Paul Ramsey Hawley (January 31, 1891 – November 24, 1965) was an American physician who served as command surgeon of the European Theater of Operations, United States Army from January 1942 to May 1945. After the war, he was appointed as medical director of the U.S. Veterans Administration and chief executive officer of Blue Cross/Blue Shield.
Education and early years, and family Hawley was born in West College Corner, Indiana, on January 31, 1891, to William Harry Hawley and Sabrina Corey (Ramsey) Hawley. After graduating from the College Corner Union School, he enrolled in Indiana University’s Bloomington Campus—at that time, the University’s only campus. While there, he became a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. Following his graduation with a Bachelor of Arts in 1912—with less than stellar performance, which he later attributed to his participation in the fraternity.Williams, Greer. "Boss Medicine Man," The Saturday Evening Post, October 4, 1947--Hawley enrolled in the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine in Cincinnati, Ohio. He was awarded his MD degree in 1914 and then completed a 20-month internship at the Cincinnati General Hospital. Following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, who were both physicians, he returned to West College Corner and joined his father's practice. He married Frances Katherine Gilliland on December 10, 1915, and they had two children, William Harry Hawley and Barbara Hawley, and both his son and son-in-law served as officers in the European Theater during World War II. He and his wife were divorced in 1951, and he remarried, to Lydia Wright, sometime before his death in 1965.
Career
World War I Hawley was commissioned as a first lieutenant in the Medical Reserve Corps on 21 August 1916, and was a student at the Army Medical School in Washington, D.C., from October 1916 until February 1917. While at the school, he was commissioned a First Lieutenant in the Medical Corps of the Regular Army. After graduating the school, he was assigned duty as a recruiting officer at Fort Thomas, Kentucky, where he served until March 1918. At that time he was assigned as the Adjutant of the 309th Sanitary Train, a part of the 84th Division at Camp Zachary Taylor, Kentucky. In June 1918 he was transferred to the 334th Infantry Regiment of the 84th Division, a position he would continue to hold until the end of the war in 1918. While serving as regimental surgeon, he would be promoted to both Captain and Major in the Regular Army.A Concise Biography of Major General Paul Ramsey Hawley, prepared by Mr. Roderick M. Engbert, Historical Unit, United States Army Medical Service, March 1966. Original in the holdings of the AMEDD Center for History and Heritage, Fort Sam Houston, Texas
The 84th Division saw no combat during the war, and was "skeletonized," or stripped of 10,000 of its infantrymen, in October 1918 to provide replacements for other organizations. Hawley, however, first came to the attention of his superiors while serving as the 334th Infantry Regiment surgeon. Ordered to Razac, Dordogne, France, he took over a poorly functioning camp hospital to which half of the 84th Division's soldiers were being sent when they fell ill. He reorganized the camp, and his commanding officer, upon arrival at the camp, credited Hawley with "saving many soldiers’ lives" through his prompt actions in reorganizing the camp hospital.
In November 1918, Hawley was transferred from the 84th Division to the Intermediate Base Section, American Expeditionary Forces in Nevers, France, where he served as assistant surgeon. The Intermediate Base Section was the largest of the activities in the AEF's Service of Supply, covering all areas in France from the rear of the Zone of Armies to the coast, less those areas covered by numbered base sections. It had a strength of over 125,000 soldiers at peak, and 10 million square feet of covered warehouse space. The medical activities were extensive as well, with 29 base hospitals, 19 camp hospitals, 2 evacuation hospitals, 2 medical depots, 3 convalescent camps, 2 red cross convalescent camps, 3 veterinary hospitals, and a central laboratory—with more than 60,000 operational beds at peak. Hawley arrived at the point where the Services of Supply, and its base sections, were focused on turning the vast supply system around to return troops, supplies, and equipment back to the United States.
Hawley was struck by influenza during the pandemic of 1918, and spent much of the year hospitalized. He emerged with what his doctors said was a "bad heart," but which he diagnosed as severe anxiety. Working through his problems through physical reconditioning, Halsey avoided a disability retirement—and then proceeded to fracture a vertebra in his neck playing polo in 1921.
Between the Wars
Hawley returned from France in June 1919, and was assigned as the post surgeon, Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indiana. He would hold that post for three months, leaving it in September 1919. His official biography states that from June 1919 until July 1921 he was the regimental surgeon of the 14th Infantry Regiment and sanitary inspector of the 6th Division, but in all likelihood he served as regimental surgeon for the 14th Infantry at Camp Custer, Michigan, from June 1919 until the regiment was transferred to Fort Davis in the Panama Canal Zone, and then served as 6th Division sanitary inspector at Camp Grant, Illinois, from June 1919 until June 1921. In March 1921, Hawley received a letter of commendation from Major General Leonard Wood, who was then the commander of the VI Corps Area for an excellent report submitted while Hawley was assigned at Camp Grant, Illinois, supporting the argument that his assignments were sequential and not concurrent.
