slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas

I dedicate this thread to all corpsmen/medics for their service to Veterans. Many are here today due to their diligence in performing their duties both on the battlefield and in the hospital wards. I thank and salute each of them.
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By Linda Schwartz

The bloody 10-day assault in May of 1969 on a North Vietnamese position called Hill 937 quickly became known as the Battle of Hamburger Hill because of the high fatality rate and sheer carnage, which troops compared to a meat grinder. Though American infantry troops succeeded in capturing the heavily fortified hill, the position was of little strategic value and was abandoned soon after the battle. Air Force nurse Linda Schwartz, 24, attended the wounded as they arrived at Tachikawa Air Base, west of Tokyo, during the battle. The following is her story:

"One night we were urgently called to our hospital because C-441 medevac flights were streaming in with overflow wounded that other units could not take in. Over the next several days, we treated scores of soldiers and Marines; by the end of the battle more than 500 had been k**led or seriously injured. There were so many casualties that the mess hall was turned into a triage area. When I looked down the hallway, it was like something out of a movie. At first I could just make out the silhouettes of soldiers, almost all of them barely able to hold themselves upright, slowing moving along with their arms strung across the shoulders of other men. Some of them should have been on litters, but there weren't enough. As they got closer, I could see that the men were covered from head to toe with mud and bloody field dressings. Two in particular I can see in my mind's eye to this day. Young kids...very young...with shrapnel wounds. One of the two was silent; the other guy spoke for them both. I asked them to wait while I finished preparing their beds, but they just collapsed together on one unmade bed, too exhausted to keep standing.

'Take care of my buddy, take care of my buddy,' said the one who could still talk.

I turned to the soldier who hadn't said a word and noticed he had a chest tube in place with no seal to prevent his lung form collapsing. It was a nightmare scenario, because we didn't have the right equipment or respirators to help him, and he was already going in and out of consciousness. Another nurse came over, and our faces must have given us away.

'Is he going to make it?' the talking soldier asked.

I still remember his tired eyes. Now, when he thought he'd gotten his buddy to safety, he suddenly realized how serious things were.

'Definitely!' the other nurse and I replied, but in t***h we were praying to God that he would make it, and I think his buddy knew that.

That's when I saw true bravery. Tenderly, the soldier held his buddy's hand and whispered to him that they had made it, that we would take care of him and that everything would be OK. It was that night that I realized I would never return to being a civilian nurse again, that this was where I wanted to be."
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Linda Schwartz retired as a major in 1980 and became assistant secretary of Veterans Affairs in the VA's Office of Policy and Planning.

American Vet

LostAggie66 Loc: Corpus Christi, TX (Shire of Seawinds)

In December of that year my wife's older brother also a Navy corpsman with the Marines 19yrs old was k**led in action. (she was 13) We made a trip to the Wall when I moved to PA in July of 2018. We visit him on his birthday, Memorial Day and Veteran's Day to leave flowers and f**gs and maintain his plot. I never Met Damian but my wife did share his letters she had kept. Most from fellow Marines who had high praise for "Doc Messino" ...Semper Fi brother. and to All Corpsman, Nurses, Medics and Doctors ThankYou

Coos Bay Tom Loc: coos bay oregon

This story reminds me of My good Buddy Ralph. You met him In Coos Bay ., He was a Medic with the Calvary.