US Army aviation medicine.

In February 1912, the Surgeon General of the United States Army prepared a special preliminary physical examination for candidates who were to receive instruction in the Aviation Section of the Signal Corps. This examination and those devised over the next four years were too demanding and few candidates could pass. In response to the need to revise medical standards for aviators, Colonel Theodore Charles Lyster, "the Father of Aviation Medicine in America", chaired a group of aeromedical experts in 1916 for that purpose. Then in 1917, Colonel Lyster and a medical team visited American squadrons in France where they found an unsatisfactory aviation medical support program. They found the pilots in poor physical condition, Iow morale, high flying accident rates, and Army aircraft accident fatalities three times greater than from enemy action. These problems made the team realise that. a medical officer specifically trained to recognise and cope with the problems of the aviator was needed. After the team returned to the United States, a program of .selecting and training flight surgeons was instituted at the Mineola Laboratory. By June 1918, it was functioning as a school for training flight surgeons. The first graduates of the school were sent overseas to provide aviation support to the air squadrons of the American Expeditionary Force in August 1918. After the arrival of this group, flying accidents and deaths were reduced and commanding officers were pleased to give full credit to the work of these trained flight surgeons. US Army aviation and aviation medicine lay dormant during the 1920' sand 1930' s and flourished again just prior to and during WW 11. On June 2