From the Rucksack

Combat Medic | U.S. Army 🇺🇸 Taking care of people, carrying too much stuff, and collecting stories along the way. Somehow I still keep volunteering for more || Here for good convos, not mind games. If you can't hold a conversation, we probably won't get along. I like thoughtful conversations and genuine people. Not interested in small talk that goes nowhere. Come say hi, but bring a little curiosity with you 😉

[oversorted]

[forreeveryoungg]

I need to do this

[thoughtsfromtheoutpost]

There's something oddly comforting about being unreachable for a little while. Not because you don't care about people, but because you can't pour from an empty cup forever.

Sometimes the kindest thing you can do for yourself—and the people you show up for—is spend a few hours listening to your own thoughts again 🤍

[sunflowerlovergirl]

[captn-nurse]

Hill country Texas flowers 🫶🏼🦊

[oversorted]

[thoughtsfromtheoutpost]

I don't think "irreplaceable" means life stops without someone. Sometimes it just means no one else will ever be them. And I think it's okay to carry that truth without trying to make it smaller. This reminded me of a very good friend of mine @captn-nurse Some people just leave a mark that isn't about time or convenience. Life keeps moving, but that doesn't make what they meant any less real. I'm really grateful our paths crossed ❤

[invisibleofdreams]

[pookielious]

It was really hard to be a medic & corpsmen in ww2 (and just in general)

Calling everyone medic for simplicity since corpsmen are the same thing just different branches!

1. Non combat troops

Being a medic meant being a noncombatent soldier which alot of people was the reason they became one sure BUT it also meant you physically weren't able to protect yourself self defense wise like other technical roles (such as comms and such) infact in certain areas they ended up arming their medics with sidearms for protection, not to mention the fact your literally running around A BATTLEFIELD running though mortars shellings and dodging bullets literally so try and save someone in harsh environments wither it's raining, Snowing or a heatwave

More below cut !!

Let me show you

2. Targetting

Similar to how high ranking officers and cos have to hide their rank insignia to avoid targeting from snipers medics also had that problem accept it was much worst

Why is that you ask?

Because the military had the bright idea to make medics have a BIG WHITE circle (or square sometimes) with a BIG RED CROSS on EVERY SIDE OF THE HELMET

Now in theory this may have been a pretty okay idea to make the medics recognizable and easily rotatable to their troops but also this infact make them extremely recognizable to enemies as well!! Dispite the Geneva Conventions rule 'knowingly firing at a medic wearing clear insignia is a war crime' no one really has ever respected the rule no matter what side of any war you where on! Medical personnel where always targeted due to their roles, killing the only people who knew how to take care of your enemies which obviously got rid of more enemies as well as because the insignia was a universal sign and plastered on them wither it was labeled on their helmets, on a arm band, or on their bags among other things

However in Europe it was sill very common with the US army and such other branches out there to still have the red cross on them in some sort of way , it was a common to switch/cover/mess up helmets or to just have a unit helmet issued, arm bands where usually able to be taken off and and bags could be flipped to not show the insignia

(Illustration showing common ww2 medic uniforms)

In the pacific theater it was pretty such expected that corpsmen where to not have any sort of give away they were medical personnel to avoid targetting, they were given normal marine uniforms to keep them as blended in as possible

Some medics were even murdered just so people could to pretend to be them ;

“Germans were dressed in American uniforms over their own and were dropping into areas by parachute. (Once) some came in two ambulances dressed in American uniform and greatly hurt the medical staff of the 101st – they murdered really, the medics and we found out then it was not wise to be known as a medic. The general of the 101st met with our commander and said, he couldn’t order us to carry weapons, but he advised that it was up to us. So, we taped over our steel helmets that had red crosses on them and hid our identification and were given pistols. We didn’t really know how to use them, but … we never put on our red crosses again.”

