Memorial Day is Monday, and because we owe a lot to medical professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic, we thought we would honor a few medics and corpsmen who sacrificed their lives while trying to save others on battlefields.
Navy corpsman and Army medical personnel have been around since the Revolutionary War. The combat medic was established during World War II. Prior to that, enlisted medical personnel served as hospital stewards.
The survival rate of soldiers wounded during World War II was 69.3%; during Korea, 75.4%; and during Vietnam 76.4%. Today, the survival rate for service members wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan has been as high as 90.7%. More soldiers are saved today because of advances in tactical combat casualty care techniques and technology. Here are a few amazing medical service members who gave their lives to save others and a synopsis from their citations for the Congressional Medal of Honor:
Extraordinary service