Norman Thomas Kirk – Major General, United States Army

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Norman Thomas Kirk was born on 3 January 1888, in Rising Sun, Maryland. He graduated from Tome School, Port Deposit, Maryland, in 1906, and received his Medical Doctor degree from the University of Maryland in 1910. He served as resident physician at the University Hospital, Baltimore, and as clinical assistant at the United States Soldiers’ Home Hospital, Washington, DC, before being commissioned as first lieutenant in the Medical Reserve Corps on 29 May 1912. After a short period of active service, Kirk was appointed to the Regular Army as First Lieutenant, Medical Corps, on 22 May 1913.

His first service was at the Soldiers’ Home, Washington, DC, in June 1912. In September he enrolled in the Army Medical School, Washington, DC, and following graduation, was stationed at Field Hospital No. 3, Texas City, Texas, from June 1913 to July 1915. For seven months of the period, Field Hospital No. 3 was stationed at Vera Cruz, Mexico, as part of the Punitive Expedition. Kirk was then assigned to the Cantonment Hospital, 2d Division, Galveston, Texas, as operating surgeon.

That same month, July, he went to Fort Grant, Panama Canal Zone, for a brief tour of duty, after which he was transferred to Fort Sherman, Panama Canal Zone, in October 1915. He stayed there until transferred to the United States for duty at the Base Hospital, Brownsville, Texas, in July 1916.

In September 1917, he was assigned to the Medical Officers’ Training Camp at Camp Greenleaf (Fort Oglethorpe), Georgia, serving there until January 1919, when he was ordered to Walter Reed General Hospital, Washington, DC, for surgical service. At Walter Reed in 1919, he transferred his practice from general surgery to bone and joint surgery. He was credited with treating at least one third of the major amputations incurred in World War I. He was acknowledged as one of the leading experts in the United States on amputation, and his major publications confirmed his reputation in both the military and civilian medical communities.

After brief periods of study at the Johns Hopkins University Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland, and the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, in 1925, he was assigned to the Station Hospital, Fort Sam Houston, Texas (now Brooke Army Medical Center), in October 1925, as Chief of the Orthopedic Section and Assistant Chief and Ward Officer, Surgical Service. He became Chief of Surgical Service in July 1927. In February 1928, he was transferred to the Sternberg General Hospital, Manila, Philippine Islands, as Chief of Surgical Service.

Kirk returned to the United States in July 1930 and assigned to Walter Reed General Hospital, Army Medical Center, Washington, DC, as Chief of the Orthopedic Section. He entered the Medical Field Service School Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, in October 1931, and following his graduation from the Advanced Course, returned to his duties at the Walter Reed General Hospital.

In July 1934, General Kirk became Chief of Surgical Service at the Station Hospital, Fort Mills, Philippine Islands, and in February 1935, became Chief of Surgical Service, Sternberg General Hospital, Philippine Islands.

In July 1936, Kirk was appointed Chief of Surgical Service, Letterman General hospital, San Francisco, California, serving in that capacity until January 1941. At that time, Kirk returned to Walter Reed General Hospital, Army Medical Center, Washington, DC, as Chief of Surgical Service.

When World War II appeared imminent, General Kirk assisted the Supply Division, Surgeon General’s Office, in the revision of the Medical Department Supply Catalog, thus ensuring that it would include the proper items for the maximum professional care and treatment of the battle wounded.

Kirk was named Commanding Officer, Percy Jones General Hospital, Battle Creek, Michigan, in June 1942. Here, under his supervision, the Battle Creek Sanitarium was converted into a general hospital and its staff (mainly civilians) selected, organized, and trained. During the war, Percy Jones General Hospital served as a specialized center for the treatment of amputations, neurosurgery, deep X-ray therapy, and neurology. This hospital, originally intended to accommodate 1,750 patients, was expanded and together with Camp Custer, Michigan, became a hospital center with a maximum patient load of 12,000.

