Education
Thomas Jefferson University.
Thomas Jefferson University.
Grow received his medical degree from Jefferson Medical College in 1909. In August, 1915 Doctor.Grow met Doctor.Edward Egbert, Chief Surgeon of the American Red Cross Hospital in Kiev, in Washington, District of Columbia Doctor.Egbert convinced Grow to travel with him to Street.Petersburg, Russia, to assist in the Russian war effort. Doctor.Grow was commissioned Lieutenant.Colonel in the Imperial Russian Medical Corps and served as regimental surgeon in the First Division of the First Siberian Army Corps in Galicia.
Doctor.Grow left Russia after the February Revolution of 1917, and entered the United States. Army Medical Service later the same year.
While chief flight surgeon of the Army Air Corps from 1934 to 1939 he (in conjunction with Major General Harry G Armstrong) founded the Aeronautical Medical Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. He led the way in developing a light body armor and steel helmet that saved many lives and materially improved combat crew morale.
Frostbite cases decreased and flight efficiency increased. After a study of psychiatric failures in combat, he helped institute rest homes, a new special pass system, and special training for medical officers in tactical units.
As a result, every casualty of this type was returned to duty.
Grow was appointed acting air surgeon for the Army Air Forces in 1945 and Air Surgeon in 1946. He served as the first Surgeon General of the United States Air Force from July 1, 1949 to November 30, 1949. Retirement and death
He retired from the Air Force on December 1, 1949, and died October 20, 1960.
The Malcolm Grow Medical Center at Andrews Air Force Base is named in his honor.
A study of wounds incurred by members of combat crews showed that nearly 70 percent were caused by missiles of relatively low velocity.