United States Armed Forces Medical Service

The medical service of the American military comprises several military organizational areas . Unlike the Bundeswehr ( Central Medical Service ), it is not structured centrally. In the US military, each branch of the armed forces has its own medical service.

In each branch of the armed forces , the medical service is commanded by the respective surgeon general .

history

The tensions between the 13 British colonies in North America and Great Britain due to politics and especially taxation led to the first conflicts in Lexington and Concord in April 1775 , which culminated in the American War of Independence . Shortly after the war began, the established, Continental Congress 'which Continental Army ' under the leadership of George Washington, the Continental Navy 'and the Continental Marines', each extending from the previously little-organized militia were composed; forces of the colonies. With the establishment of the Army, which initially comprised around 20,000 soldiers, the US Army Medical Service was set up on July 27, 1775 in the form of a first hospital to care for the wounded. The Medical Director (Director General and Chief Physician) of this hospital (Dr. Benjamin Church) is now considered to be the first surgeon general in Army Medicine. The hospital consisted of 4 doctors, a pharmacist and 20 other paramedics. But it was not until the 19th century that the Army Medical Service was held permanently and independently of the wars in the USA (from 1818), or doctors were obliged to serve in a military rank from 1847. Brigadier General Thomas Lawson is thus the first Surgeon General (from 1836 - 1861) with a military rank. During the Civil War (1861–1865), Major Jonathan Letterman revolutionized the medical service for the wounded on the battlefields of Antietam , Fredericksburg , Chancellorsville and Gettysburg within 18 months as the 'Father of Battlefield Medicine' by establishing the current principle of wound care starting from the wounded nest . With the 'General Orders Number 147' he also established the first MEDEVAC system in the form of the 'Ambulance Corps' with horse-drawn carriages and restructured the hospitals, which also moved closer to the battlefield. In addition, he reorganized the responsibilities in the medical service of the Union Army . Its organization and structure still form the basic structure of the Army Medical Service and the Army Medical Command today. The US Army Medical Department Museum in San Antonio , Texas, which was founded in 1862 by the then Surgeon General Dr. William Hammond in Washington, DC , describes the history of Army Medicine.

construction

• Surgeon General of the United States Navy and Chief, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery
  • The Surgeon General of the Navy is currently Vice Adm. Donald C. Arthur and is based in Bethesda , Maryland .
  • The Navy’s Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (BUMED), which is subordinate to him, comprises 10 departments and approximately 63,000 employees

• Surgeon General of the United States Army (and Commander, US Army Medical Command, until 2019)
  • The Surgeon General of the Army is currently Lieutenant General R. Scott Dingle and is based in Fort Sam Houston , Texas .
  • Subordinate departments include the Army Medical Corps (MC), Army Nurse Corps (AN), Army Dental Corps (DC), Army Veterinary Corps (VC), Army Medical Service Corps (MS) and the Army Medical Specialist Corps (SP )

• Surgeon General of the Air Force
  • The Surgeon General of the Air Force is currently Lieutenant General George Peach Taylor Jr. His official residence is at the US Air Force Headquarters in Washington, DC

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "Official Website of Army Medicine, accessed on September 29, 2019, 2:30 p.m."
2. ↑ "Military medicine and military pharmacy, accessed on September 29, 2019, 2:20 pm"
3. ↑ "Electronic History, accessed September 29, 2019, 2:24 pm"
4. ^ "Website of the US Army Medicine Museum, Retrieved September 29, 2019, 2:28 pm