Throwback Thursday – 24 NOV 2022 MAJOR Walter Reed

Yellow Jack:

How Yellow Fever Ravaged America

and

Walter Reed Discovered Its Deadly Secrets 

by John R. Pierce (Author), James V. Writer (Author)

ABOUT THE BOOK:

The end of a scourge

“The prayer that has been mine for twenty years, that I might be permitted in some way or some time to do something to alleviate human suffering, has been answered!“
–Major Walter Reed, writing to his wife, New Year’s Eve, 1900

As he wrote to his wife of his stunning success in the mission to identify the cause of yellow fever and find a way to eradicate the disease, Walter Reed had answered the prayers of millions. For more than 250 years, the yellow jack had ravaged the Americas, bringing death to millions and striking panic in entire populations. The very mention of its presence in a city or town produced instant chaos as thousands fled in terror, leaving the frail, the weak, and the ill to fend for themselves.

Yellow Jack tracks the history of this deadly scourge from its earliest appearance in the Caribbean 350 years ago, telling the compelling story of a few extraordinarily brave souls who struggled to understand and eradicate yellow fever. Risking everything for the cause of science and humanity, Reed and his teammates on the U.S. Army Yellow Fever Board invaded the heart of enemy territory in Cuba to pursue the disease–and made one of the twentieth century’s greatest medical discoveries. This thrilling adventure tells the timeless tale of their courage, ingenuity, and triumph in the face of adversity.

The Legacy of Major Walter Reed 

Major Walter Reed, a physician by training, must have had a curious mind beyond just medicine.  His curiosity and investigative nature allowed him to leave a legacy that impacted the world of medicine but most of all the world around him.  His findings allowed the Panama Canal to be completed.

Walter Reed

Major Walter Reed Conquers Yellow Fever

Walter Reed Conquers Yellow Fever

Building 58 – Fort Lesley J. McNair

Major Reed died in building 58 on November 23, 1902. In 1900 Walter Reed led the U.S. Army Yellow Fever Board that documented the mosquito transmission of Yellow Fever, proved the existence of the first viral disease in man and was the first research group to get informed consent from its subjects. This building served as a hospital on the installation then known as Washington Barracks. Walter Reed General Hospital, named in his honor, opened its doors to patients transferred from this building on May 1, 1909.

Walter Reed Army Medical Center

Run, Don’t Walk:

The Curious and Courageous Life

Inside Walter Reed Army Medical Center 

Paperback

by Adele Levine

ABOUT THE BOOK:

M*A*S*H meets Scrubs in a sharply observant, darkly funny, and totally unique debut memoir from physical therapist Adele Levine.
 
In her six years at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Adele Levine rehabilitated soldiers admitted in worse and worse shape. As body armor and advanced trauma care helped save the lives—if not the limbs—of American soldiers fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, Walter Reed quickly became the world leader in amputee rehabilitation. But no matter the injury, physical therapy began the moment the soldiers emerged from surgery.
 
Days at Walter Reed were intense, chaotic, consuming, and heartbreaking, but they were also filled with camaraderie and humor. Working in a glassed-in fishbowl gymnasium, Levine, her colleagues, and their combat-injured patients were on display at every moment to tour groups, politicians, and celebrities. Some would shudder openly at the sight—but inside the glass and out of earshot, the PTs and the patients cracked jokes, played pranks, and compared stumps.
 
With dazzling storytelling, Run, Don’t Walk introduces a motley array of oddball characters including:  Jim, a retired lieutenant-colonel who stays up late at night baking cake after cake, and the militant dietitian who is always after him; a surgeon who only speaks in farm analogies; a therapy dog gone rogue; —and Levine’s toughest patient, the wild, defiant Cosmo, who comes in with one leg amputated and his other leg shattered.
 
Entertaining, engrossing, and ultimately inspiring, Run, Don’t Walk is a fascinating look into a hidden world.

Walter Reed Army Medical Center Hospital

BUY THE BOOK

Images of America – Fort Myer is a pictorial chronicle of the first one hundred years of history containing over two hundred photographs, maps, and images.  Beginning in the 1860s and carrying through the 1960s it provides a view of what was over time.  An autographed copy of the book can be purchased at BUY THE BOOK.

Throwback Thursday 26 SEP 2019 Washington Barracks Site Plan – 1893

The 4th Artillery Has Plans

Two Lieutenants of the 4th Artillery did their work and developed a WASHINGTON BARRACKS SITE PLAN.

What began as twenty-eight acres when designated by Pierre Charles L’Enfant as reservation #5, has had a storied history full of events and plans.

