Conclusion

Abstract

This chapter concludes the book, arguing that while each medical soldier experienced the war uniquely and retained highly personal impressions of the conflict, certain patterns developed in their stories, emerging to give medics a fresh and unique voice in the combat’s narrative. With training command focusing on providing inter-changeable soldiers, lessons learned in reference to first echelon care were not apparent until after the war ended. Instead, the medic learned from trial and error and from one another. These first echelon medics who served in Europe, 1944–45, pushed past the inadequacies of their training and creatively adapted to serve best the troops under their care.