Armed Medics

[DMZ-LT]

Been reading RIPCORD , by Noland , and he writes about a C.O. medic with a grunt platoon with the 101st who would not carry a weapon in the bush. I had three medics during my tour as a platoon leader and all carried M- 16's and a couple frags. Never saw one who was not armed. . what about you guys ?

[Keith_Hixson]

Quite a few conscientious objectors became medics. Especially from the Seventh Day Adventist denomination. They never carried weapons. I believe that in all the Wars including Vietnam non weapon carrying medics received the Medal of Honor. I knew one Seventh Day Adventist Medic. He was in basic with me. Never carried a rifle throughout basic. Never had to qualify on a weapon in basic. Nice guy. No one complained about him in our platoon. He was sent to Ft. Sam Houston after basic training.

This is a book about unarmed medics.

Ford, Herbert. NO GUNS ON THEIR SHOULDERS. Nashville: Southern Publishing . Personal accounts of a number of Seventh Day Adventist medics in Vietnam.

Keith

[MontanaKid]

I had a lot of CO medics in AIT at Fort Sam. Usually they were from religious sects like Seventh Day Adventists and Quakers that had strict pacifist teachings. Others had their personal beliefs, if not strictly demanded by their church. They had been classified 1AO by the draft board, meaning they were eligible for non-combat military service. But it seems the bulk of them were assigned as medics. The cynical mind sometimes wonders if the Army brass didn't like to send them to combat to put the courage of their convictions under test, being that the Army has many MOS labels that don't involve serving directly with the combat arms tactical units.

We had some in our unit, including one of my AIT classmates. They all performed as well as everyone elses. Like all medics and soldiers, some were better than others.

All that I knew of served unarmed. I served with my M-16, though I carried only half the magazines, eight, that a normal grunt would carry. I also didn't have to carry squad weapons and equipment, though as an FNG, I took my turn carrying the platoon CP's e-tool. My platoon leader said it best when he said it was best to look ordinary, like every other grunt in line. He didn't carry a side arm, just an M-16 and ruck. So I did the same. As the saying goes, "Try not to look important -- it draws fire." Try not to draw fire -- it annoys those around you."

[39mto39g]

The question never came up as far as I can remember, Everyone was as armed as they could stand it, or they wern't with us.
I think one of our medic carried a 60mm morter we stold from some Marines west of Danang. That reminds me. I seen who ever was carring that thing fire it one day, he had it angled about 70 degrees and the morter actually landed a couple hundred feet behind us, What the hell, over?

Ron

[Advisor]

The day I arrived at the Advisory Team to which I was attached, their medic was Derosing. He was a CO..funny tho, he had enough firepower for a heavy squad...and this was just for the ride to the Quang Tri airfield..about 15 klicks. The dude looked like a regular John Wayne. Could hardly move with all the metal.