Medical Service Corps

The caduceus has long been a symbol for the medical profession. However, the modern insignia of the commissioned officers of the United States Navy Medical Department has no symbolic basis in the history or traditions of the medical profession. The gold oak leaf motif used to denote officers of the Medical Department is based solely upon uniform traditions of the United States Navy.

Arrangements of oak leaves and acorns have long adorned the uniforms of United States Naval officers. All dress uniforms, whether staff or line, were copiously festooned with oak leaves and acorns. So much, that one wag once said that a Navy physician of the 1830s looked like a "walking arboretum."

Throughout the nineteenth century the Navy attempted to modify uniforms and insignia to better distinguish line from staff officers. A series of medical symbols were attempted to differentiate physicians of the Medical Corps from other officers. The caduceus made an early appearance in the 1830s, followed by a stylized branch of live oak. The initials ''MD" were adopted in 1847, with a subsequent return to a branch of live oak in 1864. Dress uniforms tended to be excessively ornate, and efforts were made before the turn of the twentieth century to simplify and prune away super­fluous gold. By 1883 the current design, "a spread oak leaf embroidered in dead gold, with an acorn embroidered in silver upon it," was adopted. The 1883 Medical Corps design forms the basis for the insignia of the Nurse Corps, Dental Corps, and Medical Service Corps.

Before establishment of tl1e Medical Service Corps in 1947, the insignia used to denote naval pharmacist warrant officers and the Hospital Corps underwent an evolution all its own. A general order of 25 June 1898 directed that naval pharmacists wear the uniform of warrant officers; the collar device for their frock coats was the Geneva Cross embroidered in gold. Their cap devices consisted of two crossed gold fouled anchors. Enlisted members of the Hospital Corps worn a red Geneva Cross to denote their rating. Once chief pharmacists were authorized in 1912, uniform regulations changed the design of the pharmacist insignia from the Geneva Cross to the caduceus. caduceus was embroidered in silver or gold for the chief pharmacist or pharmacist. Chief pharmacists rated a half-inch broken gold stripe on the sleeve of their frock coats, and wore the same head gear as other commissioned officers. Pharmacists had no sleeve stripe and retained the crossed gold fouled anchors cap device. The insignia adopted for botl1 pharmacists and chief pharmacists in 1922 was a gold caduceus; the differ­ences in rank were denoted by the width of the broken gold stripe on their coat sleeves.

With the advent of World War II, special legislation permitted Hospital Corps officers to advance beyond the grade of chief warrant officer. The gold embroidered caduceus remained the insignia of Hospital Corps officers. Similarly, Naval Reserve officers that entered the Naval service during World War II, the H-V(S) (hospital-volunteer specialists) wore the gold caduceus to designate their association with the Medical Department. In 1948 the caduceus was adopted as the insignia for the enlisted members of the Hospital Corps, replacing the red Geneva Cross. Medical Service Warrant Officers retained the caduceus as the symbol of their profession.

The insignia for the Medical Service Corps was approved by the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery Policy Board on 28 August 1947, authorized by the Bureau of Naval Personnel on 5 February 1948, and promulgated by Change No. I to the Uniform Regulations of 1947. It was natural that a gold leaf motif be adopted for the insignia of the newest commissioned corps in the Medical Department. Selection of the modifier was the challenge. The distinctive twig at the stem of an oak leaf, symbolizing the support rendered to the Medical Corps, was first suggested as early as September 1945. A proposal for establishment of a Navy Medical Scientist Corps suggested that the corps device "shall consist of a modification of the oak leaf and acorn of the Medical Corps. The modification shall be a small gold bar, attached to the base of the oak leaf, centered and at right angles to the stem." The uniform regulations defined the Corps device as "a spread oak leaf embroi­dered in gold, with a twig below the stem and attached thereto; the twig to be inclined at an angle of 30 degrees from horizontal." A revision of the Uniform Regulations of 1948 changed the angle of the twig from 30 to 15 degrees. Worn on the sleeve, the spread oak leaf is positioned stem down with the lower end of the twig to the front. The collar device is of the same design, constructed of gold metal. It is the twig on the base of the gold oak leaf that has inspired the sobriquet "Twig" denoting officers of the Navy Medical Service Corps.