100 Years Ago: Base Hospital 50 Enlistments Begin

Dr. James Eagleson had traveled to Washington, D.C. in October of 1917 to meet with the Department of Military Relief of the Red Cross and the Surgeon General's office about the organization, enrollment of personnel, and equipment of the Base Hospital.

Dr. Eagleson returned to Seattle and immediately began to arrange for the enrollment of the personnel of the unit. Initially, the unit was to consist of twenty-six officers, selected by the Director except for the Commanding Officer, assigned from the regular Army Medical Corps when the unit was called into active service, and the Quartermaster, assigned from the regular Army Quartermaster Corps. All officers selected by the Director had to be commissioned in the Medical Reserve Corps, U.S. Army, and assigned to Base Hospital No. 50. A chaplain was also to be appointed for service with the unit.

The nursing personnel originally consisted of a chief nurse and sixty-four nurses. Before the unit was called into active service, this number increased to 100 in anticipation of increasing the number of beds in the hospital. All nurses were enrolled in the Red Cross nursing service and then were assigned to Base Hospital 50. Other positions authorized included a dietician, laboratory technicians, and stenographers, if there were not enlisted personnel who could take these roles.