The 311th Human Systems Wings's origins can be traced to 19 January 1918, when the United States Army Air Service formed the Medical Research Laboratory at Hazelhurst Field, on Long Island, New York.

[4] When Hazlehurst closed at the end of World War I, the laboratory moved to nearby Mitchel Field, where it combined with the School for Flight Surgeons.

[4] Four years later the School moved to San Antonio, Texas, where Air Corps flying training was now concentrated.

The school and its successors remained at Randolph until 1959, when they returned to Brooks, where the Aerospace Medical Center of Air Training Command was formed the same year.

[1][note 1] Throughout Project Mercury, the division's medical facilities prepared astronauts for their missions and examined them after their return to earth.

[12][note 2] The transfer of space medicine to NASA made it apparent by 1970 that the facilities at Holloman Air Force Base were no longer cost effective, and the 6571st Aeromedical Research Laboratory was inactivated in December.

[13] The War in Vietnam saw the division's School of Aerospace Medicine training load expand as the number of medical specialists in the Air Force grew.

Brooks and the Human Systems Division became home of one of the "super labs," the Harry G. Armstrong Aerospace Medical Research Laboratory.

[3] During the Gulf War, the Human Systems Division provided technological support for Americans in Southwest Asia, including chemical warfare equipment.

The division had conducted studies on chemical protective equipment as early as the mid-60s and established an operating location at the Army's Biomedical Laboratory at Edgewood Arsenal in 1981.