After a contentious selection process, President Franklin D. Roosevelt selected Kirk to replace Major General James Magee as The Surgeon General. He was appointed Surgeon General, United States Army, on 1 June 1943. Under his guidance as Surgeon General, the U.S. Army in World War II achieved a record of recovery from wounds and freedom from disease never before accomplished in history.

For the first time, surgery was taken to the men at the front: 96 out of every 100 wounded who lived to reach a hospital survived as against 92 in World War I. Mobile hospitals were set up within a few miles of the front lines and medical aid men went into battle with the troops, administering to the wounded where they fell. Prompt surgery, aided by penicillin, the sulfa drugs, whole blood, and blood plasma administered at the front, together with new and improved surgical techniques was responsible for returning 375,000 of World War II’s 598,000 wounded to duty in the theater and an additional 55,200 to duty in the United States.

Through the Army’s preventive medicine program deaths from disease were reduced to 0.6 man per thousand men per year as against 16.5 in World War I. Malaria was reduced from hundreds of cases per 11,000 men per year to less than 50. The dysenteries, which once put entire regiments and armies out of action, occurred among less than 90 out of every 1,000 men per year and were readily controlled. During World War I, 38 percent of the men who contracted meningitis died compared with 4 percent in this war; and 24 percent of those who contracted pneumonia died, compared with only six-tenths of one percent in this war. Through the development and use of toxoids and vaccines, fear of tetanus, typhoid, and typhus, became a thing of the past. No deaths resulted from these diseases among troops inoculated against them. Not a single case of yellow fever occurred in the Army.

This record was accomplished by a Medical Department that included only 1,200 doctors in the Regular Army Medical Corps at the beginning of the emergency and reached a peak strength of 47,000 Medical Corps, 15,000 Dental Corps, 18,700 Medical Administrative Corps, 2,000 Sanitary Corps, 2,000 Veterinary Corps, 61 Pharmacy Corps, 57,000 Nurse Corps, 1,600 Dieticians, 1,300 Physical Therapists, and some 535,000 enlisted personnel trained for such duties as medical aid men, litter bearers, ambulance drivers, and technicians. These were the personnel who, under General Kirk’s direction, planned and organized the work of the Army Medical Department and cared for the largest American Army in history fighting a global war, administering to the 15,000,000 patients admitted to the 692 hospitals overseas and the 65 general and 13 convalescent hospitals in this country.

Personal Data

Date and Place of Birth: 3 January 1888, Rising Sun, Maryland
Date and Place of Death: 13 August 1960, Walter Reed General Hospital, Washington, D.C.
Parents: Thomas and Anna (Brown) Kirk
Marriage: 21 September 1917
Children: Ann Kirk Willard and Jane Kirk Kimbrell

