The Colonel Filomena R. Manor, USAF Retired, Papers consist of nine boxes. The collection’s content focuses in part on the evolution of the United States Air Force (USAF), Biomedical and Dietary Science Corp food and diet programs developed from 1947 through 1983, and the related activities of Filomena Manor, who as an active-duty air force officer from 1950 until 1983, played a chief role in USAF dietetics. Manor, who retired from the USAF in 1983, began her military career in 1950. The USAF Biomedical and Dietetics Files from 1947 through 1983 reflect the development of the USAF food programs, while the Filomena Manor Files address the individual military career of Filomena Manor and her contributions to the USAF dietetics programs. While the collection contains general documents of the Biomedical Sciences Corps, two programs, the Cooked Therapeutic In-Flight Meals (CTIM) program implemented in 1968, and the establishment of the USAF Dietetic Internship program beginning in 1972, were ones with which Colonel Manor was involved.

Subsequent to the establishment of the USAF in 1947, its Medical Service came into being in 1949. In this service dietitians were commissioned in the Women’s Medical Specialist Corps (WMSC) which in 1955 became the Medical Specialist Corps (MSpC) when males entered. In 1965, it was incorporated in the newly established Biomedical Sciences Corps (BSC) which addressed the specific nutritional needs of air force diets and meal planning. The Biomedical and Dietetics Corp Series consists of records, documents, correspondence, orders, reports, photos, and manuals that document the history of the USAF food programs. A result of the USAF Biomedical and Dietetics food programs was the formulation and publication of military-designed diet plans. The series also includes an extensive number of individual recipes formalized by the USAF during the development of its meal plans, materials documenting the Cooked Therapeutic In-Flight meal program CTIM, introduced in 1968, along with the USAF Dietetic Internship, created in 1972. In addition Colonel Manor acquired a number of magazines and articles, grouped in the Biomedical and Dietetics files as Publications. These items are relevant to dietary studies, and are from different agencies, such as government, military and private groups.

Colonel Manor generated her own internal history separate, but related to the evolution of the USAF food, education, and internship programs. The Filomena Manor Papers series allows for a more detailed picture of her military career from 1950 to 1983, and her post-military activities after her 1983 retirement through 2002. The collection begins with some Personal Artifacts from Manor’s pre-military life, but the bulk of the Filomena Manor Papers deal with her military career. These items consist of military records, orders, correspondence, awards, trip reports, scripts and photographs from 1930 through 1983. There are also records documenting her retirement, her work on USAF dietetics history, and her continued association with specific military organizations. Books in the collection mention Colonel Manor’s life accomplishments and personal history.

The collection also documents one of Colonel Manor’s most active post-military projects including her work in the research, documentation and eventual 2001 publication of 50 Years of Air Force Dietetics 1949 – 1999 by the Retired Air Force Dietitians Association (RAFDA). As an active member of RAFDA Colonel Manor created numerous notes and research papers during her work on the project. Resulting in both the book history and a videotape, Celebrating 50 Years of Air Force Dietetics, these two projects appear to have been much of the focus of Colonel Manor’s post-retirement.