Charles Armstrong’s experience has already described partially the entrance
examination for the Regular Corps. After 1905, following the report of Dr. Abraham
Flexner and the adoption of accreditation requirements for United States medical schools,
the Public Health Service felt that graduates of these medical schools were competent
professionally. The PHS held examinations competitively for the best candidates to fulfill
the “mission” of the Commissioned Corps. The Service, thus, placed emphasis on
physical health, personal appearance, personality and the ability to pass a comprehensive
written and oral examination lasting many days on the full range of medical science and
clinical aptitude.
“The mission of the Commissioned Corps of the Public Health Service, as seen by
a majority of its officers, was conceived as a ‘mobile group of skilled specialists’
prepared to undertake research whenever required, ready to perform professional and
administrative duties, capable of responding to emergency needs and assisting other
Federal agencies as well as State and local officials in the solution of their medical or
public health problems”(1). Thus, Charles Armstrong, M.D., on October 16, 1916, was
about to embark on a lifetime career in the elite, carefully selected, exclusive group
represented by the Commissioned Corps of the United States Public Health Service.
Early Duty Stations in the Public Health Service
Charles Armstrong’s first assignment, after receiving his commission, was
directly to the Immigration Station on Ellis Island in New York Harbor. For six weeks he
spent full time examining newly arrived immigrants. Immigration in the years prior to