Southern Cross information
for 198 BDE 23 INF
5/46 INF 23 INF
For date 700102
198 BDE 23 INF was a US Army unit
5/46 INF 23 INF was a US Army unit
Primary service involved, US Army
Quang Ngai Province, I Corps, South Vietnam
Location, Phu Vinh
Description: The following is an edited version of an article titled "'From Horeseback To Chopper' 'Pioneer' Doc Makes Rounds by 1LT Robert R. Kresge 198th IO.
PHU VINH - Back in the good old days, a general practitioner would make his weekly rounds on horseback, visiting only a few people, unable to provide permanent or completely effective cures for patients. Today, "Doc" rides in a Division helicopter, seeing hundreds of patients and providing them with the best in medical supplies and treatment. "Doc" is CPT Bud Verdin (Mauldin, S.C.), surgeon for the 5th Bn., 46th Inf., located at LZ Gator and his weekly rounds consist of treating Vietnamese civilians in several hamlets where companies of the 198th Inf. Bde. are conducting hamlet improvement programs. "We run MEDCAPs out of here every day." said MAJ Robert C. Disney, battalion operation officer, "and 'Doc' runs about 95 per cent of them himself." Each morning the medical team packs its supplies at the battalion aid station, assisted by the unit's medics. Then on to a nearby helipad for a short flight to the hamlet. This time the, hamlet is Phu Vinh, a farming community about four miles northwest of Quang Ngai city, the provincial capital. The people have been expecting the doctor today and the children follow him to where he crease in the paper copied. They are his first patients because the old people have not yet arrived. The medic, SP4 Everett Rowles (New Kensington, Pa.), began to treat their cuts, and minor infections. "This little girl," he said, pointing to a scalp infection, "got this way because of improper hygiene as a baby. We do two things about this - we treat her and we try to impress upon the parents the importance of hygiene, especially for newborn infants." Then came the village elders, and their ailments were many and varied. They were treated for sore throats, stomach and headaches and received eye drops as quickly as they could line up. "Between the kids and old people," said SFC Billy Clark (Columbus, Ohio), a medical technician with the team, "We must have treated 60 people today." "That's not an unusual number added crease in paper copied member of the team. "We must have treated almost 7,000 patients in hamlets just like this." What effect does medical treatment have on the health and attitudes of the Vietnamese people? CPT Verdin thinks it has a great effect. "What we do here has a great psychological as well as medical value," he said. "The people come to trust us and the American infantrymen who live here. They see how we train and equip their own Vietnamese medics on these operations and begin to rely on their own medical capabilities. We are trying to establish a rapport with the people."
The source for this information was 7001_340.SCR supplied by Les Hines (Southern Cross newspaper from 23rd Inf Div)
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Last updated
12/26/2000
Date posted on this site:
05/13/2023