 From Korea, to Germany, from Alaska, to Puerto Rico. All over the world, the men and women of your army are on the alert to defend our nation, you, the American people, against aggression. This is The Big Picture. I'm Captain Carl Zimmerman, here to tell you about your United States Army. In past programs of The Big Picture, we told you the many different things that make your army the strongest fighting machine in the world. Today, we'd like to show you what the Army Medical Corps does to protect and save the lives of our soldiers wherever they are. Later on in our program, we want you to meet Lieutenant Colonel S.J. Newsom of San Diego, California, who is a division surgeon with the Army 7th Division in Korea. But first, we take you to Washington for a word of greeting by the Surgeon General of the Army, Major General George E. Armstrong. This program affords me a welcome opportunity to show you how the Army Medical Service does its job. Perhaps it will also give a basis for determining how well it does it. This is important, because as we see our mission, we have an important responsibility not only to the men and women of the United States Army, but to you as well. Today, this mission is not easily accomplished. We are fighting a cruel enemy in a disease-ridden country. Our troops are also scattered in many other sections of the world, where it is impossible to assure the same environmental conditions which may have prevailed at home. This much, we can say, that your loved ones are safer today than under any comparable conditions in the past. That if wounded, they have twice the chance for survival as in World War II, and more than three times that of World War I. The story of how this was accomplished is both involved and exciting. This was Korea, early in July 1950, when American troops were rushed from Japan to stop the columns of red armor that were pushing south from the 38th parallel. Among the first to arrive were the medics, field surgeons, aid men, litter bearers, ambulance drivers, and essential supplies and equipment. Nurses arrived in a mobile surgical hospital unit on the way to the front. Although non-combatant, the men and women of the medical service are a part of the Army combat team, it is their job to conserve the Army's effective power and to evacuate and care for the sick and the wounded. Korea was a challenge to the Army medical service. Battle lines were fluid. The enemy was threatening the main road to the north beyond Taegu. We arrived in a strange country, its people uprooted by war. A country where malaria and dysentery are common, where epidemics of cholera and plague are a constant threat. In the early days of the Korean campaign, the planes that brought badly needed supplies and equipment were used to evacuate many of the more seriously ill and wounded. The air shuttle brought in blood plasma, drugs, bandages, and other items for the emergency care of the wounded. Surgical instruments and equipment, anesthetics, dressings, whole blood, and other items for the mobile surgical hospital a few miles behind the lines. Our field medical units move with the combat troops they support. Men of the Army medical service have followed our troops through every phase of the Korean campaign. From the early tank battles in the south, when our forces were heavily outnumbered by the enemy, to the invasion of Incheon in September 1950, they were with the tank men of the first cavalry division who chased the Korean Reds out of their capital at Pyongyang. Men of the Army medical service jumped with the 4,100 paratroops who descended north of Pyongyang on 20 October 1950 to wipe out the remnants of General Kim's army. They were in the mountains along the Yalu River in November of that year, when the Chinese Reds entered the conflict. They were with the troops of the 10th Corps who made the long winter withdrawal to Hongnam with the units of the 7th Infantry Division who were isolated and had to be evacuated by air. With the exhausted troops who were evacuated from Hongnam by sea. Wherever American troops have fought in Korea, the Army medical service has tended the sick and cared for the wounded. In every engagement along the present battle front, from the mountains in the east, to the valley of the Imjin River in the west, its aid men and surgeons support our troops in airborne operations, in armored sorties, on infantry patrols. Troops moving under fire are likely to suffer fairly heavy casualties. A trained medical aid man follows each infantry platoon into combat. The risks he takes to reach a wounded man while under fire often make the aid man himself a casualty. His main job is to keep the wounded man alive. Loss of blood is one of the main causes of death on the battlefield. Another is shock. The job of the litter bearers is equally hazardous and difficult. They are in a race against time. The first 24 hours after a soldier is hit may decide whether he is to live or die. Though exposed to enemy fire, they must be careful in removing the wounded man. They must get him to an aid station as quickly as they can. Approximately 98% of the men wounded in Korea have lived. One of the main reasons is speed in treatment. This is a battalion aid station, the beginning of a wounded man's swift journey through the echelons of medical aid. The man's first aid treatment is checked. Then he is rushed on for more definitive care. The average time spent here is only 72 minutes. Ambulatory cases walk the 300 to 800 yards back. Litter bearers are conserved for the more serious cases. The wounded man is tagged on the battlefield and this record constantly receives additional information. Plasma is available here. The battalion aid station does what it can quickly, then hurries the man on. Many types of transportation are used in evacuation to the next echelon, the regimental collecting station. Wherever possible, ambulances are used. Under most battle conditions, only jeeps are available. These are especially fitted to carry several litters. A battalion aid station must be very mobile and ready to move immediately if the enemy breaks through. Air evacuation is speediest of all. Often certain channels of evacuation can be skipped, allowing the wounded to be carried directly to rear area hospitals. Behind the collecting stations are division clearing stations, serving a division area, and mobile surgical hospitals where major operating procedures