Valley Forge General Hospital

Valley Forge General Hospital is a former military hospital in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. The hospital was near both Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Valley Forge. It was the only United States Army General Hospital named for a place.

Arial photograph of the Valley Forge General Hospital, a United States Army Hospital that operated from 1943 to 1974 in Pheonixville, Pennsylvania. Date of photo is approximate

History

The hospital was built in 1942, and opened on Washington's Birthday in 1943 to care for the wounded of World War II. It became the largest military hospital in the United States. Eventually, the hospital had well over 3,000 patients and over 100 separate buildings. One feature of the hospital was its design of primarily two story buildings, interconnected by corridors. There were very long ramps leading from one floor to the other, to facilitate movement of wheelchairs and gurneys. The architecture was designed by Matthew Bookler.[1] In July 1949, Valley Forge General Hospital joined 8 other Army general hospitals in offering internships to newly graduated physicians. The program was open to civilian providers as well as those in the military. Between the nine hospitals, 232 new interns were expected to start training in 1949[2]

Because of manpower shortages within the Army Medical Department, Valley Forge was one of four that the Army placed in an inactive status in Spring 1950--the others being the Murphy, Olivier, and Percy Jones General Hospitals, only to reopen three of the four (Olivier remaining closed) in the fall of 1950 to help care for casualties from the Korean War.[3] In August, the three newly reopened hospitals were renamed as army hospitals, and the Valley Forge General Hospital became the Valley Forge Army Hospital.[4] This brought them in line with the other general hospitals in the Army, all of which had been renamed in the same manner in July.[5]

In January 1962, Valley Forge General Hospital was one of four Army general hospitals chosen to offer a six month supervised clinical training program in psychiatric nursing for Army Nurse Corps officers, qualifying them for award of the psychiatric nurse military occupational specialty upon completion of the course.[6]

In January 1967 the U.S. Army Medical Materiel Agency, which was a tenant of the hospital, began teaching the Medical Depot Inventory Management Course. The course, along with the Medical Materiel Agency, moved to Fort Detrick, Maryland in 1974 in preparation for the hospital's closing.[7]

In the late 1960s, Valley Forge General Hospital, along with seven other major Army hospitals, became the home of a "Clinical Specialist" training program (military MOS 91C). At that time, a person had to have been a medic for at least two years, and have a minimum of two years remaining on their enlistment after completing the school, in order to be accepted. This was advanced training for ten months, on top of all previous training and experience. This program was considered equivalent to a civilian LPN or LVN course but also included many military medicine oriented training objectives.

As part of a general reorganization of the Army Medical Department, the United States Army Health Services Command was activated at Fort Sam Houston under the command of Major General Spurgeon Neel. As part of that reorganization plan, all Class II Medical Department Activites and installations were transferred from the direct control of the Office of the Surgeon General to the new command. Among the units transferred was the Valley Forge General Hospital, as well as it's security force, the 250th Military Police Detachment, effective on April 1, 1973. The Medical Equipment Test and Evaluation Activity, which had been part of the United States Army Academy of Health Sciences at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, had already been transferred to the United States Army Medical Materiel Agency, a tenant activity on the Valley Forge General Hospital Installation, on February 1, 1973.[8]

The Valley Forge General Hospital was placed in an inactive status effective March 31, 1974 by Department of the Army General Order number 4, dated February 11, 1974[9] and it became a sub-installation of Fort Detrick, Maryland effective July 1, 1974 by Department of the Army General Order number 18, dated June 10, 1974.[10]

The hospital's complete closure occured in 1975.

The site is now occupied by the University of Valley Forge.

Popular culture

The hospital is the setting for the 1951 film Bright Victory.

After the film Bright Victory was released, all personnel assigned to the hospital were required to view the film.

Actor Gene Wilder was a neuropsychiatric technician at Valley Forge General Hospital in the late 1950s.

Commanders

Image Rank Name Start Date End Date
ColonelHenry BeeuwkesFebruary 1942March 1945[11]
Brigadier GeneralWilliam W. VaughanMarch 1945May 1946[12][13]
ColonelCleon J. GentzkowMay 1946August 1948[14]
ColonelKenneth A BrewerAugust 1948June 1950[15]
HOSPITAL IN INACTIVE STATUSJune 1950September 1950[16]
ColonelJohn M. WelchSeptember 1950August 1952[17]
ColonelKenneth A BrewerSeptember 1952June 1955[18]
Brigadier GeneralMack M. GreenJuly 1955July 1956[19]
Brigadier GeneralSam F. SeeleyJuly 1956March 1957[20][21]
Brigadier GeneralCarl W. TempelMay 1957August 1958[22]
ColonelCarl D. MacMillanAugust 1958April 1959[23]
Brigadier GeneralJames L. SnyderApril 1959July 1959[24]
Major GeneralAlvin L. GorbyAugust 1959January 1961[25][26]
Major GeneralHenry S. MurpheyFebruary 1961May 1962[27][28]
Major GeneralKenneth Drew OrrJune 1962May 1966[29][30]
ColonelAlton B. PeytonMay 1966August 1966[31]
Brigadier GeneralJohn Boyd Coates, Jr.September 1, 1966[32] June 1, 1969[33][34][35]
June 1969April 1971
ColonelPhillip A. DefferApril 1971[36]August 1973[37]
ColonelEkrem S. TuranAugust 1973closure

External links

References

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Department of Defense.

