Category: War & Veterans
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Thank you for your service
Jack Riggs Morgantown, West Virginia, USA US Military Hospital Kuwait at Camp Arifjan in the summer of 2005. As a reservist, I had heard those words on numerous occasions. I appreciated and understood that those words were not directed specifically towards me, but rather to the uniform that I was wearing. Although I had…
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Ought to kill or ought to heal? The importance of medicine in the history of warfare
Erick Scherf Santa Catarina, Brazil A wounded American soldier receives a blood transfusion at an improvised hospital in New Guinea c. 1942-1945. Source: Daily Mail All those who seek to destroy the liberties of a democratic nation ought to know that war is the surest and shortest means to accomplish it. – Alexis de…
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Blame
Jack Riggs Morgantown, West Virginia, United States US Army Blackhawk medical evacuation helicopter With so much intentional killing and death in war, one might think that an occasional accidental or natural death would go unnoticed and uninvestigated. This was not my experience. In war, killing and death are often viewed through a blameless lens.…
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The Changi diary and paintings: the partnership of a doctor and an artist
Robert Craig Brisbane, Queensland, Australia Malnutrition, Pellagra (left), Tropical Ulcersa, Avitaminosis (middle), Glossitis, and Solar Dermatosis (right) in Australian prisoners of war. Three paintings and a diary in a handwritten exercise book are in the collection of the Marks Hirschfeld Medical Museum in Brisbane, Australia. They represent an episode of extraordinary courage, survival, cooperation, and…
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Japanese-American internment camps in World War Two
Gregory Rutecki Cleveland, Ohio, United States Bill Mauldin’s cartoons regarding the NISEI 15 “What constitutes an American? Not color…race…An American…(is) one in whose heart is engraved the immortal second sentence of the Declaration of Independence.”1 “Any person who considers himself…a member of Western Society inherits the Western past from Athens and Jerusalem to Runneymede…
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Francis St. Vincent Morris: the pilot poet
Paul Dakin North London, UK Francis St. Vincent Morris I discovered his original notebook and correspondence when sorting my late uncle’s effects. They were given to him by Morris’ sister Ruth. Francis St. Vincent Morris was a pilot in the Royal Flying Corps. Three weeks after arriving in France he crashed in a snowstorm…
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The aftermath of trauma
Shaili Jain California, United States The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Department of Veterans Affairs or the United States Government. This writing is a work of nonfiction. In an effort to protect individual patient privacy, the patient…
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The wartime chemist
William Tierney Cleveland, Ohio, United States My great-grandfather was a four-star general. During the First World War, he was a commander in the trenches near Flanders when the first chlorine-gas impregnated shells fell from German skies, giving birth to a new era of wartime trauma. He was a chemist, trained at West Point in…
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Building a legend
Vladimir Simunovic Croati During the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina the number of health care professionals declined precipitously. None of those who stayed were trained or mentally prepared to work under war conditions. Nobody had taught us skills that would be useful in war, and some of us found ourselves in roles we never expected to…
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Baron Dominique-Jean Larrey: founder of military surgery and trauma care
Figure 1. Baron Dominique-Jean Larrey Stipple engraving by A. Tardie – Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons Stavros Gourgiotis Athens, Greece Hippocrates stated that “war is the only proper school for surgeons.” War inevitably gives an impetus to surgical innovations and many advances in surgery have been made in the historic training ground for surgeons:…