Brooke Army Medical Center
hospital in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas
Brooke Army Medical Center (BAMC) is the United States Army's premier medical institution. Located on Fort Sam Houston, BAMC is a 425-bed academic medical center, and is the Department of Defense's largest facility and only Level 1 trauma center. BAMC is also home to the Center for the Intrepid, an outpatient rehabilitation facility. The center is composed of ten separate organizations, including community medical clinics, centered around the Army's largest in-patient hospital. BAMC is staffed by more than 8,000 soldiers, airmen, sailors, civilians, and contractors, providing care to wounded service members and the San Antonio community at large.
History
Station Hospital
Brooke Army Medical Center has a history which dates back to 1879 when the first Post Hospital opened as a small medical dispensary located in a single-story wooden building. In 1886, the first permanent hospital was built. In 1908, an 84-bed Station Hospital was constructed on the west side of the post.
In 1929, Brigadier General Roger Brooke assumed command of the Station Hospital, a position he held until 1933. Brooke is credited with instituting the first routine chest X-ray in military medicine.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Brooke Army Medical Center” is hospital in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Brooke, Army and Medical, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “hospital in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q126196177. The first chronological checks are 1879, 1886, 1908 and 1929.
Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Brooke Army Medical Center”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Brooke Army Medical Center primary sources, Brooke Army Medical Center archive and Brooke research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Brooke Army Medical Center”?
- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Brooke Army Medical Center” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.