Quote Originally Posted by Echo Bravo View Post
JMA, I disagree with your comment that “The South Africans were not much better...” Each of us carried our own shock pack and our medics were incredibly well trained.

In the early stages of our war, we were definitely unprepared and at that stage, we may not have been any better but as the war progressed, we got better at our medical response. Most heli-casevacs I know of had a doctor on board who took over from the medics.

Yes, we prided ourselves on speedy casevac but we knew that the first few minutes are crucial.
My issue is not with the medical corps personnel.

Its really all comparative isn't it (and depends on the unit). There is no comparison between a medic National Serviceman who does a couple of "bushtrips" in SWA/Angola (during his two years of conscription) and a regular soldier who has been around for 3, 4, 5 years? Having served in 1 Para (1981/2) I had to push the limits of medical training for all troopies by arranging training under a (ex-Brit, ex-Rhodie) sergeant-major medic out of camp (and incorporated in battle camp training) to get all troopies to put drips into each other and give each other jabs. Mine was the only company up till then that did so. Even then there was not enough practice to be sure any/all of the troopies could be relied upon to perform in a contact if needed but it was a psychological boost to believe your buddy (theoretically at any rate) had the ability to get you through the ABCDDE if you needed it... and the CASEVAC system was excellent and the pilots landed close in and under fire if necessary to get the wounded out.

I suggest that it is important that we accept that we could have/should have done better (in this and other regards). The Brits could still do better, the SADF could have done better and so could have the RLI. We lost some troopies then who probably could have been saved... and that remains a tragedy.