MEDICAL CORPS SPECIALISATION
How This Saves More Lives
This page explains how the US Army and Marine Corps separates the jobs of medical officers into 6 separate specialist branches of the Medical Department (MD) and how this helps save lives in modern-day combat scenarios. Then we go on to explore how this has impacted modern medicine and finally we find out how medical specialisation impacts medicine today and how it saves your life in an emergency.
Above: The US Medical Corps Logo.
SPLITS UP DEMAND
How this helps a medic
Every year over 87 million people visit the general practitioner's office alone in the USA, with some doctors seeing over 50 patients in one day, whereas a Combat Medic can and will administer first aid to some 200 men in one day. But for a combat medic the stakes are higher than for a GP. Even though lives are on the line for both, Combat Medics have to navigate through bullets, bombs and shells, sometimes even saving men from drowning. Their jobs are more physically demanding and they have no allotted shifts, working all hours, rotating from the battlefield to aid station. Even though they are protected by the Red Cross under the Geneva Conventions, some countries do not honour this and specifically target the medics and corpsmen. An example of this is the Japanese in WWII, where they considered Army Medics and Marine Corpsmen 'legitimate targets,' and did not recognise the Red Cross. Another example is how the SS treated Combat Medics in the European Theatre of Operations (ETO), using wounded soldiers to attract Medics and then kill both as a method of gaining more kills.
Marines Corpsmen carrying a stretcher with a wounded man on it. Note how they are all armed with an M1 Carbine as a necessary precaution against the Japanese.
More time for each patient
Every doctor has a limited amount of time to treat a never-ending stream of patients. And these patients have an extremely wide variety of illnesses. To train a doctor, commercial or battlefield, with the ins and outs of each specific wound or illness and how to combat it would take way too long. There would be a shortage of doctors because all of them would be overworked and underpaid for their expertise and work. So to stop this the Medical Department separates its men up into 6 separate speciality fields, then further subdividing these six categories into further Areas of Concentration. This allows the MD to train doctors faster, yet still train them to the same skill level. This allows for more, better-trained doctors to be in the service at one time, thus saving more lives.
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Right: A Paratrooper Medic Standing in the Door of a C-47 Skytrain
Left: A Depiction of Desmond Doss Running Through Combat to Help an Injured Soldier
IT ALLOWS DOCTORS TO GET ON WITH THEIR JOBS
The Medical Corps Speciality Badges
THE SPECIALITY FIELDS
The US Army Medical Department is separated into 6 specific areas of expertise for better safeguarding of the troops against various different health threats. These 6 categories are as follows: Medical Corps, the Nurse Corps (N), Veterinary Corps (V), Medical Service Corps (MS), Dental Corps (D) and the Medical Specialist Corps (S).
THE MEDICAL CORPS
The Medical Corps is further separated into 41 separate Areas of Concentration (AOCs). It was officially established in 1908 to aid men who were wounded on the battlefield, men who had previously relied on the kindness of a passing man to do their best to help. It is composed solely of commissioned officers with either a Medical Doctorate or an Osteopathic Medical Doctorate, as well as one year of extra 'on-the-job' training. These men will then go on to specialise in at least one AOC. They will specialise in these AOCs until they retire or decide to transfer from the US Army back to training camp for training in a new AOC.
A Medic and a GI share a book during a moments peace in the Ardennes, December 1944
The Nurse Corps was officially established by the US Congress in 1901 to aid wounded soldiers behind the lines. It is comprised solely of commissioned officers, much like the Medical Corps whom they work closely with. The Nurse Corps is further separated into 16 AOCs to better aid the wounded in the aid stations. It has seen rapid expansion, especially in WWII where it expanded from just over 1,000 to 54,000 nurses in the Army, with another 11,000 working closely with the Marine Corpsmen.
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Left: US Army Nurses disembarking from an LCVP on June 10th 1944, just after the Normandy landings.
VETERINARY CORPS
The Veterinary Corps (VC) was officially activated on the 3rd June 1916 to help wounded animals (mainly horses) in WWI. It is comprised solely by commissioned officers and veterinary students. Right now the VC employs 700 veterinarians and over 400 civilians to help them. The VC further separates into 5 separate AOCs, each to help with a different area of Veterinary Medicine.
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Left: A Sergeant of the Royal Army Veterinary Corps tending to "Jasper" the mine sweeping dog's ear. at Bayeux in Normandy, July 5th 1944.
NURSE CORPS
MEDICAL SPECIALIST CORPS
The Medical Specialist Corps (MSC) was officially created on the 16th of April 1947 making it one of the youngest additions to the US Army Medical Department. It mainly focuses on the rehabilitation of wounded troopers behind the front lines. It is separated into 4 separate AOCs including Dieticians and Therapists. The officers of the MSC are all dedicated to making sure that you are fit for action no matter the circumstances.
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Right: A US Navy Aid Station in Normandy, June 7th 1944
The Medical Service Corps (MS) consists of commissioned and warrant officers and is designated to help both soldiers and civilians in times of crisis. It is further split up into 12 AOCs, but most of the jobs consist of supporting roles to the Medical Corps and administrative positions. It also acts as a transition branch because it has elements of all the other corps embedded into it. It was founded on the 4th of August 1947 when the Pharmacy Corps, Medical Administrative Corps and Sanitary Corps united into one specific command.
The US Army Dental Corps has been separated into 14 AOCs. It was established on the 3 of March 1911 by Dr John Sayre Marshall to help soldiers with their dental needs. They started out with only 30 dentists in 1911, all with the rank of Lieutenant. They would cover the entire army until June 1916 when the number was upped to 1 dentist per 1000 soldiers They would be the first to employ a female dentist and the first to employ a black dentist, showing diversity from an early time in the Dental Corps.
MEDICAL SERVICE CORPS
DENTAL CORPS
HOW DOES THIS AFFECT TODAY?
SPECIALITY IN THE COMMERCIAL FIELD
Every day millions of people develop problems that they can only fix by going to a doctor. In fact, in 2013 it was recorded that 95% of the entire world's population was ill. Today there are at least 23 types of doctor specialities that are practised worldwide, including ones that specialise in pregnancy, feet and mental health. Medical speciality has gone as far back as the Romans, both commercial and army, but commercial specialisation was finally standardised around the world in the late 1800s and early 1900s. It was directly influenced, however, by the Army Medical Department which was established in 1775.