Alfred E. Bradley

Alfred Eugene Bradley (1864-1922) was born in Jamestown, New York. He studied medicine at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia graduating in 1887. That same year he married Letitia M. Follett (1867-1946). They had one son, Follett Bradley, born in 1890 who served in the U.S. Army Air Force and attained the rank of Major General, and a daughter Harriet born in 1893.

Dr. Bradley entered the Army Medical Corps in 1888 as a First Lieutenant and Assistant Surgeon at David's Island (Fort Slocum) in New York Harbor. He later served at Fort Omaha, Nebraska and Fort Sully, South Dakota, with temporary duties at the Bellevue Rifle Range and the Sioux uprising at the Rose Bud Indian Agency in South Dakota. In 1893, he achieved the rank of Captain and moved on to commands Fort Custer, Michigan and Fort Yellowstone, Wyoming.

During the Spanish-American War and the Philippine Insurrection, Bradley served on a hospital ship traveling to Cuba, Puerto Rico, Gibraltar, Japan, and Hawaii. Later, he served at Fort Snelling, Minnesota, as Attending Surgeon in the Philippines, at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, as Commanding Officer of the division hospital in the Philippines, at the Grand Army of the Republic encampment of Civil War veterans at Gettysburg in 1913, and at Governor's Island, New York. Beginning May, 1916, he left his post at Governor’s Island to serve in England as Military Observer with the British. Soon after the United States entered World War I in April, 1917, Bradley was promoted to First Chief Surgeon with the American Expeditionary Force in France. He served in that capacity until May, 1918 when he was relieved of his post, and returned to the United States because of illness.

In 1919, Bradley was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for his service abroad. Bradley was returned to the rank of Colonel following a long period of ill health and recurrent illness that plagued him throughout 1918 and 1919. He retired from the military in March, 1920 and died in 1922. Bradley was buried with military honors at Arlington National Cemetery, Section 1, Grave 196.

Material in the Special Collections Research Center

• Alfred E. Bradley in the SCRC database.

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