Bowker
Biography:
John A. Combs
Hello.
My name is John Combs. Some years ago, they used to call me
"Doc." That was back in a place called Vietnam ...
a place that I, like many others who served there, would like
to forget.
Unfortunately
I can't forget what happened there ... and neither can a lot
of other people like me. I was a medic and I experienced things
that changed my life forever ... and mostly not in good ways.
So
I decided to do something about it. I've written a book about
the medical chain during the Vietnam war. The research has
taken 4 years to complete. It is the only known research that
has investigated this system.
All
medical participants from battlefield and dustoff to travel
aides, battalion aid stations and hospital personnel participated
in this project. This includes doctors, army medics, navy
corpsmen, army nurses, navy nurses aboard The Sanctuary, and
grave registration personnel who were in Vietnam from 1965
to 1972. The book hopes to educate the military and medical
branches so that there can be no more Vietnams.
Post
Traumatic Stress Disorder and re-adjustment are among the
topics addressed.
Synopsis:
As
Dr. Jonathan Shay pointed out in his book, ACHILLES IN VIETNAM,
men and women who have faced the dangers of combat are changed,
and some never recover from the experience. This book looks
at what combat did to the men and women who served in non-combat
roles that formed the medical chain in Vietnam. Over 160 men
and women from the Air Force, the Army, and the Navy discuss
their most terrible moments at war, including nurses, doctors
and Graves Registration . Enlisted Docs provide insight into
the thinking of trying to carry out their jobs in a war zone
that The History Channel labeled as one of the military's
"suicide missions" (1998). Personnel in the medical
chain justify their desire of performing medicine while attracting
enemy fire for doing so, whether it was on the battlefield
and MedEvac choppers, or in field hospitals and battalion
aide stations.
The statistics compiled by the men and women who served in
Vietnam are unbelievably high in their incredible ability
to stop death and promote recovery for the men actually carrying
out foreign policy by fighting the war against the Communists.
But over the years, there has been a tremendous cost paid
for the work they did. Most of the nurses and enlisted men
went on to achieve greater academic goals, and many entered
professional fields of endeavors, only to sink under the morass
of depression and anger from the war's experience. Now, 30
years later, many cannot work at their chosen professions
because of the readjustment problems that result from Post
Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This is their story about
war and their readjustment challenges, and about the onset
and effects of PTSD from that experience.
Web:
www.xecu.net/jodoco
Email: jodoco@totcon.com
Address: Donna R. Combs
24016 E. Bobcat Road
Astor, FL 32102 USA
Phone: (352) 759-2476
Fax: (352) 759-2449
