Mr. Roosevelt & the Origin of The

A Journal of Navy Medical History and Culture Mr. Roosevelt & the Origin of the PRT Fall 2012 VOLUME VII, ISSUE 4 THE GROG A Journal of Navy Medical History and Culture Introduction Fall 2012, Volume VII, Issue 4 ifty years ago, President John Kennedy discovered an executive order dated 1908 requiring all Marine officers to walk fifty A Journal of Navy Medical History and Culture Fmiles within three days as part of a fitness test. Kennedy sent the executive order to the Marine Corps Commandant David Shoup proposing that he see if the “present day Marines” were as fit as their predecessors. The order originally signed by President Theodore Roosevelt was part of Teddy’s campaign to ensure leaders of the Army, Mr. Roosevelt & the Navy and Marine Corps were physically ready Origin of the PRT for service. Roosevelt’s fitness test would serve as the precursor of today’s Physical Readiness Fall 2012 Test or "PRT." Kennedy’s challenge to the Marine VOLUME VII, ISSUE 4 Corps would develop into the annual “Kennedy 50-mile” marathon that is still held today. Portrait of President Theodore Roosevelt Courtesy of Library of Congress In this edition of The Grog, we look back at the origin of the PRT, a fitness exam that was originally molded in the image of our most physically active president. We follow this with a look back at the lives of two heroic hospital corpsmen through the eyes of Navy medicine’s most deco- Office of Medical History rated officer in history, Joel T. Boone. Communications Directorate Bureau of Medicine & Surgery The article "Light’ em if You Got’ em: Notes on 2300 E Street, NW Navy Medicine 'In Harm’s Way'" looks at how Washington, DC 20372-5300 Navy nurses are portrayed in the Otto Prem- inger's "Pearl Harbor" film starring the "Duke" John Wayne and Patricia Neal. Editor and Historian: André B. Sobocinski Our "Showcase" contains an original assortment of Military medical-themed historical essays, al- Archivist: manacs and book reviews ranging from mend- Mike Rhode ing "broken" Civil War soldiers and sailors to the mythic grail quest and how it applies to oral history. Design Consultant: Marcia L. Sobocinski As always, we do hope you enjoy the latest in- stallment of The Grog, a humble tour boat on the Oral History Editor: vast oceans of Navy Medicine, past and present. COL Dick Ginn, MSC, USA (Ret.) THEA JOURNAL OF NAVY MEDICAL GROG HISTORY AND CULTURE Features Mr. Roosevelt and the Origin of the PRT........................................page 4 Remembering Schaffner and Litchfield: Corpsmen of the Sixth Marine Regiment page 4...Roosevelt and the PRT By VADM Joel T. Boone, MC, USN.................................................page 9 Light’em if You Got’ em: Notes on Navy Medicine "In Harm’s Way"....................................page 12 Showcase Navy Medicine Almanac, Pearl Harbor........................................page 14 Adventures in Oral History: The Grail Knight's Quest(ion)......page 16 Surgeon Ambler's Weather Logbook Gets Digitized...................page 18 page 9...Remembering Litchfield Book Review: Mending Broken Soldiers by Michael Rhode.............................................................................page 20 Navy Physicians Celebrate 100 years.............................................page 22 THE GROG is a free quarterly publication of the Communications Directorate dedicated to the promotion and preservation of the history and culture of the Navy Medical Department. Articles and infor- mation published in THE GROG are historical and are not meant to reflect the present-day policy of the Navy Medical Department, U.S. page 14...Pearl Harbor Almanac Navy, and/or the Department of Defense. THE GROG 3 Roosevelt standing in the White House Courtesy of Library of Congress 4 Fall 2012 Mr. Roosevelt & The Origin of the PRT oday’s U.S. Navy espouses a ography, President Roosevelt recalled, or outdoor life or political reform, Roo- “culture of fitness,” and “Physi- “Many of the older officers were so un- sevelt seemed to direct the full force cal Readiness,” but this was fit physically that their condition would of his spirit into living the “Strenuous Tnot always so. In the early 1900s, there have excited laughter, had it not been so L i fe .” 