CHAPTER XXXIII
WINNING THE FIRST BATTLE OF THE WAR
THE WAR AGAINST DISEASE FOUGHT AND WON BY MEDICAL DEPARTMENT—GENERAL ORDER NO. 99—SAFETY ZONES ESTABLISHED—HOSPITALS OVERSEAS—SKY PILOT LEADERSHIP—COÖPERATION OF VOLUNTEER WELFARE ORGANIZATIONS—NAVAL OFFENDERS HELPED TO FIND THEMSELVES.
The death rate in the Navy by disease in 1917-18 was the lowest in the history of wars. Sickness, until the influenza epidemic, was less than in peace time. The loss of days by immoral disease decreased below the rate prevailing before the war. Preventive medicine, and war against disease and vice gave a record to the Navy Medical Corps which is a tribute alike to them and to the profession to which they belong.
No branch of the military service was more forehanded and no officer saw more clearly the possible needs that war would entail or made ampler provision for them than the Surgeon General of the Navy, Admiral William C. Braisted, who in recognition of his distinguished service was given the privilege of retirement by a special act of Congress. He was later elected president of the American Medical Association.
"The first battle of the war, that against disease, was won by the Medical Department of the Navy," reported the House Naval Affairs Committee.
When I was pressing for large appropriations for the Medical Department of the Navy, the Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee asked me:
"Mr. Secretary, do you really think there is proof of the absolute need for the whole of the large amount asked for by the Surgeon General?"
"I do not," was my reply.