Calendar No. 478 
80th Congress 
1st Session 
SENATE 
Report 
No. 464 
THE ARMY-NAVY MEDICAL SERVICES CORPS ACT OF 1947 
July 9 (legislative day, July 7), 1947.—Ordered to be printed 
Mr. Hill, from the Committee on Armed Services, submitted the 
following 
REPORT 
[To accompany H. R. 3215] 
The Committee on Armed Services, to whom was referred the bill 
(Hi I£. 3215) to revise the Medical Department of the Army and the 
Medical Department of the Navy, and for other purposes, having 
considered the same, report favorably thereon with amendments and 
recommend that the bill do pass. 
Amend the bill as follows; 
On page 4 at end of line 1 change the colon to a semicolon, strike 
out all of lines 2 to 8, inclusive, and insert in lieu thereof the following: 
and each person appointed and commissioned an officer of the Medical Service 
Corps who at the time of appointment holds a degree of doctor of philosophy or 
comparable degree recognized by the Surgeon General in a science allied to medi- 
cine may, subject to regulations as prescribed by the Secretary of War, be credited 
at the time of appointment with an amount of service equal to three years. 
On page 11, strike out lines 18 to 25, inclusive, and on page 12, 
strike out lines 1 to 11, inclusive, and insert in lieu thereof the follow- 
ing- 
Hereafter the authorized strength of the Hospital Corps of the Navy shall 
equal 3% per centum of the authorized enlisted strength of the Navy and Marine 
Corps. The Secretary of the Navy is authorized, in' his discretion, to establish 
such grades and ratings in the Hospital Corps as he may deem necessary in the 
proper administration of such corps; Provided, That enlisted men of other ratings 
in the Navy and in the Marine Corps shall be eligible for transfer to the Hospital 
Corps, and men of that corps to other ratings in the Navy and the Marine Corps. 
On page 12, strike out lines 14 to 17, inclusive, and insert in lieu 
thereof the following: 
The Secretary of the Navy may hereafter appoint as many warrant officers in 
the Hospital Corps, as may be deemed necessary, from the rating of chief petty 
officer or petty officer, first class, in the Hospital Corps: Provided, That no person 
shall be appointed. 2 
THE ARMY-NAVY MEDICAL SERVICES CORPS ACT OF 194 7 
Purpose of the Bill 
* The purpose of the bill is to establish in the Medical Departments 
of the Regular Army and Navy a Aledical Service Corps with a Reserve 
component, which will be composed of pharmacists, sanitary engineers, 
optometrists, psychologists, bacteriologists, business administrators 
and similar sKills. 
Necessity for the Bill 
The Army and Navy Medical Departments perform many functions 
other than the purely professional services rendered by the physicians, 
surgeons, and dentists. As is true in civil life, the problem of caring 
for the sick and disabled in the armed services embraces many highly 
specialized and important tasks which are supplemental to the pro- 
fessional work of the doctors. These tasks are numerous as well as 
diverse. In addition to vitally important research now going forward 
in the medical sciences, there are such fields as administration, phar- 
macy, hospital management, sanitation, insect and pest control, and 
many others. Highly trained specialists and scientists, as well as 
skilled technicians and administrators, are ; mong the personnel 
involved in these tasks. 
As currently organized, neither the Army nor the Navy Aledical 
Departments have a separate corps to which this personnel is assigned. 
The large number of military occupational specialties involved in so 
heterogeneous a group results in a comparatively small number in each 
specialty, with the result that organizing a separate corps for each 
specialty would be impracticable. Sound administration, however, 
dictates that all personnel within the military structure should belong 
to an administrative grouping, so as to- permit of proper personnel 
management. For that reason it is proposed to group the officer 
personnel here under discussion as a single corps, to be known as the 
Aledical Service Corps. Enlisted personnel on duties analagous to 
those performed by the officers are included in the Aledical Depart- 
ments,-and are not broken down into separate corps. 
Explanation of the Bill 
TITLE I—ARMY MEDICAL SERVICE CORPS 
Section 101: Provides for the statutory establishment of a Aledical 
Service Corps in the Army with three sections; Pharmacy, Supply; 
and Administration Section; a Aledical Allied Sciences Section; an 
Optometry Section, and such other sections as the Secretary of War 
may deem If further provides the strength of the corps 
to be established by the Secretary of War and provides a 2-percent 
limit on the officer strength of full colonels. 
Section 102; (a) Provides for the appointment of a chief of the 
Medical Service Corps by the Secretary of War in the grade of colonel 
from officers of the corps of major or above. 
(b) Establishes the appointment of assistant chiefs to be consult- 
ants to the Surgeon General on activities peculiar to a specific section. 
(c) Provides for the retirement of the Chief of the corps with the 
rank of colonel after having served 4 years as Chief of the corps. 
Section 103: Establishes the qualifications for initial appointments 
in the corps. It permits the entrance of a man coming in as second THE ARMY-NAVY MEDICAL SERVICES CORPS ACT OF 194 7 
3 
lieutenant between the ages of 21 and 30 years, if he is physically and 
otherwise qualified. The proviso in this section which permits ap- 
pointments from sources other than the Regular Army or its active 
Reserve, removes any bar from an enlisted man getting a commission 
in this corps. The proviso further states that if a person enters the 
corps directly from civil life and not as a Regular Army or active 
Reserve officer, he must have a 4-year college-graduate educational 
level. It further provides that if such person has a doctorate degree, 
he may at the time of the appointment be given 3 years’ service 
credit for determining grade, position on promotion list, permanent 
grade seniority, and eligibility for promotion, and he would then come 
in as a first lieutenant with 3 years’ service credit. 
Section 104: Provides that promotion from second lieutenant to 
lieutenant colonel, inclusive, shall be in accordance with the present 
law for promotion of promotion-list officers to such grades, respec- 
tively. Promotion to colonel to be by selection from officers having 
at least 1 year’s service as lieutenant colonels. 
