The Marquette University School of Medicine Aids America in the Time of War

From the 5/28/2021 newsletter

Medical School History 

 

The Marquette University School of Medicine Aids America in the Time of War

 

Richard Katschke, MA

 

In this excerpt from his book, Knowledge Changing Life: A History of the Medical College of Wisconsin, 1893-2019, MCW Chief Historian Richard N. Katschke explains how MCW’s predecessor institution, the Marquette University School of Medicine, responded to the national call to action during World War II …

 

As Europe was embroiled in conflict in the late 1930s, the possibility of the United States’ participation in the war effort impacted the Marquette University School of Medicine and other medical schools nationwide. Beginning in 1940, the Marquette medical school responded to a request from U.S. Surgeon General James C. Magee to sponsor an army surgical hospital. Eben J. Carey, MD, PhD, dean of the medical school, appointed twenty Marquette medical school faculty and staff members to provide administrative and technical assistance to Surgical Hospital #42, based at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Also, in 1940, Marquette University – including the medical school – was one of twelve colleges nationwide selected to sponsor a Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps.

Following the attack at Pearl Harbor, the United States declared war against Japan on December 8, 1941. Four days later, Germany and the United States went to war. The world conflict triggered significant changes at the medical school. Beginning in July 1942, all teaching activities at the Marquette medical school were accelerated so that medical students could become physicians more quickly and provide medical care on the front lines. Vacations were shortened or suspended. Courses were abbreviated, and electives were dropped. Walter Zeit, PhD, ’39, recalled, “There were several instances where one academic year ended on a Friday and the next one started the following Monday.” Graduation ceremonies were conducted in May and November. Because of the demand for physicians during wartime, the medical school – unlike many other academic programs at Marquette – maintained a strong enrollment.

Norman Engbring, MD, ’51, noted in his book An Anchor forthe Future that the accelerated wartime curriculum placed an additional financial stress on the medical students. In 1942, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation provided $15,000 to the medical school to create a student loan fund. The Kellogg Foundation awarded similar grants to other medical schools nationwide.

Another change that occurred in September 1942 was that the fifth year of medical school - the internship year - was abolished. The requirement had been in place since 1920. Dr. Engbring explained that the fifth year was dropped so that junior medical students could qualify for federal loans that placed a four-year limit on the number of years a student could remain in school. By the end of 1942, only nine of the nation’s sixty-seven medical schools still required the completion of an internship year before medical school graduation. The Army and Navy gave medical students provisional commissions which enabled the students to avoid the draft and stay in school. For example, the Army Student Training Corps and the Navy’s V-12 program were organized, and medical student recruits received a base pay of $50 per month from the military.

“Khaki is now in evidence in the Schools of Medicine and Dentistry as 320 members of the Army Enlisted Reserve Corps in these schools were recently called to active duty by the order of the War Department,” reported the Marquette Tribune on July 15, 1943. “Within the last weeks these Meds and Dents were sent to Camp Grant, Illinois, where they were inducted, issued uniforms, and immediately ordered back to Marquette to continue their education. Roll call at 7:45 am either on the parade grounds or for senior medics, at the hospital, begins the day of the trainees.” Anthony Pisciotta, MD, ’44, recalled that the Army students were organized into the 3665^th service corps under the command of Major Joseph Plodowski, who was based at the medical school. The medical student soldiers became known as “Plodowski’s Raiders” and the “Fighting 3665^th.”

The Marquette Tribune reported that of the 334 male students enrolled in the medical school, 176 were commissioned as 2^nd lieutenants in the army, 104 received navy commissions, thirty-six had applications pending, and eighteen were ineligible for commissions because they were either non-citizens or had a medical disability. Earl Thayer wrote in Seeking to Serve: A History of the Medical Society of Milwaukee County, that nearly fifty faculty members saw active service, as well as a large percentage of alumni.

One alumnus, Lt. William Henry Millmann, MD, ’43, was killed on February 21, 1945, while caring for war casualties in Italy. The Millmann Award, the Medical College of Wisconsin’s highest honor for graduating medical students, was named in his memory. The first recipient of this award was Marjorie E. Tweedt Brown in 1948. John Erbes, MD, who joined the medical school’s surgical faculty in the late 1940s, was the most highly decorated U.S. physician in World War II. As a battalion surgeon, he saw front-line duty in Morocco, Tunisia, Sicily, Normandy, Belgium, and Germany.

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Excerpted from Knowledge Changing Life: A History of the Medical College of Wisconsin, 1893-2019, by MCW Chief Historian Richard N. Katschke, MA. The book is available for online purchase here.

 

 

Richard N. Katschke, MA is the Chief Historian of the Medical College of Wisconsin. He joined MCW as Director of Public Affairs in 1985 and served as the Senior Associate Vice President for Communications. He received MCW’s Distinguished Service Award in 2015 and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree by MCW at the 2021 commencement ceremony.