Hospitals: The And Now

When one thinks of World War II, they usually think of relentless fighting on endless battlefields. Maybe they think of the German Nazis trying to exterminate the Jews. Another crucial theme of World War II was the aircraft dogfights. Medical services, however, seemed to have been overlooked as part of fighting wars. For many centuries, soldiers were the central cause to the war efforts. As technology improved, more components of war became more necessary. Boat captains, navigators, and pilots started to become more relevant in wars, and by the time World War II was fought, these people played vital roles in the American army. Medical services are a component of war that has become very important to fighting. Hospitals are also a key factor towards war. Developing medical services provide treatment and care for fighting soldiers, in order to keep them healthy enough to continue serving our country.

In the novels Catch-22 and Closing Time by Joseph Heller, the main character, Yosarrian, is a United States Army Air Forces Bombardier during World War II. He spends much of the duration of the book trying to stay grounded in the hospital to avoid fighting in the war. Although Heller uses black humor to develop themes in his writing, as the novels continue, the reader can see how the nurses treated different patients, and how the hospitals ran during that time.

Many times in his novels, Heller brings humor into the hospital rooms. He portrays many of the scenes as jokes. When the nurses don’t know exactly what is wrong with their patient, they sometimes treat them for what they think may be wrong. One patient is in a full body cast, and the nurses continually switch his IV with his bedpan. Yosarrian always stays in the hospital by convincing everyone that he has problems with his liver. The nurses don’t know whether he really has pain in his liver or not, but they treat him anyways. Also, the nurses were quite easy to manipulate into having affairs with patients. Although none of these examples are entirely true about the medical services provided during World War II, they are often portrayed as somewhat true.

In Catch-22, Heller describes death in hospitals as something that could not be avoided, but could be given a good fight. "They couldn't dominate Death inside the hospital, but they certainly made her behave. They had taught her manners. They couldn't keep death out, but while she was in she had to act like a lady. People gave up the ghost with delicacy and taste inside the hospital. There was none of that crude, ugly ostentation about dying that was so common outside the hospital” (Heller, 176). He shows that it was inevitable that people were bound to die during a war, but they could at least set up hospitals to try to do everything they could before death took its toll.

In World War II, the army air forces played a vital role. Since the Air Corps was expanding after 1939, more flyers were being trained. The victory of the dogfights depended a lot on the individual flyer. The planes were important, but useless without healthy brave men to fly them. Because of this, “the principle function of the medical service…was the care of the flyer” (Craven, 365).

The AAF (Army Air Forces) was full of experienced flyers. They had a close bond with a small group of medical officers, who later grew and trained for aviation medicine. These two groups had many common bonds, which helped them build respect for one another. Many advances in the medical service at the time of World War II helped the uniformed physicians. Examples given by Craven are: the sulfa drugs, penicillin, and more effective definitive surgery (365). It was hard for the chief medical officer of the AAF to specialize medical relief for the flying personnel. The increasing conflicts and difficulties caused a number of medical problems, making the job of the flight surgeons very important and unique.

Just as in Catch-22, many of the bombardiers and pilots had to be grounded in order to be treated. Sometimes the aviation medicine was not enough to treat the flyers in the air. Becoming grounded meant that the soldiers were taken and admitted to a hospital for further treatment, and admitted out as soon as they were well enough to fly again. In Catch-22, Yosarrian wanted to be grounded to avoid being killed in battle.

The aviation medicine became very advanced by the time World War II came around. Before the First World War, a person could become a pilot if he was physically fit. The stress, however, on the ground is much different than the stress that can occur while piloting a fighter plane. Craven lists the unique additional stresses as physical, gravitational, physiological, psychological, and emotional (368-69). These five factors are what makes the aviation medicine specialized. With improvements in these areas, advancements in the medical resources available also had to occur. The main focus of every medical provider for aviation was the care of the flyer. “The strength of the AAF’s medical service rested on its strong orientation toward the welfare of the individual flyer” (Craven, 380). This is because of the sheer importance of the person actually flying the plane. Nothing could take place without a strong and healthy pilot.

There were schools of aviation medicine and research laboratories that helped advance the medical services during the war. They both established and did experiments to further institute more technology in the medical field. The school taught the practical application of new medicines that were being tested in the laboratories. These schools and labs were centered on the aviator and the different conditions each flyer must go through during each day of fighting. These two advancing fields worked together to make the flight surgeon available as a position in the war.

The surgeon general had to attend the Air Service Medical School, and was assigned to duty with the Air service units. The flight surgeon need to have a desire and willingness to participate in further knowledge of aviation medicine. Upon graduation and year’s participation with the AAF, along with fifty hours in military aircraft, a person would be eligible to become a flight surgeon. The flight surgeon has many duties, which include: routine medical services, selecting candidates for training, becoming aware of the effects of flight, and of course, taking care of the flyer. The surgeon general had many responsibilities because they led much of the medical portion of the aerial warfare.

The U.S. army was not the only army who was experimenting with the new technologies in the medical field of study. Many Germans too wanted to know more about the advancing medicines. Under Nazi rule, this caused many Germans