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This article first ran in The American Spectator's February 2006 issue. LOOK AT THE FRONT PAGE of any major U.S. newspaper or the evening news on cable and network television and you'd think Iraq really was another Vietnam. All you hear about are kidnappings, beheadings, and suicide bombings. Every death in Iraq -- be it U.S., Coalition, or civilian -- is reported as if it were the assassination of Lincoln or Kennedy. Of course, while every combat death is an individual tragedy, the U.S. is making slow but steady progress in Iraq. We're training Iraqi forces to police their own...

A history professor gave a unique perspective Tuesday on why so many Union and Confederate soldiers, over a half million of them, died during the American Civil War. Rea Redd, director of library systems and assistant professor of history at Waynesburg College, spoke about Civil War medicine at the Cornerstone Genealogical Society meeting. The medical practices employed in the 1860s were quite barbaric compared to modern-day standards. Redd also is a Civil War re-enactor who has played a private, a corporal, a sergeant, a captain and sometimes even Abraham Lincoln. He attended Tuesday's meeting at the log courthouse on Greene...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 10, 2005 – Better training, more advanced equipment and aeromedical evacuation procedures that are constantly being improved are helping save thousands of lives of troops wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan, Air Force medical officers told the American Forces Press Service during a Pentagon interview. Air Force Lt. Col. Warren Dorlac, chief of critical care and trauma surgery at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, described the extensive network of patient care that's helping reduce battlefield deaths and speed up patients' recovery. Casualties are getting medical treatment faster and closer to the point of injury than ever before, Dorlac...

In battle, one of the hardest challenges is saving the wounded. Medical professionals encounter injuries not normally seen in peacetime, and many times see multiple life-threatening injures requiring immediate treatment on the battlefield. Another problem is moving patients across hot desert sands on bumpy roads in Iraq, which can be logistically challenging and uncomfortable for the patient. And there is always the danger of roadside bombs. To solve these problems, military aeromedical planners developed what is now an efficient medical evacuation system that moves patients from where they were injured to definitive care quickly and safely. Along the way, patients...

MCLEAN, Va. (Army News Service, July 22, 2005) - Two of the Army's top 10 greatest inventions for 2004 have their roots at units that belong to the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command. The Army honored the teams of inventors from the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research in San Antonio for its Chitosan Hemostatic Dressing and the Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center from Fort Detrick, Md., for its Electronic Information Carrier at a June luncheon in McLean. "The ceremony recognizes ... their commitment to improving readiness and the innovative technologies that positively impact Soldiers," said Gen....

WASHINGTON — A small green packet, filled with white granules that resemble kitty litter, has quietly become a must-carry item for U.S. soldiers and Marines in or headed to Iraq. While the Marine Corps is providing it free to every Marine headed into battle – about 109,000 packets have been distributed to Marines so far – thousands of troops also are opening their wallets to buy personal supplies of the substance, QuikClot, and tucking the packets into their rucksacks. Army medics in Iraq are applying QuikClot to wounds, said Col. John Holcomb, commander of the Army’s Institute of Surgical Research,...

Jeff Bush, a technician at the Oregon manufacturer, checks for imperfections. (Photo by Rob Finch) Military Snaps up Bandages Made From Recycled Shrimp Shells BY BOAZ HERZOG   TIGARD, Ore. -- Bandages made with a material derived from recycled shrimp shells have helped stop the bleeding of thousands of U.S. soldiers abroad. The bandage, made by HemCon Inc. of Tigard, is unique because it sticks tightly to wounds, and its novel blood-clotting ingredients help stop massive blood loss within a couple of minutes. The military has sought such a treatment for decades. Hemorrhage is the largest preventable cause of...

The Long Way Home Dec. 3, 2003 Since the war in Iraq began, more than 300 U.S. troops have been killed, and more than 2,100 have been wounded by hostile fire. The fact that seven times more soldiers have been wounded than killed is a tribute to how good American battlefield medicine has gotten at saving lives. But it also means young men and women who would have died of their wounds in earlier wars are coming home. As the casualties began to mount, Correspondent David Martin set out to meet some of the wounded and find out what the...

U.S. troops in the Persian Gulf were sent into battle with medical innovations that are proving their promise to cut the number of battlefield deaths due to excessive bleeding. They’ve been designed to control bleeding by speeding up the clotting process. The most successful so far, according to preliminary battlefield reports, is a powder called QuikClot that one day will be standard Marine Corps issue for every individual first- aid kit. QuikClot is a granular substance similar to a clay powder that can be poured directly onto a wound, almost instantly forming a clot and stopping bleeding. It works by...

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- As the United States threatens war against Iraq, soldiers are being armed with the newest medical technology, including an experimental bandage soaked in a blood-clotting agent that may save lives on the battlefield. The 4-by-4-inch cloth bandage could be specially helpful for wounds in the neck, groin or armpit, where bleeding is particularly hard to stop. On remote battlefields, wounded soldiers might otherwise die before reaching a hospital.Special Operations also has developed a tourniquet that can be applied with one hand. Researchers are working on other bandages to accelerate natural blood-clotting abilities, including one made from...