Clinician and educator Mary McMillan stands out as a major force behind the development of the physical therapy profession in 20th century America. Although McMillan launched the profession, reconstruction aide Emma Elva Vogel shared McMillan’s knowledge and ethos—in addition to her own experience—with thousands of students, helping to spur the profession forward from its infancy in World War I to the beginning of the Korean War. (See the historical essay by Greathouse et al1 for the evolution of US Military physical therapy after 1970).
In 1918, Vogel, a trained musical vocalist, enrolled in the first 3-month-long War Emergency Training Course (WETC) at Reed College, Portland, Oregon, which McMillan directed.2 Upon completion, Vogel remained on the faculty as an assistant instructor3 and enlisted in the US Army in 1919. She was appointed as the first physical therapist at the Army General Hospital No. 24, Parkview Station, near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.2 Within 3 months, Vogel was transferred to Walter Reed General Hospital (WRGH) in Washington, DC.4 There, she succeeded McMillan as chief head aide in the department of physiotherapy in 1920.2 In that role, Vogel set up the Army’s first peacetime physical therapy education program for civilians at WRGH.2 The move created a pool of reconstruction aides for Army rehabilitation centers nationwide (Fig. 1).
In January 1921, Vogel joined many of her Army colleagues and became a charter member of the newly created American Women’s Physical Therapeutic Association, later known as the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA).5 During the next 2 decades, she focused on improving the military status, benefits, salaries, and privileges of reconstruction aides, whose occupational title changed to “physiotherapy aides” (PAs) in 1926.
Emma Vogel in post–World War I reconstruction aide clinical uniform. (Courtesy of APTA Archive Collection).
In the 1930s, Vogel worked with officers in the Army Medical Corps to convince the Army Surgeon General and the Secretary of War that female PAs should have a reserve connection during peacetime. Their arguments were unsuccessful. Military salaries, job security, and morale among the PAs remained low. Additional attempts were made by congressional legislators in 1939, 1940, and 1941, only to be defeated for a variety of reasons including expense and lack of wartime action.6
Six months before the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, Vogel initiated the first WETC of World War II at WRGH and opened nine more across the country. Among those programs was the segregated education course for Black trainees at the Fort Huachuca Station Hospital in Arizona.6 While the training programs became operational, multiple attempts were made to move Congress toward enacting legislation to improve the military status of PAs, with the hope that better compensation and privileges would increase recruitment and retention. Vogel campaigned vigorously for the upgrading of PA personnel.7 Subsequently:
In 1942, Public Law 77–828 allowed female PAs to serve in Civil Service status and later as enlisted personnel. Male PAs were excluded from the legislation.4,8
In 1943, Vogel became the director of the Army Physical Therapy Branch and the first woman to attain the rank of major.6
In 1944—as a result of Public Law 78–350, which was pushed through Congress by Representative Frances Bolton—PAs became “physical therapists” and attained commission status in the military. Again, male physical therapists were not covered by the new law.7–9
In 1946, Vogel received the Army’s Legion of Merit Award for developing the physical therapy branch of the service and for her “outstanding accomplishments and unselfish devotion to duty.”6 She was the second physical therapist to be recognized with this honor.9
In 1947, the US Congress established the Women’s Medical Specialist Corps (Public Law 80–36). Vogel became the corps’ chief officer and was promoted to colonel (Fig. 2), making her the first officer in the corps commissioned by the regular Army.4,7
Upon her retirement in November 1951, Major General Norman T. Kirk, retired, former Surgeon General, stated: “No woman, either as a civilian employee of the Medical Department, or a commissioned officer in one of its corps, has made the contribution to the Medical Department that you have made.”10
In 1955, the discriminatory treatment of male physical therapists in the military was finally addressed thanks again to a legislative push by Bolton. Male physical therapists were admitted as the same rank as women (second lieutenant), the Women’s Medical Specialist Corps became the Army Medical Specialist Corps, and a new inclusive insignia was designed.6
COL Emma R. Vogel, Chief of the Women’s Medical Specialist Corps, at her desk in the Main Navy Building in Washington, DC (US Army photograph). https://centennial.apta.org/timeline/korean-war-begins/.
In 1958, Vogel was selected by the Surgeon General of the US Army to help compile the history of physical therapy in the Army.11 The resulting 648-page book was published in 1968 under the title, Army Medical Specialist Corps. Chapter VIII, coauthored by Vogel, was 50 pages long,7 and she earned a special commendation.12
Almost a decade later, Vogel presented the Fourth Mary McMillan Lecture—“The History of Physical Therapy, United States Army”—on July 3, 1967, at APTA’s 44th annual conference in Miami Beach, Florida.3 Vogel focused on the period between World War I and World War II. Three days later the former reconstruction aide received honorary membership in the association. The certificate stated, “The present stature that physical therapy enjoys today is due, in no small measure, to your tireless efforts, foresight and high professional standards.”12
Although the physical therapy profession was founded in a military setting during World War I, it was not until after World War II, through Vogel’s tireless efforts, that physical therapists would reach the military status they deserved. She died August 8, 1981, in St Petersburg, Florida, and was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery.12 Like founder Mary McMillan, her contributions lasted beyond her lifetime in the continued success of the Army Medical Specialist Corps and the physical therapy profession.
Learn More About Colonel Emma E. Vogel
National Museum of Health and Medicine. Otis Historical Archives. Vogel Collection (OHA 353). Silver Spring, Maryland. Access the finding aid https://www.medicalmuseum.mil/assets/documents/collections/archives/2014/OHA%20353%20Vogel%20Collection.pdf to get started before scheduling an appointment; accessed April 14, 2021.
US Army Medical Department. Army Medical Special Corps. 1968. Available at https://history.amedd.army.mil/corps/medical_spec/publication.html; accessed April 21, 2020.
Articles by Colonel Vogel in PTJ
Vogel E. The Fourth Mary McMillan Lecture: The history of physical therapists, United States Army. Phys Ther. 1967;47:1015–1025. https://academic.oup.com/ptj/article/47/11/1015/4614606.
Vogel EE. Physical therapists in the Army: A history from World War I through World War II. Phys Ther Rev. 1952;32:497–500. https://academic.oup.com/ptj/article/32/10/497/4696941.
Vogel EE. Physical therapists in the Army: Part II. Phys Ther Rev. 1952; 32:561–577. https://academic.oup.com/ptj/article-abstract/32/11/561/4696695.
Disclosure
The author completed the ICMJE Form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest and reported no conflicts of interest.
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