One project of direct and personal interest to the combat soldier and the medical officer had to do with the development of practical and effective body armor— a medicomilitary goal long sought. Much basic information about the behavior of bullets in wounds had been accumulated, particularly in the series of experiments conducted in 1935 by Col. George R. Callender and Maj. R. W. French of the Army Medical Museum staff. 36[1] More recent studies, made at the Naval Medical Field Research Laboratory at Camp Lejeune, N.C., led to the development of a sleeveless vest of laminated layers of synthetic fibers, covering the thorax and abdomen.
In June 195 1, a joint Navy- Army mission, whose senior members were Cdr. John S. Cowan, MC, USN, and Lt. Col. Robert H. Holmes, MC, USA, was sent to Korea to see how effective this body armor would be under combat conditions. The vests were first issued to medical corpsmen and to troops of the 1st Marine Division and the 2d Infantry Division. Experience in 1951 and in 1952 showed that the 8-pound vests were not unduly cumbersome, and that three out of four hits by shell fragments failed to penetrate the vest and injure the soldier, while two out of three of all hits were likewise defeated by the armor. Such results "determined beyond doubt that the field soldier could wear, would wear, and desired to wear the body armor afforded him." 37[2]
Serving the four basic departments of the Institute in such vital particulars as supply and finance was the Administrative Service. In the last years of occupancy of the old building, this Service was headed by Lt. Col. E. R. White-hurst, MSC, USA, from the time when the Institute took on its triservice character until 1950 and again from January 1952, until the new building was occupied. These chiefs of the Administrative Service were responsible to the directorate for the smooth operation of a complex organization. This organization, as described by Colonel Whitehurst, "really functions neither as a military nor a civilian installation, but endeavors to coordinate six different types of personnel, governed by the broad policies of the three Surgeons General and a civilian Scientific Advisory Board, and maintains close coordination not only with the
- ↑ 36 Callender, G. R., and French, R. W.: Wound Ballistics: Studies in the Mechanism of Wound Production by Rifle Bullets. The Military Surgeon 77: 177-201, October 1935.
- ↑ 37 (1) An analysis of the results of the mission to Korea was given in a paper entitled. "Wound Ballistics and Body Armor," by Lt. Col. Robert H. Holmes, MC, USA, read before the Section on Military Medicine at the 101st Annual Session of the American Medical Association, Chicago, on 11 June 1952, and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association 150: 73-78, 13 September 1952. (2) Additional information is given in: Holmes, Robert H., Enos, William F., and Beyer, James C: Medical Aspects of Body Armor Used in Korea. Journal of the American Medical Association 155: 1477, 1478, 21 August 1954. The three men who prepared this article, from which the quoted sentence is taken, were all members of the AFIP. Colonel Holmes was awarded the Legion of Merit for his part in the study and analysis.
