Vietnam: A Television History; To Save a Soldier [Part 1 of 2]

There are times when only the heartbeat of a man tells us feels there's Rambo six requests down down down. This is rather six requests NASCAR requests. Yes more than 6000 times last month this call was for the master of the cross the jungle now and rice paddies see it now. 3 1 0 3 1 . This is the story of a handful of wounded and a handful of 150000 men and women whose only job it is to save the lives of man if need be at the cost of their own. Central Vietnam and a province believed vital for the security of Saigon

after many days of quiet ominous sniping our position is threatened. The patrollers been ambushed and is tied down . This is a war fought on the ground by troops brought in and out by helicopter. We control only the land we stand of armor . The front as it has been understood in other wars as where you were facing at the moment. Don I don't dust off the call for help . It was a call same of the first commander of a helicopter detachment since he was killed in action it has become the universal cry for an air ambulance. Shrapnel. They were . Secured

. Before. 1 4 4. 0 7 3. These are men of the 280 third air medical detachment and as is the practice when an engagement is mounted they are in the field as close to the action as possible . Marsa lean over those specialist five Brooklyn New York City for an officer keeping Gibson you in your Philadelphia Mississippi. Specialist Dr. William Nelson in Colorado Springs Colorado. Captain Bill Colbert's Knoxville Tennessee. This is Mission number 400. You ought. To into our radio frequency to be a con can and do imitate our procedures ambushing our rescuers.

Or ambition until the helicopter is within rifle range that its crew can be certain who will wait for the people and they are further dishonored. But since they exhibit the Red Cross they may carry weapons only for the protection of their patients not for themselves . I am I am . I am right here like an hour or an hour or an . Hour.

You

on . A am I am or am I am . A young mother's daughter was shot quietly riding a bicycle with her father on a public lane in a little village in the warm sun of a beautiful day

. She will be dead in an hour . Four members of this family have died this afternoon between noontime and it . Captain Lloyd yeasts in ROTC who was a pharmacist and was before he became an executive officer. The manager of the fairway drugstore and with her in Oregon . The work here is different. You are

an OK. I am. I am I am . I am you are and you are an . I

am . I am . I am . Oh no. It . Was ok.

Yeah eek. Yeah . Yeah I know. I am . Yeah. Yeah . Are you OK. I am . I am. Dennis Aldrich performing his daily chores as a foot soldier stepped upon a

Claymore mine and one fragment entered his left flank it shattered his spleen destroyed his kidney went into a left upper lobe of his left arm. Sixteen minutes later he is here . He cannot be given an anesthetic and live. I

am . I am . I am. I am . Brought in during the same engagement as the operating room. The prognosis for both these young men is questionable

. I mean it might be . For some the prognosis is no longer in question. Pity Asli there are those who fall and we cannot make them rise . Dennis Aldrich wounds are stabilized so he can continue his journey. For those who live this is stage one of several stages in the concept that if a man is hit in this unwelcome door it is as if he were hit on the front steps of a hospital. The hospital doctors nurses medication all stretching in a continuous comforting bandage 9000 miles to his own bed . For desktops. Thirty one mission 404 is done. 405. 406. 407

six hundred nine. Thousand ninety eight are all ahead of them . For as many numbers as men can count for as long as they are needed. In Saigon in a remodeled unguarded apartment building are the headquarters of the far eastern joint medical regulating office. It is staffed by the Navy the Army and the Air Force. It is from here that the life of the casualty is guided to the hospital best equipped to handle his particular injury to the doctor best prepared to heal. I've got change in destination. That . Dennet may benefit . From the heart of the injured through the fingers of the teletype the world knows a soldier has been

struck down. His rank his condition his needs are noted. And over the globe hospitals are alerted. Aircraft are sent to bring them together. The center of this protective network is the briefing room at the Scott Air Force Base in Illinois . Under the command of General Howell and that's just you and your directives go to 100 air bases in 40 countries from these daily sessions. Good morning. Good morning sir. There are 33 C-141 missions moving which include 19 channel traffic a special missions for air attack and two embassy flights. There is the air back on time en route to McGuire. A special mission en route to Bedford Massachusetts the Clark to Travis has been extended to Cali to airlift an urgent burn patient to the Brooke Army Hospital Burn Center. There are also 30 to.

Surgeons How about this urgent piece and this is a serious serious serious condition the prognosis looks quite good. He has about 35 percent of the lower extremities and part of them don't . Have any special medical things. Yes sir we have a flight surgeon aboard to attend him. There are also 32 patients and 26 ambulatory on board destined for hospitals in the southwestern United States to Washington Karkare that on schedule en route to the Saigon area. Now en route to Washington is carrying 12 letter and 22 ambulatory patients and a mission en route to Hickam has 16 litter 24 and. Standby one. Surgeon since we started from . The northern route into . The particular expressions from the patients as to

whether those legs are too long for them as their condition being affected the longer their condition is not affecting their overjoyed to get to their destination. OK. Already factors Pacific are near normal today. Scattered thunderstorm activity and also rain showers at most of the stations . At Taipei visibilities will also be restricted to a half mile and attach a common area between 18 and 22 today. Whether . Negative reports indicate only light turbulence along that route . The turbulence that concerns general that is often encountered by aircraft leading to . Saigon airport and it is the comfort and well-being of patients like

Dennis Aldrich the general and his staff wish to assure. In the weeks since we have seen specialists for Aldrich has been to several hospitals. The third Surgical Hospital the ninety seven to evacuation. And finally he has just left the 377. All this for surgery to repair the considerable damage she had sustained. Yet there is more to be done and in the policy of taking the patient to the doctor rather than the other way around . Dennis is arriving in the Clark Air Base Hospital in the Philippine Islands. Waiting for Ian and his Doctor Louis Patterson. The knowing chest surgeon it's his turn to examine the arrivals check their condition and assign him for further treatment . Every facility every ounce and patch of kindness and skill has to be expanded on their rehabilitation . There is barely a moment when they are permitted to forget this.

What's your name. But apprehension about going to be managed is

going to be a problem we haven't met with before even playing for years. You just can't . And he's one of the very lucky to be here . This week for the left upper. It is our policy to remove these fragments because. They are going to get into trouble sooner or later. Different and much faster than previous wars in parts. An awful lot of energy passes through the

killing distance. Actual . First person to your chest injury . 24 hours in respiratory distress. Practically to . Get an operation at which time I had to make a decision. Should I take a cripple for the rest of the . Attempt to patch the remaining . Turned out wrongly to tempt them into. Bad . Typist . Never forget. The other hand has made me work harder

. Successful. Primary repairs. You're absolutely . Right. When you really didn't stand back and had to step in. And think it's such a tremendous waste . So much suffering the hope is that it's worth it all . For the six nights or one year long and Dawn a welcome friend with a light morning breeze comes the hope that this day will be better than the last

. It is three days since Dr. Patterson went exhausted from his operating room having met the challenge which in all our hospitals has resulted in returning 99 percent of our casualties to life. These first on 18 steps are a quiet victory for all those who have failed in this future in their hands. Though the journey is not over for this battered boy he is on his way.