| Show air evacuation of wounded takes its place with sulfa drugs and blood plasma as one of modern military medicine s greatest lifesaving life saving plans by ELMO SCOTT WATSON aneed le by western newspaper 1 U union HE E WAS one of the doughboys dough boys I 1 I 1 who jumped down fro from a landing barge to the sandy shore of normandy on D day A chattering machine ln a gia gun 1 m n a th es gel german ani pillbox that t hildat y yet been at silenced sprayed lead across his path and he slumped to the g ground und there was as a c cry ry of medic d ca medic and a moment later skilled hands were binding up his gaping wounds the next morning four planes unarmed C swooped down near the field hospital where he lav land mines were exploding ing yards away when the first two tivo ships lando landed d out from these p planes anes sprang t two wo flight nurses marjean brown of columbus ohio and suella bernard of Waynes waynesville ville oh ohio a all rig right ht soldier youre going going to take is a little trip with us smi smiled I 1 ed one of them within two hours they had gathered up not only this I GI joe ice but dozens of other desper desperately tely wounded and loaded them int into I 1 the e planes plane which were soon winging their way back bach to england two we weeks k in III so an american army hospital there ere an and it at then he on june 29 a in huge uge air r transport ort command Conic nand plane a settled do down on a an airfield on long r island d N Y i it s was just 19 hours since it had left t the he british isles A days rest in a hospital near new york then aboard a etc plane 1 e again and today this the GI joe is a co con vales cong in an army h hospital tal out m the colorado near ar enough oban h to his home so se that dad and mom and soi sis can come to see him get well vell it its a several ml thousand a miles d from the th place where his blood b dyed dw the sandl sands of the french coast to this place where here both his body and mind are being healed of the wounds of war but this cycle of life near death then life again is encompassed within the time span ol of less than four weeks i the reason for this can be summed up I 1 in two words word air evacuation no wonder that mai ma gen david N grant we air surgeon for the army air I 1 forces force was able to dg da clare recently that the ardys system of air evacuation of its wounded takes its place with sulfa drugs and blood plasma as one of the three greatest life saving measures of modern military medicine because of air evacuation men are alive live today who would have peri dished in the jungles of makin island or on the anzio beachhead and personnel coll of the air tans transport command a ferrying division w who 0 have participated in the air evan evacuation uati n of in more than 7 NO war wounded d have no hesitancy in in dorsing the 1 ageon air sti surgeon s statement it a a part of the ardys policy of handling wounded soldiers through lato a progressive g res siva system of unit hospitalization liza tion which has been developed to a high degree under the three tion bo of 0 mai ma gen norman T kirk surgeon sn general sense a I 1 of the army be c cause of 1 front true line treatment given american sold soldiers 11 more then than III 97 per or cent set of 1 the w wounded bunde tore brought abrought from battlefields to evacuation hospitals hospi have been saved once the wounded ha hae e been treated they must be sent to hospitals far from the scene of battle where they can rest and recover and of course the quickest way to litt gu them there is by airplane part of these wounded have been flown from foreign theaters of war war to their homeland and thousands of them have been flown from hospitals aspi I 1 als on the coast to he hos petals near their homes where they can convalesce and benefit in spirit from rom visits of family and it friends for it is a basic army policy to get its wounded soldiers as close to home as possible for the consales con vales cent period in a recent report on the handling of men wounded during the invasion of france mai ma gen paul H R hawley clue chief ef surgeon of the european theater of war stated there has not net been the slightest hitch in the charn chain of evacuation A As a result of the speed with which these wound ed were evacuated from normandy the condition of the casualties on ole ia in the I 1 united hie been e surprisingly fine 1 to that at comment to t might be added the fact the that approximately 4 sick and wound would ed have bow been bee b returned t to 0 this country aboard air transport r t command planes part of them over regularly scheduled tran transport sper t services service ed d by the ferrying division divine of ATC it A 1 h GOING ROME HOME A soldier is carried aboard a 8 plane operated by tho the fc division ch m of air transport cs command ermuld an and as a few minutes will be flying to a hospital in the vicinity of his home flight surgeons inside the aircraft supervise the job many hops are as long as 12 00 miles mile only one patient among those so evacuated rated by the air transport corn com mand has to been I 1 lost as the result of air travel cooperation does docs it close cooperation between the se vei several ve I organizations of 0 the army makes possible successful air evacuation of the war wounded the combat air forces outside the united states the foreign wings of air transport command and v various air commands command in the united sarious states t area notably to the first trooper carrier command have done experimental work on the problem in 1943 a total of sick end and hounded patients patient were evacuated by american military t ajr aircraft throughout the world A ATC T rc carrying all those returned t to e this country here is the way evacuation from the combat areas is a accomplished ecamp lashed suppose the scene is anzio am beachhead he it medical