Paul Snyder, From East High Through My Military Service

 

Paul Snyder

During ROTC at Wichita State, increasing attention focused on Vietnam.  It was not even an issue when I joined ROTC in college.  When I graduated as a reserve volunteer officer, they gave us the choice of branch of military service, and I chose to join the Army Medical Service Corps.  Our training was at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. 

After training as a medic as well as an administrative officer, I was to go to Fort Devens, MA, where the Army’s lone New England hospital was located.  It was a wooden cantonment design with wards separated by long hallways, and it was organized as a 250-bed hospital, with staff allocated for 250 patients. 

As the conflict ramped up, we received all injured Army patients from New England so they would be close to their families.  They would be flown to the nearby air base within 24 hours of injury and transported to us.   We kept adding beds as the numbers of patients increased, finally reaching 600 patients with basically the original number of officers and enlisted. 

Yes, we were very overworked.  No leave was authorized for 2 ½ years, and officers rotated so someone was always in charge through the nights with no time off our daytime positions.  Realize that firefights and battles are relatively intense. The medical team has the responsibility to repair as much damage from wounds as we can, and that can take a very long time, even years. 

My job was Supply and Services and I had a staff of 45 enlisted personnel as well as civilians from three departments of the Army to fill out the computer cards (!) to order all supplies, equipment, and pharmaceuticals.  Hospitals had the highest priority of orders so that we could be ready for any kind of injury or need before that kind of patient arrived.  The equipment part involved surgical tools, operating beds, anesthesia machines, X-rays, lab equipment, and all the beds, bedding, bandages, and so forth.

You should watch Ken Burns’ Vietnam War on PBS  to see the real background . The ten-part series is marvelous and detailed.  I was not sent to Vietnam, as it must have been felt that my team was valuable on site.  We became very certain that the conflict should be terminated, though it kept dragging on.  

Knowing I would not stay in the Army, I made a spreadsheet that compared many aspects of all drug companies.  When I got out, I applied to my first choice and was hired as a sales rep for Burroughs Wellcome Company.  They did innovative research, designing the first drug to fit a human receptor site, research that won a Nobel prize.  They discovered the class of viruses called “coronaviruses,” which are really messing with us these days.   I ended up working for several companies that were bought out, earning me three retirements.  I held all the field positions including training and management.