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Do The Best For Our Soldiers: University of California Medical Service in World War I

Introduction

In April 2, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson asked a joint session of Congress to request a declaration of war with Germany. As the reasons for war, Wilson cited Germany’s violation of a pledge not to use its submarines to sink vessels in the North Atlantic and Mediterranean as well as Germany’s attempts to entice Mexico into an alliance against the United States. On April 4, the Senate voted in support of war. On April 6, the House concurred.

Benjamin Ide Wheeler, President of the University of California

UC President Wheeler promised “the entire resources of the University” to help with the war effort in February 1917, two months before President Wilson declared war on Germany. In June 1917, the President of the Medical Society of the State of California, J. Henry Barbat, appealed “to every physician and surgeon in the State to be ready and willing to serve his Country, and enlist as soon as possible.”

Benjamin Ide Wheeler

J. Henry Barbat

Getting to the War Front

Base Hospital No. 30, United States Army, was organized under the auspices of the American Red Cross Society and the University of California Department of Medicine in the spring and early summer of 1917. The entire unit set sail for France aboard the U.S.S. Leviathan on April 24, 1918. Following the end of the war, the unit was discharged from San Francisco’s Presidio on May 19, 1919.

Timeline:

  • 11.20.1917 - Orders arrive to mobilize unit to Fort Mason
  • 12.26.1917 - Nurses of Base Hospital no. 30 embark on their cross-country train ride from SF to NY
  • 3.03.1918 - Remaining personnel of Base Hospital no. 30 sets sail from Fort Mason on the S.S. Northern Pacific
  • 4.24.1918 - Entire unit sets sail from NY harbor on the world’s largest passenger liner, the U.S.S. Leviathan with camouflage paint
  • 5.02.1918 - U.S.S. Leviathan arrives at the harbor in Brest, France
  • 5.07.1918 - Unit arrives in Royat, France after a 46 hour train ride
  • 6.12.1918 - Base Hospital no. 30 receives its first trainload of wounded from the front
  • 1.11.1918 - Unit receives news that armistice had been signed and fighting stopped
  • 1.20.1919 - Last patients evacuated from hospital
  • 2.13.1919 - Unit leaves Royat, France
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