  1. ↑ The above corrected history is based upon two booklets published by Valley Forge General Hospital. The first was published in 1944, and the second was published for the 25th anniversary of the hospital in 1968. That second booklet had an extensive history of the hospital, as well as many pictures of its construction.
  2. ↑ "Valley Forge General Hospital to Train Interns," Bulletin of the U. S. Army Medical Department, volume 9, number 6, June 1949
  3. ↑ Cowdrey, Albert E. The Medics' War, The United States Army in the Korean War, Washington, DC: USGPO, 1987 page 293
  4. ↑ Department of the Army General Order 50-28, August 24, 1950
  5. ↑ Department of the Army General Order 50-21, July 6, 1950
  6. ↑ Highlights in the History of Army Nursing, page 34
  7. ↑ Depot Materiel Management Course History
  8. ↑ Report of the Surgeon General, United States Army, Fiscal Year 1973
  9. ↑ Department of the Army General Order 74-4, dated 11 February 1974
  10. ↑ Department of the Army General Order 74-18, dated 10 June 1974
  11. ↑ Pamphlet, Silver Anniversary 1943-1968, Valley Forge General Hospital
  12. ↑ http://idnc.library.illinois.edu/cgi-bin/illinois?a=d&d=GTY19450807.2.9/
  13. ↑ A Curriculum Vitae of BG William Washington Vaughan Prepared by LT Robert D. Gorodetzer, Historical Branch, AMEDD Historical Unit, December 1970. Copy in the holdings of the AMEDD Center for History and Heritage, Fort Sam Houston, Texas
  14. ↑ Pamphlet, Silver Anniversary 1943-1968, Valley Forge General Hospital
  15. ↑ Pamphlet, Silver Anniversary 1943-1968, Valley Forge General Hospital
  16. ↑ Cowdrey, Albert E. The Medics' War, The United States Army in the Korean War, Washington, DC: USGPO, 1987
  17. ↑ Pamphlet, Silver Anniversary 1943-1968, Valley Forge General Hospital
  18. ↑ Pamphlet, Silver Anniversary 1943-1968, Valley Forge General Hospital
  19. ↑ Pamphlet, Silver Anniversary 1943-1968, Valley Forge General Hospital
  20. ↑ Pamphlet, Silver Anniversary 1943-1968, Valley Forge General Hospital
  21. ↑ General Sam F. Seeley, 84, Dies. The Washington Post, September 13, 1988
  22. ↑ Pamphlet, Silver Anniversary 1943-1968, Valley Forge General Hospital
  23. ↑ Pamphlet, Silver Anniversary 1943-1968, Valley Forge General Hospital
  24. ↑ Pamphlet, Silver Anniversary 1943-1968, Valley Forge General Hospital
  25. ↑ Pamphlet, Silver Anniversary 1943-1968, Valley Forge General Hospital
  26. ↑ A Curriculum Vitae of MG Alvin L. Gorby, MC. Copy maintained in the records of the Army Medical Department Center for History and Heritage, Fort Sam Houston, Texas.
  27. ↑ Pamphlet, Silver Anniversary 1943-1968, Valley Forge General Hospital
  28. ↑ Obituaries, The Pennsylvania Gazette, November/December 2001
  29. ↑ Pamphlet, Silver Anniversary 1943-1968, Valley Forge General Hospital
  30. ↑ http://www.porterloring.com/memsol.cgi?user_id=467045/
  31. ↑ Pamphlet, Silver Anniversary 1943-1968, Valley Forge General Hospital
  32. ↑ "Col. John B. Coates is New Commander of V. F. Hospital," The Daily Republican, Pheonixville, Pennsylvania, August 30, 1966
  33. ↑ http://articles.philly.com/1996-02-02/news/25658116_1_surgeon-medical-degree-military-doctor/
  34. ↑ Pamphlet, Silver Anniversary 1943-1968, Valley Forge General Hospital
  35. ↑ "Col. Coates Will Start New Duties," The Daily Republican, Pheonixville, Pennsylvania, May 7, 1969
  36. ↑ Official short-form biography of Phillip A. Deffer, 1979. Original maintained in the files of the AMEDD Office of History and Heretage, Fort Sam Houston, Texas
  37. ↑ "Deffer Named Deputy Commander," Medical Bulletin of the US Army Europe, Volume 30 number 11, November 1973

Coordinates: 40°07′07″N 75°32′54″W / 40.1186°N 75.5484°W / 40.1186; -75.5484

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