Venerable Presidio Houses Varied Medical, Research Programs for Army

Abstract

GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE spanning the sparkling bay off to one side, picture-pretty houses on the hills of the beckoning city on another, and buildings stretched out for acres all across the historic manicured grounds of the oldest established military base in the United States—that's the Presidio of San Francisco, Calif. In this idyllic setting is the Letterman Army Institute of Research. On September 14, 1966, the Department of the Army established the US Medical Research Unit at the Presidio. Its mission was to conduct general research in medicine and dentistry. Then, between 1969 and 1973, four other activities were combined to form the Letterman Army Institute of Research. Letterman Army Medical Center, also at the Presidio, is under the Army's Health Services Command and trains military interns and residents, while Letterman Army Institute of Research is under the Army Research and Development Command. The medical center, an approximately 400-bed facility