Section 105: Provides for the amendment of Public Law 281, 
Seventy-ninth Congress, in order to integrate into the new corps those 
persons now in the Pharmacy Corps. Under Public Law 281, as 
amended, the Regular Army Pharmacy Corps was used as a vehicle 
for integration and qualified wartime officers were integrated on a 
base age of 25 years in the grades of second lieutenant to major, 
inclusive, into the Regular Army Pharmacy Corps. Since the 
Medical Service Corps will replace the Pharmacy Corps, on the pro- 
motion list of the Army generally, Public Law 281 must be amended 
so that the present members of the Pharmacy Corps may be integrated 
into the new corps on the same basis as promotion-list officers, rather 
than on the basis of the Pharmacy Corps, which was used only as a 
vehicle. 
Section 106: Provides for the transfer of all officers in the present 
Regular Army Pharmacy Corps to the Medical Service Corps, without 
loss of time, grade, position, or seniority. 
Section 107: (a) Abolishes the Pharmacy Corps and the Medical 
Administrative Corps, which are the two Regular Army corps that 
exist at the present time for this type of personnel. "By the act of 
June 12, 1943 (57 Stat. 430), a Pharmacy Corps was established in 
the Regular Army, and although the Medical Administrative Corps 
was not abolished, it was provided that officers holding commissions 
in the Medical Administrative Corps would be transferred to the 
Pharmacy Corps. The Medical Administrative Corps was thus left 
without personnel. 
(ib) Of this section it is necessary to provide for temporary officers 
who are on active duty at this time by virtue of AUS commissions. The 
Medical Administrative Corps and the Pharmacy Corps in which they 
are personally detailed is being abolished by this legislation. There- 
fore, some provision must be made in order to effect their transfer 
to the new Medical Service Corps. 
(c) Authorizes the Secretary of War to prescribe such regulations 
as are necessary to implement this title. 
(d) Is a routine wording for all Army legislation, that no back pay 
accrues by reason of this enactment. 
(e) Abolishes any laws which are inconsistent or in conflict with 
title I of the act. 4 
THE ARMY-NAVY MEDICAL SERVICES CORPS ACT OF 194 7 
TITLE II NAVY MEDICAL SERVICE CORPS 
Section 201: Is similar to section 101 which establishes a Medical 
Service Corps for the Army. This section establishes such a corps 
for the Navy with similar provisions. It establishes the strength of 
the corps and provides for their precedence next after officers of the 
Dental Corps and places a limit of 2 percent on the number of captains 
who may be on the active list at any one time. 
Section 202: Provides that officers of this corps will be officers of a 
staff corps and that all provisions of law now existing or hereafter 
enacted will be applicable to them. The only difference between the 
composition of selection board for staff officers of this corps is that 
the selection board shall be composed of not less than six nor more 
than nine officers of the Medical Corps not below the rank of captain. 
As a result of this, provision, any subsequent enactments applicable to 
the Medical Corps would automatically include staff officers of the 
Medical Service Corns. 
Section 203: Public Law 347 is the act under which Reserve officers 
are integrated into the Navy and is reiterated here for the purpose of 
the integration of Reserve officers into the Medical Service Corps of 
the Navy. 
Section 204: Defines the qualifications of persons who are eligible 
for appointment in the Medical Service Corps of the Navy. They 
shall be in the grade of ensign from those persons serving as commis- 
sioned warrant or warrant officers of the Hospital Corps of the Regu- 
lar Navy and from other persons who possess such physical and other 
qualifications for appointment as may be prescribed by the Secretary 
of the Navy. This section also provides that appointments from 
sources other than the Regular Navy shall be from persons who are 
graduates of recognized schools of pharmacy, optometry, or other 
schools or colleges with degrees in sciences allied to medicine or such 
degrees as may be approved by the Surgeon General. It also pro- 
vides that persons holding a doctorate degree may be appointed in the 
grade of lieutenant (junior grade). 
Section 205; Provides that all appointments in the Medical Service 
Corps shall be made by the President by and with the advice and con- 
sent of the Senate. 
Section 206: Authorizes the Secretary of the Navy to revoke the 
commission of any officer appointed pursuant to section 204 of this 
act. 
Section 207; Precludes officers of the Medical Service Corps from 
the right to command in the line or any other staff corps of the Navy. 
Section 208: Is a technical section which is necessary in order to 
bring the Medical Service Corps within the purview of present laws 
or laws which may be subsequently enacted relating to the various 
staff corps of the Navy. 
Section 209: Authorizes the Secretary of Navy to prescribe the 
necessary regulations to carry out the provisions of title II. 
TITLE III—THE HOSPITAL CORPS OF THE NAVY 
Title III is merely the reenactment of the existing law which is 
necessary because of the desire of the Navy Department to remove the 
misnomer under which Navy pharmacists have always suffered. The 
word “pharmacist” is thfe Navy Hospital Corps is in reality a mis- THE ARMY-NAVY MEDICAL SERVICES CORPS ACT OF 194 7 
5 
nomer and by the changing of certain designations, the misnomer is 
herein removed. 
Subparagraph (b) of section 301 has the purpose of permitting 
original appointments in the Medical Service Corps from first-class 
petty officers as well as chief petty officers. 
Section 302 is a restatement of existing law. 
Committee Amendments 
The amendment on page 4 does not change the intent or scope of 
the original language; it brings the wording into agreement with that 
contained in H. R. 3830, the Army-Navy promotion bill, now under 
consideration in the Senate Armed Services Committee. This amend- 
ment was requested by the War Department. 
