Battlefield Angels


Battlefield angels is an historical work paying respect to many medics, battlefield nurses and hospital corpsmen together with surgeons and doctors who have offered healing and succor to over forty million warriors who served in the armed forces of the United States since the founding of the nation.

The plot and story

The author talks of a story revolving around one Jonathan Letterman who was a union surgeon in the time of the Civil war. He is termed as the founder of American combat medicine. This character was the first to design a battlefield system of evacuation following an unprepared group of medical corps that saw many soldiers staring death with their own eyes when they got wounded. The book brings out other person such as the navy corpsman known as Wheeler Lipes who was also a submariner who did not have much medical background but was able to carry out the first appendectomy in the sea.

Still, there is a story of Monica Brown who was an army medic rewarded with a Silver Star award for rescuing soldiers out of a disabled Humvee in an attack that took place in the Paktika province, Afghanistan back in 2007. She stood out as one of the few women who got that prestigious award, becoming the second to get it over a period of about sixty years. The author tells of such stories to trace the interesting evolution of the care in battle fields from the time of the Revolutionary War to modern-day battles in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Insights from the story

Battle Angels looks at the awesome moments when corpsmen and medics gave their lives to save lives of fellow colleagues. The audience gets to learn about the interesting story about battlefield medicine and the manner in which it has been of benefit to both the civilians and military practice of healthcare throughout the history of the United States. McGaugh, the author of this magnificent feature looks deep into the future on subjects of robotic surgery and telemedicine with a promise of changing the battlefield all over again. Towards the end, the book gives tribute of all the women and men in the army who fight on a daily basis to save the lives of fellow marines, soldiers and sailors.

The focus on war has for many years been on the issue of killing. However, the author of “Battlefield Angels” looks at it differently analyzing issues of blood loss, infections, combat, disease, post-traumatic stress disorder and stress. The work of medics is greatly exemplified.