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BG Dean Flewellyn Winn
(Note: Most of this text and the photograph are taken directly from the BG Dean F. Winn U.S. Army Hospital web site)
Although it could not have been apparent at
the time, the Army Medical Service benefited by the decision of "an exceedingly
quiet, modest man," Dean F. Winn, to give up his job as stenographer and
bank cashier with the Central of Georgia Railroad and become a doctor.
For seven years before and for two years after receiving his M.D. degree from
Emory University in 1910, he served as an enlisted man with the Georgia National
Guard; from April 1914 to September 1916, he held commissions as first lieutenant
and captain in the National Guard and from October 1916 as first lieutenant
in the Medical Reserve Corps. It was during this period that he spent a year
as operation surgeon at the Russian-American Red Cross Hospital in Kiev (D.
F. Winn was made an honorary Lieutenant Colonel in the Imperial Russian Army
and married into the Russian noble family of Alexandra Hartman on 28 AUG 1915),
so it was with some degree of both medical and military experience that Dean
Winn joined the Regular Army Medical Corps in April 1917.
After completing the regular course at the Army Medical School, Lieutenant Winn
was first assigned as Assistant in the Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Service at
Walter Reed General Hospital. This was a short tour of duty, lasting only a
few months, as were his next four assignments, all in or near New York City.
It was not until 1920 that he received his first overseas assignment; in June
of that year he was appointed Chief of the Surgical Service as Sternberg General
Hospital in Manila. During his two years he served in that capacity he became
known to his superiors as an exceptionally well qualified chief of the service,
a skillful operator, and a man who inspired the confidence of his patients,
this last quality having been noted also by Colonel J.H. Ford, the Commander
of General Hospital No. 41, in 1919.
Major Winn returned to the states in July 1922 to assume the duties of Assistant
Chief of the Surgical Service at Letterman General Hospital. While there, he
began to show particular ability in orthopedic surgery, earned a rating of above
average in that specialty and in July 1925 became Chief of the Orthopedic Section.
He continued to develop his proficiency in orthopedics during the four years
he spent at the Station Hospital, Fort Riley, Kansas and although his immediate
superior considered his performance excellent in every respect, the Commandant
of the Cavalry School, Brigadier General Charles J. Symmonds, disagreed in part,
saying, "I would rate this officer … superior. Major Winn is generally
recognized as a superior operation surgeon."
After a tour of a little over a year as Chief of the Surgical Service at the
Station Hospital, Fort Totten, New York, Winn was again assigned outside the
states and served for four years as Superintendent of Colon Hospital in the
Panama Canal Zone. While in this position, he also carried out the duties of
Chief of the Surgical Service of the hospital and Chief Surgeon of the Canal
Zone.
In 1937, while stationed at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, Winn was promoted to Lieutenant
Colonel; in 1940 he was assigned as Surgeon of the Harbor Defenses of Boston,
and in October 1942, having been promoted to Colonel, he was made Commanding
Officer of Schick General Hospital in Clinton, Iowa. There followed two more
tours as Commander of a General Hospital, Thomas M. England in Atlantic City,
New Jersey, and Moore in Swannanoa, North Carolina., before his last active
duty assignment, commanding Letterman General Hospital. He was promoted to Brigadier
General in June 1948 and retired in August of that year.
It must have been difficult for anyone called upon to name the characteristics
or qualities of General Winn. He was described as quiet, unassuming, careful
and conservative, and at the same time, forceful, energetic, not afraid to assume
responsibility, a man of outstanding administrative and professional ability
and leadership. And, like a leitmotif running throughout his entire career,
was the observation by superiors and colleagues alike of his innate ability
to inspire confidence. In the words of Lieutenant Colonel Raymond W. Bliss (later
the Surgeon General) he was "one of the superior officers of the Medical
Department."