Such increases in the work of the Pathology Department were matched in greater or lesser degree by rising workloads in the other departments— the American Registry of Pathology; the Medical Illustration Service; the Medical Museum; and the Administrative Service, set up in 1947 to perform those functions which were essential to the operation of the four basic departments but were not exclusively related to any of them.
With such increases in the work to be done, there had to be increases in the staff which had the work to do. The staff, including commissioned and enlisted military personnel and civilian employees, numbered 172 at the end of 1946; 230 a year later; 251 in 1949; and 282 in 1950. In 1951, the staff numbered 338, including 15 officers attached for training in pathology as one step toward meeting the general shortage of pathologists, to which was ascribed the Institute's inability to fill all its authorized positions for medical officers and the failure to secure applicants for all the Institute's openings for residencies. By the end of 1952, the staff had increased to 338, and a year later had gone up to 365. The figure rose again to 438 by the end of 1954, the last year in the old building. 7[1]
The Cooney Committee
In anticipation of the removal of the Institute from its old quarters to the new building which was beginning to rise on the grounds of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Surgeon General George E. Armstrong recommended that "studies be made of the missions and operational procedures of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology." This recommendation was supported by the Armed Forces Medical Policy Council of the Department of Defense and, on 12 December 1952, Dr. Melvin A. Casberg, chairman of the policy council, sent to General Armstrong a memorandum requesting the establishment of an ad hoc committee to study the "scope and effectiveness" of the program of the Institute.
The Committee, set up on 14 January 1953 by Maj. Gen. Silas B. Hays, Acting The Surgeon General, consisted of Brig. Gen. James P. Cooney, representing the Surgeon General of the Army; Capt. John H. Ward, representing the Surgeon General of the Navy; Brig. Gen. Earl Maxwell, representing the Surgeon General of the Air Force; Brig. Gen. Elbert DeCoursey, representing the Institute; and Robert A. Moore, M.D., dean of the Washington University Medical School at St. Louis, and chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board of
- ↑ 7 Annual Reports, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, 1947, Exhibit A; 1948. p. 2; 1949. P. 8: 1950, PP- 2-5; I951. PP- I2,13; 1952. P. II; 1953. P. 5; 1954.P. 57.
