Official record.]

10. Meyer, O.: The Battlefield’s Feathered Couriers. Army Information Digest 5:

23-30, February 1950.

11. WD Memorandum S105-19-43, 15 May 1943.

12. MTP 11-2, 10 May 1943.

13. MTP 11-1, June 1944.

14. Central Signal Corps Replacement Training Center, Camp Crowder, Mo., June

1944 Preventive Veterinary Medicine.

15. Eastern Signal Corps Unit Training Center, Fort Monmouth, N.J., January 1944:

Pigeon Diseases and Parasites.

16. Letter. Col. E. M. Curley, VC, Veterinarian, Chief Surgeon’s Office, HQ ETOUSA.

to Veterinary Office, 16 Oct. 1943, subject: Veterinary Sanitary Report on Guard Dogs

and Pigeons.

17. Letter, Capt. A. T. Miller. SigC, 278th Signal Pigeon Company, Dec. 1944, subject Action Against Enemy Reports After/After Action Reports.

18. ETMD, Central Pacific Base Command, October 1944.

19. Letter. Office of the Chief Signal Officer, to Veterinarian, 281st Signal Pigeon

Company, Nov. 1942, subject: Vitamin Capsules.
654 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

20. Letter, Maj. W. O. Kester, VC, South Sector Veterinarian, Fort Armstrong, to

Department Veterinarian, IIQ Hawaiian Department, Oct. 1942, subject: Veterinary

Service for Signal Corps Pigeons.

21. Monthly Pigeon Report, 1300th Signal Pigeon Company, April 1943 through

August 1944.

22. Monthly Reports of Hospital Loft, 1306th Signal Pigeon Company, April 3943

through August 1944.

23. Rosenwald, A. S.: Veterinary Problems in Signal Pigeon Company. J. Am.

Vet. M. A. 104: 141-143, March 1944.

24. Gleiser, C. A., and Yager, R. H.: Trichomonad and Haemoproteus Infections.

Army M. Bull. 177-182, August 1946.

25. Letter, C. M. Johnson, Gorgas Memorial Laboratory, Panama, to Brig. Gen. R.

A. Kelser, Veterinary Division, SGO, Oct. 1943.

26. T/O 348, 18 June 1918.

27. T/O 210W, July 1921.

28. T/O 11-39, 10 Jan. 1939.

29. T/O 11-39, Nov. 1940.

30. T/O 11-39, Apr. 1942.

31. T/O&E 11-39, Sept. 1943.

32. T/O&E 11-39, 26 Mar. 1943.

33. T/O&E 11-39, Sept. 1943.

34. Kester, W. O., and Miller, E. B.: World War II History of the Army Veterinary

Service, Central Pacific Area. [Official record.]

35. Sperry, J. R., and Huebner, R. xV.: World War II History of the Army Veterinary Service, ETO. [Official record.]

36. Annual Report, Veterinary Division, Chief Surgeon’s Office, ETOUSA, 1944.

37. Quarterly Report, Veterinary Division, Chief Surgeon’s Office, USFET, 4th quarter, 1945.

38. Memorandum, Lt. Col. J. E. Gordon, MC, Preventive Medicine Division, Chief

Surgeon’s Office, ETOUSA, for Col. P. R. Hawley, MC, 28 Aug. 1942, subject: Importation of Pigeons by the Signal Corps.

39. Letter, Col. E. M. Curley, VC, Veterinary Division, Chief Surgeon’s Office,

ETOUSA, to Maj. R. B. Wann, VC, Veterinarian, 5th PE, 29 Sept. 1942.

40. Memorandum, Col. E. M. Curley, VC, Veterinary Division, Chief Surgeon’s

Office, ETOUSxl, for Signal Officer, ETOUSxV, 19 Sept. 1942, subject: 2d Platoon, 280th

Signal Pigeon Company, II Army Corps—Corps Troops, Bellahouston Park (British

Camp), Glasgow.

41. Letter, Lt. Col. J. E. Gordon, MC, Preventive Medicine Division, Chief Surgeon’s

Office, ETOUSA, to Surgeon. 2d Signal Pigeon Co., II Army Corps, Glasgow, 13 Oct. 1942,

subject; Psittacosis in Pigeons.

42. Veterinary Sanitary Reports, 285th Signal Pigeon Company, 31 Jan. 1945,

Aug. 1945.

43. Letter, Col. C. B. Perkins, VC, Veterinarian, Chief Surgeon’s Office, ETOUSA. to

all veterinary officers, 27 Jan. 1945, subject: Vaccination of Pigeons Against Variola

Avium.

44. Veterinary Report of Sanitation for Pigeons, Southern District, United Kingdom

Base, January 1945.

45. Medical Department Activity Report, Surgeon’s Office, United Kingdom Base,

ETOUSA. Jan.-30 June 1945.
655

CHAPTER XIX

Animal Farms, Captured Animals, and Privately

Owned Animals

Though Army horses and mules, Army dogs, and signal pigeons comprised the main reasons for veterinary service with animals in World War

II, there were number of other groups of animals which were provided

professional care and treatment. Such animal groups presenting the more

significant problems were livestock animals, captured animals, and troop

mascots or pet animals belonging to military personnel.

ANIMAL FARMS

In World War II, the Army Veterinary Service provided professional

services and supervised operations at dozen or more livestock and poultry

farms whose animal populations involved at least thousand cattle and hogs

and several thousand chickens. Though farms of various sorts have been

operated since the earliest days of the Army, they were concerned mainly

with the growing of vegetables or the harvesting of forage.

While there were number of cogent reasons for their operation during

World War II, the animal farms were more commonly used as means of

adding fresh foods to the rations in Army hospitals. At least two poultry

farms were established for this reason alone, one on New Caledonia (in the

South Pacific Area) (I) and the other at Townsville, Australia (in the

Southwest Pacific Area) (2). The former, with as many as 2,800 birds as

of December 1944 that were raised from chicks imported from Australia, lasted until September 1945. In the Zone of Interior, before the Army monetary system of food supply was replaced by the issue-in-kind ration, the output of such farms was planned by stations and units to build up so-called

ration savings credits which could be diverted toward other purposes. Many

such farms, having been operated throughout the preceding peacetime period

by the Quartermaster Corps, Army Exchange System, or separate units,

were continued in World War II. The improvement of troop morale was

another reason for their establishment or expanded operations, particularly

in the oversea theaters where the farms provided more varied diet of fresh

meats and eggs. In the theaters, hog production was favored because, unlike

cattle and poultry which required that supplements be imported into the

Available records indicate that animal farms, before World War II, were operated at the

following camps Fort Bayard, N. Mex., Fort Belvoir, Va., Carlisle Barracks, Pa., Fort Bragg, N.C.,

Fort Clark, Tex., Fort Huachuca, Ariz., Fort Oglethorpe, Ga., Fort Reno, Okla., Fort Riley, Kans.,

Fort Robinson, Nebr., Front Royal, Va., Fort Leavenworth, Kans., and Jefferson Barracks, Mo.

Probably there were others.
ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE 656

SC 43C-31-012—44-6161

Figure 77.—Army hog farm in Levant Service Command, U.S. Army Forces in the Middle

East.

area, the hogs could be fed on the garbage from troop messhalls and could

provide, at the same time, means of disposing of edible garbage. Damaged

subsistence, as it became available, was added to this garbage. Damaged subsistence was used in the feeding of hogs on farms which were established in

the Middle East theater during 1943 at Decamere, Eritrea, and Tel Witwinsky, Palestine (figs. 77 and 78), and in the China-Burma-India theater

(4) at Agra, Calcutta, and Ledo, India (figs. 79 and 80). In the latter theater, “enterprising veterinary officers operated poultry farms at few stations,

feeding the birds on grain, kitchen wastes, and spoiled canned milk, in an

attempt to soften the leathery birds.”

Although food production was the main objective of the Army’s animal

farms, the Army Air Forces at Mitchel Field, N.Y., found that animals could

Ordinarily, Army hog farms were not established in oversea populous areas where the edible

garbage found ready market with the local civilian hog producers. Unfortunately, the Army was often embarrassed to the extent that such garbage was claimed to lessen hog raising, spread disease

(notably hog cholera), and, at times, kill the hogs. The fact was that the civilian hog producers—-

then provided with large quantities of Army garbage— failed to balance or supplement the garbage

feed with concentrates and were unequipped to process (or pasteurize) the Army garbage in com- pliance with local civilian laws and regulations. Such occurred in the European theater, the Southwest Pacific Area (in Australia), and in the Central Pacific Area (in the Territory of Hawaii).

In the latter command, veterinary officer could find no reason for the Army to expend money

to collect and heat garbage at central point before distribution to commercial hog producers and,

at another time, joined in an investigation of pending claim against the Army that eventually

showed that Army garbage was not “poisoned” by contamination in an Army messhall but by

jealous neighboring producer whose source of supply was suddenly stopped when “his” Army units

were moved elsewhere. So far as it was known, the edible garbage was made available without

cost to the hog producers who could show need for it and could assure regular collections of such

garbage from the messhalls; reasonable precautions were taken within the Army to insure its

nonpoisonous character and edibility for hogs.
ANIMAL FARMS 657

Figure 78.—Army hog farm at Uecamere, Eritrea.

be beneficially used in rehabilitating hospital patients and for that purpose procured farm which was operated under the supervision of the airbase

veterinarian (figs. 81 and 82). Other animal farms which were provided

with veterinary services included those operated in the prisoner-of-war camps

at Alva, Okla., and McLean, Tex.

more patent reason was given for the establishment and operation of

farms by Army task forces on two island bases in the Central Pacific Area

). Vulnerable to isolation and starvation in the event of Japanese naval

blockade after the Pearl Harbor attack, the Christmas Island forces in February 1942 assumed control over few cattle, hogs, and poultry which had

been imported earlier by the U.S. Engineer Department at the start of construction on an airfield; later in that year, 150 hogs and 125 chickens were

shipped from the Hawaiian Islands to the Army task force on Canton

Island (fig. 83). With the westward retreat of the Japanese Navy, the task

force farms lost their immediate military purpose, and the farm animals

on Canton Island were disposed of by slaughter in June 1943. The larger

and more diversified farm (including 27 dairy cows and dairy bulls, 88

sows and boars, and 375 poultry, as of December 1942) on Christmas Island

was continued, however, until after V-J Day. The latter, under the control

of veterinary officer, provided fresh milk, egg, and meat supply to the

hospital as well as to the garrison’s troop messhalls; during the period from

November 1943 through September 1944, the farm’s production had monetary value of $14,700 (6). It may be noted that the original potential as

“living food reserves” of these task force farms in the Pacific had gained

military importance from the early reports that Army horses and mules and
658 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

SC IBT-45-1150;}

Figure 79. Hogs maintained by the Army at the Ledo, India,

farm being treated for screw-worm infestation.

locally procured carabao were the last sources of meat supplied to the defenders of the Philippine Islands before their surrender to the Japanese at

Corregidor (in April 1942) (7, 9). The veterinary officers included in these

Philippine forces, subsequently as prisoners of war of the Japanese, were frequently detailed to stock farms at prison camps.

Whenever animal farms were operated, veterinary officers rendered the

required professional services, supervised their sanitary aspects, and maintained regulatory controls against animal diseases. During World War IT,

these activities were greatly increased and usually included the actual operation of the animal farms where the veterinary officers were the only qualified

personnel available. In this connection, the veterinary officers of Army Garrison Forces in the Central Pacific Area were called upon to attend the

animal livestock farms which were established by the Navy’s CA/MG (Civil

Affairs/Military Government) units, following the invasion landings on

Guam, Saipan, and Tinian (in the Mariana Islands). Similar assistance was
ANIMAL FARMS 659

Figure SC IBT—45—11502 80.—Army hog farm at Ledo, India.

Figure 81.—Hospital patient working on the animal farm at Pawling Convalescent

Center, N.Y.

590248'—61 44
660 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Figure 82.—Diversified animal farm, Pawling Convalescent Center, N.Y.

This farm was under the supervision of the veterinary officer, Mitchel Field,

N.Y., specifically to aid in the recreational training and rehabilitation of hospital

patients.

provided by the Army Veterinary Service in the South Atlantic theater at

the joint Army-Navy hog and poultry farm which was maintained for about

years at Recife, Brazil; also, in Natal, Brazil, the U.S. Office of InterAmerican Affairs called on veterinary officer to assist Brazilian authorities

on hog production project {10). The added wartime responsibilities included that veterinary officers (1) survey the farm sites, (2) plan the farm

construction and abattoirs, (3) recommend the kinds and breeds of livestock

and poultry most practical to raise, (4) investigate the water and local food

supply as to availability and adequacy, and (5) obtain such command support

necessary to insure the maintenance of the farm on high level of efficiency.

The professional problems centered on the control of animal diseases to insure farm animal efficiency and to protect troop health. These diseases

included peculiar type of respiratory disorder, observed in the chickens on

New Caledonia, which was attributed to an imbalanced diet, and pig anemia, on the farm on Christmas Island. In the Marianas Islands and elsewhere, hogs were routinely immunized against hog cholera. Unfortunately, the establishment of adequate measures for the protection of troop health was more

difficult. The fresh-milk production from some of the Army’s dairy herds
ANIMAL FARMS

Figure 83. Army task force dairy herd, Christmas Island.

was unpasteurized or handled under elementary hygienic conditions (i/),

and the meat-producing animals were too often slaughtered in makeshift

abattoirs. Some of the health dangers of the Army’s fresh-milk production

were reduced, with continued emphasis on farm sanitation and the examination of the dairy cows for freeness of disease. While test and eradication

program had been adopted against tuberculosis in Army cattle in 1929,

similar program against brucellosis (Malta fever) was not undertaken until

much later date. In fact, the unexpected finding of this disease in the

dairy herd on Christmas Island-—after 3% years of virtual isolation and repeated examination—caused the immediate discontinuance of the local milk

supply program and the subsequent closing of the farm.

CAPTURED ANIMALS

Except in the European theater, captured animals were an invaluable

asset to the U.S. and Allied military forces. In the European theater, captured animals played an unimportant role {21). There may have been as

many as 15,000 of them. large number of these animals were used for

pack transport purposes and few for cavalry-type reconnaissance, in the

campaigns against the Germans in Sicily and Italy and in the fighting against
662 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

the Japanese in Burma, the Philippine Islands, and Okinawa. At other times,

captured animals were used in areas back of tactical divisions and field

armies to haul supplies or to mount guard patrols in depots and prisoner-ofwar compounds. The real value of captured animals in the motorized and

mechanized Army that fought overseas in World War II, however, was not

so much in their redeployment into military campaign as it was the more

urgent need to return them to the civilian populations in liberated and occupied countries for the early reestablishment of local civilian economy and

agricultural rehabilitation. During World War II, the animals were released not only at the cessation of active hostilities, but also during the war

period, dependent on the tactical situation and the CA/MG programs in

liberated and occupied countries.

Captured animals presented several veterinary problems. One of these

comprised the safeguards-—including animal quarantine procedures and the

conduct of mallein test for glanders—to protect the health of Army horses

and mules. Another veterinary problem concerned the protection of troop

health through proper disposition of captured animals which might be

affected with diseases transmissible to man. The Army Veterinary Service

provided professional services and technical supervision over the care and

management of captured animals while in military custody, and special precautions ere suggested or adopted prior to their release or disposition to

prevent the spread of animal diseases in military command or among civilian livestock populations. The extent of these veterinary activities depended

on the availability of Veterinary Corps officers and animal service units,

the availability of veterinary equipment and supplies, and the planning on

the military deployment or disposition of the animals.

European Theater

In the European theater, captured animals generally presented an in- tolerable veterinary situation. This did not improve until after V-E Day

(i£, 13). After the assault and landings on the European Continent in June

1944, the horses, cattle, and other animals which had fallen into the hands

of the advancing divisions and armies were immediately released or “farmed

out” to the local civilian populations by CA/MG detachments (7J, 15). These animals were regarded or handled as liabilities to be disposed of at

once, rather than as assets. There was no intention to fully determine

whether they were infected with serious contagious disease that could be

disseminated among the civilian animal populations. The Seventh U.S.

Army, coming into southern France from the Mediterranean theater and

accompanied by provisional remount depot organization (the 6835th) and

the 17th Veterinary Evacuation Hospital, seemingly had sufficient personnel

and equipment to partially process the captured animals before releasing them

to the civilian populations, but, even in this army, an enzootic of sarcoptic mange occurred.
ANIMAL FARMS 663

Elsewhere in the army combat areas, no precautions were taken against

the collection and disposition of captured animals which might have been

diseased. Aside from the shortages in the numbers of Veterinary Corps

officers in such areas, little could have been accomplished anyway because,

in the spring of 1944, there was shortage of veterinary animal service equipment and supplies which was not relieved until the winter of 1944-45. In

the interim, captured German Army animals, untested for glanders, were being used at ground forces replacement depot and prisoner-of-war inclosure in the Seine Base Section and the Brittany Base Section of the theater’s

communications zone (16). Subsequently, minimal amount of animal service equipment and supplies which had come into the theater were used by

veterinary personnel to provide first aid treatment and to examine these

captured animals. During the spring of 1945, when it had become obvious

that more animals wmdd be captured and that some of these were being

moved back from Germany into France, the theater veterinarian suggested

that the captured animals should be taken care of by German Army veterinarians until the animals could be distributed by the CA/MG detachments

and that such animals, if released or moved to France, should be examined

by French civilian veterinarians. This pertained equally to horses as well

as cattle, the latter already having been involved in the threatening spread

of foot-and-mouth disease into the Lowland Countries {17, 18). The suggestions which had been made to prevent the widespread dissemination of

animal diseases in North Central Europe were answered by the Quarter- master Corps with the statement—approved by the theater G-5 (Civil Affairs/Military Government) —that no animals should be captured because of

the feeding problem involved.

However, in October 1945, the theater quartermaster became responsible

for the care, use, and disposition of 7,300 horses {19). At that time, few

were retained for the Special Services program of recreational riding, and, before the middle of 1946, 235 were shipped to the Zone of Interior; the

others were disposed of by distribution to the Germans through the Office

of Military Government for Germany.

Mediterranean Theater

Veterinary service for captured animals in the Mediterranean theater

was first rendered during the summer months of 1943 in the 34th Infantry

Division in North Africa {20). During the next few years, thousands of

such animals fell into the hands of the Allied military forces, many being

actually used in the Seventh U.S. Army’s campaigns on Sicily (during July

and August 1943), and later by the Fifth U.S. Army in its northward advances against the Germans on the Italian peninsula. In fact, almost any

At that time, the division veterinarian was caring for 116 captured animals no communicable

disease was reported.
664 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

kind of animal that could be found was used to transport supplies or to aid in reconnaissance during the Sicilian campaign. The same situation prevailed during the early months of fighting in the southern Apennines when

the divisions of the Fifth U.S. Army formed and operated their own provisional pack trains. Few or no preliminary physical examinations were

made at this time by the divisional veterinarians because animals were so

urgently needed, many being killed by enemy artillery and mortar fire and

snipers during their first pack trip to the outpost positions. By the spring

and summer of 1944 when U.S.-supervised Italian Army pack mule trains

replaced the provisional pack trains of the combat divisions and the military

needs for animals were less urgent, the captured animals were assembled

by CA/MG officers in the combat area, and those unusable for military purposes were distributed to the Italian civilian economy. The captured animal

situation remained more or less unchanged from early 1944 until the spring

of 1945.

Following the start of the Fifth U.S. Army’s final offensive through

Bologna which saw the capitulation of the German Armies in northern Italy

on May 1945, an estimated 5,000 German Army horses and few mules

were found in the Po Valley (20). These were brought into main collection point at San Martino in Spino and gradually were taken over from the

Fifth U.S. Army by the 2610th Quartermaster Remount Depot (Overhead)

of the theater’s Peninsular Base Section. The depot’s veterinary personnel

took care of as many animals as it could but for the most part operated only as clearing station for evacuating sick and injured captured animals to four

veterinary hospital organizations moved into the Po Valley. These hospitals,

belonging to the Peninsular Base Section, were the 2604th Veterinary Station Hospital (Overhead) and the Italian 1st Veterinary Station Hospital,

arriving at San Martino in Spino on May 1945 (fig. 84). Several miles

distant, and supporting these hospitals, were the 2605th Veterinary General

Hospital (Overhead) and the Italian 2d Veterinary General Hospital—both

setting up operations at Mirandola at about the same time, The movements

of these hospitals and the evacuation of the disabled animals were accomplished by the 643d and 644th Veterinary Evacuation Detachments. During

the month of May, which saw these hospitals and units in actual use for the

first time since their organization in March 1945, they provided veterinary

hospital support for the remount operations at San Martino in Spino, totaling more than 500 stable patients (table 58). The condition of the captured

animals revealed the swift and chaotic retreat of the German forces just

before their surrender; the horseshoes were worn paper thin or were missing

from one or more of the feet. While some of them were sick—a few having

epizootic lymphangitis—the most serious disability in these horses was

burns (figs. 85 and 86). Whether the burns were caused by Allied artillery

fire and aerial bombing or by the Germans setting fire to their abandoned material was undetermined.
ANIMAL FARMS 665

Figure 84.—Examination of captured animal (identified by the “CA” brand) at the

loading point of the U.S.-equipped Italian 2604th Veterinary Station Hospital, San Martino

in Spino, Italy, on 10 May 1945.

Table 58.—Sick and wounded animals cared for by the 2604th Veterinary Station Hospital

and the 2605th Veterinary General Hospital, May 1945

The captured animals at San Martino in Spino were not kept for any

great period of time because the area as the assigned responsibility of the

British military forces; in mid-May 1945, the veterinary hospitals were withdrawn southward, theU.S. organizations then being disbanded and the Italian

hospitals being released to the Italian Government.

Hospital Admissions Died or Treatment

Total Disease Injury

destroyed days

2604th Veterinary Station Hospital (Overhead) 218 46 173 1, 340

2605th Veterinary General Hospital (Overhead) 288 101 187 4, 172

The specific causes of the loss of animals included the following diseases and injuries:Fractures, 3; and eachon

account of cataract, equine influenza, separation of sole, synovitis, and torsion of colon.

Includes 25 battle casualties.

Includes 11 battle casualties.
666 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

SC MM—45—21521

Figure 85.—Extensive second-degree burns on captured German horse.

China-Burma-India Theater

In the various areas of the Asiatic-Pacific theater, captured Japanese

animals were used by the ground forces or found their way into the civilian

economy in manner somewhat comparable to the methods employed in the

European and Mediterranean theaters (J). In the China-Burma-India theater, where animals were urgently needed by the U.S.-sponsored Chinese military forces, captured animals often constituted major replacement supply

to the combat teams fighting in the Burmese jungles (p. 363).

The main objection against the use and mingling of captured Japanese

animals in the U.S. combat teams (Merrill’s Marauders and the MARS

Brigade) and the Allied Chinese military forces was the constant threat of

surra.

Southwest Pacific Area

Surra, the disease that was most feared in the Burma campaigns and

which eventually took its toll among the animals in the China-Burma-India

theater, was discovered in the captured animals that made up the provisional

pack train of the 33d Infantry Division while operating near Baguio, Luzon,

in the summer of 1945. Over period of months, that divisional train’s

animal strength was reduced by 50 percent, largely on account of test and
ANIMAL FARMS 667

SC MM—45—21522

Figure 86.—Second-degree burns of the back, loin, and croup regions. This horse was

one of 7,000 animals captured in the Po Valley.

eradication program against surra—the program being undertaken by veterinary officer of the XI Corps in cooperation with medical laboratory

unit {21).

Central Pacific Area

Few Japanese horses were captured on the island bases in the Central

Pacific Area until after the Tenth U.S. Army’s invasion of the Ryukyu Islands ). On Angaur (in the Carolines) three were found, and two were

found on Saipan (in the Marianas), but, in the Ryukyus, more than thousand had been captured on Okinawa by June 1945, and another 375 horses

were taken on le Shima. With the exception of few furnished to the U.S.

Marine Corps to mount an ammunition pack train on Okinawa, these horses

were controlled by the CA/MG officers who then “farmed out” as many as

were needed in the recovery of the local agricultural economy. Veterinary

officers provided the required professional care over the captured animals

and took the necessary precautions against the issue of horses which were in

poor physical condition or had contagious diseases.

Another group of animals coming into the category of “captured” Avas

the livestock totaling 2,400 cattle and carabao, 700 goats, 1,100 hogs, and

3,600 poultry found in the Marianas Islands bases captured or retaken from
668 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

the Japanese. Presumably, many belonged to the native inhabitants, but

others had belonged to the Japanese. They were assembled by CA/MG sections and were cared for by the veterinary officers accompanying the Army

garrison force for each such base. It made little difference that the CA/MG on an island was Navy responsibility and was Navy controlled, except that

the medical sections of the Army garrison forces could not justify the release of their veterinary officers (usually one to an island base) when Navy

CA/MG suddenly and unexpectedly needed them.

PRIVATELY OWNED ANIMALS

Private mounts of officers were given the same protective care and professional treatment as provided for Army horses and mules. However,

more controversial group of privately owned animals which was provided

professional services in the Army included the dogs, cats, and other pet

animals or troop mascots belonging to military personnel and organizations.

These were controversial to the extent that, from time to time, few individual veterinary practitioners in civilian communities surrounding the Army

camps posed question of infringement of rights or of unfair competition on

the part of Veterinary Corps officers who were practicing veterinary medicine

on these animals. There can be no doubt that these professional activities

accrued great benefits to the Armed Forces, involving such matters as upholding troop morale, maintaining medical intelligence on the disease conditions of such animals as might have bearing on troop health, and, of course,

offering professional experience and continuing interest in veterinary medicine which related to animals of the kinds not used by the Army.

These treatment services, important as they may have been to the individual owners and military organizations, however, remained secondary

to the phase of Army Veterinary Service with privately owned animals

that was concerned with the regulatory controls over the traffic of such dogs,

cats, and other pet animals between the Army camps. These controls meant

that veterinary officers conducted physical examinations on the animals prior

to their transshipment and rendered veterinary health certificates such as were

officially made whenever Army horses and mnles were issued, transferred,

or sold; upon arrival at their destination in another Army camp, the privately

owned animals were kept under certain degree of veterinary observation

or in quarantine until found to be free of contagious disease. After 1928

these regulatory controls were advanced by the obligatory program of immunizing dogs, cats, and similar animals against rabies at many Army camps

At most Army camps, the provost marshal was responsible for maintaining the records on

privately owned animals which were kept or housed there. Newly arrived personnel were required

to register their dogs with the provost marshal following their preliminary examination and “clearance” by the station veterinarian. The program of vaccinating dogs and cats against rabies,

repeated each year, frequently became the basis for the owners to renew the registrations of their

animals with the provost marshal. Unregistered animals and strays were collected and impounded

by the provost marshal, who was also authorized to dispose of them.
ANIMAL FARMS

Figure 87.—Antirabies vaccination, Cbatham Army Air Force Field

(fig. 87). In this manner, the Army accomplished more than any statutoryconstituted civil authority to prevent the introduction or dissemination of

animal disease by dogs and cats which were moved intrastate or interstate,

or imported into the United States. Eventually, in 1946, the U.S. Public

Health Service was granted congressional authorization to regulate the importation of any or all dogs and cats, military and civilian alike.

Before World War II, the nominal number of animals which were

brought into the United States by military personnel was well regulated

by the Army. The only Federal or civilian regulatory controls over such

traffic were maintained by the Bureau of Customs, U.S. Department of the

Treasury, and, in the instance of parrots or psittacine birds, by the U.S.

Public Health Service since 1930.

The onset of World War II almost brought halt to this animal traffic

as increasingly larger numbers of Army troops were shipped from and not

into the United States. This decreased incoming traffic, which had come

about more or less by natural means and lasted only for the active war

period, was further reduced in January 1944 when the Transportation Corps

regulations of the Army (22) were amended to provide that “the carrying

of pets or mascots on U.S. Army transports and vessels wholly alio-
670 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

cated to the War Department is not permissible,” In the interim, however,

when the incoming ship traffic of animal pets, especially on troop transports, had come to halt, the wartime expansion of the Army Air Forces

led to increasingly large numbers of these animals being brought into the

United States by airplane. Aircraft-ferrying crews and the combat pilots

on rotation further complicated the problem by entering the United States

at airbases not normally under any kind of Federal or medical surveillance.

In the spring of 1914, the War Department directed that animals were not

to be carried on Army airplanes and ships unless prior permit was secured

from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and requested airplane and ship

commanders as well as all Army personnel to cooperate with that department’s inspectors at ports and airfields (23, 24-). There can be no doubt that

this announcement may have lessened the military traffic of pet animals into

the United States, but, actually, the U.S. Department of Agriculture was

without statutory authorization to prevent these importations and neither

was there military veterinary record to indicate that the U.S. Department

of Agriculture personnel conducted such inspections or impounded pet animals belonging to military personnel. In the European theater, the Army

Veterinary Service inquired as to how military personnel could obtain the

required permit from the U.S. Department of Agriculture before departing

for the United States (25).

These regulatory directives of the War Department were augmented by

the regulatory controls established and operated in the oversea theaters during

the active war period. The European theater, for example, provided for the

movement of pet animals to the United States to the extent only that such

would be made in compliance with the existent directives (26, 27) This meant

that dogs, cats, and pet animals could be transported to the Zone of Interior

if the individual owners could or should make their own arrangements with

any commercial transportation agencies which might be operating between

Europe and the United States; of course, few such arrangements could be

made during the period of active hostilities. The same was true for the

Central Pacific Area, but no veterinary health certificates were issued for dogs

or cats which may have been at one time or another on any island base outside

of the Hawaiian Islands (6). Elsewhere, the theaters imposed greater restrictions. During May 1943, the Southwest Pacific Area expressly prohibited the

shipment of animals into the United States (28).

Though the U.S. Department of Agriculture, chiefly through its Bureau of Animal Industry,

was the Federal agency statutorily responsible to prevent the spread or introduction of animal

disease across State boundary lines and into the United States, its control over the traffic of

animals was limited by the legal definition of “domestic animal”—the latter not including dogs or

cats, which are regarded as chattel. This legal definition with the exclusion of dogs as animals

was only gradually applied because the Bureau of Animal Industry Regulations of 1918 and 1919 provided that all dogs coming into the United States would be inspected, especially the collie, shepherd, and sheep dogs which could be quarantined against tapeworm infestation (Taenia coenurus).

Then, the Bureau of Animal Industry Regulations of 1927 referred only to the inspection of imported collie, shepherd, or other dogs which were to be used in handling sheep or other livestock.
ANIMAL FARMS 671

Following the cessation of active hostilities, the return of the millions of

troops which had been deployed overseas to win the Allied victories over

Germany, Italy, and Japan was accompanied by the threat of the greatest

mass importation of dogs, cats, and troop mascots in the history of the United

States. The existent safeguards, against the chance introduction of new

diseases or augmentation to those diseases already prevalent, were seriously reviewed by Medical Department officers. They described the subject as important not only as it concerned the safeguarding of the Nation’s livestock but the

protection of its civilian health as well. By October 1945, the European theater already had completed arrangements for transporting any number of dogs,

cats, and other animals, at owners’ expense, on commercial transportation

facilities 29. 30. 31. 32). As though this was not sufficiently disconcerting,

the Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office, which had assumed to at

least maintain respectable safeguard against animal diseases coming into

the United States, soon found that the Transportation Corps was negotiating

with the War Shipping Administration to move animals from areas, particularly those far removed from normal trade routes or shipping lanes, wherein

commercial shipping had not, or would not, become available {33). At that

moment, the Surgeon General’s Office appealed to the U.S. Public Health

Service to review its statutory authorizations and regulatory provisions which

might be used to stop or control such importations as would alfect the Nation’s

health, but no assistance was forthcoming at that time (JJ). An obvious

reason for referring the request to the U.S. Public Health Service was that

the two, since mid-1943, had been meeting in conference of an Interdepartmental Quarantine Commission which sought to formulate coordinated civil

and military control over military traffic. The U.S. Department of Agriculture had refused to participate during the constructive days of that Commission, when the subject matter under conference study evolved about the aerial

traffic of internationally recognized diseases of the human being.

During February 1946, the Surgeon General’s Office entered into discussions against renewed proposals by the Transportation Corps to utilize War

Shipping Administration vessels to bring out (or import) the pet animals

owned by troops located in those certain areas, particularly in the AsiaticPacific theaters, that would be outside of postwar commercial ship traffic 35).

Acquainted with the genuine lack of congressional authorization in any or all

recognized Federal civilian health and disease-control agencies to protect the

Nation against such animal importations, the Surgeon General’s Office could

An estimate was made that percent of the troops returning to the United States would want

to import dogs from the European theater.

The Interdepartmental Quarantine Commission was formed following an agreement reached

between the Federal Security Agency, including the U.S. Public Health Service, and number of

Federal and military agencies, including the War Department. In July 1943, medical officer was

designated as War Department representative to the Commission—being designated as Army Quarantine Liaison Officer. The latter subsequently established operations within the Surgeon General’s

Office. In the fall of 1944, the Bureau of Animal Industry, U.S. Department of Agriculture, was

especially advised of this action in the Surgeon General’s Office, but, seemingly, there was no

further intercommunication until February 194G.
672 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

not believe that the Army should encourage animal traffic into the United

States from areas from which few or any animals had been imported in the

past and that “in the interests of public health and animal disease control,

importation should be discouraged, particularly as far as the introduction

of pets from the Orient is concerned, where diseases are more rampant, and

methods of control are practically nil” {36). Against these veterinary arguments, the Transportation Corps proposal had ihe singular advantage that

services and facilities would be equal for all Army troops, whether they were

located in the European theater or were isolated on some island base in the

Pacific.

The two aspects of the problem were compromised on 20 March 1946,

when the War Department removed the wartime prohibitions against the

transportation of dogs, cats, and other animal pets on Army ships and

imposed new requirements for these animals, when coming into the United

States, to be previously immunized against rabies and to be physically examined and certified to be free of any demonstrable diseases as might be evidenced by the skin, jaundice, emaciation, diarrhea, or symptoms involving

the nervous system {37 through 41 ). These Army veterinary sanitary requirements were favorably agreed to by the Deputy Chief of Staff, Army Service

Forces, but not without questioning the moral justification of the Army as an

agency of Government to impose regulatory controls on soldier-owners of pet

animals when such were not legislatively imposed on civilians; also, question

arose over the continued need for the Army to assume civil or Federal regulatory functions in the Zone of Interior {!$).

In fact, the Army had demonstrated its willingness to cooperate with the

Bureau of Animal Industry, U.S. Department of Agriculture; the Fish

and Wildlife Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, and the U.S. Public

Health Service, Federal Security Agency. However, when advised in February 1946 of the Army's intent to lift its stringent impositions against the

traffic of dogs, cats, and other privately owned animals, only the U.S. Public

Health Service was sufficiently interested or able to give promise of action for

civilian regulatory control over their importation {43, 4-4-, 43) Within short

period of time, the U.S. Public Health Service developed regulatory order—-

in cooperation with the Surgeon General’s Office as well as with representatives

of Army Air Forces, the Navy, and other agencies—which was subsequently

(on 29 May 1946) entered into Federal law {46, 4-7, 43). There remains no

doubt that the Army Veterinary Service alone in the immediate postwar

period had successfully intervened against the threatened introduction of

additional or new animal diseases into the United States by the hundreds of

privately owned animals belonging to military personnel who were returning

from the oversea theaters. To date, despite the confusing multidivision of the

Federal civil controls against importations that ordinarily precede and comprise the legal basis of most military quarantine processes in the Zone of

Interior, the record is clear of any blame on the Army that its animal pets
ANIMAL FARMS 673

and troop mascots constituted source of animal disease spread to the Nation’s

civilian and animal populations; more significant, however, the fact remains

that the Nation's health and livestock were protected.

References

1. Dun-ant, M. J.; World War II History of the Army Veterinary Service, New

Caledonia, South Pacific Area. [Official record.]

2. Weisman, L. G.: World War II History of the Army Veterinary Service, Southwest Pacific Area. [Official record.]

3. Lawrence, W. A.: World AVar II History of the Army Veterinary Service, AfricanMiddle East Theater. [Official record.]

4. Mohri, R. W.: World War II History of the Army Veterinary Service, ChinaBurma-India Theater. [Official record.]

5. Letter, Maj. AA C. Todd, VC, Veterinarian, Mitchel Field, N.Y., to Surgeon, First

Air Force, 22 Dec. 1943, subject: eterinary Reports for Farm Animals.

6. Kester, AA O., and Miller, E. B.: AVorld War II History of the Army ATeterinary

Service, Central Pacific Area. [Official record.]

7. AVorthington, J. W.: Personal notes as prisoner of war.

8. Gochenour, AV. S.: Personal notes as prisoner of war.

9. Frank, C. AV.: Personal notes as prisoner of war.

10. Miller, R. R.; AVorld War II History of the Army Veterinary Service, South

Atlantic Theater. [Official record.]

11. Letter, Lt. Col. II. K. Moore, A"C, Areterinary Division, SGO, to Veterinarian,

Quartermaster Remount Depot, Fort Robinson, Nebr., 12 Dec. 1941, subject: Sanitary

Inspection of Dairy Farm.

12. Perkins, C. B.: Report, eterinary Division, Office of the Chief Surgeon, USFET,

for first half, 1945.

13. Sperry, J. R., and Huebner, R. A.: World AA ar II History of the Army Areterinary Service, European Theater. [Official record.]

14. Report of Operations, First U.S. Army, 20 Oct. 1943 to Aug. 1944, Annex 15

to 20.

15. Informal Routing Slip, Office of the Chief Surgeon, ETOUSA, from Col. C. B.

Perkins, VC, Veterinary Division, to Historical Division, 10 Dec. 1944, subject: AVeekly

Divisional Activity Report—Week Ending 2400 Hours 9/24/44. 16. Informal Routing Slip, Office of the Chief Surgeon, ETOUSA, Col. C. B. Perkins,

VC, eterinary Division, to Historical Division, November 1944, subject: AVeekly Divisional Activity Report, AVeek Ending 2400 Hours 25/11/44. IT. Anslow, R. O.: World AAuir II History of the Army Veterinary Service, Civil

Affairs/Military Government, Eiiropean Theater. [Official record.]

18. Todd, F. A.: Veterinary Preventive Medicine in Civil Affairs and Alilitary Government in Northwest Europe from D-day to V-day. J. Am. et. M. xA. 110; 209-212,

April 1947.

19. Letter, HQ USFET, 18 Oct. 1945, subject: Riding Horses for Recreational Purposes.

20. World AVar II History of the Army Veterinary Service, Mediterranean Theater,

for 1943. [Official record.]

21. Bliss, G. D.: Quarterly Medical History, 33d Infantry Division, April-30 .Tune

1945.

22. AR 55-485, Changes 2, Jan. 1944.

23. AVD General Orders 32. 20 Apr. 1944.

24. AVD General Orders 36. Alay 1944.
674 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

25. Disposition Form, Col. E. M. Curley, VC, Veterinary Division, Chief Surgeon’s

Office, ETOUSA, to Chief Surgeon, ETOUSA, Aug. 1944, subject: GO #32 \YD 20 Apr. 44.

