102
103

1950–1959
104

u Lt. Colonel Helmuth Sprinz, Surgical Pathologist, Walter Reed Army Hospital, operates the completely new color TV microscope, designed by Walter 

Reed and RCA technicians. Light passes through the microscope and engages 

a beam splitter which directs a sufficient amount of light to the microscopist’s 

eye permitting him to examine suspect tissue just as though television was not 

involved. The remaining amount of light passes directly through the beam splitter and is reflected through a prism into a three-vidicon color television of special 

design. The whole assembly is mounted on an instrumentation table which may 

be easily wheeled into many different laboratories, classrooms and conference 

rooms. With this system it is possible for the microscopist to see a parallax corrected field with any number of students in as many different locations as can 

be reached by the Television Division’s distribution system. 14 November 1957. 

(Original caption)

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, SC 521401

I

n 1951, to coincide with the 100th 

anniversary of the birth of its 

namesake Major Walter Reed, 

the name of this now world-famous 

medical institution was changed from 

the Army Medical Center and Walter 

Reed General Hospital to Walter Reed 

Army Medical Center. A member of the 

campus family since 1923, the Army 

Medical School had undergone name 

changes over the years, from Army 

Medical School to Medical Department 

Professional Services School in 1934, to 

Army Medical Department Research 

and Graduate School in 1947, to Army 

Medical Service Graduate School in 

1950, and finally to Walter Reed Army 

Institute of Research (WRAIR) in 1955. 

The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology 

(AFIP), formerly the Army Medical 

Museum, moved to the Walter Reed 

campus in the 1950s, bringing together 

three of the four institutions needed to 

complete Borden’s Dream. The majority 

of the fourth institution, The Surgeon 

General’s Library, would become 

the National Library of Medicine, be 

transferred to the Public Health Service, 

and moved to the National Institutes of 

Health campus in Bethesda, MD. The 

Army Medical Museum, established 

in 1862, had maintained that name 

until 1946, when it was renamed the 

Army Institute of Pathology. With the 

addition of the Navy and Air Force, it 

became the Armed Forces Institute of 

Pathology in 1949. 

AFIP’s unique mausoleum-style 

building , started in 1951 and completed 

in 1955, was windowless with thick 

concrete walls and considered atomic 

bomb proof. Fortunately, that unique 

characteristic has never been tested. 

During construction of the AFIP 

building, a number of civilian houses 

that had existed as part of the 16th 

Street Heights subdivision that was 

purchased for expansion of the Post in 

the early 1920s were moved to create a 

cul-de-sac of officers housing on 15th 

Street off of Dahlia Street. President 

Eisenhower dedicated the AFIP 

building on May 26, 1955. 

Title page - The aerial view looking north shows the biggest addition to the campus during the 1950s in the upper left of the photo: the Armed Forces Institute 

of Pathology (AFIP) building. The ball field in the upper center of the photo has 

been reoriented and appears to have been downsized, probably to softball size. 

A solarium has been added to the south elevation of the Red Cross Hall intruding into the landscaped garden area. To the far left of the photo, below Building 

40, is the Officer’s Club. In the 1940s, the Pershing Suite was added as the third 

floor to B wing of Building 1; A wing was triple decked for symmetry.

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, SC 526813

104

The following year, healthwise, would 

be very difficult on the 65-year-old 

President. He suffered a heart attack 

in September 1955, recovering at 

Fitzsimons Army Medical Center 

in Denver. In June 1956, he was 

hospitalized at Walter Reed for 

abdominal surgery that would place in 

question his run for a second term that 
105

coming fall. Operated on by the Walter 

Reed Commanding General, Maj. 

General Leonard Heaton, Eisenhower 

would make a full recovery, and run 

and win a second term. Eisenhower 

and Heaton became lifelong friends. 

Heaton followed his six-year command 

at WRAMC with promotion to Surgeon 

General, a position he held for ten 

105

years, and a three-star rank—the first 

physician to hold that rank. 

The 1950s brought many international 

visitors to Walter Reed; some for care 

and others to visit patients. With 

President Eisenhower as escort, Sir 

Winston Churchill visited General of 

the Army, former Secretary of Defense 

and Secretary of State George C. 

