Other than those that are set up for specialized training, there are three military schools providing curricula aimed at producing officer personnel or offering advanced military theory. The Skanderbeg military school is a secondary or preparatory school. It is attended by children of top Party, government, and military leaders and prepares them for entrance into the Enver Hoxha United Army Officers School. The Hoxha school is the oldest military educational institution in the country. It started a formal curriculum in 1945 but, according to Party claims, was in operation before the World War II occupation forces left the country in 1944. It is the military academy that provides a university level curriculum and whose students become commissioned officers upon graduation. The Mehmet Shehu Military Academy is named for the man who in 1970 was premier (chairman of the Council of Ministers) and also a member of the Party Politburo. Shehu was a lieutenant general before 1966 and was considered one of the country's most capable military leaders. The academy is the advanced military institution that offers career training equivalent to that of command and staff or war college institutions in Western military establishments. Military Medicine The medical services were organized during the 1950s along the lines of those in the Soviet and East European Communist forces in order to facilitate cooperation among them. Although there has been no such cooperation since 1961, the basic organization was unchanged in 1963 and probably remained basically the same in 1970. The head of the medical establishment has the title of chief, Albanian Armed Forces Medical Service. He is responsible to the chief of the Rear Services, which is one of the unified directorates directly beneath the Ministry of People's Defense. Naval, air force, and ground force staffs are responsible to him, but the naval and air force groups appear to have a largely advisory capacity, except as they work to secure the services required by their branches of the service. The hospital, pharmaceutical, and personnel sections, however, are operated by the deputy chief of medical services, who is also head of the ground forces' medical department. Albanian sources state that there is close cooperation between the military medical service and the Ministry of Health. The forces' medical personnel, facilities, equipment, and medicines have been used to improve sanitary and medical conditions in less developed areas and to provide assistance in flood, earthquake, and other emergency situations. Decorations