The MASH Heros You’ve Never Heard Of
India's first international peacekeeping mission.
The 60th Para arrived in Korea in Nov, 1950, composed of 346 men, including four combat surgeons, two anaesthesiologists and a dentist.
When the Chinese swarmed through UN lines in November 1950, the 60th had to evacuate its position. But they had no transport and were reluctant to abandon their medical equipment. They stumbled across an ancient steam locomotive, formed bucket brigades to fill the boilers with water, and loaded up the train. Two soldiers (with zero previous train experience), got it all running and chugged across the last bridge south before it was blown. They don’t teach that in medical school or army staff colleges.
Later, in March ’51, in the second biggest airborne operation in the war, Operation Tomahawk, a dozen medics of the 60th parachuted in behind the lines with 4,000 US troops. Rangaraj was among them.
In all, they treated about 200,000 wounded. … which included 2,300 field medical operations … and in the meantime, also trained local Korean doctors and nurses.
https://kapyongkorea.wordpress.com/2...ever-heard-of/