necessary to save life and limb may be performed immediately. The results of speed have been shown by a hospital at Pousson. Out of 18,000 wounded brought in during the first three months of the war, only 40 men died. An important factor in saving the lives of the wounded has been the military doctors switched to specialization and training in orthopedics and surgery. The death rate of wounded in World War I was 8%. In World War II, it was 4.5%. Korea's 2% death rate is a milestone in military medicine. The wasteful use of doctors in administrative jobs has been largely eliminated. The latest techniques aided by antibiotics and the transfusions of whole blood are being used. As soon as possible, casualties not able to return to duty are moved back through the chain of evacuation, eventually reaching general hospitals outside the combat zone. From Korea, casualties are evacuated to Japan by air, frequently bypassing many ground installations. This relieves the workload of such installations and eliminates excessive handling of casualties. Combat cargo planes are used primarily for this air evacuation. The speed and comfort of air evacuation contributes greatly to the morale and quick recovery of the patient. Wounded men are often being treated in general hospitals in Japan in less time than it would normally take to evacuate them to the division clearing station. Wherever American troops are engaged in combat, medical care is nearby. There are 15 aid men to an infantry battalion, one medic for every platoon. The work of the aid man is best told by Private Lubeck of the 7th Division. I'd like to let you people at home know what a terrific job the frontline medics and the Army nurses are doing here for us boys. I know because I was a casualty myself. The frontline medics did everything possible in getting me back to the battalion aid station and to Juan Ju. From there, the Army nurses did everything to comfort me all the way to Tokyo. I'd like to let you know that the Army nurses and these frontline medics are doing everything in their power to help GI back to recovery. Helicopters with specially constructed containers on the sides have played a major role in the rapid evacuation and care of wounded. Liaison planes are also used near the front whenever possible. Many a wounded man who could not have survived a Jeep or ambulance ride over the rough roads of Korea owes his life to these evacuation planes. Thousands of casualties, most of them litter cases, have been flown from Korea to permanent hospitals in Japan. The majority of these were flown in from the big supply centers of Busan and Taegu. It takes only an hour and a half by plane in contrast with two days travel by ship. Here, Japanese civilians are utilized in handling the patients, although no Japanese doctors are used. More than half of all the wounded in Korea have been evacuated to Japan. When newly evacuated patients from Korea have been placed aboard ambulances, they are taken to permanent hospitals nearby for further treatment. Here, casualties are checked to determine the type of treatment required. So far in the Korean War, combat wounds have been about 70% orthopedic, 16% surgical. It is felt that the striking similarity of most Korean wounds has been due to the lack of communist air power and the fact that most encounters with the enemy have been rifle and artillery duels. In the army hospitals in Japan, the seriously ill or wounded soldier obtains expert care and all the comforts of a modern civilian hospital. He is not allowed to remain here unless he is expected to return to duty in a few weeks. He is moved by ambulance to Haneda Air Force Base near Tokyo for the long airlift home. Haneda Air Force Base is the terminal in Japan of the Pacific Air Shuttle operated by the Air Force's military air transport service. These big planes can carry as many as 80 litter patients at a time. The planes usually stop in Hawaii to break the strain of the journey for the wounded men. After an overnight rest and medical attention at Tripler Army Hospital, they are again on their way. After a flight of over 8,000 miles across the Pacific, they reach Travis Air Force Base near San Francisco. Here, they are moved temporarily to the Army Disembarkation Hospital for a rest and the necessary medical attention. As soon as the patient has recovered from the strain of the trip, he is evacuated to that Army Hospital in the United States which is considered best suited to give him the treatment he needs. Within two weeks of the day he was hit on the battlefield, the wounded man may arrive at one of the general hospitals in the U.S. Such as Walter Reed General Hospital, largest and most complex of the many hospitals maintained by the Army Medical Service. We've shown you how the Army Medics take care of our wounded. And now we'd like you to meet an Army Medical Officer, Lieutenant Colonel S.J. Newsom of San Diego, California who is a division surgeon with the 7th Division in Korea. Well, Colonel Newsom, just what is the most important thing in keeping this wounded man alive? I think the speed is the most important thing. Anything we can do that reduces the time between the time that the wounded man is cared for by the company aid man and the time that the surgeon takes care of him is important. The first few hours mean the difference between that man's recovery and his failure to recovery. The helicopter has been of immense value to us for the seriously wounded cases and their transportation but perhaps most important is the fact that we brought the trained surgeon, his equipment, the blood and the antibiotics up farther forward. So now when an outfit goes into an attack, can the medics make any plans in advance as to treatment and evacuation of their wounded? We always make plans and then we make altering the plans. But the most important thing there is that we leave our organization flexible so that we can fit it to meet the exact situation that develops. Well, a moment ago you spoke about bringing the surgeons closer to the front line. But once we have them there, what sort of facilities do they have? They really lack nothing that is essential to the proper care of the patient. The man is the important thing. And if you have the man plus enough equipment to do the job, you can do as fine a job in the tent in Korea as you can in an approved hospital in the state. That's very good to