Corps chemical officers, training activities

In September 1917, a Gas Defense Service, Sanitary Corps, Medical Department, was activated. This service, in which a group of forty-five chemists was commissioned, was placed in charge of training. In April 1918 the officers of the Gas Defense Service were transferred to the Corps of Engineers. See Report of the Director of Chemical Warfare Service, 1919, pp. 43-49. Hereafter cited as Rpt of CWS, with appropriate year. 

The reaction of the ASF to the proposal for another chemical warfare school under the jurisdiction of the Chief, CWS, was not favorable. Instead, the chief of the Training Division, ASF, on ii September 1943 directed that a chemical warfare school be set up at Camp Beale, California, as a Class I installation under the jurisdiction of the commanding general of the Ninth Service Command. Such a school, known as the West Coast Chemical School, was activated in October 1943, and the first class assembled on 13 December. As of 8 March 1944, 100 students were in attendance at the school, 56 of whom were officers and 44, enlisted men. These included personnel from the Army, Navy, Coast Guard, and Marine Corps." Col. Maurice E. Jennings was named commandant of the school. 

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