Customer Reviews

Combat Medic: Vietnam: Combat Medic: Vietnam

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"Combat Medic Vietnam" is a solid military story. Its 33 chapters are devoted to some 10 Army and Marine medics who served in Vietnam. While "CM" pulls no punches, neither does it belabor or drag the episodes out. Each episode, told in the first person "tells it like it was" and moves on. The result is a highly compact and readable tale with no gratuitous gore and suffering. To the credit of the men involved, there is also no trace of self-pity though the Lord knows they were well entitled on that score. The Afterward reveals what became of the 10 when they returned to "The World"- more power to them all! I enjoyed the Appendix, which encompasses a brief world history of military medics both U.S. and foreign. "CM" has 2 minor flaws common to military books: There are no maps and no glossary of Army/Marine/Navy acronyms or jargon. Their inclusion would have helped. Their exclusion does not detract from the larger story. "CM" represents yet another view, another observation post into the Vietnam War. Both "Combat Medic" and author Roberts earlier work, "One Shot-One Kill" are highly and earnestly recommended.

This is a great book. I couldn't put it down and read the whole thing from cover to cover. It covers the experiences of the medics in the Vietnam war. I know one of the medics featured in the book. His name is Doug Wean, and he is a heroic honorable person. If you want to get the inside story on the Vietnam war this is a book for you.

This book is on the "Recommended Reading List" of Vietnam Veterans of America, Chapter 295, Indianapolis, Indiana

As one of the ten men featured in this book, it was both an honor and a humbling experience to reveal the most intimate moments of my entire life to the world in print. The experiences of this book are real - recorded from gut-wrenching memories that will never die. Bob 'Doc' Bosma

I read this book when I was in graduate school. It's very interesting. The only problem is that it was too short. I was captivated and could not put the book down. So I finished reading it very quickly. The stories are powerful and give credit to the medics. I know that Duke started a physician assistant program to put the knowledge of combat medics to use in civilian clinics after the war. Today, there are many such PA programs. The US Military's medic program was ahead of its time during the Vietnam War. The only incompletion I could see is the lack of reference to Agent Orange and its health effects on returning veterans. I studied Agent Orange for public health. I made a molecular model of the chemical dioxin, TCDD, found in Agent Orange. I passed it out during a class presentation for graduate students in public health. The class was shocked. Most of them were born in the 1980s and were unaware of Agent Orange. Back to the book, the medics of Vietnam had a huge responsiblity to save the lives of soldiers. The written work by Craig Roberts tells their story very well.

A terrific read. Each featured medic/corpsman is introduced by the author with some historical information about that particular medic/corpsman and then the story is told by that individual.

"Combat Medic Vietnam" is a solid military story. Its 33 chapters are devoted to some 10 Army and Marine medics who served in Vietnam. While "CM" pulls no punches, neither does it belabor or drag the episodes out. Each episode, told in the first person "tells it like it was" and moves on. The result is a highly compact and readable tale with no gratuitous gore and suffering. To the credit of the men involved, there is also no trace of self-pity though the Lord knows they were well entitled on that score. The Afterward reveals what became of the 10 when they returned to "The World"- more power to them all! I enjoyed the Appendix, which encompasses a brief world history of military medics both U.S. and foreign. "CM" has 2 minor flaws common to military books: There are no maps and no glossary of Army/Marine/Navy acronyms or jargon. Their inclusion would have helped. Their exclusion does not detract from the larger story. "CM" represents yet another view, another observation post into the Vietnam War. Both "Combat Medic" and author Roberts earlier work, "One Shot-One Kill" are highly and earnestly recommended.