HISTORY
SECOND TO NONE An inside look at how the Department of Medicine and Surgery was founded By Katie Delacenserie, VHA Historian
“I don’t think there’s any job in the country I’d sooner not have nor any job in the world I’d like to do better, for even though it is burdened with problems, it gives me a chance to do something for the men who did so much for us.” – Gen. Omar Bradley
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Veterans Health Administration 75
NATIONAL ARCHIVES PHOTO
On Aug. 15, 1945, just one day after VJ-Day, while the nation was still celebrating the end of four long years of war, Gen. Omar Bradley was sworn in as the second Administrator of the Veterans Administration. Speaking to a group of reporters afterward, Bradley, acknowledging his hesitations about accepting the position, stated, “I don’t think there’s any job in the country I’d sooner not have nor any job in the world I’d like to do better, for even though it is burdened with problems, it gives me a chance to do something for the men who did so much for us.” While the federal government had provided medical care in some form to Veterans since the first Soldiers’ Homes opened after the Civil War, the post-World War II era saw the need to dramatically re-envision the role of VA in caring for nearly 16 million new Veterans. One of Bradley’s first decisions was to enlist Dr. Paul Hawley, the former chief military medical officer of the European theater, as his head medical adviser. Bradley and Hawley took on the challenge of modernizing VA health care while also recognizing that the mistakes of the past that led to the Bonus Marches of 1932 and other controversies should not happen again.
U.S. troops aboard the USS General Harry Taylor return to New York, Aug. 11, 1945. With the conclusion of World War II, the Veteran population increased by 16 million.