Marshall, on Ward 8 in May 1959. They 

also paid respects to John Foster Dulles, 

Eisenhower’s former Secretary of State, 

a patient on Ward 8. During the visit, 

Eisenhower presented a portrait he had 

painted of Churchill to the hospital to 

be hung in the sitting room on Ward 8.
106

Building 40, the original Army Medical School building (upper portion) was opened in 1923. The center and lower portions were added in the early 1930s about the time the name was changed to Medical Department Professional Services 

School. The name changed again in 1947 to AMEDD Research and Graduate School, in 1950 to Army Medical Graduate 

School, and finally in 1955 to Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center History Office, PAO Historical Collection
107

The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology moved from downtown Washington, DC to this impressive new building on the grounds of Walter Reed 

Army Medical Center and dedicated 

by President Eisenhower on May 26, 

1955. It had four major departments, 

the Department of Pathology, American Registry of Pathology, Medical 

Illustration Service and the Medical 

Museum. The eight story bomb proof 

building was designed to provide 

working space for the central consultative, research and teaching center for 

pathology, serving the needs of all the 

military services as well as other government agencies. (Original caption)

Source: (top) National Museum of Health and 

Medicine, AFIP, WRAMC History Collection, 

(bottom) Directorate of Public Works 
108

p Source: Pierce Collection

t The Outpatient Clinic, Walter Reed 

Army Hospital. This building — now 

completely modern and air conditioned 

— was originally constructed in 1911 

for the purpose of housing enlisted 

personnel stationed at the Hospital 

during those first years of its operation. 

After undergoing extensive renovation, 

it opened again in May 1950 to offer, 

for the first time since outpatient service was begun at the Center in 1939, 

adequate facilities for the treatment 

of some 900 military personnel and 

dependents living in this area who visit 

the clinic daily — a most important 

milestone in the four-year history of a 

greatly expanded Out Patient Service 

at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. 

(Original caption)

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, WRAMC History Collection
109

p Maj. General Walter Reed [seated right] visits September 11, 1951 the Hospital named for his father, Maj. Walter Reed. 

He is reliving his boyhood memories of the famed conqueror of yellow fever for Korean war patients [pictured in the background] and for Maj. General Paul H. Streit, the 19th Commanding Officer of these portals of healing. Maj. General Reed 

was the Inspector General of the Army at the time of his retirement in 1940. General Reed was recalled to active duty as 

a member of the War Department Personnel Board. He retired again on June 25, 1946. He died at Walter Reed Hospital 

May 1, 1956. (Adapted from original caption) 

Source: WRAMC History Office, PAO Historical Collection
110

p The Central Dental Laboratory moved out of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and into its own 9,500 square 

foot building on February 23, 1954. Founded in 1927, the Laboratory mission is to provide military patients with the best 

prosthodontic therapy. 

Source: WRAMC History Office, PAO Historical Collection

u New Central Dental Laboratory 

opened at Walter Reed. Maj. General George E. Armstrong, The Army 

Surgeon General (left) cuts the ribbon 

across the main entrance to the new 

Central Dental Laboratory building at 

Walter Reed Army Medical Center during a ceremony. Col. Lynn C. Dirksen, 

Commanding Officer of the laboratory 

(right) assists the general. February 

23, 1954.

Source: WRAMC History Office, PAO Historical 

Collection
111

t The beauty of the grounds of the 

Hospital was definitely part of the healing process for patients. The garden 

was on the North side of Building 1 

and between two wards.

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, WRAMC History Collection

p The Hoff Fountain in front of the Hospital and looking south toward the garden.

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, WRAMC History Collection
112

p The first medical air evacuation patient arrived at Walter Reed on board a Sikorsky H-19 in 1952.

Source: WRAMC History Office. PAO Historical Collection

t A large red cross on the roof of 

Building 1 indicated to passing aircraft 

that this is a hospital. The actual landing site was nearby on the grass.

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, 

Directorate of Public Works Archives
113

This Sikorsky H-19 helicopter ran low 

on fuel and made an emergency landing in front of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology en route to Forest 

Glen with three soldiers involved in a 

car accident outside of Petersburg, VA. 

Source: National Archives and Records Administration (top) SC 521913 and (right) SC 521914
114

t The bandstand in the garden setup 

for Easter Sunrise Service. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, WRAMC History Collection

p The Easter Sunrise Service, April 

1, 1956. Estimated attendance was 

30,000–40,000, the largest attendance 

in history.

Source: WRAMC History Office, PAO Historical 

Collection
115

p Rev. Billy Graham led the ceremony at the 1956 Easter 

Sunrise Service. Maj. General Heaton is to Graham’s left 

and Chaplain (Lt. Colonel) Alford V. Bradley is to the right.

Source: WRAMC History Office, PAO Historical Collection

q Actors and singers, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans 

also appeared at the 1956 Easter Sunrise Service.