The amendment on page 11 rewords the language in the original 
bill. This wording was very detailed as regards the listing of ratings 
by name. Such a procedure is considered impracticable because it 
is frequently desirable to change the names of ratings. The effect 
of the amendment will be to authorize the Secretary of the Navy to 
establish and name the grades and ratings in the Hospital Corps in 
the same manner as he may now do under existing law with respect 
to all other ratings in the Navy. This amendment was recommended 
by the Navy Department. 
The amendment, beginning on line 14, page 12, authorizes the 
Secretary of the Navy, instead of the President, to appoint warrant 
officers in the Hospital Corps of the Navy. 
RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE DEPARTMENTS 
H. R. 3215 is a combination of three separate bills: H. R. 1982, a 
bill to establish a Medical Service Corps in the Army; H. R. 1361, 
a bill to establish the commissioned grade of medical administrator 
in the Hospital Corps of the Navy; and H. R. 1603, a bill to establish 
the Medical Associated Sciences Corps in the Medical Department 
of the Navy. Both the War and Navy Departments concurred in 
the original bills, which were cleared by the Bureau of the Budget. 
The following letters from the Secretary of War and the Acting 
Secretary of the Navy to the Speaker of the House, and from the 
Surgeons General of the two services to Maj. Arthur H. Einbeck, 
Chairman, Committee on Status of Pharmacists in the Government 
Service, are attached hereto and made a part of this report. 
February 4, 1947. 
The Speaker, 
The House of Representatives. 
Dear Mr. Speaker: There is enclosed herewith a draft of bill to revise the 
Medical Department of the Army and for other purposes, which the War De- 
partment recommends be enacted into law. 
The purpose of title I of the proposed legislation is to establish in the Medical 
Department of the Army a corps to be known as the Medical Service Corps which 
wih absorb the. Pharmacy Corps and the Medical Administrative Corps and will 
consist of a Pharmacy Section, the Medical Allied Science Section, the Optometry 
Section, and such other sections as may be deemed necessary by the Secretary 
of War. Officers of the Medical Service Corps will perform duties as biochemists, 
nutritional experts, optometrists, bacteriologists, parasitologists, and related spe- 
cialists. The promotion system for officers of the Medical Service Corps would be 
the same as now or hereafter provided for officers of the promotion-list arms and 
services, except that promotion to the grade of colonel would be' by selection and 6 
THE ARMY-NAVY MEDICAL SERVICES CORPS ACT OF 1947 
the number of officers in this grade would be limited to 2 percent of the Regular 
Army authorized commissioned strength of the corps. It should be noted in 
this connection, however, that under existing law. lieutenant colonels after 30 
years’ service draw the same pay and allowances as a colonel even though not 
promoted to such rank. Officers commissioned in the Pharmacy Corps would be 
transferred to the Medical Service Corps in grade, and would be thereafter pro- 
moted according to the above promotion system. No back pay would accrue 
to any person by reason of the proposed act. 
The proposed Medical Service Corps is an integral part of the postwar plan for 
the Medical Department of the Army. Experience during the war has demon- 
strated the advisability of the inclusion of scientific assistants in the Medical 
Department. It is desired that the various categories be placed in one Medical 
Service Corps, all of whom would be placed on equal footing and promoted after 
completion of years of service similar to officers of the promotion-list arms and 
services. Separate corps for each of the various categories needed in the Army 
would not make for efficient administration. 
Prior to July 12, 1943, the law provided for a Medical Administrative Corps in 
the Medical Department of the Army. Officers of this corps were promoted to the 
grade of first lieutenant and captain after 5 years’ and 10 years’ commissioned 
service, respectively. The act of July 12, 1943 (10 U. S. C. 131), established in the 
Medical Department the Pharmacy Corps and provided that officers of the Regu- 
lar Army holding commissions in the Medical Administrative Corps on the date 
of enactment of the act be transferred to the Pharmacy Corps. This act pro- 
vided that officers be promoted to the grades of first lieutenant, captain, major, 
lieutenant colonel, and colonel after completion of 3, 6, 12, 20, and 26 years, 
respectively, which placed these officers on a promotion system more rapid than 
those of the promotion-list arms and services, whereas prior to the act, the officers 
of the Medical Administrative Corps were promoted more slowly than the promo- 
tion-list officers. 
Not including the officers now being integrated under the current integration 
program authorized by Public Law 281, Seventy-ninth Congress, as amended, 
there are relatively few (approximately 70) officers in the Pharmacy Corps of the 
Regular Army. Officers of the various categories to be included in the Medical 
Service Corps were utilized during the war as officers of the Army of the United 
States. Public Law 281, Seventy-ninth Congress, approved December 28, 1945, 
authorized the commissioning of officers in both the Pharmacy Corps and the 
Medical Administrative Corps; however, for administrative reasons such officers 
are currently being integrated only in the Pharmacy Corps. The number of 
officers now being appointed therein will bring the strength of this corps to ap- 
proximately 1,650 officers. The proposed legislation would effect the transfer in 
grade of these officers to the Medical Service Corps. They include many cate- 
gories other than pharmacists. 
The purpose of title II of proposed draft of bill is to establish the Army Nurse 
Corps and the Women’s Medical Specialists Corps in the Medical Department 
of the Regular Army. The Women’s Medical Specialist Corps will consist of a 
Dietitian Section, a Physical Therapists Section, and an Occupational Therapists 
Section. 
It is necessary that the personnel of the corps mentioned above be appointed 
to commissions in the Regular Army for the following reasons: 
(а) Nurses, physical therapists, and dietitians have been officers in the Army 
of the United States during World War II. In this capacity, these officers have 
contributed immeasurably to the welfare of our wounded, and have been a credit 
not only to the Medical Department, but to the Army as a whole. The use of 
occupational therapists who were civilians during World War II will require their 
militarization in the postwar Army with placement on an equal status with the 
nurses, dietitians, and physical therapists. Personnel in these categories are now 
being recruited by other governmental and civilian agencies. In order to obtain 
their services, it is important that they be offered commissions in the Regular 
Army. 
