Initial Assignments
When he accepted his commission in the Public Health Service, Charles
Armstrong selected access to an exclusive and elite group of individuals. Dr. Ralph
Williams (1), writing Chapter 9 entitled Those Who Carry On in his history of the United
States Public Health Service, described the origin, the physical and professional
requirements of applicants for admission, the mission and the administrative details of the
Commissioned Officers Corps of the USPHS. The U.S. Public Health Service began its
existence when it was established as the United States Marine Hospital Service (1798-
1902) in order to provide medical care to merchant seamen and Naval personnel. During
its existence this organization also began performing other public health functions. Its
name changed to the United States Public Health and Marine Hospital Service from
1902-1912. Since 1912 to the present it has enjoyed its current title. It has existed as parts
of several government departments and agencies including in succession up to the
present: the Department of the Treasury, Federal Security Agency, Department of Health,
Education and Welfare (HEW), and Department of Heath and Human Services (HHS).
A Supervising Surgeon (the first Surgeon General of the USPHS) of the Marine
Hospital Service, Dr. John M. Woodworth (1871-1879), when appointed initially,
decided that one of the important problems confronting him was the development of a
mobile corps of carefully selected medical officers to staff the Marine Hospitals and to
perform other health duties. Prior to their appointment, officers of the Marine Hospital
Service were selected on a somewhat random basis with scant emphasis on the on the