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A classic picture of the 6 June 1944, D-Day
landing on the beaches of France was taken
from the inside of a landing craft, with
it’s ramp down and the shore line in view.
This is how US Army Medic, Leo E. Ours Sr.
first saw France and experienced his first
day in WW II. His first night in the war
was spent in a trench on Utah Beach, with
German aircraft flying over looking for
targets of opportunity. Under the terms of
the Geneva Convention your enemies are not
suppose to fire on your medical units. Sadly
sometimes the larger red cross on a hospital
tent was just a big target. After that first
night the 662nd Medical Clearing Company
(mobile field hospital) and Private Ours was
never more than ten miles from the front
lines of combat.
As a boy Leo Ours had done favors for his
local town doctor. It was this same doctor
who performed Ours’ Army induction physical
and suggested that Ours be assigned to a
medical unit. Ours was a college football
player when he was drafted and a good size
man. The Army probably saw the makings of
an excellent litter-barrier, but Private
Ours did a lot more than just carry the
wounded around on a stretcher. He worked
along side the Army surgeons in the field
operating tents, performing the duties of a
surgical technician. When a soldier was
wounded in the fighting, he was provided
combat first aid on the line, and then
transported to Leo’s field hospital. This
is the first place an injured troop was
treated by an actual Army doctor. The
injured were cared for and could be held up
to ten days at the 662nd. If the soldier was
not too badly hurt he may in fact be
returned to his unit to continue the fight.
Bullet wounds did not always automatically
get you removed from the front lines.
One of the sad issues was when Leo’s unit
would patch up a troop and send him back to
the line, only to have soldier reappear in
the hospital wound, sometimes mortally.
Leo’s unit worked with another medical unit
and they leapfrogged across France. His unit
would drive up to the second medical unit
relieve them in place, taking over that
unit’s entire field hospital. Leo’s unit
would then turn over their medical equipment
that was all packed up on trucks and ready
to roll forward to the next location. If a
wounded soldier was too injured to be
returned to combat then he was moved to a
rear area hospital. The injured GI could be
treated in a larger facility, in safety,
behind the lines or transported back to
England and perhaps all the way back to the
States.
If you watch TV coverage of the Iraq War you
never see any US troops with a red cross
armband on their uniform or a big red cross
on their helmet. You also never see a
soldier without a rifle. In modern day
combat our enemies believe you shoot the
chaplains and medics first, it demoralizes
the troops. So today’s medics go unmarked
and carry weapons to protect themselves and
their patients. Private Ours spent his
entire war only a few miles from the German
Army. He never was allowed to carry a weapon
and always had a big red target on his
uniform. Private Ours’ son, Leo Ours Jr.
has taken the time to record his father’s
combat medical experience in the new book
Hospital on Wheels (www.hospitalonwheels.com).
Being married to an active duty Air Force
medical officer I found the history of the
662nd Medical Clearing Company not only very
interesting but an excellent reminder that
combat medicine and the treating of our
wounded is an ever, ongoing and evolving
process with the US military. Private Ours’
unit was at the Battle of the Bulge.
Normally his patients were treated and out
of his hospital tents in days, but when the
662nd was surrounded by Germans there was no
removal of patients to the rear. This meant
you had to keep treating the earlier wounded
troops and make space for the continuing
stream of new combat injured. Leo came home
from his war, but even with all of his
emergency medical training and experience he
steered completely away from hospital work.
Like many of today’s former military medics,
once you have experienced combat medicine
you just want it over and to return to
normal, what ever that is.
9 May 2008
Major Van Harl USAF Ret.
vanharl@aol.com |
