Combat Medics

Combat Medics. . Medics in World War II were the front line of battlefield medicine. Typically a battalion of some 400 to 500 men would have about thirty medics or aidmen; although later in the campaign, attrition often made that number much smaller. Their job was not to conduct extensive treatment of the wounded, but to stabilize them and to prepare them for evacuation to field hospitals or medical centers to the rear. They were trained to stop bleeding, apply dressings, sprinkle sulfa powder on wounds as an antiseptic, and to administer morphine as a sedative. More elaborate medical treatment would wait. Tragically, the medics often had to make the decision of which wounded soldiers were beyond help, and resolutely move on to the next wounded man. , , Medics were sometimes chosen for their medical expertise; other times they were conscientious objectors who opposed the taking of life and were assigned this duty as an alternative to a combat role. Dozens of medics went into battle on June 6th, 1944, usually without a weapon. The large red cross on their helmets was supposed to protect them, and Germans usually respected that convention; but even so it was a dangerous assignment; shell fire and shrapnel drew no distinction between combatants and noncombatants. , , On D-Day, and especially on Omaha Beach, evacuation of wounded soldiers was a nearly impossible task. Not only did the number of wounded exceed expectations, but the means to evacuate them did not exist. Landing craft off-loading invasion personnel had no time to carry the wounded back to the fleet, and were not under orders to do so. While some did assist in medical evacuation, most of the wounded on the beaches had to be brought forward to cover, or left where they had fallen. The Normandy Invasion is one of the few battles in history where the wounded were moved forward, into fire, rather than back, away from the fighting. , , Medical teams on D-Day found many challenges in performing their duties. Those who were dropped behind Utah Beach with airborne and glider forces often found their medical supplies lost; the sea-borne forces, especially those at Omaha Beach, found themselves in the wrong places, with little in the way of equipment, and with nowhere to establish aid stations. Nevertheless, the medics of Operation Overlord improvised ways to treat as many wounded as they could, at great personal risk. , , After the War, it was noted that when a veteran spoke of another soldier as the "bravest man I ever met," he was usually speaking of a medic. Six US Army medics were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for their actions in France and Germany in 1944-1945; three of them posthumously. , , Given in gratitude by Hugh M. Scrogham, Jr. and Centra Memorial Hospital.