at Remembrance Day too. In the movies one hears the constant cry for them but do people (let along a certain American president) actually realize at what risk they try to save the wounded and take them out of harm's way? Just one example. A 23-year-old British Lance Corporal Kylie Watson was awarded the Military Cross for twice running into Taliban fire in Helmand Province to treat wounded comrades.
On her first tour the 5ft 1in medic made a 100-metre dash under sustained fire to stabilise an Afghan National Army soldier whose pelvis had been shattered, stemming his bleeding and splinting him until a Chinook evacuated him. In a second incident she performed CPR on another casualty in open ground amid gunfire, evacuating him under fire even though he could not be saved.
L/Cpl Watson's citation praised her “immense courage, willingness to put her own life at risk and absolute bravery,” making her one of only four women in history to receive the MC. During the Battle of the Somme in 1916 alone, 52 British medical officers were killed and another 188 were wounded. World War Two claimed according to the US Army Medical Department field forces 13,174 total casualties, including 2,274 deaths.
