American Pediatricians at War: A Legacy of Service

Abstract

* Abbreviations: AAP — : American Academy of Pediatrics MASH — : Mobile Army Surgical Hospital MEDCAP — : Medical Civic Action Program MILPHAP — : Military Provincial Hospital Assistance Program USARV — : US Army Vietnam USNR — : United States Naval Reserve American pediatricians have gone to war for almost as long as pediatrics has been a specialty. A decade after Jacobi, Osler, and Forchheimer founded the American Pediatric Society in 1888, pediatricians, or “pediatrists” as they were sometimes called, were serving with the American military on foreign soil. Across more than a century of service, the role of pediatricians in armed conflict has often been unclear to military and civilian leaders, fellow physicians, and at times even to members of their own specialty. In a 2003 site inspection of an overseas US military treatment facility, the assistant secretary of defense for health affairs was briefed about pediatricians. “Why would we need pediatricians here?” was his reply. Despite the confusion, every major conflict since the Spanish–American War has witnessed American military pediatricians serving in a variety of roles. From Cuba to Kandahar, the beaches of Normandy to Mosul, the century of service continues around the globe and forms the fabric of the story of America’s uniformed pediatricians today.1–3 At the close of the 19th century, pediatricians played a very different role than in today’s society. Pediatricians were considered specialists rather than primary care providers for children. There were very few pediatricians in America, and they mostly served in large academic centers or in urban hospitals. Because accurate records of medical specialists were not routinely kept at the time of the Spanish–American War, it is unclear how many pediatricians served in the US military during that conflict. Samuel Walter Kelley was one famous pediatrician whose record of service is known. Dr Kelley spent most of his adult life in Cleveland, where he was a professor of diseases of children in the Cleveland College of Physicians and Surgeons. He worked in Cleveland as both a pediatrist and a pediatric surgeon. He … Address correspondence to LTC Mark W. Burnett, Task Force Raider, 6th Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment, Combat Outpost Keating, Nuristan Province, Afghanistan. E-mail: mark.w.burnett{at}us.army.mil