Merriam Press Vietnam War Series Second Edition 2012
It is a well established fact that there is a relationship between how well soldiers are cared for and how well they fight. That fact may explain why the American soldier is the best fighter in the world. Thanks to men and women like Dr. Bartecchi our troops in Vietnam were cared for as in no other war. Your chances of survival were greater if you were wounded on a battlefield in Vietnam than if you were in a crash on an American highway. But that care went beyond the GI. Vietnam may be the only war we ever fought, or perhaps that was ever fought, in which the American soldier added to their heroism a humanitarianism unmatched in the annals of warfare. And the humanitarianism took place during the heat of the battle. He fixed as he fought, he cured and educated and built in the middle of the battle. What other Army has ever done that? Humanitarianism was our victory in Vietnam.
The kinds and quality of our humanitarian work in Vietnam is documented in this book. Join Doctor Bartecchi in his remarkable journey through Vietnam from the time of the French, the Japanese, and the French again, through the war up to the present. You will meet some of the truly great heroes and heroines of any war.
Leading the humanitarian charge were medical helicopter crews known as Dust Off. Dust Off was born at Soc Trang, where Dr. Bartecchi began his career in military medicine. Dr. Bartecchi writes of the legendary Charles "Mad Man" Kelly who gave his life to save the Dust Off resource; and whose dying words, "When I have your wounded" set a standard for battlefield evacuation unmatched in the annals of war. With their great new steed of combat, Huey, the Dust Off crew rescued some one million souls; men, women, children, friendly as well as hostile. Vietnam was a helicopter war and Dr. Bartecchi takes us through the history of helicopters in Vietnam. We learn that Dust Off was not the first to evacuate patients by helicopter and, to the dismay of some macho pilots, we learn that the first successful helicopter pilot was a woman.
Anyone who has ever served in Vietnam knows what a loveable people the Vietnamese are. One senses that Dr. Bartecchi fell in love with them, saw their great need and determined to help. Since the war he has organized monumental medical contributions surely resulting in many lives saved. Those efforts continue to this day and this book will certainly encourage others to do the same.
All the curing and caring and healing, which continue to this day, deserve a memorial. In this superb book Doctor Bartecchi chronicles the grounds for such a memorial.
Contents
Introduction
The Japanese at Soc Trang
The French War
The French Defeat
Tom Dooley and the Passage to Freedom
Learning, from Philadelphia to Hawaii
Becoming a Flight Surgeon
Soc Trang and the Mekong Delta
The Dust-Off Legends
The Dispensary at Soc Trang
Army Medicine at Soc Trang
Tragedy at Soc Trang
A Complicated Situation
Martha Raye at Soc Trang
Base Mascots
Viet Cong Military Medicine
My Viet Minh Rifle
Soc Trang-The Village
The Orphanage at Soc Trang
Public Health Programs on Base
Finding Mother Bruno
The Soc Trang Clinic
Tet Holiday
Oriental Medical Practices
The Airmobile Clinic
Military Medicine for Vietnamese Civilians
Post-Vietnam Travels
Henry Ford Hospital Years
Recollections of Vietnam
Vietnamese Refugees in Pueblo
The Truths About the Vietnam War
Return to Vietnam
Bach Mai Hospital Project
Training Vietnamese Physicians
Vietnamese Medical Leaders
Foundation Support
The Education of Dr. Hong
Help for Rural Vietnam
Sources of Aid
Southeast Asia Medical Practices
The Poison Control Center
Americans Reaching Out
A Sister Hospital for Bach Mai
A Vietnamese Odyssey
References
63 photos
2 illustrations
5 maps
