426 - The Surgical Legacy of World War II - Part 3: Blood and Valor

spite of the countless calamitous events on that day could have easily turned to further tragedy and changed the outcome of history. The military strategy for D-Day is a well-documented and fascinating topic. However, of particular interest to read- ers here should be the stunning volume of medical prepara- tions, and the enormous sacrifice and bravery of the military surgical teams leading up to, during, and following the Inva- sion of Normandy in early June 1944. The harsh realities of war were inescapable in every cor- ner of the globe between 1941 and D-Day. The Allied forces were engaged in warfare on several fronts. Though the Unit- ed States was spared from battling on its own soil, American troops were sent to fight in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, and Europe to protect and liberate people from countries that many families had never heard of. American doctors and nurses were dispatched alongside them. The US Military sent 16,353,639 men and women into service. While over 407,000 were killed, medical personnel — the brave men and women risking their lives to save others’ — would send home more than 671,000 wounded Americans to heal from the visible and invisible scars of war. “One who wishes to be a surgeon first must go to war.” -Hippocrates The recruitment of medical personnel between 1942 and 1944 was as significant to the war effort as manufactur- ing. Doctors and nurses represented an invaluable human resource, and their skills were desperately needed to care for gravely injured patients, many of whom were mere teenag- ers. Medical college students felt the same call of duty that so many other Americans did at the time, but the armed services still struggled to meet the quotas for trained doc- tors. Local draft boards were reluctant to enlist doctors and remove them from their communities, and female physicians training at medical colleges for women were ineligible to serve in the Medical Department. By 1944, there were 52,000 physicians in the Army and Navy, while 94,000 remained in the civilian healthcare system stateside. Ultimately, the American Medical Association, the Sur- geon General, and the War Department worked together to create the Medical Department of the War, to begin “procur- ing and assigning” medical personnel to military duties that fit their training. The Medical Department exerted immense pressure to abbreviate medical and surgical internships and residencies, condensing a traditional five- to six-year surgi- cal residency into only 27 months. Soldiers in cargo vehicles move onto a beach in Normandy on D-Day. Gliders fly supplies to soldiers fighting on Utah Beach in France. Photo credit:USMilitary | The Surgical Technologist | JUNE 2019 254