2G. Letter, Office of the Chief Surgeon, ETOUSA, to army and base section surgeons,

13 Feb. 1945, subject: Transportation of Animals to the United States.

27. Circular No. 78, Headquarters, ETOUSA, June 1945.

28. Circular No. 24, USAFFE, May 1943.

29. TWX 25959, USFET to WD, Oct. 1945.

30. TWX 20240, USFET to WD, 25 Oct. 1945.

31. Circular No. 231, HQ Theater Service Forces, USFET, Dec. 1945.

32. Letter, Col. J. R. Sperry, VC, Veterinary Division, Chief Surgeon’s Office,

ETOUSA, to Col. J. F. Crosby, VC, Veterinary Division, SGO, 22 Dec. 1945.

33. Memo routing slip, Capt. T. E. Shaffer, MC, Acting Army Quarantine Liaison

Officer, SGO, to Preventive Medicine and Epidemiology Divisions, SGO, 12 Oct. 1945.

34. Letter, Col. R. J. Carpenter, MC, Executive Officer, SGO, to Surgeon General,

U.S. Public Health Service, Federal Security Agency, 15 Oct. 1945, subject: Importation

of Pets by Individuals in Military Service, and letter of reply, F. W. Kratz, Foreign

Quarantine Service, U.S. Public Health Service, 23 Oct. 1945.

35. Memorandum for file, Maj. T. E. Shaffer, MC, Acting Army Quarantine Officer,

SGO, 12 Feb. 1946, subject: Transportation of Pets and Mascots.

36. Memorandum, Col. J. F. Crosby, VC, Veterinary Division. SGO, for Lt. Col. Knies,

MC, Army Quarantine Liaison Officer, Preventive Medicine Division, SGO, 11 Feb. 1946.

37. First memorandum indorsement, Surgeon General’s Office to Chief of Transportation, ASF, Mar. 1946.

38. Radiogram WCL 26588, WD to oversea commands and ports of embarkation in

the Zone of Interior, 20 Mar. 1946.

39. Mimeo letter, The Adjutant General to oversea commands, 29 Mar. 1946, subject:

Examination and Vaccination of Pets and Mascots Prior to Shipment to United States.

40. WD Circular No. 83, 22 Mar. 1946.

41. AR Changes 3, 21 May 1946.

42. Memorandum, Lt. Col. C. O. Garver, TC, Executive Officer, Administrative

Division, Office of the Chief of Transportation, for The Surgeon General, 13 Feb. 1946,

subject: Importation of Pets and Mascots.

43. Letter, The Surgeon General, to Chief, Bureau of Animal Industry, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 14 Feb. 1946, and letter of reply, B. T. Simms, Chief, Bureau of

AnimalIndustry, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 18 Feb. 1946.

44. Letter, The Surgeon General, to Director, Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, 14 Feb. 1946, and letter of reply, D. J. Chaney, Chief Counsel, 26

Feb. 1946.

45. Letter, The Surgeon General, to Surgeon General, U.S. Public Health Service,

Federal Security Agency, 14 Feb. 1946, and letter of reply, W. F. Draper, Acting Surgeon

General, U.S. Public Health Service, Mar. 1946.

46. Memorandum for file, Maj. T. E. Shaffer, MC, Acting Army Quarantine Liaison

Officer, SGO, 21 Feb. 1946, subject: Transportation of Pets and Mascots.

47. Memorandum for file, Maj. T. E. Shaffer, MC, Acting Army Quarantine Liaison

Officer, SGO. 28 Feb. 1946, subject: Importation of Animals Into the United States.

48. Federal Register, vol. II. No. 105. 29 May 1946.
675

CHAPTER XX

Military Meat and Dairy Hygiene

Military meat and dairy hygiene was the defined responsibility of the

Army Veterinary Service and was conducted at professional level, paralleling the care and treatment of Army animals {1. 2, 3). In World War I, an

estimated 20 percent of the veterinary personnel were utilized as inspectors

of the Army’s subsistence supply, but in World War II, 90 to 95 percent were

so utilized. During the period from 1910 through 1945, these personnel conducted meat and dairy products inspection service aggregating more

than 142 billion pounds. The expensiveness of veterinary food inspection

during single war year was described by veterinary officer representative

of the Surgeon General's Office as follows (4)

The Army spent over two and one-quarter billion dollars for food during the past

year. About 38 percent of the soldier’s ration consists of meat, meat-food and dairy

products. These items represent approximately 60 percent of the cost of the ration. Of

all the foods consumed by the soldier, meat, meat-food and dairy products are the most

dangerous to his health when contaminated or spoiled. It is for this reason that the

Army maintains the strictest possible supervision over these products from the time of

preparation and purchase to and including the issue to troop messes. At the present

[November 1944] the Veterinary Corps is inspecting over one-half billion pounds of foods

of animal origin per month. Each day it requires about 19 thousand cattle, 27 thousand

hogs, 600 calves and thousand sheep and lambs to supply the Armed Forces of the

United States with meat and meat products. During the year 1943 rejections prior to

purchase ran 5.1 percent. The estimated equivalent monetary saving represented by the

difference in value of items offered for delivery and those accepted following Veterinary

Corps inspection is very substantial figure. In this connection, it is desired to point

out that the estimated equivalent monetary saving for the year 1943 exceeded the total

pay of all Veterinary Corps officers and all veterinary service enlisted men on duty in

the entire Army for that year.

In connection with these monetary savings, it may be mentioned that for the

war period this amount was set at $88 million, covering more than the

billion pounds of meat and dairy products which were rejected at the time

of procurement (5). Another 100 million pounds of Government-owned

foods were rejected from issue to troop messhalls, but no monetary estimate

can be made of the expected costs for hospitalization, inefficiency, and other

military factors, had even only small fraction of such foods been consumed

and the troops made ill.

The veterinary meat and dairy hygiene operations were twofold in nature

and operated: (1) To protect the health of troops endangered by foods which

The estimate was determined by allowing cents per pound for any or all products rejected

for failure to meet grade quality as required in contractual documents and allowing the full value

on products which were rejected from procurement on account of insanitary condition or unsoundness.
676 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

might be spoiled, damaged, contaminated, or otherwise unsafe and unsound

for eating, and (2) in conjunction with Quartermaster Corps procurement

officers to protect the financial interests of the Government by inspecting

products to determine compliance with contractual requirements governing

their quality and manufacture. Actually, this veterinary food inspection

service was essentially sanitary in its nature. Its purpose was to protect

the health of troops by preventing the procurement and issue of meat and

dairy products which, by reason of their origin, nature, handling, or condition, would be unsafe or unsuitable. The animals, from which products of

animal origin were obtained, were subject to many diseases directly transmissible to man, such as tuberculosis, trichinosis, Malta fever, anthrax, milk

sickness, actinomycosis, taeniasis, foot-and-mouth disease, and glanders. The

food products might also become contaminated during preparation and might

carry such diseases as typhoid fever, septic sore throat, Weil’s disease, dysentery, scarlet fever, and diphtheria. They might also become contaminated

either by the action of the bacteria present, such as Salmonella species, or by

toxins produced by certain bacteria, such as the staphylococci and Clostridium

hotulinum. As sanitary and preventive medicine procedure, the veterinary

inspection of the Army’s subsistence supply was an extension of the troop

health programs maintained by the Medical Department.

The Army Veterinary Service cooperated closely with purchasing and

issuing officers in assuring that the subsistence supplies they handled would

comply with the requirements under which the products were procured or

issued. Similarly, the Army Veterinary Service cooperated with the Transportation Corps whose officers moved the subsistence by railroad in the Zone

of Interior to the ports of embarkation from whence the Army food supply

chain reached into the oversea theaters. Both the Quartermaster Corps and

the Transportation Corps necessarily depended on the professional and expert advice of Veterinary Corps officers who made the inspections, and, of

course, the full cooperation of all concerned was needed and exercised with

the view to adequately protect the Army’s health and the financial interests

of the Government. special feature of veterinary inspections for quartermaster purchasing officers was the examination of products for grade quality,

as well as the conducting of tests and inspections for count or weight, packaging and packing, labeling and marking, and for any other requirement set

forth in the pertinent contractual documents. Usually, these examinations and

the professional sanitary inspections were conducted in the same veterinary

inspection procedure, but the sanitary inspections were regarded as being more

comprehensive and were repeated along the entire chain of supply from procurement points to the final point of issue. Therefore, sanitary inspections

were made of the products when purchased, while in storage, and when

shipped or sold. Summarizing, military meat and dairy hygiene inspections

constituted an official inspection and examination of foods, before or at the

time of their acceptance by the Army and subsequent to procurement until
MILITARY MEAT AND DAIRY HYGIENE 677

issued or otherwise disposed of, to insure their military, sanitary, grade, and

other quality features but not to exclude their nutritive values which paralleled grade quality.

CLASSIFICATION OF VETERINARY PRODUCTS AND

ESTABLISHMENT INSPECTIONS

Military meat and dairy hygiene included inspections of the live animals

which were procured for food, dressed carcasses, and items such as meats and

meat foods; poultry and poultry products; eggs; game; milk, butter, cheese,

and other dairy products; fish, oysters, and other seafoods; lard, lard substitutes, and edible oils; assembled rations; and other subsistence in which

foods of animal origin formed considerable part, whether these were fresh,

frozen, cured, canned, or otherwise processed. Also, it included the sanitary

supervision of the sources of such food products, as well as the facilities and

condition of the food establishments, storage places, and carriers by air, rail, or water in which the products were processed, manufactured, stored,

transported, or otherwise handled. The facilities for processing and the procedures of operation in establishments, storage places, and transport facilities

which were concerned in the supply and distribution of meat and dairy products to the Army were matters of careful sanitary survey, as were the dairy

herds and pasteurizing plants which supplied milk to the Army (fig. 88).

The veterinary inspection procedures applicable to meat and dairy products were considered under three headings: (1) Ante mortem and post mortem

inspections; (2) inspections incident to procurement which were made to

determine the quality, including type, class, and grade, the measurement, and

the sanitary condition of products; and (3) continuing inspections or surveillance over the Army food supplies from procurement points up to the

place of issue to troop messhalls. Information concerning the condition of

subsistence supplies was obtained by conducting several classes of inspections

Class 1. Ante mortem inspection

Class 2. Post mortem inspection

Procurement Inspection:

Class 3. Inspection prior to purchase

Class 4. Inspection at time of delivery on receipt

Surveillance Inspection (of Government-owned subsistence)

Class 5. Inspection of any receipt except purchase

Class 6. Inspection prior to shipment

Class 7. Inspection at issue or sale

Class 9. Inspection in storage

Another class of inspection, not listed here, was class 8, or the inspection of

purchases made by the Army Exchange Service, but this class is generally

excluded from the regular discussions because the products technically were

not part of Army supply. Also, it must be noted that before 1943, the

class inspection procedure was not conducted separately but was integrated
ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE 678

Figure 88.—Veterinary Corps officer conducting routine sanitary inspection of milk pasteurizing plant.

with surveillance inspections conducted before shipment; these two procedures

were conducted and reported under the single heading of class 6, then named

“inspection in storage.”

Commercial Food Establishments

The preceding classification of inspection procedures, for the most part,

referred to the inspection of products. However, conducted simultaneously

with, and as component procedure of, these class products inspections, there

was the veterinary sanitary inspection of establishments. The term “establishments” included dairy farms, animal slaughtering plants, packing houses,

cold storage plants, butcher shops, markets, warehouses, milk plants, ice

cream plants, sales commissaries, railroad cars, trucks, ships, aircraft, and

any other establishment or conveyance in which meat and dairy products

were processed, manufactured, assembled, stored, transported, or otherwise

handled, either commercially under contractual agreement or by the Army.

The veterinary inspections of establishments routinely consisted of the sanitary investigation of the following matters:
MILITARY MEAT AND DAIRY HYGIENE 679

Premises

Receiving facilities

Interior construction of buildings

Ventilation

Lighting

Water supply, ice, plumbing

Equipment and utensils

Cleanliness and disinfection

Contamination by rejected products

Disposal of byproducts

Dressing rooms and toilets

Employees

Vermin

Refrigeration

Handling, packing, and transporting

Storage and issue rooms

Other sanitary inspection agencies

The inspection procedures for commercial establishments were closely related

to veterinary food procurement inspections, whereas those for Army establishments were more directly concerned with veterinary surveillance inspections.

Pursuant to the procedures of Army subsistence procurement, the awarding of contracts was limited to the commercial food establishments which

had passed an Army veterinary sanitary inspection. The inspection usually was made within the calendar month preceding the opening date of bids.

(Of course, establishments operating under the supervision of approved

sanitary inspection agencies were regarded as Veterinary Corps approved

sources.) Special administrative procedures were set up during the war for

owners of commercial food establishments to forward requests for veterinary

sanitary inspections of their plants, through quartermaster purchasing

office, to the commanding general of service command, who then indorsed these requests to Veterinary Corps officers located nearest the plants. These

officers, after their inspections, recommended the acceptance or rejection of

the establishments to the service command headquarters which made the final

decision as to listing the establishments as approved sources of supply; the

purchasing officer was then advised of the final decision. This comprised

the so-called initial inspection of commercial food establishments. At least

once each month thereafter, the establishments were reinspected as long as

they were producing under an Army contract or the owners manifested an

interest in gaining the award of Army contracts. During 1944, approximately 4,000 commercial food establishments were being regularly inspected

each month, exclusive of those operating under the supervision of recognized civilian inspection agency. When the owners of approved establishments failed to maintain satisfactory levels of sanitation or did not properly

correct defective operations or facilities, the inspecting veterinary officers

recommended, to the concerned service command headquarters, the withdrawal of the establishments from the current list of approved sources of

supply. As of June 1945, the establishments disapproved for use of the

Army, because of insanitary conditions, for procuring fresh meats and dairy

products totaled more than 1,100 in the United States ). The lists of approved and of disapproved commercial food establishments were circularized

between service commands and were forwarded to quartermaster contracting

officers for their guidance. These veterinary sanitary inspections were di-
680 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

reeled only at the sanitary features of food manufacture, storage, and handling and were unrelated to veterinary surveys to determine Ihe operating

potential of establishments or to the blacklisting of establishments for legal

reasons.

These inspections of plants and establishments were not simple procedures and were not conducted without regard to the fact that there were

variety of other inspection agencies, including the Bureau of Animal Industry of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Public Health Service and the Federal Food and Drug Administration of the Federal Security

Agency, and the various State, county, and city public health and agricultural authorities. However, there was not one single agency among the foregoing that performed the necessary sanitary inspections of all types of food

establishments which were in the Army supply program. All were primarily

engaged in the surveillance of compliances with the pertinent Federal, State,

or municipal food laws and regulations under which the agencies operated;

furthermore, below the level of Federal regulating controls, there were as

many sanitary laws and law enforcement agencies as there were States and

municipalities. None, for example, would have protected the Army’s total

milk supply in regard to the requirements for pasteurized milk. There were

several nationally organized food industries which set up sanitary standards,

but, unfortunately, these were not fully policed. It would not be fair to

state that the civilian food industry’s standards were not used, because some

were, but the Army Veterinary Service made no agreement or other action

of acceptance that could have been interpreted as formal Army approval

of them.

Separate doctrines for Veterinary Corps sanitary inspections were developed, dependent upon the particular products that were being manufactured and upon the nature of the procedure involved, whether it be processing, assembling, storing, or shipping. Thus, meat plants operating under

the supervision of the Bureau of Animal Industry were regularly accepted

as satisfying sanitary standards of the Army, and the same was true for such

of the canned oysters and shrimp plants which operated under continuous

supervision of the Seafood Inspection Service, Federal Food and Drug

Administration. However, milk plants, ice cream plants, and fish plants,

although operating under sanitary regulations of State and local inspection

agencies, were routinely inspected by the Army Veterinary Service because

many laws and regulations were inadequate or were improperly enforced,

even in peacetime when no real shortage of manpower existed. Some of these

regulatory agencies were agricultural in nature and had no responsibility

in regard to the health of the consumer public. Creameries (butter plants), cheese factories, and milk canning plants likewise were inspected for sanitation by the Army Veterinary Service before and after contracts were awarded,

and the same was true for ration assembly plants, dry storage warehouses
MILITARY MEAT AND DAIRY HYGIENE 681

Figure 89.—Veterinary Corps officers at Perth, Australia, inspecting procurements of dehydrated vegetables made by the U.S. Navy.

and cold storage plants, and the railroad cars, trucks, ships, and other conveyances which were used to transport subsistence for the Army.

Foods of Nonanimal Origin

The Army Veterinary Service was concerned principally with foods of

animal origin, or meat and dairy products, and their sources of supply.

However, during the war, large quantities of fruits, vegetables, cereals, and

variety of food products other than those of animal origin were inspected

(fig. 89). The wartime inspections of the Army supply of fruits, vegetables, and like subsistence items were limited generally to places where no sanitary

inspection agency existed and when specifically authorized by military commanders and Army purchasing officers.

The last-named requirement was impressed on all Veterinary Corps officers in the Zone of Interior who were reporting on any inspections of foods other than those of animal origin. Thus, throughout the war, the Veterinary

Division, Surgeon General’s Office, advised its personnel in the field that this

activity was not regularly defined veterinary activity, that no specialized

training programs would be conducted to qualify veterinary personnel as

fruit and vegetable inspectors, and that where the local commanders or purchasing officers had authorized them to conduct such inspections, then this
682 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Figure 90.—Army Veterinary Service personnel in the European theater inspecting

subsistence supplies for sanitary condition.

requirement would be limited to products inspection for sanitary condition

only. The Surgeon General's Office was particularly interested in the suggestion made by the Office of the Quartermaster General in 1941 that, due to

seasonal conditions and existing military demands for large quantities, the

grading of these products was being varied by civilian inspectors (7, 8) it

was held unreasonable for veterinary personnel to review the grade quality

of products being delivered if the grade standards were unknown. Presumably, the suggestion was made to emphasize that quartermaster purchasing

officers would discourage Veterinary Corps examinations of nonanimal foods
MILITARY MEAT AND DAIRY HYGIENE 683

Figure 91.—Inspecting vegetables and fruit at U.S. general depot in England.

for grade quality but that veterinary sanitary inspections of such foods for

fitness or sanitary condition were desired. In practice, it was shown, however, that better quality foods of nonanimal origin were received (following

grade examinations by civilian inspection personnel and agencies) when

Veterinary Corps officers check graded these products at the time of delivery

and reported gross deviations from normal, acceptable standards. At about

one-half of the quartermaster depots and sections of general depots in the

Zone of Interior that received, stored, and distributed nonperishable subsistence, the depot veterinarians were delegated inspection responsibility over

canned fruits and vegetables.

In many oversea theater commands, the Army Veterinary Service routinely inspected the supply of foods other than those of animal origin

concurrently with its surveillance inspections of meat and dairy products

(figs. 90 and 91). Sometimes, however, the Army Veterinary Service was

requested to inspect these products only when they had deteriorated or become

spoiled. Salvage procedures were then set up under veterinary supervision,

and, of course, the losses then were dropped from quartermaster accountability

under the provisions of veterinary certificates for food found unfit for troop

issue. Under these circumstances, little could be accomplished to improve the

methods and procedures for the receipt, storage, distribution, and other handling of non-animal-origin foods within the theaters such as was accomplished

590248 —61 45
684 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

with meat and dairy products. Beginning with reports of mid-1943, the

Surgeon General’s Office, on request, furnished statistical data to the Office of

the Quartermaster General on the losses of foods other than those of animal

origin that were reported by the Army Veterinary Service in the oversea

theaters 10 11). By October 1944, veterinary reports of condemnations

had increased from 133,106 pounds to 714,375 pounds eacli month in five or

six theaters, but even this was admittedly very incomplete record of the

quantities actually lost; in the 18-month period from July 1943 through

December 1944, the reported rejections aggregated 5,863,199 pounds.

Veterinary Food Inspection Service Organization

The Surgeon General was responsible for obtaining and maintaining the

state of health of the Army. Thus, nutritional adequacy and the fitness of all

foods used by the Army were of real concern to the Medical Department.

This was particularly true with respect to the supply of meat and dairy

products which are capable of transmitting diseases to the human being and

are in themselves favorable media for the development of viral agents. The

Army Veterinary Service, as an agency of The Surgeon General, was responsible for determining whether foods of animal origin were sound, fit for

human consumption, and of proper grade and sanitary quality. It did not

limit itself to products inspections but also inspected the establishments where

these products were processed, produced, stored, or otherwise handled. For

purposes of carrying out this responsibility, the Army Veterinary Service was

organized and administered in manner somewhat paralleling the Quarter- master Corps organization concerned with subsistence procurement, storage,

and distribution. In general, the Chief of the Veterinary Division, Surgeon

General’s Office, exercised technical and professional supervision over all

subsistence inspections performed in the field by the Army Veterinary Service, this supervision being more direct in the Zone of Interior than in the oversea

theater commands. In the Zone of Interior, the veterinary operating agencies

or personnel actually performing the inspections included the veterinary

officers who were assigned to or detailed to the field headquarters and to

market centers of the Quartermaster Market Center System, the service command veterinarians, camp or station veterinarians, Army Air Forces base

veterinarians, depot veterinarians, and veterinarians assigned to the Transportation Corps ports of embarkation.

The veterinary personnel who were on duty within the quartermaster

center system represented the Surgeon General’s Office, and, working under

the officer in charge of that system, coordinated and directed the field veterinary inspections as concerned the procurement, storage, and distribution of

perishable subsistence of animal origin. In each service command, the service

command veterinarian, as member of the staff of the service command

surgeon, coordinated all inspection activities within the geographic limit of

the command (except in areas in the immediate vicinity of depot veterinary
MILITARY MEAT AND DAIRY HYGIENE 685

detachments) and maintained close liaison with the veterinary personnel of

the market center system to insure that the most effective procurement inspection service was rendered. Also, the service command veterinarian administered and supervised the inspections of establishments which were located in

the areas of the service commands. At the camps or stations under the jurisdiction of service commands, the station veterinarians, normally on the staff of

the station surgeon, inspected the meat and dairy products which were received for local issue to troops. This was also true at Army Air Forces bases.

Usually, most items, having been received through quartermaster depots and

market centers, had been inspected at their sources for grade quality and

sanitary condition so that the station veterinarian reexamined such items for

sanitary condition only. Of course, complete acceptance inspections were

performed whenever contractual documents of the quartermaster market

centers and procuring depots so specified, and on all locally purchased products, including those bought by Army exchanges and concessionaires. Other

inspections made by station veterinarians included periodic checks of the

products in storage locally and final inspection of the products at the time of

issue to messhalls or sale. The depot veterinarians, operating directly under

depot commanders, inspected the nonperishable foods of animal origin which

were received, stored, and distributed at the depots and performed food

procurement inspections in nearby metropolitan areas; close liaison was maintained by depot veterinarians with the service command veterinarians. To

insure that the veterinary food inspection activities were standard and uniformly applied on nationwide basis, specially selected and qualified veterinary officers were detailed, under the supervision of The Surgeon General, as

traveling veterinary consultants to routinely inspect or to specially investigate

and to provide assistance and instructions to service command, station, and

depot veterinarians on the principles and practices of military meat and dairy

hygiene inspections. This was started in the spring-summer of 1943.

In the theater commands overseas, the veterinary inspections of theArmy

food supply were conducted by personnel assigned to hospital units, major and

medium port headquarters, quartermaster refrigeration companies, and various

other air, ground, and service forces units. Also, large number of food

inspecting personnel were placed on detached service with units such as

quartermaster depots, and others were assigned to so-called provisional organizations set up within the theaters, such as base commands, service commands,

island commands, base sections, and army garrison forces. However, there

were two units, described in War Department tables of organization, that were

specially developed and deployed in the theaters specifically for the inspection

of foods. One was the veterinary food inspection detachment and the other

was the veterinary detachment, aviation. The former, composed of veterinary officer (in the grade of captain or first lieutenant) and four enlisted

personnel, first appeared in September 1942 when several such units were

organized and then field tested at the Desert Training Center, The original
686 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

ones were designated as lettered veterinary detachments (food inspection), but

this name was changed later to numbered medical composite section (food

inspection). By mid-1945, these units were redesignated as numbered veterinary food inspection detachments. During World War II, 120 such units

were activated pursuant to War Department authorization, 31 in the Zone of

Interior and the remainder in the oversea theaters.

The other unit was the veterinary detachment, aviation, designed for

deployment with numbered air force. The unit was made up of two parts, the detachment or basic element and the section or augmentation element.

The former provided space authorization for one officer (in the grade of

major) and three enlisted personnel to be operational for an air force of

approximately 25,000 troop strength, whereas the section, authorized one

officer (in the grade of captain or first lieutenant) and two enlisted personnel,

was designed to augment the detachment at the rate of one section for each

additional 25,000 troops. During World War II, eight such numbered

detachments were named for activation (the 1st through the 8th), but only

five of them were organized, the latter including total of 27 augmentation

sections as follows: 1st Veterinary Detachment, Aviation, with the 10th, 11th,

12th, 13th, 17th, 21st, 22d, 23d, and 26th Veterinary Sections, on duty with the

Eighth Air Force in the European theater; the 2d Veterinary Detachment, Aviation, with the 14th, 15th, 16th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 24th, 25th, and 27th

Veterinary Sections, on duty with the Ninth Air Force in the European

theater; the 3d Veterinary Detachment, Aviation, with five subsections, in

the Southwest Pacific with the Fifth Air Force; the 4th Veterinary Detachment, Aviation, with sections and II, in the Southwest Pacific Area with

the Thirteenth Air Force; and the 5th Veterinary Detachment, Aviation, with

two subsections, which was on duty with the XXI Bomber Command, later

the Twentieth Air Force, in the Central Pacific Area. All of these were

operational before the end of 1944, and, with the exception of the 5th

Veterinary Detachment, Aviation, they were organized in the oversea theaters.

In this discussion of functional organization of the Army Veterinary

Service which was concerned with food inspection, several matters may be

described in regard to the veterinary personnel as individuals. The inspection of subsistence is perhaps the most difficult type of inspection. manufactured article such as the key-opening can may be tested for strength,

analyzed for materiel composition, and measured for size and shape; the

machine that manufactured one will manufacture others that are practically

identical. Rigid contractual requirements and specifications are prescribed

for these, and those cans showing defect or fault of one kind or another are

rejected. This is not true for subsistence products. No two carcasses of beef

are replicas, just as there are no two disease epizootics identical. Inspection

of subsistence thus remains humanized. It is matter of piece-by-piece

inspection, with the inspector determining the compliance of each piece within

variable range of requirements. Under this situation, the qualifications of
MILITARY MEAT AND DAIRY HYGIENE 687

veterinary subsistence inspector personnel necessarily were experience, alertness in the early detection of defects in products and operations, and sound

judgment. Training was valuable and necessary adjunct to these qualification factors. All veterinary officers and enlisted personnel were specially

trained in military meat and dairy hygiene inspection procedures. Much may

be said concerning the relations with contractors, but the following is formal

and brief comment on this important subject {12)

a. Authority.—-All the weight of the Army is behind the inspector. He is entrusted

with job of vital importance and relied upon to do it well. When large proportion

of the output of plant is contracted for by the Army, as is often the case, it is within

his power to suspend the plant’s operations if products do not conform [by simply halting

inspection procedures]. However, he should use this power wisely, and not abuse it. Protecting the Government is his major concern, and no other interest should be allowed to

interfere. But he should realize that vendor’s failure to meet point in contract

requirements is usually not deliberate slighting but deficiency that the inspector can

indicate and have rectified in routine manner. He should also remember that an unnecessary stoppage of production delays delivery of needed food to troops at home and at

the fighting fronts.

b. Cooperation.—The inspector will in no way obligate himself to the contractor.

His personal relations with the contractor, however, should be of cooperative nature.

The contractor is required to provide the inspector with desk space, locker space, space

for storing Government forms, and such other facilities as are needed in the efficient

operation of his work. In turn, the inspector must show consideration for the problems

of the contractor. By working together they can attain their legitimate objectives with

the least amount of friction.

Special rules of conduct were observed in the veterinary organizations

conducting inspections in contractor plants that were generally more restrictive than prescribed in the regulations of the Army {13) and in the standard

contractual documents relating to fraud. The duties of veterinary food

inspection personnel varied with each situation, and, in connection with their

procurement inspection activities, the duties and scope of inspection generally

were set forth in the contractual documents. The more common duties were

as follows: (1) Sanitary inspection of plants and establishments that produced, prepared, manufactured, stored, transported, or otherwise handled

subsistence products for the Army; (2) inspection of products for sanitary

condition and soundness; (3) quality inspections of products for type, class,

grade, and special requirements of individual contracts; (4) submission of

representative samples of products, raw materiel, basic components, or partially processed items to designated laboratories for analysis; (5) inspection

of packaging and labeling, packing and marking, and strapping, and of the

count or weight; (6) inspection of sanitation, icing, and storage of conveyances used to transport the products; (7) inspection of loading operations;

(8) inspection of products for quantity and condition upon arrival at first

destination; (9) inspection of the Army food items in commercial and

Government-owned warehouses, cold storage, and any other places where such

stores are received, stored, or handled; (10) maintenance of daily and other
688 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

regular records of quantities inspected, passed, or rejected, and of such other

activities as were indicated; (11) reporting to immediate superiors or contracting officers on sanitary conditions, progress of production, labor conditions, and any unusual conditions which would affect contractual relations; and (12) surveillance against pilferage, sabotage, improper handling, and

other actions that would contribute to food losses and unfit foods for issue

to troops {12).

VETERINARY FOOD PROCUREMENT INSPECTIONS

The veterinary inspections incident to Army procurements were purposefully made to determine both the quality, including type, class, and grade,

and the sanitary condition of subsistence products and included also the

sanitary inspection of commercial establishments or plants from which these

meat and dairy products originated, with the exception of such plants as

were operating under the supervision of recognized inspection agency. The

products were inspected upon delivery and, in addition, were frequently

inspected before purchase or delivery; that is, during the processes of production, preparation, or manufacture, if the nature of the products or the interests

of the Government made such inspections necessary. Thus, veterinary food

procurement inspection commonly made reference to two specific procedures

or classes of inspection: (1) Class 3, or inspection prior to purchase, and (2)

class 4, or inspection on delivery at purchase. These were described in Army

Regulations No. 40-2150:

Prior to purchase (class 3).—Inspections conducted prior to purchase are made for

the purpose of determining compliance with contract requirements and the sanitary condition of the product at the time of preparation or manufacture, and are made only when

the contract or other written purchase instrument makes specific provision for this

inspection. Normally, provision is made for such inspection only in the case of canned,

cured, or prepared products. Many packing house products such as sausage, meat loaves,

etc., can be most satisfactorily inspected during preparation. The quality, condition,

and proportions of the ingredients used in products of this nature are masked by seasoning and the various procedures of processing. Wherever practical, an inspection of

manufactured products should be made at point of origin during manufacture. Point of

origin inspection for compliance with the contract provisions and with final inspection

for condition and soundness only, at destination, is sometimes provided for in the purchase instrument, when the point of origin of the product is distant from the receiving

station, or when such point of origin inspection is manifestly to the advantage of the

Government.

On delivery at purchase (class Jf).—The inspections of products made at the time

they are offered for delivery at purchase are made for the purpose of final determination

as to acceptability. These will ordinarily be made at the points of delivery to the Army,

such as quartermaster commissaries, depots, refrigerating plants and storehouses, docks,

piers, etc., and occasionally when so specified, at points of acceptance such as contractors’

plant, public cold storage plants, storehouses, etc. Products reported as inspected and

passed under this inspection will be limited to those purchased with federally appropriated funds. Inspections on delivery at purchase are made of all products offered for

delivery by contractor. These products, if accepted, would be accounted for at receipt
MILITARY MEAT AND DAIRY HYGIENE 689

by the preparation of receiving report by the receiving quartermaster. The inspection

certificate on this form should he signed by the veterinary officer making the inspection.

This includes inspection both for compliance with specified requirements as to type, class, and grade, and for sanitary condition of the product, except in those instances in which

the written purchase instrument provides for prior to purchase inspection for compliance with specified requirements at point of preparation or manufacture and for final

inspection for quantity, condition, and soundness only at time of delivery at purchase.

Inspections will be made upon delivery at station of all products purchased locally,

and also of all products delivered to the station by the contractor which have been contracted for by depot under stipulation that the products will be delivered to the

consuming station at contractor’s expense, and providing for acceptance inspection at

destination.

All subsistence coming into ownership of the Army was subjected to

class inspection, but provision for class product inspection was optional

with the contracting officer, usually with the advice of veterinary officer, and this class of inspection was conducted only if specifically provided for

in the pertinent contractual document. Class inspection only was the usual

food procurement inspection procedure in the peacetime Army, but, during

World War II, emphasis was placed on the class products inspections in

contractors’ plants followed by the class inspection which was made at the

time of delivery of the finished product. In fact, by 1944, all meats and

nearly all other foods of animal origin were inspected at origin or in contractors’ plants and then for sanitary condition and quantity at the point of

delivery. In July 1944, class inspections were being made in 1,000 establishments. The term “origin inspection” or “in-plant inspection” was commonly used to indicate the class product inspection, and the class inspection was termed destination inspection. The latter class of inspections

was conducted in depots, market centers, camps, ports of embarkation, and Army and commercial storage plants immediately upon receipt of the

products from the contractors. It was regular, prescribed procedure that

no meat and dairy product would be formally received and that the civilian

contractor would not be paid, until the report of the veterinary class inspection was rendered (fj).

When the two classes of inspection were specified in the contractual

documents, the class inspection included both the examination for the grade

quality of the product and the veterinary professional inspection for its

sanitary condition; the product which was found to be acceptable on the

class inspection was then reinspected when actually procured. The second

part of veterinary procurement inspection, or class inspection, was conducted

only to determine the product’s sanitary condition and count. The inspections

for contractual compliance were normally required but once, as the type, class, and grade qualities usually did not change when once properly determined; however, sanitary inspections were conducted repeatedly, or on the class

inspection, of the same product to insure the continuance of the condition

found to be correct when the class inspection was conducted.
690 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Figure 92. In Iceland, the veterinary inspectionprogram for the fresh milk supply to

the Armed Forces started with the dairy herd at the farms and continued through the milk

pasteurizing plant.

When the contractual documents did not authorize class inspections,

the class inspections included both the examination for type, class, and

grade quality, and the inspection for sanitary condition. This examination

for grade quality and professional inspection for sanitary condition was

conducted concurrently by the same Army veterinary officer because the two

procedures overlapped and blended in their essential features. In military

meat and dairy hygiene, it was axiomatic that no quality grading or inspection

for contractual requirements was contemplated which did not include simultaneously professional investigation of the sanitary condition of products

and the environs in which those products were handled; the combination

proved to be an efficient, practical procedure and was economical in terms of

costs, manpower, and unity of supervision.

The previous discussions were pertinent not only to veterinary food

procurement inspections during World War II in the Zone of Interior but

also to activities in the theater commands wherever the Army procured

subsistence. These classes of inspections were conducted on all local procurements, such as by the Iceland Base Command (fig. 92), in Canada, in the
MILITARY MEAT AND DAIRY HYGIENE 691

Figure 93.—In Australia, close supervision was necessarily maintained on the

processing or “cook” times and temperatures of canned meats procured for the Armed

Forces.

Central and South American countries, on the African Continent, and in

great many other places. There were modifications of this procedure, however, where the U.S. forces were not subsisted on Army-procured foods. Thus, in 1942, Army troops in Australia were rationed by the Australian Army,

and, in China throughout the war period, military personnel were regarded

by the Allied Chinese Nationalist Government as guests and thus were housed

and fed by the special Chinese Army Service Corps. There were variety of

problems in regard to the inspection of these supplies by the Army Veterinary

Service; however, no objections were seriously interposed by these two foreign

agencies against Army Veterinary Corps officers inspecting the products for

sanitary quality. In fact, only in Australia did any real problem arise, and

this originated with the senior U.S. Army headquarters staff and quartermaster procurement officers who, without reasonable argument, seemed to

have permitted the health matters of the Army and business economies to be

subordinated to political aspects for gaining Allied cooperation or maintaining

international good will. Fortunately, this argument did not last long, and

full-scale veterinary food procurement inspectional service was soon established in Australia (fig. 93).

590248 —61 46
692 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Procurement Inspection Responsibility

The Quartermaster Corps was responsible for the procurement of subsistence and for insuring that such procurements conformed fully to contract

and specification requirements. In the performance of this responsibility,

particularly as it applied to foods of animal origin, the Quartermaster Corps

was regularly assisted by the Army Veterinary Service which conducted the

inspections. These veterinary inspections were usually advisory in nature,

with the exception of those conducted to determine soundness and sanitation

at which time the veterinary reports and recommendations were accepted as

final, and the subsistence found unsound or unfit for human consumption was

not procured. However, on the basis of veterinary reports of type, class, or

grade quality, and quantity, the quartermaster contracting officer had the final

authority to accept or reject the products. Thus, in regard to the latter, the

Army Veterinary Service truly acted as technical adviser, assisting contracting officers in the interpretation and application of contractual requirements and specifications as they applied to the products being procured.

Naturally, inspection per se stood for grade quality, and, in extreme situations, procurement per se stood only for quantity. Veterinary inspectors,

however, would reject everything, and contracting officers would buy anything, while the civilian contractors complicated the picture by offering

everything and anything. In regard to these inspections, the following was

reported {15)

In this conflict between quality and quantity, inspection found itself squarely in

the middle. Inspectors were bound by the legal aspects of the contract and consequently

were obliged to insist upon deliveries conforming to specifications and other terms of the

contract. Where conflicts between quality and quantity occurred, compromise had to be

evolved by cooperation among these three groups so that delivery of supplies would not be

delayed. It mattered little how accurately and scientifically specifications were drawn if

commodities were not kept up to the established standard by means of careful testing and

inspection. At the same time, proper inspection, by insuring smooth flow of adequate

[subsistence supplies] from production line to training camp and battlefield, constituted vital link in the chain of [subsistence] supply.

Thus, it was obvious the “duties of the veterinary officer in respect to the

inspection of foods and the duties of the quartermaster officers in connection with procurement, storage, and issue are closely related” and that “*

spirit of cooperation and understanding of each other’s duties and

responsibilities must exist for efficient operation” {16).

Changes in Veterinary Food Procurement Inspections

There was considerable change in the procedures for veterinary food

procurement inspections during World War IT. This paralleled the changes

which were made in the Quartermaster Corps procedures for procuring subsistence for the Army and, in fact, was in great part responsible for the
MILITARY MEAT AND DAIRY HYGIENE 693

successes in the quartermaster market center system and centralized procurement system for nonperishable subsistence that were evolved during the war.

In the spring of 1941, The Quartermaster General authorized post quartermaster or purchasing officers to procure Army boneless beef for local

issue purposes and to communicate directly with the Veterinary Division,

Surgeon General’s Office, with regard to arrangements for veterinary officers

to conduct class inspections in all procurements of that product (47, 18).

Concurrently, changes were proposed in Federal specifications concerning

carcass or wholesale market cuts of fresh or frozen beef so that the latter

would be inspected, if so specified in contractual agreements, for grade quality

at contractors’ establishments (that is, class inspection) and inspected at

point of delivery or final acceptance (that is, class inspection) for condition only. The procurement actions in 1940-41 were major advance in the

developing trend for class inspection and were important because they

antedated the veterinary inspection procedures that were set up with the start

of the quartermaster market center system for centralized perishable subsistence buying. In anticipation of the demands that the growing Army

would place on the newly developing system of food procurement, the Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office, in August 1940 and again in

January 1941, requested personnel space authorizations for ordering 60 or

70 Veterinary Reserve Corps officers to extended active duty {19. 20). By

that time, many contractors supplying meats to the Army were in need of

veterinary class inspectors at number of widely separated establishments.

