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US Army Medical Department Center of History and Heritage

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US Army Medical Department Center of History and Heritage

Provides historical research and museum support for the US Army Medical Department (AMEDD)

The AMEDD Center of History and Heritage (ACHH) is a composite organization that brings together the resources of the US Army Office of Medical History, the AMEDD Museum, and the AMEDD Regiment. The museum is currently undergoing renovations and is not open to the public. Find out more about planning your next trip to the AMEDD Museum, please visit our website: https://armymedicalmuseum.org/plan-y

our-visit/

For additional information regarding access to Joint Base San Antonio- Fort Sam Houston, please visit: https://www.jbsa.mil/Information/Gate-Hours-Visitor-Information/JBSA-Fort-Sam-Houston-Visitor-Info/

01/09/2026

Dr. Ralph Hayward Simmons, from Massachusetts, graduated from Tufts Medical College in 1913. He entered the Army Medical Corps as a reserve officer in 1917 and attended medical officers training at Camp Benjamin Harrison in June 1917. He entered the Army Medical Corps with the rank of LT. He was promoted to CPT during WWI and was the commanding officer of the 307th Ambulance Company, attached to 77th Division. He was offered a Regular Army Commission, with the rank of CPT in 1920, and accepted. His helmet is decorated with the insignia of the division, which depicts the Statue of Liberty against a blue background.

The coat and helmet were donated by Mary Francis Simmons.

U.S. Army Center of Military History
U.S. Army Medical Center of Excellence

01/08/2026

12/29/2025

Battalion Aid Station World War II, painting by Lou Breslow MED 0048

This painting shows two wounded in the field with a medic hovering over one wounded. Another medic is helping another wounded to a Jeep in the background. Also used in the AMEDD Museum’s temporary exhibit, “Under the Red Cross”.

Battalion Aid Station World War II, painting by Lou Breslow MED 0048
Willys Jeep, Modern Medicine Gallery, AMEDD Museum, 2020.

U.S. Army Center of Military History
U.S. Army Medical Center of Excellence

12/25/2025

Doctors and Nurses of the 8076th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, Eighth US Army, Gather at the Officers Club, Korea, to open their gifts on Christmas Morning. Front Row (Left to Right) Captain Ruth E. Anthony; Captain Helen Mathews; and Lieutenant John C. Colvincenzo. Back Row (Left to Right) Captain Robert E. Wells; Major Philomena A Pagano; and Captain Marguerite McGrath.

Date Created: 12/25/1951
Creator(s): Corporal Harry Koorejian
Identifier: mash_76-221

U.S. Army Center of Military History
U.S. Army Medical Center of Excellence

12/24/2025

Doctors and nurses of the 8076th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, Eighth US Army, after attending Christmas Eve church service in the chapel, visit patients in the wards to sing Christmas carols, at Hospital Headquarters, Korea.

Date Created: 12/24/1951
Creator(s): Corporal Harry Koorejian
Identifier: mash_77-221

U.S. Army Medical Center of Excellence
U.S. Army Center of Military History

12/21/2025

21 December is the official start of winter. Among the many duties of the AMEDD personnel is to prevent and treat cold injuries including; frost bite, hypothermia, and trench foot. Many of America's wars including WWI, WWII and the Korean War were fought in locations that experienced extremely cold temperatures, snow and ice.

Among the Collection items designed to prevent cold injuries include the following from the AMEDD Museum:
M 1951 Pile Cap issued to Lt. Col. Barbara Nichols, an Army Nurse. MED 4401
M 1949 Arctic Mittens issued during the Korean War. MED 511
Insulated Combat Boots, also known as "Mickey Mouse" boots issued to Lt. Col. Guadalupe Martinez. MED 209.20.01 A-B

12/18/2025

18 December 1959 – BG (Ret) Leigh C. Fairbank personally presented the first award of the Fairbank Medal.

In an impressive ceremony the medal and a certificate were awarded by General Fairbank to Major Kenneth W. Thomasson, DC at Brooke Army Medical Center. The award, endowed by General Fairbank, honors the dental officer with the highest scholastic standing in the AMEDD Officer’s Advanced Course of the Medical Field Service School. The award was designed to encourage young dental officers to participate in field medical service training. At that time the advanced course was six months long. Although there is not a comprehensive list of recipients, the medal was awarded through at least 1984.

12/15/2025

Second Lieutenant Army Nurse Edith M. Corns received this hand-made doll as a birthday present while a Prisoner of War in Santo Tomas Internment Camp in Manilla. She had volunteered for the Army Nurse Corps on 10 November 1940, which was also her birthday. She was sent to the Philippine Islands, where she was taken POW on 6 May 1942, with the surrender of Corregidor Island.

