Military medicine is knowledge, personnel and actual occupation to ensure a health life of military personnel including treating combat injuries. This discipline has been operational since the introduction of military systems. The occupation has since invention aimed at ensuring a fully health life of a military participant. Due to harsh nature of military operations, regular health facilities had proven futile to the sick militia, especially in the battlefields. This triggered the need to have a special branch of medicine practitioners who are within the military systems. The practitioners were trained with the harsh conditions in consideration. The branch was also in-charge of research and development aimed at aiding the military operations. The special medicine branch has been operational to date as military medicine branch (McPherson & James 1998 pg. 34-45).
The military medicine is a branch within the military, which makes its duties entirely military based. However, in times of emergency and crisis this branch is upfront to join hands with the regular medicine units to help solve the situation. In the ancient Rome, the soldiers used to serve as regular soldiers during the time of peace but served as military doctors during the war times. Similarly, in Greek, military medicine practitioners were soldiers during peacetime but military doctors during combat.(McPherson & James 1998 pg. 45-66)
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"Military Medicine and its Role in Civilian Emergences".
To increase effectiveness the military medicine is divided into several operational units, which increase the co-ordination and increase product. Some of the common units include; Medical specialty, Battle casualties, the administration unit, research and development, emergency unit, etc. each branch was given a specific task to accomplish (McPherson & James 1998 pg.110-134)
According to McPherson and James, medical specialty had a task of treating the stand-by soldiers in their camps. The medical specialty has remained the most functional of the unit in military medicine, as it is operational throughout the military operations. The soldiers treated by this unit are the stand-by soldiers. This unit is however, not tasked to regularly checking and maintaining the health of the health soldiers. (pg.155)
Battle casualties unit is a military medicine unit responsible for the treatment of war casualties. Due to the war conditions, casualty doctors are trained solders who receive special training on handling casualties. They are the least operational group with them being operational during war times only. This unit is also trained other physique technique that enables them to safely extract casualties from the battlefield for treatment (McPherson & James pg. 157)
The administration unit is a military medicine unit responsible for the general health of military personnel. This unit is responsible to regular check of the personnel health and recommends a prior treatment. It is important as it helps determine possible outbreaks before they happen. It is also the unit responsible for clearing from war fronts. Clearing was a technical term in early military used to mean medical checkup. Clearing was important as tropical diseases mostly infected the soldier reporting from battle field.
The fourth unit of military medicine is the research and development unit. This unit is responsible for progressive research aimed at developing the military operations. This military medicine branch carries out most government researches, as it does not directly link with other regular research facilities. However, the military medicine has been further divided into smaller and more specific units to meet the expanding medical needs in the military. Despite the divisions, the military medicine duty revolves around the original objective of the unit. Despite the specialty of military medicine unit, the unit has been in the lead to assist the regular medicine units in case of emergencies. These emergencies include fire, accidents, outbreaks etc. The training and preparation of Military medicine is structured to handle delicate and unanticipated situations. This ability to handle the unpredicted makes the unit a perfect tool to handle the above named situations (pg.161).
According to Vivian, military medicine is the most appropriate medical branch to handle the unseen situations. She explains that training is one of the factors that increase this effectiveness but she feels that dedication and displine of military personnel also helps to maintain co-ordination. Vivian, who was a Canadian professor, gives a case study of fire accident in Canada where the fire response failed to respond. She gives an account of how row of house burnt to the ground before the military medicine intervened. In the account, Vivian vividly shows that the effectiveness of the unit is not enhanced by training but something greater than passion. Cases of fire rescue where military medicine had to intervene are increasing day by day due to the increased sophistication of criminal attacks (Vivian 2007 pg. 56-67).
Similarly, military medicine unit has constantly helped curb emergencies like outbreaks of airborne diseases. According to Vivian, airborne diseases are the most lethal especially if the virus is deadly. The military unit is however a perfect tool to handle such an outbreak. “The military medical units are always prepared for this, why not call them in? ….if it has come this far, it means our regular medical units have failed (pg.312-367). In her case Vivian felt that the military units were well suited to handle any outbreak. Using a case study of Ebola outbreak in West Africa 1995, she views regular medicine units as failures in outbreak. “The regular doctors have been here, the fact that they didn’t contain the outbreak is a fair warning that military should step in and save the situation” (pg. 319). Her confidence in military is based on other cases where military medicine has helped save similar situations when regular medicine units could not.