Source: WRAMC History Office, PAO Historical Collection
116

Maj. General Alvin L. Gorby sends the first message over Walter Reed’s new Military Affiliate Radio Station (MARS), 

K3WBJ, during ceremonies. Looking on is Lt. Colonel Alford V. Bradley, Post Chaplain for the Center, who is a “ham” 

radio operator and was responsible for the unit being set up. The station will permit patients and duty personnel to send 

free messages all over the world. (Adapted from original caption)

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Directorate of Public Works Archives
117

Mass casualties course completed at Walter Reed — A highlight of the week-long course in Management of Mass 

Casualties completed Saturday, May 17, at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research was a demonstration of wound 

moulages as a training aid in first aid treatment of wounds. The moulages realistically duplicate almost any type of 

wound that may occur in armed combat or as a result of a nuclear explosion. As is demonstrated above by PFC Carl 

W. Bohlmeyer, a flow of “blood” to the wound is controlled by pressure on a bulb which spurts the blood through a 

system of tubes concealed in the clothing of the “victim”. Either venal or arterial bleeding can be simulated by the 

rapidity with which the blood is pumped, and the tubes are placed so that the bleeding can be stopped by normal first 

aid measures. In major wound moulages, the tubes can be “tied off” in the same manner that a normal artery would be. 

The moulage kit shown above contains twenty of the simulated wounds, including duplications of radiation burns. [The] 

course was attended by military and civilian defense officials from throughout the United States. (Original caption)

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Directorate of Public Works Archives
118

u Pediatric radiology. 

Source: WRAMC History Office, PAO Historical 

Collection 

p Capt. Mary Rukesvine, U.S. Army 

Nurse, takes the temperature of 

Thomas L. Darby Remersburg, PA 

with a new electronic thermometer at 

Walter Reed Army Medical Center. 

The device, the first change in a clinical thermometer since the introduction 

of the mercury column type in 1867, 

was developed by Colonel George T. 

Perkin, Army Dentist. 1954. (Original 

caption)

Source: National Archives and Records Administration, SC 54-7759
119

p A needleless, automatic, multiple nose jet “gun” for mass vaccine injections was tested at Walter Reed 

Army Medical Center in 1955. The new inoculation mechanism gives promise that someday the Army’s soldiers may receive quick and practically painless inoculation. Here a nurse holds an old-style needle in her left 

hand and the new inoculator in her right. (Original caption) 

Source: National Archives and Records Administration, SC 553312
120

u SP4 Renee Poreey, Department of Gastroenterology 

separating blood for use in testing antibodies for vaccine 

studies. 

Source: WRAMC History Office, PAO Historical Collection

t Lt. Colonel George W. Burnett, 

Chief of Dental Research Department, 

Dental Division, Army Medical Service 

Graduate School, is shown using Van 

Slyke apparatus to analyze effect 

of fluorides upon tooth tissue. He is 

shown here measuring rate of removal 

of gasses from fluoride-treated tooth 

tissues during their destruction by acids in an attempt to find a treatment for 

prevention of dental caries. September 

1, 1954. (Original caption)

Source: WRAMC History Office, PAO Historical 

Collection
121

p Phillip Sidmore of the School’s Veterinary Bacteriology Department is testing bacterial count in milk served to patients 

and duty personnel at Walter Reed. September 1, 1954. 

Source: WRAMC History Office, PAO Historical Collection
122

t First Korean Service Ribbons 

awarded by Secretary of the Army 

Frank Pace, Jr. (left) and Gen. J. Law-

ton Collins, Chief of Staff, US Army, to 

three wounded veterans - 1st Lieuten-

ant Howard W. Cardoza, Jr. (seated 

right), PFC Francis Phillips (standing), 

and Master Sergeant Andy Partin 

(recumbent) - of the Korean Conflict in 

a ceremony at Walter Reed Hospital. 

February 6,1951. (Original caption) 

Source: National Archives and Records Admin-

istration, SC 355362-S p President Harry S. Truman visits 

with a veteran of the Korean conflict 

whose leg amputation necessitated 

hospitalization at Walter Reed. (Origi-

nal caption)

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Di-

rectorate of Public Works Archives
123

p Chaplains of all faiths are stationed at Walter Reed Hospital. They tour the wards in addition to their many other 

religious activities. Shown here are Capt Lowell G. McCoy (second from left) of Cincinnati, Ohio, holding a bedside chat 

with (from left to right): PFC Karl Lynn of Sandusky, Ohio; Captain McCoy; Corporal Leo D. Wallace of Savannah, Georgia; PFC Daniel Shoffstall of Lancaster, Pennsylvania; and PFC Carl H. Rice of Chester, South Carolina. (Adapted from 

original caption) 1951. 

Source: Pierce Collection
124

t An Army nurse prepares her ward 

report as she keeps vigil at Walter 

Reed General Hospital. July 9, 1952. 

Source: National Archives and Records Administration, SC 398655-S 

u View of a ward at Walter Reed Hospital, January 3, 1951. 

