Group to Brig Gen Frank W. Weed, Medical Corps

Group of three to Brigadier General Frank W. Weed, Medical Corps: Army Distinguished Service Medal, with oak leaf cluster, numbered “1946″; Philippine Campaign Medal, Army, numbered “18431″; World War I Victory Medal, clasp “France”. With a single lieutenant colonel’s oak leaf and a Medical Corps collar device. With research. The DSM ribbon is heavily worn at the brooch and has been resewn across the back; the Philippine Campaign Medal has been reribboned; the Victory Medal ribbon is worn through at the brooch

Frank Watkins Weed was born in Baltimore in April 1881 and received his medical degree from the University of Maryland in 1903, entering the Army a year later. Weed served in the Philippines with the 6th Infantry, as well as at the Philippine Divisional Hospital in Manila. Serving again in the Philippines in 1912, Weed was transferred to Tientsin, China, in 1914. When the United States entered World War I, Weed was at Camp Funston, Kansas, with the 89th Division. It was here he developed and implemented the Army Quarantine Camp, which became the model throughout the Army and brought Weed his first Distinguished Service Medal: “In August 1917, as sanitary inspector at Camp Funston, Kansas, he initiated and perfected the organization and establishment of a standardized type of detention and quarantine camp, the successful operation of which resulted in the installation of similar camps in all large cantonments throughout the United States during the war. This original and constructive work of his had a marked influence in controlling epidemic diseases, then prevalent, and greatly facilitated the rapid mobilization and training of urgently needed manpower. From January to August, 1918, as general sanitary inspector, Surgeon General’s Office, he rendered services of the highest order. Later, while on duty in the Hospital Division of the Chief Surgeon’s office, American Expeditionary Forces, a transportation officer in charge of hospital trains, ambulances and movement of sick and wounded within the AEF to the United States during the period from January to July 1919, he directed the evacuation of over 100,000 sick and wounded to the United States”. From 1921 through 1928, Weed was the assistant editor, then editor in chief, of the Army Medical Department’s 15-volume history of its part in World War I. In 1935, Weed became a surgeon at the US Military Academy. During World War II, Weed was Surgeon, First Army and then commander of Letterman General Hospital, in San Francisco. For his work at First Army, Brigadier General Weed received the oak leaf cluster to his Distinguished Service Medal: “…from November 2, 1940 to June 1, 1942, Colonel Weed planned, organized, developed and directed the medical services of these commands. The diverse and exacting duties pertaining to these functions were performed with exceptional skill. Under his direction, every opportunity that developed during the expansion of these commands was utilized in perfecting medical installations and services and training the personnel thereof for actual field service. Hos conferences with other echelons and with State and local public officials, often on vexatious and difficult matters, with conducted with unfailing courtesy, rare wisdom and skill.” General Weed retired in April 1945 and died in September 1945. In 1968, the Weed Army Hospital at Fort Irwin, California, was named in his honor.