The peculiar nature of counterinsurgency operations in Vietnam required modification of the usual concepts of hospital usage in a combat area. There was no "front" in the tradition of World War II. The Amy checkered the countryside with base camps. Although any one of these might become a battlefield, the base camp was relatively secure unless it was under attack. Semipermanent, air-conditioned, fully equipped hospitals were constructed at a number of these camps. In contrast to World War II and the Korean War, the hospital did not follow the advancing army in direct support of tactical operations. All Army hospitals in Vietnam, including the MUST (Medical Unit, Self-contained, Transportable) units, were fixed installations with area support missions. Since there was no secure road network in the combat area of Vietnam, surface evacuation of the wounded was almost impossible. Use of the five separate companies and five detachments of ground ambulances sent to Vietnam was limited largely to such functions at base camps as transportation between the landing strip and the hospital or the routine transfer of patients between neighboring hospitals when roads were secure. Air evacuation of the injured became routine.
Getting the casualty and the physician together as soon as possible is the keystone of the practice of combat medicine. The helicopter achieved this goal as never before. Of equal importance was that the Medical Department was getting the two together in a hospital environment equipped to meet almost any situation. The degree of sophistication of medical equipment and facilities everywhere in Vietnam permitted Army physicians to make full use of their training and capability. As a result, the care that was available in Army hospitals in Vietnam was far better than any that had ever been generally available for combat support. The technical development of the helicopter ambulance, a primitive version of which had been used to a limited extent in the Korean War, the growth of a solid body of doctrine on air evacuation procedures, and the skill, ingenuity, and courage of the aircraft crewmen and medical aidmen who put theory into practice in a hostile and dangerous environment made possible the hospitalization and evacuation system that evolved in Vietnam. The system worked effectively because it was compatible with the characteristics of warfare in that country.
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