Medic!

Recently watched Band of Brothers (again) and the one thing that leapt out at me that wasn't present in the recent WW II skirmish games I have been playing were medics. I mean every combat scene had them screaming for a medic whether they were present or not! (This also led me to ponder whether I have seen any movies in which the German soldiers screamed out "Medic!" when someone was hit. Did they have combat medics like the Americans or did average soldiers pull them off of the line and stretcher bearers grabbed them?)

Anyway, a big part of thinking about medics is also thinking about the soldiers' reactions. A guy gets hit, screams out, and the buddy who witnessed it screams "Medic!" and tries to help him (ripping off clothes, tossing sulfa powder on the wound, pressing the guy's gauze against the wound, etc.) but rarely do you see that in a set of rules.

Don and I played Flying Lead last weekend and I thought about making one of his people a Medic (Combat), but didn't want to add too much complexity to start. But it did get me to thinking. Shouldn't Americans all have a first aid kit and should there not be some kind of reaction that the closest person to the guy hit has to tend to his wounds? Maybe some form of morale check and if they don't pass all three dice they have to move to the wounded guy and perform some task?

Now, I understand that this is not always possible, and can even be downright dangerous to try first aid in the presence of the enemy firing at you. So maybe they drag them to cover first. Or maybe they delay when they go over to them, only going once they have taken out or suppressed the firer.

Another idea was the act of screaming "Medic!" itself. Maybe each time some unwounded guy spends an action calling for Doc, there is a chance he actually calls out and says he is on his way, giving that side an additional character to patch up characters and pull them to safety. (Of course, if he finishes up, he disappears in the brush because some squad somewhere else screamed for him.)

Given that medical support is usually attached to the platoon or company, it seems like having one on patrol with a squad is unlikely. (Although for our Hürtgen Forest scenario where we were rescuing a wounded Lieutenant it would have made sense to have a medic come along.)

Some ideas to ponder. I need to research out the combat medics for the Germans in WW II.