The next revision in the structure of the Hospital Corps came by act of Congress on August 29, 1916. Under this plan, the rates were hospital apprentices, second class and first class (both of whom wore a red cross on the sleeve); pharmacist's mates, third, second, and first; and chief pharmacist's mate. The officer contingent of the Hospital Corps included the two warrant officer ranks of pharmacist and chief pharmacist. The reorganization allowed for a massive, fivefold increase in the size of the Hospital Corps.

At the start of 1917, the Hospital Corps counted 1,700 men in its ranks. Aconcerted effort to recruit and train new personnel enabled the corps to reach its authorized strength of 3 1/2 percent of the Navy and Marine Corps, or 6,000 men. But as these plans came yes"> to fruition, the United States entered World War I in April. By the end of 1918, the corps peaked at about 17,000.

PHARMACIST'S MATES IN WORLD WAR I
The massive wartime expansion in Hospital Corps strength necessitated additional schools to train the newcomers. Hospital Corps School, Great Lakes, Illinois, had been established in January 1913. Wartime schools were created in Minneapolis at the University of Minnesota, in New York at Columbia University, and at the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy. Aschool for Naval Reserve Force Hospital Corpsmen was set up at Boston City Hospital. Other crash-course schools for shipboard personnel were conducted at a number of other civilian hospitals. Hospital Corpsmen who were needed to serve as medical department representatives on small vessels such as destroyers were trained at the Pharmacist's Mate School at Hampton Roads, Virginia, the

Figure APP-I-2.-A hospital steward (chief petty officer) and two hospital apprentices from a ship's landing party medical section, 1905.

forerunner of the Independent Duty Hospital Corpsman School.

Hospital Corpsmen were assigned to the multitude of duty types and locations needed to support a Navy involved in a world war. Naval hospitals were opened and staffed. Ships and aircraft squadrons were given medical support. At sea, the dangers of the new war were ever present.

Naval training facilities and shore establishments needed Hospital Corpsmen, as did occupation forces in Haiti and other bases around the world. But World War I provided the Hospital Corps a role that would afford it some of the most dangerous challenges it would ever face: duty with the Marine Corps.

Assignment to Marine Corps units was not completely new. Hospital Corpsmen were serving with Marine occupational forces in Cuba, Haiti, and Santo Domingo at the outbreak of the war, and they had seen other similar service. It was the change of the Marine Corps' role to one of expeditionary forces in a large-scale ground war that changed what Hospital Corpsmen would do. Sick call and preventive medicine were continuous roles that remained unchanged. Facing artillery, mustard gas, and machine gunfire were new experiences.

A heritage of valorous service with the Marines was born, as evidenced by two Hospital Corpsmen receiving the Medal of Honor. Other decorations to Hospital Corpsmen included 55 Navy Crosses, 31 Army Distinguished Service Crosses, 2 Navy Distinguished Service Medals, and 237 Silver Stars. A hundred foreign personal decorations were granted to Navy Hospital Corpsmen, and 202 earned the right to wear the French Fourragre shoulder aiguillette permanently. Their 684 personal awards make the Hospital Corps, by one account, the most decorated American unit of World War I.

PHARMACIST'S MATES IN WORLD WAR I I

World War II became the period of Hospital Corps' greatest manpower, diversity of duty, and instance of sacrifice. Between 1941 and 1945, the ranks of this small organization swelled from its prewar levels of near 4,000 to more than 132,000 personnel. This increase came to fulfill new responsibilities with new technologies at new duty stations. In the face of great adversity, the Hospital Corps would cement its reputation for effectiveness and bravery.

The Navy's fleet expanded to thousands of ships, and the Marine Corps grew from a few regiments to six divisions. A two-ocean war produced horrific numbers of casualties, and the Hospital Corps grew to meet the needs of casualty collection, treatment, and convalescence. To educate the influx of new Sailors, Hospital Corps Training School at Portsmouth, Virginia, was augmented by a temporary school at Naval Hospital Brooklyn, New York. The school at Great Lakes was recreated in 1942, and others were started at Farragut, Idaho, and at Bainbridge, Maryland, in 1943. A separate Hospital Corps Training School was established for women (fig. APP-I-3) at Bethesda, Maryland, in January 1944. Specialized schools were opened to train pharmacist's mates for independent duty and for service with the Marines. Additionally, courses were established to instruct personnel on new equipment and techniques in dozens of developing medical fields.

Shore-based duty sent Hospital Corps personnel to hospitals and dispensaries in the United States and abroad. Advance-base hospitals on newly captured Pacific islands formed a crucial link in the chain of evacuation from battle sites. Those facilities in Hawaii or England received casualties from their respective fronts, and wounded service personnel recuperated in Stateside hospitals. Hospital Corpsmen made the treatment of American casualties possible at each of these by providing technical support and direct patient care.

Duty on surface ships afforded Hospital Corpsmen numerous challenges and abundant environments in which to face them. Hospital ships required the services of personnel in much the same way as shore-based hospitals, except that those on ship were afloat and subject to attack. Other classes of vessels, such as landing ships and patrol craft (LSTs and PCERs), became large floating clinics/ambulances which required additional Hospital Corps personnel. Additionally, combatant ships and transports in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Mediterranean theaters took casualties from ships, aircraft, and submarines throughout the war, necessitating the service of well-trained Hospital Corpsmen.

Approximately 300 Hospital Corpsmen sat out all but the early days of the war when they were captured in the Philippines by the invading Japanese. In prisoner-of-war camps and huddled in POW"hell ships," they endured malnutrition, disease, torture, and brutality. One hundred thirty-two Hospital Corpsmen died as prisoners during World War II, a death rate almost 20 percent higher than among other American POWs.

Hospital Corpsmen served on the beaches not only in the island campaigns of the Pacific, but in Europe as well. Teams of Navy medical personnel formed aid stations with beach battalions at Sicily and Normandy, treating Army and allied wounded under fire. Hospital Corpsmen ensured the survival of these casualties until they could reach hospitals in England.

Of all the Hospital Corpsmen in World War II, Fleet Marine Force personnel endured, perhaps, the most grueling side of war. As they swarmed numerous beaches in the Pacific, they became targets themselves as they braved fire to reach downed comrades. At Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Peleliu, Saipan, Tinian, Kwajalein, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa, Hospital Corpsmen bled and died, often in greater numbers than the Marines for whom they cared. Hospital Corps casualties in the 4th Marine Division at Iwo Jima, for example, were 38 percent.

Members of the Hospital Corps treated some 150,000 combat casualties during the war. This number does not include thousands of others-those plagued by disease and injured in the line of duty-who were aided by their medical shipmates. The cost of this service was high: 1,170 Hospital Corpsmen were killed in action and thousands more were wounded. But their valor was rewarded. Hospital Corpsmen earned 7 Medals of Honor (almost half of those awarded to Sailors in the war), 66 Navy Crosses, 465 Silver Star Medals, and 982 Bronze Star Medals.