The U.S. Army Health Services Command was activated on 1 April 1973 as part of reorganizing the Army Medical Department

Army Medical Department (United States)

The Army Medical Department of the U.S. Army – known as the AMEDD – comprises the Army's six medical Special Branches of officers and medical enlisted soldiers. It was established as the "Army Hospital" in July 1775 to coordinate the medical care required by the Continental Army during the...

. It took control of almost all Army medical facilities in the continental US, including medical education

Medical education

Medical education is education related to the practice of being a medical practitioner, either the initial training to become a doctor or additional training thereafter ....

.

Purpose

The Health Services Command answered directly to the Chief of Staff of the United States Army

Chief of Staff of the United States Army

The Chief of Staff of the Army is a statutory office held by a four-star general in the United States Army, and is the most senior uniformed officer assigned to serve in the Department of the Army, and as such is the principal military advisor and a deputy to the Secretary of the Army; and is in...

. This allowed the Office of the Surgeon General to focus more on staff and technical supervisory duties as the principal adviser to the Chief of Staff of the Army on health and medical matters. In 1994, the HSC and Office of The Surgeon General were merged again.

Commanders

Commanders of the Health Services Command were the following:

• Major General Spurgeon Neel
  Spurgeon Neel
  Major General Spurgeon Neel, MD, was a United States Army physician who pioneered the development of aeromedical evacuation of battlefield casualties.-Early life:...
  
  , April 1973 – October 1977

• Major General Marshall E. McCabe October 1977 – April 1980

• Major General Raymond H. Bishop, Jr., April 1980 – July 1983

• Major General Floyd W. Baker, July 1983 – July 1986

• Major General Tracey E. Strevey, Jr., July 1986 – September 1988

• Major General John E. Major, September 1988 0 28 December 1990

• Major General Alcide M. Lanoue, December 1990 – August 1992

• Brigadier General John J. Cuddy, August 1992 – October 1992

• Major General Richard D. Cameron, November 1992 – October 1994