Autonomy for the Air Force Medical Service

The true measure of any military aero medical service in wartime is effective combat support: the medical service must keep the air and ground crews healthy and fit enough to defeat the enemy. Judged by this standard, the AAF medical service undeniably improved after 1942 and ultimately succeeded. Disease and nonbattle injury rates declined in all theaters. Furthermore, commanders did not complain that high rates of sickness prevented the execution of their assigned missions. American aircrews in all theaters became inefficient mainly because they had to work too long and hard, not because they were chronically ill. Patient satisfaction among combat veterans was high. In the spring of 1945, an AAF doctor surveyed 2,600 AAF combat veterans, both officers and enlisted men, who were returning from all overseas theaters. Seventy-two percent were favorably impressed by their squadron flight surgeon and only 18 percent were dissatisfied. Within the sphere it could directly influence—the physical well-being of the fighting force—the AAF medical service responded superbly to the challenges of the aviation arm fighting a global war.

To the end of the war, however, the Army Medical Department thought the AAF had overstated its argument for medical independence and a separate AAF hospital system. Army medical leaders argued that most AAF medical problems in the war were not so unusual that they could not be solved within the Army’s medical system. In the face of such arguments, AAF medical leaders maintained that they had to obtain command and control of their own medical system.

The issue resurfaced when AAF combat elements gained total independence from the Army, becoming the United States Air Force on September 18, 1947. In a compromise leading to Air Force independence, the Air Force’s medical service remained subordinate to the Army Surgeon General. In 1948, General Grow, who had succeeded Grant as the Air Surgeon in 1946, began a campaign for medical independence, reasserting many arguments from World War II. In this effort, Grow won support from the Air Force Association, the American Medical Association, and the Hoover commission on the organization of the executive branch. With their help, the Air Force Medical Service was established on July 1, 1949.