 Okay, move out. It's been a hundred thousand. Like every military leader, Napoleon faced an adversary composed not only of men, but of disease, film, and extremes of climate. America's military history too is a history of casualties caused by natural enemies, as well as opposing armies. In World War II, in Korea, and even in South Vietnam, a number of non-battle casualties has regularly exceeded battle wounds. It is a ratio which must be reduced. For the United States Army Medical Research and Development Command, knowledge of disease, environment, and the capabilities of man himself remains the constant search. Before we see some of the exciting research being done in Army Medicine today, we ought to take a brief look at the history of Army Medical Research. The Army's interest in organized medical research goes back to the end of the Spanish-American War in 1898. During that campaign, yellow fever, malaria, and other tropical diseases proved far more difficult enemies than the Spanish troops. When the war ended, Major Walter Reed initiated one of the Army's earliest medical research programs. Together with other medical officers, he began his now famous investigation into the causes of yellow fever. In Cuba, volunteers including Major Reed proved beyond doubt that mosquitoes were the carriers of the dreaded sickness. This medical breakthrough brought to an end the widespread threat of yellow fever. The end of yellow fever was but the beginning of a long series of medical achievements made by the United States Army. The work initiated by Major Reed continues today, under the direction of the Army Search and General, through the Army Medical Research and Development Command. In Washington, D.C., division and branch chiefs, together with their commanding generals, monitor current projects, and plan for future operation of this worldwide organization. Regular staff meetings like this provide full review of the diversified research program. An indication of the scope of the projects can be had by sampling just a few of the reports presented at one of these news. The first report comes from Natick, Massachusetts, site of the Army Research Institute for Environmental Medicine. This research effort is aimed at learning how the human body responds physiologically and psychologically to different combinations of temperature, humidity, and altitude. From this research may come new answers to the old problems of survival in a hostile environment. We've already solved most of the problems that defeated Napoleon and can only speculate about the course history might have taken had he and military leaders likely had these answers in their time. The Army's Medical Research Program goes on in many parts of the world. Our next report takes us across the American continent to Texas, and the Brook Army Medical Center full research unit is the Burns. It has, as its mission, the development and perfection of treatment for Burns incurred in accidents as well as combat. The establishment of this research center has already brought relief and recovery to many victims of this painful, sometimes disfiguring type of injury. The treatment developed here is being adopted in hospitals the world over. It has paid high dividends in the form of this burn butter, a painless, soothing treatment for this vicious injury. A man wounded in battle needs a hospital just like the kind back home. But he needs it in the field. The field hospital tent used for centuries has never been fully equipped and offers little in the way of sanitation or protection from extremes of climate. The Army Surgeon General, together with industry, took up the question of providing the right kind of equipment in the right kind of environment. The answer is must. Medical, unit, self-contained, transportable. Building blocks which can, by careful selection, fill any needed required. The three basic units, the utility element, an expandable element, and an inflatable element, form the heart of any field hospital. The inflatable element packs into a single compact container. The expandable element closes to form its own container, as does the utility element. The utility element is the nerve center. A gas turbine engine supplies electric power, air conditioning, air heating, water heating, water pumping, air pressure for inflatable elements, and compressed air or suction. In a field testing exercise, the inflatable element sections are removed from their shipping containers. Four sections will be erected to form a hospital ward. The gas turbine engine of the utility element provides the air for inflation. In less than 25 minutes, six men can unload and inflate the element. Refabricated end panels provide access doors and vent connections. Inside, this prototype has been set up as a ward. Properly warmed or cooled, humidity-controlled air keeps the inside of the ward compatible with health requirements, regardless of the weather outside. The expandable unit, when fully open, more than doubles its width. Another part of this research project involves the development of new diagnostic and surgical equipment. This prototype is outfitted as a complete operating room. The special lights, operating table, anesthesia, and x-ray equipment have all been developed as part of the MUST program. Another expandable unit is a prototype of a central material supply room. Set