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7th
Medical Command |
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| A maroon, silver and gold patch, 2½-inches in height, consisting of a seven-pointed star, one point up, nearing the shape of the number seven which is interwoven through a maroon Greek cross. The colors maroon and white are traditional to the Medical Corps. The fleam is a heraldic symbol for a surgical lancet and its form simulates the unit's numerical designation. The star alludes to the command position of the unit. As a symbol of aid and assistance, the maroon Greek cross is used to designate the medical activity. |
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| USAREUR Medical Division | |||||
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| 4th Medical Laboratory (Field) | |||||
| (Source: Email from James E. Sullivan, 4th Med Lab, 1953-1956) | |||||
I was stationed in Germany from late 1953 to 1956. I was with the Blood Bank of the 4th Med Lab (later the 10th?) at Landstuhl for 2-1/2 years and was on six months TDY as Lab Officer at the USAH in Bad Kreuznach.
My active service was for 7-1/2 years and I remained in the Active Reserve for the next 14 years, and my civilian occupation was in Hospital Administration.
I still remember many of the enlisted and officer personnel from that time and would be happy to recount a few of the events of that period. I'm attaching an Organization Chart to supplement the narrative; at least I can't get too long winded on it. I apologize for omissions of personnel and errors of the Org Chart.
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The then designated 4th Medical Laboratory (Field) was commanded by COL Albert Richmond, who was succeeded by COL ___ Ernst who was in post when I rotated to CONUS in 1956. COL Richmond had retired and became Chief of Pathology at the Nix Hospital here in San Antonio and worked there for many years. He passed away ten or twelve years ago, though I may be in error here.
The mission of the 4th was to furnish Pathology Services to USAREUR Hospitals of all services that were beyond local capability. Blood Bank Services was for all service hospitals in the Western Area Command (WACOM), which was roughly between Pirmasens in the south, Baumholder in the north, and east to the Rhine River and west to the SAAR border. In the event of hostilities, the 4th was capable of simply packing up stored equipment and after augmentation of appropriate vehicles from the Post Motor Pool, displace to wherever assigned. There were small scale practice mobilization exercises during my tenure there and I have to say they were well organized and would tend to surprise the combat commanders that absorbed our technical people with our professionalism and motivation. Often we would hear comments such as "you mean you can really do Lab Tests and Blood Banking here in the field?" We were happy to give tours showing our capabilities were "good to go" as the saying is now. The monthly "alerts" in USAREUR were separate from the more comprehensive practice mobilization efforts of various units in the command. With respect to the 4th Med Lab, the only division that packed up fully were the Blood Bank Detachments. We had field type refrigerators that were trundled down some stairs to waiting trucks, and various chemicals and testing material were packed in insulated containers, and were driven up to the alert assembly area behind the main lab building. The other sections of the 4th were represented by trucks that would have been used in event of actual mobilization. It just wasn't feasible to pack up the whole chemistry or bacteriology or other component units and then unpack in an hour or two. The risk of losing or damaging specimens was too great for a morning exercise.
The Adjutant was CWO J.D. Hamil who was succeeded by CPT ____Thomas, MSC. The Enlisted Detachment Commander was CPT Harry Bolter. The 4th Med Executive Officer was a
COL _____ Kuhn
. He was also Chief of Bacteriology (now Microbiology); his assistant was 1LT Ken Borchardt. The Chief of Biochemistry was LTC Bob Krivulka, MSC;
1LT Wm. J. Campbell, MSC, Staff Biochemist.
1LT Evan Thomas, MSC, Bacteriology. The Chief of Serology (including Blood Bank) was LTC Frank W. Chorpenning, who retired to a professorship at Ohio State University. He was succeeded by LTC Charles Dunne, MSC. The staff officers at the Blood Bank were 1LT John W. Moose, MSC, 1LT George B. Edmonson, MSC, and yours truly. (Side Note: LT Moose married LTC Dunne's secretary, Frauline Hildegarde Gobel and they lived happily ever after.) The Blood Bank NCOIC was MSG____ Crenshaw. WO2 Frank Bremmerman was Blood Bank Admin. Officer and was the unofficial Blood Bank Supply Officer. SSG John Lancaster was Chief of the Bleeding Team techs, an a SSG ___Longo was the Blood Bank Lab NCOIC. The Blood Bank organization consisted of four then designated 8-500 TOE units, namely:
 26th Med. Det (Blood Bank Bleeding), 27th Med. Det (Blood Bank Bleeding), 518th Med Ded (Blood Bank Bleeding) and the 569th Med Det (Blood Bank Lab). Shorthand for these units were BBB and BBL. The BBBs had 8-10 enlisted positions authorized plus the CO. If I recall correctly, in the event of mobilization for field duty, the Chief of Serology would remain on the Commander's staff for guidance in his area. The mobilized BBB and BBL units would be controlled operationally by the senior Medical Officer of the field units to which they would be attached. A LTC____ Fodor was Chief of Virology, and his assistant was LTC Conan Millstein. The next ranking MC Officer was Chief Pathologist MAJ William Williams from Annapolis, Md. He had a MAJ____ Pontius as his assistant, and a German Pathologist named Dr. Fett as second assistant. The Chief of Parasitology was 1LT Norman E. Wilkes who also doubled as Chief of Training. The Chief of Toxicology was LTC Glen Madera, MSC. I have forgotten the name of the Warrant Officer who was Chief of the 4th Med Supply and Services.