It may be noted that the Surgeon General’s Office remained operationally

responsible regarding arrangements for the conduct of class inspections;

this responsibility as transferred later to the service commands.

The quartermaster procedures for perishable and nonperishable subsistence procurement were transferred from the many individual Army camps

and were regrouped by the Quartermaster Corps under two rapidly developing procedures for subsistence procurement and distribution in the Zone of

Interior; The centralized purchasing of nonperishable (canned) subsistence

by quartermaster depots, and the quartermaster market system which was

concerned with the supply of perishable or fresh food products. Thus, only

one depot and one market center procured nonperishable and perishable products in given city, and no longer were the products, previously rejected,

reinspected by the Army Veterinary Service and passed for Army procurement. The more singular advantages of class inspections under the new

quartermaster purchasing systems were that, under wartime conditions, it

operated to keep rejections at minimum; facilitated the correction of faulty

processing operations before these led to the production of substandard products; conserved labor, critical materiel, and transportation facilities; and

expedited the movement of products from the establishments to camps, depots

and storage areas, and ports.
ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Federal and Other Specifications in Contractual Agreements

Regarding the grade quality which was mentioned so many times as

comprising one of the major features of veterinary food products procurement inspection, it must be understood that this was set forth in the contractual agreements between quartermaster purchasing officers and the civilian contractors. Actually, the contractual documents most frequently did

not describe the grade quality so much as they made reference to one or more

specifications that did, and the specifications thus became an integral and

legal part of the contract. Generally, there was specification for each meat

and dairy product which was procured by the Army, and there were other

specifications, also made part of the legal contractual documents, relative

to such matters as packaging and labeling, packing and marking, and the

general considerations of Army procurement procedures. These commodity

specifications were of several major types: Federal specifications, which

were promulgated by the U.S. Department of the Treasury; U.S. Army

specifications; Quartermaster Corps tentative specifications; and, of course,

the modifications of the foregoing types or certain special requirements such

as were written into the contractual documents. The specifications were the

basis for conducting veterinary procurement inspections concerning grade

and by common practice comprised part of the regular equipment for all

veterinary inspection personnel. The possession of the pertinent specification was as essential to them as was the possession and knowledge of the

contractual document. Federal specifications may be regarded as governing the procurement of commodities by any or all Federal agencies which

purchased them, including the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Veterans’

Administration, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Navy Department, and

War Department. These, when they were first issued in 1922, were termed

Standard Specifications, later U.S. Government Master Specifications, and, after September 1929, Federal Specifications.

At the beginning of the war, there were 68 Federal specifications of

meat and dairy products which were cited in contractual agreements and

were the basis for veterinary inspections for grade quality. Each specification followed the same topical outline:

Other applicable Federal specifications

Types, classes, and grades

Material and workmanship (that is, standards of raw material)

General requirements (as to delivery)

Detail requirements (of the various types, classes, and grades of the commodity)

Method of inspection and test

Packaging, packing, and marking for shipment

Requirements applicable to individual procuring agencies

Notes

The promulgation of these specifications was the responsibility of an agency

of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the Federal Specifications Board,
MILITARY MEAT AND DAIRY HYGIENE 695

or the Executive Committee, Procurement Division. This agency was subdivided into variety of subcommittees such as Feeds and Forage Technical

Committee and Provisions Technical Committee, whose chairmanships and

memberships included, on invitation of the Federal Specifications Board or

Executive Committee, representatives from civilian industry and various

governmental departments. After the issuance of such an invitation, approved on November 1934, by the Assistant Secretary of War {21, 22),

Veterinary Corps officers who were assigned to the Surgeon General's Office

were seated as permanent members of the Provisions Technical Committee

and at various times were named as chairmen of such of the technical committee’s subcommittees as were concerned with the development of specifications on meat and dairy products.

During the war, the developmental work on specifications was under

constant study, but there were no major revisions or many newly promulgated

ones; in fact, the procedures for developing Federal specifications that would

meet the needs and approval of all wartime procurement agencies of the

Government were generally quite slow, and the Army resorted to the development of its own military specifications for the many new kinds of food products that it procured during World War II. In fact, this military specification development was begun in 1941 at the Subsistence Eesearch Laboratory

(in February 1944, designated the Subsistence Eesearch and Development

Laboratory, and after the war, renamed the Quartermaster Food and Container Institute for the Armed Forces) at the Chicago Quartermaster Depot,

Chicago, 111. Its specifications were referred to as “Quartermaster Corps

Tentative Specification C.Q.D. No. For canned meats alone more

than 50 such specifications were developed {23). Each specification described

in particular the raw materials, the procedures, and the testing that would

be observed by the veterinary inspection personnel in the establishments

which were producing these products. Near the end of the war, sample cans

of these products were submitted routinely by the Veterinary Corps officer

from the establishment to the quartermaster research laboratory for so-called

acceptability testing, but, unfortunately, the results of this test were returned

direct to the contractor and, most frequently, long after the establishment

had stopped production and had shipped the product. Of course, in-plant

veterinary organoleptic examinations of the end products and the chemical

and other analytical tests, which were conducted at the service command

medical laboratories, were completed to the satisfaction of the inspecting

Veterinary Corps officer before the contractors made the shipments.

Centralized Procurement of Nonperishable Animal-Origin Foods

Before World War II, nonperishable (canned) meat and dairy products

were little needed in feeding the Army, and only few items were procured

on centralized basis. During the 1930’s, canned bacon was being procured

by the Chicago Quartermaster Depot for supply to the oversea departments,
696 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

and few other items were purchased for distribution to nearby Army

camps. In 1939, the first real change to improve the Army’s canned meat

supply was made by the Office of the Quartermaster General when Jive frequently procured items were designated for central procurement and distribution by the Chicago Quartermaster Depot. However, another years

elapsed before the centralized procurement system for canned meat and dairy

products was expanded to become effective. Actually, products such as

canned corned beef, corned beef hash, meat and vegetable stew, meat and

vegetable hash, pork luncheon meat, and Vienna-style sausage were quite

similar to those available commercially and were obtained in their commercial forms. Inspections were made usually at the depot by examining representative sample cans of the end products that were forwarded by the

contractor, and only infrequently was depot-assigned veterinary officer

ordered to temporary duty in the contractor’s establishment to conduct class

inspections.

This peacetime inspection procedure for canned foods was halted in

January 1941 when The Quartermaster General and The Surgeon General

concurred in proposal to move procurement inspection from the depots to

contractors’ establishments (£J, 25, 27). The proposal, approved by the

Secretary of War on 18 January 1941, granted authorization to any or all

depots which procured subsistence to communicate directly with corps area

(later, service command) commanders to issue orders for the latter’s Veterinary Corps officers to travel to such places as would be required in connection with class inspection of foods procured for the Army. Of course,

at this time nearly all depots were buying some canned meats and dairy

products other than those few previously named for central procurement by

the Chicago Quartermaster Depot. Effective on October 1941, new system for nonperishable subsistence procurement and distribution was set up

by the Quartermaster Corps, and three depots were named as procurement

points: Chicago, 111., New York (later Jersey City, N.J.), and San Francisco, latter designated California-—each being assigned the commodities it would

procure. Thus, eight canned meat items, dried egg powder, dried milk

powder, and canned evaporated milk were designated for central procurement by the Chicago Quartermaster Depot. (This depot also undertook the

buying of certain cured and smoked products, such as bacon and ham, and

of frozen boneless beef, but the procurement responsibilities for these, as

perishable products, were transferred later to the new quartermaster market

center system.) Canned salmon was to be centrally procured by the San

Francisco General Depot; canned fruits and vegetables, and cereals were also

listed for procurement by these depots as well as by the depot at Jersey City.

As the centralized procurement system for nonperishable meat and dairy

products was launched, the responsibility for conducting the veterinary inspection was often transferred to another depot more closely located to the contractor’s establishment. Thus, the veterinary detachment, Seattle Army
MILITARY MEAT AND DAIRY HYGIENE 697

Service Depot, routinely conducted the procurement inspections for canned

salmon, although the San Francisco (or California) Quartermaster Depot

was designated as the procurement depot. Similarly, as the Chicago Quar- termaster Depot's procurements of canned meats were expanded to TO cities

and towns, varying number of newly developing depot veterinary detachments conducted class inspections in the plants which were producing

canned meats under contractual agreements with the Chicago installation.

These developments did not follow those principles originally set forth in

January 1911, but there was no doubt that certain procurement officers and

quartermaster field installation commanders had come to the unjustifiable

opinion that depot veterinary detachments were better qualified and were

more appreciative of the problems in rendering the procurement inspection

services than were those personnel and detachments which were under service command jurisdiction {23, 28, 29). The Office of the Quartermaster Gen- eral supported this development but limited it to the extent, measured only

in geographic terms, of requesting depot commanders to retain the operational boundaries of depot veterinary detachments within 30-mile radius

of their installations {30, 31). Only when the class inspections were required at places 30 miles or more distant from the depot conducting the inspections did The Quartermaster General recommend that the depot desiring

the inspection request the services of veterinary personnel from the service

commands.

Another major inspection problem relating to nonperishable subsistence

was that the Procurement Division, Chicago Quartermaster Depot, was without direct veterinary representation, and problems of inspection at contractors’ plants were belatedly answered, sometimes by the meat buyers themselves.

Not infrequently, contract provisions were changed without proper notification to inspecting Veterinary Corps officers, and the Quartermaster Subsistence Research and Development Laboratory added to the complexity by

setting forth requirements on production in the plants. In the Zone of Interior, service command veterinarians were especially critical of the inflexibility of procurement inspection actions imposed by the Chicago Quarter- master Depot 32, 33, JJ), and it was not until the last year of the war that

the professional and technical problems of inspection relating to canned

meat and dairy products procurement were handled in manner comparable

to that evolved by the quartermaster market center system for inspections

of perishable foods. Eventually, however, the depot veterinarian, Chicago

Quartermaster Depot, gained direct representation on the staff of the depot’s

Procurement Division and rendered professional and technical assistance on

nonperishable food procurement inspections.

As to the extent of canned meat and dairy products procurement inspections, it may be noted that contractors for canned meats alone numbered 135;

these had approximately 20 branch plants, located in 70 or more cities and
698 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

towns throughout the United States. Between August 1941 and June 1945,

procurements from these sources totaled 3,580,617,869 pounds of canned meats:

This quantity included 221,148,305 pounds purchased by the Quartermaster Corps for the U.S. Navy, under coordinated Army-Navy procurement program that began in June 1942.

Quartermaster Market Center System

To facilitate the procurement and distribution of perishable foods, the

Quartermaster Corps formulated its market center system in April 1941 {35,

36, 37). Under this system, The Quartermaster General established and

maintained purchasing offices in various parts of the United States, designated as quartermaster market centers, to purchase perishable food in the

important city markets and to spread the purchases geographically as widely

as was possible. At the onset, only fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables

were procured by the market center system, but, in mid-1941, The Quarter- master General indicated that other food items would soon be designated for

procurement by the market centers. Thus, on October 1941, the first food

items of animal origin, butter, cheese, eggs, and poultry, were added to the

procurement schedules. By this time, 29 quartermaster market centers had

been established and were accomplishing perishable food procurement for

approximately 100 Army camps throughout the United States. In effect, the market center system of buying replaced the peacetime purchasing system

for fresh meat and dairy products by separate Army camps and airfields,

many of which by this time had expanded or were so located that the city

markets in their vicinity were too small to meet their needs. Under the

market center system, these installations made their needs known to speci- fied market center where arrangements were then made for procurement and

delivery. In this manner, there was an equitable distribution of perishable

meat and dairy products to all Army camps and airbases in the United States,

regardless of their location and without respect to the availability of such

supplies in nearby city markets.

The market centers were controlled by The Quartermaster General who

established, on 16 June 1941, the Field Headquarters, Perishable Subsistence

Section, Office of the Quartermaster General {38), with station in Chicago,

under which these market centers actually operated. On October 1941,

Veterinary Corps officer was assigned to this central headquarters for market

Pounds

1941 (August through December) 75,494,920

1942 923,243,560

1943 063,887,844

1944 1,227,640,683

1945 (January through June)

Total

__ 690,350,862

3,580,617,809
MILITARY MEAT AND DAIRY HYGIENE 699

centers to act as the technical adviser on veterinary inspection procedures;

he acted informally also as representative of the Veterinary Division,

Surgeon General’s Office (39). After that time, veterinary officers were assigned to few of the market centers, but, for the most part, the latter depended on the additional duty assignments of veterinary officers from

nearby Army camp under service command jurisdiction or from quartermaster depot to act as market center veterinarians. Their duties were to

coordinate and process the requests for veterinary inspections and to review

the reports of inspections which were conducted for the market centers. The

actual inspection workload at procurement points, cold storage plants, and

other establishments concerned in the Army’s perishable subsistence supply

was carried on by the Army Veterinary Service with service commands, with

quartermaster depots and sections of general depots, and infrequently by

Army Air Forces veterinary personnel. It was not intended that the market

center system would have any large numbers of veterinary personnel assigned

to it but rather that it would utilize the services of those already assigned

to the Army camps, depots, airbases, and other military installations to do the

actual work. Significantly, the latter also were called upon, as shown previously, to inspect in the nonperishable subsistence supply system.

This utilization of Veterinary Corps personnel to inspect for the quartermaster market center system originated with proposal agreed to by The

Quartermaster General and The Surgeon General {4-0, 41 4®, 43)- On 17

October 1911, The Adjutant General authorized officers in charge of the

market centers to call on service commands (then designated corps areas)

who would arrange for their assigned Veterinary Corps officers to travel to

places of inspections in commercial food establishments. It will be recalled

that earlier, in January 1941, depots procuring nonperishable food products

were granted similar authorizations. In November 1941, The Quartermaster

General authorized the market centers to call on depot veterinary detachments to provide class inspections of meat and dairy products in the vicinity

of their depots.

In February 1942, market center operations were expanded to the procurement of meats and meat food products, and, in March 1942, fish and

seafoods were added to this procurement list. Frozen boneless beef, war ham

and bacon, and war-style lard were transferred from the Chicago Quartermaster Depot to the procurement responsibilities of the market centers in the

fall of 1942; fresh milk and cream were added in February 1944 (fig. 94).

By mid-1943, the number of market centers had increased to 37; these distributed foods to more than 500 installations and for shipment overseas.

The Army market centers served not only Army posts, but also the Navy,

Marine Corps, Merchant Marine, Coast Guard, and War Relocation Authority. The Army scheduled its procurement of these products in harmony

with seasonal production and stored some perishable food items, such as eggs,
700 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Figuee 94.—Preparation of frozen boneless beef for procurement by market centers.

cheese, and butter, for consumption in slack seasons of production. During

1944, the market center system also took over the purchase of canned butter

and Army spread, canned process cheese, and canned chicken and poultry.

From the start of the quartermaster market center procurement program to

31 December 1945, meat and dairy products aggregated 13,420,247,886 pounds

with value of $3,359,329,365 (5). Actually, procurement inspection of

products for current consumption was only part of the veterinary food inspection services for the market center system. There were large-scale programs for the procurement of seasonal products to be held in storage for

distribution later. Thus, in connection with butter, the headquarters veterinarian of the market center system indicated:

large butter storage program started May 1943, and required much work of the

Veterinary Section of this office and the inspectors in the field. This program resulted in

approximately 42 million lbs. of butter being placed in storage. In addition, in July 1943,

the Dairy Products Marketing Association offered 36 million lbs. of butter to the Armed

Forces. This product was located in 106 cold storages in all parts of the country.

Requests for inspection of this butter were handled like requests for inspections of all

other products of animal origin. The inspection work was completed in approximately

20 days, with 28,500,000 lbs. being accepted. The Dairy Products Marketing Association
MILITARY MEAT AND DAIRY HYGIENE 701

also offered 20,879,035 lbs. more butter on December 1943 and million lbs. more on

11 December 1943. This product was stored in 51 cities in 22 States. Requests for

inspection were forwarded as usual, and with the exception of few places where there

was labor shortage, the inspections were completed in the 20 days allotted for the

inspection and reporting of same. Inspection was requested every 30 days on all butter

held in storage, and was also requested when bulk butter was removed for printing

and shipment to final destination, or return to storage.

During the calendar year 1944, 100 million lbs. of butter were purchased under setaside orders and stored as Government property.

Major Procurement Inspection Problems

The major problems relating to procurement inspection were the questionable inspections made on class and class inspections, the grading activities by the Agricultural Marketing Service, and the developing controversy over geographic areas of inspectional jurisdiction between depots and

service commands. The last-named problem has been outlined and discussed

in preceding paragraphs.

Mention must be made of the Agricultural Marketing Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and its utilization coequal with the Army Veterinary

Service to determine the grade quality of meat and dairy products which

were being procured by the quartermaster market center system. Since about

1916, this civilian agency (then called the Bureau of Agricultural Economics)

had been developing standards for grades of beef and other meats in connection with its market-reporting system; in 1927, for the first time, that

agency actually undertook the grading of beef in commercial food establishments, limited to nine large city markets (Ab T5). In 1932, product grading

services in 14 central markets were extended to include butter, cheese, eggs,

and dressed poultry and rabbits. By law, the Federal grading was made

only on products when offered for interstate shipment or when received at

important central markets, and then only when specifically requested on

particular shipment or lot. At the beginning of the war, the agency’s field

inspection forces were small and were limited to operations in the large

city markets, and relatively few members of the Nation’s food industries

voluntarily applied for its grading service.

In 1941, when the quartermaster market center system undertook the procurement of poultry, butter, eggs, and cheese, either this agency or the Army

Veterinary Service was designated to determine the grade quality of these

products at points of origin, the selection of one or the other being the choice

of the contractor. variety of complaints, including charges of duplicate

inspections, were soon made against the Army Veterinary Service. These

complaints were made to appear worse by the confusion that was allowed

to persist that the determination of grade quality by the Agricultural Marketing Service was comparable to Army Veterinary Corps inspection which

featured both sanitary inspection procedures and grade determination; that

is, the Agricultural Marketing Service was truly not an inspection agency.
702 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

The Federal grading agency continued to be forced upon the food industries

during the war period as the result of the development of wartime price

control regulations which provided for price schedules dependent on the

product’s grade quality; it was feature of economics and was not the least

concerned in sanitary quality control. Even the highest graded cheese or

dressed poultry could originate from tuberculosis-infected milk herds or

poultry flocks. For example, its definition of grade standards for Swiss

cheese was footnoted with the statement “grading certificates shall not be

deemed to represent that the product graded meets this definition and shall

not excuse failure to comply with the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic

Act or any other Federal regulation” (46). This was the difference between

grading and veterinary inspection.

common complaint was the number of rejections by the Army Veterinary Service of delivered products which had been previously quality graded

by the Agricultural Marketing Service. Of course, there was no general

appreciation of the fact that the product grading may have been correct

both at origin and destination or that it was entirely possible for perishable

food commodities to deteriorate to the next lower grade after the Agricultural Marketing Service grading was originally conducted. This controversy was compromised by the reinspection procedures that were established

by the quartermaster market center system, as follows (47)

Where any of the food items indicated above [i.e., butter, eggs, cheese, and poultry]

are inspected at point of origin by an inspector of the Agricultural Marketing Service and

are found on inspection at receipt to be not the grade contracted for, the vendor will be

notified and, if he so desires, may request reinspection. In such event, the Quartermaster Marketing Center which made the contract will be immediately notified. On

request of the Officer in Charge of the Marketing Center, the Agricultural Marketing

Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture will send qualified representative to the

camp, post, or station to reinspect the shipment in question. At the same time, the

Officer in Charge of the Quartermaster Marketing Center will immediately make request

to the Commanding General of the corps area in which the post or camp is located for

the detail of specially selected and qualified veterinary officer to make reinspection

at the same time as that to be made by the representative of the Agricultural Marketing

Service.

While the Agricultural Marketing Service representative and the veterinary officer

will make their inspections independently, it is expected that they will compare notes

of their findings and discuss same before rendering their reports. The result of this

reinspection will be accepted by the receiving Quartermaster as being conclusive as to

grade unless it should happen that the Agricultural Marketing Service representative

and the veterinary officer making the reinspection do not agree. In this event the

receiving Quartermaster will consider the certificate rendered by the representative of

the Agricultural Marketing Service and the report of the veterinary officer and make

final decision as to whether he will accept or reject the contested shipment.

In all cases where the reinspection by the Agricultural Marketing Service representative and the veterinary officer substantiate the station veterinarian in his initial

inspection, the cost of the reinspection will be assessed against the contractor, otherwise

it will be borne by the Army.
MILITARY MEAT AND DAIRY HYGIENE 703

Although the Agricultural Marketing Service was recognized by the market center system throughout the war period, the previously mentioned

disagreements did not occur frequently after the first few months because

the civilian contractors generally resolved the matter by requesting Army

Veterinary Corps inspection on products being prepared in their establish- ments for Army delivery. Significantly, only the market center procurements of eggs, butter, cheese, and poultry were involved; the Agricultural

Marketing Service posed no grading problem in regard to meats and meat

products because these were quality graded solely by the Army Veterinary

Service as were all other foods of animal origin, including fish, seafoods, and

dairy supplies.

VETERINARY FOOD SURVEILLANCE INSPECTIONS

Surveillance inspections included the veterinary inspections made to determine the soundness and sanitary condition of Government-owned food products and the sanitary conditions of the places of receipt, storage, and

other handling, including warehouses, cold storage plants, and storerooms

on Army transports, ships chartered by the Army, and other carriers which

handled, stored, or transported foods for the Army. The inspections were

made as required on the receipt of Government-owned foods at station,

Army supply point, or in the field, and before transshipment, during storage,

at time of issue, or at such other times as were judged to be necessary. Products subject to reclamation, pursuant to the guarantee provisions of contracts,

were, in addition, inspected just before the expiration date of the guaranty

period. Surveillance inspections were conducted repeatedly on the same

products along the entire supply chain to insure the continuance of their

soundness and sanitary condition between the time and places of procurement and issue. Although these surveillance inspections were primarily directed at the sanitary features of products and their environs, they also

served to conserve food. They were the means of detecting the early signs

of deterioration in quality and made it possible to utilize the product before

deterioration had progressed to the point that it could not be used. In these

activities, the Army Veterinary Service acted as technical and professional

advisers to the surgeons who protected troop health, to quartermasters who

received, stored, and issued the foods, to the transportation officers who

moved the foods, and to the engineers who constructed and maintained the

warehousing and cold storage facilities. Only the Army Veterinary Service,

as single agency, could relate the complete, continuous history of the Army’s

meat and dairy products from the places of manufacture or procurement to

the issue points.

Inspection of Any Receipt of Subsistence Except Procurement

Of the several classes of veterinary surveillance inspection procedures,

the class inspection, conducted on Government-owned food products when
ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE 704

Figure 95.—Without adequate packing, subsistence arriving overseas became almost

worthless.

received from another military installation or other agency, was especially

important. It was conducted to determine the sanitary condition of Army

products at the time of their receipt at depots for storage, at ports for oversea shipment, at supply points for redistribution, or at stations and airbases

where they were to be issued. Usually, the inspections related to products

received from another military installation, but some of these products were

received direct from the contractors’ establishments, as in the instances of

shipments of canned meat and dairy products to the ports which had neither

the time nor the facilities for full veterinary class inspections. The ports

of embarkation in the Zone of Interior became particularly concerned with

inspection reports which were rendered on the receipt of products overseas,

because the reported losses often pointed out defects in packaging, packing,

or the methods of handling subsistence between the United States and the

oversea theaters (fig. 95). Also, if the oversea receipt inspection revealed

deterioration or spoilage of products, then reasonable basis existed for an

inquiry to be made of the shipping officer who may have shipped deteriorated

subsistence or for an investigation to be made to determine the liability of
MILITARY MEAT AND DAIRY HYGIENE 705

Figure 96.—Aerial port of embarkation for perishable subsistence supply in India, March

1944.

the commercial carrier or Army transportation agency. The class inspection was also means for reviewing the efficiency of veterinary inspection

procedures at the original shipping points (or class inspection).

Inspection Before Shipment

Veterinary class inspection, or the inspection before shipment, was conducted to assure the shipment only of meat and dairy products which were

sound and fit for issue to troops (fig. 96). Within the definition of establishments, the conveyances that were used to transport subsistence for the Army

also were inspected for suitability and sanitary condition. Conveyances

meant railroad cars, trucks, ships, and airplanes. Thus, class inspections

referred principally to sanitary inspections of products and of the conveyances. During World War II, veterinary personnel were requested to technically supervise the methods used in the loading or stowing of subsistence,

particularly of refrigerated cargo.

In the inspection of perishable meat and dairy products at contractors’

establishments and commercial warehouses, the concerned veterinary officers

were advised specifically to closely supervise the precooling and loading of

railroad cars and trucks as well as the sanitary condition of the conveyances,
706 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

their icing, insulation, refrigeration equipment, ventilation, and the methods

of piling and bracing the cargo or loads. Special protective service instructions were issued by Field Headquarters, Perishable Subsistence Section,

Chicago, 111., relative to the conditions for shipping perishable products,

and it became requirement for contractors and warehousemen to have the

manifest of loads placed inside the cars and trucks by veterinary personnel,

before their sealing, to insure that these instructions were being followed

(.p?, 50) variety of publications by the Association of American Railroads were utilized in observing the methods of loading, bracing, and blocking shipments of nonperishable subsistence; these included such matters as

tight stowage, even height of the loads, and blocking doorways of full loads

or bracing partial loads with bulkheads (or gates). Minimum carloads of

canned subsistence were established at 60,000 pounds. At destination, the

subsistence-carrying conveyances were inspected for condition, including the

security of the seals, the quantity of ice in bunkers, the opening temperatures,

evidences of improper loading practices, and any off condition of the products that might have been caused by neglect or other action by the shippers

or carriers.

At the ports of embarkation and cargo ports, the Army Veterinary Service played an important role as advisers to the Transportation Corps in the

outmovement of subsistence to the theaters overseas. Pursuant to AR 40-

2055, port veterinarians were responsible for conducting the inspections of

products before their loading on Army transports, chartered ships, or other

vessels transporting meat and dairy products for the Army; also, they recommended and, wherever practicable, supervised the methods employed for

correcting sanitary defects. Perishable subsistence, in particular, presented

major shipping problem, and, in 1943, the Office of the Chief of Transportation addressed circular of instructions on some few aspects of the

procedures and inspection responsibilities at the ports, as follows 51 52)

1. It has been brought to the attention of the Chief of Transportation that refrigerated cargo has been received at overseas destination in unusable condition. The storage

history of the product prior to loading and the elapsed time of the movement will have

an effect upon the condition of the product at destination. Any product which is not

thoroughly frozen when loaded may be expected to deteriorate en route, because the

refrigeration capacity of the carrier is not sufficient to complete the process of freezing

and lower the product temperature. Proper attention needs to be given to stowage, for

an even distribution of refrigeration throughout the load. Correctly designed and installed floor dunnage and wall stripping to prevent direct transfer of heat from those

surfaces to the product are also very important.

2. Inspection of perishable subsistence at shipside, prior to loading in refrigerated

cargo, should be made carefully to assure that the product is in proper condition for

shipment. Frozen perishable subsistence should be in hard-frozen condition, and any

isuch product found at this time to be in defrosted condition or showing any signs of

softening shall be rejected and moved to storage for further freezing. The Office of the

Quartermaster General, in Field Headquarters Administrative Memorandum No. 41, 22
MILITARY MEAT AND DAIRY HYGIENE 707

April 1943, has issued instructions to assure arrival of frozen subsistence in proper condition at the ports.

6. It will he understood that the importance of this subject cannot be overemphasized when plans call for much of this perishable cargo to go into storage at destination

for periods up to and exceeding ninety days.

Other paragraphs of this document set forth the recommended temperatures

of the products at the time of loading and those desired in the refrigerated

spaces in ships while en route.

The special conditions at ports, leading to food losses in the oversea

stockpiles, included the squeezing pressure exerted by nets and slings, the

shocks sustained as the cargo nets hit the pier or bottom of the ship’s hold,

and the rough handling by the stevedores who worked on top of the cases

while the hold was being filled or who dropped or slammed them into pile.

Of course, there was always the constant problem of slow loading so that

refrigerated cargo often thawed out or lost its chill on the piers; in some

areas, ship loadings and unloadings were conducted at night to avoid the

heat of the tropical sun, and inclement weather conditions disrupted or

delayed loading schedules. However, one of the most common causes of

damage to cases of subsistence and of outright food losses occurred from the

use of cargo nets, in lieu of platform slings, to load or discharge products

such as shell eggs, fresh fruits, and vegetables; also, frozen meats and poultry

packed in wirebound wooden boxes fared poorly from the distortion and

crushing effects of the nets. Since all shipping space seemed to beg filling,

containers were placed under heavier loads or squeezed in between. During

the voyages, there were the added factors of shifting cargo, damp salt air,

and temperature changes. Cargo transferred from ships to lighters or landing craft received especially rough handling when the boats were in rough

sea. Unskilled native labor, unconcerned about the importance of the job,

compounded the damage.

In-Storage Inspections

One of the more important classes of veterinary surveillance inspection

procedures was the class inspection, or the inspection of Army subsistence

while in storage. Essentially, it was an innovation of the war period in

regard to fresh products. In peacetime, practically no fresh meat and dairy

products were stored longer than from few days to or weeks, and any

deterioration or spoilage could be uncovered during the inspection at time of

issue. The quartermaster market center system was particularly concerned

with the veterinary sanitary inspections of products in storage, but the

quartermaster depots in the Zone of Interior lagged in recognizing their

importance. The in-storage inspection was routinely regarded as matter

of command responsibility wherein the veterinary inspections would be conducted on specific request of the concerned accountable officers 53), but
708 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Figure 97.—Veterinary in-storage inspections of subsistence at an Army depot in tbe

United Kingdom, 1944.

more often—and this was particularly true for storage holdings of perishable

foods by the quartermaster market centers in the Zone of Interior and of both

perishable and nonperishable subsistence stores in the oversea theaters—the

responsibility for conducting in-storage inspections was delegated to the

Army Veterinary Service, and the latter scheduled its own workload for

conducting such inspections (fig. 97). The in-storage inspections were conducted usually at 30-day intervals, for the purpose of conserving subsistence

by timely recommending the utilization of products showing beginning

signs of deterioration or of those items held longest in storage, and for the

improvement of defective storage facilities and procedures. No subsistence

was really nonperishable, even under ideal storage conditions, because all

products undergo deterioration and harmful changes rendering them, in

whole or in part, unfit for food purposes. Another in-storage inspection,

but one closely related to food procurement inspection, was the inspection

of canned subsistence before the expiration of the so-called recovery period

(usually year for practically all canned meats) during which the civilian

contractors, pursuant to contract requirements, made replacements in kind

or compensated the Army for losses incurred because of defective materials

or workmanship or faulty cans; infrequently, contractors exempted themselves by granting invoice discounts of one-half of percent to cover normal losses. Of course, during the war there was no recovery action on

subsistence after it was shipped overseas.
MILITARY MEAT AND DAIRY HYGIENE 709

The importance of in-storage inspections and the quantities of food involved can be appreciated by the fact that the Army could not procure its

needs on hand-to-mouth basis. Approximating the weight of the ration at

pounds of food per day per soldier and the maintenance of 90-day supply

level in the Zone of Interior and 9-month supply which would assure uninterrupted deliveries of food to the theater troops, an estimate has been

made that military force approaching that of World War II would have

to have on hand every day 11 billion pounds of food (54-) to these operating

stocks there would have to be added the production reserves for products of

seasonable availability and the emergency reserves. part of this daily stock

was in transit, but the larger share was stored at various points along the

chain of Army subsistence supply. Of this total quantity, 88 percent would

be meat and dairy products, but meat and dairy products represented 60

percent of the cost of the Army ration.

Within the depots in the United States, the Army Veterinary Service

generally encountered no serious losses among the canned meat and dairy

products newly arriving from contractors’ plants. Of course, there were

shipments in which the railroad cars had been “humped” at terminal, and

the cases and cans were seriously damaged and bent during the unloading

of the cars; the latter were set aside for special veterinary inspection, repacking, and early redistribution, generally to nearby Army installation.

major reason for relatively low rates of subsistence losses Avas the fact

that the depots resorted to the use of forklift trucks and other mechanical

materiel-handling equipment. This, together with extensive utilization of

pallets, constituted the most significant Quartermaster Corps development

of the war in regard to the handling and storing of supplies and resulted

in considerable savings of manpower, Avarehouse space, handling time, and

damages over the older manual system. An unfortunate practice, hoAve\’er,

Avas the tendency to develop piles which Avere too high, causing the cases

of canned foods at the bottom to be crushed or collapsed. The hazards to

safety of personnel by leaning or toppling stockpiles and overloading beyond the prescribed maximum weight for warehouse floors generally became

the real reasons for stabilized stacking and for limiting the height of the

stacks. During the Avar, the turnoA er of subsistence in the Zone of Interior

depots Avas generally rapid so that the Army Veterinary Service encountered

no serious problems Avith stock rotation. Overseas, to the extent that it Avas

possible, stock rotation or policy for the issue of oldest stocks first generally

Avas followed; obAuously, only the neAvest and best on hand Avas selected for

shipment with task forces or for long-time reserve storage. In order to maintain the proper fluidity (or prevent separation of the solids) in evaporated

milk, the cases were turned oA er periodically.

As the result of the depot use of pallets, which Avere small wooden platforms constructed to provide clearance for the entry of the forks of the lift

truck, quartermaster studies Avere made on the development of palletized
710 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

units of subsistence, and some thought was given to the requirement that

civilian contractors should ship their products to the depots as palletized

units. In the Pacific theaters, palletized unit loading of subsistence was advanced, and sledlike pallets were used to bring supplies ashore to the beaches during the combat phase. On Oahu, T.H., veterinary officer developed

palletized unit load of canned soups, fruit juices, and other foods desirable

or needed in the feeding of wounded patients that was used at frontline or

beach first aid stations and hospitals. It must be recognized, however, that

palletized loads of subsistence cases, whether held together by metal strapping

or by adhesive, were difficult and costly to disassemble for inspection of the

components and then to reassemble.

Actually, subsistence losses at the depots in the Zone of Interior were

negligible only insofar as these concerned newly procured subsistence and

its storage in warehouses. Losses and subsistence damage occurred when

the depots, because of the lack of warehouse space, stored the canned foods

in open or uncovered areas and in sheds roofed but without side walls. Infrequently, these stockpiles were not properly built on floor dunnage to protect against flooding, were tightly wrapped with tarpaulin without peakedroof structure to facilitate the drainage of rainwater and to provide air

circulation, and were maintained under extremely adverse conditions of

summer heat and freezing weather. Another feature of veterinary reports on

subsistence losses in depots was their references to subsistence which, as

excess to the needs of Army camps, was returned to depot stocks. Large

quantities of these returned foods were found to be deteriorated or spoiled

as the result of their age or mishandling in the camps. Other shipments

were received from offshore Army bases, particularly from the Alaskan

area after the Aleutian campaign. During 1943, more than 70,000 cases of

field ration were returned to the Columbus Army Service Forces Depot

from the Newfoundland Base Command; 97 percent of the M-units (meat)

in 40,000 cases were found to be sound and suitable for issue after reconditioning. Some returned shipments were freed of most of their spoiled foods

before shipment from these bases, and others were not. At one or more

depots, the Army Veterinary Service supervised reclamation operations and

repacking crews to prepare the returned subsistence for redistribution in the

Zone of Interior.

Most of the Army’s supply of meat and dairy products that were handled

by the quartermaster depot system were stored in Army facilities, and there

was no large-scale commercial storage program such as was established for

the warehousing of canned fruits and vegetables or by the quartermaster

market centers for the holding of perishable subsistence in commercial cold

storage plants. However, some canned meats, fish, evaporated milk, and

dried eggs were placed in commercial dry storage warehouses, but the Office

of the Quartermaster General did not encourage the inauguration of veterinary surveillance inspections over these stored items (23).
MILITARY MEAT AND DAIRY HYGIENE 711

When, in early 1943, it became necessary to place considerable quantities of canned

meat products in commercial storage, the Chicago Depot [which was accountable for

these stores] became alarmed because these shipments were going in and out of warehouses without being checked upon, and sought approval of plan for further Veterinary

Corps inspection of the commercial storage stocks. The Office of the Quartermaster

General replied [in February 1943], however, that since the meats stored in public warehouses were inspected before storage and usually remained in storage relatively short

time, the expense of routine inspections would he greater than the benefits. The practice of noninspection of such stock [and for sanitary condition of commercial warehouses]

■was followed for some time, although there was evidence that it was unwise. Toward

the end of the year 1943 practice of making spot inspections of canned meat stores

shipped from commercial warehouses to other depots or ports was adopted. The

Depot also recommended that canned meats kept in commercial storage for extended

periods should be given spot inspection every 90 days. The spot inspection given prior

to shipment was only to determine that shipping containers were in good condition and

properly strapped.

Under the procedures which were set up with regard to the utilization of

commercial warehousing, there was no inspectional program except that

which the civilian storage contractors conducted for reporting overages,

shortages, or damages, and their charges for recooperage of damage containers. These contractors were also authorized to determine whether damaged canned foods were causing an unsanitary condition in the warehouses

and, if so, to destroy them.

Of course, there was little concern over in-storage inspections of Army

canned products in the Zone of Interior because of their inherent stability

or so-called storage life, and they were classified as nonperishable. Canned

meats had excellent keeping qualities if stored at temperatures ranging from

40° to 70° F., for periods up to or years or for somewhat shorter period

of time if the canned meat products contained fruit or vegetable constituents.

Where the temperatures fluctuated, and especially if it exceeded 90° F., the

storage life was considerably shortened; alternate freezing and thawing of

canned meats also shortened the storage life and seriously damaged the

texture and palatability in those canned meats containing starchy products.

It may be mentioned that the latter, and the canned evaporated milk as well,

were not always sterile. Though this problem of sterility actually one of

production control at time of procurement, mention must be made that studies

were made to determine safe processing (cooking) procedures for canned

meats and that some real consideration was given to define sterile evaporated milk product in Federal specifications.

The storage of perishable subsistence offered variety of technical problems that were quite different from those encountered in the storage of

canned food products. Of course, there ere many of the same basic problems such as the economical use of floor space and stacking methods, lot

identification, and sanitary practices in and about the cold storage plants,

but these were compounded by the factors of frequent and rapid handling

into and out of the refrigerated rooms, and of the holding temperature and
712 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

humidity, and keeping qualities of the products. The Army Veterinary

Service conducted in-storage inspections at the Army cold storage plants

located in the camps and stations and at the distribution points and commercial cold storage plants which received, stored, and handled perishable

food for the quartermaster market center system. The inspections of refrigerated warehousing in the Army camps and stations were accomplished

routinely as part of station veterinary service. Beginning in January 1941,

construction program was begun by the War Department for building new

cold storage plants at 46 Army camps, but great many antiquated plants

were continued in operation. Other camps had no cold storage plants, utilizing refrigerated railroad cars as points of issue to troops. In the latter instances, the station veterinarians set up products surveillance inspection

program that was closely related to the inspections of the products at the

time of issue.

