Medical Railroading During the Korean War (original) (raw)
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Transportation of the Wounded during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877 -1878
In the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878, the Ottoman Empire encountered difficulties in transporting the wounded and sick soldiers. The difficulties were generally due to the insufficient transportation infrastructure, the lack of an effective mobilization plan, as well as an unawareness of the importance of military health organization. In order to overcome the difficulties, help was requested from foreign countries and Red Cross associations. During the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878, Great Britain provided great support to the Ottoman armies in transporting their patients. The British especially established transportation systems on highways and railways. Experiences gained in this war constituted an important field practice for patient transport for the British officers who published their observations at the end of the war. Undoubtedly, this practice provided a substantial contribution to both the development of Great Britain's own patient transportation system and the course of wars fought in the East.
Combat Studies Institute Press, 1992
Casualties are an inevitable consequence of battle, and they are commonly listed at the end of historical accounts as figures for dead and wounded. The assumption, on reading these numbers, is that the dead were at some point, during or after the battle, collected and the wounded treated. Rarely do battle analysts devote more than passing attention to the medical support provided these combatants. Captain Donald E. Hall, in his special study on the 1st Medical Group in World War II, reminds us that procedures for treating the wounded have evolved considerably since those days when death or amputation seemed the foregone alternatives for a serious wound to an appendage. By World War II, medical support provided by the U.S. Army in combat had modified extensively and employed multiple echelons of health care. Advances in medicine, medical science, and medical treatment also had improved the care of soldiers wounded under the dangerous and unpredictble conditions of the modern battlefield. Captain Hall describes for us the difficulties confronted in river-crossing operations, where the removal and flow of casualties runs counter to the general flow of traffic to the front. Hall's study is timely and properly emphasizes the necessity for including medical support in meaningful battle analyses. January 1992 Roger J. Spiller Director Combat Studies Institute CSI publications cover a variety of military history topics. The views expressed herein are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Department of the Army or the Department of Defense.
Forward Surgery in the Korea War The Mobile Army Surgical Hospitals
2018
In World War I, hospital equipment and mobile surgical teams were transported, together with their equipment and tentage, in trucks across the front. 7(p69) In World War II, the European and North African theaters of operation generally employed linear battlefields where combat support and combat service support units provided services by doctrine along fairly defined battle lines in the mountains and fields of the European continent and the deserts of Africa. The intent was to bring definitive care to the seriously wounded in far forward areas through auxiliary surgical groups. Close attention was paid to the selection of individuals to compose surgical teams within the groups, balancing the need for varying specialties, as well as the requirement of healthy young men capable of performing major surgery of the abdomen, chest, and extremities. The theory of bringing well-trained surgeons to the critically wounded, rather than the older method of evacuating the seriously wounded far to the rear for definitive surgical care, was proven logical and sound. This helped reduce the mortality and morbidity among the troops wounded in the combat zone. Because chest and abdominal wounds formed the majority of wounded cases, it was emphasized that the specialist must also be a good general surgeon. 9(pp385-386) The other side of the conflict in Asia is contrasted in the surgical support provided in World War II to the Pacific and China-Burma-India theaters of operation where the jungle canopy and island combat made the fight nonlinear. Here portable surgical hospitals bore the brunt of front line definitive surgery. They lacked generators, electrical illumination, refrigerators, suction apparatuses, and resuscitation equipment. Because of this, the portable surgical hospital could not operate independent of clearing companies and reinforcement by surgical teams. 9(p573)