Following his assignment at Camp Grant, he spent August through December 1921 at the Army Medical School in Washington, D.C., following which he returned to Camp Custer, Michigan. There he served as the camp sanitary officer until September 1922. In September, he reported to Johns Hopkins University, where he spent the next nine months studying biostatisticsTranscript of Interview with Major General Paul R. Hawley (Ret.), 16, 18 June 1962 by Colonel John Boyd Coates, Jr., MD; Dr. Charles M. Wiltse, Chief Historian; and Mr. Hubert E. Potter, Historian, Army Medical Service Historical Unit. Original in the holdings of the AMEDD Center for History and Heritage, Fort Sam Houston, Texas and receiving a Doctorate in Public HealthSharpe, Russell A., "'Ram' Hawley is Chief Surgeon, E.T.O.," The Scroll of Phi Delta Theta, Volume 69, Number 1, September 1944 before again returning to Camp Custer, continuing to serve as the camp sanitary inspector until September 1923, when he moved to Chicago, Illinois to serve as the medical inspector for the VI Corps Area. In 1922 and again in 1923, he was commended by Brigadier General George Moseley for his efforts at insect control at Camp Custer. Moseley said, in part, that "In a region formerly noted for the number of its flies and mosquitos, he has made a great record in keeping this Camp free from both those pests."
In 1925 he was assigned as the medical inspector of the Philippine Department. While there, he had the additional duty of serving on the Advisory Committee on Malaria Control, which reported to the Governor of the Philippines, now-retired Major General Leonard Wood. Upon his return to the states in September 1927, Hawley reported to Fort Riley, Kansas, where he was assigned as the Surgeon for the United States Army Cavalry School. He was well thought of there, and his commanding officer stated of Hawley that he was "An officer of superior attainments, with splendid energy and keenly interested in his profess ion. His work as Attending Surgeon has been marked by the most scrupulous attention to the needs of his patients and is worthy of the highest commendation."
From August 1929 until July 1931, Hawley was assigned to the Nicaragua Canal Survey. The United States Interocean Canal Board had approved a two year long project to survey routes for a canal through Nicaragua to join the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans—to be larger than the Panama Canal. A group of 320 engineers and support personnel organized into a provisional engineer battalion—Hawley among them—surveyed multiple routes through the country. In the end the survey's final report found no route truly suitable for a canal at that time. After having fought against malarial bearing mosquitos and a virtual endemic of syphilis in the local population, Hawley was put to work during the March 1931 Nicaragua earthquake, where he and his medical detachment set up a treatment area and provided care for all who presented themselves, performing 10 major and 20 minor surgical procedures. Hawley himself treated the injured from the earthquake for 48 straight hours. For his service, he was one of four officers of the battalion awarded the Presidential Medal of Merit of Nicaragua. Among the other three officers receiving the award were the battalion commander, Lieutenant Colonel Daniel I. Sultan, the battalion executive officer, Major Charles P. Gross, and the A Company Commander, First Lieutenant Leslie R. Groves. All would later raise to positions of prominence in the Second World War. Members of the battalion were also awarded the Second Nicaraguan Campaign Medal for their service there. It was during his tour in Nicaragua that Hawley developed a number of relationships with other officers on the Survey which would serve him well during World War II, when many of them assumed key positions within the European Theater of Operations or the War Department during the war.
When Hawley returned stateside in July 1931, he was assigned as the executive officer of the Army Medical Center. At that time, the Army Medical Center included as subordinate units the Walter Reed General Hospital, the Army Medical School, and several smaller organizations. As the executive officer, he also had teaching responsibilities at the Army Medical School, where he served as an instructor in biostatistics and epidemiology. In August 1934 he left the Army Medical center for Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where he attended the two-year course of the Command and General Staff School, graduating in June, 1936.
Upon his graduation from the Command and Staff School, Hawley was assigned to Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, where he held two positions simultaneously—Commanding Officer of the 1st Medical Regiment, which served as the demonstration unit for the Medical Field Service School as well as the division-level medical support unit for the 1st Division. In addition, he served as director of the Department of Administration, one of the teaching departments at the Medical Field Service School. This dual assignment was not unusual at that time, which saw the 1st Medical Regiment frequently providing officers and non-commissioned officers to the school to serve as instructors. Although his regiment was at essentially cadre strength, Hawley and his men participated in some particularly notable events during his tenure in command. In 1937 Hawley deployed his hospital company and one of his ambulance companies to Kentucky and Indiana to provide support to flood relief operations in the Ohio River Valley in 1937. Also in 1937, as part of the Federal planning for ceremonies commemorating the 75th Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg—billed as "The Last Reunion of the Blue and Grey," the 1st Medical Regiment was tasked to provide the medical support for the reunion, and Hawley was appointed as Surgeon for the event, personally responsible for the medical support planning. It was also at this assignment that Hawley was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in the Regular Army, having spent nearly 19 years as a major.