By the end of 1942, the need for long-range storage of perishable subsistence in the vicinity of the ports of embarkation and cargo ports where

large stocks had to be maintained to load out refrigerator ships for oversea

destinations had become obvious. Equally important was the factor of seasonable availability of products, such as eggs, butter, and cheese, which had

to be stockpiled in order to be available to meet military needs for whole

year. Thus, beginning in early 1943, shell eggs, butter, and cheese were procured under long-range storage programs of the quartermaster market center

system. Later in 1943, poultry and boneless beef were stored. Most of the products were placed in commercial cold storage plants and handled generally by the plant employees. All plants were subjected to complete veterinary sanitary inspection before Army subsistence was stored in them, and the stored products were inspected routinely, at least once every 30 days.

Because perishable products of animal origin were stored in more than

500 cold storage plants in all sections of the country and involved as much

as 400 million pounds at one time, it became very essential to determine that

the products were properly stored and that correct temperatures and humidity

were maintained and to assure that no lot deteriorated to such an extent

that it could not be issued as fit for human consumption. This procedure

was considered so valuable that detailed reports of the in-storage inspections

were made routinely each month to the market center property officers. In

this manner, subsistence showing evidence of beginning deterioration was

placed in distribution channels before spoilage occurred. Fortunately, no

great losses were experienced; in fact, as the result of the veterinary instorage inspection and reporting procedures, losses encountered by the property officer, Field Headquarters, Perishable Subsistence Section, during the

peak of buying and storing were less than five one-thousandths of percent.

Where losses occurred as the result of actions by plant owners, the contracting officers, of course, could initiate claims. The commercial plants were

often in widely scattered locations, and, at times, plant operators undertook
MILITARY MEAT AND DAIRY HYGIENE 713

to receive or ship products without proper notice to the inspecting veterinary

personnel. Also, many of the establishments were antiquated and frequently

experienced operating difficulties when attempts were made to convert the

“chill space” into freezer units as the Army shifted emphasis to the use of

frozen foods.

Inspection of refrigerated subsistence destined for oversea shipment

emphasized the test of the product's sanitary condition and of the packing.

Overall, the procedures for inspecting refrigerated subsistence involved

great deal of coordination between the market center, port, and service command veterinary personnel. For example, the products being shipped

through the New York Port of Embarkation were stored, at one time, in 70

or more plants located outside of the immediate port area, in Philadelphia,

Baltimore, Boston, and Syracuse. On call of the New York quartermaster

market center, the veterinary personnel nearest to the cold storage plant inspected the carlot or truckload shipments which were moved direct to the

ship loading docks and piers. shipside sanitary inspection was conducted

also, where products—if for some reason or other not in proper condition—-

could be turned back. Sometimes, 3- to 5-day period of continuous operations was required to load out “reefer” ship—these veterinary inspectional

procedures being conducted throughout. The loading-out inspection of nonperishable subsistence was just as complete but did not require as close coordination and constant veterinary supervision. Of course, usually more

than one ship was being loaded out at any given time. The same filler (or

backup storage) and port inspectional activities were operated at the other

ports of embarkation, and at San Francisco the loadings became joint ArmyNavy operation in which storage holdings and preshipment inspections were

conducted by the xVrmy Veterinary Service regardless of the destinations of

the ships. In the Central Pacific Area, the Army furnished the food from

its storage holdings, and the Navy the shipping, to ration all Armed Forces

personnel in the combat areas and on the advanced island bases.

Overseas, the in-storage inspections concerned subsistence which was

vastly different from that inspected at the depots, distribution points, commercial dry storage warehouses, and cold storage plants in the Zone of Interior. For example, it was several months older, had been handled as many

as 15 to 50 times (sometimes by native laborers, and frequently crushed and

squeezed), transported under suboptimal conditions, and then exposed to

varying climatic conditions (in the arctic cold or tropical heat and where

it was dry or humid) and stored in the open or in temporary warehouses

and portable refrigerators (fig. 98). Some stockpiles of canned subsistence

were maintained year or more before they were drawn upon, especially

the packed field rations which were held for much longer periods of time.

Under suboptimal conditions of storage in the theaters, large quantities of

these stockpiles became useless or spoiled long before they should have. The

wastes of war became tremendous, because this spoilage occurred in sub-
714 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Figure 98.—Quartermaster refrigerated storage point on Tinian, 1945. Note the

protective roof and the water storage tanks.

sistence items which were of high quality, packed in containers specially designed for food protection, and transported over long distances (fig. 99).

“Even though the use of manpower, materials, and the time necessary to provide suitable storage overseas are critical considerations in theater of operations, the fact remains that unless they are expended in assuring good

subsistence, items will spoil. The welfare of the troops, which depends to

large extent upon the delivery of the supplies in the proper condition and

at the proper time, will suffer correspondingly” (JJ). Fortunately, there

always seemed to be replacement subsistence available as well as the means

for transporting it from the major areas of supply, and, thus, the losses

that occurred never had serious effect on any particular campaign or battle

during the war. However, opinions prevail that the U.S. forces on Bataan

peninsula would have fought longer defensive campaign against the Japanese invaders in the Philippines in 1941-42 if they had been better rationed

{55) after that time, there were relatively few places where large numbers

of troops, isolated by enemy action, could not be supplied by airdrop.

Matters relating to subsistence storage, just as the care of Army horses

and mules, was phase of preventive military veterinary medicine in which
MILITARY MEAT AND DAIRY HYGIENE 715

Figure 99.—Subsistence stacked on the ground, Ledo area, India.

Stacks such as these were subjected to weeks of tropical rains, and it is

not surprising that subsistence losses were huge.

veterinary officers acted only as advisers to those who were accountable.

Recommendations that were made to lessen or prevent food deterioration

and spoilage required the early recognition of bacterial, chemical, and other

symptomatic changes of beginning losses, followed by technical supervision

of the actual procedures which were taken to segregate the spoiled from the

sound supplies and to prevent further deterioration or losses. great many

technical details were involved in the professional conduct of these veterinary

in-storage inspections. These included knowledge of the protectiveness of

the various types of containers, the nature of so-called epidemic spoilage

in the piles, the effects of environmental conditions, the viral growths in,

and chemical reactions of, foods as well as insect infestations and rodent

damages, and the sanitary features of storage construction and materiel not

excluding such matters as selection of sites, dunnage, stacking size and arrangement, and protection from pilferage and enemy attack.

Another feature of subsistence supply to the Pacific theaters and probably elsewhere was that refrigeration equipment for storing perishable products was not fully developed nor adequate in availability. It lagged behind

the growing emphasis that was placed on the oversea supply of fresh frozen

meat and dairy products in lieu of canned or nonperishable items. The

China-Burma-India theater had almost no refrigerated facilities. There was

more than one reported instance of stockpiling incoming shipments of perish47
716 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

able foods under tarpaulin and of issing the items which had thawed out;

what could not be force issued, within to days, spoiled. Individual unit

or messhall refrigerators on some of the smaller island bases became points

of quartermaster holdings of perishable food supplies.

Inspection Prior to Issue

Among the several classes of veterinary food surveillance inspections,

class inspection, conducted on subsistence at the time of quartermaster issue

to troops, was the most important. It included inspections of Governmentowned foods sold to the Army Exchange Service, officers messes, or individuals who were authorized to make such purchases, or at the time of issue to

Navy and other consuming agencies. This was the final veterinary sanitary

inspection given to food. It marked the final inspection at the end of the

Quartermaster Corps chain of food supply; insofar as it was practical, the

products were inspected piece by piece. Along with this inspection, veterinary officers supervised the maintenance of sanitation that would be observed in the containers and vehicles which were utilized by the units in

transporting the issued rations to their messhalls. The units themselves were

responsible for providing covered vehicles, clean paulins, and other devices

which would fully protect the issued foods against sun, heat, dust, rain, insects, and other damaging or contaminating agencies.

At the individual Army camps in the Zone of Interior, no major problems arose concerning the issue of canned foods, though issues sometimes

included items that otherwise were not suitable for shipment from the Zone

of Interior to the oversea theaters, such as rusty cans, old packs, and improper packing. On the other hand, the technical supervision of issues of

perishable products was greater problem; furthermore, most camps did not

have sufficient refrigerated space when the camp troop populations approached their normal or maximum levels. Camps, at which combat divisions were organized and trained for oversea deployment, frequently utilized

incoming refrigerated cars at railroad sidings for issue points. In the handling of food products at the Army cold storage plants that were constructed

in the camps and airbases, the station veterinary personnel acted as advisers

to the local quartermaster on the methods of stacking and on the temperature

and storage life of the various items. Generally, these Army plants in the

Zone of Interior were designed to include freezer room maintained at 10°

F. for holding frozen foods, chill room (at 32° F.) where fresh meats and

products were stored pending their issue, and cooler rooms (at 35° F.) for

storing shell eggs and dairy products, and another cooler room for holding

fresh fruits and vegetables. The larger plants also had ventilated storage

rooms (at 50° to 60° F.) and special refrigerated room where the perishable

foods were broken down for quick issue to units. This classification of refrigerated storage was necessarily modified as the war progressed, because

greater use was being made of frozen products than of those in chilled
MILITARY MEAT AND DAIRY HYGIENE 717

state; refrigerated plant mechanisms were overburdened in the conversion

from chilled storage to the freezer holding of products. Of course, there were

number of technicalities regarding this, not excluding the requirement

that beef, lamb, and veal carcasses if received in frozen condition were

required to be defrosted before their issue to ration breakdown units {56).

At the issue or ration breakdown points, the veterinary inspection problems were variable, dependent to some extent upon the type of rations being

provided to the troops. During World War II, reference was made to as

many as 12 types of field rations (id, 55). The field ration, type A, which

was issued in the Zone of Interior, was an issue in kind, following prescribed menu schedule, as compared to the garrison ration where the issues of components were made on the basis of monetary credits, that was used in

the peacetime Army; the changeover to field ration was made in the summer of 19-11. Ordinarily, this ration type included fresh fruits and vegetables, fresh meats, fluid milk, and other commodities which regularly were

not found in any other field ration. Field ration was issued overseas in

the theater commands in the manner that the A-ration was used in the Zone

of Interior; its component items (or variety) generally were the same except that those of perishable nature, requiring refrigerated transportation

and storage facilities, were replaced by nonperishable products (canned or

dehydrated). Generally, the theater commands were provided with refrigerated subsistence, and many procured fresh foods locally so that usually

the issues made there included mixture of the A- and B-ration components.

Then there were C- and D-rations which were developed before the war

as so-called combat rations and individual emergency or survival types. The

D-ration, once called the Logan bar (in 1937), of course, was 4-ounce

chocolate bar; three bars constituted day’s ration. Old packs of D-rations,

under conditions of storage in the Tropics at temperatures approaching the

melting point (120° F.) of the chocolate, tended to whiten, because of the

separation out of its fat constituents, and finally to crumble into tasteless

powder; it was not completely protectively wrapped against insect contamination in the Tropics; also, molding of the D-ration bar was observed. The

C-ration, packed eight rations per case, included three M- (or meat) units and

tin■ee B- (or biscuit) units in cans and laminated bags of accessories such

as toilet paper, cigarettes, chewing gum, and water purification tablets. By

the end of the war, 10 different canned meats were grouped into six different

menus for the C-ration, and production was begun on the division of the

meat contents of the cans into chunk-sized pieces (about %-inch cubed)

rather than into ground, potted style.

During the earlier part of the war, reference was made also to the new

mountain and jungle ration types (essentially 4-in-l rations) and the 5-in-l

ration for use by armored tank crews, but these were replaced later by the

10-in-l ration, suitable for the group feeding of 10 men for day when Brations were not supplied. The original single or individual ration package

590248 —61 48
718 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

for paratroopers was modified and became the K-ration. Both of these

contained canned meat and dairy components. There were also number of

survival or emergency types: Liferaft ration for the Army Air Forces, the

parachute emergency ration for the Army Air Forces, the airborne lifeboat

ration, and such so-called supplementary types as the hospital ration supplement, aid station beverage pack, kitchen spice pack, and the aircrew lunch

for in-flight feeding. It may be added that the assembly of rations, originally undertaken at Army quartermaster depots and later by civilian contractors, was conducted under the supervision of the Veterinary Corps. Before the contracts were awarded, the commercial establishments were inspected for sanitary and operating requirements.

Ordinarily, the Army Veterinary Service did not inspect the meat and

dairy components of the rations after their issue from quartermaster distribution points; that is, in the troop messes. Though sanitary inspections of

messes were the assigned responsibilities of medical inspectors and unit surgeons, much use was made of Veterinary Corps officers in the combat divisions

and at Army Air Forces bases during World War II to conduct these inspections. In fact, one air force in the Zone of Interior merged its medical

inspectors with, and under the supervision of, base veterinarians. Procedures for conducting such inspections were outlined in various Army publications that included descriptions on the factors which would be utilized

by inspectors when determining the soundness and wholesomeness of the

meat and dairy products received at the messes {57). Other sanitary inspection features were the condition of mess buildings, food storage, cleaning

of utensils and disposal of wastes, menus and food serving, physical examination of foodhandlers, and training status of mess personnel in mess sanitation, it being emphasized that “when improperly handled and stored, meat

and meat products are subject to rapid deterioration and during the time

products remain in the company kitchens, messes, or refrigerators, very

careful supervision should be exercised by medical officers to assure the use

of only sanitary products.*’ Actually, unit commanders alone were responsible for mess sanitation and for the enforcement of sanitary regulations, but

in this they were guided by the recommendations made by the unit surgeons,

medical inspectors, or veterinary officers who were conducting the inspections

{58).

Only in few known instances were meat and dairy products, previously

passed as acceptable by veterinary officers at issue points, rejected by unit

surgeons and medical inspectors at the troop messhalls. In the Southwest

Pacific Area, some condemnations were regarded as being unwarranted, and

steps were taken to discontinue this waste of foods after their issue to units.

In one Pacific area, the original “trier” holes made in cured and smoked hams

by the Veterinary Corps officers at commercial meat establishments were

being scrutinized as evidences of ham skipper infestations and resulted in

unwarranted condemnations of this product by troop messes. The molding
MILITARY MEAT AND DAIRY HYGIENE 719

of bacon and ham was the frequent cause of complaints (though it was readily

corrected by proper trimming or by using vinegar wash in the messes),

but any or all complaints, regardless of their nature, were reviewed at the

distribution points to determine whether the remaining products were sound

and wholesome for continued issue. It must be mentioned that mess officers

of units and organizations also had responsibility to see that all foods received

in the messes were clean and wholesome and in full quantity and that mess

sergeants, permanent kitchen personnel, cooks, and bakers were routinely

trained in Quartermaster Corps schools in the proper preparation and handling of meat and dairy products.

FOOD PROTECTION AND CONSERVATION

Restating its objectives for protecting the health of troops against their

consuming deleterious foods and for safeguarding the interests of the Government, military meat and dairy hygiene included number of operations

and inspectional services which are not identifiable with any particular one

of the foregoing classes of inspections. Packing and packaging, for example, was recognized as matter for procurement inspection to take care of,

but this was not problem of inspection until the subsistence was entered

into military traffic and then stored for varying periods of time under adverse environmental conditions. Also, there were problems of subsistence

salvage and the food conservation programs. The Army Veterinary Service

also assisted in the investigation of foodborne diseases in troops, and closely

related to these investigations were the antibiological warfare programs and

the veterinary considerations of protecting and decontaminating subsistence

in the event of chemical warfare.

Packing and Marking, and Packaging and Labeling

Subsistence packaging and packing was an important feature of veterinary food inspection operations during World War II; it was directly related

to the food losses that were experienced in the oversea theaters. Though

considerable improvements were made in packaging and packing materiel and

techniques before the end of the war, there seemed to be nothing that could

withstand, or be sufficiently protective against, all of the rough handling,

exposures to adverse environmental conditions, and insect-rodent contamination. The term “packaging” referred to the immediate container for the

products (such as cans for meat and sausage casings) whereas the packing was

the outside shipping container—the barrel, box, or crate. The latter were

marked, while the markings on packages were designated labels. Generally,

inspections of these containers for meat and dairy products were conducted

by the Army Veterinary Service in conjunction with its products procurement

inspections, but the main interest in them was manifested overseas when the

products arrived and were stored. Before World War 11, little or no attention
720 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

was directed to the military requirements for adequate subsistence protection.

At the beginning of the war, commercial packaging and packing was generally

acceptable; in regard to this, the following was noted {15)

Industry’s peacetime packaging efforts were based largely on eye appeal and low

cost. The fact that commercial products were consumed within few months and that

handling in transit was closely controlled eliminated any need for more than minimum

amount of protective packaging.

No Army specifications covering packaging and packing for overseas shipment

existed at the outbreak of the war. Federal specifications covered packs for commercial xise only, and early procurements of subsistence were packaged and packed accordingly. Flexible packaging materials, such as cellophane and coated or waxed glassine,

offered little moisture protection, and industry had given slight attention to sealing bags

and cartons tightly. Corrugated fiber boxes were generally used as shipping cases.

These commercial techniques, suitable to domestic distribution, were inadequate in

the field. Early shipments of canned goods packed in commercial containers arrived at

overseas destinations with cases broken open and the cans scattered loose in the holds

of ships and over docks. Furthermore, packages broke and spilled their contents, and

foods in flexible packages picked up moisture. Subsistence losses due to failure of packaging and packing materials at the beginning of the war were substantial.

In the wartime trends for improved packaging and packing, the inspection of these came to be an integral part of the veterinary food procurement

inspections of meat and dairy products, because without proper packaging and

packing all the other work of subsistence inspection became valueless. Also,

proper packaging and packing was matter of sanitation, because without it,

subsistence became contaminated, infested, damaged, and inedible. Wherever

the acceptance testing for products was made, then the acceptability of

packaging and packing was also determined, usually inside the commercial

food establishments. great many detailed specification and inspection

requirements were imposed on Army subsistence which was destined for

oversea shipment; these included such factors as design, workmanship, and

materiel; number and application of straps or wires, adhesive, nails and nailing, liners, and weight and cube measurement; and the presence of the box

manufacturer’s compliance stamp. After the inspection for acceptance or

compliance with the pertinent specifications and contract, the packaging and

packing were reinspected for general condition, along with the sanitary

inspection of the contents or products, at every shipping point and periodically during storage. Nearly all packaging and packing defects or faults

resulted in the development of unsanitary environments and in the losses or

contamination of products.

The greatest packaging defect was the tin can container itself, resulting

in the losses of large quantities of foods in the oversea theaters. There were

many factors involved, not excluding poor workmanship which was evident

by improper sealing (or crimping), buckled cans, and poorly cleaned (or

grease-covered) cans. However, these were the least frequent causes of

canned food losses; another factor was the interior lining (or lacquer) of the

can—this not being as completely protective to prevent product-tin reactions
MILITARY MEAT AND DAIRY HYGIENE 721

so that products showed discolorations, and pinholing of the cans occurred.

More important factors were the structural design and size of the cans, the

tin composition of the can and solders, and the labels. The long rectangular

cans of luncheon meat, and the soldered, snap-on cans of evaporated milk

were problem common to all ration dumps that included these items; almost

invariably, no case of these products arrived at final issue points which did

not include seriously bent cans—some already with spoiled product that had

spewed or spilled over the other cans in the same case. The packing of the

cans in wooden cases did not prevent, only minimized the damage to the

long, rectangular cans which occurred incident to haphazard handling during

transshipment. Of course, the use of wooden cases introduced another factor, as was observed in canned corned beef of South American origin; namely, poor

workmanship evidenced by the penetration of the cans by nails. This became so serious in certain shipments as to raise questions of possible sabotage.

Another type of can, having serious inherent defect and used for packaging

molasses and powders, was the large container with the plugged-in lid (friction top) damage or denting of the body of the can frequently resulted in

the flipping of the lids and the spilling or exposure of contents.

Of course, the programs that were taken in the Zone of Interior to conserve the Nation's tin supply resulted in an inferior can (with thinner tin

plating, or electrolyte plate, and reduced tin content of solders) which rusted under the conditions that were encountered in the theaters. Paper can labels

(and possibly the glues) and ordinary cardboard cartons that retained the

moisture hastened the rusting processes on the cans, particularly under hot,

humid climatic conditions. These defects were lessened when the Army

required precoated or outside-lacquered cans and later turned to precoated cans

and demanded, as substitution for the paper labels, the identification of the

canned product by lithographed, embossed, or ink-stamped statement on the

side or end of the can. The precoating, with olive-drab coloring, accomplished in commercial establishments, as contrasted with precoating with clear

lacquer, which was done by the can manufacturer, also satisfied the military

needs for camouflage because there was little else that exposed concealed positions or ration dumps as clearly as the tin can reflection of sunlight.

Failures or defects of the packing containers also were numerous and

resulted in approximately the same large quantities of food losses as did

improper and inadequate packaging. Commercial corrugated-fiber boxes were

inadequately protective for oversea shipments, but the initial subsistence

supply to nearly all theater commands was made in this kind of case.

Sometimes, wirebound or nailed wooden boxes were used for overpacking, but this procedure soon was discontinued except in the instance of foods

packaged in glass containers. By the winter of 1912-13, the Quartermaster Corps was referring to the packing of subsistence in carton made of weatherproof fiberboard, containing lamination or layer of asphalt (or tar) which

was resistant to wetting, and to new, solid-fiber V-board box. The latter was
722 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

of several grades; the V-l grade, being the best, was resistant to moisture and

retained its strength when wet and was widely utilized for packing Army

boneless beef. Unfortunately, experiences with the new V-board box indicated

that corrosion occurred on the exterior of the cans which was believed caused

by high moisture content of the fiberboard or chemical constituent of the

laminating adhesive {59). Whether shipped in wooden boxes or fiber cartons,

subsistence supplies were bound by strapping that reduced the need of thicker

box lumber and made possible the greater use of fiber containers. Improper

application of the strapping, tensioning or looseness, and poor sealing of the

strap ends caused some packing failures. However much as was accomplished

in the development of packing materiel and procedures, the fact remained that

subsistence did not become indestructible or nonperishable. Though packaging defects were moderately corrected, there remained the constant factor of

human carelessness in handling, shipping, and storing foods.

Just as packaging and packing became major points of veterinary subsistence inspection during the war, so did labeling and marking. Labeling

referred to the identity of product, weight, manufacturer, and date of

manufacture on the food package; marking, on the other hand, pertained to

the outside packing case to identify the contents and gave shipping and

handling instructions. The problem with paper labels on cans, as contributing

to the rusting condition on canned foods, was noted previously, but it may be

noted that the same moisture that caused the rusting of cans also resulted in

the complete loss of labels from the cans, and thus no identification of contents

remained. Commercial-type paper labels were continued on Army subsistence

procured for use in the Zone of Interior, but, soon after the war started, specifications and contractual documents provided for imprinting or embossing

labeling information on the cans, particularly the nature of the contents, that

were destined for oversea supply. Canned milk, salmon, and few other

products, however, continued to be procured with paper labeling. During the

initial packaging and packing, veterinary inspections were made of the

placement, legibility, size, and permanence of the labels and marking; of the

nomenclature of products, together with the number, size or weight averages

of contents, weights (net, tare, and gross) and cubage, contractor, date of

packing, and the Quartermaster crescent mark for subsistence items; and of

other information as was required.

Subsistence Salvage and Food Conservation

The return of deteriorated subsistence into suitable condition for

distribution and issue to troops may be regarded as subsistence salvage. It was

conducted spontaneously along the chain of Army food supply, at depots, at

ports, and even at ration issue dumps, since there was no quartermaster unit

or organization such as had been developed for shoe repair or salvaging of

scrap metals. Invariably, it was set up under veterinary supervision whenever
MILITARY MEAT AND DAIRY HYGIENE 723

Figube 100.—Veterinary food salvage operations at quartermaster depot in the European theater.

any sizable quantities of food showed beginning signs of deterioration, such as

in component of the C-ration cases or where the outside packing containers

were so damaged that further shipment, storage, or even issue was impossible

(fig. 100). It had for its objective the separation of spoiled subsistence from

the good, which was repacked and continued in the Army supply system, so

that complete losses of given packs or lots were minimized. Canned subsistence was more frequently salvaged than was the perishable type. Subsistence

salvage during the war became an extensive operation in many theaters and in

the Zone of Interior.

Butter, for example, that had been stored on Central Pacific island base

for long period of time under conditions far below optimum and had

developed mold growth on the interior surface of the liners, was renovated

by local dairy plant. Various attempts were made also to set up processing

lines at oversea cold storage installations for removing excess mold growths

and slime on the exterior of bacon and hams, but this occurred early in the

war period. Later, these products were usually placed in freezer storage, if

available and if the bacon and hams were going into long-term storage. It

may be mentioned that these cured and smoked products and ham were

specially prepared, sometimes covered with asphalt or packed in salt, and

specially boxed so that they could be kept at outside temperatures, but, by
724 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

the end of the war, these products were regarded generally to be as perishable

as fresh meats. Probably, the most commonly salvaged fresh food product

was shell eggs; usually however, this operation was accomplished at the

issue points where the problem was solved either by veterinary personnel

inspecting (or candling) the eggs individually (which was done at the

smaller bases) or by the prior determination of the rate of egg spoilage and

egg breakage and recommendation for proportionate overissue of the eggs

to the messhalls where the mess personnel did their own sorting.

Both shell eggs and fresh fruits and vegetables were affected by the

so-called epidemic spoilage, in which one broken egg or one rotten, slimy head

of lettuce became the point of spread of losses through the case and then

downward through contiguous cases. There was no stopping this spread of

spoilage as long as such lots were kept in storage, but proper, careful handling

of these products at Transportation Corps ports and oversea destinations and

at Quartermaster Corps storage and issue points would have prevented many

of these losses. Salvage operations on whole shipments of frozen boneless

beef in fiberboard boxes and on other items that were wetted by seawater,

bilge water, and dirty harbor water because of enemy attacks on ship,

required particular care, as did those relating to cases of food that were

contaminated by the slime dripping from the uppermost defrosted layers

of lot or load of subsistence in refrigerated plants, in railroad cars, or in

ships whose refrigeration equipment had failed. It was directed in one

theater of operations that Veterinary Corps officers would exercise discretion

and high standards of professional opinion in their salvage activities, taking

into consideration, in appropriate order, both the medical aspects that would

proceed to the one extreme of complete condemnations to protect troop health, and the quartermaster aspects that would regard condemnations of contaminated, and threatened contaminations of, foods as only au adverse cutback

into the command’s supply.

Stockpiles of canned subsistence, particularly those of fluid consistency

such as evaporated milk and those whose contents had liquified during their

spoilage, which spewed over the interior of the cases when the affected cans

burst, suffered the same epidemic spoilage as did shell eggs in cold storage.

Overseas, any subsistence salvage operation was difficult to properly establish

and maintain because of shortages in numbers of availability of personnel,

equipment, and cleansing agents. The major problem was that there were

no boxes for repacking the canned products even after they were cleaned. The

repacking of canned foods in cloth sacks was unsuccessful, as was the so-called

loose-can issue to troops.

There was no recorded instance of the utilization of fumigants to exterminate insects and mites in the oversea stockpiles.

In the Zone of Interior, food salvage operations at depots became major veterinary inspection activity during the last years of the war period, when

large quantities of subsistence were returned from offshore bases or were
MILITARY MEAT AND DAIRY HYGIENE 725

returned as surplus to the needs of nearby Army camps and airbases.

Possibly the most expansive of these operations related to the foods returned

from the Alaskan-Aleutian area; the depot veterinarian at the Utah (Ogden)

Army Service Forces Depot reported on the salvage inspections of 420 carloads

or 35 million pounds of canned meat and dairy products, with losses totaling

percent for leaker cans, swellers, springers, damaged, and badly rusted or

seriously dented cans. This covered the period from 1944 to the fall of 1945.

At the Columbus Army Service Forces Depot, Columbus, Ohio, the depot

veterinarian described this salvage program as follows:

In the last quarter of 1944 reconditioning inspection of C-ration returned from

off-shore bases has become new and important subsistence activity at the Depot. Lots,

packed as early as 1940, have been included in returned shipments from ports of debarkation. The reconditioning of this item is laborious and time-consuming operation.

To facilitate inspection an initial screening is done at box opening on conveyor. Cans

are then wiped clean and derusted with steel wool. The necessary individual manipulation in can cleaning makes it possible to accomplish piece inspection. No borderline cases

are accepted. The net value of an individual unit or ration is so slight, as compared

with its significance to an ultimate soldier consumer, that deliberations in favor of

extreme economy are not justified. In spite of severe inspection the average percentage

of returned C-ration items during the period of October through December 1944 was only

.013% of the total pounds reconditioned. The loss in the bread and confection unit

exceeds that of meat foods. Cleaning, reboxing, and reestablishing equality of the pack

is more of justification for the operation than is the incidence of spoilage. The low

spoilage rate in this item speaks well for the original processing methods as well as the

durability of the containers. Laboratory examinations of some lots packed in 1941 or

shipments recovered from transports damaged in convoy (possibly salvaged out of sunken

ships) has revealed “sound edibility” of all numerous samples submitted.

This procedure for salvaging foods was only one of several accepted

procedures in the much larger program of food conservation. Another procedure was the “forced issue,” or the issue of subsistence stores in larger than

prescribed quantities if such stores were shown to be deteriorating and such

issue would prevent losses. Actually, large quantities of subsistence were

saved in this manner, but yet larger amounts were thrown away. The real fact

was that the estimated losses for 1943 in the subsistence which was sent overseas to the North African, Southwest and South Pacific, North Atlantic, and

European bases and theaters were set at $150 million and quantitatively

exceeded their consumption and reserve requirements by 21 percent; it was

estimated further that possibly 400 million rations would have to be sent to

replace the estimated losses of 1944. Referring to these data and indirectly

to Veterinary Corps reports of meat and dairy hygiene inspections that were

recording these subsistence losses, the Chief of Staff, U.S. Army, directed

requests to at least two theater commanders, as follows (60. 61)

make every effort to reduce subsistence losses in your theater to an absolute

minimum. There are times when over-issues of subsistence are necessary because of some

particularly strenuous operation, but over-issues do not account for more than small

portion of losses. According to advices have received the main causes of losses are

590248 —61 49
726 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

pilferage, rough handling, lack of ventilation, unorganized piling, and number of other

controllable causes.

Accompanying this letter is statement of the situation and the steps which so far

have been taken, by Army Service Forces, Washington, D.C., to correct the situation so

far as it lies within the control of authorities here. wish, therefore, that you give this

matter yourpersonal attention to see that supply discipline is enforced and that controllable

losses are held as low as possible.

In most oversea areas, theater commanders were well aware of the benefits

of food conservation programs that were taking place. Probably, the AsiaticPacific theaters were more aware of this than any other, because in no other

theater were there the extensive food losses, the adverse environmental conditions and tropical climate, and the shortages in materiel. What the Army

Veterinary Service was attempting to accomplish, in regard to the transportation of subsistence, its handling, and storage, became topical subjects in

variety of official letters, memorandums, circulars, and publications which

were addressed or disseminated through regular command channels of communications from the respective theater headquarters level, and these became

the basis for the food conserving practices that were set up within the

veterinary classes of surveillance inspection procedures.

Food Poisoning and Foodborne Diseases

The experiences with food poisoning and foodborne diseases in the Army

during World War II was practical test of the importance of mess sanitation, and, insofar as the Army Veterinary Service was concerned, these

experiences only proved that the major sanitary defects along the entire chain

of Army subsistence supply from the civilian contractor to the consumer

troops, particularly that of meat and dairy products, existed in the messhalls

or beyond the place of veterinary class inspection. Actually, there is no

record that foods, both meat and dairy products and foods other than of

animal origin, which were issued under Veterinary Corps supervision, were

the cause of food poisoning and foodborne diseases as result of their being

unsound, unwholesome, or contaminated at the time of their issue. Of course,

there were outbreaks; one survey pointed to at least 190 outbreaks involving

22,364 reported cases of illness (62), but the causes were generally ascribed to

messhall practices and sanitation and to uninspected foods. Furthermore, no

scandalous inquiries like the embalmed-beef scandal of the Spanish-American

ar occurred. In the two world wars, the Army Veterinary Service, along

the entire Army’s subsistence supply chain, was inspecting and rejecting large

Of this number of outbreaks, Dack selected 76 reported outbreaks as highly suggestive of

staphylococcus food poisoning involving 14,214 men, as suggestive of Streptococcus faecalis food

infection involving 1,015 men, and as botulism involving 34 men, of which number 12 died.

Regarding the botulism outbreaks, the regular Army food supply was not involved one originated

with lend-lease supplied canned beets of Australian origin and the others from home-preserved

foods. The outbreaks occurred more often where there was less cause for their occurrence thus,

in the Zone of Interior, outbreaks were reported more often than in any oversea theater where

messhall facilities were comparatively at lower levels of efficiency, and the largest single outbreak

occurred at named hospital mess in the Zone of Interior and involved 1.637 cases.
MILITARY MEAT AND DAIRY HYGIENE 727

quantities of food for improper grade or sanitary qualities; this resulted in the

“best and healthiest fed” Army of modern times.

In this Army its food animals were inspected at the time of slaughter, its

canned foods were generally sterile, its fresh milk supply originated from

tuberculosis-free dairy herds and was pasteurized, its cheese was aged for 60

days, and later for 90 days before issue, to prevent the dissemination of

typhoid fever and brucellosis {63). Bacteriological standards, particularly

in regard to Escherichia coli, Salmonella sp., and other pathogens, were

established for many foods; and pork products which were normally used

without need for further preparation in the messhalls were free of Trichinella

spiralis. Also, food containers and cooking utensils that were cadmium

plated, and galvanized and zinc-coated mess gear (meat cans and cups,

M1942) were gradually withdrawn from supply to the messhalls and soldiers

or were restricted in their uses, in order either to prevent incidents of

cadmium, zinc, and antimony poisoning or to elminate equipment which, with

deep scratches of soft metals, readily corroded (or rusted) and had hard-toclean surfaces. Of course, cleaned motor oil and grease cans were particularly

dangerous for storing or cooking foods because of their lead lining. There

was no record to indicate lessened efficiency of troops in campaign or the

disruption in assault operations as consequences of food poisoning or foodborne diseases.

The various aspects of food poisoning and foodborne diseases in troops

were accorded the same attention by the Army Veterinary Service as it gave to

the diseases of military animals. In troops, as in animals, the food ration was

recognized as the cause of diseases either because it failed to provide adequate

quantities of proper food constituents or because the food served as an agent

for transmitting causative viral organisms from one human being to another

and from animals, and as carrier vehicle for poisons; also, certain foods

themselves are poisonous, such as poisonous fish and poisonous plants. In

great number of the outbreaks that occurred, Veterinary Corps officers were

requested by the concerned unit surgeons and medical officers to participate in

the epidemiological investigations; in several theater commands, various letter

directives and other publications set forth the administrative details for such

investigations to include the veterinary considerations. The importance and

frequency of these investigations were recognized particularly in the oversea

theaters. The procedures which were established in the Central Pacific Area

eventually became the pattern used in the publications of the Army for defining the professional veterinary aspects of conducting all investigations

{64, 65, 66, 67).

Antibiological Warfare and Food Protection in Chemical Warfare

The veterinary aspects of antibiological warfare and the defenses against

chemical attack regarding animals were generally well evaluated before

World War II, but those in regard to the food supply received only passing
728 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Figure 101.—Training and equipping Veterinary Corps personnel at quartermaster

depots in the European theater to handle subsistence that would be contaminated in the

event of enemy use of chemical warfare agents.

attention. Actually, that any deliberate biological and chemical contaminations of foods were militarily important had been variously described from

one extreme to the other. Fortunately, there was never any real field test

during World War II as to the medical effects of biological and chemical warfare that would involve the Army’s food supply; on the other hand, definitive

defensive measures or preparedness programs were developed (fig. 101).

Early in 1944, for the stated reason that the enemy then could be considering biological warfare as sort of desperation action, the oversea theaters

were advised on certain defensive measures which they would adopt, if the

situation so warranted; these measures were identifiable with those already

operational in the Central Pacific Area (68) (fig. 102). In the interim, precautionary measures were established in the Zone of Interior. Thus, in

March 1942, the Surgeon General’s Office was advised that procedures should

be taken to guard against the sabotage of meats, utilizing the veterinary

personnel who were already performing inspection duties in commercial food

establishments. The reports of extraneous material in meats being prepared

for canning were causes for conducting investigations of suspected sabotage,

although similar conditions as they had occurred in peacetime were only the

result of normal operating mistakes or carelessness. These probably occurred

more frequently along production lines operating at above-normal levels and
MILITARY MEAT AND DAIRY HYGIENI 729

Figure 102.—Veterinary food-security supervisors assigned to duty in

commercial food establishment in the Hawaiian Islands to insure the

safeness and cleanliness of locally produced food products which were

consumed in largeamounts by military personnel.

where the establishments were employing new, inexperienced personnel. As

an example, the separation of canning lines in meat plants from those lines

where glass containers were being tilled removed further difficulties of meats

being found with fragments of broken glass. At one time, The Quartermaster General questioned the award of subsistence contracts to establishments which

were owned or operated by resident enemy aliens in the United States. In

February 1941, the War Department, recognizing that the fluid milk supply

was particularly good medium for the dissemination of disease among military installations and the nearby civilian plants which were engaged in war

production, requested Veterinary Corps officers to report on threatened or

suspected subversive activities just as they were doing on meat production

{69). Conducting security measures within the establishments in which

veterinary class inspection personnel were located was made more difficult after 1943, when, against original recommendations by the Surgeon General’s

Office, these establishments were authorized to employ prisoners of war as

laborers.
730 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Comparable with the wartime problems of protecting the Army food

supplies against potential enemy uses of biological warfare agents, there were

the veterinary considerations for detecting, protecting, and decontaminating

foods which might have been exposed to an enemy chemical warfare attack.

Of course, varying classifications existed on the many kinds of war gases,

screening smokes, and incendiaries, and great many factors necessarily

entered into discussions on the specific measures that were to be taken with

respect to the handling of exposed foods. For example, the food products in

themselves might not be affected, but the outside containers might be contaminated so as to be dangerous for personnel to handle or contact. Fortunately, there were no chemical warfare attacks on the Army food supplies so

that the various means and methods that were developed before and during

World War II were untested. Most elemental of these developments was the

designation of the Army Veterinary Service to determine the safeness of

foods after their exposure to chemical warfare agents and the definition of

relationships with the Chemical Warfare Service, as follows (70)

The officers of the Veterinary Corps will he called on to decide whether or not food is

suitable to be used for human consumption, and since considerable danger to human life,

as well as economic loss is involved, it is necessary that the decision be correct. Without

knowledge of what the chemical agents may do or may not do, it is not possible to

arrive at decision and food may needlessly be destroyed or dangerous food may be sent

out to troops. In most cases the tendency will be to err on the safe side, but occasions

may arrive when it is necessary to use the supplies and knowledge of adequate decontamination procedures will make great deal of difference.

[Also, the Veterinary Corps officer will have to] distinguish between dangerous

food and food which may be adequately decontaminated and used.

