Editing Flight surgeon (section)

==History==
The roots of aviation medicine extend back to the earliest scientific discoveries of gas laws and the makeup of Earth's atmosphere as these factors relate to the human body.  As aviation progressed from lighter-than-air balloons to fixed wing controlled flight to spaceflight, the disciplines of medicine and physiology were required to track with each technological advance. Physicians and physiologists, such as [[John Jeffries]] (1745–1819) and [[Paul Bert]] (1833–1886), conducted experiments on humans in flight and documented the body's response to these physiologic stressors.<ref>{{cite web|title=The History of Flight Medicine|url=http://goflightmedicine.com/aerospace-medicine/history-of-flight-medicine/|website=Go Flight Medicine|publisher=Rocky Jedick MD MBA|access-date=20 Sep 2014|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141008182942/http://goflightmedicine.com/aerospace-medicine/history-of-flight-medicine/|archive-date=2014-10-08}}</ref> However, it would not be until airplanes were first used in war that the office of the first flight surgeon was established.

===World War I===
The term "flight surgeon" originated in the early months of 1918 when the U.S. Air Medical Service of the [[U.S. Army]] collaborated with two civilian aviation organizations—the [[Aero Club of America]] and the Aerial League of America—to manage problems of medical screening and standards for U.S. military aviators.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=zpJMAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22flight+surgeon%22+AND+1917&pg=PA468 Aero Club of America, ''Flying'', Vol. VIII, No. 5 (June 1919), pg 468.]</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yBkvAAAAYAAJ&q=%22U.S.+Air+Medical+Service%22&pg=PA626|title=Aerial Age Weekly|date=24 April 2018|publisher=Aerial Age Company|access-date=24 April 2018|via=Google Books}}</ref>

The term is especially associated with [[Colonel (United States)|Colonel]] (later [[Brigadier general (United States)|Brigadier General]]) [[Theodore C. Lyster]] (the first Chief Surgeon, Aviation Section, [[U.S. Signal Corps]], [[U.S. Army]]), and with [[Major (United States)|Major]] [[Isaac H. Jones]]. These two officers proposed the organization of a pioneering "Care of the Flier" unit in June 1918.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=UbjeHuv8JbEC&dq=%22Theodore+C.+Lyster%22+AND+%22flight+surgeon%22&pg=PA387 Craven, Wesley Frank and James Lea Cate, editors (1958), ''The Army Air Forces in World War II''] (Volume 7 of "Services Around the World"), pg 387.</ref>

The original intent was for the military and the Surgeon General to understand what was causing the high flight mishap rate.  Shortly after the appointment of the first flight surgeons, research and experience led to a dramatic improvement in aircrew health as well as a significant raising of the entry medical standards for all aircrew.  The early flight surgeons found that the Army's practice of assigning officers to flight duty who were not physically qualified for infantry or cavalry duty was improper.  Because of the [[G-forces]], risk of [[spatial disorientation]], and risk of [[Hypoxia (medical)|hypoxia]] encountered in the aviation environment, among other challenges, early flight surgeons found that aviation personnel must be scrupulously healthy and well trained in the basics of [[aerospace physiology]].

===World War II===
The role of flight surgeons continued to mature and expand as the U.S. faced World War II.  The 1941 movie ''[[Dive Bomber (film)|Dive Bomber]]'', although focused on [[Naval Aviation]], highlighted the role of the flight surgeon just prior to the [[attack on Pearl Harbor]], and demonstrated how solving the problems of hypoxia at altitude would reduce the aircraft mishap rate.

During [[World War II]], the head of the [[U.S. Army Air Forces]], [[General of the Army (United States)|General of the Army]] (later [[General of the Air Force]]) [[Henry H. Arnold|Henry 'Hap' Arnold]], directed all flight surgeons in the Army Air Forces to fly regularly with their patients in order to better understand the aviation environment. Consequently, to this day, their successor [[U.S. Air Force]] Flight Surgeons are considered [[U.S. Air Force Aeronautical Ratings|"aeronautically rated" aircrew]] members who receive flight pay and who are required to fly a certain number of hours monthly.{{citation needed|date=October 2011}}  The same policy applies to Army Flight Surgeons and to Naval Flight Surgeons, the latter who are considered "aeronautically designated" officers like their [[Naval Aviator]] and [[Naval Flight Officer]] counterparts.

Strict [[Racial segregation in the United States|racial segregation]] in the U.S. Army required the development of separate black flight surgeons to support the operations and training of the [[Tuskegee Airmen]] in 1941 and continued in the [[U.S. Army Air Forces]] throughout World War II.<ref name=Tuskegee>{{Cite journal |author1=Jones, DR |author2=Gross, LP |author3=Marchbanks-Robinson, R |title=United States Army Aeromedical Support to Black Pilots, 1941 - 1949: The Tuskegee Flight Surgeons |publisher=US Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine |year=2007 |volume=SAM-FE-BR-TR-2007-0001 |url=http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/7973 |access-date=2009-03-03 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091130014406/http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/7973 |archive-date=2009-11-30 }}</ref>  Following the establishment of an independent U.S. Air Force and the racial integration of all the U.S. armed forces following World War II, this separation was discontinued.

===Cold War===
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Flight Surgeons were still utilized but only in garrison environments.{{Citation needed|date=March 2018}}

During the Vietnam War, USAF flight surgeons were utilized on flights.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Clements|first=Thomas|date=March 1987|title=The Role of USAF Flight Surgeons During The Vietnam Conflict|url=http://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a237562.pdf|journal=RAM|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170218165451/http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a237562.pdf|archive-date=2017-02-18}}</ref>

===Today===
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