An arsenal first occupied the site in 1801 and it served the union effort during the Civil War. The arsenal was closed in 1881, and the post was transferred to the Quartermaster Corps. It was known by the name Washington Barracks.  It then served as a place of discovery by MAJ Walter Reed.

An Enlarged Version of the Key to the Buildings

The Best-laid Plans of Mice and Men* and the 4th Artillery Too

THE WASHINGTON BARRACKS SITE PLAN

It never happened!

Despite the well thought out plan directed by First Lieutenant  C.P. Townsley and Second Lieutenant Wirt Robinson, there were bigger plans or the acreage that soon would be revealed when Secretary of War Elihu Root and President Theodore Roosevelt combined with the noted architectural of McKim, Mead, & White took over the future of the acreage.

Major General Clarence P.Townsley

Clarence P.Townsley would ultimately retire as a Major General, was appointed from Iowa to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York in July 1877, graduating 14th out of 53 in his USMA cadet class. On graduation in 1881, Townsley entered the 4th Artillery regiment, and the artillery corps is where he would spend his entire career. Townsley commanded several artillery garrisons before returning to the academy to occupy the superintendent’s billet in 1912. Townsley was in command of the USMA during the outbreak of World War I and continued to serve in this capacity until July 1916, when he was promoted to brigadier general and returned to garrison duty.

Colonel Wirt Robinson

Wirt Robinson would go on to serving 45 years in the United States Army. He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1887. First Lieutenant of Artillery, 4th Artillery, Aug. 1, 1893, at Washington Barracks, D. C., with the regiment, to July 1894. He joined the faculty at West Point and was a professor of chemistry, mining, and geology from 1911 until his retirement. On October 16, 1928, he retired from the United States Army due to age requirements after 45 years, most of which was at West Point.

*The saying is adapted from a line in “To a Mouse,” by Robert Burns: “The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men / Gang aft a-gley.”

My Heart’s in the Highlands (Illustrated):

Selected Poems of Robert Burns Paperback

– January 13, 2019

OVER 200 HISTORICAL IMAGES, MAPS & ILLUSTRATIONS

The book, Images of America – Fort Lesley J. McNair contains over two hundred historical photographs, images, and illustrations that chronicle the two hundred plus years of history among the acres of this US Army Post.

The book “Images of America – Fort Lesley J McNair”  is “a walk down memory lane” as one reader called it after he turned the last page.  Go beyond

A Great Foundation Deserves a Great Book

National Defense University

Marshall Hall of National Defense University

Located on historic Fort Lesley J McNair in Washington, DC – the third oldest US Army post.

Breaking News…

National Defense University Gift Shop

06 October 2016 – As of this date Images of America – Fort Lesley J. McNair is now available in Marshall Hall of the National Defense University located on Fort Lesley J. McNair.   Copies of the book which chronicles the history of the third oldest US Army post are available in the gift shop.  They are autographed by the author, John Michael, and sales benefit the National Defense University Foundation.

Images, Photographs, and Maps

The book contains over 200 images that provide insight about the military installation since its founding in 1791.  Over time it’s been an arsenal providing the ordinance for the Civil War, the site of the first federal penitentiary and where the Lincoln assassination conspirators were incarcerated, tried, and hanged.  The Army Corps of Engineers school was here while a major building effort provided the iconic Roosevelt Hall – designed by the architects McKim, Mead and White and other now historic buildings: Officers’ Club and quarters, barracks, stables, hospital, clinic …  stays by the US Army Band and the Music School.

National Defense University Gift Shop

More About Fort Lesley J. McNair

For several years Major Walter Reed practiced medicine and determined that the mosquito was the reason for  Yellow Fever while among these acres.  Up until the beginning of WW II, the Army War College occupied Roosevelt Hall until being relocated to Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.  The post also is the headquarters of the Military District of Washington. The US Army’s Center of Military History has called Fort McNair home since the 1990s.  The 3d Infantry – the Old Guard’s Alpha Company – also known as the Commander in Chief’s Guard – was garrisoned in the barracks on the post.

OVER 200 HISTORICAL IMAGES, MAPS & ILLUSTRATIONS

The book, Images of America – Fort Lesley J. McNair contains over two hundred historical photographs, images, and illustrations which chronicle the two hundred plus years of history among the acres of this US Army Post.

The book “Images of America – Fort Lesley J McNair”  is “a walk down memory lane” as one reader called it after he turned the last page.  Go beyond

the website and read more of the history with your own copy – BUY THE BOOK offers the opportunity to get either a personalized & autographed copy from the author or purchase the book from one of the major resellers or locations which carry the book (e.g. National War College).