Protection is provided by that type of wrapping [or food packaging and packing]

material used under the specification set up by the Quartermaster Corps, and the Chemical

Warfare Service provides the information as to the adequacy of this protection. The

Quartermaster is also responsible for matters of protection during transportation up to

the distribution point. When decontamination is undertaken, it should be left up to the

Chemical Warfare Service to provide the ways and means of doing it. The function of

the Medical Department Officers is only to advise and decide whether the foodstuff in

question is safe for the use of troops.

During the war, special courses of training and instruction on the

veterinary aspects of chemical warfare were conducted by the Army Veterinary Service at the Medical Field Service School, Carlisle Barracks, Pa., and

at the Chemical Warfare School, Edgewood Arsenal, Md. At the last-named

installation, Veterinary Corps officers were engaged in research investigations

on animal health hazards and iu the design of protective equipment and

procedures in regard to military animals and the Army food supply. The

principles of veterinary professional services under conditions of chemical

warfare attack that were developed at the Chemical Warfare School were set

forth inofficial Army training manuals (71, 72,73).
MILITARY MEAT AND DAIRY HYGIENE 731

References

1. AR 40-2150, Oct. 1921.

2. AR 40-2150, Oct. 1942.

3. TM 8-450. May 1941.

4. Moore, H. K.: Organization and Operation of the Veterinary Corps Food Inspection Service. Mil. Surgeon 96:237-241, March 1945.

5. Dildine, S. C.; Army Veterinary Inspection of Foods of Animal Origin. Mil, Surgeon 100 :390-401, May 1947.

6. Letter, Field Headquarters, Perishable Branch, Subsistence Division, Office of the

Quartermaster General, Chicago, 111., to all quartermaster market centers, June 1945,

subject: List of Establishments Disapproved for Use of the Army Due to Insanitary

Conditions.

7. Memorandum, Lt. Col. C. A. Hardigg, QMC, Office of the Quartermaster General,

for Col. R. A. Kelser. VC, Veterinary Division, SGO, 10 June 1941, subject: Inspection

of Fruits and Vegetables.

8. Letter, Maj. E. F. Shepherd, QMC, Field Headquarters, Perishable Subsistence

Section, Office of the Quartermaster General, Chicago, 111., to Chief, Perishable Section,

Subsistence Branch, Office of the Quartermaster General, 15 Oct. 1941, subject: Inspection Report on Trip to Scott Field.

9. Letter, Brig. Gen. R. A. Kelser, Veterinary Division, SGO, to The Quartermaster

General, 12 Apr. 1944, subject: Rejections of Canned Fruits and Vegetables and Flour,

with 1st indorsement thereto, Aug. 1944.

10. Letter, Col. J. F. Crosby, VC, Veterinary Division, SGO, to The Quartermaster General, Dec. 1944, subject: Rejection of Subsistence Supplies in Theaters of Operation.

11. Letter, Col. R. A. Kelser, VC, Veterinary Division. SGO, to The Quartermaster

General, 25 May 1941, subject: Rejection of Subsistence Supplies in Theaters of Operation.

12. Quartermaster Corps Manual QMC 25-1. 15 Nov. 1944.

13. AR 600-10, July 1944.

14. Letter, The Adjutant General, to corps area and department commanders, July

1939, subject: Inspection of Meat. Meat Food Products, Dairy Products and Forage.

Reprinted in Army Vet. Bull. 33 :328-329, October 1939.

15. Risch, Erna: United States Army in World War II. The Technical Services.

The Quartermaster Corps: Organization, Supply, and Services. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1953.

16. AR 40-2150, Oct. 1942.

17. Letters, Col. R. A. Kelser. VC, Veterinary Division, SGO, to Contract Department, Swift Co., Chicago, 111., to Lt. Col. C. E. Cook, VC, Veterinarian, Fourth Corps

Area, and to Lt. Col. F. M. Lee, VC, Veterinarian, Kansas City Quartermaster Depot. 26

March 1941.

18. Letter, Lt. Col. C. A. Hardigg, QMC, Office of the Quartermaster General, to

Quartermaster, Fourth Corps Area, 21 Apr. 1941. subject: Inspection Service on Contracts for Army Style Beef.

19. Memorandum, Col. R. A. Kelser. VC, Veterinary Division, SGO, for Military

Personnel Division Reserve, SGO. 25 Apr. 1940.

20. Letter. Surgeon General’s Office, to the Adjutant General’s Office, 30 Jan. 1941,

subject: Allotment of Additional Veterinary Corps Reserve Officers.

21. Memorandum, Lt. Col. J. Mather, Ordnance Department Representative, Federal

Specifications, Office of Secretary of War. to The Surgeon General, Nov. 1934, and

memorandum in reply, 10 Nov. 1934.
732 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

22. Office Order 107, Surgeon General’s Office, 22 Nov. 1934.

23. Massen, Marion: OQMD Historical Studies: Report No. 7, March 194(5, subject:

Canned Meats Procurement for the Armed Forces During World War II.

24. Memorandum, Brig, Gen. H. D. Munnikhusen, Office of the Quartermaster General, for The Adjutant General, (5 Jan. 1941.

25. Memorandum, Col. R. A. Kelser, VC, Veterinary Division, SGO, for Military

Personnel Division, SGO, 10 Jan. 1941.

26. Radiograms, The Adjutant General, to commanders of New York and San Francisco ports and of Boston, Chicago, Jeffersonville, Kansas City, and San Antonio depots,

18 Jan. 1941.

27. Radiograms, The Adjutant General, to corps area commanders, 18 Jan. 1941.

28. Letter, Chicago Quartermaster Depot, Chicago, 111., to The Quartermaster General, 18 Dec. 1941, subject: Veterinary Inspection Service, with two indorsements.

29. Brown, Jean: World War II History of the Army Veterinary Service, Kansas

City Quartermaster Depot, Mo. [Official record.]

30. Letter, Office of the Quartermaster General, to all depot commanders, 10 Feb.

1943, subject: Courtesy Inspection of Subsistence Supplies.

31. Circular Letter No. 48, Office of the Quartermaster General. 12 Mar. 1943, subject Procurement, Storage, and Distribution of Non-Perishable Subsistence Supplies.

32. Greenlee, C. W.; World War II History of the Army Veterinary Service, Fifth

Service Command. [Official record.]

33. Shook, L. L.: World War II History of the Army Veterinary Service, Sixth Service Command. [Official record.]

34. Wight, A. C.: World War II History of the Army Veterinary Service, Eighth

Service Command. [Official record.]

35. Circular Letter No. 42, Office of the Quartermaster General, 19 Mar. 1941, subject Purchases of Fresh Fruits and Vegetables.

36. Circular Letter No. 169, Office of the Quartermaster General, 21 July 1941. subject Purchases of Perishable Subsistence Supplies.

37. Circular Letter No. 263, Office of the Quartermaster General, Oct. 1941, subject Perishable Subsistence, Purchase of.

38. Circular Letter No. 117, Office of the Quartermaster General. 16 June 1941, subject Establishment of Field Headquarters, Perishable Subsistence.

39. Dildine, S. C.: World War II History of the Army Veterinary Service, Field

Headquarters, Perishable Branch, Subsistence Division, Office of the Quartermaster

General, Chicago, 111. [Official record.]

40. Letter, Office of the Quartermaster General, to The Surgeon General, 0(4. 1941,

subject: Point of Origin Inspections.

41. Memorandum, Col. R. A. Kelser, VC, Veterinary Division, SGO, for Military PersonnelDivision, SGO, 13 Oct. 1941.

42. Radiograms, The Adjutant General, to Field Headquarters, Perishable Subsistence Section, Office of the Quartermaster General, Chicago, 111., and all quartermaster

market centers. 17 Oct. 1941.

43. Radiograms, The Quartermaster General, to Field Headquarters. Perishable

Subsistence Section, Office of the Quartermaster General, Chicago, 111., and all quartermaster market centers, 27 Nov. 1941.

44. Davis, W. C.; Beef Grading and Stamping. Service Leaflet No. 67. U.S. Department of Agriculture, September 1930.

45. Service and Regulatory Announcements No. 137. Rules and Regulations of the

Secretary of Agriculture Governing the Grading and Certification of Butter. Cheese. Eggs.

Dressed Poultry and Dressed Domestic Rabbits for Class. Quality (Grade), and Condition. Bureau of Agricultural Economics, U.S. Department of Agriculture, December 1932.
MILITARY MEAT AND DAIRY HYGIENE 733

46. Tentative U.S. Standards for Grades of Swiss Cheese. Office of Distribution, War

Food Administration, 15 Oct. 1941.

47. Letter, The Adjutant General, to corps area commanders, 12 Sept. 1941, subject:

Inspection of Butter, Eggs, Cheese, and Poultry Purchased by Quartermaster Marketing

Centers.

48. Transportation Department Bulletin No. 1, Protective Service Instructions and

Maximum Loading for Meats, Fish, Poultry, Lard, Shortening, Eggs, and Dairy Products.

Field Headquarters, Perishable Branch, Subsistence Division, Office of the Quartermaster

General, Chicago, 111., revised Dec. 1944.

49. Transportation Department Bulletin No. 2, Protective Service Against Heat or

Cold for Eggs and Cheese. Field Headquarters, Perishable Branch, Subsistence Division,

Office of the Quartermaster General, Chicago, 111., revised Oct. 1945.

50. Transportation Department Bulletin No. 6, Protective Instructions on Canned

Poultry, Canned Cheese, and Canned Butter-Army Spread. Field Headquarters, Perishable Branch, Subsistence Division, Office of the Quartermaster General, Chicago, 111.,

revised 28 Dec. 1944.

51. Circular No. 75, Overseas Shipment of Refrigerated Cargo, as amended by Supplement No. 1, July 1943. Office of the Chief of Transportation, June 1943.

52. Transportation Corps Circular No. 105-3, Overseas Supply—Overseas Shipment

of Refrigeration Cargo. Office of the Chief of Transportation, Army Service Forces, 31

March 1944.

53. AR 30-2320. 19 Mar. 1943.

54. Gelman, G., and Tennant, H. R.: Safekeeping of Subsistence. Quartermaster

Food and Container Institute for the Armed Forces, Chicago, 111., 15 July 1946.

55. Stauffer, A. P.: U.S. Army in World War II. The Technical Services. The

Quartermaster Corps: Operations in the War Against Japan. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1956.

56. WD Supply Bulletin, Storage and Issue of Carcass Beef, Lamb, and Veal,

December 1944.

57. FM 8-40. 31 Dec. 1942.

58. AR 40-205, 31 Dec. 1942.

59. Memorandum No. S30-24-43. HQ ASF, Aug. 1943, subject: Corrosion Taking

Place Inside “V” Boxes.

60. Letter, Chief of Staff, War Department, to Commanding General. NATOUSA,

22 Mar. 1944, subject: Subsistence Losses in Theaters of Operations.

61. Letter, Chief of Staff. War Department, to Commander in Chief, SWPA, 22 Mar.

1944, subject: Subsistence Losses in Theaters of Operations.

62. Dack, G. M.: Staphylococcus and Enterococcus Food Poisoning and Botulism. [Official record.]

63. Letter, Brig. Gen. R. A. Reiser, Veterinary Division, SGO, to Col. A. Marble,

MC, Consultant in Medicine, HQ Sixth Service Command, June 1945.

64. Letter, HQ USAF, Central Pacific Area, to all medical and veterinary officers,

17 July 1944, subject: Food Poisoning in the Army.

65. Letter, HQ USAF, Middle Pacific, 26 Dec. 1945. subject: Food Poisoning in the

Army.

66. TB MED 226. 28 June 1947.

67. SR 40-930-1, 19 Dec. 1950.

68. Kester, W. O., and Miller, E. B.: World War II History of the Army Veterinary

Service, U.S. Army Forces, Pacific Ocean Areas. [Official record.]

69. WD Memorandum No. W40-44, Feb. 1944.
734 ARMY VETERINARY HERVICl

70. Mace, D. L., and Undall, K. H.: Veterinary Considerations of Chemical War

fare. C. W. School Mimeo No. 180, Chemical Warfare School, Chemical Warfare Center EdgewoodArsenal, Md., March 1943.

71. TM 8-285, 15Apr. 1944.

72. TM 3-220, 15 Nov. 1943.

73. FM 21-40, Sept. 1944.
735

Index

Air Force Service Commands:

VIII—281

IX—281

XII—249, 268, 281

Air Force veterinarians. See Veterinarians.

Air Service Area Commands:

1—268

11—268

III—268

Air Service Command, 366, 369

Air Transport Command, 205, 235, 236-

237, 246, 247, 366

Alaskan Divisions of, 630

Alaskan Wing, 230

Central African Division, 249

India-China Wing, 364

North Atlantic Divisions of, 630

Dog Rescue Unit, 631

North Atlantic Wing, 226

Pacific Wing, 297

South Atlantic Division, 235

South Atlantic Wing, 235

Airborne divisions;

11th—210

13th—210

17th—210, 280

82d—210, 280

101st—210, 280

Aitutaki, 298

Ajaccio, 262

Alaska, 39, 169, 175, 219, 229, 230, 232,

615, 635, 710

Alaska Defense Command, 220, 232

Alaska Defense Force, 232

Alaskan-Aleutian area, 725

Alaskan Department, 159, 219, 232-234,

337, 621, 628, 635, 650

Alaskan Highway, 229, 230

Alaskan Wing, Air Transport Division, 230

Albania, 453

Alcan Highway, 219, 229, 230

AlenQon, 418

Aleshire Quartermaster Remount Depot,

Front Royal, 152, 381

Aleutian Islands, 232, 635

Aleutian Islands Campaign, 162, 233, 234,

296, 710

Aachen, 460

AAF. See Army Air Forces.

AAFSC (Army Air Forces Service Command), 254

ABC Committee, 433-434

Abortion:

bovine infectious, 124, 483

equine virus, 514-515

AC. See Allied Commission.

ACA. See Allied Control Authority.

Acaprin, in piroplasmosis, 451, 510

Accra, 246, 248, 249

Actinomycosis, 676

in Japan, 484

in Korea, 487

Adak Island, 233, 234

Adelaide, 324

Adjutant General, The, 24, 50, 63, 73,

139, 141, 164, 166, 521, 565, 699

Adjutant General’s Office, 97

Admiralty Islands, 409

Adriatic Base Command, 256, 265, 268

Adriatic Depot, 265, 267, 268

Advance Echelon Remount Depot, 335

Advance Remount Depot, Port Moresby,

503

Advance Section, Communications Zone,

European theater, 279

Advanced military training, 92-94

AFHQ. See Allied Force Headquarters.

Africa, 247, 249, 275, 691

Africa-Middle East theater, 108, 219, 243,

248

Africa-Middle East Wing, 249

African horse sickness, 244

Afrika Korps, 241, 246, 249, 408

Agglutination tests, for brucellosis, 433

Agra, 347, 364, 656

Agricultural Marketing Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 701, 702,

703

Agricultural Research Center, Beltsville,

528, 617

Aguadulce, 222

Ahwaz, 248

Air Corps Ferrying Command, 236
736 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Alexandria Port Command, 246

Algeria, 243, 248, 249, 251, 261, 408, 444

Algeria-French Morocco Campaign, 249

Algiers, 248, 249

Aligliero, 262

Allied Chinese Nationalist Government,

691

Allied Commission (AC), 445

Austria, 471

Italy, 254

Allied Control Authority (ACA), 456, 463,

465, 468, 469

Veterinary Subcommittee, 463, 466

Allied Control Commission, 443-445

Public Health Subcommission, 136

Veterinary Section, 444, 445

Allied Control Council, 454, 456

Allied Control Group for Germany, 454

Allied Expeditionary Force, 280

Allied Force Headquarters, 249-250, 443

civil affairs and military government,

operations of, 453

Allied Military Government for Occupied

Territory, 444

Amapd, 235

Amchitka Island, 233, 234

Americal Division, 298

American Animal Hospital Association,

622

American Bureau for Medical Aid to China,

Inc., 341

American Can Company, 426

American Delhi Military Area Command,

367

American Dry Milk Institute, 386, 388

American Expeditionary Forces, 9, 13, 204

American First Task Force, 298, 605

American Humane Association, 15

American Kennel Club, 616

American Medical Association, 388

American Oil Chemists Society, 386

American Public Health Association, 386

American Bed Cross, 15

American Red Cross Harvard Field Hospital, 410

American Registry of Pathology, 148

American Salmonella Center, 648

American Theater Wing, Inc., 616

American Veterinary Medical Association

4, 8, 46, 71, 148, 616, 622

American Zone of Occupied Germany, 281

AMET, 247

See also Africa-VIiddle East theater.

Anaplasmosis, 476

Anchorage, 232

Ancylostomiasis, 632

in China-Burrna-India theater, 634

in South Pacific Area, 633

Andal, 347, 364

Andimeshk, 248 Anemia;

equine infectious, 149, 430, 467, 477, 483

pig, 660

Angaur, 289, 294, 418, 473, 475, 667

Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, 247, 249

Animal(s):

Army, definition of, 519

captured, 661-668. See also Captured

animals,

care of, 519-536

condemnation of, 533-535

diseases of:

control of, 447-451, 460, 466-467, 472,

475, 477, 483, 487

indigenous, 134, 341

of importance in military veterinary

medicine. See Diseases,

transmissible to man, 676

disposition of, 533-535, 636-637

dogs, 615-637

evacuation for, 567-575

farms, 655-661

feeds and feeding of, 525-531

forage ration studies of, 527-528

forage supply of, in oversea theaters,

528-531

health of, in Army Veterinary Service, 18

horses, 293

horseshoes of, 511-533

hospitalization of, 563-567

inspections of, 533-537

management of, 519-536

mules, 293

pigeons, 643-654

privately owned, 668-673

procurement, 489-515

Army Horse Breeding Plan in, 489-

490, 492, 493, 512-515

in Australia, 499, 500

in China-Burma-India theater, 505-

508

in European theater, 511-512

in Mediterranean theater, 608-511

in South Pacific Area, 504-505

in Southwest Pacific Area, 499-503

in Zone of Interior, 489-491

oversea theater remount operation in,

497-499
INDEX 737

remount depot system in, 492-497

quarantine of, 221, 521-525, 630

in United Kingdom, 278

in World War I, 523

services, 159, 176-177

in China-Burma-India theater, 350-

351

in South Pacific Area, 302

station, with, 520-521

shoeing of, 531-533

statistics on, 491-492, 519, 550, 648

transportation of, 539-559. See also

Transportation of animals.

Animal farms, 655-661

Animal husbandry;

in European theater, 460

in German Veterinary Service, 470

Animal purchasing board veterinarians, 149

Animal purchasing boards, 150-151

Animal Remount Station, Camp Plauche,

177, 542

Annette Island, 232

An-shun, 117, 377

Ante mortem inspections;

in Italy, 451

in Japan, 484

in Panama Canal Department ,233

Anthrax, 341, 348, 354, 466, 477, 487, 522,

526, 534, 676

enzootics, 448

in China-Burma-India theater, 496

in Italy, 447, 448

in Japan, 483

in Korea, 487

vaccination against, 542

Antiaircraft Brigade, 44th, 6th Army

Group, 590

Antibiological warfare:

food protection in, 727-729

research, 433-435

Anti-canine-distemper serum, 125

Antigua, 220, 224, 225, 524, 636

Anti-hog-cholera serum, 125

Anti-hog-cholera virus, 125

Antilles Department, 220, 224-225

meat and dairy inspections in, 225

Antilles Department Medical Laboratory,

422

Antilles General Depot I, 224

Antrypol, 430

Anzio, 413, 544, 545

Anzio Campaign, 266

Aphthous fever, 172

in Italy, 449

See also Foot-and-mouth disease.

Appennines, 213, 266, 582, 664

Ardennes, 455, 459

Argentia, 226

Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, 145,

147, 431, 627

Armies:

First U.S. Army, 208, 279, 280, 408, 417, 455, 458, 459, 460, 631

Third U.S. Army, 208, 273, 280, 281.

405, 408, 415, 453, 458, 459, 460, 592

Fourth U.S. Army, 232

Fifth U.S. Army, 130, 133, 208, 209, 254,

256, 261, 262, 265-268, 408, 412,

413, 444, 508, 509, 510, 530, 567,

575, 582, 584, 585, 586, 587, 590,

663, 664

Sixth U.S. Army, 311, 312, 314, 318, 327, 329, 331, 334-336, 413, 477

Seventh U.S. Army, 208, 254, 260, 261,

262, 265, 266, 267, 272, 273, 276, 279,

281, 408, 413, 444, 455, 456, 458,

509, 511, 567, 582, 585, 590, 591,

662, 663

Eighth U.S. Army, 208, 313, 314, 331,

334-336, 477, 479, 480

Ninth U.S. Army, 208, 280, 409, 418,

420, 455, 456, 458, 459, 460

Tenth U.S. Army, 208, 288, 289, 295-297,

314, 333, 336, 412, 418, 476, 477,

632, 650, 667

Fifteenth U.S. Army, 208, 280, 408-409

Armored corps. See Military units.

Armored divisions. See Military units.

Arms-Yager horse cars, 548

Army Air Forces, 25, 58, 67, 86, 80, 98,

110, 139, 140, 167, 185, 248, 254,

271, 273, 288, 457, 458, 631, 656,

670, 672, 699, 718

Air Transport Command, 219

Arctic Search and Rescue Squadron, 630

Fifth, 311, 312, 313, 317, 336-337, 686

in China theater, 378

in European theater, 273

in Hawaiian Department, 297

in Mediterranean theater, 268

India-Burma Sector, 364

Seventh, 288, 337

Thirteenth, 336-337

Army Air Forces Service Command, 254

Army Air Forces Units, 218
738 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Army animals:

definition of, 519

statistics on, 519

See also Army dogs; Army horses; Army

Signal pigeons.

Army Chinese Language School, 93

Army Committee for Insect and Rodent

Control, 119

Army Dental School, 88

Army dog centers, in Zone of Interior,

617-619

Army dogs, 111, 125, 129, 132, 159, 176,

195, 220, 221, 225, 227, 519, 615-637

breeds of, 618

care of, 619-628

diseases of:

ancylostomiasis, 634

coryza, 627

distemper, 125, 154, 195, 227, 619, 627,

633, 635, 636

eczema, 627

enteritis, 627

filiariasis, 430, 624, 626, 627, 633, 634,

637

gastritis, 627

gastroenteritis, 627

leptospirosis, 22, 148, 195, 431, 616,

619, 624, 627, 637

mange, 619

piroplasmosis, 634

pneumonia, 627

rabies. See Rabies,

taeniasis, 621, 635

disposition of, 636-637

feeding of, 621

housing of, 622-624

in Antilles Command, 225

in Central Pacific Areas, 632-633

in China-Burma-India theater, 633-634

in European theater, 276, 277, 630-631

in South Pacific Area, 633

in Southwest Pacific Area, 631-632

injuries of, 626

management of, 619-628

mortality of:

at Fort Robinson, 626

at Front Royal dog center, 626

at San Carlos dog center, 627

oversea deployment of, 628-637

procurement of, 616-619

reception centers, 153-154

statistics, 615, 626-627

training centers, 153-154

transportation of, 624

Army Exchange Service, 198, 655, 677, 716

Army Exchange System, 223, 519, 655

Army Garrison Force

le Shima, 296

in Central Pacific Area, 658

Kwajalein, 287, 292

Okinawa, 296

Army General Orders of 1879—-2

Army Ground Forces, 25, 58, 74, 86, 90,

129, 140, 193, 210, 211, 528

Army Group:

1st—209

6th—209, 281, 458, 590

12th—209, 280, 457, 458, 359

15th—444

British 21st—-458

Army Horse Breeding Plan, 151, 152, 489-

490, 492, 493, 512-515, 519

Army horses, 390

breeding plan for, 489-490, 492, 493,

512-515

diseases of, 494

losses of, on animal transports, 542-544

procurement of, 489-493, 512-515

quarantine of, 521-525

sporotrichosis in, 430

transportation of, by railroad, 546-552

Army Industrial College, 92, 120

Army Medical Center, 14, 76, 98, 99, 105,

145, 146-147, 149, 381, 382, 430,

449

Army Medical Department, 473

Army Medical Department Research

Board, 432

Army Medical Museum, 145, 147

Army Medical School, 88, 112, 147

Army mules, 293

Army-Naval Medical Purchasing Office,

New York, 147

Army-Navy Munitions Board, Drug Resources Advisory Committee, 119

Army-Navy Purchasing Board, 293

Army of the United States, 24, 33, 37, 39,

40-41, 43, 44, 46, 50, 57, 60, 69, 70,

71, 79, 89

Army Pigeon Service Agency, 644

Army Port and Service Command, 286

Central Pacific Base Command, 217

Army Regulations:

No. 40-2005, 1922—17

No. 40-2005, 1942—72

No. 40-2055, 1922—539, 706

No. 40-2060, 1922—539

No. 350-1021, 1942—86
INDEX 739

No. 350-1030, 1942—88

No. 605-12, 1944—70

Army Remount Service, 489, 512

Army Reorganization Act of 1901—3

Army Service Command-C, 339, 340

Army Service Command-O, 289, 294

Army Service Command-24—’340 Army Service Forces, 25, 29, 30, 45, 53,

57, 98, 140, 141, 156, 165, 174, 177,

179, 180, 181, 186, 187, 528

Control Division of, 620

depots, 149

Quartermaster Remount Purchasing and

Breeding areas of, 151-152

relationship within, 141-142

Requirements Division of, 123

role of personnel assigned to

service commands, 177-199

technical services, 142-177

Army Service Forces depots, 149, 154, 155,

158, 197

Atlanta, 155, 159, 161, 162, 164

Belle Mead, 155

Columbus, 155

Memphis, 155

New Cumberland, 155

Richmond, 155

San Antonio, 155, 156, 161, 164, 165

Savannah, 155

Schenectady, 155

Seattle, 155

Utah, 155

Army Service Forces Inspection Advisory

Council, 119

Army Service Forces Training Center, Fort

Lewis, 108

Army Signal Corps, 643

Army Signal Pigeons, 111, 125, 132, 176,

195, 227, 643-654

care of, 644-649

diseases, infectious, of, 648-649. See

also Pigeons,

in Central Pacific Area, 650-651

in European theater, 651-653

management of, 644-649

oversea deployment of, 649-653

paratyphoid infection in, 394, 400

pigeonosis in, 411

procurement of, 643-644

Army Specialized Training Program, 44,

45, 46, 48, 49, 50, 52, 53, 61, 62, 106

Army Transport Service, 169

Army Veterinary Bulletin, 31, 643

Army Veterinary Research Laboratory, 627

Army Veterinary School, 14, 15, 76, 83, 86-

88, 98, 99, 101, 102, 123, 124, 146,

149, 381, 385, 386, 387, 391, 407,

431, 451

research projects at, 431

Army Veterinary School Laboratory, 387,

392

production of biologicals in, 391

Army Veterinary Service:

administration of, 7-9, 17-32

animal health in, 18

changes in emphasis in, 22

development of, 1916-1940—5-15

equipment and supplies of, 14-15, 119-

137

food inspection by, 18-19

instructional services in, 12-14

laboratory service and research of, 381-

437

legislation and directives of, 5-7

organization of, 7-9, 203-206

functional, in Zone of Interior, 139-199

mission of, 17-32

in World War I, 22

personnel, 9-12, 33-80

protective status under rules of land warfare, 72-74

relation with Medical Service, 19-20

responsibilities of, 17-23

training in, 12-14

War Department reorganization, 25-29

Arsenical poisoning, experimental, treatment with BAL, 412-413

Arthritis, 505

Artificial insemination, 513, 514

Aruba, 220, 224

Ascension Island, 235

Ascom City, 340

Asia, 533, 539, 558

Asiatic-Pacific theaters, 175, 177, 219, 234,

273, 283-379, 413, 666, 671, 726

Central Pacific Area, 284-298

China-Burma-India theater, 340-379

Far East, 305-337

functional organization of, 283-379

Pacific theater, 337-340

South Pacific Area, 298-305

Southwest Pacific Area, 305-337

Asmara, 242, 243, 245

Assam, 354, 367, 410, 598, 599, 634

Assistant Secretary of War, 695

Association of American Railroads, 706

ATC. See Air Transport Command.

Atka Island, 234
740 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Atlanta Army Service Forces Depot, 155,

159, 161, 162, 164

Atlantic area, 39, 524

Atlantic Base Section, 251, 259, 260, 261,

407, 413

Atsugi, 337

Attrition of veterinary officers, 75-76

Attu Islands, 233, 234

Auckland, 300, 305

Augsburg, 413

Australia, 109, 110, 205, 305, 310, 311, 314,

316, 317, 318, 319, 322, 323, 324,

329, 332, 334, 335, 336, 405, 409,

412, 414, 416, 489, 499, 500, 502,

503, 504, 524, 551, 605, 608, 610,

628, 630, 631, 633, 655, 691

animal procurement in, 499, 500

botulism in, 312, 320

equine infectious rhinitis in, 501

equine pneumonia in, 501

equine strangles in, 501

gastrointestinal parasitisms in, 501

infectious rhinitis in, 501

keratitis in, 501

tick infestations in, 501

trichophytosis in, 501

tuberculin tests in, 320

typhoid fever in, 312, 320

Australia Base Section, 315, 331, 333, 339

Australian Army, 318, 319, 320, 321, 322,

500, 502, 529, 608, 691

Australian base sections, 324-327, 331

Australian Department of Commerce, 321

Australian Government, 540

Austria, 136, 267, 453, 455, 465

animal disease control in, 472

horse scabies in, 472

military government in, 471, 472

Awards, 74-75

Bronze Star Medal, 75

Combat Infantryman Badge, 75

Combat Medical Badge, 75

Distinguished Service Cross, 75

Distinguished Service Medal, 75

Legion of Merit, 75

Purple Heart, 75

Babesiasis, 634

Bacillus coli, 304

Bad Kreuznach, 415, 419

Bad Mergentheim, 413

Bagnoli, 263, 508, 509, 584

Baguio, 336, 666

Bahfa, 235

Baker Field, Calif., 649

Baker Island, 633

BAL (British anti-lewisite);

eye ointment, 622

in experimental arsenical poisoning, 412

Balkans, 244, 245, 265, 466

Bari, 268

Barnes General Hospital, 193

Base Area Group, 6625th, Casablanca, 262

Base, defense, and other minor theater

commands, 219-237

Air Transport Command, 236-237

Alaskan Department, 232-234

Antilles Department, 224-225

Bermuda Base Command, 225

Greenland Base Command 227-228

Iceland Base Command, 228-229

military missions, 237-238

Newfoundland Base Command, 226-227

Northwest Service Command, 229-232

Panama Canal Department, 220-224

U.S. Army Forces, South Atlantic, 235-

236

Basic Graduate Course, 86, 87

Basic Officers’ Course, 88

Basra, 242

Bastia, 262

Bataan, 306, 310, 607

Bataan peninsula, 212, 714

Batamgas, 329

Battle of Midway, 286

Bavaria, 456, 467

Bebra, 415

Beckum, 420

Beirut, 244

Belem, 235

Belgium, 418, 419, 457, 458

Belle Mead Army Service Forces Depot,

155

Bellows Field, 297

Beltsville Army Dog Center, 622

Benghazi, 242

Benghazi Base Command, 242, 246

Bergheim, 419

Berlin, 456, 461, 463, 469

Bermuda, 524

Bermuda Base Command, 219, 225, 237

Bermuda Defense Command, 524

Bensagon, 413

Bethel, 233

Bhamo, 597

Biak Island, 315, 327, 328, 337, 339,409,415
INDEX 741

British Eastern Assault Force, 249

British Eighth Array, 209, 246

British Guiana, 220, 224, 225, 524

British military veterinary service, 250

British Ministry of Aircraft Production, 630

British Ministry of War Transport, 171,

173, 199

British National Institute of Medical Research, 652

British West Africa, 247

British West Indies, 224, 524

Brittany Base Section, 279

Brittany Base Section Command, 663

Bronze Star Medal, 75

Brood mare band, management of, 513-515

Brooke Army Medical Center, Fort Sam

Houston, 88, 147

Brucellosis, 125, 225, 233, 238, 227, 447,

448, 483, 661, 727

agglutination tests for, 433

agglutinins in, 393

bovine, 448, 476, 477, 483

in Germany, 466

in Japan, 483

ovine:

in Italy, 448

Mini's brucellin in, 448

Brussels, 459

Bulletin of the U.S. Army Medical Department, 31

Buna-Gona campaign, 327

Bureau of Agricultural Economics, 701

Bureau of Animal Industry, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 198, 672, 680

Bureau of Customs, 669

Bureau of the Budget, 565

Burma, 93, 109, 110, 113, 114, 213, 341,

343, 346, 347, 350, 352, 354, 356,

365, 368, 374, 505, 506, 507, 529,

530, 531, 532, 552, 554-555, 556-

557, 592, 593, 594, 598, 599, 601, 662

Burma campaigns, 350, 358, 368, 567, 593,

594, 598, 601, 624, 634, 666

Burma Road, 109, 114, 369, 554, 556, 600,

601

Byrd Anarctic Expedition, 615

CAD (Civil Aid Division) Board, 442

Cadre training system, 84-85

Cafaggiolo, 585, 586, 590

Cagliari, 262

Cairns, 324

Cairo, 241, 243, 244

Cairo Militarv District, 243, 246

Biologicals, 123-126

production of, at Army Veterinary

School, 391

Bismarck Archipelago, 299, 300, 301

Bizerte, 261

Bizonia, 463

Blackleg, 125

in Italy, 448

in Japan, 483

in Korea, 487

Blue Cross Society, 15

Board of Agriculture and Forestry, Territory of Hawaii, 524

Bologna, 587, 664

Bombay, 347

Bomber Command, XXI -297, 686

Bone-Philippville, 261

Boophilus annulatus, var. australis, 412 Boophilus sp., 476

Bora Bora, 298

Boston Port of Embarkation, 169, 174

Boston Quartermaster Depot, 155, 156,

164, 165

Botrytimycosis, 503

Botulism, 395

death caused by, 320

in Australia, 312

Bougainville, 301, 329, 631

Bovine brucellosis, 448, 476, 483

in Germany, 466

in Okinawa, 477

Bovine infectious abortion, 124, 483

Bovine trichomoniasis, 449

Bovine tuberculosis

in Austria, 472

in Germany, 467

in Italy, 448, 451

in Japan, 483

Boyton-tissue vaccine, in hog cholera, 477

in Okinawa, 477

Brazil, 235, 421, 660

Breeding areas, remount, 151

Bremen Enclave, 456

Brigade (Provisional), 5332d—357, 368,

374, 597

Brisbane, 310, 311, 312, 331, 336, 405, 414,

415, 540

Britain, 471

British Army, 507, 530, 598

8th—209, 246

British Army Group, 21st—458

British Army Veterinary Remount Services, 31

British Army veterinary service, 278
742 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Calcutta, 346, 347, 348, 349, 351, 367, 410,

419, 506, 543, 552, 593, 599, 634, 656

California Quartermaster Depot, 155, 156,

159, 161

Calmette Guerin vaccine, in bovine tuberculosis, 449

CA/MG (Civil affairs and military government) 441-448

See also Civil affairs and military government.

Camps. See Military installations.

Canada, 71, 169, 178, 219, 227, 229, 231,

237, 690

Canadian Army, 145

Canadian Minister of National Defense, 435

Canal Zone, 220, 523, 624

Canine dirofilariasis, 195

Canine distemper, 126, 154, 195, 227, 619,

627, 633, 635, 636

Canine filariasis, 624, 626, 627, 633, 636,

637

research studies of, 400, 430-431

Canine leptospirosis, 22, 148, 195, 619,624,

627, 637

at Front Royal dog training center, 616

research studies of, 431

Canol Project, 219, 229

Canton Island, 545, 633, 657

Captured animals, 661-668

in Central Pacific Area, 667-668, 670

in China-Burma-India theater, 666

in European theater, 662-663

in Mediterranean theater, 663-665

in Southwest Pacific Area, 666-667

surra in, 666

Carcass disposal, by German Veterinary

Service, 468

Caribbean area, 39, 175, 219, 220, 524 Caribbean Defense Command, 219, 220, 224, 628, 635, 650

Carlisle Barracks, 147

Carolines, 289, 667

Casablanca, 243, 245, 247, 249, 259, 261, 262, 407, 413

Casamozza, 262

Caseous lymphadenitis, 275

Cassino battleground, 448

Catarrhal jaundice, 431

Cat Island, war dog center at, 154, 617

Cattle ticks, 412

Cavalry, 4, 10, 40

Cavalry Board, Fort Riley, 128

Cavalry brigades. See Military units.

Cavalry Division Board, 1st—528

C’avalry divisions. See Military units.

Cavalry Quartermaster Squadrons:

16th—212, 216, 335, 608, 609

20th—212, 216

Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop, 10th—-587

Cavalry regiments. See Military units.

Cavalry School, Fort Riley, 111, 532, 553

Cebu, 306, 329

Center Task Force, 249, 259, 261, 269

Center Town Command, 248

Central Africa theater, 246, 249

Central African Division, Air Transport

Command, 249

Central African Wing, 249

Central America, 205, 691

agglutination tests for brucellosis in, 433 Central Pacific Area, 109, 215, 284-298,

317, 336, 405, 407, 418, 473, 524, 544, 545, 567, 574, 615, 620, 62L 624, 626, 628, 629, 632, 644, 647, 648, 649, 650, 657, 686, 713, 727, 728

Army dogs in, 632-633

Army Signal pigeons in, 650-651

captured animals in, 667-668

civil affairs and military government in,

472-476

evacuation and hospitalization in, 603-604

functional organization of, 284-298

laboratory units in, 409, 412 veterinary accomplishments in, 289-

290

Central Pacific Area Laboratory, 409, 412,

418, 421

Central Pacific Base Command, 217, 284,

287, 288, 289, 290-292. 296, 338, 422

Quartermaster Service in, 290, 292

Central Pacific theater, 176

Chabua, 346, 347, 348, 351, 364, 367, 410,

416, 419

Chakulia, 347

Chan-i, 372, 373, 374, 375, 552, 554

Channel Base Section, 279

Chanor Base Section, 279

Charleston Port of Embarkation, 169, 172,

174-175

Charlotte Quartermaster Depot, 155, 161,

162, 164 Chateauroux, 591
INDEX 743

352, 354, 364, 365, 368, 369, 378,

437, 489, 529, 530, 532, 545, 552,

554, 592, 594, 599, 600, 601

China Air Service Command, 378

China Air Task Force, 364

China-Burma-India Air Service Command,

364

China-Burma-India theater, 31, 75, 113,

114, 117, 132, 133, 177, 237, 302,

318, 324, 340-379, 416, 430, 489,

497, 498, 502, 503, 505-508, 524

525, 531-532, 540, 541, 552, 553,

567, 574, 603, 605, 607, 608, 610,

628, 633-634, 650, 656, 715

ancylostomiasis in, 634

animal procurement in, 505-508

animal service in, 350-351

Army dogs in, 633-634

captured animals in, 666

evacuation of animals in, 592-599

food inspection in, 346-350

laboratory service in, 351

laboratory units in, 410, 416

Northern Combat Area Command, 507

Services of Supply, 346-351

surra in, 666

thrush of the feet in, 596

War Dog Detachment, 624

China Defense Supplies, Inc., 341

China Service Command, 370

China theater, 115, 346, 357-358, 365, 419,

507, 529, 533, 545, 551, 552, 593,

594, 598

evacuation and hospitalization in 599-

603

Services of Supply in, 372-375

Chinese Animal Transport Regiment, 557

Chinese Army, 507, 533, 557, 593, 595

animal mortality in, 595

veterinary evacuation plan for, 599

See also Chinese military units.