(б) By offering commissioned status to such personnel, the Medical Depart- 
ment will be able to procure the services of individuals possessing high profes- 
sional standards of performance and efficiency. The requirements for appoint- 
ment in the Army Nurse Corps, or in sections of the Women’s Medical Specialty 
Corps, will be high, necessitating educational training and background consistent 
with commissioned status in the Army. Applicants possessing qualifications for 
such corps would be graduates of recognized institutions in the field of their 
specialty, and their educational background would be commensurate with that THE ARMY-NAVY MEDICAL SERVICES CORPS ACT OF 194 7 
7 
required for other officers. If early legislative authorization is obtained, those 
best qualified may be given an opportunity to remain in the Medical Department 
of the Army to carry out the postwar program. 
(c) The personnel involved must be subject to transfer from one Army hospital 
to another and to foreign theaters, including the Philippines, Hawaii, and outpost 
islands. The nursing and collateral services of this personnel must be mobile, 
and it is impossible to perfect such an organization in the civilian status. Their 
militarization is indispensable to the successful operation of Army hospitals and 
will be more so in the postwar period. 
(d) To maintain proper discipline and control in the operation of hospital 
wards, kitchens, and clinics, and the care of military personnel, it is necessary 
that those exercising this control be commissioned and have authority as officers. 
(e) Commissioning the female personnel referred to above will secure per- 
manency and continuity in service which could not be obtained through civil- 
service employment. 
(/) The cost of commissioning this female personnel in the postwar Army would 
be no greater than the cost of their employment as civilians, first, because the 
competitive salaries paid in civilian institutions for women performing similar 
services are much higher, and, second, because of the necessity for a larger staff in 
a civilian status. 
(g) Public opinion has looked with great favor upon the nurse as a commissioned 
officer in World War II, and to deny her the officer status in the postwar Army 
would demoralize and destroy the Army Nurse Corps. The physical therapists 
and the dietitians stand in the same position. 
(h) Army nurses and the female personnel included in sections of the Women’s 
Medical Specialty Corps are an indispensable part of the Medical Department of 
the Army. Proper medical care cannot be given without their services. They 
have a logical and necessary place in the Army. During the war their service was 
not to replace men but to perform a task which has always been essentially a 
woman’s duty. The work of all—the nurse, the physical therapist, the dietitian, 
and the occupational therapist—is interrelated. 
The Army Nurse Corps has been in the Regular Army as a militarized force 
since 1901. Nurses held relative rank with officers, but there was discrimination 
in pay to the detriment of the nurse. Public Law 828, Seventy-seventh Congress 
approved December 22, 1942, continued relative rank but increased the pay to 
the same amount as male officers. Public Law 350, Seventy-eighth Congress, 
approved June 22, 1944, places the nurse in the same AUS status as all officers, 
giving them the same benefits, privileges, and command authority in the sphere 
of their action. There have been 80,444 nurses as Army officers, AUS, under 
the authority of this act. There will be a need of 6 nurses per 1,000 in the 
strength of the postwar Army, with a minimum requirement as set out in the 
proposed legislation. It is hoped to select from those who have had the experience 
in this war, the best as a nucleus for the postwar Army Nurse Corps, and to 
expand it as the Army increases, from the best of younger nurses from civilian 
life over the period of years ahead. Military status will attract the best. With- 
out it, it is a practical impossibility to obtain this needed personnel. 
Physical therapists and dietitians were accorded relative rank upon the passage 
of Public Law 828, Seventy-seventh Congress, and were appointed to temporary 
commissions in the AUS upon the passsage of Public Law 350, Seventy-eighth 
Congress. Educational standards for physical therapists, dietitians, and occupa- 
tional therapists are high. All must possess college degrees with major emphasis 
in their particular field and possess specialized training in addition. Their func- 
tions vary. Physical therapists are in hospitals administering highly specialized 
treatment for the sick and wounded as prescribed and directed by a medical 
officer and are in continuous association with medical officers and nurses. Dieti- 
tians supervise preparation and serving of food to the sick and wounded and 
likewise are in intimate association with the nurses, physical therapists and other 
medical department officers. Occupational therapists are concerned with the 
reconditioning and rehabilitation of patients who, because of their injuries or 
ailments, are handicapped in their vocations or avocations. All three categories 
are relatively small. The appointment to commission of their members is neces- 
sary in order to insure continued special care to the patients in Army hospitals. 
Creation of a Medical Service Corps under title I will not occasion any additional 
cost to the Government, since the strength of the corps is within the authorized 
increment for the Regular Army, and since the functions prescribed in section 101 
for this corps must be performed in any event. Total annual costs to the Govern- 
ment will be approximately the same whether the various categories of specialists 8 
THE ARMY-NAVY MEDICAL SERVICES CORPS ACT OF 194 7 
to be included within the corps perform their functions in the corps or in another 
branch of the Army. The change in promotion system over a period of years will 
result in a slight decrease in cost to the Government. Title II of the proposed 
legislation will not result in any immediate increase in cost to the Government as 
the officers appointed will replace temporary officers now on active duty and a 
relatively small number of civilian occupational therapists whose salaries parallel 
that of the officers who will replace them. The War Department is unable at this 
time to determine the fiscal effect of the proposed legislation in future years. 
The Bureau of the Budget advises that there is no objection to the submission 
of this proposed legislation for the consideration of the Congress. 
Respectfully, 
Robert P. Patterson, 
Secretary of War. 
Navy' Department, 
Washington, January 6, 1947. 
Hon. Joseph W. Martin, Jr., 
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. 
My Dear Mr. Speaker: There is transmitted herewith a draft of a proposed 
bill to establish the commissioned grade of Medical Administrator in the Hospital 
Corps of the Navy, and for other purposes. 