Career Summary

  • 1912 1st Lieutenant, Medical Reserve Corps, 29 May 1912
  • 1912 Soldiers’ Home, Washington, DC
  • 1912-1913 Army Medical School, Washington, DC, 1st Lieutenant, Regular Army, Medical Corps
  • 1913-1915 Field Hospital No. 3, Texas City, Texas (For seven months of this period, Field Hospital No. 3 was stationed at Vera Cruz, Mexico, as part of the Punitive Expedition).
  • 1915 Operating Surgeon, Cantonment Hospital, 2d Division, Galveston, Texas
  • 1915 Fort Grant, Panama Canal Zone
  • 1915-1916 Fort Sherman, Panama Canal Zone
  • 1916-1917 Base Hospital, Brownsville, Texas, Captain, 7 June 1916
  • 1917-1919 Commanding Officer, Regimental Detachments, Medical Officers’ Training Camp, Camp Greenleaf, Georgia, Major, 15 May 1917
    Lt Colonel, National Army, 6 November 1918
  • 1919-1925 Bone and Joint Surgery, Walter Reed General Hospital, Washington, DC. (With brief tours of duty at Johns Hopkins University Hospital,
  • Baltimore, Maryland, and the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts in 1925)
  • 1925-1927 Chief of the Orthopedic Section and Assistant Chief and Ward Officer, Surgical Service, Station Hospital, Fort Sam Houston, Texas
  • 1927-1928 Chief of the Surgical Service, Station Hospital, Fort Sam Houston, Texas
  • 1928-1930 Chief of the Surgical Service, Sternberg General Hospital, Manila, Philippine Islands
  • 1930-1931 Chief of the Orthopedic Section, Walter Reed General Hospital, Army Medical Center, Washington, DC
  • 1931-1932 Advanced Course, Medical Field Service School, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania
  • 1932-1934 Chief of the Orthopedic Section, Walter Reed General Hospital, Army Medical Center, Washington, DC
    Lieutenant Colonel, Regular Army, 22 May 1933
  • 1934-1935 Chief of the Surgical Service, Station Hospital, Fort Mills, Philippine Islands
  • 1935-1936 Chief of the Surgical Service, Sternberg General Hospital, Manila, Philippine Island
  • 1936-1941 Chief of the Surgical Service, Letterman General Hospital, San Francisco, California, Colonel, Regular Army, 22 May 1939
  • 1941-1942 Chief of the Surgical Service, Walter Reed General Hospital, Army Medical Center, Washington, DC
  • 1942-1943 Commanding Officer, Percy Jones General Hospital, Battle Creek, Michigan
    Brigadier General, Army of the United States, 12 March 1943
  • 1943-1947 Surgeon General, United States Army, Major General, 1 June 1943
  • 1947 Retired, 1 June 1947

Memberships

  • American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons
  • American Association for the Surgery of Trauma
  • American Board of Orthopedic Surgery
  • American College of Surgeons
  • American Hospital Association
  • American Medical Association
  • American Orthopaedic Association
  • American Surgical Association
  • Association of Military Surgeons
  • Board of Commissioners, United States Soldier’s Home
  • Board of Directors, American foundation for Tropical Medicine
  • Central Committee, American red Cross
  • Diplomate of American Board of Surgery
  • Executive Committee, Research Board for National Security, National Academy of Sciences
  • Federal Board of Hospitalization
  • Fellow of American College of Physicians
  • Fellow and Governor of American College of Surgeons
  • Honorary Fellow of Southern Psychiatric Association
  • Honorary Member of Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society
  • Honorary Member of District of Columbia Medical Society
  • Honorary Life Member of Washington Orthopaedic Society
  • Member of American Medical Association
  • National Board of Medical Examiners
  • National Research Council
  • Pan American Medical Association
  • Southern Surgical Association
  • The Academy of Medicine of Washington, DC
  • United States of American Typhus CommissionHonorary Degrees and Awards
    Sc. D., Davidson College, 1944
    Sc. D., University of Maryland, 1944
    Distinguished Service Medal, May 1945
    Commander, Order of the British Empire (Honorary) 1945
    Commander, Order of the Crown of Italy, 1946Writings (Book)
    Kirk, Norman T. Amputations, Operative Techniques. Washington, DC: Medical Interpreter, 1924. Republished as monograph by Prior Co., Hagerstown, Maryland, 1942 and 1943.(Chapters in Encyclopedias)
    Amputations, Lewis, Practice of Surgery, vol. 3, Chap. 10, 273 pp.: Published by Prior Co., Hagerstown, Maryland, 1928-30.
    Cinoplastic Amputations and Prosthesis; Cyclopedia of Medicine, Surgery, and Specialties, vol. 1:438-475, Published by F.A. Davis, Philadelphia, 1939.
    Prothesis, Christopher-Saunders, 1939.
    Tetanus, Nelson-Loose leaf Living Surgery, vol. 1, Chap. VA, pp. 475D-476H, 1941.

