Abstract
This chapter evaluates the singular relationship between the company aid man and his line unit. In contrast to the BAS soldiers, aid men labored under fire and alone. The combat units accepted the aid man as a vital component of the team, yet the aid man existed at some remove, living in a paradoxical world where conflict raged both within and without, which he dealt with in psychological solitude. Tfie searing realities of tending combat wounded under fire translated for the aid man into a pronounced disconnect, both physically and emotionally from those around him. Remote from the BAS medics, yet bearing no weapon like his infantry fellows, the aid man labored alone, the most isolated of all combat soldiers.
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Notes
Ibid.; Questionnaires, G. Allen, Barratt, Berry, Bossidy, Braunhardt, Maurice DeLoach (20 May 2001), David E. Fought (7 April 2001), Irgang, Johnson, Lease, Serge Manni (25 September 2001), Carroll E. Pomplin (n.d.), Richard Quint (20 November 2001), Russell Wade Redfern O. June 2001), Rheney, Stelljes, John T. Sullivan (n.d.), Thomas, and Winson; S. Stouffer et al. (1949) Studies in Psychology in World War II, Volume II (Princeton: Princeton University Press), p. 144;
P. Boesch (1962) Road to Huertgen: Forest in Hell (Houston: Gulf Publishing), p. 124; Burnett to author 28 April 2001; Ben Burnett to author, 7 May 2001, in author’s possession;
G. P. Arrington (1959) Infantryman at the Front (New York: Vantage), p. 32; “on and on” Dick Patton, in “Golden Acorn News,” (December 1995) 87th Infantry Division Association, James Amor, editor.
Questionnaires, “fearless” Biggins, “selfless” Stelljes, “the best” Kenneth T. Delaney (n.d.), and Burnett and Manni; Interview, “honeys” Interview, “Sergeant Willie L. Murray, Company L, 9th Infantry, 2nd Division,” HI, Box 24242, RG 407, NARA; G. Wilson (1987) If You Survive (New York: Ivy Books), p. 31; Stouffer et al., Studies in Psychology, Volume II, p. 144• Infantry trainees perceived that medical soldiers other than aid men had less disciplined training periods and directed the derogatory names toward most medical trainees, but once in combat, riflemen called the medics “Doc.” One former Battalion Surgeon referred to the aid men as the “real Docs.” Questionnaires, “real” Ellis, and Donald F. Eberhart (10 August 2001), and Pomplin.
Questionnaire, “irreplaceable” Redfern; B. W. Dohmann (1969), “A Medic in Normandy” American History Illustrated (vol. 4, no. 3), p. 12.
Questionnaire, Biggins, Bossidy, Irgang, Earl Lovelace (31 August 2001), Manni, Platt, Pomplin, and Sullivan; R. B. Bradley (1970) Aid Man! (New York: Robert Bradley), p. 48; “General Orders Number 43, 14 June 1945, After Action Reports, noth Medical Battalion, 35th Division,” Box 9790, RG 407, NARA; Interview, “Marshall O. Miller, 53rd General Hospital, 331st Infantry, 83d Division,” HI, Box 2235, RG 407.
Questionnaires, Barratt, Delaney, DeLoach, Eberhart, Lease, and Pomplin; J. C. McManus (1998) The Deadly Brotherhood: The American Combat Soldier in World War II (Navato, CA: Presidio Press), p. 131; Stouffer et al., Studies, Volume II, p. 144; Wilson, If You Survive, p. 31.
Questionnaires, W. W. Allen (27 November 2001), Carl R. Aschoff (14 June 2001), Stephen J. Barnett (28 June 2001), Brown McDonald, Jr. (22 June 2001), Frank Miller (2 April 2001), Glen J. Mitchell (22 August 2001), Walker Powe (16 August 2001), and Everett Smith (August 2001); L. Atwell (1958) Private (New York: Simon and Schuster).
Interviews, “Battle of Hürtgen Forest with Kozmetsky, et.al.,” NARA; G. A. Cosmas and A. E. Cowdrey (1992) The Medical Department: Medical Service in the European Theater of Operations (Washington, DC: Center of Military History), pp. 365–366.
R. L. Sanner (1995) Combat Medic Memoirs: Personal World War II Writings and Pictures (Clemson, SC: Rennas Productions), p. 95.
W. S. Boice (1959) A History of the Twenty-Second United States Infantry in World War II (np), p. 28.
“self-doubt,” Burnett to author, 7 May 2001; J. Greenberg and H. C. McKeever, eds (1995) Letters From a World War II GI (New York: Franklin Watts), p. 46.
H. P. Leinbaugh and J. D. Campbell (1985) The Men of Company K: The Autobiography of a World War II Rifle Company (New York: William Morrow Company), p. 53.
W. S. Tsuchida (1947) Wear it Proudly: Letters (Berkeley: University of California Press), p. 15.
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© 2013 Tracy Shilcutt
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Shilcutt, T. (2013). Company Aid Men. In: Infantry Combat Medics in Europe, 1944–45. Palgrave Pivot, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137347695_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137347695_7
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