The purpose of the proposed legislation is to provide for the appointment of 
commissioned officers in the Hospital Corps in the grade of medical administrator 
with rank from ensign to captain, inclusive. Such officers would be staff officers 
subject to all laws relating to advancement in rank and retirement of other staff 
officers of the Navy, and the total number of such officers would not exceed 3 per- 
cent of the authorized strength of the Hospital Corps. Initial appointments of 
officers would be made under the authority of the act of April 18, 1946 (Public 
Law 347, 79th Cong., 2d sess.). Initial appointments of graduates of recognized 
schools of pharmacy and graduates of recognized schools granting degrees in 
sciences allied to medicine other than pharmacy would be limited to specified 
percentages. In addition to the initial appointments, original appointments 
would be made in the rank of ensign, from persons not over 32 years of age and 
from the following classes in specified percentages; (a) Members of the Hospital 
Corps in commissioned warrant or warrant grades, (h) graduates of recognized 
schools of pharmac}" and (c) graduates of recognized schools granting degrees in 
sciences allied to medicine other than pharmacy. Provisions are also included 
requiring establishment of qualifications for appointment; permitting revocation 
of commissions of original appointees while serving with the rank of ensign; 
assignment of running mates upon removal of the suspension of permanent 
promotions; limiting the command of Hospital Corps officers and preventing 
reduction in pay or allowances by reason of appointment under the act. The bill 
would also amend existing law to change the classifications of the enlisted men of 
the Hospital Corps. 
The Bureau of Medicine and Surgery has been handicapped in its efforts to 
maintain the highest possible standards of efficiency throughout the Medical 
Department of the Navy (a) from the managerial standpoint, because of the 
inadequate rank of the officers of the Hospital Corps, which has resulted in either 
the inability of the Medical Department to make the fullest use of their qualifica- 
tions, or the assignment to such officers of duties and responsibilities far in excess 
of those commensurate with their warrant or commissioned warrant status; and 
(b) from the professional standpoint, because of the absence of any provision of 
law whereby members of the professions allied to medicine could be commissioned 
in the Medical Department of the Regular Navy in ranks commensurate with 
their educational qualifications and professional attainments. 
The experiences of the Navy during World War II have demonstrated that 
there are many managerial and professional duties within the Medical Depart- 
ment which, while not requiring personnel with the professional qualifications of 
medical practitioners, do demand qualifications and impose responsibilities of a 
higher order than those normally assigned to personnel of the warrant grades. 
Such duties are those concerned with the administration and management of 
hospitals, medical supply depots, medical storehouses, Hospital Corps schools 
and naval dispensaries, and with the medical department headquarters of naval 
districts, naval bases, and fleet and force commanders, and in particular with the THE ARMY-NAVY MEDICAL SERVICES CORPS ACT OF 194 7 
9 
personnel, materiel and fiscal aspects -of these activities. Such duties also include 
scientific research, hygiene and sanitation, and treatment and corrective pro- 
cedures requiring highly specialized services of a professional character closely 
allied to the professions of medicine, surgery, and dentistry. Because of the 
nature of the institutions operated by the Medical Department of the Navy and 
because its mission involves naval and military, as well as professional and tech- 
nical aspects, individuals qualified to meet these diversified requirements must 
be drawn both from within the Medical Department of the Navy and from those 
individuals in civil life who are qualified by education and experience in the pro- 
fessions allied to the medical profession. 
The handicaps referred to above have been overcome to an extent during World 
War II by the expedient of promoting officers of the Hospital Corps to temporary 
commissioned rank and by commissioning in the Naval Reserve members of the 
professions allied to the medical profession. The temporary promotions in com- 
missioned ranks may only continue in force until 6 months after the termination 
of the act of June 30, 1942 (56 Stat. 463). Unless legislation such as that hereby 
proposed is enacted at an early date, the Medical Department of the Navy, in 
the near future, may well expect to find itself in the same situation, insofar as 
this personnel problem is concerned, as existed during the period between the 
close of World War I and the beginning of World War II. 
The length of service of permanent officers of the Hospital Corps, who are now 
serving in temporary commissioned ranks, varies in individual cases from 16 
to 40 years. Many of these officers hold degrees in law, chemistry, pharmacy, 
accountancy, and business administration, pharmaceutical chemistry and degrees 
in other sciences allied to medicine. The majority of the permanent officers of 
the Hospital Corps have attended colleges, universities, or other special courses 
of instruction, either in naval or civilian institutions, in one or more of the special- 
ties allied to the work of the Medical Department. All of these who have 
attended civilian institutions of learning have done so on their own initiative, in 
addition to their regular full-time duties, and in many cases at their own expense, 
and consequently these officers were able to assume responsibilities of a higher 
grade than those demanded of their rank and to render greater services to the 
Navy. 
Laws relating to the Medical Department of the Army have provided in the 
Medical Administrative Corps and in the Pharmacy Corps commissioned rank 
for nonmedical personnel from second lieutenant to colonel, inclusive, similar to 
that in the proposed legislation for the personnel of the Hospital Corps. 
On the basis of the authorized strength of the Navy established by the act of 
April 18, 1946 (Public Law 347, 79th Cong., 2d sess.), the number of Hospital 
Corps officers under the proposed legislation would be 630. In order to avoid 
“humps” in the promotion list the officer strength of the Hospital Corps would be 
built up over a period of years. It is proposed that 75 percent of the billets would 
be filled during the fiscal year 1947, and that an additional 5 percent over and 
above attrition, would be appointed each succeeding year until 100 percent of 
the authorized officer strength would be reached during the fiscal year 1952. 
The estimated cost of the proposed legislation is set forth in enclosure 1, which 
is attached hereto. 
For the foregoing reasons the Navy Department recommends enactment of the 
proposed legislation. 
The Navy Department has been advised by the Bureau of the Budget that there 
is no objection to the submission of this report to the Congress. 