    (Articles)
    Kirk, Norman T. “End Results of 158 Consecutive Autogenous bone Grafts for non-union in long bones: (A) in Simple Fractures; (B) in Atrophic Bone Following War Wounds and Chronic Suppurative Osteitis (osteomyelitis).”
    ________. “Emergency Splinting of Fractures for Transport.” Military Surgeon 60 (May, 1927): 532-540.
    ________. “Neurotrophic Changes in Leprosy.” Military Surgeon 69 (July 1931): 18-25.
    ________. “Care and Evacuation of Fracture Cases: Battle Casualties.” Military Surgeon 70 (May 1932): 462-471.
    ________. “Amputation Stumps of Lower Extremity.” Journal Bone and Joint Surgery 15 (January 1933): 101-111.
    ________. “Fracture of the Clavicle.” American Journal of Surgery 38 (December 1937): 485-488.
    ________. “Non-Union and Bone Grafts.” Journal and Joint Surgery 20 (July 1938): 621-626.
    ________. “Prophylaxis and Treatment of Gas Gangrene (C1. Welchii) by Sulfanilamide.”
    Army Medical Bulletin 51 (January 1940): 26-27.
    ________. “Organization for Evacuation and Treatment of War Casualties.” Ann. Surg. 113 (June 1941): 1020-1033.
    ________. “Military Orthopedics.” Surg. Clin. No. Am. 21 (December 1941): 1685-1702.
    ________. “Amputations in War.” J.A.M.A. 120 (5 September 1942): 13-16.
    ________. “Army Splints.” Army Medical Bulletin 64 (October 1942): 76-86.
    ________. “The Development of Amputation.” Bulletin of Medical Library Association 32, No. 2 (April 1944)

“A General’s Journey – Norman T. Kirk,”
by e. a. duryea*

From Maryland to Manila to Montauk Major General Norman T. Kirk, Surgeon General U.S.A., saw four wars and every battlefield of his country’s involvement from 1912 until 1947.

Along the way he garnered many honors including the United States Legion of Merit and the Distinguished Service Medal, the French Legion of Honor, the Italian Order of the Crown, the Order of the British Empire and the Swedish Order of the Northern Star.

These were in recognition of his exceptional contributions in World War II. “Under his supervision, the Army Medical Corps. was expanded from 1,200 to 47,000 physicians, plus 15,000 dentists, with 500,000 auxiliary personnel used in the care of over 15 million patients. Under his administration the Army death rate from disease which was 165 per 10,000 patients in World War I dropped to 60 per 10,000”.  His skills as a physician as well as administrator were recognized by President Harry S. Truman when he chose him as his ‘personal physician’ during the Potsdam Conference.

In addition, he was a medical author of note, having written many books on orthopedic surgery, which was his specialty. “Amputations, Operative Technique” has gone through several editions and is considered a classic in its field.

There was nothing military or medical in General Kirk’s background to indicate what he was to become. He came from a family of farmers in Rising Sun, Maryland. He attended the Tome School then went straight to the University of Maryland Medical School. Members of his family are still puzzled by his career choice. They just know that he wanted to be a doctor and a good one and he was. His daughter, Ann Kirk Willard, of East Hampton who is married to Brigadier General Harry Willard, USAR, Ret., tells of her father’s devotion to his patients. “He had no bedside manner, just a no nonsense manner. He insisted that all the men on his service make morning rounds every day including Christmas, and that they revisit their patients every night.”

He was equally strict with his family. Ann was a high school graduate before she was allowed to use lip stick, entering college before her first dates and a college graduate before her first drink. “I didn’t get away with anything because I wouldn’t talk back to my father. My sister Jane did though and she was able to bulldoze him once in awhile.” Jane is now Mrs. Marvin Kimbrell of Pensacola, Florida.

His interns were thoroughly intimidated by him and those who aspired to dates with his daughters asked them to meet at the corner so they wouldn’t have to joust with the General.

