Vietnam Medics Pioneer Modern EMS

During the 1960s, as the Vietnam War raged, combat medics who treated wounded soldiers formed the core of the United States' early emergency medical services. Their training and experience were urgently needed back home, where many first responders were undertrained funeral home workers pressed into ambulance duty. Because of this gap in skill and preparation, people wounded in combat in Vietnam often had a better chance of survival than those badly injured in car accidents in the United States.

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