US Air Force A pioneering African American Flight Surgeon, and Tuskegee Airmen, Vance Marchbanks, Jr., was born January 12, 1905, at Ft. Washakie,WY., where his father Vance, Sr., a Buffalo Soldier was stationed. Vance showed an early interest in medicine, as a ten-year old child he would operate on the cherries he found in his backyard, cutting them open removing the pits and sewing them back up. In 1927, Vance attended the University of Arizona, unable to live or eat on campus because of his race, he lived in a boarding house and ate his meals at a train station restaurant, were he often found cockroaches in his food. Undaunted by this treatment, in 1931, Marchbanks, graduated from the University of Arizona. He earned his Medical Degree from Howard University’s College of Medicine, Washington, DC., in 1937. By 1939, Dr. Marchbanks had received his commission as a First Lieutenant, Medical Corps Officer, in the Army Reserves, and he joined the staff of the Veterans Affairs Hospital, Tuskegee, AL. In 1940, with war on the horizon, Dr. Marchbanks volunteered to receive active-duty training, but was initially rejected all the way up the chain of command because of “limited training facilities for colored Reserve Officers.” He did not accept the rejection and persisted in his efforts to receive the training. Dr. Marchbanks with the aid of Charles H. Houston, a friend and Legal Counsel of the NAACP, was eventually successful. In the spring of 1941, he was reassigned to Fort Bragg, NC., where he again faced discrimination. Eventually, in 1943, Major Marchbanks was reassigned to the 332nd Fighter Group, Tuskegee Army Airfield. One of six Flight Surgeons to see combat in North Africa, Sicily and Italy they sometimes found themselves under enemy attack. Maj. Marchbanks accrued over 1,900 hours flying time in prop and jet aircraft, during the Korean War, this provided valuable medical data which later appeared in military manuals and research publications. Col. Marchbanks received two Air Force Commendation Medals for his research. In 1957, he participated in a 10,600-mile non-stop flight from the U.S. to Argentina in a B-52 jet bomber, measuring crew fatigue and combat stress. He developed stress tests and rating systems for high-altitude air travel that were later used in crew examinations and astronaut testing protocols. Dr. Marchbanks also designed an oxygen mask tester that became a standard part of Air Force equipment.
Col. Marchbanks was one of eleven Air Force flight surgeons assigned to the Project Mercury space program, in 1960. He was selected as the Head Physician due to his many years of military service and rating as a Chief Flight Surgeon (1,500 flying hrs. 15 years flight status). Dr. Marchbanks, spent months preparing for his new role: studying each astronaut's medical history, sitting in on aerospace lectures and visiting space flight tracking stations. Stationed at the tracking station at Kano, Nigeria, Dr. Marchbanks monitored John Glenn’s temperature, pulse, respiration, and heart through attached monitors during his historic space flight. Colonel Marchbanks retired from the Air Force, in 1964, going to work for Hamilton Standard in Hartford, CT. overseeing the medical testing for the moon suit and backpack for the Apollo space program. In the 1970’s, Dr. Marchbanks, conducted a three-year pioneering research study into sickle cell anemia (which largely effects persons of African or Mediterranean ancestry). His research proved that just because a person carried the sickle cell trait that did not mean that they would develop the deadly disease. This research caused the military to end their policy of discharging persons who carried the sickle cell trait. Dr. Vance Marchbanks, overcame racism and discrimination throughout his life to become a Chief Flight Surgeon and aerospace pioneer. |
Last updated: February 26, 2022