The Physician to Soldier Pipeline · Episode 6 of 14 · 20 min
The University Goes to War
In March 1943 a University of Pennsylvania hospital stepped off a train in Assam and found an empty polo field. Within eighteen months it was the largest American hospital in the theater, with 2,000 beds. The Army's own historians nonetheless judged the affiliated unit an excellent way to recruit doctors and a poor way to deploy them.
Who's who
- Isidor S. RavdinPenn surgeon who served at and later commanded the Twentieth General Hospital
- Elias E. CooleyFirst commanding officer of the Twentieth General Hospital
- Thomas Fitz-Hugh Jr.Chief of Medical Service at the hospital
- James C. Magee+1 more episodeSurgeon General during the build-up
- Elliott C. CutlerHarvard professor who received Magee's 1942 letter
- Paul R. HawleyChief Surgeon, European Theater, who used affiliated units as specialist pools
- Walter M. BoothbyMember of the Mayo Aero Medical Unit
Where it happens
- Ledo, Assam, IndiaSite of the Twentieth General Hospital
- Omaha Beach, NormandyWhere Harvard's Fifth General Hospital landed in July 1944
- Camp Claiborne, LouisianaTraining site for the Twentieth General Hospital
- Northern IrelandWhere the Fifth General Hospital arrived in 1942
Timeline
- March 17, 1939Surgeon General recommends inviting institutions to create affiliated units
- May 15, 1942The Twentieth General Hospital enters active service
- March 1943The Twentieth reaches Ledo, Assam
- June 24, 1943Mayo's 71st General Hospital is inactivated without leaving the country
- August 7, 1944Peak census of 2,562 patients at Ledo
- November 25, 1945The Twentieth is inactivated
Still debated
Totals for the Twentieth's admissions conflict, from about 50,000 to over 73,000, as do its death toll and the date Ravdin took command. The cost to sponsoring universities is undocumented.