Chief of Veterinary Services was Major E. Wayne Grogan, VC. CAPT Robert Angel, MSC, Staff Biochemist. Capt. _____Walsh, MSC, Safety Officer. C APT______ Detwiler, MSC, Ass't. Safety Officer. I almost forgot to remember one of the more interesting Section Chiefs at the 4th, one LTC F.W. Whittemore, MSC who was Chief of Entomology. Besides being a premier "bug man" he was an expert planner in the area of disasters, mass casualties and he had a gift of making these subjects genuinely interesting. At some time in 1955 or early 1956 (memory serving) the unit was redesignated as the 10th Medical Laboratory (General) but nothing changed as far as the day to day operations went. I think the command responsibility was changed in that they were forming Medical Centers or some such and the Lab CO would report to the Center Commander instead of directly to what was called Medical Division, USAREUR. The posts'
name was changed from Landstuhl Army Medical Center (LAMC) to The 9th Hospital
Center, I think. The Center Commander when I arrived was a COL McConkie, and he was succeeded by COL Paul Hayes whose wife, LTC Katherine was Chief Nurse. Col Hayes was succeeded by COL____St. John shortly after I left and got a star soon after. The Post Executive Officer was a COL____ Hastings, who was the first full colonel in the MSC I ever knew. .
Of passing interest might be the fact that the first use of plastic bags for blood collection began by the Blood Bank in mid 1956 I believe. Up to then, the glass vacuum bottles were used but a big disadvantage was that they had to be transported to and from the unit donating blood in heavy ice chests and the rocking and swaying motion of the vehicles they were carried in tended to damage the red blood cells during the return journey, resulting in a shelf life of only 21 days per unit at that time. Plastic bags were soft and did not jostle around and cell damage was almost nil. The downside was that collection time was longer since blood was not "pulled" out of the veins with a vacuum bottle, but had to flow into the bag by gravity only. It took some getting used to but was a total success and is still the standard collection vessel to date.
Let me digress somewhat from the narrative to mention something that may add a little to these recollections. Before Gulf War II I had been in contact with the Public Affairs Officer of the Medical Center, a civilian lady. She had put a notice in the then Retired Officer Magazine that there was going to be a celebration of the Center's 50th anniversary and she asked for input from people who had been stationed there through the years. I sent her a couple of e-mails that astounded her as the information went beyond my particular unit, and she and I had quite an exchange of e-mails about the planned doings, and my wife and I actually planned on attending since we were planning a Space-A trip to Germany around that time. Then came the war, and that was the end of that. I'm thinking that the PAO at the Hq still may have archived our correspondence and perhaps you can check. I lost my copies when I got a new computer three years ago and the nerd I hired to save my files lost all my e-mail storage. A pity. |
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| 10th Medical Laboratory | |||||
| (Source: Email from James W. Legg, 10th Med Lab, 1958-1960) | |||||
I was stationed w/ the 10th Med. Lab. from Dec. 1958 to Oct. 1960. I worked in the Chemistry - subsection Toxicology. At that time the Lab. CO was Col. Steer and when I arrived Capt. Trahan was OIC for Chem. and Tox was under Lt. Smith. Later Lt. Smith DEROSed & Lt. Crook replaced him.
When I arrived, the 4th Med. Lab. (Field) was a 7th Army Unit and the 10th was a COMZ unit. It was my understanding that the 10th was a forward unit from France. Later we both became USAREUR Med Lab. & wore the USAREUR patch. When I was there our tox. case load ran about 365/yr. I was back about 20 yr. later and they were doing about 1200/yr. Maj. Camp was over the Blood Bank. I ran into a Capt. Arnoldon - who was an enlisted man at the time and worked in Vet. Section Chem. - in Seoul. He had become a Blood Bank officer and had served w/ Col. (or LTC) Camp at Ft. Knox.