Chinese Army Service Corps, 691

Chinese Army Veterinary College, An-shun,

China, 116

Chinese Army Veterinary School, 377

Chinese Army Veterinary Service, 349, 352,

353, 372, 376

Chinese Combat Command, 114, 375-377

Chinese divisions. See Chinese military

units

Chinese Horse Administration, 134

Chaumont, 511

Cheltenham, 271

Chemical Corps, 143

Chemical warfare:

food protection in, 730

protective equipment against, 127-129

Chemical Warfare Center, Edgewood Arsenal, 128, 143

Chemical Warefare School, Edgewood Arsenal 92, 93, 112, 730

Medical Department Officers’ Course in,

92, 93

Chemical Warfare Service, 120, 127, 128,

143-145, 381, 388, 390, 423, 431,

433, 434, 435, 730

Special Projects Division, 434

Cheng-tu, 347, 373

Chennault, Gen. C. L., 364

Chicago General Supply Depot, 14

Chicago Medical Depot, 30

Chicago Quartermaster Depot, 85, 90, 104,

155, 156, 159, 161, 164, 165, 398,

695, 696, 697

depot veterinarian, 158

functional organization of, 156

Chief, Bureau of Supplies and Accounts,

U.S. Navy, 65

Chief of Chaplains, 141

Chief of Chemical Warfare Service, 57,

92, 139, 145

Chief of Engineers, 57, 139

Chief of Finance, 139, 141

Chief of Italian Veterinary Service, 136

Chief of Ordnance, 139

Chief of Staff, Supreme Allied Command

(COSSAC), 454

Posthostilities Planning Section, 454

Chief of Staff, U.S. Army, 25, 140, 725

Chief of Transportation, 139, 142, 169

Chief of Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s Office, 23, 148, 684

Chief Signal Officer, 57, 139

Chief Surgeon’s Office, European theater,

74, 630

Chief Veterinarian, American Expeditionary Forces,

Chih-chiang, 373, 533, 554, 601

Chilkoot Barracks, 230, 615

China, 93, 109, 110, 113, 114, 116, 117,

134, 137, 205, 297, 341, 342, 343,
744 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Chinese military units:

army (ies): 133, 346, 350, 352, 354, 367, 506, 507, 533, 593, 594, 595, 599,

601-602

New 1st—-374

2d- 558

New 6th—374

8th—115

52d—115

60th—115

11th Group, 115

20th Group, 115

division (s);

14th -374

22d—374, 505, 556, 592

30th—354, 374, 556, 558

38th- 505, 531, 554, 592

50th—554

regiment (s), 1st—357, 374, 597

Chinese Ministry of War, 117, 134, 377, 530

Chinese National Health Administration,

117, 133

Chinese Nationalist Government, 347

Chinese Training and Combat Command, 115, 351-364, 370, 374, 376

Northern Combat Area Command, 356-

358

X-Force, 352-354

Y-Force, 354-355

Z-Force, 356

Chinese Training Command, 377

Chinese veterinary platoons, 593

Chinese War Area Service Command, 347,

348, 349

Chinese War Area Service Corps, 347, 349

Chinese Y-Force, 114, 115

Cholera:

fowl, 483

hog, 449, 450, 451, 660

anti-hog-cholera serum in, 451

Boynton-tissue vaccine in, 477

in Italy, 450

swine, 483

Vaccine, 467

Choriomeningitis, lymphocytic, 399

Christmas Island, 286, 545, 633, 657

Chungking, 341, 347, 369, 370, 373 Circular Letter, Veterinary, No. 59—71 Civil affairs and military government, 441-

488

Allied Control Commission (Italy), 443-

445

civil veterinary services in Italy, 445-453

development, 441-442

during occupation, 461-463

in Austria, 471-472

in Central Pacific Area, 472-476

in European theater, 454-472. See also

European theater,

in Italy, 444-452

in Japan, 478-484

in Korea, 484-487

in Mediterranean theater, 443-453

in Okinawa, 476-477

in Pacific theaters, 472-487

in Southwest Pacific Area, 477-478

operations of Allied Force Headquarters

in, 453

veterinary laboratories in, 429

Civil Affairs Division, War Department

Special Staff, 442, 452, 453, 478

Civil Affairs Training Schools, 93

Civil Aid Division Board, 442

Civil Public Health Division, 442

Civil veterinary services:

inAustria, 472

in Italy, 445-453

in Japan, 481-484

in Korea, 485

Civil War,

Civilian Conservation Corps, 11, 83, 199

Civilian employees, 77

Civilian supply, in liberated and occupied

areas, 134-137

Civilian veterinarians, 2, 3, 4, 44-46

contract,

in Civil War, Clark Field, 337

Coast Artillery Corps, Fort MacArthur,

615

Coast Guard, 497, 519, 525, 534

Coastal Base Section, 260, 264, 267, 279

Colic, sand, 596

Colombia, 432

ColumbusArmy Service Forces Depot, 155,

156, 164, 165, 710, 725

Combat Infantryman Badge, 75 Combat Medical Badge, 75

Combined Chiefs of Staff (United States and United Kingdom), 134, 136

Combined Civil Affairs Committee of the

combined Chiefs of Staff, 134, 136, 443

Supply Committee of, 135

Command and General Staff School, Fort

Leavenworth, 92

Commanding General, Army Service

Forces, 140, 141, 179
INDEX 745

Commanding General, China-Burma-India

theater, 117

Commercial food establishments, 678-681

Commercial laboratories, 427-428

Communications Zone (COMZ), 254, 264,

273, 274, 278, 279, 457, 458, 459

Como, 115

Company (Veterinary). See Installations and units, veterinary

Composite Force, 8012—235

Composite regiment. See Military units.

Constantine, 261, 407

Continental Advance Section, 264, 279

Continental Base Section, 260, 264, 279

Contractual agreements, Federal specifications in, 694-695

Cook Islands, 298

Cornell University, 94

Corozal, 222

Corozal General Depot, 222

Corps:

I— 335, 479

II— 249, 261, 265, 267, 584

III—209

IV—209

V—209, 280

VI—209

VII—209

VIII—209

IX—209, 479

X—209

XI—209, 336, 667

XII—209

XIV—209, 301, 329

XV—209

XVII—209

XXIV—296, 314, 317, 340, 484, 485

Corps areas. See Service Commands.

Corps areas medical laboratories, 391-392

Corps of Engineers, 120, 127

Corps veterinarian, 209

Corregidor, 306, 310, 607, 658

Corsica, 251, 254, 262

Coryza, 627

COSSAC (Chief of Staff, Supreme Allied

Command), 454

Costa Rica, 222

Course for Enlisted Specialists and Veterinary Laboratory Technicians, in

Clinical Pathology, 102, 387

Course for Veterinary Technicians and

Meat and Dairy Hygienists, 94,

98, 99, 101, 103

Course in Clinical Pathology for Enlisted

Specialists, 102-103, 387

Course in Meat and Dairy Hygiene and

Forage Inspection, 13-14

CPA. See Central Pacific Area.

Cuba, 220, 224, 225

Curacao, 220, 224

Cysticercosis, 484

Cysticercus bovis, 349

Czechoslovakia, 455, 457, 465

Dagupan, 420

Dakar, 247

Darmstadt, 408, 413

Darwin, 310, 336, 337

David, 223

Death caused by—-

botulism, 320

canine distemper, 627

equine influenza, 550, 551

filariasis, 637

heat exhaustion, 543

hemorrhagic septicemia, 244

piroplasmosis, 353, 510

rabies, 221

surra, 336

swine erysipelas, 244, 475

tetanus, 502

typhoid fever, milkborne, 320

Decamere Compound, Eritrea Service

Command, 245, 656

Decima, 262

DEE Committee, 434

Delta Base Section, 260, 264, 267, 279, 51

Delta Service Command, 242, 244-246

Demodectic mange, 619

Denmark, 219, 227, 457

Department of Field Veterinary Medicine, 113

Department of Veterinary Field Service, 88

Department veterinarians,

Deployment of laboratory units. See Laboratory units, deployment of.

Depot veterinarian, Chicago Quartermaster Depot, 158

Depot veterinarians, 141, 149, 153, 156,

157, 158, 159, 493, 539, 685

Depots:

Army Service Forces. See Army Service Forces depots.

Quartermaster. See Quartermaster

depots.

remount. See Remount depots.

Depots;
746 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Deputy Chief of Staff, Army Service

Forces, 672

Dermatitis, 634

of fungus origin, 505

Desert Training Center, 685

Detachment, U.S. Army Middle East

(DUSAME), 243

Diarrhea:

from contaminated shell eggs, 245

white, 483

Dijon, 260, 267, 279

Dinjan, 347

Diphtheria, 676

Director-General of Health, Australia, 317

Dirofilaria immitis, 413

Dirofilariasis, canine, 195

Disease (s);

infectious, in Army Signal pigeons, 648-

649

Johne’s, 476

of Army dogs. See Army dogs,

of importance in military veterinary

medicine, 490

African horse sickness, 244

anthrax, 341, 348, 354, 448, 522, 526

brucellosis, 125, 225, 227, 233, 238,

447, 448, 466

dourine, 449, 466, 490, 522

equine encephalomyelitis, 124, 147,

195, 317, 395, 398-399, 649

equine infectious anemia, 149, 430,

477, 483, 494

equine influenza, 148, 149, 194, 430,

431, 490, 491, 494, 551

equine periodic ophthalmia, 148, 149,

430, 431, 527

food poisoning in troops, 726

foot-and-mouth, 172, 244, 348, 420,

449, 450, 459, 460, 467, 472, 649,

663

glanders, 132, 150, 195, 447, 448, 466,

472, 483, 487, 510, 522, 534, 676

leptospirosis, 195, 431

mange, 510, 619, 633, 637, 662

ornithosis, 399, 649, 651

rabies, 448, 449, 483, 487

surra, 430, 559

swine diseases, 244, 448, 467, 472, 475,

477, 483

tetanus, 195

trypanosomiasis, 430

tuberculosis, 447

vesicular stomatitis, 195

of pigeons. See Pigeons, diseases of.

pullorum, 483

rickettsial, 399

shipping fever, type of, 194

Disposition of animals, 533-536

Distemper, canine, 126, 154, 195, 227, 619,

627, 633, 635, 636

Distinguished Service Cross, 75

Distinguished Service Medal, 75

Distomatosis, 484

Divisions, infantry. See Military units.

Dobodura, 336, 414

Dog gas mask, 129, 144

Dog Rescue Unit, North Atlantic Division, Air Transport Command, 631

Dogs, Army, 615-637

See also Army dogs.

Dogs for Defense, Inc., 616, 618, 636

Dominican Republic, 225

Dominion Department of Agriculture,

Health of Animals Branch, 231

Dornholzhausen, 511

Dossenheim, 591

Dourine, 449, 466, 490, 513, 522

test-and-eradication program against,

522

Drug Resources Advisory Committee,

Army-Navy Munitions Board, 119

Subcommittee on Biologicals of, 119, 123

Ducos Peninsula, 605

Dugway Proving Ground, 144, 434

Dum Duma, 347

DUSAME (Detachment, U.S. Army, Middle East), 243

Dutch Guiana, 220

Dutch Harbor, 232

Dyer, R. E., 435

Dysentery, 676

Eastern Air Command, 282

Eastern Base Section, 251, 259, 260, 261,

278, 407, 413

Eastern Defense Command, 265

Eastern Military District, 281

Eastern Town Command, 248

EBC (Eritrea Base Command), 243

ECAD (European Civil Affairs Division),

456, 457

Ecuador, 221, 222, 223

Eczema, 627, 632, 634

Edmonton, 230

Edmonton Quartermaster Market Center,

230, 231

Efate, 293, 301

Egypt, 241, 244
INDEX 747

Eighth Air Force, 281-282, 340, 686

Eighth Service Command, 164, 170, 182,

191, 193, 195, 196

Eighth Service Command Laboratory, 398-

399

Eighth U.S. Army, 208, 313, 314, 331, 334-

336, 477, 479, 480

Eisenhower, Gen. D. D., 454

Eleventh Air Force, 234

El Fasher, 249

El Geneina, 249

El Salvador, 223

Emergency Treatment Groups, 273

Emirau, 299, 301, 329

Emperor of Japan, 479

Encephalitis;

St. Louis, 399

vaccine, Japanese B, 147

Encephalomyelitis:

equine, 477, 483

vaccine, 124, 147

Engineer Mine Detection Company (Dog),

228th, 634

Engineers, Corps of, 120, 127

England, 110, 135, 136, 269, 276, 408, 410,

419, 457, 458, 630, 652, 653

Eniwetok, 287, 473

Enlisted Technicians’ School for Army

Air Forces Meat and Dairy Inspectors, 98

Enteritis, 627

Enzootics:

anthrax, in Italy, 448

erysipelas in Saipan, 475

hemorrhagic septicemia, 244

sarcoptic mange, in European theater,

662

swine, 244

toxoplasmosis, in Panama Canal Department, 649

vesicular stomatitis, 195

Epidemic(s), of

cholera, hog, 449

dourine, 449

epizootic lymphangitis, 449

foodborne diseases, in troops, 411, 416,

426

foot-and-mouth disease, 449-450, 460

Newcastle disease, 449

piroplasmosis, 449

poliomyelitis, 413

taeniasis, in dogs, 621, 635

trichomoniasis, bovine, 449

typhoid fever, milkborne, 312

See also Epizootic lymphangitis.

Epinal, 413

Epizootic lymphangitis, 353, 411-412, 430,

510

equine, 352-353, 447, 449

in Mediterranean theater, 411-412,

510, 664

Equine encephalomyelitis, 124, 147, 195,

317, 395, 399, 477, 483, 649

in Japan, 483

in Okinawa, 477

infection in man, 147

inoculations against, 513, 541

at Fort Reno, 495-496

at Fort Robinson, 495-496

vaccine, 124, 147

Equine epizootic lymphangitis, 353, 447

449

Equine glanders, 447, 448, 466

Equine infectious abortion, 513, 514

Equine infectious anemia, 149, 430, 477,

483, 494

in Germany, 467

in Japan, 483

research studies of, 430

Equine infectious rhinitis, 501

Equine influenza, 148, 149, 194, 430, 490,

550, 551

at Fort Reno, 494

death caused by, 550, 551

research studies of, 430, 431

sulfonamide therapy in, 494

Equine periodic ophthalmia, 148, 149

research studies of, 430, 431, 527

Equine pneumonia:

at Fort Reno, 494

in Australia, 501

Equine skin infections, 430

Equine strangles, 353, 544

in Australia, 501

vaccine, 124

Equine virus abortion, at Fort Reno, 514-

515

Equipment and supplies, Army Veterinary

Service, 14-15

Eritrea, 242, 656

Eritrea Base Command, 243

Eritrea Service Command, 242, 245, 246

Erysipelas, 125

in Japan, 483

serum, 467

swine, 448, 467, 472, 477

deaths from, 244, 475, 476

Escherichia coli, 386, 396, 727
748 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Escuintla, 223

Espiritu Santo, 293, 301, 305, 409, 415,

632, 633

Espiritu Santo Service Command, 293

Establishment inspection, 678-681

ETOUSA. See European theater.

Eupen, 418

Europe, 38, 64, 132, 133, 135, 137, 243,

245, 409, 457, 458, 461, 467, 479,

663, 670

European Advisory Commission, 454

European Civil Affairs Division, 456, 457

European theater, 64, 67, 74, 108, 110, 132,

172, 174, 176, 208, 209, 215, 217,

219, 249, 259, 263-265, 267, 269-

278, 280, 317, 408-409, 411, 414-

415, 417, 419, 443, 453, 457, 471,

489, 497, 499, 509, 510, 525, 532,

567, 603, 615, 620, 621, 628, 629,

631, 644, 647, 648, 650, 653, 661,

666, 670, 671, 672, 686, 725

animal disease control in, 460

animal husbandry in, 460

animal procurement in, 511-512

Army dogs in, 630-631

Army Signal pigeons in, 651-653

captured animals in, 662-663

civil affairs in, 454-472

animal husbandry in, 460

during combat, 457-461

during occupation, 461-463

experiences in combat units, 459

food inspection in, 460

intelligence, 459

veterinary administration, local, in,

459

veterinary education, 460

veterinary personnel, 457-458

Delta Base Section in, 511

deployment of laboratory units in, 408-

409, 410, 411, 413, 414, 415, 417,

419

evacuation and hospitalization in, 590-

592

food inspection in, 460, 468

German Veterinary Service. See German Veterinary Service,

indigenous veterinary supplies in, 460

military government in, 454-472

Normandy Base Section in, 511

organization, functional, in, 269-282

procurement inspections in, 529

sarcoptic mange in, 662

Services of Supply in, 278-280

veterinary education in, 460

Euthanasia, 521

Evacuation, of animals, 567-610

in Central Pacific Area, 603-604

in China-Burma-India theater, 592-599

in China theater, 599-603

in European theater, 590-592

in Mediterranean theater, 575-590

in South Pacific Area, 605-607

in Southwest Pacific Area, 607-610

oversea deployment, 575-610

plan for, 567-575

Fabrica, 413

Facilities, research, 431-437. See also Laboratory research.

Fairbanks, 232

Fall lliver, 327

Far East, 137

Far East Air Forces, 312, 337

Farcy, 430

Farriers, 1, 2,

German, 532

Fasciola gigantica 476

FEAF (Far East Air Forces), 312, 337

Federal and other specifications in contractual agreements, 694-695

Federal Economics Administration, 474

Federal Food and Drug Administration,

680

Seafood Inspection Service, 680

Federal Security Agency, 433, 680

Federal Specifications Board, 694

Feeds and feeding, 525-531

forage ration studies, 527, 528

forage supply in oversea theaters, 528-

531

Feeds and Forage Technical Committee,

695

Female veterinary officers, 76-77

Fernando de Noronha, 235

Field army and communications zone laboratory, 403-405

Field artillery, 10

Field artillery battalions. See Military

units.

Field Artillery Board, Fort Bragg, 128, 528

Field artillery regiments, 213

Field Artillery School, Fort Sill, 111, 528

Field Artillery Training Center, Chinese

Training Command, 377

Field Service Unit, 1875th—191

Field units, veterinary service of, 206-218

Fifteenth Air Force, 268
INDEX 749

Fifteenth U.S. Army, 208, 280, 408-409

Fifth AirForce, 311, 312, 313, 317, 336-337, 686

Fifth Service Command, 156, 164, 189, 190,

191

Fifth Service Command Laboratory, 396

Fifth U.S. Army, 113, 133, 208, 209, 254,

256, 261, 262, 265-268, 408, 444,

508, 509, 567, 575, 584, 585, 586,

587, 588, 590, 663, 664

Fifth U.S. Army Provisional Veterinary

Hospital, 508

Fiji, 293, 298, 301, 409, 415, 489

Fiji Service Command, 293

Filariasis, 400, 430, 619, 624, 626, 633,

634, 637

diagnosis of, in troops, 416

human, in Southwest Pacific Area, 628

Finance and Supply Division, Surgeon Gen- eral’s Office, 119

Finschhafen, 315, 327, 328, 336, 339, 409,

414

P'irst Cavalry Division Board, Fort Bliss,

128

First Corps Area Medical Laboratory, 391,

393

P’irst French Army, 209, 260, 281, 590, 591

First Island Command, South Pacific Area,

605

P’irst Service Command, 154, 156, 164, 182,

185, 188, 189, 190, 195, 626

First Service Command Medical laboratory, 393-394

P’irst Service Command Veterinary Service

at Large, 188, 191

P’irst U.S. Army, 208, 279, 408, 455, 458,

459, 460, 631

First U.S. Army Group, 209

P’ish and Wildlife Service, 672

Florence, 408, 413

P’oggia, 449, 450

P’ood and Drug Administration, 386, 393,

426

P’ood conservation, 719-726

subsistence salvage and, 722-726

P’ood contamination, food testing kit for

detecting chemical warfare agents,

122

P’ood inspections:

by German Veterinary Service, 468

in China-Burma-India theater, 346-350

in European theater, 460, 468

veterinary procurement, 688-703

veterinary surveillance, 703-719

See also Veterinary food inspection service; Veterinary food procurement

inspections; Veterinary food surveillance inspections.

Food poisoning, 726-727

Food protection, 719-730

antibiological warfare, 727-729

in chemical warfare, 730

packaging and labeling, 719-722

packing and marking, 719-722

subsistence salvage, 722-726

Food salvage, 162

Food testing kit, 122, 144

Foodborne diseases, 726-727

outbreaks of, in troops, 411, 426

research studies of, 414, 416

Foot-and-mouth disease, 172, 244, 348,

420, 449, 459, 472, 649, 663, 676

in Germany, 467

in Italy, 449, 450

research studies of, 420

vaccine in, 460, 470

Waldmann-type, 449

Forage inspection, in oversea theaters, 525

Forage poisoning, 395

at Fort Robinson, 494

Forage ration studies, 527-528

Forage supply, in oversea theaters, 528-531

Foreign Economic Administration, 134

Foreign Liquidation Commission, 507, 534

Formosa, 137

Fort Worth Quartermaster Depot, 155

Fortaleza, 235

Forts. See Military installations. Forward Echelon Remount Depot, 318

Fourteenth Air Force, 364, 369, 378, 554

Fourth Corps Area Medical Laboratory,

391

Fourth Service Command, 156, 164, 183,

189, 193. 195, 196

Fourth Service Command Medical Laboratory, 387, 394-395, 427

Fourth U.S. Army, 232

Fowl pest, 483

in Japan, 472

in Korea, 487

Fowl plague, 435

France, 9, 13, 136, 204, 254, 260, 266, 267,

272, 273, 276, 278, 279, 282, 408,

413, 414, 418, 419, 420, 453, 457,

458, 461, 509, 511, 585, 590, 591,

592, 631, 647, 653, 662, 663

Frankfurt, 273, 415

Frankfurt am Main, 463
750 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

bovine brucellosis in, 466

bovine tuberculosis in, 467

equine infectious anemia in, 466-467

foot-and-mouth disease in, 467

general military government in, 454-457

horse scabies in, 467, 472

Ghisione, 586

Gibraltar, 250

Giessen, 469

Gilbert Area Command, 287

Gilbert Islands, 474

Glanders, 132, 150, 195, 317, 341, 347, 353,

354, 466, 472, 476, 477, 483, 487, 510,

522, 534, 676

equine, 447, 448, 466

in Italy, 448

in Japan, 483

mallein testing for, 195, 354, 382, 477, 491, 494, 513, 520, 541

at Fort Reno depot, 494

at Fort Robinson depot, 494

in captured animals, 662

Gloucestershire, 630

Godesberg, 41.8

Gold Coast, 242

Goodenough Islands, 315, 327, 631

Gorgas Memorial Laboratory, 649

Gorgas Memorial Research Board, 432

Gorgas Memorial Research Fund, 432

Gothic Line, 585, 586

Goulburn, 499

Government of Lebanon, 244

Governor of Hawaii, 632

Graduate professional training, 92

Grafelfing, 415

Great Britain, 266, 454, 471, 524

Greater Hesse, 456

Greece, 136, 137, 453

Green Islands, 301, 329

Greenland, 174, 219, 227, 615, 628, 635

canine distemper in, 635

Greenland Base Command, 227, 228, 237

Grenoble, 590, 592

Grosse lie, 435-437

Grosseto, 263, 413, 509, 511

Guadalcanal, 293, 298, 301, 302, 303, 409,

415, 504, 545, 605, 607, 632, 633

Guadalcanal Campaign, 296

Guadalcanal Islands Commands, 293

Guadalcanal Service Command, 301, 607

Guam, 288, 289, 294, 297, 418, 473, 474,

475, 658

Guatemala, 221, 223, 432

Guayaquil, 223

Fred, E. B., 435

French Equatorial Africa, 247

French Colonial Government, 412

French Expeditionary Corps, 256, 582,

584, 585, 587

French First Army, 209, 260, 281, 590, 591

French Guiana, 220, 224

French Morocco, 243, 247, 249, 251, 260,

265, 407, 444

French West Africa, 247

Front Royal dog center, 622, 626, 628

leptospirosis at, 616

Front Royal remount depot, 431, 493, 496,

523

Fukuoka, 340

GALAHAD Force, 595, 634

Galapagos Islands, 224

Gander Lake, 226

Gap, 591

Gardiner General Hospital, 397

Garigliano River, 585

Gastritis, 627

Gastroenteritis, 627

Gastrointestinal disturbances, on animal

transports, 543, 544

Gastrointestinal parasitisms, phenothiazine in treatment of, 501-502

Gaya, 347

Gela, 267

General depots;

Corozal, 222

New Orleans, 155

New York, 155

San Francisco, 161

Geneva Red Cross Convention, 73

German Country Unit, 454, 457, 458

German Veterinary Service:

animal disease control in, 466-467

animal husbandry in, 470-471

before surrender, 464

carcass disposal by, 468

during occupation, 465-470

food inspection by, 468

meat inspection by, 467-468

milk inspection by, 468

veterinary education in, 469

veterinary laboratories, 468, 469

veterinary personnel in, 465-466

veterinary supplies in, 470

Germany, 219, 268, 273, 280-281, 408, 409,

415, 418, 419-420, 447, 454, 455, 457,

459, 461, 465, 466, 469, 485, 511, 532,

591, 592, 663, 671
INDEX 751

Gura, 242

Gusap, 336

Habronemiasis, cutaneous, 503

Haemoproteus infection, in pigeons, 649

Hampton Roads Port of Embarkation,

169, 173, 174, 175

Hangerville, 591

Hannover, 460, 469

Harmon Field, 226, 635

Harvard University, 93

Hawaii, 285, 286, 472, 489, 603, 628

Hawaiian Air Force, 297

Hawaiian Department, 9, 67, 203, 283,

284, 285-287, 295, 296, 297, 298,

391, 409, 421, 422, 524, 527, 603,

620, 632

laboratory service in, 421

Hawaiian Department Laboratory, 409,

412, 421

Hawaiian Department Pack Train, 603,

604

Hawaiian Department Service Forces

Command, 286

Hawaiian Islands, 109, 285-287, 288, 290,

294, 295, 296, 301, 338, 412, 433,

472, 473, 476, 489, 523, 544, 603,

626, 628, 630, 633, 649, 650, 657, 670

Hawaiian Services of Supply, 285, 286

Heartworm, 413

Heat exhaustion, death caused by, 543

Heer Agimont, 419

Helenbrunn, 420

Heliopolis, 242, 244, 246

Helmstedt, 420

Hemorrhagic septicemia, 550

death caused by, 244

Hepatitis, infectious, 412, 431

Hexamitiasis:

at Camp Crowder, 649

at Pope Field, 649

Hickam Field, 286, 297, 340

Himalayan Hump, 529, 533, 554

Hiroshima, 483

Hog cholera, 449, 467, 660

serum, anti-hog-cholera in, 451

vaccine, Boynton-tissue in:

in Italy, 450

in Okinawa, 477

Hokkaido, 339

Hokkaido Imperial University, 482

Hokkaido Island, 419

Holland, 420, 457, 458, 460

Holland Mission, 458

Hollandia, 312, 315, 327, 328, 329, 339,

407

Holy Land, 246

Honolulu, 217, 285, 286, 421, 472, 632

Honshu, 339, 418, 419

Horse gas masks, 128, 129, 144

Horse scabies, in Austria, 472

Horseshoers,

Horseshoes and shoeing, 531-533

Hospital Center:

27th—328

31st—328

Hospital Concentration Center, 821st—■

295

Hospital system, veterinary, in Zone of

Interior, 563-567

Hospitalization of animals, 563-610

Hospitals, evacuation, veterinary:

16th—318, 327, 502, 503, 610

17th—266, 267, 276, 584, 585, 590, 592,

662

18th—357, 368, 558, 597

19th—357, 368, 376, 507, 552, 554, 558,

594, 601

Italian 110th—266, 584, 585, 586

Italian 130th—266, 584, 585, 586

Italian 210th—585, 587

Italian 211th—266, 586

Italian 212th—266, 586

Hospitals, general:

named:

Barnes, 193

Gardiner, 397

Stark, 192, 429

Walter Reed, 146

William Beaumont, 95, 99, 101, 103,

105, 145

numbered;

30th—421

208th—229

veterinary:

Fort Armstrong, 285, 286, 632, 650

Fort Shatter, 285

Italian 1st—590

Italian 2d—263, 588, 664

Italian 213th—587

veterinary (overhead):

2604th—588

2605th—263, 509, 587, 588, 664

veterinary (provisional):

Central Pacific Base Command, 291,

292

590248 61—-—50
752 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Hospitals, station;

numbered:

93d—246

168th—229

200th—421

veterinary:

Italian 1st—263, 664

Schofield Barracks, 286, 604

veterinary (overhead);

2604th—263, 509, 588, 664

ITsi-ch’ang, 508

Hukawng Valley, 531, 595

Hungary, 465

Hyderabad, 347

Iceland, 174, 219, 228-229, 269, 276

veterinary laboratory service in, 421

Iceland Base Command, 228-229, 237, 690

le Shima, 296, 297, 333, 337, 409, 476, 477, 667

Imperial Japanese Government, 479, 480

Inchon, 340

India, 93, 109, 110, 113, 114, 133, 176, 205,

297, 341, 342, 346, 350, 352, 356,

357, 364, 365, 410, 505, 506, 507,

530, 532, 540, 543, 551, 592, 593,

595, 598, 600, 634, 656

India-Burma theater, 358, 419, 531, 551,

552, 593, 601

animal services in, 367

Indian Army, 507, 598, 599

Indian Army Supply Mission, 540

INDIGO forces, 269

Inducted veterinarians, 41-44

Infantry divisions. See Military units.

Infantry regiments. See Military units.

Infantry scout dog platoons. See Military

units.

Infectious abortion:

bovine, 124, 483

equine, 513, 514

Infectious anemia, equine, 149, 477, 483,

494

Infectious hepatitis, 412, 431

Infectious rhinitis, equine, 501

Influenza:

equine, 148, 149, 194, 430, 490, 491, 494,

550, 551

research studies of, 431

sulfonamide therapy in, 494

viruses, human, 416

Insignia and identification, veterinary, 1,

73

Inspection tours, 31

Inspections:

ante mortem, 223, 451, 484

in-storage, 707-716

of foods of nonanimal origin, 681-684

of shipboard subsistence, 172-174

of subsistence cargo, 174-176

on-depot, 160-162

post mortem, 223, 451, 484

prior to issue, 451, 484, 716-719

procurement, 526-527

See also Food inspections; Meat and

dairy hygiene inspections; Veterinary inspections.

Inspector General, 1, 139

Inspector General’s Department, 31

Installations and units, veterinary:

Medical Service Company (Veterinary)

113th—291, 292, 604

Separate Veterinary Company:

7th—558

36th—266, 587

45th—266, 591

Separate Veterinary Company (Provisional), 6482d—585

Veterinary Animal Service Detachments;

38th—292

39th—350, 356, 600

40th—350, 356, 600

41st—350, 356, 600

45th—356, 507, 600

50th—356, 600

51st—350, 599, 600

52d—350, 599, 600

53d through 62d—601

62d—507

63d—291, 292, 604

64th—291, 292, 604

65th—291, 292, 604

Veterinary Companies (Separate):

1st—350, 506, 593, 598

2d—350, 598, 599

3d—221

7th—357, 368, 376, 377, 554, 558, 594,

597, 601

44th—357, 368, 594

45th—276, 585, 590, 592

Veterinary Detachments (Air Force

Overhead):

6565th—268

6566th—268

6567th —268

Veterinary Detachments, Aviation:

1st—281, 686

2d—281, 686
INDEX 753

3d—337, 686

4th—305, 337, 686

5th—297, 686

Veterinary Detachments, Cavalry Regiment (Dismounted); 112th—504,

505

Veterinary Evacuation Detachments;

643d—263, 588, 664

644th—263, 588, 664

Veterinary Food Inspection Detachments, 191, 259, 316

“A”—249, 267

“B”—265, 267, 268

“C”—261

“T”—262, 267

67th—267

69th—340

70th—265, 268

71st—108

72d—265

74th—262

76th—243, 248, 260, 261

77th—262, 267, 317

80th—373

82d—373

84th—373, 375

85th—373

86th—373

87th—373, 375

100th—331

101st—317, 336

105th—317, 337

142d—297, 340

143d—297, 340

144th—297, 340

145th—297, 476

146th—297

147th—295

148th—295

149th—297

166th—317

243d—373

244th—373

245th—373

476th—256

477th—256

478th—256

479th—256

480th—256

481st—256

742d—295

743d—317

745th—295

746th—295

887th—267

888th—265

890th—267

909th—243, 247

910th—243

911th—243

912th—243

913th—374

914th—373

915th—373

917th—373

6648th—256

Veterinary Food Inspection Detachments (Provisional);

6645th—256

6646th—256

6647th—256

6648th—267

6649th—265

6650th—265

Veterinary Hospital Detachments:

78th—351, 506, 599

306th—292, 604

In-storage inspections, 707-716

Instructional services, 110-117

Interdepartmental Quarantine Commission, 671

Intermediate Section, 279

International Health Division of the

Rockefeller Foundation, 431

International Institute of Epizootics, 461,

466

Iowa State College of Agriculture and

Mechanical Arts, 94

Iran, 242, 248, 341

Iran-Iraq Service Command, 242, 248

Iraq, 242, 341

Ireland, 276

Ishikawa, 476

Island Base Section, 251, 260, 262

Island Command, 476

Is Surtille, 511

Italian Army’s 1st Veterinary Station

Hospital, 263, 509

Italian Army’s 2d Veterinary General

Hospital, 263, 509

Italian campaign, 584

Italian Government, 443, 445, 582

Badoglio, 447

Italian 20th Pack Mule Group, 585

Italian Peace Treaty, 445

Italian veterinary hospital units, 257, 262
754 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Italian veterinary service, 446

disease control practices of, 448-451

Italy, 136, 256, 263, 408, 444, 446, 447,

448, 449, 451, 452, 453, 466, 479,

509, 510, 511, 530, 544, 546, 587, 588, 661, 664, 671

bovine tuberculosis in, 448

civil veterinary services in, 445-452

foot-and-mouth disease in, 449, 450

glanders in, 448

hog cholera in, 450-451

Newcastle disease in, 449

ovine brucellosis in, 448

piroplasmosis in, 449

rabies in, 449

smallpox vaccine in humans, in, 452

sheep scabies in, 448, 449

Iwo Jima, 288, 294, 418

Jagziekte, 229

Jamaica, 220, 224, 225, 524, 636

Japan, 137, 289, 290, 294, 337, 338, 339,

378, 414, 447, 475-476, 477-484, 485, 532, 607, 671

actinomycosis in, 484

civil affairs and military government in,

478-484

civil veterinary services in, 481-484

cysticercosis in, 484

diseases of animals reported in, 843

distomatosis in, 484

Japanese Army Veterinary Service, 480,

481

Japanese encephalitis vaccine, 147

Japanese Council on Veterinary Education,

482

Japanese Government, 479

Japanese Ministry of Agriculture and

Forestry, 483

Japanese Ministry of Education, 481

Japanese Ministry of Health and Social

Affairs, 481

Japanese Veterinary Medical Association,

482

Jaundice, catarrhal, 431

Jeffersonville Quartermaster Depot, 155

Jena, 418

Jersey City Miscellaneous Subsistence Laboratory, 425

Jersey City Quartermaster Depot, 155, 161,

162, 164, 165

Johne’s disease, 476

Joint Army-Navy Preventive Medicine

Service, 375

Joint Army-Navy Purchasing Board, 288, 301

Inspection Division of, 305

New Zealand, 288, 302, 303-305, 319

South Pacific Area, 305, 318, 329

Joint Chiefs of Staff (Army and Navy),

442, 453, 471

Joint Civil Affairs Committee, 442

Joint Mexican-American Commission for

the Eradication of Aphthous Fever,

432, 433

Joint Post-War Committee, 442

Joint Purchasing Board, 302

Joint United States-Canadian Commission,

432, 435, 436

Jorhat, 347

Judge Advocate General, 139, 141

Judge Advocate General’s Office, 74

Juneau, 233

Kaiserslautern, 413

Kanchrapara, 634

Kano, 249

Kansas City Medical Depot, 30

Kansas City Quartermaster Depot, 106,

155, 161, 164, 165

Kansas State Agricultural College, 94

Kapalama Basin, 292

Karachi, 340, 341, 342, 346, 347, 349

Kauai, 285, 286, 473, 545, 650

Kellogg Arabian Nursery, Pomona, 152,

492, 513

Kelser, Brig. Gen. R. A., 24, 75, 433, 434, 435

Keratitis, 501

Kharagpur, 347

Khorramshahr, 248

Kiev, 282

Kintnbr, Lt. Col. J. H., 432

Kiska Island, 233, 234

Kobe, 340

Kodiak Island, 232, 233

Korea, 137, 296, 338, 339, 340, 409, 418,

447, 484, 485, 486, 487

actinomycosis in, 487

animal disease control in, 487

anthrax in, 487

bovine tuberculosis in, 487

civil affairs and military government in,

484-487

civil veterinary services in, 485-487

fowl pest in, 487

rabies in, 487

rinderpest in, 487
INDEX 755

Korea Base Command, 340

Korean Bureau of Public Health, 486

Kreis, 456, 459, 464

Kuang-han, 373

Kuei-lin, 114, 347, 377

Kuei-yang, 372, 373, 508, 533

K’un-ming, 110, 114, 115, 117, 342, 346,

347, 349, 354, 356, 369, 370, 372, 375, 377, 378, 533, 552, 556, 557

Kure, 340

Kurmitola, 347

Kwajalein, 387, 392, 473, 474, 475

Kwei-lin, 356

Kyoto, 339, 418, 479

Kyushu, 414, 478

Laboratories:

commercial, 427-428

in Antilles Department, 422

in Central Pacific Area, 409, 412-413, 418, 421-422

in civil affairs and military government

activities, 429

in corps areas, 391-393

in Hawaiian Department, 409, 412, 421-

422

medical:

1st—261, 267, 407-408, 413

2d—249, 405, 407, 408, 413

3d—328, 405, 409, 414

4th—267, 407-408, 410, 413, 414

5th—328, 409-410, 414-415

6th—299, 409, 415

7th—408, 415

8th—328, 409-410, 415-416

9th—351, 368, 410, 416-417

10th—408, 417-418

12th—295, 409, 418

14th—291, 296, 409, 412, 418

26th—328, 410, 418

27th—410, 419, 420

28th—409, 419

29th—368, 410, 419

362d—418

medical general, 405-407

"A”—408, 410

1st—215, 407, 408, 411, 414, 419

14th—418, 422

15th—215, 407, 408, 411

18th—215, 291, 292, 385, 407, 409, 412, 418, 422, 476

19th—215, 328, 407, 410, 413

Laboratory investigations, 429-437

Laboratory research, 431-437

facilities, 429-437

antibiological warfare, 433-435

Gorgas Memorial Research Board, 432

Pan American Sanitary Bureau, 432

Veterinary Research Laboratory, 429-

431

War Disease Control Station, Grosse

lie, Canada, 435-437

projects, 431-437

studies. See Research, studies.