know, Colonel. Well, looking back on your experiences in Korea, what were the major handicaps in caring for this man? Well, we had a lot of handicaps. First of all, we had mountains, high mountains, and miserable roads. And then we had hot, humid summers and miserable cold winters. We had mud in between. Occasionally, medics had to fight the enemy in their self-defense and in the defense of their patients. But from a medical standpoint, perhaps the most important thing was disease because Korea is a disease-ridden country. But what diseases were there, Colonel? Well, we just had everything. We had everything that's in the book. We had the same pneumonia that we have at home. We have smallpox as a much more virulent and deadly disease in the Orient. And lastly, we had a whole group of Oriental diseases that most of our people had never seen before. These were important because they affected not only the front-line man, but every soldier in Korea. And not only the soldiers, but the civilians. What did you do about this disease? Well, in the first place, we had a very complete immunization system. And then we had a preventive medicine program that served to provide environmental control and so reduce the contacts. So that the net result of it was that we had much more of a potential situation than we had what would have been a medical disaster. We've been talking, Colonel, about taking care of the soldier in Korea. What about the soldier in other parts of the world? Well, wherever American soldiers are stationed, we carry the high quality American medical service with them. The basic things are always there, but the special equipment and special things are done by hand tailoring them to fit exactly the situation that we're up against, no matter what part of the world we're serving in. Well, thank you, Colonel Newsom. And that's what we'd like to show right now on the big picture of the Army medics continually keep prepared to serve this soldier no matter where he is stationed. Wherever the American soldier serves today, wherever he may have to fight for our American way of life now or in the uncertain future, under whatever conditions he may have to fight, the Army medical service is alert to his welfare. The American soldier may have to face the hazards of battle in an arctic or subarctic climate, where speedy evacuation of the wounded is an absolute necessity, where loss of body heat can be as deadly as loss of blood. He may have to fight again in the prostrating heat of fever-ridden tropical jungles. He may have to serve in some of the Earth's great subtropical cities, where epidemics take a heavy toll of human lives year after year. The Army medical service is on guard against the threat of disease wherever it is found. It is the great scourge of armies and knows no national barriers. At the Medical Service Research Center in Washington, scientists obtain data on outbreaks from all parts of the world. They maintain a constant quest for effective countermeasures. Recently, they tested the effectiveness of chloromycetin, a new antibiotic. It was found to be a remedy not only for typhus, but also for typhoid fever and is valuable in the treatment of virus pneumonia and Rocky Mountain fever. The new antibiotic now is saving lives in Korea. Our doctors in Korea and Japan encountered an epidemic type of sleeping sickness. Our research scientists isolated the virus, identified a mosquito as the carrier, and developed a vaccine that is proving effective. This type of research and development on cures and preventions against disease is carried on throughout the world. As a result, the Army Medical Service has been able to control any major outbreak of disease among our troops in Korea. Although among Korean civilians, typhoid fever and dysentery are common, although malaria is prevalent and smallpox and other virulent diseases are endemic, disease rate among our troops has remained extremely low. To protect our troops, the Army Medical Service has inoculated large segments of the Korean population. It has sprayed whole cities with DDT to eradicate the insects, flies, mosquitoes, lice, fleas that are the common disease carriers. It has inoculated our troops against disease for which it had vaccines and serums. It has guarded against contamination of the soldiers' food and water. In Puerto Rico, scientists gathered data on tropical diseases. In Germany, on epidemic jaundice. In remote Madagascar, our scientists are working with the French on bubonic plague. The Army's Medical Research Center in Washington directs this far-flung battle against disease. Here, men have pioneered in the conquest of the Earth's unseen killers in measures to prevent infection in the development of the life-saving vaccines and serums. Of antibiotics like penicillin, streptomycin and chloromycetin. Of other drugs like Primaquine, the new cure for malaria that have helped to reduce the death rate from disease in the U.S. Army to barely one in 2000 each year. In other research projects, the Army Medical Service has developed new surgical techniques and devices. At Fort Knox, Kentucky, laboratory tests are being made in an effort to overcome the hazards of climate. Medical research workers are learning what a soldier's body needs to survive and function in extreme cold or in extreme heat. The Army Medical Service is at work on measures to protect the American soldier against the hazards of an atomic war. Since its beginning in 1775, the Army Medical Service has constantly raised standards of health and medical care among American troops. The Army Medical Service pioneered the development of the modern cubicle plan hospital. It brought fresh air into it. It devised ways to purify our drinking water, to guard against food contamination. It introduced techniques for the control of insects and other disease carriers. It pioneered in the knowledge of countless contagious diseases. The Medical Service, a recognized body of trained technicians from the company aid man in the field to the research scientist in the laboratory is dedicated to the welfare of the American soldier. That's your Army Medical Corps, an indispensable part of our fighting team. Next week on The Big Picture, we'll show you how the Army is concerned with a soldier's spiritual welfare as well as his physical welfare. We'd like to tell you about our chaplains. This is Captain Carl Zimmerman inviting you to be with us then.