up and connected adjacent to the surgical unit, the device arrives ready to be used. Every storage bin is a drawer, with surgical supplies prepacked just as they would be in a permanent hospital. The ability of the MUST units to withstand the rigors of transportation is one of the tests to which the design concept will be exposed. The specially constructed test tracks at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland offer simulated road surface conditions of every conceivable kind. At Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, in a special giant hangar, climatic conditions ranging from minus 65 degrees to plus 140 degrees can be simulated at will. Arctic temperatures are simulated for this test of cold weather performance. Bath create 86 mile an hour blast, equal to a hurricane. Water tightness is tested by simulating a tropical downboard. When it is ready for the field, it will allow the Army Medical Corps to put a modern hospital into the most primitive environment quickly, when, and where it is needed. In many parts of the country, medical problems unique to the military are being studied by university and medical school research teams. Research work carried out by scientists and engineers under grants from the Army is a valuable supportive element of the Medical Research and Development Command. But the vast majority of this research is conducted by Army personnel. The largest facility for this work is the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research at Washington, DC. This is one of the most complete medical research laboratories in the world. Here, terms like technical competence and creative research come alive in the men and women who use the research tools available. The power of the atom is increasingly significant to the military, particularly here at Walter Reed. This 50,000-watt nuclear reactor provides particulate and electromagnetic radiation for fundamental and applied studies in radiation biology. Prime importance is the activation of minute quantities of trace elements for quantitative analysis in the tissues. Germ-free laboratories. Here, the veterinary scientists raise research animals that are completely free of bacteria. The germ-free tanks are completely sealed to the outside. Air is filtered before entering. All supplies and food are passed through a sterilizer. All contact with the animal is made through the long-sleeved rubber gloves. To this type of laboratory, researchers started working out other applications. A surgical isolator was the first extension of the germ-free concept. Within this plastic tent, a patient can be operated on with a chance of post-surgery infection at an almost irreducible minimum. In a word isolator, patients recovering from surgery or those with lowered resistance can receive complete medical care, frictions on visitors because the isolator encloses the patient in a separate environment without cutting him off from the care he needs. This application of germ-free research will speed up this man's return to combat readiness. Infectious disease problem is not limited to combat. Recently inducted young men frequently contract acute respiratory infections during basic combat training. Like respiratory disease in civilians, these infections occur in epidemic proportions during the winter months. They are called adenovirus. Prevention of acute respiratory disease in recruits is a major military medical research effort. Studies conducted by the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research at Fort Dix, New Jersey indicate that most recruits are infected with these viruses during basic training. Not all of them, however, get sick. Those who become ill seem to be more affected by the stresses of basic training than those who, while infected, remain without symptoms. Army hospital wards will see fewer recruits suffering from respiratory infections once the role played by stress is clearly understood. These efforts begin with clinical and laboratory examination of patients with respiratory disease by positions of the research team. Studies currently underway may lead eventually to modification of the recruits' environment and the imposed stresses with ultimate reduction of disease. Viruses are cultured from the throat and identified. When a single virus is responsible for the majority of disease, it is practical to attempt prevention by immunization. Researchers now know that a living virus vaccine similar to those used against polio can effectively reduce disease rates. These inductees are just beginning their life in the Army. The first few days of military life are the most difficult period of adjustment for new soldiers. Immediately upon arrival at the reception station, they are given a vaccine developed by scientists at the National Institutes of Health. The vaccine virus multiplies in the intestine without symptoms and produces immunity to respiratory infection within two weeks. Thus, the recruit is immune by the third week of basic training before the risk of respiratory disease is greatest. An evaluation of this vaccine currently in progress at Fort Dix proved to reduce symptomatic disease by at least 60%. This alone will increase significantly the effectiveness of the soldier recently removed from civilian life. Research serves every field of medicine. The Army Dental Corps relies