The Men of Echelon One: Comparative Analysis of Company Aid-Men in Pacific and European Theaters of World War II

The United States’ aid man or medical corpsman’s World War II experience was largely unprecedented in U.S. military history. There are several reasons why World War II served as watershed moment in the duties of the aid man. First, the mobility of the front lines increasingly removed the aid man from the established aid stations, where his performance of treating combatants and civilians was conspicuous to those who might call on him, like front-line infantry, airborne troops, and mechanized forces. The philosophy of treating battlefield wounded has been present in “Western” militaries since the days of Alexander. The primary effort for removing wounded from the field was not always based on a humanitarian effort, but more one of physically and psychologically maintaining a fighting force. This persists until the advent of first aid and the acceptance of the principles of the International Red Cross. Borrowing from European experience in battlefield care, the United States aid man was borne of two philosophies, a logistical aspect of battlefield care and a spiritual one. Second, while disease was the predominant casualty producer in previous American conflicts, 1944 was the year battlefield casualties exceeded disease related, non-combat casualties. This was not apparent to the aid men at the time, as they served in a multitude of functions near the front, including, litter-bearers, aid station attendants, drivers and sometimes, triage agents in identifying the onset of psychoneuroses in the front-line troops. Unlike previous wars, the United States fought on an unprecedented scale, on two fronts. The unique circumstances that each major theater encumbered upon the aid men are compared to explore the similarities and differences of their experiences, mostly through the perspective of the aid men who were there, and the people who witnessed their acts. Although the aid man role had been in practice since 1887 and had been deployed in two previous wars, it is the experiences of the aid men on two fronts that give rise to a collective respect of this healer, culminating in the creation and awarding of the Combat Medic’s Badge, and eventually a” combat pay.” The general perseverance of the aid man was noted not only by the troops, who increasingly referred to him “doc” but also the writings of Ernie Pyle, the U.S. Army’s campaign to highlight infantry, the drawing of Bill Mauldin, and the accounts of physicians he worked for and most of all the men he treated.