page_title: United States Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine
section_title: The Texas and Alabama Chapter
hierarchical_section_title: United States Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine / History / The Texas and Alabama Chapter
caption_attribution_description: English: Photo of the groundbreaking ceremony for USAFSAM at Brooks Air Force Base, Texas
context_page_description: The United States Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine is the United States Air Force organization focused on education, research, and operational consultation in aerospace and operational medicine. USAFSAM was founded in 1918 to conduct research into the medical and physiologic domains related to human flight, and as a school for medical officers trained to support military aviation operations, later coined as flight surgeons. The school supported early military aviation from World War I through the evolution of aviation and into the modern era. USAFSAM conducted medical research and provided medical support for the initial US space operations beginning in 1947 through the establishment of NASA in 1958. After the creation of NASA, USAFSAM continued to actively support civilian and military manned space missions through clinical and physiologic research. USAFSAM is one of the oldest continually operating school for flight surgeons and other operational medical personnel of its kind in the world. USAFSAM is located in Dayton, Ohio at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, and is part of the 711th Human Performance Wing and the Air Force Research Laboratory.
context_section_description: By 1950 the School had outgrown its space on Randolph Field in San Antonio, Texas so portions of the education activities were temporarily placed at Gunter Air Force Base, Montgomery, Alabama.  The headquarters for the School remained at Randolph Air Force Base along with the Research Department and the Primary and Advanced Courses in Aviation Medicine, while the Flight Nurse Course, Physiological Training Officers Course, and all enlisted courses were transferred to the 3882nd School Group, Gunter Branch-School of Aviation Medicine.
  In March 1950 a Radiobiological Laboratory was established at Austin, Texas as a joint venture between USAFSAM and the University of Texas which looked at the effects of ionizing radiation on living organisms and the prevention and treatment of radiation injury.  They worked closely with the Atomic Energy Commission at Oak Ridge, Tennessee and their work resulted in many advances in knowledge important to this new field of study.
  In July 1952 Public Law 534 was passed by the 82nd Congress which authorized $8,000,000 for construction of facilities (The Aeromedical Center) for the School of Aviation Medicine at Brooks Air Force Base, Texas.
  On 24 October 1952, the mission of the School was expanded from education and research to include consultation with the establishment of the Aeromedical Consult Service.
  Another milestone was achieved on 8 February 1953 when the American Board of Preventive Medicine was authorized by the American Medical Association to establish aviation medicine as a specialty in the field of preventive medicine and to grant specialty certification in aviation medicine.
  On 10 May 1957, the groundbreaking ceremony was held for the construction of the New School of Aviation Medicine at Brooks Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas
  Space medicine research began at the School in 1947 conducted by Dr. Hubertus Strughold who was previously the Director of the Aeromedical Research Institute in Berlin from 1935 to 1945.  And Dr. Heinz Haber, an Astrophysicist.  Their work matured leading to the creation of the Department of Space Medicine within the School on 9 Feb 1949.  In November 1951 USAFSAM, in collaboration with the Lovelace Foundation for Medical Education and Research in Albuquerque, New Mexico, jointly organized and sponsored an international Symposium on the Physics and Medicine of the Upper Atmosphere.  The meeting was held in San Antonio Texas and the results of the symposium were published in a book entitled Physics and Medicine of the Upper Atmosphere with 21 chapters from 34 collaborating scientists.
  In October 1954 USAFSAM took delivery of a sealed cabin simulator for space research.  The simulator modeled the inside of a space vehicle and was built to study humans in a closed ecological system at simulated heights of 80,000 feet and above.  Experiments were conducted in the simulator beginning in January 1956 leading to Airman Donald F. Farrell remaining enclosed in the simulator for 7 continuous days in February 1958.   Following the launch of Sputnik in 1957, the U.S. pursued both civilian and military manned space programs with the USAF tasked with the military effort.  In July 1958 the USAFSAM Department of Space Medicine was reorganized as the Division of Space Medicine with 4 Departments.  Col Paul A. Campbell served as the first Chief of the Division of Space Medicine.
  The USAF focused on plans for a military space station, the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL).  The MOL was designed to be an earth-orbiting space station and would use a modified Gemini capsule attached to a cylinder-shaped laboratory.  The MOL missions were planned to be up to 30 days. The MOL never launched a space mission, but the USAFSAM MOL studies of man in space for extended periods of time in preparation for MOL missions were used by NASA in the operation of Skylab.  And much of the work in space food, radiation studies, space cabin atmospheres, and pressure suits were adopted by NASA during the Gemini and Apollo missions. The MOL program was canceled in 1969 to reduce defense spending. 
caption: Ground Breaking Ceremony for USAFSAM, Brooks Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas on 10 May 1957
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