Sincerely yours, 
W. John Kenney, 
Acting Secretary of the Navy, 10 
THE ARMY-NAVY MEDICAL SERVICES CORPS ACT OF 194 7 
Estimated cost of the proposed Hospital Corps bill over the 10-year period, July 1, 
to July 1, 1956 
Fiscal period 
Estimated cost 
of proposed 
bill 
Estimated cost 
under existing 
law 
Excess cost 
of proposed 
bill over cost 
under existing 
law. 
July 1, 1946, to July 1, 1947 ___ 
July t, 1947, to July 1, 1948 . 
July i, 1948, to July 1, 1949 - 
July 1, 1949, to July 1, 1950 
July 1, 1950, to July 1, i951 
July 1, 1951, to July 1, 1952 _ 
July 1. 1952, to July 1, 1953 
July 1, 1953, to July 1, 1954 
July 1, 1954, to July 1, 1955 
July 1. 1955, to July 1, 1956 
$1, 960, 211 
2, 094,649 
2, 222, 027 
2, 354, 508 
2.483,056 
2, 617,493 
2, 617,493 
2, 617, 493 
2, 617, 493 
2, 617, 493 
$1, 829,000 
1,953,000 
2, 072, 914 
2, 196,914 
2, 316, 828 
2, 440, 828 
2, 440, 828 
2.440, 828 
2.440, 828 
2, 440, 828 
$131, 211 
141,649 
149,113 
157, 594 
166, 227 
176.665 
176.665 
176, 665 
176.665 
176.665 
Total 
Average per year 
Average per officer per year . _ _ _____ 
24,201,915 
22, 572, 796 
1,629,119 
2,420,192 
4,154 
. 2, 257, 280 
3, 874 
4, 782 
162,912 
280 
Average per U. S. Navy officer in Navy for month of 
March 1946 (from BuPers) 
Navy Department, 
Washington, January 22, 19J+7. 
Hon. Joseph W. Martin, Jr., 
Speaker of the House of Representatives, 
Washington, D. C. 
My Dear Mr. Speaker: There is transmitted herewith a draft of a proposed 
bill “to establish the Medical Associated Sciences Corps in the Medical Depart- 
ment of the Navy, and for other purposes.” 
The purpose of the proposed legislation is to establish a Medical Associated 
Sciences Corps which shall be a constituent part of the Medical Department of 
the Navy. Officers would be appointed in the grade of medical associated scien- 
tist with rank from lieutenant (junior grade) to captain, inclusive. Such officers 
would be staff officers subject to all laws relating to the advancement in rank and 
retirement of officers of the Medical Corps of the Navy, and the total number of 
such officers would not exceed 205. All appointments in the Medical Associated 
Sciences Corps would be from male citizens who have received a doctorate degree 
in such sciences related to medicine as the Secretary of the Navy would deter- 
mine. Initial appointments would be made in accordance with the act of April 
18, 1946 (Public Law 347, 79th Cong., 2d sess.); and upon the termination of the 
appointive powers of the President under that act, all other appointments would 
be made in the rank of lieutenant (junior grade) from male citizens between the 
ages of 21 and 32 years. The proposed bill also contains provisions requiring the 
establishment of qualifications for appointment; assignment of running mates 
upon the removal of the suspension of permanent promotions; limiting the com- 
mand of the Medical Associated Sciences Corps; and preventing any reduction in 
pay or allowances by reason of appointment under the act. 
In the expansion of the Medical Department of the Navy to meet the demands 
of the recent war on a global basis, several hundred persons skilled in sciences 
related to medicine were appointed and commissioned in the Naval Reserve with 
the classification of specialists in the Hospital Corps. These scientists were 
drawn from the fields of research in basic and applied areas which included all 
fields and disciplines related to function of man, and therefore encompassed the 
range from mathematics, physics, and engineering through psychology, physi- 
ology, bacteriology, biology, and medicine proper. 
Specifically, their investigations involved the bacteriological, physiological, 
and biochemical facets of man’s existence in order to control his well-being, thereby 
enabling him to cope with the multitude of complex biological insults occasioned 
by a military effort; the biological, psychological, and psychophysiological founda- 
tions of personnel selection and training which, in essence, embraced not only a 
study of human behavior, but also of human capacities integrated with engi- 
neering design in order to simplify operations, thus bringing them within the normal 
range of attainment; the environmental conditions with special reference to clima- 
tologic situations likely to be encountered by naval forces, and environmental 
conditions aboard craft, either ship, plane, or submarine. THE ARMY-NAVY MEDICAL SERVICES CORPS ACT OF 194 7 
11 
These scientists by their singular efforts made many useful and revolutionary 
contributions without which the morbidity and mortality rate of our armed 
forces could not have been reduced to the lowest the world has ever known. 
In the postwar years the responsibilities of the Navy and of the Medical 
Department of the Navy will continue to be world-wide and to require a con- 
tinuation of the activities in research and in the sciences related to medicine 
which were conducted during the war. The Medical Department of the Navy 
cannot, in justice to the Navy nor to the United States, withdraw to the narrower 
field of prewar research. There is no method under existing law whereby these 
scientists can be transferred to the Regular Navy, and their services cannot be 
utilized to the fullest benefit of the Navy if they should be appointed in the pro- 
fessional grades of the civil service. In the absence of legislation such as that 
proposed herein, the Navy is now losing to civil life, and will continue to lose, 
these scientists who will be so essential in the postwar operation of the Navy. 
Without these scientists the Navy will be unable to keep ahead in medical research, 
in the prevention and control of disease, in the invention of methods to preserve 
the lives of the injured and of those subjected to the privations of long exposure 
in small boats or life rafts or when cast ashore on unfriendly islands or countries 
and in the many other fields of the sciences which are related to medicine. 
