Captain Charles Wesley Shilling (September 21, 1901 – December 23, 1994) was an American physician who was known as a leader in the field of undersea and hyperbaric medicine, research, and education. Shilling was widely recognized as an expert on deep sea diving, naval medicine, radiation biology, and submarine capabilities. In 1939, he was Senior Medical Officer in the rescue of the submarine U.S.S. Squalus.
Background
Shilling was born September 21, 1901, in Indiana on the campus of Taylor University where his father was President. Shilling later went on to receive a Bachelor of Science from Taylor University along with a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Michigan in 1923.
After completion of his medical training at the University of Michigan, Shilling completed an internship at the Chelsea Naval Hospital.
In 1932, the Navy sent Shilling to the Harvard School of Public Health where he was joined by Albert R. Behnke.
In 1954, Shilling received an honorary Doctorate of Science from Taylor University.
Naval career
After joining the Navy in 1927, Shilling was sent to the Naval Submarine Base in New London, Connecticut where he was involved in the selection and training of submarine crew. Other work included research and development of Submarine Escape Immersion Equipment aboard the USS S-4. Shilling was transferred to the submarine base in the Panama Canal Zone where he spent two years serving as medical officer aboard submarines as they traversed the canal. This work also included treating the medical problems associated with salvage diving operations.
From Panama, Shilling was transferred to the Navy Diving School in Washington, D.C., where he learned to dive and began diving research at the Navy Experimental Diving Unit. Shilling researched the topics of nitrogen narcosis, oxygen toxicity, and decompression table development including important research on surface decompression.
In the late 1930s, Shilling was transferred back to the New London Submarine Base where he focused on hearing and vision for submariners. His work involved the development of the methods and tools needed for selection of sound listening and lookout duty. In 1939, a failed request for a $78.00 audiometer resulted in receiving $3,000.00. This small amount was spent to begin the first medical research laboratory dedicated to submarine research. This laboratory grew to become the Naval Submarine Medical Research Laboratory (NSMRL).
In 1939, Shilling was the Senior Medical Officer in the rescue of personnel from the submarine USS Squalus. Divers from the submarine rescue ship , under the direction of the salvage and rescue expert Charles Momsen, employed the new Rescue Chamber he had invented years earlier but which the US Navy command had repeatedly blocked. Earlier in development of the bell, they demonstrated that a bell could attach to a submarine torpedo room hatch but the submarine crew had not decided who should transfer to the surface in the bell. One of the crew stated, within Shilling's hearing, "Take the Doc. He's the most useless piece of furniture we've got". Shilling then became the first person to go from a submarine to the surface in a bell. Utilizing these techniques, they were able to rescue all 33 surviving crew members from the sunken submarine including future Rear Admiral Oliver F. Naquin. Shilling later recalled that the untested submarine rescue procedures utilized with the Squalus incident "worked like a charm". Later, the salvage divers used recently developed heliox diving schedules and successfully avoided the cognitive impairment symptoms associated with such deep dives, thereby confirming Behnke's theory of nitrogen narcosis.
In 1947, Shilling left NSMRL for a position in the Office of Naval Research (ONR). Four years of this post were spent directing medical, biological, and psychological studies and ended with two years as the director of the Research Division, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery as well as the special assistant for the BioSciences. During his time at ONR, he established the Committee on Hearing and the Committee on Vision for the Armed Services National Research Council.
Shilling's naval career ended with a post at the United States Naval Academy where he served as the Senior Medical Officer, Command Medical Officer for the Severn River Naval Command, and the head of the Department of Hygiene at ONR.
Civilian career
Upon retirement from the Navy, Shilling served as deputy director, Division of Biology and Medicine at the United States Atomic Energy Commission from 1955 to 1960. Here he managed multimillion-dollar research programs.