Laboratory service, 381-429

deployment of laboratory units in theaters, 407-421

field Army and communications zone,

403-405

functions of, 381-382

in Central Pacific Area, 409, 412, 418

in China-Burma-India theater, 410, 416,

419

in European theater, 408, 410-411, 414,

415, 417, 419

in Germany, 468, 469

in Hawaiian Department, 421

in Iceland, 421

in Italy, 452

in Japan, 484

in minor and other oversea commands,

421-423

in New Zealand, 421

in North African-Mediterranean theater, 411-413

in Puerto Rican Department, 422

in South Atlantic Area, 421

in South Pacific Area, 409, 415

in Southwest Pacific Area, 409, 413, 414,

415, 419

in World War I, 381, 383, 402-403

in Zone of Interior, 390-402

oversea theater, 402-423

principles and practices of, 383-390

relation with other laboratories, 423-429

See also Laboratories; Research.

Laboratory units, deployment of, in theaters, 407-421

Central Pacific Area, 409

China-Burma-India theater, 410

European theater, 408-409

North African-Mediterranean theater, 407-408

South Pacific Area, 409

Southwest Pacific Area, 409-410

La Capelle, 418
756 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Ladd Field, Alaska, 232, 233, 234, 635, 650

Lae, 315, 327, 414

Lagos, 249

Lalmanirhat, 347

Lanai, 285, 473, 650

Lanchow, 341

Lashio, 557

Las Palmas, 237

Lauf, 415

Ledo, 346, 350, 351, 354, 367, 505, 598, 656

Leghorn, 588

Legion of Merit, 75

Leipzig, 469

Leptospirosis, 22, 125, 195

at Front Royal dog training center, 616

canine, 22, 148, 195, 431, 619, 624, 627, 637

Levant Service Command, 242, 245-246

Leyte, 317, 329, 409-410, 413, 414, 419,

420, 477, 632

Leyte campaign, 296, 419

Liberia, 242, 247

Libya, 242

Libyan Service Command, 242, 245, 246

Licata, 267

Liestadt, 591

Light Division, Pack, Alpine, 10th—211

Light Division, Pack, Jungle, 71st—211

Lima, 237

Lingayen Gulf, 410

Liu-chou, 601

Liver fluke, 476

infestation in Okinawa, 477

Loire Base Section, 279

London, 135, 269, 271, 278

London Area Office, 279

London Base Section, 278

Lons-le-Saunier, 590

Los Angeles Port of Embarkation, 169,

174, 175, 177, 542

Los Potreros, 223

Lowland Countries, 663

Lucca, 586

Lucilia macellaria infestation, of wounds,

634

Luhsien, 373

Lu-liang, 373

Luxembourg, 415, 457, 459, 460

Luzon, 294, 329, 337, 410, 413, 414, 416,

418, 419, 420, 666

Luzon Base Section, 315, 329

Lymphadenitis, caseous, 275

Lymphangitis:

epizootic, 353, 411-412, 430, 510

equine, 447, 449

ulcerative, 430

Lymphocytic choriomeningitis, 399

Lymphogranuloma venereum, 399

MacArthur, Gen. D., 283, 284, 310

Mackenzie River, 230, 231

Maddalena, 262

Maddaloni, 530

MAGNET forces, 269

Magruder, Brig. Gen. J., 340

Maiduguri, 249

Major Port, 24th—217, 286

Majure, 473

Malaria, pigeon, 649

Mallein tests:

at remount depots, 494

for glanders, 150, 195, 477, 491, 494, 505, 513, 520, 541

in captured animals, 662

Malta fever, 661, 676

Mandalay, 368

Mange, 510, 619, 633, 637

demodectic, 619

sarcoptic, 619

in European theater, 662

Manila, 305, 306, 312, 314, 337, 338, 339,

413, 414, 478

Marburg, 470

Marianas Islands, 287, 288, 289, 290, 293,

294, 297, 340, 378, 409, 412, 418, 473,

474, 476, 632, 658, 660, 667

Market center veterinarians, 168

MARS Brigade, 531, 567, 592, 594, 601, 603

MARS Brigade, Artillery Detachment,

5332d—556

Marseilles, 279, 414, 419, 511

MARS Force, 357, 597, 634

Marshall Army Area Command, 287

Marshall Islands, 287, 473, 474

Mateur, 261

Maui, 285, 473, 626, 632, 650

Meat and Dairy Hygiene Course, 86, 89-91, 158

Meat and dairy hygiene inspections, 159-

162

in Antilles Command, 225

in Greenland Base Command, 227

in Newfoundland Base Command, 226,

227
INDEX 757

in Panama Canal Department, 222-224

in South Atlantic, 235-236

off-depot, 160

on-depot, 160-161

See also Military meat and dairy hygiene.

Meat and Dairy Hygiene School, Chicago,

89, 147, 158

Meat and dairy hygiene services, 172, 193,

197

in Japan, 483

in Korea, 487

station-type, 170-172, 193

Meat and Dairy Hygienist Course, Chicago

Quartermaster Depot, 104-105

Meat and dairy industries:

in Italy, 451

in Japan, 483

in Korea, 487

Meat inspection, by German Veterinary

Service, during occupation, 467-468

Medical Administrative Corps, Army of the

United States, 37, 40, 42, 47, 49, 58,

59, 573

Medical Administrative Corps Reserve, 37,

47, 58

Medical and Field Sanitary Inspectors

Course, 112, 113

Medical Base Section Laboratory, 414

Medical Center, 28th—328

Medical Composite Detachment, 3d—328

Medical Composite Detachment (Laboratory)

361st—408, 410, 419

362d—409, 419, 420

363d—410, 418, 420-421

Medical Corps Officers’ Course, Chemical

Warfare School, 92

Medical Department, 12,13, 20,27,141,186, 187

functional organization of, in Zone of

Interior, 145-149

Medical Department Enlisted Technicans’

School, 94, 98-102, 112

Medical Department Equipment Laboratory, Carlisle Barracks, 144, 147,

381, 431

Medical Department Officers’ Course, Chemical Warfare School, 92, 93

Medical Department procurement and distribution, 120-121

Medical Department Professional Service

Schools, Army Medical Center, 86,

87, 94, 99, 112

Medical Department Research Laboratory,

143

Medical Department Supply Catalog, 124, 126, 127

Medical Department units, 214-215

Medical depots:

Chicago, 30

Kansas City, 30

St. Louis, 30

Medical Enlisted Reserve Corps, 40, 45, 46,

48, 49, 53, 63

Medical Field Service School, Carlisle

Barracks, 14, 15, 83, 86, 88-89, 93,

112, 145, 146, 147, 206, 381, 431,

730

Medical general laboratory, 405-407

Medical Inspectors Course, 113

Medical Regiment, 135th—311

Medical Replacement Training Center.

Camp Grant, 95, 96

Medical Research Laboratory, Dugway

Proving Ground, Tooele, 143-144

Medical Research Laboratory, Chemical

Warfare Center, Edgewood Arsenal.

122

Medical Service Company (Veterinary),

113th—291, 292, 604

Medical Squadron, 1st—212

Medical Supply Depot, 15

2d—249

Medical Training Section, Army Service

Forces, Training Center, Fort Lewis,

95, 97

Mediterranean Base Section, 247, 254, 259,

260, 261, 408

Mediterranean theater, 31, 64, 108, 130,

132, 136, 177, 209, 211, 215, 241,

243, 249-269, 272, 277, 317, 411, 413,

443-453, 461, 489, 497, 508-511,

524, 525, 529, 530, 532, 544, 552,

567, 590, 603, 628, 629, 634, 650,

662, 666

Allied Control Commission (Italy) in,

443-445

Allied Force Headquarters in, 249-250

animal procurement in, 508-511

base commands in, 258-265

captured animals in, 663-665

civil affairs and military government in,

443-453

operations of Allied Force Headquarters in, 453

civil veterinary services in Italy, 445-453
758 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Mediterranean theater—Continued.

evacuation and hospitalization in, 575-

590

laboratory units, deployment of in, 407-

408, 409, 411-412, 413

minor commands in, 264

organization, functional, in, 249-269

oversea deployment in, 575-590

Peninsular Base Section in, 582, 664

piroplasmosis in, 510

See also North African theater.

Mediterranean Theater of Operations,

Allied, 250

Medium Port, 53d—296

Melbourne, 311, 326, 331, 540

Memphis Army Service Forces Depot, 155,

164

Meng-tzu, 115

Merchant Marine, 699

Merrill’s Marauders, 356, 531, 567, 592,

595, 596, 597

Metz, 415

Mickelsen, 1st Lt. C. H., 74

Middle East Service Command, 243, 246

Middle East theater, 241-245, 246, 249,

281, 656

functional organization in, 241-249

Air Transport Command, 248-249

in Central Africa theater, 246

in Liberia, 247

North African Service Command,

247-248

Ninth Air Force, 248-249

Services of Supply in, 245-246

Delta Service Command, 246

Eritrea Service Command, 245

Levant Service Command, 245-246

Libyan Service Command, 246

Middle East Service Command, 246

Midway Island, 633

Military District of Washington, 146, 178,

196

Military government:

in Austria, 471-472

in Germany, 454-457

See also Civil affairs and military government.

Military Government Company, 74th, 480

Military Government Group, 105th, 480

Military installations:

Camp Alfred Vail, 643

Camp Barkeley, 405

Camp Breckinridge, 190

Camp Carson, 193, 565

Camp Claiborne, 648, 650

Camp Crane, 196

Camp Crowder, 111, 112, 195, 643, 645,

649

Camp Detrick, 434

Camp Earle, 233

Camp Ellis, 107, 190, 405

Camp Grant, 95, 96, 105, 145, 190

Camp Hale, 107, 528, 565

Camp Lee, 13, 105

Camp McCoy, 190

Camp Perry, 190

Camp Plauche, 107, 177, 542

Camp Prairie, 230, 635

Camp Rimini, 154

Camp Rucker, 405, 407

Camp Russell B. Huckstep, 243, 244,

245, 246

Camp Sibert, 107

Camp Swift, 496

Fort Armstrong, 285, 286, 604

Fort Belvoir, 111, 196

Fort Benjamin Harrison, 190, 396

Fort Benning, 111, 195

Fort Bliss, 101, 107, 128, 528, 564

Fort Brady, 190

Fort Bragg, 128, 528, 565

Fort Buchanan, 224, 225, 636

Fort Clark, 108, 564

Fort Clayton, 221

Fort Custer, 93, 190

Fort Des Moines, 191

Fort George G. Meade, 646, 650

Fort Glenn, 232-233

Fort Greely, 232, 233

Fort Hayes, 190

Fort Lawton, 177

Fort Leavenworth, 92, 563

Fort Lewis, 95, 97, 145, 385

Fort MacArthur, 615

Fort McAndrew, 226

Fort Mason, 169, 381, 391, 425

Fort McPherson, 387, 394, 407

Fort Mears, 232, 233, 234

Fort Mills, 306

Fort Monmouth, 111, 195, 643

Fort Morrow', 233

Fort Oglethorpe, 395

Fort Omaha, 191

Fort Ord, 399

Fort Pepperrell, 226

Fort Randall, 233

Fort Ray, 232, 233

Fort Raymond,233, 234
INDEX 759

Fort Read, 225

Fort Reno, 152, 492, 493, 514-515

Fort Richardson, 233

Fort Riley, 103, 104, 108, 111, 128, 193,

528, 553, 564

Fort Robinson, 105, 152, 154, 430, 431,

492, 493, 494, 618, 622, 626

Fort Ruger, 287

Fort Sam Houston, 88, 391, 398, 405, 407

Fort Shatter, 284, 287, 290, 314, 338, 604,

650

Fort Sheridan, 190, 397, 427, 428

Fort Sill, 111, 564

Fort Simons, 224

Fort Snelling, 191

Fort Stotsenberg, 305, 607

Fort Thomas, 190

Fort Totten, 188

Fort Warren, 191

Fort Wayne, 190

Fort William D. Davis, 221

Fort William McKinley, 305, 340, 607

See also Installations and units, veterinary.

Military meat and dairy hygiene, 675-730

classification of veterinary products in,

677-688

commercial food establishments, 678-681

Federal and other specifications in contractual agreements, 694-695

food protection and conservation in, 719-

730

foods of nonanimal origin, 681-684

inspections, 677-681

classification of, 677-684

in oversea theater commands, 685

veterinary food procurement, 677-703

veterinary food surveillance, 703-719

statistics on, 675

veterinary food inspection service organization, 684-688

Military Mission to China, 113

Military missions, 237

Military-obligated veterinary students, 46-

52

Military occupational forces, 339-340

Military Occupational Specialties (MOS),

68, 77, 79, 97, 111, 112

Military training, advanced, 92-94

Military units:

Americal Division, 298

Armored Corps:

I—-

II—

Armored Divisions;

1st—249

2d—280

3d—280

Brigade (Provisional), 5332d—-357, 368,

374, 597

Cavalry Brigades:

1st—212, 335

2d—212, 335

5th—253

Cavalry Divisions, 211-212

1st—212, 213, 318, 335, 607

2d—209, 212, 213, 253

Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop, 10th—•

587

Cavalry Regiments, 212

3d—212

4th—212

5th—212, 335

6th—212

7th—212, 335

8th—212, 335

9th—212

10th—212

11th—212

12th—212, 335

13th—212

14th—212

26th—74, 212, 305, 306, 607

27th—212

28th—212

101st—212

102d—212

104th—212

106th—212

107th—212

112th—212, 298, 302, 328, 504, 605

113th—212

115th—212

Cavalary Regiment (Dismounted):

112th—328

124th—212, 597

Cavalry Regiment (Special), 124th—357

Composite Force 8012—235

Composite Regiment, 5307th —356, 357,

634

Composite Regiment (Provisional),

5307th—595

Field Artillery Battalions, 213

2d—221

61st—212

77th—212

79th—212

82d—335

590248—61 51
760 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Military units—Continued.

Field Artillery Battalions—Continued.

97th—504, 605, 607

98th—499, 608, 610

99th—212, 335

167th—500

601st—213, 266, 267, 276, 585, 590

602d—213, 266, 585, 590

605th—587

612th—213, 357

613th—213, 357

Field Artillery Battalion (Battery A),

23d—306, 607

Field Artillery Battalions (Pack);

602d—266, 267, 276

612th—597

613th—597

Field Artillery Pack Battalion:

97th—298, 302, 545

98th—318, 335, 502, 553

167th—318, 335

612th—556

613th—556

Field Artillery Regiments, 213

Infantry Divisions:

1st—249

3d—267, 280, 582, 635

5th—229

7th—234, 296

9th—280

24th—295, 296

25th—295, 296, 298, 301

27th—296

32d—311, 334

33d—296, 336, 666

34th—249, 582, 663

36th—530, 544, 545, 582, 585

37th—298

40th—296

41st—311, 334

43d—298

44th—296

45th—267, 582

Infantry Regiment, 475th—357, 597

Infantry Scout Dog Platoons, 216, 629

44th—632

46th through 51st—629

Mountain Division, 10th—211, 213, 255,

266, 552, 587

Mountain Infantry Regiment, 86th

587

Mountain Medical Battalion, 13th—-

357, 366, 368, 558, 593

Mountain Medical Squadron, 1st—335

Platoon, 2d—558

Provisional Brigade, 5332d—634

Regiment(Overhead), 2675th—-445

Remount Depot Detachment (Provisional), 5321st—505

See also Chinese military units.

Military veterinary medicine:

diseases of importance in. See Diseases,

evolution of, 1775-1916—1-4

Milk and dairy products, examination of,

386-387

Milk inspection, in German Veterinary

Service, 468

Milk sickness, 676

Milne Bay, 315, 327, 328, 409, 414

Mindanao, 414

Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Lanchow, China, Northwest Epizootic

Prevention Bureau, 341

Mira Loma Depot Subsistence Laboratory,

425

Mira Loma Quatermaster Depot, 155, 156,

159, 162, 164

Mirandola, 590, 664

Mirri’s brucellin, in ovine brucellosis, 448

Mitchel Field, 656

Molokai, 285, 473, 650

Monrovia, 242

Montoire-sur-le-loire, 653

Morotai, 331, 337, 632

Mountain Division, 211

10th—211, 213, 255, 266, 552, 587

Mountain Infantry Regiment, 86th—587

Mountain Medical Battalion, 13th—357, 366, 368, 558, 593

Mountain Medical Squadron, 1st—335

Mountain Quartermaster Battalion, 10th—•

216

Mount Hope, 222

MTOUSA. See Mediterranean theater.

Muneville-le-Bingard, 415

Munich, 469

Mussolini, 445

Myitkyina, 351, 357, 506, 557, 596, 597

Myothit, 597

Nadzab, 336

Nagasaki, 483

Nagoya, 340

Nalong, 597

Nancheng, 373

Nangerville, 591

Nan-ning, 314, 555

Nansin, 554
INDEX 761

Napier, 305

Naples, 262, 268, 408, 411, 413, 444, 449,

451, 452, 545, 585, 588

Naples-Foggia Campaign, 266

NASC (North African Service Command),

242, 243, 247

Natal, 235, 660

National Academy of Sciences, 433, 434

National Canners Association, 386

National Defense Act of 1916—-4, 5-6, 7,

10, 11, 12, 17, 69

National Guard, 11. 39-40, 57, 59, 66, 69,

493

National Research Council, 433, 434

National Veterinary School of Peru, 237

NATOUSA. See North African theater.

Naval School of Military Government, 93

Navy Department, 433, 694

Netherlands Antilles, 224

Netherlands East Indies, 137

Netherlands Guiana, 224

Netherlands West Indies, 224

New Britain Islands, 409, 631

New Caledonia, 288, 293, 294, 297, 298, 299, 301, 302, 303, 311, 409, 412, 415, 489, 499, 504, 525, 540, 545,

605, 628, 633, 650, 655, 660

New Caledonia Island Command, 289, 294

New Cumberland Army Service Forces

Depot, 155, 156, 159, 162, 164

New Delhi, 341, 342, 343, 346, 347, 364, 365, 367, 410

New Georgia, 301, 329

New Guinea, 110, 303, 312, 314, 315, 316,

318, 327, 329, 331, 335, 336, 339,

407, 409, 413, 414, 415, 477, 478,

499, 502, 503, 524, 529, 553, 608,

610, 631

botrymycosis in, 503

cutaneous habronemiasis in, 503

thrush of feet in, 503

New Guinea Base Section, 315, 327-329, 339

New Guinea bases, 327-329

New Hebrides, 415

New Orleans General Depot, 155, 161

New Orleans Port of Embarkation, 169,

172, 175, 177, 542, 543

New Plymouth, 305

New York General Depot, 120, 155

New York Port of Embarkation, 106, 155,

169, 171, 173, 174, 175, 176, 713

New Zealand, 109, 205, 288, 293, 298, 300,

301, 302, 303, 304, 305, 319, 409,

415, 421, 633

veterinary laboratory service in, 421

New Zealand Service Command, 293

Newcastle, 540

Newcastle disease, 435, 449, 451

research projects on, 435

Newfoundland, 174, 524, 628, 635

tuberculin tests on cattle in, 227

Newfoundland Base Command, 219, 226-

227, 237, 710

Nice, 591

Nigeria, 247, 249

Nimitz, Adm. C. W., 283

Ninth Air Force, 248-249, 281-282, 686

Ninth Corps Area, 232

Ninth Service Command, 164, 176, 191, 192, 193, 230, 231, 542

Ninth Service Command Medical Laboratory, 628

Fort Lewis, 385, 400-402, 426

Presidio of Monterey, 399-400

Ninth U.S. Army, 208, 280, 409, 418, 420, 455, 456, 458, 459, 460

Nocelleto, 584, 585

Nome, 233

Non-Medical Department supply and

equipment, 127-130

Non veterinary officers, 76

Norman Wells, 229

Normandy, 281, 415, 418

Normandy Base Section, 279, 511

North Africa, 134, 246, 247, 249, 250, 252, 255, 256, 259, 260, 261, 268, 269,

407, 414, 442, 443, 444, 466, 663

North African Service Command, 242, 243,

247

North African theater, 171-172, 212, 250-

254, 272, 273, 276, 279, 281, 545, 725

functional organization, 250-254

laboratory units in, 407-408, 412, 413

Services of Supply in, 258-265

See also Mediterranean theater.

North African Wing, 249

North Apennines Campaign, 266

North Atlantic Base, 725

North Atlantic Wing, Air Transport Command, 226

North Sector Veterinary Detachments, 285,

286
ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Northern Base Section, 251, 254, 259, 260,

262

Northern Combat Area Command, 354, 356, 366, 368, 594

China-Burma-India theater, 507

Northern Ireland Base Section, 278

Northern Solomons, 313, 631

Northwest African Air Forces, 268

Northwest Epizootic Prevention Bureau,

Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Lanchow, China, 341

Northwest Service Command, 178, 219,

229-232, 421-422, 628

taeniasis in dogs in, 621, 635

Northwest Service Command Medical

Laboratory, 230, 422

Norway, 457

Noumea, 288, 298, 300, 504, 605

Oahu, 109, 284, 286, 287, 290, 291, 292,

296, 297, 409, 545, 603, 650, 710

Oahu Medical Service, 292, 338

Oahu Quartermaster Service, 292

Occupational specialty and professional

classification, 68

Office for Emergency Management, 46

Office of Chief of Chemical Warfare

Service, 622

Office of Chief of Engineers, 617, 622

Office of Chief of Transportation, 170, 706

Office of Defense, Health, and Welfare

Services, Executive Office of the

President, 46

Office of Foreign Relief and Rehabilitation

Operations, U.S. Department of

State, 134, 444

Office of Marketing Services, War Food

Administration, 63

Office of Military Government, United

States (OMGUS), 456, 461, 462,

466, 468

Office of Military Governor, Territory of

Hawaii, 285

Office of Military Government for

Germany, 663

Office of Price Administration, 427

Office of Quartermaster General, 90, 104,

166, 198, 493, 528, 566, 620, 621,

681, 684, 696, 697, 710

Perishable Branch, Subsistence Division

of, 166

Perishable Subsistence Section, 698

Remount Branch, 149

Office of Quartermaster Remount Division,

Peninsular Base Section, 511

Office of Strategic Services, 434

in China, 634

Office of the Surgeon:

Headquarters, North African theater,

252

Headquarters, Pacific Ocean Areas, 385

Headquarters, South Pacific Area, 298

Officer Candidate School for Medical

Administrative Corps officers, 113

Officer Procurement Service, 45, 59

Officer replacement pools, 105-106

Officers’ Refresher Basic Course, 88, 90, 93,

112, 147

Officers’ Reserve Corps, 34-39

Ohio State University, 94

Oise Intermediate Section, 279

Oise Section, 279

Okinawa, 208, 296, 297, 333, 409, 418, 473, 476, 477, 604, 632, 650, 662, 667

Civil affairs and military government in,

476-477

diseases of animals reported in, 477

hog cholera in, 449, 477

liver fluke infestation in, 477

tuberculin tests in, 477

Okinawa Base Command, 297, 333-334,

339

Okinawa campaign, 473, 476-477

OMGUS (Office of Military Government,

United States), 456, 461, 462, 466,

468

Operation ANVIL, 585, 590

Operation ANVIL-DRAGOON, 254, 263,

267, 272, 279, 280, 453

Operation BLACKLIST, 479

Operation BOLERO, 269

Operation CORONET, 478

Operation ECLIPSE, 454

Operation FORAGER, 287

Operation GRAPESHOT, 587

Operation HUSKY, 267, 444

Operation ICEBERG, 288, 296, 476

Operation LONGTOM, 604

Operation OLYMPIC, 478

Operation OVERLORD, 272, 454

Operation TORCH, 249, 250, 269

Operations Service, Surgeon General’s

Office, 442

Oran, 248, 253, 259, 408, 585

Ordnance Department, 127, 129

Orleans, 415
INDEX 763

Ornithosis, 399, 649, 652

Oro Bay, 315, 327, 328, 414

Otitis media, 633

Oudjda, 265

Overman Act,

Oversea deployment:

Army dogs, 628-637

in Central Pacific Area, 632-633

in China-Burma-India theater, 633-

634

in European theater, 630-631

in South Pacific Area, 633

Army Signal pigeons, 649-653

evacuation and hospitalization in, 575,

610

in Central Pacific Area, 603-604

in China-Burma-India theater, 592-

599

in China theater, 599-603

in European theater, 590-592

in Mediterranean theater, 575-590

in South Pacific Area, 605-607

in Southwest Pacific Area, 607-610

Oversea supply, 130-137

Oversea theaters:

deployment of laboratory units in, 407,

421. See also Laboratory units,

deployment of.

forage supply in, 528-531

remount operations, 497-512

veterinary laboratory service in, 402-

423

Ovine brucellosis, 448

Pacific, 499, 500, 519, 525

Pacific Air Command, U.S. Army, 340

Pacific areas, 137, 283-284, 644, 718

Pacific islands, 632

Pacific theaters, 64, 67, 108, 125, 176, 221,

256, 284, 337, 351, 408, 426, 441,

442, 603, 710, 715

civil affairs and military government in,

472-487

Pacific Wing, Air Transport Command,

297

Packaging and labeling, in food protection

and conservation, 719, 722

Packaging, Processing and Packing Course,

112

Packing and marking, in food protection

and conservation, 719-722

Pai-shih-i, 373

Palau, 294, 473, 474

Palawan, 337

Palermo, 262, 443, 451, 452

Palestine, 241, 244, 656

Palmerston, 305

Palmyra Island, 633

Pan American Highway, 432

Pan American Sanitary Bureau, 381, 432-

433

Panama, 238, 432

Panama Canal, 419

Panama Canal Department, 9, 67, 143,

176, 203, 220-224, 302, 391, 432,

504, 605, 628, 636, 650

San Jose Island project, 143

toxoplasmosis in, 649

veterinarians in, 220

Panama Canal Zone, 34, 523, 624

Panama Mobile Force, 221

Panama National Police Corps, 221

Panama Railroad Company, 199

Pao-shan, 373, 558

Para-arsenosophenylbutyric acid, 430

Paratyphoid infection, research studies on,

394, 400

Paris, 273, 408, 410, 414, 419, 461, 466

Paul Ehrlich Institute, 463

Pearl Harbor, 34, 37, 43, 58, 67, 74, 205,

283, 285, 405, 472, 524, 575, 603,

657

Peninsular Base Section, 251, 254, 256,

260, 262-264, 508, 509, 588

Mediterranean theater, 664

remount depots, 256

Remount Division, Office of the Quarter- master, 511

Surgeon’s Office, 256

veterinarians, 508

Periers, 647

Periodic ophthalmia, equine, 148, 149

research studies of, 430, 431, 527

Perishable Branch, Subsistence Division,

Office of the Quartermaster General, 166

Perkins, Col. C. B., 279

Persano, 263, 508, 509

Persian Gulf, 246, 248

Persian Gulf Command, 241, 243, 245, 248

Personnel, 33-82

Army Veterinary Service, 9-12

awards, 74-75

civil affairs, veterinary, 457-459

civilian employees, 77

composition of Veterinary Corps, 33-52

determination of requirements and assignments of, 65-68
764 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Personnel —Continued

matters, 65-77

military government, veterinary, 457-

459

National Guard officers, 11-12

nonveterinary officers, 76

protective status of, under rules of land

warfare, 72-74

Regular Army Veterinary Corps officers,

9-10

role of, in Zone of Interior:

assigned to service commands, 177—

199

assigned to technical services, 142-177

unit training of, 104-110

veterinary enlisted men, 77-80

veterinary officer procurement, 52-65

See also Veterinary officers; Veterinary

enlisted men; Veterinary personnel;

Veterinary Corps.

Personnel Division, Surgeon General’s

Office, 119

Perth, 324, 331

Peru, 224, 237, 524

Peruvian Army, 237

Peruvian Army Veterinary General Hospital, 237

Phenothiazine therapy, in gastrointestinal

parasitisms, 501-502

Philadelphia Quartermaster Depot, 155

Philippine Army, 113, 306

Philippine Base Section, 113, 315, 329, 339

Philippine campaigns, 632

Philippine Civil Affairs Division, 477

Philippine Civil Affairs Units, 21st-—477, 478

Philippine Department, 9, 67, 203, 283, 305, 306, 310, 391, 405, 527, 607

Philippine Insurrection,

Philippine Island bases, 329-331

Philippine Islands, 3, 75, 137, 317, 318, 328,

331, 339, 407, 409, 413, 414, 432,

478, 503, 523, 607, 610, 658, 714

Philippine Islands Campaign, 305-310

Philippine Scouts, 74, 212, 305, 607

Philippines, 283, 293, 306, 310, 312, 314,

315, 317, 318, 328, 331, 332, 337,

339, 478, 503, 631, 632, 714

Pig anemia, 660

Pigeon malaria, 649

Pigeon paratyphoid, 645

Pigeon-pox, 648

in Central Pacific Area, 650

in European theater, 653

vaccine, 125

Pigeon Service, 643, 645, 648

Pigeonosis, 411

Pigeons, diseases of:

hexamitiasis:

at Camp Crowder, 649

at Pope Field, 649

pigeon malaria, in Hawaiian Islands, 649

pigeon-pox, 648

in Central Pacific Area, 650

in European theater, 653

salmonellosis, 645, 648

toxoplasmosis, in Panama Canal Department, 649

transmitted by, 649

trichomoiasis, 648

Pine Camp, 188

Piophilia casei, 323

Pireven, 451

Piroplasmosis, 476

death caused by, 353, 510

in Army dogs, 634

in Italy, 449, 451, 476, 477

in Mediterranean theater, 510

in Okinawa, 477

research studies of, 411

treatment of:

Acaprin in, 451, 510

Pireven in, 451

Pisa, 263, 509

Pitramala, Italy, 586

Plague:

fowl, 435

swine, 483

Plant poisoning, 596

Platoon, 2d—558

Pneumonia:

canine, 627

equine, 494, 501

Poland, 457, 465, 466

Poliomyelitis:

in troops, 413

of swine, 472

Polvrifitto, 586

Pomona Remount Depot, 513

Pontepetri, 586

Pontiginione, 585

Pope Field, 647, 649

Port(s):

2d—311

6th—267, 546

th—261, 546

9th—248
INDEX 765

Port Moresby, 315, 318. 327, 335, 336,

409, 502, 503, 610

Port of Embarkation:

1st—298

3d—249

Port of Spain, 224

Port Said, 244

Port veterinarians, 170, 171, 173, 539, 541,

542

Porto Alegre, 235

Post mortem inspections, 223, 451, 484

Post of Corozal, 221

Postwar demobilization, 64-65

Po Valley, 664

Po Valley Campaign, 256, 266

Presque Isle, 394

Preventive Medicine Division, Surgeon

General’s Office, 431

Preventive Medicine Service, Surgeon

General’s Office, 442

Prime Minister of Iceland, 228

Prince Rupert, 230

Princeton University, 93

Privately owned animals, 668-673

Procurement:

centralized, of nonperishable subsistence, 162-165

animal-origin foods, 695-698

subsistence, 162-165

inspection, 526-527

in European theater, 529

problems, 701-703

responsibility, 692

Procurement and Assignment Service, 43,

45, 46

Procurement Division, U.S. Department

of the Treasury, 535

Procurement inspections, veterinary food,

688-703

See also Veterinary food procurement

inspections.

Professional books and journals, 126

Professional Services, Surgeon General’s

Office, 28, 29, 30

Promotion of veterinary officers, 68-71

Protective equipment, against chemical

warfare, 127-129

Protective pigeon bag, 144

Protective status, under Rules of Land

Warfare, 72-74

Provisional Brigade, 5332d—634

Provisional Reconnaissance Troop,

Mounted, 3d Infantry Division, 582

Provisions and Feeds and Forage Technical Committees, Federal Specifications Board, Bureau of Supply,

U.S. Treasury Department, 119-120

Provisions Technical Committee, 695

Provost Marshal General, 93, 141, 442

Provost Marshal General’s School, Fort

Custer, 93

Psittacosis, 22, 411

Public Health and Welfare Division, 479

Public health laboratories, 428-429

Public Health Subcommission, Allied Con- trol Commission: Italy, 136

Veterinary Section, 444, 445

Public Law(s):

18, 76th Congress, 1939—A3

96, 76th Congress, 1940—39

252, 77th Congress, 1941—40

338, 77th Congress, 1941—39

Puerto Rican Department, 67, 203, 220,

224, 225, 391, 628, 635

laboratory service in, 422

Puerto Rican General Depot, 224

Puerto Rico, 224, 225

Pullorum disease, 483

Purple Heart, 75

Pusan, 340, 486, 487

Quarantine: animal, 221, 521-525

foreign, 523-525

regulations, 523

Quarry Heights, 220

Quartermaster Base Depot, 51st—292

Quartermaster Corps, 9, 10, 14, 30, 63, 66,

120, 121, 127, 129, 140, 142, 149-169, 172, 217, 245, 319, 381, 386, 423, 425,

431, 519, 526, 529, 616, 621, 630, 632,

655, 663, 676, 684, 692, 693, 694, 696, 698, 716, 719, 721, 724

Animal purchasing boards, 150-151

Army dog reception and training centers,

153-154

Army Transport Service, 169

centralized procurement by depots of

nonperishable subsistence, 162-165

depot laboratories, 424-427

Headquarters, Remount Purchasing and

Breeding Areas, 151-152

horse ambulance, 130

remount depots, 152-153

Quartermaster Corps Remount Service, 643
ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Quartermaster Corps units, 215-217

Quartermaster Department, 1,

Quartermaster Depots, 154-158, 161, 197

Boston, 155

California, 155, 156, 159, 161

Charlotte, 155

Chicago, 155, 156, 161

Fort Worth, 155, 156, 159, 164, 165

Jeffersonville, 155

Jersey City, 155, 161, 162, 164, 165

Kansas City, 155

Mira Loma, 155

Philadelphia, 155

sections of Army Service Forces depots

and, 154-159

veterinary detachments of, 156-158

Washington, 155

Quartermaster dog kennels, in Australia,

631

Quartermaster Food and Container Institute, 695

Quartermaster General, The, 3, 4, 57, 90,

139, 140, 142, 149, 150, 151, 156,

165, 166, 181, 425, 289, 566, 693, 698,

699

Quartermaster General’s Office, 24, 549

Quartermaster market centers, 163, 197

Edmonton, 230

Quartermaster market center system, 684,

685, 693, 698-701, 707, 712

for procuring perishable subsistence,

165-169

Quartermaster market center veterinarians,

149

Quartermaster pack company, light, 216

Quartermaster Pack Company (Separate),

513th—591

Quartermaster Pack Troop:

30th—291

31st—357, 556, 597

33d—357, 556, 595

35th—357, 556, 597

37th—357, 556, 597

61st—318, 335, 500, 608

62d—318, 335, 500, 608

63d—318, 335, 500, 608

65th—607

68th—318, 335, 500, 608

252d—357, 556, 597

253d—357, 556, 597

513th—511

4339th—291

4340th—291

Quartermaster Refrigeration Company:

68th—249, 261, 267

282d—249

627th—328

Quartermaster Refrigeration Company

(Fixed):

278th—299

289th—243

292d—299

3095th—292

Quartermaster Refrigeration Platoon

(Fixed), 283d—298

Quartermaster Remount Depot, 149, 152-

153, 194, 195

2610th—263

6835th—511, 592

Quartermaster Remount Depot (Overhead)

2610th—509, 664

>^-6742d—263, 267, 508, 509, 511

6835th—263, 267, 276

Quartermaster Remount Purchasing and

Breeding areas, 151-152

Quartermaster Remount Section, 3113th—-

506

Quartermaster Remount Service, 617

Quartermaster Remount Squadron:

Troop A, 251st—318, 500, 608, 610

Troop B, 251st—302, 504, 505, 605

Troop A, 252d—298, 302, 605

Troop A, 253d—351

Quartermaster Remount Troop:

475th—351

476th—506

698th—351, 506

699th—506

Quartermaster Section, 3113th—351

Quartermaster Service Company, 298th

292

Quartermaster Squadron, 16th—212, 318,

499, 502

Quartermaster Subsistence Research and

Development Laboratory, 388, 428,

697

Quartermaster, U.S. Army Forces in

Australia, 499

Quartermaster War Dog Platoon, 216, 629

25th—631

26th—631-632

33d through 38th—635

39th—632

40th—632

41st—632
INDEX 767

42d—631

43d—632

Quartermaster War Dog Platoon (Mine

Detection), 42d—631

Queensland, 499

Rabies, 22, 154, 195, 227, 244, 341, 448, 449, 467, 472, 475, 483, 534, 616, 619, 631, 632, 633, 634, 635, 672

death caused by, 221

in Italy, 449

in Japan, 483

in Korea, 487

research studies of, 395, 399

vaccination against, 637

vaccine, 125, 487

Raidang, 634

Ramgarh, 110, 114, 341, 347, 350, 351, 353,

354, 505, 506, 533, 598, 599

Ramgarh Training Center, 505, 592

Rastio Nacional, 223

Rear Echelon for Supply, 285, 286

Recife, 235, 421, 660

Red Caravan Trail, 341

Red Star Animal Relief, 15

Refresher Course in Forage Inspection,

86, 87, 90

Refresher Laboratory Training Course, 86

Refresher Officers’ Course, 88, 90, 93, 112,

147

Refrigeration Platoon, 283d—299

Registry of Comparative Pathology, 148

Registry of Veterinary Pathology, 148

Regular Army Veterinary Corps Officers,

9-10

Reich, 459

Reichsgesundheitsant (National Health

Institute), Berlin, 463

Remount Branch, Office of Quartermaster General, 149

Remount breeding areas, 151

Remount Depot Detachment (Provisional),

5321st—505

Remount depot system, animal procurement in, 492-497

Remount depot veterinarians, 141, 149

Remount depots, 152-153

Aleshire, Front Royal, 152, 381

Bagnoli, 584

Fort Reno, 152, 492, 493, 496

Fort Robinson, 152, 430, 431, 492, 493,

496

Forward Echelon, 318

Front Royal, 431, 492, 493, 496, 523,

535

in Zone of Interior, 152

Ledo, 598

Peninsular Base Section, 256

Persano, 584

Pomona, 492, 513

Port Moresby, 503

San Carlos, 154

Santa Maria, 584

Townsville, 500, 501

Remount Division, Office of the Quartermaster, Peninsular Base Section, 511

Remount purchasing and breeding areas,

151-152

Replacement Training Centers for enlisted

men, 95-97

Requirements Division, Army Service

Forces, 123

Research, 431-437

antibiological warfare, 433-434

Army Veterinary School, 431

facilities, 431-437

Gorgas Memorial Research Board, 432

laboratory, 431-437. See also Laboratory research

Medical Field Service School, 431

Pan American Sanitary Bureau, 432-433

projects, 431-437

studies of

arsenical, experimental, poisoning, 412

canine filariasis, 430

canine leptospirosis, 431

equine infectious anemia, 430

equine influenza, 430, 431

equine periodic ophthalmia, 430, 431, 527

filariasis:

in Army dogs, 628

in troops, 416

foodborne diseases, 411, 414, 416, 426

foot-and-mouth disease, 420

fowl plague, 435

hepatitis, infectious, in troops, 412

leptospirosis, 627

Newcastle disease, 435

paratyphoid infection, in Army Signal

pigeons, 394, 400

pigeonosis, 411

piroplasmosis, 411

psittacosis, 411

rabies, 395, 399

riboflavin deficiency syndrome, 527
768 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Research —Continued

studies of—-Continued

rickettsial diseases, 399

rinderpest, 432, 435

salmonellosis, 412

scrub typhus, in troops, 413

surra, 430

trypanosomiasis, 430

Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, 94

program, 11

Reykjavik, University of, 229

Rhineland Campaign, 267

Rhinitis, infectious, equine, 501

Riboflavin deficiency syndrome, research

studies in, 527

Richmond Army Service Forces Depot,

155, 159, 162, 164, 165

Rickettsial diseases, 399

Riems, 470

Rinderpest, 146, 341, 348, 432

in Korea, 487

research projects on, 432, 435

vaccine, 435, 436

avianized, 436, 437

Ringworm, 194, 501, 633

Rio de Janeiro, 235, 236

Rio Grande, 235

Road march, in transportation of animals,

556-559

Roberts Field, 242, 247

Robinson Quartermaster Remount Depot,

149

Rocky Mountain spotted fever, 399

Rome, 444, 446, 447, 449, 451, 509, 585

Rome Area Command, 256, 265

Rome-Arno Campaign, 266, 585

Rommel, 246

Rouen, 420, 631

Royal Indian Army Service Corps, 347

Russell Islands, 293, 301, 409, 415

Russia, 242, 246, 341

Russian Zone of Occupation 470

Ryukyu Islands, 288, 290, 293, 296, 297,

333, 334, 339, 409, 476, 477, 631, 667

Ryukyus campaign, 289, 290, 296, 314, 336

Sahmaw, 554

Saidor, 336

Saint-L6, 418

Saint Lucia, 220, 224, 524

Saint-Raphael, 590

Saint Thomas, 224

Saipan, 288, 289, 294, 295, 337, 409, 473

474, 475, 633, 658

Salerno, 266, 449, 545

Salerno Gulf, 508, 575

Salinas, 221, 223

Salisbury, 419

Salmonella abortivo equina, 514

Salmonellosis, 22, 125, 400, 412, 645, 648, 650

Salween campaign, 376, 600

Salzburg, 471

Samar, 337

Samoa, 298

San Antonio Army Service Forces Depot,

106, 155, 156, 161, 164, 165

San Carlos dog center, 622, 627

San Carlos remount depot, 154

San Fabian, 329, 416

San Fernando, 329, 339, 416

San Francisco General Depot, 161, 696

San Francisco Port of Embarkation, 169,

173, 175, 177, 425

San Francisco Quartermaster Depot, 697

San Jose Island Project, Panama Canal

Department, 143

San Juan, 224, 422

San Martino, 590, 664, 665

San Salvador, 223

Sand colic, 596

Santa Maria, 263, 508, 509

Sao Luiz, 235

Sao Paulo, 235

Sapporo, 480

Sarcoptic mange, 619

enzootic of, in European theater, 662

Sardinia, 251, 254, 262, 263, 266, 450, 451,

509, 510, 584

piroplasmosis in, 451

Sarrebourg, 413

Savannah Army Service Forces Depot, 155,

157, 159, 164

Scabies, 477, 483

horse:

in Austria, 472

in Germany, 467, 472

in Japan, 483

in Okinawa, 477

sheep, in Italy, 441, 449

SCAP. See Supreme Commander for the

Allied Powers.

