In anticipation of possible involvement in the European war, the Surgeon General of the Army created the Preventive Medicine Service in 1939. By World War II's end, the Service was divided into divisions for medical intelligence, epidemiology, venereal disease control, tropical disease control, laboratories, sanitation and hygiene, sanitary engineering, nutrition, occupational health, and civil public health.
From the guide to the Venereal disease as a military problem, 1941-1946, (History of Medicine Division. National Library of Medicine)