corpsmen corpsman have toiled a cross across the bullet swept area given a guy named JI jim im emergency attention tie then the re inched bed back with him to the beach where he receives more extended treatment at a nearby larig station the flight surgeon classifies the patients he determines that this soldier just iier arrived ved from the front has a serious head wound which requires immediate surgical attention when the transport plane flies in jim is among the outgoing patients patient t the medical air evaluation evacuation units unit transform the plane from its troop or cargo carrying ing man mission and do it quickly lest emperia snipers or bombs disable the aircraft L litter t ter equipment is installed in three or four tiers and as many as 24 patients are loaded two men carry each litter to the plane two more place it in position inside and a 8 third man inside fastens it in place in an emergency the flight nurse in the plane piane must use untrained unframed personnel for this the work rl and 11 occasionally she takes take the pla place a of a loader leader when the plane takes off the flight bu nurse is in medical charge only in extreme emergencies does the flight surgeon accompany her A surgeon checks when po possible isible do during the refueling stops otherwise the flight nurse and a surgical technician ble an enlisted man with noncommissioned officers rating handle the patients patient the plane is equipped with an ambulance chest which is a small tru trunk nit containing bandages in scheme medicine fop f or the relief of pam pain equipment for administering intra venous medication and blood plasma also aiso is on the plane i once in the air the flight nurse is in i complete charge clu irge aided by a trained staff sergeant aloft she handles handle any emergency and does anything a doctor would have to do except operate already the men borne aloft from anzio were are feeling be setter etter removed from fro the din of battle batte I 1 their shock condition improved jim for example mustered sufficient interest in life to ask where he was going six hours after lie he I 1 left eft anzio he was in a base hs hoir pital pita in north africa undergoing a delicate brain operation the evacuation chain does not end at the base bas e hospital overseas efficiency f fici I 1 clency ency an and d medical factors factor so suggest gg ext that the men be kept beer moving rearward until they are aa as close to home as possible part par t of the wounded oun ded of course come h home orre by ship pa I 1 it 1 1 hents lor for the flights are am selected by flight sur surgeons georis four fear kinds ot of patients patients general fitness bitnes for air travel trave 1 1 is s the deciding tie iding factor and they sr are g grouped too P into four medical categories 1 mental patients requiring security accommodations en route 3 2 hospital litter patients patient who must remain in bed services rendered by other individuals 3 ambulance pat patients ants requiring medical care are en route rout from other individuals 4 troop lass class p patients patients needing little medical medica care en route who can take care of themselves even in emergencies air evacuation increases eb enormously once the patients have reached coastal receiving hospitals in the united states either by al aircraft or by surface shipping the th same system of screening is employed at the coastal receiving hospitals that was described previously as prevailing overseas urgency of the patients conditions together with there their susceptibility to air tr transportation ns por tation are primary considerations sergt walter A smith of springfield mass can testify that the army dosan t stint on its resources when one of its wounded needs special specia cia attention on may 9 1944 he he was wounded in action in italy he reached the united states june 14 in a conco convoy Y and entered baker general h hospital hints ints I 1 a at t Martins bury W va an eam examination tl m by the staff there revealed mah that a t immediate t surgical 1 I 1 attention tc was a b necessary c as a y ashford A life it general n hospital hospital at white sulphur springs W va had the specialist I 1 for 1 the type of cipe operation rabon required two to mo mornings later a le ferrying crying division plane was at hagerstown Hagers town md it when sergeant smith arn arrived v ed by ambulance lie he was pl placed e it aboard with a full crew making c certain er that the solitary patient r received e every attention by noon noon that ill day the 11 1 sergeant as 1 oo on the operating table at ashford general hospital receiving the best surgical care that the army has patients patient moved ordinarily early ferrying division planes ad in engaged in air evacuation are cour completely utilized with all space occupied within the continental united states the evacuation by air of the army ardys a aar ar wounded sounded b is the responsibility lity of the ferrying division of the air transport command since this responsibility was assumed more than 7 patients have been moved without injury to any of the personnel involved the air evacuation of sick and wounded personnel of the armed forces was pioneered by the medical services with the and it can be considered as one of the greatest life saving measures in modern military medicine cot col andres G oliver surge surgeon out of the ferrying division comments its rapid and comfortable delivery of the patient to a hospital where he or she will get the best and most meet specialized ciali zed treatment or to another closer to his home where his convalescence vales cence will be shorter and far more pleasant has become a great morale factor among our returning heroes thus justice is being served when the aircraft so terrible an instrument of death and destruction can call be converted led l to such humanitarian functions as air evacuation |
