wounded

[39mto39g]

I can only recall 1 time that our wounded were not able to choppered out. We had to take care of them with what we had, which wasn't much. After the first shock of being hit by a bullit or something else weirs off, the pain sets in, our medics carried a morphine seret, but they could only give so many of them, for some reason. The sound of a wounded hurting guy in the middle of the night was not one that you forget very fast.
Any one ever have to tend wounded over night?

Ron

[Bandman]

Ron I was not a medic in Nam, but as I posted on THC Vietnam War forum I am one old ugly SOB that thinks some real hero's that never got enough acclaim were the combat medics , I for one love them,(figuratively speaking), .

I was unlucky (or just plain dumb) enough to need their services more then once in the bush and if anyone today tries to tell me that any of them were anything but god sent we will reenact 2 wars.

I got hit in the back late one night when it was raining and had to wait till daylight before I was lifted out, and a young Medic stayed with me all night. I was the only one hurt and I don't think I was crying to loud but he never left. For what they did I don't think there can ever be enough reward.

[VIETNAM 1968]

I have made numerous entries into this very fine Forum. In most of them I have let out my own feelings. This time however, I hope to relate some of the feelings of my Best Buddy, HM3 Alan R. Gerrish. Alan served with the 3rd Military Police Battalion, 3rd Marines, from October 1967 until he was wounded during a firefight just South of DanAng Airbase toward the end of August 1968. Alan was a Navy Corpsman and Posthumously awarded the Navy Cross for coming to the aid of two Marines. He was then very severely wounded himself and died of those wounds aboard the Hospital Ship Sanctuary on September 7, 1968. He was just two days short of his twentieth Birthday at the time of his death.

Alan used to write me almost weekly, while we both did our Tours Of Duty in Nam. In his letters he would sometimes relate his feelings concerning the wounded Marines he cared for. In each letter, Alan expressed his feelings of anguish for not being able to do more to stop the pain and suffering that those Marines were going through.

On one instance, Alan went to the assistance of a young Marine Lieutenant that had both of his legs blown off by an explosion. Alan tried everything he could to save that Marine but the Blood Loss and Shock were too severe and the Marine died in his arms. Alan's letter, describing the incident, was filled with helplessness concerning not being able to do more to save the Marine.

Several more letters described terrible wounds to other Marines. In each letter, Alan went on to state that even though the Marines survived their initial wounds, his feelings for what those Marines were going through brought on feelings of sadness and helplessness on Alan's part. His letters presented the feelings that Alan was actually going through the same anguish that his wounded patients were enduring. It was like the wounds that his Marines sustained, actually happened to himself as well. Those wounds consisted of missing arms or legs as well as gunshots to all parts of the Marines' bodies.

Alan and I were more like Brothers then Best Friends. He related to me his inner feelings and I obtained an insight into how he felt. In all instances he was more concerned with the pain his patients were enduring then feelings of fear for his own safety. I am sure that all Corpsmen and Medics also had those same feelings and actually endured the same suffering that their wounded patients were going through at the time.

God Bless All Corpsmen and Medics, whether they are still alive or have made the ultimate sacrifice to help others placed in their care.

To all of my Vietnam Veteran Brothers and Sisters I again state:


WELCOME HOME


VIETNAM 1968

Yeah.

The only sound worse than the sound of a man gasping and moaning in the night...is the awful silence when they stop.

[frisco-kid]

About 0300 on 2JAN67, near Kontum, my company is almost over run. They get inside our perimeter for a time. We finally push them out of the perimeter and secure it and hold them off until daybreak, when the weather allows some gunships to show up. It's a couple more hours until we're able to clear and secure an LZ for dustoff. By daylight we have 7 dead and 18-20 wounded. We have them staged in one place in the center of the small perimeter. I'll never forget the combined sounds of them. Definately my worst night there.

[Bill Farnie]

Yes Ron we did have wounded who couldn't be medevaced out until the next day. That wasn't the hard part of that night though. The hard part was listening to the NVA tap the wounded men we couldn't get to who were down in a saddle.

[exlrrp]

It was in Quang Ngai, Sep 67 and the wounds were caused by stupid accident.
A Company RTO had been carrying a grnade with the pin fastened onto his belt (Did anyone ever do this?) It went off, killed him and his friend, wounded the comand party including the CO, some combat engineers and the Chaplain who was with us at the time. I'd just been talkig to them not half a minute before, getting a new SOI, then walked away KABOOM!!!!
First I thought it was a mortar round.
Ther's nothing that sounds like a dying young man, they have a scream that will chill your blood. I can't stand to remember it now but it wakes me up sometimes in the middle of the night.
Of course these things always happen when youre in impenetrable jungle on the side of a steep hill right at dusk. Andf so it was this time.
It took us most of the night to hack out a keyhole LZ but they waited untill dawn to get the medvacs in.
I was the RTO that guided them in, right above me. Everybody talked about how brave the medvac pilots were but yr boy was right below them--if things had gone south I woud have been the first to die, right before them. Don't think I didn't know it either.
They finally winched the wounded up and flew away.
Sometimes shit happens bigtime in war
stay good
James

Happy just to be alive

[urbsdad6]

I was only allowed to carry three morphine syrettes. MEDEVAC would not replace them, resupply would not replace them, and you had to damn near explain and sign your life away to get replacements when you got to the rear even though they were fully aware that you had used them on the wounded. That was in 71 and drug usage was a problem.

Doc Urb

[39mto39g]

At one time our medic gave everyone in our platoon a morphine syrettes, That had to be one of the all time dumb things to do. His idea was that if you got wounded you could give it to yourself and wait for him to get to you. over 3/4 of them somehow got broke or lost? I gave him mine back, I told him I wasn't going to get wounded.

Ron

[Andy]

More than a half dozen times we had people wounded and could not get them out for quite some time. Aug. 5th, ?67 I got wounded with frag shrapnel in the face just a little before 3 AM. A dust off came in to take people out around 8 AM. I got onto the chopper when it made it?s third trip. The flash/concussion caused my left eye to go blind for about 36 hours, so I was psyched out but it wasn?t anything at all like loosing an arm or something serious.

It always struck me as strange how different people reacted to similar wounds. 3 different guys all shot square in the thigh. One guy screams loudly and un-controllably slapping his arms and head on the ground. A second guy lets out a yelp, then continues to make noise but tries to muffle the sound. A third man gets shot and drops but the only sound you hear is his request for a medic. There has to be more to it than pain tolerance but I?ll be damned if I know what it is.

Stay healthy,
Andy