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SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
SAINT LOUIS (10)   »
DEPARTMENT‘0FSURGERY
muums HOSPITAL \
6oo scum mwcsuxcuwn
October 19, 1945
Dear Fred:
It seams strange to me to be addressing you aa a plain
ordinary private citizen like the rest of us but I have no doubt
that you are glad to have your pieces cf pretty c0l0red ribbon and
your shining stars hanging up in the closet. I am Sure I wculd be
if I wcra you. The vanity of the professional soldier has always
amazed me. For the privilege of strutting around with an inch of `
ribbon on his chest he will do many things which are sometimes very
foolish. Maybe we civilians ought to revert to the medieval days
and w@&r our gaily colored academic hoods and gowns around the streets
cf Washington. I am sure you must have had a stomach full of the
whale military business; in fact knowing you as well as I do I have · ·
often wondered how you have stood it.
This letter is really to thank you for your extremely nice
one to me of September 26. I would have acknowledged it sooner except
that I had to take two trips out of town since it came gud this ha$,
thcrcfcre, been my first opportunity.
I think you yourself did a swall job as I have told you on
Several occasions. I shudder to think what the actual parfcr ance of
Suxgsry in his Army might have been if left tc the authority 0f some
stuffed shirt or someone without the guta which you have. I am sorry
that I cannot make the same complimentary remarks about the medical
{ department cf the Prmy as a whole. I think the washeof both medical
officer and nurse personnel has been a major scandal but one which the
Surgeon General wi}l never acknowledge. Something must be done before
the next war to prevent the unnecessary and absurd wastage of medical
officers. Certainly the old formula of 6.5.per thousand ought to be
completely scrapped. I am interested that you are participating in the
surgical phases cf the history cf the war. I hope someone will have the
courage to say in no uncertain terms something about the wasiage of pro-
fessional manpower and the unnecessary wrecking of the whole plan of
training medical specialists. In my opinion it is just as important to
include that in the history cf the war aa anything else but I'll bet it
w0n't be done.
I feel much flattered that you have felt free to seek my
advice and that you considered the Committee on Surgery of the National
~ Research Council to be helpful to you. Of course, we wanted to be. If
V ` we succeeded all of us will be much pleased. Reciprccally I may say
that it was a matter of enormous satisfaction to me to have a sympathetic
Rh