Military Medicine: Medical Support: Experiencing War: Veterans History Project (Library of Congress)

Experiencing War: Military Medicine: Stories from the Veterans History Project

In any war, there never seem to be enough doctors and nurses, which is where the medical support personnel often come in. Some of them are trained in basic medical procedures and are often the first to reach a wounded comrade, applying the necessary treatment to stop the bleeding, to ease the pain, and perhaps save a life. Others provide much needed logistical support or do the difficult work of rehabilitating injured veterans. Neither idealized like the battlefield surgeons nor romanticized like the selfless nurses, the men and women who serve in the medical corps are among war's true unsung heroes.

Image of Yeiichi Kelly Kuwayama - link to story

"The record of the 442nd is that any mission we were assigned, we did."

The son of Japanese immigrants, Yeiichi Kelly Kuwayama was a Princeton graduate working at the Japanese Chamber of Commerce in New York in 1940 when he was drafted. The attack on Pearl Harbor dashed any chance that his stint in the Army would be short-lived, and after being bounced around in administrative jobs at out-of-the-way bases, he grabbed an opportunity to make a real contribution. He joined the Japanese American 442nd Regiment, whose motto was “Go for Broke.” The 442nd became one of the most decorated units in American military history. Kuwayama was a medic who saw many of his fellow soldiers fall in some of the hardest fighting in the European Theater.

Go and experience
Yeiichi Kelly Kuwayama's story

Experience more Stories of Military Medicine: Medical Support

"I treated all soldiers the same. I treated the enemy just like I did American soldiers because in my heart he was a human being just like everyone else."
-- Joseph Brown

	"During the Korean War, the black soldier began to be accepted on an equal basis as a combat soldier." Joseph Edward Brown's story		"... I felt like it was an honor to serve my country, according to the dictates of my conscience." Desmond Thomas Doss' story
	"I think that the government owes veterans everything." Jeff Fitch's story		"Our doctors were operating 36 hours at a time." Joseph Milton Hand's story
	"The historians really did not know what happened." Earl R. Hufford's story		"I would use my newly cultivated navy vocabulary to delay their departure..." Charles E. Kelly's story
	"Vietnam just changed everything for the Army Medical Department, especially the supply." Brian Cody Markle's story		"We didn't know what was going on in the world other than what they fed us." Helen Minor's story

Military Medicine: Medical Support

The Library of Congress
November 24, 2006

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