Veterinary The Veterinary Corps of the regular army consisted of 62 com missioned officers at the outbreak of the World War and was expanded to 2,100 officers and over 20,000 enlisted men. Veterinarians from civil life were commissioned in the grade of second lieutenant and by promotion might reach any grade to include that of colonel. Candidates were required to be graduates of recognized veterinary schools, between the ages of 22 and 55, and to pass a satisfactory mental and physical examination. The enlisted men assisted the veterinary officers and were not required to be veterinary graduates. They were enlisted in the grade of private and might be promoted to privates first class, farriers, horseshoers, wagoners, cooks, corporals, ser geants and sergeants first class, for aptitude in the duties required in these various grades.
The Veterinary Corps organized and oper ated veterinary hospitals at all camps and can tonments possessing public animals. Each regiment of cavalry, field artillery and engi had two veterinary officers and six en listed men attached to it for the care of sick and the preservation of the health of well ani mals. Each division had a division veterinarian who supervised the veterinary service of the division. All animals purchased by the govern ment had first to be passed on, as to soundness, by an army veterinarian. Shipments of ani mals by rail and all boats for transporting them overseas were accompanied by veterinary officers and enlisted men. Veterinary laborato ries were maintained to aid in the detection and elimination of communicable animal dis eases. The Veterinary Corps was also respon sible for recommendations pertaining to veteri nary sanitation wherever there were public animals. The meat inspection service of the Veterinary Corps covered the inspection of all meats and meat food products used by the en tire army at the time of purchase and when issued to troops. All meats bought for ship ment overseas were inspected by veterinary offi cers to make sure they were fit for human con sumption and that they complied with govern ment specifications. Animals slaughtered in the field for food purposes were also subject to inspection as were dairies and milk herds supplying milk to the army.
Veterinary hospital units were organized and operated by the Veterinary Corps for use in the theatre of operations. Some of these were established as hospitals on the line of communi cation and at the base, and others operated from the front to collect sick and injured animals and evacuate them to these hospitals in the rear. Animals able to walk were led to the point where they could be loaded into railroad cars, while the more seriously injured ones were conveyed in motor ambulances. The hospitals were equipped with operating tables and com plete outfits of instruments so that any neces sary surgical measure might be carried out. Special hospitals for communicable diseases were also established where infected animals were isolated for the protection of others. By these means it was possible to restore to use fulness many thousands of animals which would otherwise have been lost.
Army Nurse The Army Nurse Corps recruits nurses for the service, enrolls them and controls their movements. There is one superintendent appointed by the Secretary of War, and chief nurses and reserve nurses are appointed and removed by the surgeon general with the approval of the Secretary of War. The Army Nurse Corps consists of
trained nurses. The Red Cross as the reserve of the Army and Navy Nurse Corps has sup plied many nurses for the Army Nurse Corps. When once assigned to the Army Nurse Corps the nurse is subject to the rules of the army as administered by the surgeon-general's office.
At the entrance of the United States into the war with Germany there were about 400 nurses and 7,000 enlisted men in the medical department. Less than a year later there were 7,000 nurses, and in September 1918 there were more than 16,000 on the rolls of the Army Nurse Corps, of which number (from April 1917 to 1 Aug. 1918) the Red Cross had placed 13,111 nurses, the rate of assignment of nurses to the military authorities by the Red Cross having been 55 per day from the be ginning of 1918. The total Red Cross enroll ment of graduate nurses eligible for the Army Nurse Corps (as of 2 July 1918) was 22,736, including those serving in the Army Nurse Corps. It was estimated that 50,000 nurses would be required for an army of 2,000,000 (one nurse for 10 beds if 25 per cent were hospitalized, the maximum provided for, based on British experience, or with a minimum hos pitalization of 17 per cent, 51,000 nurses for an army of 3,000,000). Emphasizing the need for nurses, the acting surgeon-general of the army stated on 17 Sept. 1918 that not only must 25,000 nurses he obtained before 1 Jan. 1919 (9,000 in addition to the 16,000 then in service), but (if the war continued) that by 1 July 1919, 50,000 would be required — thus indicating that in less than a year 34,000 would have to come forward to meet the need. To increase the number of nurses there was estab lished on 25 May 1918, tinder the surgeon-gen eral, an Army School of Nursing, which gave immediate opportunity for service, providing an adequate course of training for young women between the ages of 21 and 35, who had a high school education or its equivalent; it at the same time made possible the release of a large number of graduate nurses eligible for service in the Army Nurse Corps. Under date of 13 Sept. 1918, the surgeon-general an nounced that the 50 American hospitals which organized base hospital units for service in France had been notified that they might in vite a limited number of their student nurses to go to Prance, where they would have the privilege of rendering service and, at the same time, complete their training under representa tives of their own schools in base hospitals abroad. These were mostly seniors, and those who went across included the young women who were first to be enrolled in the Army School of Nursing. Each unit of 25 was in charge of a graduate nurse. Student nurses not so far advanced were placed in base hos pitals in the United States. Women called assistant0— a position created by the surgeon-general for women offering to nurse wounded soldiers — were enrolled through the Red Cross and assigned to convalescent hos pitals in the United States, where training units were not established. These hospital as sistants were married women between 21 and 40, whose husbands were overseas, and single women between the ages of 35 and 45. They were high school graduates or had present educational equivalents.