Medical Personnel - Page 1

In any war, the survival and health of serving personnel is largely due to the efforts and organisation of their medical personnel. The Australian doctors, dentists, nurses, stretcher-bearers and orderlies who served in Korea were no exception: they faced a wide variety of medical problems and challenges over the course of the war. Some Australian doctors who served in Korea were young, and had received little or no specific medical training for the trauma and injuries they would face there. Australian medial personnel worked with medical personnel of many other countries. The 60th Indian Field Ambulance in particular came to be highly respected by Australian personnel and patients alike.

Although there were many battle casualties and wounds among Australian servicemen, the mortality rate in Korea among Australians was 2.5% - a rate much lower than those of the two world wars. Most wounds were inflicted by small arms fire, such as machine guns and rifles, rather than by mortars or mines.

Apart from battle-related wounds, weather was a major factor in poor health, particularly among the ground troops who were forced to live in the cold of winter and in the extreme heat of summer. During the first year of the war, casualties were caused roughly in equal numbers by enemy action and the cold.

“Cold! I thought I knew it but Korea taught me otherwise. Cold so intense that even the ground was frozen solid and rivers iced up whilst a bone-chilling variable wind swept over the barren landscape. A weak sun rarely appeared in the leaden sky, vegetation withered and all animal life, with the exception of rats that infested our hoochies in plague proportions, vanished.”

Private Desmond Guilfoyle, 1 RAR

The incidence of frostbite was so severe in the first winter of 1950-51 that many of those afflicted had to be evacuated to Japan for treatment, which sometimes included amputation. It was particularly difficult to prevent because soldiers were on the move all the time and unable to take proper care of their feet, to change their socks daily, and give their feet rest.

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