As laid down in the Geneva Accords-medics were nto to go into battle armed. In which conflict did it become practice to arm medics as regular infantry???
From what I understand from talking to many vets, a medic could at least have a Colt .45, and or an M-1-Garand or M-1-Carbine if he wished. Medal of Honor Recipient: Desmond T. Doss, never carried a weapon though many people tried to get him to do so. A few Men from his unit thought he was a troublemaker and thought badly of him enough just short of accusing him of being a coward. A coward he was not--he is a very VERY religious man--as was Sergeant Alvin C. York was in ww1. Recognize his name? he was a Medal of Honor Recipient in ww1 from the great State of Tennessee--also the home of Davy Crockett and some of my relatives who still live there AND own part of the American Civil War Battlefield known as Lookout Mountain. Desmond T. Doss is still living--or so I last heard. He was also a Combat Medic serving in the P.T.O. against the Japanese. I think he rose to the rank of Corporal. I did a short interview with a former Medical Platoon Sergeant/friend of mine for Doc Raider a few months ago. He has told me that he ALWAYS carried a Colt .45 and an M-1 .30 Cal. Carbine as HIS personal preferance as his personal weapons. He said he would never go into a combat situation without being able to defend himself. Also, all the tracked medical vehicles in his platoon--were armed with a .50 Cal. MG. and his men had personal sidearms and rifles. they werent going to play that dumb game of not carring a weapon. [ 26 August 2002, 09:13 PM: Message edited by: C.Evans ]
PS, I know for a fact that medics carried a weapon of somekind--especially during the Vietnam War. Being that it was a war fought with unconventional methods.
My eldest brother in law caried a knife as well as a .45 while in nam in 67-69. He was severelly injured as his team was rusing a wounded soldier to a copter, the lead man stepped on a booby-trap unexploded US bomb. The lead man and the wounded were blown away. My brother in law lost three finger tips, a big scar on his forehead and his wife still has to clean the bed out almost once a weak due to sharpnel leaving his body these many years ago. E
Every medic I've interviewed from the pacific carried some kind of firearm. My grandpa carried an m-1 ("to shoot snipers out of the palm trees"). Lots of the medics said they had a carbine....some even had that in addition to a pistol. As far as Europe/WWII goes, a VAST majority of the US medics I've interviewed carried no weapons. One even said that he would not carry a pocket knife because he was scared he'd be killed if he was captured with it. Another said he hid a trench knife in his double-buckle boots. One fella that worked at an aid station said they often had the weapons of their casualties laying around. Once, thier aid station was attacked so they picked up the casualties' rifles and fought back. Every other medic I've interwiewed said that they carried no weapons. A few have said that even if they would have, they would've been too busy patching people up to use them. I'm not sure about other countries. I know I've seen lots of Western Front German pics with German medics and they have no weapons. I've never gotten to talk to one though. I've only talked to 1 korean war medic and he said he went there with red crosses and no weapons, but after a while he got rid of the crosses and carried a carbine. I've met, I think, 3 Nam medics. 2 had M-16s and one had a .45. I've met one medic who recently got back from service in Korea who carried a baretta.
German medics were issued pistols during the war. Medics on the russian front armed themselves alot. I've also seen a picture of a German Medic in France 1940 and he had a pistoland a baynet.
Ive got a picture of some German Medics carrying a wounded comrades on stretchers. Now the picture looks like it was taken in the very early morning hours or late afternoon hours--is very dark looking as the sun is behind the soldiers and in front of the photographer. So its hard to see much detail. I think I have seen at least one with a Luger holster on his belt.
I've seen a picture of a British Airborne medic at Arnhem and he's carrying a commando dagger. Of course, it may have just been so he could cut himself out of parachute harness if required...
My father was an orderly with the Royal Army Medical Corps and served with various battalions in Crete, North Africa (spent a while with the LRDG),India and Burma, Iraq, and then Western Europe after D-Day. Most of his service was on various Amublance Trains. Unfortunately he died a few years ago so I can't confirm everything, but he once told me that they had very strict orders not to carry any weapons, for fear that if the enemy found out it might negate the "neutrality" of Aid Stations, and ambulances etc. Of course this "neutrality" wasn't always followed by either side. However, he did admit that, unofficially, he always carried a Beretta pistol that he'd picked up in North Africa, and while with the Ambulance Train,in Europe, always had a Sten handy, but this was used just to keep the DP's (displaced persons) from raiding the Corps stores etc. "A few shots in the air and they'd always clear off". ____________________________________ "a piece of paper makes you an officer, a radio makes you a commander" Gen. Omar Bradley
Carl, how could we forget about sergeant Alvin York? He was the most decorated American soldier of the first world war. He did not only won his own country's highest military award: the Congressional Medal of Honour, but France's as well: la Croix de Guerre. Certainly one of the most beautiful awards there:
Great image F ! have you seen the old black and white movie on Herr York and how he received his MOH ? The guy was quite the marksman on the farm. Of course shooting the Germans he had to put things in perspective as they were shotting down his buddies on those fateful frontal charges and not just popping off rabbits or a Turkey. E
