By the History Center of Lake Forest-Lake Bluff
Nestled between Naval Station Great Lakes and Fort Sheridan, Lake Forest and Lake Bluff history closely links to our military service members and veterans. Thousands of local men and women have served in the armed forces during wartime -- each carrying with them not just the weight of their service but the challenges of reintegration into society amidst the physical and psychological impacts of battle.
During World War I, two-thirds of the war injuries came from artillery fire, with bodily damage that was frequently debilitating and permanent. The weaponry of this war was much more destructive to human flesh and bones than even what Civil War soldiers had experienced. The expanded use of chemicals like mustard gas affected skin, lungs and eyes. With the advent of airplanes in war, spinal injuries were increased, and the outcomes of the injuries were dire. Servicemen with spinal cord injuries had a 10 percent chance of surviving more than 12 months. Severe injuries to the face were common, and surgical reconstruction efforts were extensive.
Veterans Administration Hospitals, such as this one in Illinois, were extremely important in helping war veterans upon their return.
Initially, the government set up about 100 temporary hospital facilities domestically to accommodate more than 100,000 patients. Fort Sheridan’s hospital, built in 1893, was one of those facilities. The War Department planned that patients would receive up to six months of care—this was a gross underestimation, which proved disastrous for WWI veterans. In the year following the Armistice, the military began to dismantle its hospital system, reducing beds to 40,000 by May 1919 and to 3,000 by the end of 1920, which included the shuttering of the Fort Sheridan facility.
The more permanent National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, which had been founded after the Civil War to serve the medical needs of veterans, was overwhelmed with sick and injured vets within a year of the Armistice. At the end of WWI there were 350,000 permanently disabled vets -- accounting for 6 percent of the adult population -- whose needs weren’t being met. The medical crisis was amplified by long wait times for appointments, lack of trained staff, overcrowding and deplorable conditions in aging facilities.
Congress responded after much public pressure. Through the Sweet Act of 1921, the Veterans Bureau was established and worked to address the shortage of medical facilities. Because of quality issues, the Veterans Bureau began to provide all needed artificial limbs and mobility devices. As medical care improved, so did survival rates, which meant more vets had permanent disabilities, and they were likely to live a decade or much longer after recovery. Their needs included accommodation in living spaces, equipment for mobility and retraining for work opportunities. By 1930, the Veterans Bureau was subsumed into the newly created Veterans Administration, the forerunner to today’s Department of Veterans Affairs.
One of the hospitals opened during the post-WWI period was North Chicago VA Medical Center in 1926, on land acquired from the Navy. It was originally a 325-bed hospital with five buildings that served as a surgical and X-ray service and provided general medical care. In 1939, it was renamed the Downey Veteran Administration Hospital.
Downey expanded during World War II to become one of the largest VA facilities in the country, reaching a capacity of 2,500 beds, with a focus on accommodating veterans with long-term mental health issues. After WWI, shell shock had been the term used for both physical and psychological issues. For the physical, the symptoms were tied to the blast wave of artillery shells that caused concussions, sometimes severe. But many of those diagnosed with shell shock had what we now call Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). By WWII, the label had changed to combat fatigue, but the symptoms were the same and included confusion, insomnia, tremors, panic attacks, flashbacks, or a complete shut-down of any response to the outside world.
Over the decades since WWII, the quality of care within the VA system has fluctuated considerably, requiring significant shifts in the VA management of patients, in response to concerns about health outcomes and speed of service. The VA remains the largest medical provider in America, serving two million vets annually at 144 medical centers and 1,232 outpatient sites.
In 2010 the North Chicago facility merged with the Naval Health Clinic and was renamed The Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center. Lovell, the Apollo 8 astronaut, has been a resident of Lake Forest for many years. It is a first-of-its-kind partnership between the U. S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense, integrating all medical care into a federal healthcare facility, serving both active duty and veteran needs. They continue to support mental health needs, with the Mental Health Residential Rehabilitation Treatment Program, providing treatment related to PTSD, homelessness, and addiction.
Stop by the History Center of Lake Forest-Lake Bluff Tuesday-Thursday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. to check out the exhibit Returning Home from War, which documents the history of the veteran experience in Lake Forest/Lake Bluff and beyond – find out more at https://lflbhistory.org/do-see/returning-home-war.