In additional, in her article, encounters in the tropical forest, she refers the US military medicine as the doctors made for the tropical forests. In her study, she reviews an situation where the US had to help save an outbreak in the Amazon Rainforest. The soldiers used survival tactics to pull out US citizens out of the forest, this attempt was hampered by the tropical diseases and the hostile native locals. The military doctors pulled the civilians out of the forest and cured them of the diseases. She strongly believes that regular medicine units could not pull the task effectively and within a time flame.
The unit has also helped to quarantine different regions with possibility of having biohazards. In Uganda 2000, the British government used the military medicine units to quarantine some part of the capital city, Kampala. The area quarantined had a possible threat of Ebola as a civilian with symptoms of Ebola was found dead on a sub way. The attempt by the regular medicine units was thwarted by chaos of distracted and panicked civilians who attempted a demonstration claiming that their government was short of measures to prevent such outbreak. Despite the efforts by the regular medical units to join with the police failed due to lack of response co-ordination. The Ugandan government requested help from a Britain military medicine unit that was on a regular research in Kampala. The medical team easily solved the situation, as the personnel were well co-ordinate to handle such situation. (Kampala Times Media 2000 pg, 3&6)
Military medical units also helped in a rescue mission in Kenya 1998. On seventh august 1998, the al-Qaeda leader, Osama, conducted a bomb attack in Kenya. The bomb that targeted a twenty-storey building left more than a thousand Kenyans injured. To help the situation foreign governments including US and Britain sent their military medicine units to help in the rescue. The military medicine units assisted the regular police and doctors to rescue the injured from beneath the building rambles. The highly trained unit is well equipped with techniques and machinery to undertake an emergency, which the regular medicine unit was totally unprepared for (Royal Media 1998 pg. 17-18)
Research and development is one of the most important units in the military medicine. This unit is constantly undertaking researches in an aim to make useful progresses. The progress they pursue can be in biochemistry study to pure biology. These researches use is to develop vaccines to prevent outbreaks or to prepare cure for the already infected. Mostly, progressive researches are dynamic and unpredictable. Due to this, they are often done in remote and sanctioned areas or areas of outbreak. This character makes the challenge to be best performed by the military medicine units. The units set out to remote or sanctioned areas and engage in research. In such conditions, possibility of compromising the research is low. In addition, the setting ensures that the majority public is safe incase the research goes wrong.
According to the UN issue on rescue mission on water transport, military medicine is the leading with a forty four percent of total rescue in year 2010. The rescues included the boat accident in Indian Ocean where more than two hundred civilians were rescued. The rescue was the UN navy medical unit who worked together with regular navy personnel. The UN issued a statement thereafter and confirmed that their personnel were highly trained to handle such situations. The effective of the mission was effective as more than eight percent of civilians on board were rescued (United Nations 2010 pg 71-79)
Military medicine has many connotations and the definition can be sometimes subjective as their missions are dynamic and subjective to the situation. However, the military medicine unit seeks to create healthy military personnel and healthy environment for them. The unit has also been the best in responding to civilians emergencies. As explained in this paper, military medicine is in front line to safe situations like; fire, accidents, outbreaks, and quarantine. Across the world, countries through the military medicine unit have successful pilled together resources to rescue emergencies. The main reason for the introduction of military medicine unit was noble and specific though the unit has equally helped the civilians in emergency.
- McPherson, T., & James H. (1998). Cry of Freedom (1st ed.). Canada.
- Royal media. (1998). August 10). Rescue of the bomb victims. Daily Nation [Nairobi], pp. (7-8).
- Uganda News. (2000). British Helps in Kampala. Kampala Times [Kampala], p. 3&7.
- Vivian W. (2007). Emergence of Military School of Surgery (1st ed.). New York.