5 As part of this philosophy he be- were those inside the Navy’s ranks who serious to think that they belonged to lieved nothing was gained without hard expressed concern over an increase of the military arm of the Government.”3 work; and one’s moral and physical sedentary behavior and avoirdupois Not being one to sit aimlessly aside on character was almost a patriotic duty. among the officer class. Navy Surgeon any issue, Roosevelt charged forth with On 2 December 1907, Roosevelt di- Albert Grunwell commented that naval an attempt to change the desk-bound rected Secretary of War William How- personnel, both young and old, were culture of the military. In the process, ard Taft to institute an annual physical prey to bad habits of inactivity. “Even he would establish the forerunner of fitness program in the Army. Two days on shore, whenever a cab or other ve- today’s Physical Readiness Training later, his directive would be released as hicle is to be had it is seldom that even Program (PRT). Army General Order No. 240.6 On 14 short distances are walked. This is cer- Without question, our twenty-sixth May 1908, the War Department issued tainly an unhealthy condition, for it is president was a fitness fanatic who more Army General Order No. 79 outlining sure to lead to early bodily and mental than compensated in adulthood for the the guidelines of the test, as suggested torpor, if not to more serious conse- infirmities that plagued his childhood. by Roosevelt.7 Each year all Army offi- quences, not so remote as many imag- Roosevelt enjoyed boxing, climbing, cers were to undergo a “sufficient num- i n e .” 1 Navy Surgeon General Presley hiking, horseback riding, polo, rowing, ber” of field marches, a daily march of Rixey declared that ship life contributed tennis, swimming, weightlifting and not less than thirty miles for three days to physical and mental stagnation and even jujutsu all of which he did to the in succession and a riding test of ninety this was more noticeable through the extreme. He brought exercise equip- miles covered in three days. Roosevelt progress of the cruise.2 President Theo- ment to the White House and even had also called for annual physical fitness dore Roosevelt seemed most appalled a boxing ring set up where he would reports to assess whether or not Army by this lack of physical conditioning, spar with professional prizefighters, officers were “physically qualified for which he believed plagued the officers including the legendary John L. Sulli- active operations.”8 Once the Army tes- of all military services. In his autobi- van.4 Whether it was rigorous exercise tbed had been made, the former Assis- 1. Annual Report of the Surgeon-General, U.S. Navy. Washington, DC: GPO. 1909, p56. 2. Rixey, Presley. Memorandum for the Secretary of the Navy Regarding the President’s Suggestion as to the advisability of having a physical test for officers of the Navy. 20 November 1908. 116257. BUMED Correspondence Files. RG 52. National Archives. 3. Roosevelt, Theodore. An Autobiography. New York: Macmillan Company, 1914. p48. 4. Lansford, Tom. Teddy Roosevelt in Perspective. New York: Nova Science Publishers, 2005. 5. Term came from a speech given in 1899 in which Roosevelt exclaimed, “Above all, let us shrink from no strife, moral or physical, within or without the nation, provided we are certain that the strife is justified, for it is only through strife, through hard and dangerous endeavor, that we shall ultimately win the goal of true national greatness.” 6. "Historical Background on Physical Fitness in the Marine Corps." USMC Historical Collections—Navy Department Library Reference Collections. 7. Ibid 8. Ibid THE GROG 5 tant Secretary of the Navy set a similar course for his beloved Navy. In a letter to Secretary of the Navy Truman Newberry, dated 17 November 1908, Roosevelt wrote: “Why should we not have a physical test for the navy, analogous to that which the coast ar- tillery has? I have been unpleasantly struck by the lack of physical condition of some of the older officers, and even some of the younger officers.”9 Under Roosevelt’s close watch, Sec- retary Newberry, RADM John E. Pills- bury, Chief of the Bureau of Naviga- tion, and RADM Presley M. Rixey, Roosevelt did everything to the extreme, including horseback riding. Chief of the Bureau of Medicine and Courtesy of Library of Congress Surgery, ironed out the new directive. Rixey suggested that all officers of the [of Medicine] that many such officers Officers would have the choice of com- line and staff, ashore and afloat should will suffer breakdown upon the advent pleting one of three options: a fifty mile be required to take the test as a means of war and fail to render any adequate walk within three consecutive days and “to cultivate and inculcate the habit return to the Government which has, in total of twenty hours; a ride on horse- of daily exercise on the part of all of- for many years perhaps, educated them back at a distance of ninety miles with- ficers, especially those of middle life for this very crisis. It should be remem- in three consecutive days; or a ride on a and beyond…and to enable them to bered, moreover, that those physically bicycle at a distance of 100 miles within be always fitted for the maximum ser- incompetent take the place of others, three consecutive days. All personnel vice they may be upon to perform.”10 with equal opportunities, would render taking the test would be examined by Rixey echoed the president’s beliefs most efficient service.”11 a Navy Medical Board to determine that physical fitness was tied to readi- Although Secretary Newberry alone whether the test may be taken without ness.

Load more