For the above reasons, the Navy Department recommends enactment of the 
proposed bill. 
Enactment of the proposed legislation would result in no additional cost to the 
Government inasmuch as the medical associated scientists shall be part of the 
authorized strength of the various corps of the Medical Department. 
The Navy Department has been advised by the Bureau of the Budget that 
there is no objection to the submission of this report to the Congress. 
Sincerely yours, 
John L. Sullivan, 
Acting Secretary of the Navy. 
Department of the Navy, 
Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, 
Washington, D. C., May 9, 19^7. 
Maj. Arthur H. Einbeck, 
Chairman, Committee on Status of Pharmacists in the Government Service, 
West New York, N. J. 
Dear Major Einbeck : This letter is to confirm the salient points covered in my 
discussion with members of your committee who visited me on May 6, 1947. I 
emphasized that while I serve as Surgeon General of the Navy, it is my intention 
to use commissioned officers who are graduate pharmacists for the practice of 
pharmacy in the Navy, wherever the exigencies of the naval service will permit. 
It is my intention to utilize commissioned graduate pharmacists in the teaching of 
pharmacy in our Hospital Corps schools and in the United States Naval Medical 
School, National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, Md. Our object of commis- 
sioning graduates of accredited colleges of pharmacy in the naval service is to 
provide a better pharmaceutical service which these officers, by their education 
and training, are fully qualified to render. 
If H. R. 3215 is enacted into law, it will give us authority to commission a 
number of college-trained pharmacists, with the bachelor of science degree, 
proportionate to the size of the Navy. These men will be assigned to pharma- 
ceutical duties provided for in the organization of the naval service, and we will 
assign a competent pharmacist to each of the bureau chiefs dealing with problems 
involving the procurement, dispensing, and general use of drugs or rendering other 
distinctly pharmaceutical services. 
In the Medical Allied Sciences Section we will have places for men with a basic 
pharmaceutical training who have completed graduate studies leading to the 
degree of doctor of philosophy or doctor of science. 
In building up our Pharmacy, Supply, and Administration Section, we shall 
make full use of trained pharmacists for specific pharmaceutical services, and the 
annual increments from sources other than the Regular Navy will be made up 
entirely of graduates of accredited colleges of pharmacy as far as the supply of 
men for strictly pharmaceutical duties are concerned. 
In the development of this phase of the Medical Service Corps, we solicit the 
support of pharmaceutical organizations in the procurement of graduate pharma- 
cists for both the Regular Navy and the Naval Reserve. 12 
THE ARMY-NAVY MEDICAL SERVICES CORPS ACT OF 194 7 
To this end we expect to call upon members of your profession who are out- 
standing in their field to assist us in an advisory capacity, and I shall name one 
or more advisers from among competent persons whom your organization may 
suggest. 
It is my conviction that the provisions of H. R. 3215 and the legislation which 
gives us the power to create Reserves will bring about a more extensive and 
broader use of pharmacists in the Navy than we have had at any time in the 
past, and it shall be my endeavor to give the pharmacists who will be commis- 
sioned in the Navy and in the Reserve every opportunity to help build an out- 
standing pharmaceutical service. 
. C. A. Swanson, 
Rear Admiral (M. C.), U. S. Navy, 
Surgeon General, U. S. Navy. 
War Department, 
Office of the Surgeon General, 
Washington 25, D. C., May 9, 1947. 
Maj. Arthur H. Einbeck, 
Chairman, Committee on Status of Pharmacists 
in the Government Service, 
West New York, N. J. 
Dear Major Einbeck: This letter will serve to confirm my answers to the 
questions which the members of your committee raised in your conference with 
me on Tuesday, May 6, with reference to H. R. 3215. 
You asked whether the Chief of the Pharmacy, Supply, and Administration 
Section is to be a replied that as far as this Office is concerned 
there never was any question as to the policy regarding this appointment. We 
have already selected a Pharmacy Corps officer who holds the degree of bachelor 
of science from an accredited college of pharmacy to head this section, if and when 
H. R. 3215 is passed. It is the policy and intention of this Office to have the 
Pharmacy, Supply, and Administration Section of the Medical Service Corps 
headed by a qualified pharmacist who is a graduate of the 4-year course in phar- 
macy and holds the bachelor of science degree. This officer will also serve as 
consultant to the Surgeon General on pharmacy matters. 
You asked what the qualifications of the pharmacists, who are to be commis- 
sioned in the Pharmacy, Supply, and Administration Section, are to be, and I 
replied that the commissioned officers who will be assigned to supervise pharma- 
ceutical activities and who are to carry out the pharmaceutical duties in the 
Medical Service Corps will be required to be bachelors of science in pharmacy 
from accredited colleges of pharmacy. It is our firm intention to require at least 
the same qualifications for the supervision of pharmaceutical duties in the Army 
as are required in the practice of civilian pharmacy. 
You asked what the composition of the Pharmacy, Supply, and Administration 
Section will be in the course of time. I replied that the Pharmacy, Supply, and 
Administration Section of the Medical Service Corps, as ultimately developed, will 
consist primarily of pharmacists who are graduates of accredited colleges giving 
the bachelor of science degree. I pointed out that under the present integration 
program, there are a considerable number of officers who were previously com- 
missioned in the Medical Administrative Corps, the Sanitary Corps, and the 
Pharmacy Corps who will be transferred to the Medical Service Corps and that a 
relatively large percentage of these will be assigned to the Pharmacy, Supply, and 
Administration Section, but that the annual increments from outside the Regular 
Army to the Pharmacy, Supply, and Administration Section will be almost 
exclusively graduates of accredited colleges of pharmacy, if they are available, 
because their basic training makes them most adaptable for the auxiliary medical 
services requiring technical supervision. Obviously, the Medical Department of 
the Army must be ready to function at all times, and if we are unable to obtain a 
sufficient number of pharmacists from civilian sources, it will, of course, be neces- 
sary for us to develop our own personnel. It is in this phase of the development 
of the Medical Service Corps that we particularly require the cooperation of 
pharmaceutical organizations and educational institutions. 
