Jefferson Randolph Kean

With the outbreak of the Spanish–American War, Kean was attached to the 7th Army Corps and deployed to Cuba. He would remain in Cuba with the provisional military government until 1902. During this time, Kean served Department Chief Surgeon under General Fitzhugh Lee and later Superintendent of Department of Charities under General Leonard Wood.[2]

Upon his return from Cuba, Kean was made Assistant to the Surgeon General,[1] position he would hold until 1906, when he was returned to Cuba as the adviser for the Department of Sanitation for the second provisional government until 1909.[2] From 1909 to 1913, Kean was in charge of the Sanitary Division of the Surgeon General's office[1] and developed a system for stockpiling emergency medical field supplies during his tenure.[1] With the ample experience he gained through his roles ensuring the sanitation of public services in Cuba, Kean would later write the laws to organize the Sanitary Departments of Cuba and Puerto Rico.[2]

He was president of the U.S. Association of Military Surgeons from 1914 to 1915.[2]

Although the United States did not formally enter the First World War until April 1917 (see American entry into World War I), from 1916 organized the American Red Cross's Department of Military Relief[2] and organized and equipped thirty-two base hospitals until the American entry into the war.[1]

With the entry of the United States into the First World War, Kean was deployed to France as the chief of the U.S. Ambulance Service with the French Army, for which he would receive the Distinguished Service Medal,[1][3] until June 1918, when he was promoted to brigadier general and made Deputy Chief Surgeon of the American Expeditionary Force until the end of the war.[1] Kean would return home having earned the Legion of Honor for his service in France.[1]

The citation for his Army DSM reads:

The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Army Distinguished Service Medal to Brigadier General Jefferson R. Kean, United States Army, for exceptionally meritorious and distinguished services to the Government of the United States, in a duty of great responsibility during World War I. As Chief of the Department of Military Relief, American Red Cross, a position of great responsibility, by his foresight, marked efficiency, and energy General Kean organized the bas hospitals, which cared for many of our wounded, and administered the United States Ambulance Service for duty with the French Army, greatly assisting our ally. He rendered services of conspicuous worth to the United States.