The Aerospace Pathology Branch, under Capt. W. Harley Davidson, USAF, MC, is closely allied in its operations with the Joint Committee on Aviation Pathology. The two organizations have similar missions in the pathological
investigation of the human factors involved in aircraft accidents — to which is added, in the light of recent developments, pathology in space flight as well.
Since the formation of the Joint Committee, the Aerospace Pathology Branch of the Institute has acted as its headquarters staff. Maj. V. A. Stembridge, the first Chief of the Branch, received the Legion of Merit for his outstanding contribution to aviation pathology. Staff members of the Branch have served as secretaries of the Joint Committee, beginning with Dr. Mostofi, followed by Capt. Murray Ballenger, MC, USN, and then by Maj. F. W. Lovell, who was both Branch Chief of the Aerospace unit and Secretary of the Joint Committee. The same combination of positions was held by Captain Davidson at the beginning of the Institute's second century of life. 10[1]
In the first 6½ years of its operation, Aerospace Pathology Branch personnel assisted in the investigation of 22 military aircraft accidents. In the years 1959-61, 23 civilian accidents were investigated at the request of the Civil Aeronautics Board. Altogether, the Branch has reviewed more than 3,000 cases from fatal aircraft accidents, both civilian and military.
Essential in the accomplishment of the mission of the Branch was the work of the Toxicology Laboratory established in 1956, which has done research in the pathology of the effects of carbon monoxide, hypoxia, alcohol, and drugs upon aircrew members. In November 1961, the Toxicology Laboratory was given the status of a branch under Col. Thaddeus J. Domanski, USAF, MC, as Chief. In the last 2 months of 1961, the first 2 months of its existence as a full-fledged Toxicology Branch, it received for toxicological examination 68 cases growing out of fatal aircraft accidents. 11[2]
Maj. Pierre A. Finck, MC, USA, doubled as Chief of the Wound Ballistics Branch of the Military Environmental Pathology Division, and also as the education officer for the Division, in which capacity 7 lectures and 30 division staff meetings were arranged. Among the guest speakers who gave lectures were Lt. Cdr. John H. Ebersole, first medical officer on the submarine U.S.S. Nautilus, and Capt. Joseph W. Kittenger of the Air Force, first man to jump from a height of more than 100,000 feet.
The Division of Dental and Oral Pathology was headed by Capt. Louis S. Hansen, DC, USN, who had succeeded Col. Joseph L. Bernier when the latter