You asked me to specify the duties of pharmacists in the Medical Service Corps 
and especially in the Pharmacy, Supply, and Administration Section. I replied 
that I am in complete agreement with the outline of duties planned for Pharmacy 
Corps officers, as set forth in the press release from the War Department, dated 
July 5, 1946, and a copy of this release is attached. I now wish to assure you THE ARMY-NAVY MEDICAL SERVICES CORPS ACT OF 1917 
13 
that it shall be my policy to effectuate as completely as possible the letter and 
spirit of the blueprint of duties of pharmacy officers as set forth in the foregoing 
press release. 
In our discussion, I suggested that we might wish to call upon a small number of 
members of your profession in an advisory capacity to assist us in formulating 
sound policies with respect to the future development of our pharmaceutical 
service, the procurement of supplies and personnel, and such other matters as 
may pertain to the good of the service and the advancement of your professional 
group, and I shall look to your committee to give us a list of names of competent 
persons from which a selection of pharmacy consultants will be made. 
In regard to your questions relative to a Medical Service Corps Reserve, we 
contemplate a most active Reserve of the Medical Service Corps, which should be 
most beneficial to graduate pharmacists. It is not necessary that H. R. 3215 
establish a Reserve component as that authority presently exists under the 
National Defense Act, by authorizing Reserve components of Regular Army 
Corps, as is presently the case with the Medical and Dental Corps. It is antic- 
ipated that graduates of senior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps units with 
bachelor of science degrees in pharmacy will on graduation be commissioned in the 
Pharmacy, Supply, and Administration Section of the Medical Service Corps 
Reserve. Of course they must meet the other necessary requirements and be 
properly recommended and desire such commission. I visualize that this group 
of young men will help to make the Medical Service Corps Reserve something in 
which the Army and the profession of pharmacy will take pride. We hope that 
as many as possible of your pharmacy graduates will avail themselves of this 
opportunity. 
In our conference, the recently published War Department Circular 101 was 
discussed briefly and some elaboration should be given for proper understanding. 
Pertinent features of this circular as it applies to pharmacists and the Medical 
Service Corps are as follows: 
1. Provides means for appointment in the Officers’ Reserve Corps for graduates 
of senior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps programs and for persons possessing 
bachelor of science degrees in pharmacy from accredited schools who are other- 
wise qualified. 
2. Provides means for appointment in the Regular Army from honor graduates 
of senior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps units (21 to 30 years of age). 
3. Provides means for appointment in the Regular Army from commissioned 
officers of the Officers’ Reserve Corps and National Guard, who have demon- 
strated their fitness by 1 year of extended active duty (21 to 30 years of age). 
4. Provides means for appointment in the Regular Army direct from civil life 
of persons holding bachelor of science degrees in pharmacy, between 21 to 30 
years of age by a professional examination, prepared and administered by the 
Surgeon General. 
In any future emergency, the Medical Service Corps Reserve will be a most 
important source of trained, skilled officers who will be a potent factor in assisting 
the Medical Department in carrying out its mission. 
As a matter of interest to your committee, I also informed you of certain recent 
actions relative to pharmaceutical service which have been taken by this office. 
A Central Therapeutic Agents Board has been appointed in the Office of the Sur- 
geon General. It will be the responsibility of this board to study information sub- 
mitted with a view to improving and standardizing operations, processes, and 
methods used by Army hospitals in applying the principles of theoretical phar- 
macy. Particular attention will be given to the establishment of policies on the 
supply of nonstandard agents for use in treating civilian dependents. Recom- 
mendations of the board will be prepared in directive form for Army hospitals for 
their information and guidance. The board will consist of the following or their 
duly authorized representatives: 
Chairman, Army Medical Research and Development Board, Chairman. 
Chief, Medical Consultants Division. 
Chief, Surgical Consultants Division. 
Chief, Hospital Division. 
Chief of Supply. 
A pharmacist member of the Surgeon General’s Office will serve on this board. 
Commanding officers of general hospitals have been directed to appoint thera- 
peutic agents boards in their hospitals for the purpose of making recommendations 
relative to the local purchase of nonstandard drugs and biologicals to be used by 
the hospitals. Each board will consist of not less than three officers, to include 14 
THE ARMY-NAVY MEDICAL SERVICES CORPS ACT OF 1947 
the Chief of Medical Service, the Chief of Surgical Service, and an officer of the 
Pharmacy Corps who is a registered pharmacist. 
The commanding officer of each general hospital has been directed to appoint 
a Pharmacy Corps officer who is a registered pharmacist as the officer in charge 
of the pharmacy. It is anticipated that later, this may be extended to include 
the larger station hospitals. 
It is my conviction that the passage of H. R. 3215, which will create a Medical 
Service Corps in the Army, will provide much better opportunities for a construc- 
tive pharmaceutical service in the Army and for cooperative participation in 
supplying such service on the part of the pharmacists of the United States in 
much larger numbers than would ever have been possible under the Pharmacy 
Corps Act which this legislation supersedes, 
I am encouraged by the offer of cooperation which I have received from your 
group and, in turn, I pledge you the interest and cooperation of the Medical 
Department of the Army in developing a pharmaceutical service for the Army, 
which will be outstanding in all respects and which will give the members of your 
profession who may be interested in a military career an opportunity for the full 
exercise of their professional training and ability. It was a pleasure to meet in 
conference with your committee and a helpful stimulus to mutual understanding 
and cooperation between military and civilian agencies for the betterment of 
the armed services. 
Sincerely yours, 
Raymond W. Bliss, 
Brigadier General, U. S. Army, 
Deputy Surgeon General