# Medics At war



## tomahawk6 (4 Feb 2006)

Medics at War: Military Medicine from Colonial Times to the 21st Century
By: John T Greenwood and F. Clifton Berry Jr.

http://www.ausa.org/webpub/DeptILW.nsf/byid/KCAT-6EUQ6L

Saw this book highlighted by AUSA and thought it might be of interest to medical personnel.


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## 3rd Herd (4 Feb 2006)

off my book shelf:
Engle, Eloise, Medic, America's Medical Soldiers, Sailors and Airman from the Revolutionary War to Vietnam, John Day Company, New York, 1967.

Put this done as a very easy read as I suspect it was done for the secondary school level. It gives a brief overview of the history of the 'Medic' and illustrates points and trends using personal interviews and medal citations. Some intersting photographs are also included.

An aside:

The Origin of Military Medics​
"There must be (on the spot) excellent doctors, skilled in healing wounds and extracting missiles, equipped with the appropriate medicines and instruments..." Philo of Byzantium, 3d Century B.C. 

"The importance of medical support in military campaigns is documented throughout the history of civilization. The Sumerians, 4000 to 2000 B.C., may have been one of the first of the world's armies to provide organized medical care to forces in the field. Chiseled into the Stele of Vultures (a monument dating to 2525 B.C.) is a picture depicting the collection of wounded and the digging of graves for those who had perished. Perhaps the Sumerians were also the first to recognize the need for surgeons to be close to the action. There exists text documenting the complaints of soldiers that the physicians remained in the rear areas to avoid capture or harm.  It was, however, the Roman Empire that put the word "medic" in our language. The Roman's unit level medical officer was known as the "medicus" and their equivalent of today's enlisted medic was called "medicus ordinarius". The medicus ordinarious was drawn from the ranks of soldiers and trained by the Roman army. Our own armed forces traditionally train and employ technicians to care for troops in the field just as the early Romans did. Today they are called "medic, corpsman, or med tech." The simplicity of this word, medic, is underscored by the immense contributions made for their brothers and sisters in uniform. The military medic's history is richly diverse - with many tales of personal sacrifice and valor." http://www.idmtassociation.org/idmt2.htm


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