heavily on it to establish new procedures and develop new tools. Some of the interesting studies pursued at the United States Army Institute of Dental Research by a special team at Letterman General Hospital and at civilian universities include glues and adhesives for rapid and accurate closure of oral lacerations without sutures, development of plastic treatment patches for losses of facial tissues, devices to stabilize fractures rapidly and easily, and biomedical agents that will control hemorrhage from oral wounds. These and other projects are nearing the time when they can be used. In the Army, a dentist goes where his patients are because dental problems can take a soldier out of action just as quickly as a battle wound. Powered like an old-fashioned sewing machine, the old dental chair is now out of action thanks to research. This new compact portable unit is powered by compressed air and is as modern as your own dentist office needing to see the dentist. It is a part of Army routine that begins with induction. We call it Preventive Dentistry. Research projects have demonstrated that tooth decay and gum diseases can be controlled and possibly prevented if a man can be properly motivated. By showing a soldier the importance of oral hygiene to his general health and how he can help maintain combat effectiveness with good oral hygiene current problems are arrested and future troubles prevent. Dentists, physicians and scientists conduct the Army's research effort in many places. Overseas there are medical research units in Langstuhl, Germany Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia San Juan, Puerto Rico and the Panama Canal Zone. Medical problems unique to the area are studied on the spot by these extensions of Army research. At Fitzsimmons General Hospital in Denver is the Medical Research and Nutrition Laboratory. Here the soldier's diet is constantly studied and improved. At the Medical Biomechanical Research Laboratory at Forest Land, Maryland researchers develop materials and devices for biomechanical applications. Much of the original work on artificial limbs was accomplished at this laboratory. The medical unit at Fort Dietrich, Maryland is concerned with the defensive aspects of special types of warfare. Fort Knox, Kentucky is one of the most advanced medical research laboratories in the world. Fort Knox, Kentucky is the site of another medical research laboratory. The problems under study here involve the biochemical biophysical and psychophysiological responses of the healthy soldier. Army aviation and airborne activities are supported by medical research at the Army Aeromedical Research Unit Fort Rucker, Alabama. The medical equipment research and development laboratory for Towson, New York has the responsibility for keeping medical equipment equal to the advances in medical technology. One typical result is the portable laboratory kit. This is medical laboratory equipment. All of it will fit into this box. The box is one of three which constitute a portable laboratory kit. The kit contains a microscope, centrifuge, and diagnostic equipment. All of this can be parachuted into any area. Sources of infection is as important to our fighting men overseas as it is to raw recruits. This lab can be set up and put to use wherever unknown diseases may threaten our troops. In Southeast Asia the portable laboratory kit is being used to find carriers of a new strain of malaria. Military history, modern as well as ancient, is full of reports of doctors with malaria whose history is being written. This mosquito-borne parasite still threatens. All of Southeast Asia is burdened with this disease now just as it has always been. Until recently the synthetic drugs were thought to control it. Now there's a new strain of malaria one resistant to known synthetic drugs which has attacked with a force as strong as any human enemy. When this new strain was first noticed doctors at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research immediately began a new study of the parasite. Using the best research techniques and equipment, malaria is being studied from every possible angle. By putting the full resources of the Army's medical research capability to work on the problem we will have the answer to drugs that will attack the parasite and destroy it. A red blood cell seen under the electron microscope. Within the cell can be seen a malarial parasite eating away at the cell. This picture made recently is giving scientists their first look at the mouth used by the parasite to ingest the contents of the cell. Search effort by the Army Institute of Research in Washington, D.C. and here, thousands of miles from home is perhaps the best example. The best summary of what the Army Medical Research and Development Command is and does. It is everywhere that American troops may serve constantly seeking the answers to the basic military problems. Survival. Survival against hostile armies and a hostile environment. Malaria is one of today's problems but like survival it is an old problem. Research by men and women dedicated to serving their nation's glory and enhancing all our lives give our fighting men more than just a chance to fight another day. They are seeking through medical research both basic and applied the knowledge that will bring our men and women back home. It is the constant search.