I had seen an article about a dentist puting a false tooth in a guard dog. This was in one of the free newspapers you get in Germany. The dentist was LTC Hans Berg who had worked as an EM in the chem. sect. with me.
On my transport on the USS Randall was SSG Philip Belmont. He was also assigned to the med. lab. in Micro. I had previously known him at Ft. Sam Houston as a Maj. He had been RIF'ed due age to retirement. At that time RIF'ed officers could opt to remain as an NCO until they completed their 20 yr.
I have been in contact with a few of the other EM that I served with in the past few years. |
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| 7th Medical Comd History | |||||
| (Source: MEDCOM Examiner, Special Orientation Issue, Spring 1983) | |||||
| 7th
Medical Command - A brief look With its activation September 21, 1978, 7th Medical Command became the first unit of its type in the U.S. Army. The basic mission of 7th MEDCOM is to provide health support to U.S. forces during conflict and to provide peacetime health care for U.S. forces and their family members throughout Europe. There are currently more than 500,000 health care beneficiaries in Europe. Prior to the activation of 7th MEDCOM, health care services in Europe were controlled by the U.S. Army Medical Command, Europe (USAMEDCOMEUR), which was activated in Heidelberg, Germany, July 1, 1968. Health care has been provided to U.S. forces and family members in Europe since 1945. The USAMEDCOMEUR was established to enhance command control and logistical support of the medical units in Europe. From 1968 to 1978, both fixed and nondivisional field medical units were assigned to USAMEDCOMEUR. Currently, 7th MEDCOM provides command and control to all fixed medical, dental and veterinary units in Europe. Among the many health services provided to beneficiaries in Europe is the life-saving helicopter medical evacuation capability. The command also conducts both field and hospital-based health training and sponsors extensive professional training programs to support the mission of providing health care to U.S. forces while maintaining readiness for combat. |
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| If you have more information on the history or organization of the 7th Medical Command, please contact me. | |||||
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| MEDCOM Orientation | |||||
| (Source: MEDCOM Examiner, Special Orientation Issue, Spring 1983) | |||||
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| Vital
support activities The following organizations are most essential in the accomplishment of the 7th MEDCOM, USAREUR and EUCOM medical missions. They are briefly: the US Army Veterinary Detachment, Giessen, which provides veterinary and food inspection services within USAREUR; the 8th Finance Disbursement Section provides finance control and accounting services for the command; the 10th Medical Laboratory watches over health and disease conditions where USAREUR personnel are stationed and provides laboratory reference and consultant services to hospital labs; the 10th Medical Laboratory (lllustration) designs and produces nonstandard illustrated media and audio-visual training devices. The USA Biostatistical Activity Europe is a coordinating agency for all medical records and biostatistical reports for all Army medical treatment facilities USAREUR-wide and elsewhere as directed; 2nd Med Detachment, a dental service headquarters, providies guidance for field dental operations readiness; the USAREUR Blood Bank, 655th Med Company, assists hospitals in establishing and maintaining blood banks; the USA Testing Laboratory is a facility for urine drug testing for all US Forces in Europe and Middle East and supports the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Program (ADAPCP); the Data Processing Installation at Karlsruhe operates the Automatic Data Processing (ADP) Service Center in Karlsruhe for support of 7th MEDCOM and the Karlsruhe community; the 8000th Civilian Labor Group operates dispensaries for labor service units working for USAREUR. Nellingen, Germany, is the headquarters for the 421st Medical Company (Air Ambulance). Air ambulance companies are responsible for emergency patient flights to hospitals in 7th Medical Command and for transfer of patients from hospital to the Frankfurt MEDCEN for aero-medical evacuation to the United States. The 421st supports training areas and exercises, with units located in Schweinfurt, Darmstadt, Fuerth, Gablingen, Grafenwoehr and Landstuhl. Stretching from northern Germany to Italy, the size of 7th MEDCOM necessitates good supply operations. The US Army Medical Materiel Center in Pirmasens, has the responsibility for providing all medical supplies and equipment used by the US Army in Europe. This includes the functions of inventory and stock control, distribution and storage and issue of medical items. All the varied activities of the 7th Medical Command exist to bring the best possible care to the soldier and his family and to prepare for health care support of USAREUR in time of war. From the headquarters of the command in Heidelberg, to every medical treatment facility, the patient comes first and that's what 7th Medical Command is all about. |
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| Related Links: CHAPTER XI: Redeployment and Occupation - Official historical manuscript that describes in some detail the U.S. Army medical supply system as it existed during World War II. Chapter XI covers the early Occupation period in Europe. |
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