Source: National Archives and Records Administration, SC 389632
125

p Physical therapists at Walter Reed Army Hospital have some of the best equipment available to any hospital in the 

world. Here, Lt. Jean Brady (Boone, NC) assists Capt. R. E. Staaes (Loveland, CO) in daily water treatment in a hand 

whirlpool. (Original caption)

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, SC 548658
126

p Dental interns in the Central Dental Lab. April 12, 1957. 

Source: WRAMC History Office, PAO Historical Collection, DIP-1
127

u The new color television camera in 

Operating Room #6 Walter Reed Army 

Hospital is equipped with a number 

of lenses of varying focal length. The 

camera looks at the surface of a mirror 

that is suspended at an angle above 

the operation. The center of the operating light is always focused on the 

operating field. November 14, 1957. 

(Original caption)

Source: National Archives and Records Administration, SC 521403 

t Cover from the brochure for the new color TV camera 

used in teaching to demonstrate surgical procedures. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, AFIP History 

Collection
128

t Occupational therapists work with a 

wide variety of patients while serving 

their clinical affiliation at Walter Reed 

Army Hospital. Here, 2nd Lt. Mary E. 

Mueller works with an elderly patient 

who is weaving to promote use of her 

left arm. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, SC 548656

u Teaching amputees and patients 

who have lost the use of a limb how to 

perform routine functions is an important part of the daily activity of an 

occupational therapy clinical affiliate at 

Walter Reed Army Hospital. Here, 2nd 

Lt. Mary E. Mueller shows an Army Officer patient how to tie a Windsor knot 

with one hand. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, SC 548655
129

t Learning to walk again, 1959.

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, SC 548660

p Many kinds of tools and other equipment are available 

in the Occupational Therapy Section of Walter Reed Army 

Hospital to help patients in their rehabilitation. Here, OT 

clinical affiliate 2nd Lt. Joyce F. Jana works with a patient 

at a bicycle saw to increase tolerance and coordination. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, SC 548657
130

q SFC Alphonso Spencer, assigned 

to the Army Prosthetic Research 

Laboratory, Walter Reed Army Medical 

Center, meets Diana Beckett, a fellow 

amputee. Diane wears the new polyvinylchloride mitten, which was fitted on 

her by Mr. Chester Shelton. November 

1, 1956. 

Source: National Archives and Records Administration, SC 485317

t A soldier’s family also needs medical care and Walter Reed General 

Hospital served many dependents. 

Here, the Easter Bunny is paying a 

visit to some of the younger patients.

Source: WRAMC History Office, PAO Historical 

Collection 
131

p Polio patient working with an occupational therapist at a handloom. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, NCP 2747
132

Wounded soldiers use wheelchairs and crutches until they learn how to walk with a synthetic limb. PFC Charles Woody, 

injured near Taegu, Korea, walks on crutches.

Source: National Archives and Records Administration, 306-PS-50-16899
133

The amazing similarity of real and artificial hands is shown in the above picture made at Army Prosthetics Research 

Laboratory, Army Medical Center, Washington, D.C. Worn by CPO Joseph A. Phillips, Falls Church, Va. (right), the glove 

requires one further process before completion — the addition of hair to match that of the patient’s own hand. Opposite 

Chief Phillips is Lt. Albert P. Clark, Portsmouth, N.H., whose artificial hand has been removed to show portions of the prosthesis to which it is normally attached. Others in the picture are (facing camera) Captain John Butchkosky, assistant director of the laboratory, Silver Spring, Md. and Sgt. Walter A. Stanley, Fort George Meade, Md. (wearing glasses) (Adapted 

from original caption)

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Directorate of Public Works Archives
134

p President Eisenhower at White 

House with WRAMC patient and Cap-

tain Anna Mae McCabe. In 1967 Anna 

Mae (McCabe) Hays became Chief of 

the Army Nurse Corps and was later 

promoted to Brig. General.

Source: WRAMC History Collection t Queen Juliana of the Netherlands, 

escorted by Maj. General Paul H. Streit, 

Commanding General, Walter Reed 

Army Medical Center, passes through 

saluting columns of Army medical and 

nurse officers, members of the Wom-

en’s Medical Specialist Corps and the 

Women’s Army Corps. Entering Walter 

Reed Army Hospital, Her Majesty visited 

many soldier-patients, casualties of the 

Korean conflict. April 9, 1952.

Source: National Museum of Health and Medi-

cine, AFIP, WRAMC History Collection
135

p Prime Minister Winston Churchill and President Dwight Eisenhower visit with John Foster Dulles in the sitting room on 

Ward 8. Above the fireplace is the portrait that President Eisenhower painted of his friend Winston Churchill. May 5, 1959.

Source: WRAMC History Collection
136

Amputee in wheelchair in front of Walter Reed General Hospital.

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, NCP 2545
137