You could almost hear the excitement in his voice as he
pumped me quickly for questions and answers as to "where was Ed stationed, what
group was he with--the Eighth Army Special Operations? I didn't meet
any of those men. I can't be sure these days. I'll write him
as soon as this damn dialysis begins to work better."
He's 80 years of age now, but one of the most noble and courageous men and
medical specialist I ever met from the Korean War period. Of course, that
excludes my two brothers. Anyway, I made Louis a promise to travel to
Jennings, LA to visit him. I'm outside of New Orleans but I'd like to
visit with him and maybe if he's up to it I'll take some notes about the Korean
War as he experienced it or ask him if it's OK to leave a micro-recorder running
and record some things that way.
One last thing: I want to apologize for the tone of my
previous email wherein I seemed to imply that I checked out your first-rate
information and background details surrounding the subject of morphine use in
the Korean War. I never checked your statement out other than tell your
short review as best I could to my brothers, friends, and other relatives who
served in the Korean War. I got carried away when I thought of those
relatives and friends who would love any details about the war they fought in
but that the public had seemed to have forgotten. So thanks much for your
fine summary, Ed, and if it's okay for your site to advertise your book with its
price and ordering/shipping instructions, then do ask them for forgetful
people like me who need reminding.
Thanks again,
Blake Mooney
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, October 23, 2003 8:38 AM
Subject: Re: Injectable Morphine
> Blake,
>
>
During the early part of the Korean War evacuation of the wounded was
>
generally a slow process involving transporting the wounded guy by
>
man-carried litter to a battalion aid station from where he could evacuated
> by ambulance/litter jeep over very poor roads to the regimental
clearing
> station (if the wounds were not too serious) or to the nearest
MASH. Later
> the helicopter sped up the evacuation process from
battalion aid station to
> MASH, thus saving a lot of lives.
>
> But to your question about if morphine helped alleviate pain during the
> evacuation process: It did and without it many would have died
from shock
> induced by moving the guy. As for the four-hour period until
the next shot,
> field medics were supposed to tie a tag to the casualty
and note the time
> he was given morphine on the tag. This generally was
done but rarely looked
> at down the evacuation chain until the casualty
indicated he was in extreme
> pain. At that point the casualty would be
given a second morphine injection
> is sufficient time had passed from
his first injection. I suspect
> something similar would happen
today in a mass casualty situation. I also
> suspect the
information you quoted in the current manual about doing this
> and that
was put there to make the chairwarmers feel good. <LOL>
>
>
> Ed Evanhoe, PO Box 916, Antlers, OK, 74523
> Life Member: Special
Forces & Special Operations Associations
> Author: DARKMOON: Eighth
Army Special Operations in the Korean War
> Web site: http://www.korean-war.com
>