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Medic! How I Fought World War II with Morphine, Sulfa, and Iodine Swabs. By Robert "Doc Joe" Franklin. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2006. ISBN 0-8032-2014-6. Map. Photographs. Index. Pp. xiv, 151. $21.95.
Medically rejected for Navy enlistment right after Pearl Harbor, Franklin, a twenty-five-year-old failed actor, was drafted in 1942, served briefly in the 28th Division and volunteered for transfer to the 45th Division in order to go overseas. A corporal-clerk in a medical unit, he had very limited medical training. In North Africa in June 1943 he was assigned as a platoon corpsman and observed the treatment of an accidental extremity gunshot wound, "sulfa powder and dressing."
Medically ignorant, Franklin landed with his platoon in Sicily in July and began to learn casualty care on the job, helped by other medics and-when available-the Battalion Surgeon (especially for treating the sick). He found that artillery fire did not bother him and he learned that infantrymen cherish a "medic" who goes forward under fire to treat and evacuate the wounded. He earned...