for Supreme Headquarters, American Expeditionary Forces with the rank of brigadier general. In addition to syphilis control, Surgeon General Parran left his mark on the scope and structure of public health, both at home and abroad. World War II brought quick expansion and new opportunities for expanded duties. In response Parran and his deputies rewrote the statutes underlying PHS operations, the Public Health Service Acts of 1943 and 1944, establishing a four-bureau structure (consisting of the National Institute of Health, Bureau of State Services, Bureau of Medical Services, and Office of the Surgeon General) that would remain in place through 1967 deftly arranged for the transfer of wartime research contracts from the Office of Scientific Research and Development, creating an extramural grants program for NIH. Parran also served as a mentor to a generation of Public Health Service Commissioned Corps physicians, to whom he gave the leeway to create new institutions and programs in the areas of clinical research into cancer and other conditions, mental health, tuberculosis control, prevention of malaria and other communicable diseases, construction of nonprofit hospitals, and international health. Parran's leadership role in international health affairs dated back to the 1930s with the Rockefeller Foundation and the Pan American Health Organization. Parran chaired the International Health Conference where the World Health Organization (WHO) draft constitution was adopted (1946) and led subsequent U.S. delegations. Parran was an early and committed advocate of national health insurance, shielding PHS from direct conflict with those who opposed insurance by tempering his public advocacy with a focus on creating a regionally-organized health services infrastructure to precede federal dollars for care. The Hospital Survey and Construction Act of 1946 (Hill–Burton Act) was a signal step in this direction. Nevertheless, Parran was attacked by American Medical Association editorialist Morris Fishbein for supporting President Truman's proposed national insurance program. Truman's decision not to reappoint Parran in the spring of 1948 may have been an outcome of public disputes over this issue. Parran declined the position of Director of the World Health Organization to attempt to maintain the independence of the Public Health Service from the newly created bureaucracy, the Department of Health Education and Welfare. He lost that fight and his job, only to move on again to further advances in the health education field. Later life On 1 October 1948, Surgeon General Parran retired from PHS as Vice Admiral to begin a career in