The doll was made by a fellow Army Nurse POW, 2nd LT Clara Mae Bickford. This doll illustrates the clothing and equipment that the nurses were issued in 1941-1942. She wears the khaki shirt and skirt that the nurses wore on duty on Corregidor and in Santo Tomas. She has a gas mask bag as masks were issued to the nurses the day Pearl Harbor and the Philippines were attacked. And she carries on an equipment belt a hand carved wooden canteen in a canteen carrier. Canteens and mess kits were issued when the Bataan campaign began. And she wears a POW Red Cross patch. The nurses made their own POW patches on Corregidor in 1942. (MED 2334)

U.S. Army Nurse Corps
U.S. Army Medical Center of Excellence
U.S. Army Center of Military History

12/10/2025

10 DEC 1898: treaty ends Spanish-American War after 369 US combat deaths, 2,061 disease deaths, and 1,594 wounded.

The unexpected Army mobilization for this conflict taxed the abilities of the Medical Department to effectively provide care for soldiers operating on a world-wide basis, with troops being deployed both in the Caribbean (Cuba and Puerto Rico) and in the Pacific (Philippines). Typhoid, malaria, and yellow fever all provided to be diseases which seriously hampered the Army’s fighting capabilities, far more than casualties from actual combat.

The conflict demonstrated once again that the Army needed a permanent military nursing establishment, resulting in the formation of the Army Nurse Corps on 2 February 1901. Additionally, the Army conducted major efforts to find a typhoid vaccine, and led research efforts to control and eradicate malaria and yellow fever. The Army’s pioneering research into tropical diseases, led by men such as Major Walter Reed and Colonel (later Surgeon General) William C. Gorgas, allowed the U.S. Army to function on a global scale, and made the construction of the Panama Canal possible.

12/09/2025

The officer’s belt adopted in 1916 was made of olive drab canvas and webbing and contained pairs of pockets on each side of the center line. Officially carried in the pockets were the following items: a Case, Instrument, containing; a scalpel and bistoury; an Abbey’s artery and needle forceps; a Jone’s hemostatic forceps and a Liston’s mouse-tooth forceps; straight scissors; sutures both catgut and silk; a combined aneurism needle and grooved director; and 12 assorted surgical needles.

Additionally, the medical officer carried a “Case, Medicine” of five bakelite bottles holding: Acetphenetidinum (painkiller); mixture glycyrrhiza composita (licorice compound for bronchitis, congestion, and sore throat); pilulae catharticae compositae (laxative); pulvis ipecacunanhae et opt (o***m for pain, mixed with ipecac to prevent overdosing); quininae sulphas (quinine for malaria and as a general antifebrile). However, “Any medical officer may make such substitutions in the contents of his own case as he may desire.” Completing the contents were a package of diagnosis tags, a hypodermic syringe and case with extra hypodermic needles, a thermometer, and a morphine solution.

AMEDD Historian Newsletter, Number 45, Spring 2024:
https://medcoeckapwstorprd01.blob.core.usgovcloudapi.net/achh/AMEDD_history_newsletter_
45_spring2024.pdf

09/16/2025

New Army Directive: Clarifying Grooming Standards

Army Directive 2025-18 introduces updated standards for grooming, appearance, uniform wear and body composition. It emphasizes military appearance as a reflection of discipline, professionalism, and a shared commitment to the Army’s values.

Soldiers have 30 days from the date of this directive to ensure they are following the new uniform guidance. Commanders, supported by NCOs, have the authority to enforce appearance, uniform, and body composition standards consistent with the intent of the new directive.

Click here for more information: https://www.army.mil/article/288397

U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command | U.S. Army Combined Arms Center
Joint Base San Antonio | Archive: 32d Medical Brigade

07/15/2025

15 JUL 1918: Jane I. Rignel, Nurse Corps, becomes one of three females to earn the Citation Star (later the Silver Star) during WWI.

The Silver Star --established in 1918 as the Citation Star, and then changed to its current name in 1932 -- is the third highest military award for heroism in combat. In 1932, the Silver Star had a retroactive provision that allowed service members as far back as the Spanish-American War to exchange the Citation Star for a Silver Star.

Rignel was awarded the Citation Star for her valorous actions on July 15, 1918 with Mobile Hospital No. 2. Leckrone and Robar were also awarded the Citation Star for their courage on July 29, 1918 while attached to Field Hospital No. 127 as members of a specially trained shock team.

Rignel was the Chief Nurse of Mobile Hospital No. 2, attached to the 42nd Division. She had as many as 22 nurses under her supervision. She was awarded the Citation Star for her courage in providing aid to wounded soldiers under heavy enemy fire on July 15, 1918 near Bussey le Chateau, France.

Read the full article: https://www.army.mil/article/204847/three_female_army_nurses_received_silver_star_for_wwi_actions

Address

3898 Stanley Rd, Bldg 1046
San Antonio, TX
78234

Opening Hours

Monday	10am - 4pm
Tuesday	10am - 4pm
Wednesday	10am - 4pm
Thursday	10am - 4pm
Friday	10am - 4pm

Website

https://achh.army.mil/

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