Yet this man who might have been viewed by some as a martinet was not considered so by others. His son-in-law, Harry Willard, described him as “friendly, outgoing, straightforward and a great father-in-law.” His nephew, Perry B. Duryea, Jr. remembers him as a “precise taskmaster, direct and charming”. I remember him as feisty, fun and kind.

As the man who presided over the largest medical organization in the world he must have had incredible experiences.

Unfortunately, he kept no personal journals so we are not privy to his private thoughts. But from the recollections of others we can gain some insight into the man, the military and the  medical profession.

There was one occasion when he was called on the carpet by a superior officer for supposedly swearing at a patient, saying “God damn you.” “Never! I never say Gad damn you I always say God damn it.” Feisty, he did not forbear to rage against General MacArthur either, when he was not allowed to enter Manila following VJ Day [Ed.-actually, this incident occurred in early March 1945 shortly after the seizure on Manila when Major General Kirk was in the Pacific visiting hospitals and medical personnel]. He was told the area was not secure but he was anxious about the health of the newly released POWs at Sternberg Hospital where he had served two tours of duty. He did manage to get a few of them out and fly them home with him. One was Raymond Bliss Jr. who had lost an eye at Japanese hands and whose father eventually followed General Kirk as Surgeon General.

When reorganizing the 1,750 bed Battle Creek Sanitarium in Michigan to the Percy Jones General Hospital with a 12,000 bed capacity he deplored the total removal of everything by the previous director, J. Harvey Kellog, MD. Dr. Kellog had cleared the place out to the bare bones including removal of the goldfish. Exasperated, the General asked him “When are you coming back for the wallpaper?”

He had other military mishaps, too. On one occasion, a dress parade, he and his horse parted company in front of the reviewing stand, and he had to beat an ignominious retreat on foot which may explain why he hated horses. At another parade, while delivering the saber salute, his sword stuck in the ground, like King Arthur’s Excalibur, and he had to march on without it. We can assume that on both occasions he said “God damn it.”

General Kirk’s first engagement was in 1913 on the Texas border, chasing Pancho Villa in the Mexican War.  Also present were General John Pershing and Lieutenant Dwight D. Eisenhower.  It was here he met his future wife Army nurse Anna Mae Duryea who arrived in Brownsville, Texas ill with an infected vaccination. His [He] was in the ambulance which met her ship and the romance began. As she told it, , “Once I returned home I realized I would have to get myself married because  I had three brothers who bedeviled every beau I ever had so I bought myself a wedding dress, traveled to Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia and married Norman there.” She was a very determined lady, also quite handsome, capable and good company. They both chose well.

It takes a particular kind of family to live the service life well. There is little or no permanency about the husband’s presence, the children’s education or even a residency. The first home they ever owned was after the General’s retirement in Montauk 35 years after entering the service. It was the first time they owned a dining room table. Ann Kirk attend four different high schools with a year’s interruption traveling to Manila and still managed to graduate from the University of California at Berkeley at the age of 20.

There were compensations. The service can be one big family with familiar faces all over the world. On a general’s level one rubs elbows with the country’s greats. Mrs. Kirk was often General MacArthur’s official hostess. General Kirk visited every theatre of war with Secretary of War Henry Stimson and he received his General’s Stars from General Eisenhower. They moved with the history makers and made history themselves.

There were also hometown connections. The Kirks, having spent many leaves in Montauk, near their relations, the Perry Duryeas, began to think of it as home. Netty Edwards, soon to be Nettie Rattray, of the East Hampton Star was then a journalist in Manila. Kathryn Edwards, Army nurse and daughter of the legendary Dr. Dave Edwards, of East Hampton, a close friend of General Kirk, was in Italy when he passed through. “All of a sudden Dad’s dear old friend was chief of the whole Army Medical Corps, and I didn’t know whether to salute him or shake hands when we met. He settled the question by giving me a great big hug and a kiss.”