Scarlet fever, 676

Schenectady Army Service Forces Depot,

155, 161, 164

Schoening, H. W., 435

Schofield Barracks, 285, 292, 603, 604

See also Military installations.
INDEX 769

School of Military Government, 93

Scrub typhus, 413, 631, 637

Seafood Inspection Service, Federal Food

and Drug Administration, 680

Seattle Army Service Forces Depots, 155,

156, 159, 162, 164, 696-697

Seattle Port of Embarkation, 169, 177, 230,

231

Second Corps Area Laboratory, 391

Second Service Command, 164, 176, 182,

184, 188, 190, 195, 231

Second Service Command Medical Laboratory, 394

Secretary of Agriculture, 87

Secretary of Navy, 196, 625

Secretary of State, 435

Secretary of War, 2, 15, 44, 61, 63, 195,

197, 432, 433, 616, 625, 696

Seeing Eye Dogs, Inc., 632

Seine Base Section, 279, 663

Selective Service System, 41, 42, 43, 44, 46,

47, 50, 51, 58, 59, 96

Selective Training and Service Act of 1940,

37, 40, 42, 44, 57, 77, 95

Sendai, 479, 480

Seoul, 340, 484, 485, 486, 487

Seoul National University, 485

Separate Quartermaster Troops (Pack):

65th—306

66th—306, 607

Separate Veterinary Companies. See Installations and units, veterinary.

Septic sore throat, 676

Septicemia, hemorrhagic, 244, 550

Service Command:

First, 154, 156, 164, 185, 188, 189, 190,

195

Second, 164, 176, 182, 184, 188, 190, 195,

231

Third, 76, 146, 156, 164, 178, 184, 189,

193, 195

Fourth, 156, 164, 183, 189, 193, 195, 196

Fifth, 156, 164, 189, 190, 191

Sixth, 164, 178, 183, 184, 190, 195, 196,

229

Seventh, 76, 103, 164, 182, 184, 191, 195,

196

Eighth, 164, 170, 182, 191, 193, 195, 196

Ninth, 164, 176, 191, 192, 193, 230, 231

Service Command Medical Department

laboratories, in Zone of Interior,

390-402. See also Laboratories,

medical.

Service command surgeons, 178, 181, 186

Service command units:

1100th—188, 191

1135th—188

1217th—189, 191

1300th—189

1697th—190

1698th—190

1699th—190-191

1745th—191

1775th—191

Service command veterinarians, 178, 180, 181, 182, 183, 185, 187, 188, 197-198

Service commands:

role of personnel assigned to, 177-195

station veterinary service, 183-193

veterinary animal service in, 193-196

veterinary food inspection service in,

196-199

Service Extension Act of 18 August 1941—

38, 41

Services of Supply, 140, 205

China theater, 372-375

China-Burma-India theater, 346-351

animal service in, 350-351

Chinese Training and Combat Command, 351-378

laboratory service in, 351

See also Chinese Training and Combat Command.

European theater, 271, 278-280

Middle East theater, 245-246

North African theater, 251, 252, 258, 265

South Pacific Area, 299, 300-303

Southwest Pacific Area, 311, 314-334

Western Task Force, 259

Seventh Air Force, 286, 288, 297-298, 337

Seventh Service Command, 76, 103, 164,

182, 184, 191, 195, 196

Seventh Service Command Medical Laboratory, 397, 398, 428

Seventh U.S. Army, 208, 254, 260, 261,

262, 265, 266, 267, 272, 273, 276, 279, 281, 408, 413, 444, 455, 456, 458, 509,

511, 567, 582, 585, 590, 591, 662, 663

SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters, Allied

Expeditionary Forces), 271, 273, 280

Shanghai, 375

Shanghai Base Command, 370, 372, 375 Sheep scabies, 448, 449

Shemya Island, 233

Shillong, 350, 351, 598, 599

Shingbwiyang, 347

Shipboard subsistence, inspection of, 172-

174
770 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Shipping fever, 491, 542

type of disease, 194

Siam, 373

Sicily, 251, 256, 260, 262, 267, 443, 444,

446, 447, 452, 510, 661, 664

Sicilian campaign, 133, 261, 265, 267, 575,

664

Signal Combat Platoon, 649

Signal Corps, 111, 120, 127, 431, 643, 645,

646

Signal Corps’ Pigeon Company, 288, 519

279th—286

Signal Corps Pigeon Company (Provisional), 6681st—650

Signal Corps units, 217

Signal Pigeon Combat Platoon, 279th

296, 650, 651

Signal pigeon companies, 217, 645, 648

209th—650

277th—647, 649

278th—649

279th—650

280th—648, 649, 651

281st—646, 650, 651

282d—649

283d—649

284th—649

285th—649, 653

Signal pigeon companies (aviation):

1306th—648, 649

1310th—649

Signal pigeon procurement, 643, 644

at Camp Crowder, 643

at Fort Monmouth, 643

Signal Pigeon Replacement Company,

829th—649

Signal Pigeon Service Company, 829th

649

Sikang Province, 507

Sind, 347

Sino-American Horse Purchasing Bureau,

372, 489, 507

Sisterone, 590

Sitka, 232

Sixth Air Force, 221

Sixth Corps Area veterinarian, 156

Sixth Service Command, 164, 178, 183, 184,

190, 195, 196, 229

Sixth Service Command Medical Laboratory, Fort Sheridan, 427

Sixth U.S. Army, 208, 311, 312, 314, 318,

327, 329, 331, 334-336, 413, 477

Skagway, 230

Skin infections, equine, 430

Skipper fly, 323

Smallpox vaccine, 452

Small unit assemblies, 121-123

Small unit training, 85, 106-108

Society Islands, 298

Solomons, 290, 299, 300, 301, 315, 415

Sondre Strom Fjord, 635

Sore throat, septic, 676

South America, 205, 432, 691

tuberculin tests in, 433

South Atlantic Area, laboratory service in, 421

South Atlantic Division, Air Transport

Command, 235

South Atlantic Wing, Air Transport Command, 235

South Island, 305

South Pacific Area, 109, 172, 204, 293,

298-305, 409, 415, 421, 489, 497,

499, 506, 524, 540, 544, 545, 552, 607, 628, 629, 637, 650, 655, 725

animal procurement in, 504-505

Army dogs in, 633

dermatitis of fungus origin in, 505

evacuation and hospitalization in, 605-

607

First Island Command, 605

laboratory units in, 409

separation of sole of the feet in animals

in, 505

Services of Supply, 300-303

thrush in, 505

South Pacific Base Command, 288, 289,

290, 292-294, 300, 315, 338

South Sector Veterinary Detachment, 285,

286

Southern Appenine Mountains, 508

Southern Base Section, 278

Southern France Campaign, 254, 267

Southern Islands Base Command, 331

SouthernLine of Communications(SOLOC),

260, 279

in European theater, 414

Southern Town Command, 247, 248

Southwest Pacific Area, 109, 110, 177, 208,

212, 215, 283, 300, 310-337, 419,

489, 497, 506, 524, 525, 529, 540,

552, 567, 573, 605, 628, 629, 631-

632, 637, 650, 655, 670, 686, 718,

725

animal procurement in, 499-503

Army dogs in, 631-632
INDEX 771

captured animals in, 666-667

civil affairs and military government in,

477-478

development of veterinary service in,

310-314

diseases of animals reported in, 501

evacuation of animals in, 607-610

hospitalization of animals in, 607-610

laboratory units in, 409-410, 413, 414,

415-416, 419

Services of Supply in, 311, 314-334

Veterinary Branch, Procurement Division, 331-333

Southwest Pacific theaters, 177

Soviet Union, 454, 471

SPA. See South Pacific Area.

Spanish-American War, 3, 726

Special Graduate Course in Clinical Pathology, 86, 87, 90, 102, 387

Special Observer Group, 237, 269

Specification serial number, 79, 80, 97

Spino, 664, 665

Sporotrichosis, in Army horses, 430

5.5. Jose Navarro, 543

5.5. Mexican, 543

5.5. Peter Silvester, 543

5.5. Virginian, 541, 543

St. Louis encephalitis, 399

St. Louis Medical Depot, 30, 120

Staphylococcus albus, 411

Stark General Hospital, 192, 429

Station veterinarians, 186, 196, 521, 566,

685

Station veterinary detachments, 186, 188,

189, 191, 194, 196, 197, 199

Station veterinary service, 183-193

with animals, 520-521

Statistics, on—-

animal procurement, 491-492

Army animals, 519

Army dogs, 615

Army Signal pigeons, 644

military meat and dairy hygiene, 675

prophylactic inoculations against animal

diseases, 495-496

transportation of animals, 539, 542, 544,

546, 550, 554

Stephenville, 226

Stilwell, Maj. Gen. J. W., 113

Stilwell, Brig. Gen. R. A., 340

Stilwell Mission, 237, 341

Stilwell Road, 109, 343, 351, 368, 374, 507,

556, 601

Stomatitis, vesicular, enzootic, 195

Strangles, equine, 353, 544

in Australia, 501

vaccine, 124

Strategic Air Forces in Europe, 268, 281

Subcommittee on Biologicals, Drug Resources Advisory Committee, ArmyNavy Munitions Board, 119, 123

Subsistence cargo, inspection of, 174-176

Subsistence laboratories, 425, 427

Subsistence Research and Development

laboratory, 695

Subsistence salvage and food conservation,

722-726

Suez Canal Ports Command, 246

Sulfonamide therapy, in equine influenza,

494

Supplemental Appropriation Act of April

1939—37

Supply and equipment, 119-137

biologicals, 123-126

civilian, in liberated and occupied areas,

134-137

Medical Department:

in oversea theaters, 132-134

items, 121-127

procurement and distribution, 120-121

non-Medical Department, 127-137

oversea, 130-137

professional books and journals, 126

protective equipment against chemical

warfare, 127-129

small unit assemblies, 121-123

transportation, 129-130

unit equipment assemblages, 126-127

veterinary, in European theater, 460

in Germany, 470

Supply Committee, Combined Civil Affairs Committee of the Combined

Chiefs of Staff, 135

Supply Service, Surgeon General’s Office,

119

Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers,

479-481

Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Forces (SHAEF), 271, 273,

280, 453-458, 460-461

Surgeon:

Hawaiian Department, 433

Headquarters, North African theater,

252

Headquarters, South Pacific Area, 299
772 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Surgeon General, The, 8, 9, 11, 19, 20, 23,

25, 28, 29, 30, 31, 41, 42, 47, 49,

51, 57, 63, 64, 70, 71, 84, 86, 87,

90, 103, 139, 140, 142, 145, 146,

149, 159, 164, 174, 179, 205, 343,

381, 392, 429, 432, 442, 566, 684-685,

696, 699

Surgeon General’s Office, 7, 8, 19, 25, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 36, 38, 42, 45, 50,

56, 57, 58, 59, 61, 62, 63, 87, 92, 98, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 107,

126, 135, 136, 146, 148, 159, 162,

170, 179, 182, 183, 185, 198, 206,

341, 381, 385, 391, 392, 425, 428, 429, 431, 432, 442, 513, 565, 566,

567, 620, 622, 671, 672, 675, 681, 682, 684, 685, 693, 695, 696, 699,

728-729

Finance and Supply Division of, 119

Operations Service, 442

Personnel Division of, 119

Preventive Medicine Division, 431

Preventive Medicine Service, 442

Supply Service, 119

Veterinary Division of. See Veterinary

Division, Surgeon General’s Office.

Surinam, 224

Surra, 336, 353, 375, 522, 534, 559

death caused by, 336

in China-Burma-India theater, 666

in Southwest Pacific Area, 666

research studies of, 430

Surveillance inspections, veterinary food,

703-719

Swine cholera, 483

Swine, diseases of, of importance in military vererinary medicine, 244, 448,

467, 472, 475, 477, 483

Swine erysipelas, 448, 467, 472, 477

deaths from, 244, 475, 476

in Okinawa, 477

Swine plague, 483

Swine poliomyelitis, 472

Switzerland, 460

SWPA. See Southwest Pacific Area.

Sydney, 311, 312, 322, 324, 327, 331

Syria, 244

Tables of organization (T/O’s), 206, 208,

209, 210, 211, 212, 213, 214, 215, 216, 217, 218, 220, 274, 296, 403,

573, 574, 575, 685

Tachikawa, 337

Tacloban, 312, 329, 339, 410, 419

Taejon, 340

Taeniasis, 621, 635, 676

Taira, 476

Talara, 224

Ta-li, 114, 115, 354, 533

Tapeworm, 621, 635, 676

Taranto, 449

Task Force 2600—229

Task Force 6814Z—310

Task Force, South Pacific, 310

Tauberbischofsheim, 413

Teano, 575, 584

Technical Manual No. 8-227, 17 Oct.

1941—386

Tehran, 248

Tel Aviv, 242, 245

Tel Litwinsky, 244, 245, 656

Tenth Air Force, 342, 364, 378

Tenth Air Service Command, 364

Tenth U.S. Army, 208, 288, 289, 295-297, 314, 333, 334, 336, 412, 418, 476,

477, 632, 650, 667

Territorial Animal Quarantine Station,

Honolulu, 632

Territory of Hawaii, 284

Testing laboratories, 162-169

Tests:

mallein, for glanders, 150, 195. See also

Glanders, mallein testing for.

tuberculin, 320, 433, 477

Tetanus, 195, 510, 513, 541, 543

death caused by, 602

toxoid inoculations:

at Fort Reno, 495-496

at Fort Robinson, 495-496

Tetanus antitoxin, 124

Tetanus toxoid, 124

Texas fever, 483

Tezpur, 347

Thanai, 634

Theater and minor Army Commands,

organizational, functional, in, 203-

238

base, defense, and minor theater commands, 219-237

typical theater veterinary service organization, 218-219

veterinary service of field units, 206-218

Theater Service Forces, 280

Thionville, 631

Third Service Command, 76, 146, 156, 164,

178, 184, 189, 193, 195, 391

Third U.S. Army, 74, 208, 273, 405, 408,

415, 453, 458, 469, 460, 692, 631
INDEX 773

Third XJ.S. Army veterinarian, 279

Thirteenth Air Force, 305, 313, 336-337,

340, 686

Thompson, Lt. Col. A. T., 433

Thrush of the feet:

in China-Burma-India theater, 596

in New Guinea, 503

in South Pacific Area, 505

Tibet, 489, 507

Tick, 476

infestations, 501

Tidworth, 652, 653

Tinian, 288, 289, 294, 295, 418, 473, 474,

475, 658

Tirepied, 415

Tizi-Ouzou, 443

T/O E’s, 206

Tobago, 524

Tokyo, 338, 340

Tokyo Imperial University, 482, 484

Tokyo Plain of Honshu, 478

Tonga Island, 298

Tongareva, 298

Tongatabu, 298

Toowoomba, 499

Tours of inspections, 31

Townsville, 318, 320, 327, 335, 409, 414,

415, 499, 500, 540, 551, 608, 655

Toxoplasmosis, in Panama Canal Department, 649

Training and instructional services, 83-117

after World War I, 13-14

Army Veterinary Service, 12-14

cadre training system, 84-85

instructional services, 110-117

in Army Veterinary School, 86-87

in Medical Field Service School, 88-89

in Zone of Interior, 111-113

in World War I, 12-13

to Allied and cobelligerent armies, 113-

117

unit training, 104-110

in the oversea theaters, 108-110

small, 85, 106-108

veterinary enlisted men, 94-104

courses for, 102, 104

replacement training centers for, 95-97

schools for, 98-104

veterinary officers, 86-94

advanced military training of, 92-94

graduate professional training, 90

Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, 94

schools for, 86-94

Training School for Horseshoers, 532

Transport veterinarian, 539, 542, 544

Transportation Corps, 66, 140, 169-177,

217-218, 275, 669, 671, 676, 706, 724

inspection of shipboard subsistence,

172-174

port laboratories, 429

station-type veterinary services, 170-172

Transportation Corps units, 217

Transportation equipment, 129-130

Transportation of animals, 539-559

by airplane, 553-556

by railroad, 546-552

in oversea theaters, 551

losses in, 550

by ship, 539-546

by truck, 522

in Australia, 540

road march in, 556-559

statistics on, 539, 542, 544, 546, 550, 554

Traveling veterinary consultants, 29-31

Treasury Islands, 301, 329

Treponti, 584, 585

Trichinella spiralis 727

Trichinosis, 676

Trichomoniasis:

bovine, 449

in Army Signal pigeons, 648

in Japan, 483

Trichophytosis, 501

Trieste, 445

Trinidad, 219, 224, 225, 524

Trinidad Base Section, 220

Trinidad Sector and Base Command, 224

Tripoli, 246

Tripoli Base Command, 246

Tripolitania, 246

Troop Carrier Group, 374th—-553

Tropical and Military Medicine Course,

112

Trypanosomiasis, 430

Tuberculin tests:

in Australia, 320

in Newfoundland, 227

in Okinawa, 477

in South America, 132

Tuberculosis, 227, 233, 238, 349, 447, 476,

621, 676

bovine, 448, 467, 472, 483

in Germany, 467

in Italy, 448

in Korea, 486, 487

testing for, 245

Tunis, 248, 261

Tunisia, 243, 246, 247-248, 251, 261, 407
774 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Tunisia Campaign, 249, 260, 261, 265

Twelfth Air Force, 249, 262, 268, 281

Twelfth Army Group, 209

Twentieth Air Force, 297-298, 340, 686

XX Bomber Command, 378

Type antiserum, for rapid testing of

human salmonellosis, 412

Typhoid fever, 676, 727

epidemic, in Australia, 312

milkborne, 312, 320

Typhus, 399

scrub, 413, 631, 637

Ulcerative lymphangitis, 430

Under Secretary of War, 616

Undulant fever. See Brucellosis.

Unit equipmentassemblages, 126-127

Unit training:

of veterinary personnel, 104-110

small, 106-108

United Kingdom, 249, 269, 276, 277, 278,

281, 282, 497, 540, 621, 628, 630,

631, 652, 653

animal quarantine in, 278

United Kingdom Base, 278, 279

United Kingdom Base Command, 408

United Kingdom Base Section, 419

United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation

Administration (UNRRA), 437, 453,

457, 458, 461, 511, 534, 604

U.S. Army Air Forces in the United

Kingdom, 281

U.S. Army Forces;

Africa-Middle East theater, 241, 255,

261

Azores, 237

China-Burma-India, 293, 302, 340-379

Forward Echelon, 342

Services of Supply, 346-351

China theater, 370-343

Services of Supply, 372-375

Espfritu Santo, 293

European theater, 273, 454, 456

Fiji, 293

Iceland, 204, 269

India-Burma theater, 343, 364-368

Services of Supply, 367-368

in Australia, 302, 310, 311, 321

in British Isles (USAFBI), 269

in Central Africa (USAFICA), 235, 241,

246-247

in Central Pacific Area, 283, 284-298

Central Pacific Base Command, 290-

292

South Pacific Base Command, 292-294

Western Pacific Base Command, 294-

295

in the Far East, 204, 283, 305-337, 478

development of veterinary service in

Southwest Pacific Area, 310-314

Fifteenth and Thirteenth Air Forces,

336-337

Philippine Islands Campaign, 305-310

Services of Supply, SWPA, 314-334

in Iceland, 204, 269

in Korea, 484

Office of Military Governor, 485

in Liberia, 204, 241, 242, 243, 247

in the Middle East, 241-246

Delta Service Command, 245, 246

Eritrea Service Command, 245

Levant Service Command, 245-246

Libyan Service Command, 246

Middle East Service Command, 246

Services of Supply, 245-246

in North Ireland, 269, 280

in South Pacific Area, 283, 288, 296,

298-305

Middle Pacific, 283, 284, 289, 297, 314,

334, 338

New Zealand, 293

Northern Solomons, 300, 329

Pacific, 283, 284, 289, 314, 337-340, 478

Military Government Section, 478

Public Health and Welfare Division,

479

Pacific Ocean Areas, 283, 284, 287, 288,

289

South Atlantic, 219, 235-236, 237

Southwest Pacific Area, 305

West Pacific, 283, 311, 312, 314, 329,

338-339

U.S. Army Horse Purchasing Board, 499

U.S. Army Military Government in Korea,

Public Health and Welfare Bureau,

485

U.S. Coast Guard, 196, 615, 619, 625, 699

U.S. Coast Guard Dog Training School,

Gloucestershire, England, 630

U.S. Commissioner, Austria, 471

U.S. Department of Agriculture, 3, 24, 87,

172, 304, 423, 432, 433, 435, 466,

475, 512, 522, 523, 527, 528, 622,

669, 671, 680, 694

Agricultural Marketing Service, 701, 702,

703

Agricultural Research Center, Beltsville,

154
INDEX 775

Bureau of Agricultural Economics, 701

Bureau of Animal Industry, 528, 549,

672, 680

U.S. Department of the Interior, 433

Fish and Wildlife Service, 672

U.S. Department of State, Office ofForeign

Relief and Rehabilitation Operations, 134, 444

U.S. Department of the Treasury, 669, 694

Procurement Division, 535

U.S. Engineer Department, 657

U.S. Group Control Council, 454, 456

U.S. Joint Army-Navy Purchasing Board,

288

South Pacific Area, 415

U.S. Marine Corps, 196, 221, 296, 334, 519,

626, 667, 699

U.S. Military Iranian Mission, 248

U.S. Military Mission to China, 340

U.S. Military Mission to North Africa, 237

U.S. Military Mission to Peru, 237

U.S. Military North African Mission, 241

U.S. Naval Ordnance Depot, 396

U.S. Occupation Forces in Germany, 408-

409

U.S. Office of Inter-American Affairs, 660

U.S. Public Health Service, 386, 428, 430,

433, 435, 669, 671, 672, 680

U.S. Roads Administration Agency, 229

U.S. Sixth Army Group, 264

U.S. Strategic Air Forces in Europe, 268,

281

U.S. Yunnan Infantry Training Center, 354

U.S. Zone of Occupation, 454, 455, 456, 470

U.S. Zone of Occupied Austria, 471, 472

Universities:

California, 93

Cornell, 94

Harvard, 93, 435

Hokkaido Imperial, 482

Kentucky, 92

Ohio State, 94

Princeton, 93

Reykjavik, 229, 421

Seoul National, 485

Tokyo Imperial, 482, 484

Virginia, 93

Wisconsin, 435

Yale, 93

Upolu Island, 298

U.S.S.R., 282

USSAFE (Strategic Air Forces in Europe),

268, 271

Utah Army Service Forces Depot, 155, 159,

162, 164, 725

Vaccine:

cholera, 467

equine encephalomyelitis, 124, 147

foot-and-mouth disease, 449, 460, 470

fowl pest, 487

Japanese encephalitis, 147

pigeon-pox, 645

rabies, 125, 487

rinderpest, 435, 436

smallpox, 452

strangles, 124

Vaglia, 585, 586

Vairano, 413

Valognes, 278, 419

Vancouver Barracks, 230

Vars, 590

V-E Day, 265, 273, 279, 317, 466, 467, 511,

523, 575, 591, 653, 662

Verona, 586

Vesicular stomatitis, enzootic, 195

Veterans’ Administration, 694

Veterinarians;

animal purchasing board, 149, 150

Army Air Forces, 218, 262, 268, 459

Central Pacific Area, 473

Army dog center, 141

Base Section 3, Brisbane, 631

Central Pacific Base Command, 288

Chicago Depot, 90, 156

China-Burma-India theater, 496

corps, 209

depot, 141, 149, 153, 156, 157, 158, 159,

493, 539, 685, 697

dog center, 619

field headquarters, 167

Fifth U.S. Army, 113, 254, 267, 508, 509,

584

German Army, 663

Hawaiian Department, 473

headquarters, 149, 152, 166, 490-491

in civilian status, 44-46

inducted, 41-44

Kreis, 466, 467, 468

market center, 168

Panama Canal Department, 221

Peninsular Base Section, 509

port, 170, 171, 173, 262, 539, 541, 542

purchasing board, 491

Quartermaster market center, 149

remount depot, 141, 149
776 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

China-Burma-India theater—Continued

service command, 178, 180, 181, 182, 183,

185, 187, 198, 199

Sixth Corps Area, 156

staff, 227

station, 186, 196, 521, 566, 685

Third U.S. Army, 279

transport, 539, 542, 543, 544

XXIV Corps, 484, 485

25th Infantry Division, 301

Veterinary animal service, 159, 176-177

in China-Burma-India theater, 350-351

in service commands, 193-196

in SPA, 302

Veterinary companies (Separate). See

Installations and units, veterinary.

Veterinary Company E, 558

Veterinary consultants, traveling, 29-31

Veterinary Consultants Division, 29

Veterinary Corps:

composition of, 33-52

Army of the United States, 40-41

inducted veterinarians, 41-44

military-obligated veterinary students,

46-52

National Guard, 39-40

Officers’ Reserve Corps, 34-39

Regular Army, 33

veterinarians in civilian status, 44-46

promotion of, Regular Army officers in,

10

Veterinary Corps Reserve, 34-39

Veterinary detachments. See Installations

and units, veterinary,

station. See Station veterinary detachments.

Veterinary Division, Health of Animals

Branch, Dominion Department of

Agriculture, 231

Veterinary Division, Surgeon General’s

Office, 15, 44, 47, 48, 50, 53, 60,

63, 69, 74, 76, 77, 87, 89, 90, 92,

111, 119, 120, 121, 123, 126, 144,

145, 147, 204, 206, 433, 442, 489,

524, 528, 549-550, 565, 584, 615

617, 619, 620, 621, 622, 643, 671,

681, 693, 699

administration of, 23-25

Veterinary education:

in European theater, 460

in Germany, 469

Veterinary enlisted men, 12, 77-80

Course in Clinical Pathology for, 102

Meat and Dairy Hygienists Course for,

104

replacement training centers for, 95-97

training of, 94-104

schools for, 86-94, 98-104

Veterinary evacuation hospitals. See Hospitals, evacuation, veterinary.

Veterinary field units, 214

Veterinary food inspection detachments,

191, 259, 316

in China-Burma theater, 366, 373

See also Installations and units, veterinary

Veterinary food inspection service, 3, 19

in China-Burma-India theater, 346-350

in service commands, 165, 196-199

organization of, 684-688

Service Command Unit:

1697th—190

1698th—190

1699th—190-191

1745th—191

Veterinary food inspectors, 155

Veterinary food laboratory, California

Quartermaster Depot, Oakland, 162

Veterinary food procurement inspections,

688-703

centralized, of nonperishable animalorigin foods, 695-698

changes in, 692-693

Federal and other specifications, in contractual agreements, 694-695

major problems in 701-703

Quartermaster Market Center System,

698-700

responsibility, 692

Veterinary food surveillance inspections,

703-719

before shipment, 705-707

in-storage inspections, 707-716

of any receipt of subsistence except procurement, 703-705

prior to issue, 716-719

Veterinary Gas Casualty Chest Set, 144

Veterinary general hospitals. See Hospitals, general, veterinary.

Veterinary hospital detachments. See Installations and units, veterinary.

Veterinary hospital system, in Zone of

Interior, 563-567

Veterinary insignia and identification, 1, 73
INDEX 777

Veterinary inspections, 221

food procurement, 688-703

food surveillance, 162, 171, 460-468, 703-

719

in Antilles Command, 225

in Newfoundland Base Command, 227

in Panama Canal Department, 222

in South Atlantic, 235

of shipboard subsistence, 172-174

of subsistence cargo, 174-176

on-depot, 160-162

tours, 31

See also Food inspections; Meat and

diary hygiene inspections.

Veterinary installations and units. See

Installations and units, veterinary.

Veterinary laboratory. See Laboratory

service; Laboratories.

Veterinary lead line, 129

Veterinary medicine, military:

diseases of importance in. See Diseases,

evolution of, 1-4

Veterinary officers, 203

advanced military training of, 92-94

advisory duties of, 21

assignments of, 66

attrition of, 75-76

classification of, 68

depot-assigned, 159

determination of requirements of, 65-68

duties of, 20-22

administrative, 22

advisory, 21 professional, 21

staff, 20

female, 76-77

nonprofessional utilization of, 72

occupational specialty of, 68

procurement of, 52-65

postwar demobilization, 64-65

professional duties of, 21

professional standards of, 71

promotion of, 68-71

Regular Army, promotions of, 10

replacement pools for, 105-106, 159, 170, 252

Reserve, 11

responsibilities of, 17-22, 520-521

in Japan, 480

standards of conduct of, 71

training of, 86-94

schools for, 86-94

Veterinary Officers’ Reserve Corps, 11

Veterinary personnel, 33-82

in civil affairs and military government,

in European theater, 457-458

in corps area medical laboratories, 392

in German Veterinary Service during

occupation, 465

in Officers’ Reserve Corps, 34-39

unit training of, 104-106

small, 106-108

See also Personnel; Veterinary officers; Veterinary enlisted men.

Veterinary products, classification of, 677

Veterinary Research Laboratory, Front

Royal, 145, 148-149, 381

research studies at, 429-431, 527

Veterinary School of Meat and Dairy Hygiene and Forage Inspection, 14

Veterinary Section, Public Health SubCommission, ACC, 444, 445

Veterinary sergeant, 2,

Veterinary Service Detachment, Panama

Canal Department, 221 Veterinary service organization, theater,

218-219

Veterinary services:

animal, 159, 176-177

in service commands, 193-196

station, 520-521

civil. See Civil veterinary services,

development of, in Southwest Pacific

Area, 310-314

German. See German veterinary service.

Italian, 448-451

laboratory, 431-437

of field units, 206-218

Army Air Forces units, 218

cavalry brigades and regiments, 212

field artillery battalions and regiments,

213-215

Headquarters, Army and Corps, 208-

209

Headquarters, Division, 209-212

Quartermaster Corps, 215-217

Signal Corps, 217

Transportation Corps, 217-218

port, 540

station-type, 170-172

Veterinary station hospitals. See Hospitals, station, veterinary.

Veterinary students, military-obligated,

46-52

Veterinary, supplies, indigenous, 460, 470

Veterinary surgeon, 1,
778 ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE

Veterinary surveillance inspections, 162,

171. See also Veterinary food surveillance inspections.

Veterinary Technicians Course, 103

Veterinary Technicians’ Schools:

Camp Grant, 96

Fort Riley, 103-104

Veterinary units. See Installations and

units, veterinary.

Vienna, 472

Vienna Area Command, 471

Ville, 591

Virgin Islands, 220, 224

Vitre, 415

V-J Day, 115, 189, 190, 191, 263, 289, 296,

329, 338, 366, 370, 372, 378, 420,

474, 475, 507, 545, 575, 601, 604,

643, 657

Voorhees Mission, 343

Wakde, 337

Waldmann-type vaccine, in foot-and

mouth disease, 449, 450

Wallis Islands, 298

Walter Reed General Hospital, 146

War Assets Administration, 535-536

War Department, 33, 36, 37, 38, 41, 42, 43,

45, 47, 48, 50, 53, 56, 57, 58, 59, 61,

62, 65, 69, 70, 71, 74, 86, 87, 92, 96, 111, 128, 139, 140, 162, 183, 185, 193, 204, 206, 269, 334, 356, 388,

391, 433, 434, 435, 441, 443, 500,

524, 563, 565, 621, 670, 672, 685, 694, 712, 729

Civil Affairs Division, 442

Joint Post-War Committee, 442

organization of Army Veterinary Service, 203-208

reorganization of Army Veterinary Service, 25-29

War Department Circular;

No. 122, 1943—70

No. 367, 1942—45

War Department Commission, 435

War Department Field Manual (FM)

8-10, 1951—219

War Department General Orders;

No. 127, 1919—12

No. 130, 1917—6, 8, 11, 12

War Department General Staff, 25, 183

War Department General Staff’s Operations Division, 442

War Department Munitions Program,

1940—572

War Department Special Regulations:

No. 40-930-1—31

No. 70, 1917—7, 8, 9, 17

War Department Special Staff, Civil Affairs

Division, 442

War Department Technical Manual (TM)

11-410, 1940—645

War Disease Control Station, Crosse lie, Canada, 145, 435-437

War Dog Detachment, China-Burma-India theater, 624, 633

War Dog Program, 616

War Food Administration, Office of Marketing Services, 63

War Manpower Commission, 44, 46, 52

War of 1812—1

War Production Board, 616

War Relocation Authority, 193, 199, 699

War Research Service, 433-435

War Shipping Administration, 171, 172-

173, 199, 541, 671

War with Mexico,

WASC (West African Service Command),

242-243, 246, 248

Washington Quartermaster Depot, D.C.,

155

Waterways, 230

Watson Lake, 229

WBC Committee, 433

Weil’s disease, 676

Wellington, 305

West African Service Command, 242, 246,

248

West Pacific Area, 410

Western Base Section, 278, 279

Western Defense Command, 232

Western Hemisphere, 38

Western Military District, 281

Western Pacific Base Command, 289, 290,

294-295, 338, 418

Western Task Force, 249, 259, 260

Western Town Command, 248

Wheeler, Brig. Gen. R., 341

Wheeler Field, 297

Wheeler Iran-Iraq Mission, 341

White diarrhea of chickens, 483

Whitehorse, 229, 231

Whittier, 233

William Beaumont General Hospital, 95,

99, 101, 103, 105, 145

Wittem, 420

Women’s Army Corps, 75, 76

Working Party on Veterinary Supplies for

Liberated Areas, 135, 136
INDEX 779

World War I, 1, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 15, 17, 22,

30, 31, 34, 38, 71, 73, 83, 94, 120,

121, 128, 150, 203, 205, 209, 220,

381, 382, 383, 402, 403, 489, 497,

523, 536, 539, 542, 563, 567, 643

animal quarantine in, 521

Army Veterinary Service in, 22, 220

military meat and dairy hygiene in, 675

training after, 13-14

training in, 12-13

veterinary animal service in, 193

Wounds, Lucilia macellaria infestation of,

634

Wlirttemberg-Baden, 456

X-Force, 114, 352, 353, 592

Yale University, 93

Yalta Conference, 454

Yang-chieh, 349

Yen-shan, 114, 115, 354, 532

Y-Force, 114, 115, 352, 354-355, 356

Yokohama, 339, 419, 479

Yugoslavia, 445, 453, 511

Yunnan Field Artillery Training Center,

110, 114, 115, 117, 354, 601

Yunnan Infantry Training Center, 115, 354

Yiin-nan-i, 349, 372, 373

Z-Force, 114, 352, 356, 599

Zone of Interior, 8, 9, 23, 25, 30, 57, 67, 76, 77, 84, 97, 98, 100, 105, 106,

107, 108, 109, 111, 120, 122, 126,

127, 129, 130, 133, 139-201, 203,

205, 211, 218, 221, 227, 229, 233,

235, 236, 237, 244, 247, 249, 252, 259,

266, 269, 275, 280, 286, 291, 302,

317, 321, 322, 332, 335, 336, 342,

347, 349, 350, 351, 356, 357, 366,

368, 381, 382, 390, 403, 407, 409,

422, 424, 430, 433, 443, 457, 461,

473, 478, 489, 492, 502, 504, 506,

508, 510, 512, 519, 524, 525, 532,

534, 539, 544, 547, 552, 563-567,

572, 575, 593, 600, 604, 608, 615,

617, 619, 620, 621, 622, 624, 626,

628, 630, 631, 632, 633, 635, 637,

646, 647, 648, 650, 651, 653, 655,

663, 670, 672, 676, 681, 684, 690,

693, 697, 707, 709, 710, 711, 713,

716, 717, 728

animal procurement in, 489-492

functional organization in, 139-201

Army Service Forces, 141-142

Chemical Warfare Service, 143-145

Medical Department, 145-149

Quartermaster Corps, 149-169

remount depots in, 152-153

role of personnel in, assigned to:

service commands, 177-199

technical services, 142-177

Transportation Corps, 169-177

Service Command medical laboratories

in, 390-401

veterinary hospital system in, 563-566

veterinary instructional services in, 111-

113

War Department organization in, 139-

142

U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1961





History of the Medical Department, U.S. Army, in World War II

DISTRIBUTION LIST

VETERINARY SERVICE

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Units organized under followingTOE’s:

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For explanation of abbreviations used, see AR 320-50.

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