Im going to try and tackle some writing about a fictional version of my grandfather, who was a combat medic in WWI.  A lot o poepl say that Airborne was the craziest job, but I think combat medic must have been up there.

I know nothing about this.  I know that thee was lilkely a lot of crude triage and helplessness involved.  I know that my grandfather was recruited as a medic because he was a lifeguard, and that was close enough for the army, and that he saw some very unfortunate casualties - ad even some very questionable ones.

I'm looking at some modern combat medic terminology as a baseline, to see how little we or how much we knew in 1944, and how little or much we could do about trauma and casualties at that time.  Modern film makes the job look like a walking morphine dispensary with a chalk stick

As an example, I just looked up needle decompression because I wanted to know why this is a critical part of the modern medkit.  Looking at an interesting and well-written site called UF Pro, I feel that I almost have enough language to work backwards from, into WWII:

Excerpt:

"You are through the CUF phase. Now you’re going into TFC, knowing that this can jump back and forth. Working through the MARCH PAWS assessment process you get to “Respirations” and discover your injured teammate has a “hole in the box.”

Being one of the good guys, you plug the hole with an occlusive dressing.

Either because you can see a hole in his chest or you know the mechanism of injury, you suspect your guy has sustained a tension pneumothorax.

   Any of these accompanying signs and symptoms add to the suspicion of a tension pneumothorax:

       Respiratory distress,
       progressive tachypnea,
       jugular vein distention,
       decreased breath sounds on the affected side of the chest,
       shock,
       drop in blood pressure,
       decreased chest movement on the affected side."

Im very interested in comparing this level of sophistication to where we were in 44.  I may try to write about a few specific wounded / casualties.  In my work, things will always go horribly wrong; people will die violent, agonizing deaths, and survivors will be traumatized.  So I want to know how tough this all was on the medics, then and now, and have enough accurate language to describe this part of the battlefield, convincingly and shockingly.  I will willfully make it very uncomfortable and hopeless, because I believe that these experiences molded my grandfather, and the character Im building around him, and he was not a very happy man.  However, I am also open to hearing about moments of triumph, and lives saved, or perhaps - if this is even tre - mercy killing.  I am particularity interested in the dependence on morphine as a cure-all, IF that was also true.  Morphine is very important in this story.

There are threads on Quora and Reddit where writers can ask for some "background" on specific subjects, but those sites are littered with shit heads.  I am very curious what this community knows about today's methods as compared to yesterdays, and any anecdotes you've heard from your fathers and grandfathers.  I would not use anything verbatim - Im just trying to paint a picture for myself at this phase.  Its important to me that I stay away from Saving Private Ryan-like descriptors.  

Thanks in advance for both technical, medical assessments, gear and medicine knowledge, morphine knowledge in particular,  and simple anecdotes.

Yeah, butchery is a good word.

Tag for what I'm sure will be a very interesting thread.

Suggest you read books by actual combat medics.  

Combat Medic
Doctor Danger Forward
and a few others.

This place started as a museum of US Army medicine.  They may have some material that you would find useful.
https://medicalmuseum.health.mil/index.cfm?p=collections.archives.index

Just to clarify, are you talking about your grandfather being in WWI or WWII?

Everyman a Hero.  WW II medic who lands at Normandy and gets overrun by a LCI.

@Riter

Any chance of memoirs from Korean War medics?

My father was a medic in 1st Cav during the war. He seldom opened up about it. Out of respect, we let sleeping dogs lie. He's gone now and I'd like to learn more about that time.

Yeah it was pretty bad.

@Flysc - I don't recall reading any books about medics in Korea.  Suggest you start with the divisional history of the 1st Cav, then work down to regimental histories and then individual soldiers memoirs.  You might also try any veteran websites.  You may meet guys in your father's platoon or company.  Everybody remembers Doc.

BTW, my father was also a medic at the same time as your father.  Drafted, instead of being sent to Korea, his unit went to Panama to train for jungle warfare in the event that we would deploy for Viet Nam (to bail out the French).

Dad was not drafted. His father suggested volunteering so that he might get more prep/time/training than a "we need them like right now" draftee. Little good that did.

I know he was thankful that a bunch of service records were destroyed in an archive fire. Two hatreds came back with him from the war. One was for the Red Cross. The other for VA hospitals. He was glad he'd never have to be in another. That fire ensured it.

I will do more research, thanks.

@Riter

@flysc - I checked Amazon and there are quite a number of books by Korean War medics.  

http://www.first-team.us/tableaux/chapt_04/

Here's the veteran organization:

https://1cda.org/history/

@Riter

Thanks. I just watched that whole video at the .org link. I'd not seen it. It was nice to see a lot of old footage I'd not known of, but it was one of those old style propaganda productions. You know, the kind that sort of glosses over a detail or twenty.

I'll check Amazon tonight.

If there's any reunions you should attend.  Contacts lead to contacts and I bet you'll find someone your father saved.

Subscribed.

The medicine and combat surgery of the past is the future.