His appointment as Surgeon General was still to come when he was travelling by ship in 1941 from Letterman General Hospital in San Francisco to Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C. He said to his daughter, Ann, who was travelling with him “Bring your typewriter with you. I need to make revisions in my book on amputations. There is going to be a war.” Chilling words, and with these words General Kirk stepped center stage into the world’s greatest upheaval. He performed his role so well he was universally revered by his peers and, to this day, by all who followed after.

When he retired in Montauk in 1947 he was returning to family, friends and especially fishing. He was an avid angler and did it with assorted companions. His maritime and medical pal, Dr. David Edwards, his nephew Perry B. Duryea, Jr., commercial fisherman such as Ellis Tuthill and anyone else who had a way with the water.

He utilized all of his catch. The best of it went on the table. His wife was a good cook. The guts went into his asparagus beds and the bunker fish went into the lawn. The first time he fertilized that way he neglected to cut them up so when the lawn greened up in the spring there were fish shaped patterns all over it.

Dr. Kirk did not hang his shingle out here. He did not have to. He was the only doctor in town and everyone knew he was here. Real retirement wasn’t possible. He worked very closely with Dr. Dave, East Hampton’s wonderful country doctor, and he took care of anyone who needed him. He treated the fishermen for free and was always amused and pleased to find a mess of fish on his doorstep the next day. Of course, his extended family called upon his services too. I was one of his best customers, often in trouble, always after hours so he would be called upon to minister to me when most people were asleep. After a string of early a.m. calls to deal with broken toes, an appendectomy, etc. he said “Bettie, the next time you have a party why don’t you just invite me?! Then I’ll already be there and won’t have to get out of bed to come and take care of you.”

He involved himself in the community, too. He led the drive for a community flagpole and it stands today in The Plaza flying the flag of the country he served so well. He was a prime mover in the effort to get zoning in Montauk, an idea which finally came into being.

He was cofounder of the Montauk Civic Association, precursor of the Montauk Village Association, and brought his generalship to bear there as everywhere. One of the thrusts of the group was to get the proliferation of signs removed from the roadsides. When persuasion failed he was not above a bit of guerrilla warfare which involved the dead of night, a jeep and a few other like-minded warriors. The following mornings the landscapes were littered with broken signs never to be raised again. Nobody wanted to argue with a man who might have the whole U.S. Army behind him. Further, it was a fine example of a righteous citizen uprising. There is more than one way to win a war.

Over his 13 years as a Montauk resident he became a familiar sight in his Bermuda shorts, Uncle Ben glasses and piercing blue eyes. He could skewer you with a glance but it was usually tempered with a twinkle. He was liked by all, loved by many and universally respected.

When it was discovered that he had an aneurism requiring surgery he must have had intimations of mortality. He took his son-in-law aside and charged him with the special care of his wife knowing he might be leaving her behind. He spoke to others, too, and requested the company of all his grandchildren for what was left of that summer. He was operated on August 6, 1960 at Walter Reed Hospital by Dr. Michael DeBakey, the now famous heart surgeon. A week later he died leaving all of Montauk shocked and saddened that such a vital force was gone.

He is memorialized at Kirk Park just west of the village, fronting on Fort Pond. This oasis of green is owned and maintained by the Montauk Village Association and honors a man who did so much for this community and for his Country.

    The memorial plaque reads

“Major General Norman T. Kirk”
“Village Physician, fisherman, friend”

He was all of that and a good deal more. The park is peaceful and pastoral and the pond is full of fish He would have liked that.

Many thanks to the Willard family for their memories and, memorabilia and to Perry B. Duryea, Jr. for his observations on and memories  of “Uncle Norman”.  e. a. duryea

KIRK, NORMAN THOMAS

  • M GEN USA
  • DATE OF BIRTH: 01/03/1888
  • DATE OF DEATH: 08/13/1960
  • BURIED AT: SECTION 2  SITE 864 LH
    ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

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