{"id":23931,"date":"2022-05-26T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-26T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/?p=23931"},"modified":"2024-06-11T15:03:06","modified_gmt":"2024-06-11T19:03:06","slug":"courage-under-fire-combat-first-aid-in-wwii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/2022\/05\/26\/courage-under-fire-combat-first-aid-in-wwii\/","title":{"rendered":"Courage Under Fire: Combat First Aid in WWII"},"content":{"rendered":"

Circulating Now welcomes guest blogger Jen Woronow. Her research explores historic and contemporary conflicts with an emphasis on examining the human side of war. <\/em>Today she joins us to discuss a booklet produced by the US military in May 1944.<\/em>
\n<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>\u201cYou\u2019re the soldier in the back with the tommy gun. You\u2019ve just knocked off the German that got your pal in the belly a minute ago. You\u2019re on a mopping up mission and everything is quiet now. The Nazi you\u2019ve taken care of is not going to do any more fighting.\u201d <\/em>What about your wounded buddy? He can still be saved but with no medics around, you\u2019ve got to do it yourself. What do you do? If you\u2019ve read \u201cCombat First Aid: How To Save a Life in Battle”<\/em><\/a> you\u2019re prepared. \u2014 page 76<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Cover<\/a>
Combat First Aid: How To Save Life in Battle<\/em>, 1944
National Library of Medicine #29721000R<\/em><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Combat First Aid is<\/em> a booklet originally published<\/a> in Infantry Journal<\/em> in May 1944. The Infantry Journal<\/em> began as ARMOR Magazine<\/em> in 1888. In 1904, the US Army launched the first volume of Infantry <\/em>titled Journal of the US Infantry Association. <\/em>The journal continues to be published out of the US Army Infantry School<\/a> at Fort Benning, Georgia with a mission to \u201cprovide current information on training, organization, weapons, equipment, tactics, and techniques and to provide a forum for progressive ideas.\u201d Combat First Aid <\/em>uses several practices to effectively communicate key material. These are: speaking to the reader, repeating key points, enhancing text with photographs, illustrations, and diagrams, and narrating real life scenarios. The result is a resource that a soldier can easily remember and rely upon under pressure during life-or-death circumstances. This booklet is a testament of courage in the way it depicts the reality of combat. Although Combat First Aid <\/em>teaches how to save a life, not every situation is survivable.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>Combat First Aid <\/em>immediately demands your attention by speaking directly to you using a colloquial tone. You are a soldier about to embark on a mission into a combat environment. Despite advances in medical care, you are responsible for your own life and the lives of those around you. Medical officers can\u2019t be everywhere all the time, so you\u2019re the first line of defense. The booklet uses direct, simple statements to convey importance. It\u2019s intended to feel like someone talking to you rather than training material. The booklet addresses you in the second person to create a connection and establish a sense of urgency. You, the soldier, are the audience of this booklet to assert that the situations you\u2019re reading about are real.<\/p>\n

The guidance in Combat First Aid <\/em>is designed to be easily remembered and recalled in an emergency. Repetition helps you easily recognize a situation and the actions necessary to resolve it. This is essential because it\u2019s often simple techniques which ensure the greatest likelihood of survival. But under pressure, it\u2019s much harder to do the right thing. Vital instructions are frequently reduced to three steps or items which are repeated throughout the material. Page 12 provides an example of this by introducing you to three crucial supplies: wound powder (sulfa powder), bandages<\/a>, and wound tablets (sulfa tablets<\/a>). Page 14 and 18 explains the proper way to use the wound powder and tablets, respectively. Always sprinkle <\/em>the wound powder onto the affected area and take wound pills with lots of water<\/em>. You\u2019ll be reminded of this many times throughout your reading. The goal of the booklet is to help you develop the ability to make decisions quickly while a lot is happening around you. By drilling the same simple messages, the booklet prepares you to act as if it\u2019s second nature.<\/p>\n

\"A <\/a> <\/div>
\"A <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Three <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

If that seems overwhelming, don\u2019t worry. Combat First Aid <\/em>supports the text with numerous photographs, illustrations, and labeled diagrams for better clarity and recall. For every page of text, the booklet follows up with a visual example. The pictures are another way to connect you with the information. More importantly, that picture of a wounded soldier could easily be you or a comrade. Refer to page 20 for a three-step technique for wound treatment accompanied by three corresponding images. For instructions to make a leg tourniquet, view page 29 featuring a sequential series of photographs summarizing the text. For some content, the booklet offers a single illustration. Look at page 39 to identify shock. Having numerous visual cues is another way to train you to correctly assess and treat an injury.<\/p>\n

\"A <\/a> <\/div>
\"Four <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"An <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

Towards the end of the booklet, Combat First Aid <\/em>brings all the skills and knowledge together with a series of realistic scenarios where you\u2019re right in the middle of the action. The format is typically a description and picture of the situation followed by step by step first aid instructions with additional pictures. If the scenario is in the book, it\u2019s either already happened to someone else or you\u2019re likely to encounter it. Jump to page 88 where you\u2019re treating a chest wound. The situation may look grim but you know what to do based on previous chapters: rip off clothing, sprinkle the wound powder, bandage the wound, administer wound tablets with plenty of water, and keep your soldier warm and comfortable to prevent shock. By narrating these scenarios, the booklet combines first aid techniques with situational awareness, testing you as you go. The booklet also humanizes emergencies by including an element of emotion or stress. Although no book can cover every possible situation, these narratives feature the most common ones, preparing you to execute good judgement when time is of the essence.<\/p>\n

\"An <\/a> <\/div>
\"Printed <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Six <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

Although Combat First Aid <\/em>was written for soldiers fighting in World War II, the booklet remains relevant today. Most of the first aid techniques are still applicable. One of the underlying themes of Combat First Aid <\/em>is that a soldier can only do so much as a first responder. There is a tacit message that no matter how effectively first aid is administered, not everyone survives. With training and guidance like this booklet, a soldier has the skills and knowledge to save themselves or a comrade. If they could not save the life of another, it is because not every situation is survivable in war. On this Memorial Day, we remember all who lost their lives in wartime, and the medical officers and first responders who saved a life or died trying to do so.<\/p>\n

For current trusted health information on first aid<\/a> visit NLM\u2019s MedlinePlus<\/a> website.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>Jen Woronow is a trained artist, International Security Studies scholar, and creator of The Jaunty Crow, an open access, digital humanities and social science blog promoting trans-disciplinary discussion.\u00a0 Jen has worked as a Program Analyst in NHLBI\u2019s Division of Extramural Research Activities since 2016. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Combat First Aid<\/em> is a booklet originally published in Infantry Journal<\/em> in May 1944. The guidance is designed to be easily recalled in an emergency and while it explains how to save a life, acknowledges that not every situation is survivable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19605840,"featured_media":23950,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12763,51014,347145303],"tags":[94605,678875962,488,62291,535859],"class_list":["post-23931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-collections","category-guests","category-rare-books-journals","tag-first-aid","tag-memorial-day","tag-military","tag-world-war-ii","tag-wounds"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/cover-illustration_29721000R_feature.jpg?fit=900%2C400&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3xcDk-6dZ","jetpack-related-posts":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19605840"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23931"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23931\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23973,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23931\/revisions\/23973"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}