Airborne Care of the Ill and Injured

From the unique position of a decade in government service, I was given the opportunity to observe the changes in the provision of emer- gency medical care across the country. In 1970, Emergency Medical Service (EMS) systems were a new and much needed development in the national health care delivery system. A systems approach to field casualty care has been progressively improved during each successive military conflict since the Civil War. These improvements were ini- tiated after the rnedil:al care and evacuation disaster experienced by the Union Army of the Potomac at Bull Run on July 21, 1861. During the Civil War, major changes in administration, professional personnel, transportation, hospitals, sanitation, and medical records established patterns that have been continually refined and improved. Stimulated by the pressing demands of war surgery and coupled with parallel advances in medical care over the last century, an almost unbelievable level of performance was realized in Vietnam. Advances in field resuscitation, efficiency of aeromedical transportation, and energetic treatment of military casualties have proved to be major fac- tors in the decrease in death rates of battle casualties reaching facilities: from 8% in World War I to 4. 5% in World War II to 2. 5% in Korea and to less than 2% in Vietnam.