School of space medicineIn 1949, the first Department of Space Medicine in the world was established at the United States Air Force School of Aviation Medicine at Randolph Field, Texas, and Dr. Hubertus Strughold subsequently became the first professor of Space Medicine. After WW II the commandant, Col. Harry G. Armstrong, a pioneer in aviation medicine, gathered* together certain leading German scientists in the field of aviation medicine and space science. Dr. Strughold had been director of aeromedical research for the German Air Force, and was then professor of Physiology and director of the Physiological Institute a the University of Heidelberg. He joined the staff of the USAF School of Aviation Medicine in 1947.*The United States used Nazi scientists during the Cold War to beat the Russians in the space race. For that help, some Nazis avoided war crimes trials. During WW II, Strughold was the Nazi director of medical research for aviation, in Germany, and is said to have experimented on, tortured and killed Jews and Gypsies at the Dachau concentration camp. Prisoners were frozen to near death and rewarmed to see how quickly they would recover. |
