1st Battalion 22nd Infantry Syracuse Recruit Camp Page 2

Below are excerpts from the reports sent to the Surgeon General's office by the medical officers
at the Syracuse Recruit Camp. These reports were filed after the epidemic ended.

All markings and writing are on the original reports as scanned and their significance is unknown.

This first page below is by Major Arthur F. Thompson who took over as Camp Surgeon on September 19, 1918.
Thompson was appointed Major in the Army Medical Reserve Corps in May 1918.

The report is continued below by Thompson's assistant Captain Halbert B. Blakey of Columbus, Ohio.
Blakey was a doctor and Captain in the Army Medical Reserve Corps assigned to the Camp in 1918.
Blakey gives details on the conditions of the camp and the activities of the medical personnel in dealing
with the epidemic.

In the excerpt below Blakey describes the symptoms of soldiers infected with influenza.

The excerpt below illustrates the logistical difficulty in dealing with the large number of infected personnel.

In the excerpt below Blakey details the conditions of the epidemic and measures taken to
combat the disease.

Included in the Camp report was this table giving the
number of cases of influenza and resulting complications
of pneumonia for each day along with the number of deaths.

The table covers the dates from September 15
through October 15, 1918.

The official dates of the epidemic at the Camp are
September 12 - October 15, 1918.

The totals at the bottom concerning the number of
cases do not reflect those cases which occurred
between August 3 and September 14, 1918.

As can be seen in the table the 208 deaths from the
influenza and accompanying pneumonia occurred
from September 19 through October 15, 1918.

The above excerpts are from the official report of the Syracuse Recruit Camp Surgeon for the year 1918
as sent to the Surgeon General's office. Taken from the Influenza Encyclopedia website, produced by the University
of Michigan Center for the History of Medicine and Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library.

Major Thompson's final report was sent to the Surgeon General on December 11, 1918
after he had been transferred to another station. It was two pages long and summed up
the activities of the medical personnel at the Syracuse Recruit Camp during the time
Thompson was the Camp Surgeon. His report does not reflect any cases of influenza
incurred before he assumed his duties at the Camp and is reproduced below:

Additional sources were the Journal of the American Medical Association 1918
and the Army-Navy-Air Force Register and Defense Times 1918