When I was just scrounging the web for information on this I came upon the Journal of the National Medical Association's article written in 2005 on the history of MASH units. I knew this would be an acceptable source to use because it was a published journal from a highly regarded medical society. The concept of a mobile hospital that would be quick, efficient, and of course mobile when dealing with casualties was first thought of towards the end of World War II. Before they had this idea, wounded troops were being sent back to field hospitals a long way away. This cost so much time that men that needed emergency medical care could not get it because they had to wait so long to be shipped back to the hospital. This made the brains of the army think "hey, I bet we could be a lot more efficient if we moved the hospitals closer to the front". That is how the idea of the mobile army surgical hospital was born.
When I was looking for more information about the Korean War I came across a great website that told me a whole lot of information about the process the units went through. I learned that these units definitely had to be mobile. They moved about once a month and if they got orders to move they had to be up and out of there within six hours. Once they got to the new location they had to be fully operational in four hours. These units were generally stationed about twenty to thirty miles away from the front, just outside of the enemy's artillery range. Each MASH unit had about eight ambulances and four helicopters at their disposal. The choppers were used for more seriously wounded patients where as the ambulances were just used for the not as life threatening cases. All in all there were a total of seven MASH units in Korea during the war.
I wanted to know more about what it was like to actually be a surgeon in one of these places so I found the notes of a Korean War surgeon Dr. James H. Stewart. I found this to be an extremely credible source because the doctor wrote them himself and had them published. It is an excellent example of a primary source. Dr. Stewart talked about how he was still in his residency in New Orleans when he got called up for duty. When he got to Korea he had to land at Inchon during a firefight that was going on on the island. He also talked about how, once he had settled into the hospital, he had to treat Korean civilians that were casualties from one of the American assaults. I cannot imagine how horrific that must have been for him. After reading. Dr. Stewart's notes I realized how relaxed they made the surgeons seem on the show M*A*S*H. Being a surgeon there seems like it would be the most stressful job in the entire world.
When I compared everything I had learned about in my research to the show M*A*S*H I realized that what they showed on television was an extremely toned down version of what was really going on during the Korean War.
I have learned an enormous amount of new information on the Korean War. I am so incredibly glad that I got to study this topic before high school. I hope I will have another opportunity to do some more research in the future on this topic.
