Original WWII 8th Air Force Medical Corps uniform of Captain Milton Willner - Former director of Hoffmann-La Roche Pharmaceutica
Captain, U.S. Army Medical Corps, 8th Army Air Force. Willner entered the service on Jan. 16, 1943, and was discharged on Jan. 17, 1946. During his service, he received a Bronze Star Medal while serving in the European theater of war. After the war, he was a private pediatrician from 1947 until joining Hoffman-La Roche in 1963. From 1947 to 1960, he was a clinical instructor in pediatrics at New York Medical College and worked as a pediatrician in several New Jersey hospitals. He was a diplomat of the American Board of Pediatrics, a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and a member of several professional societies, including the American Federation of Clinical Research and the American Heart Association.
Dr. Willner earned an A.B. from Cornell University and an M.D. from New York Medical College, completed an internship at Newark City Hospital and a residency at Essex County Isolation Hospital, New Jersey, and Flower Firth Ave. Hospital, New York City.
He led a long and rather prestigious life both before and after the war.
When the United States entered World War II, the nation's small air force was part of the U.S. Army and depended on the Army medical system to support it. The rapid expansion of the Army Air Force and the medical challenges posed by the improved capabilities of aircraft soon posed major challenges to the Army's ground-based medical system. By the end of the war, the Army Air Force had successfully built its own medical system designed to meet the unique needs of air warfare.
This achievement reflected the determined leadership of Army Air Force medical directors and the dedication of thousands of medical personnel who volunteered for aeromedical duties that were often undefined or unknown to them. Faced with new challenges, many American medics responded with hard work and intelligence that contributed significantly to Allied air superiority.
Army Air Forces (AAF) relied on many types of medical support during World War II. One of the greatest medical contributions was the research and development of personal survival equipment for fighter and bomber crews. AAF physicians, for example, helped develop the first flight suits that countered the physiological effects of excessive gravity during high-speed maneuvers. With support from the U.S. Navy and organizations in Allied countries, the AAF's Aeromedical Laboratory at Wright Field, Ohio, developed the first clothing that successfully countered the adverse effects of g-forces. In early 1944, U.S. crewmen began using the G-suits in Europe. The G-suits were tactically valuable in that they helped fighter pilots stay under the high Gravitational forces to maintain consciousness. One P-51 pilot, who is said to have shot down five enemy planes on one mission, wrote:
"I found myself all alone in the middle of a bunch of Jerrys. Since I had no one to keep the Jerrys off my back, I had to go full throttle and keep my airspeed up enough to avoid anyone who got in my way. Normally I would have passed out during this maneuver, but my G-suit ensured that I was fully aware of what was going on. I followed Jerry onto the deck, reaching an airspeed of 600 mph. Jerry flew right into it without getting out, and I would have, too, if I hadn't been wearing my G-suit."
Because of the special needs of these pilots and crew members, the AAF often required its own support services during World War II, separate from those of U.S. Army ground forces. Early in the war, AAF Commander General Henry H. "Hap" Arnold decided to create a separate system for AAF medical care. By the end of the war, the AAF's Air Surgeon, Maj. Gen. David N. W. Grant, established a medical service that was largely autonomous, although still under the authority of the Army Medical Department. Two other notable AAF medical leaders were Malcolm Grow and Harry Armstrong, who directed the AAF medical program that helped aircrews meet many new challenges in Europe. Grant, Grow, and Armstrong were the best of a highly trained group of AAF medics, many of whom voluntarily retired from private practice to meet the new medical challenges in the distant theaters of war. On the home front, the AAF also maintained a large network of hospitals and convalescent centers, and its programs of medical research, development, and education prevented many deaths, wounds, and illnesses on the battlefields. By the end of the war, the AAF had laid the foundation for the Air Force Independent Medical Service, which was established in July 1949.
Fritz Hoffmann-La Roche
Fritz Hoffmann-La Roche, later Hoffmann-von der Mühll (* October 24, 1868 in Basel; † April 18, 1920 ibid; domiciled ibid) was a Swiss entrepreneur and founder of Hoffmann, Traub & Co, Kommanditgesellschaft für Fabrikation und Handel pharmazeut. und chem. Produkte in Basel, which evolved into today's global corporation Roche.
Biography:
He was the third child of Friedrich Hoffmann and Anna Elisabeth Merian. Both parents came from well-known Basel families (Daig). A grandfather of the mother (Johann Jakob Merian) was a founder of the trading company Frères Merian. The father's family had been successfully involved in the silk ribbon industry since 1669 and later in the development of tar dyes. Fritz Hoffmann successfully completed a banking apprenticeship in Yverdon in 1886 and then completed an additional apprenticeship in the Basel drugstore Bohny, Hollinger & Co. He then worked for a London chemical trading company. In 1892 he found employment in a grocery store in Hamburg, where he experienced the cholera epidemic of 1892.
After the end of the quarantine, he was able to travel back to Basel to become a business partner in the drugstore Bohny, Hollinger & Co. in 1893. There he managed the affiliated chemical laboratory, which produced floor wax and essential oils. However, he soon fell out with the owner of the company and, in order to avoid dismissal, he borrowed 90,000 Swiss francs from his father, used it to buy out the laboratory and, in 1894, founded Hoffmann, Traub & Co. with Max Carl Traub (1855-1919). The new company first developed a wound care product called Airol, which, however, was only a moderate sales success.
When Max Carl Traub left the company in 1896, it was renamed F. Hoffmann-La Roche & Co. on October 1. In the same year, Hoffmann hired the chemist Emil Christoph Barell. Barell was the leading figure at Roche until the 1950s. In 1898, a cough syrup called Sirolin was created and heavily promoted. Despite dubious efficacy, this medicine brought a commercial breakthrough and Fritz Hoffmann-La Roche became very wealthy. By World War I, Hoffmann had established branches in Germany (1897), Paris (1903), New York (1905), Vienna (1907), London (1908), St. Petersburg (1910), and Yokohama (1912).
Due to the consequences of the World War and the Russian October Revolution, the company got into great difficulties. In addition, Hoffmann fell ill with a severe kidney ailment in 1918. The company could no longer be saved without outside capital and was converted into a joint stock company. Hoffmann's influence on the company's course of business dwindled.
Fritz Hoffmann-La Roche was one of the first to see the importance of standardized branded preparations in medicine.
Private life:
In 1895 Fritz Hoffmann married Adèle Charlotte La Roche (1876-1938), daughter of Emanuel Alfred La Roche (1840-1923) and Adelheid (née Passavant; 1847-1927). In April 1919, his health also continued to deteriorate. In the summer of the same year he divorced his wife Adèle and married his longtime lover Elisabeth von der Mühll (1882-1970), with whom he retired to Ticino. In March 1920 he returned to Basel terminally ill and died there on April 18. He did not live to see his company become one of the most important drug manufacturers. His son Emanuel Hoffmann was very interested in modern art. His collection formed the basis for the Emanuel Hoffmann Foundation, established by his wife Maja Sacher.
He found his final resting place at the Wolfgottesacker cemetery in Basel. The grave sculpture was created by Johann Michael Bossard.
8th Air Force Medical Corps
