The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-08-03
ARMY MUST HAVE 24,OOO DOCTORS
 WITHIh ONE YEAR
12O,OO0 Enlisted Men Will Be Required For the
 Medical Corps.

 ment was made that within the next year the medical service of the army would require the services of IA, 900 men, of whom 24,00 must be trained physicians and the other 120,000 en- listed men in the Medical Corps. Half of these are wanted by Oct. 1, and plans are well under way for obtain ing them.
 Already commissions have Nbeen is- sued to about 5000 medical officers in the Reserve Corps of the army. Be- tween now and Oct l, enongh other commission will be issued to raise | the total number of medical officers | to 12,00O. Two out of every nine physicians of military age through out the United States and it's prin- 1 ipa1 possessions will be required for | war service. This is probably the l heaviest demand made by the war upon any profession, but the medical men of the country are meeting 1t readily. l <There are in the United States ap proximately 90,000 physicians of mill itary age-22 to 55 years-and fully 1 24,00O of this number will be needed, | perhaps more. These professional men will be i mobilized through system of se1ec- tion which will operate in Alaska, Porto Rico, and Hawaii, as well as in l the continental United States, and 1 l will draw from each community a l contribution proportionate to the 1 number of available physicians, but 1 will not strip any city, town, or vi1- | 1 lage of all of it's physicians, however i anxious they may be to engage in war work.
 Some 12,ooo medical officers and | 60,O00 enlisted men in the Medical and Sanitary Corps will be needed by l Oct. 1, when, the national army, the National Guard, and the regular I army will all be in camp and at war strength. These men will be trained and ready when wanted. A detaeh- ment for each national army regi- ment will reach the cantonments l ahead of the troops to supervise pre- parations necessary for safeguarding lhealth. l These numbers-12 900 medical of- ficers and 6O,00o enlisted men-must be approximately doubled to meet the demands which will be made upon their service when troops are over seas for battle. The order will be filled, too, as the men are required. In other words, before all troops are | abroad; a total of about 24,000 medi- cal officers and 120,000 enlisted men for medical department work must be ready. Only trained men will be sent with the troops. Selection for each contingent about to sail for France will be made from those med- ical officers and men who are best fitted to go.
 This is a measure of the task of training men which the war put upon Surgeon General Gorgas and the Medical Department of the Army of l which he is head. The first 12,000l l trained medical officers already are; in sight, and work is being pushed now to bring the second 12,000 under training. As fast as shelter is ready the prospective medical officers are ! going into training camps-at pres I ent at the rate of 200 a day.
 The training camps are at Fort Riley, Kan; Fort Benjamin Harrison.
 Ind; ; and Fort Oglethorpe, Ga, each
 with a capacity of 1000 student med. ical officers, and 1,S00 enlisted men, and in addition there are four ambu- lance companies, four field hospitals,
 one evacuation hospital at each camp.
 There is also a small training camp
 for negro medical officers and negro
 sanitary detachments to serve with
 negro troops. This is at Fort Des
 Moines, Iowa, where $50 officers and men are under training. It is being
 operated as a part of the training
 camp there for negro officers of the
 line. A training camp for the United
 States Ambulance Service is located
 at Allentown, Pa., where about 4,500
 officers and men are taking instruc-
 tion. About 13,500 officers and men
 are now under training at all these
 camps, and this number is rapidly
 being increased to the full training
 camp capacity of about 15,00O.
 In addition to all this course of 1 training has been arranged for the
 sanitary personnel not able to attend l training camps. Those serving at
 posts, garrisons, with troops in the
 field, at large hospitals, &c., come
 under this head. For this large class
 a systematic course has been provid-
 ed which is pursued at times not talk
 en up with other duties All these
 men will undoubtedly be called soon
 CT or later for duties different from
 those in which they are now engaged, :,
 and are being prepared to handle
 them to best advantage.
 A course at training camp is in
 tended to cover three periods of one
 month each. During the first month of training the medical officers time
 is largely devoted to familiarizing
 himself with the duties of the enlisted
 man-not that the officer himself is
 to do an enlisted mans work, such as
 carrying wounded off the field but
 he must be prepared to instruct the . recruits who will shortly come under his command.
 Ell The second month of the training ! camp course takes up the students s / duties as an officer; the third month
 continues and extends this work A
 large par of the third months work @ is given over to practical application
 under field conditions of what has
 already been learned in theory. Offi- S cers are tried out under simulated war conditions in command of large
 numbers of enlisted men. The hand e ling of men assumed to be wounded n is included in this period of the train 1t ing.
 Il As general rule, medical officers tt are sent to the training camps with ,e a, view to preparing them to serve the
 fighting roops. Officers co old for ,, such service are held in reserve for specialists in the rear of the fight = ing zone.