Albert R. Behnke
| Albert Richard Behnke Jr., MD | |
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | McGinty |
| Born |
August 8, 1903 Chicago, Illinois |
| Died | January 16, 1992 (aged 88) San Francisco, California |
| Allegiance |
 United States of America
|
| Service/branch | United States Navy |
| Years of service | 1929 - 1959 |
| Rank | Captain |
| Awards | Navy and Marine Corps Medal |
Captain Albert Richard Behnke Jr. USN (ret.) (August 8, 1903 – January 16, 1992) was an American physician, who was principally responsible for developing the U.S. Naval Medical Research Institute. Behnke separated the symptoms of Arterial Gas Embolism (AGE) from those of decompression sickness and suggested the use of oxygen in recompression therapy.
Behnke is also known as the "modern-day father" of human body composition for his work in developing the hydrodensitometry method of measuring body density, his standard man and woman models as well as a somatogram based on anthropometric measurements.
Behnke was born August 8, 1903 in Chicago, Illinois. He moved to New Mexico and settled in Whittier, California by 1912. Behnke graduated from Whittier College in 1925 and moved to San Francisco to attend medical school at Stanford University. Stanford Medical School required a one-year internship prior to conferring a medical doctorate. Behnke joined the United States Navy and completed his internship at the Mare Island Naval Hospital in 1930. In 1932, the Navy sent Behnke to the Harvard School of Public Health.
Following medical school in 1930, Behnke found his lifelong interest in deep sea diving when he was assigned as an assistant medical officer to the USS Holland and Submarine Division Twenty in San Diego under the command of Chester W. Nimitz. In addition to his other duties, Behnke spent time covering medical watch on the USS Ortolan, a submarine rescue ship, where he performed his first hard hat dive.
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