(Quoted from VA affairs)

3. mental health

Being a medic takes its toll of course, out of everyone they seen the most death and injuries no matter if they were in the front lines or working a aid station some deaths were the inevitable regardless of what you thought you could do yet those deaths and gorey scenes were of course traumatizing and seeing that everyday your at war would mess you up, many medics experience what is now known as shell-shocked and post traumatic stress while in the line of duty, which when a medic froze it was deadly to almost everyone in their battalions

I found you either get used to this life or one of two things happen. You could go into an anxiety state or...you could take an extreme measure and shoot yourself. " The men of the Medical Department saw the infantry at their worst possible moments and were expected to keep calm and perform their task no matter what.

Quoted from Del Toro: Fighting a War Without Rifles

(This point could be made into its own post so I'm not going to write too much about it)

4. Skillset

Unless you were in the medical field before you had minimal training in medicine, you knew basic first aid and anatomy at all basics, most medics knew not a whole lot about drugs or how to keep people alive.

'-Shortly after landing in Sicily, Franklin had to treat a group of freezing men who had been soaked in water from the landing. In order to remedy their state, Franklin poured some ammonia into canteen cups for them. "I thought it might warm them. Hell, for all I knew about medicine, I might have been poisoning them." Franklin's lack of training with medicine could have put these men in danger.'

Quoted from Del Toro: Fighting a War Without Rifles

Most of their knowledge came from word of mouth via other more qualified medics, medical personnel they worked with and most importantly straight from what they immediately learned in battle while treating people

To quote Ted barris about his father ,a medic during ww2 some medics had no idea what frost bite even was before getting to Europe

5. Lack of supplies

It's very established especially in war media like band of brothers that medics had very little supplies especially during the battle of the bulge era in the war, with every little supplies all medics either had to wing it or cpuldnt help people and of course most chose to wing it, they used things that weren't meant to be use like bedsheets, old uniforms, stolen suplies,, scrap fabric, alcohol ,twigs literally ANYTHING they could get their hands on they had to use

In conclusion medics are very important to wars yet its one of the most difficult mentally and physically tech roles to get into and to be throughout ww2 and literally any war that has ever happened

[lannie-stuff]

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

[thoughtsfromtheoutpost]

This made me laugh a little because it's oddly true. 😂We're in a weird moment where taking time to choose the right words can make people suspicious. The funny part is that good writing usually comes from being human enough to listen, observe, mess up, learn, and try again.

Maybe that's the real magic people are noticing.

[a-sweetheart-being-55]

Is that really a thing?

[captn-nurse]

@thoughtsfromtheoutpost I think it is a thing!

[thoughtsfromtheoutpost]

I think it might be!

[mothercain-deactivated20231124]

third day in a row that i feel like im actually dying. is this it? is this when the angels come to take me? let me listen to some more guns n roses before i cant anymore 

[thoughtsfromtheoutpost]

The way a bad cold, flu, or random mystery illness can have you planning your farewell tour by day three 😭

Hope you're being gentle with yourself and getting some rest. Sometimes resilience looks a lot less heroic and a lot more like water, soup, and making it through one day at a time.

[remanence-of-love]

[mybellaluna67]

Truths

[thoughtsfromtheoutpost]

This took me a while to learn. People often respond to their experiences, expectations, and perceptions—not the full picture of who we are. There's a lot of peace in showing up with kindness, staying true to yourself, and letting go of the need to manage every opinion.

[thehopefulquotes]

“Just remember that sometimes, the way you think about a person isn’t the way they actually are.”

— John Green, An Abundance of Katherines

[thoughtsfromtheoutpost]

A gentle reminder that we only see pieces of people, not the whole story.

Sometimes growth looks like letting go of assumptions and making room for curiosity, empathy, and understanding instead 🤍

[love-romance-relationships]

[thoughtsfromtheoutpost]

I think one of the most underrated forms of love is feeling safe enough to be honest when things get messy.

Not every problem needs a perfect solution right away. Sometimes it's just two people choosing kindness, patience, and understanding over pride 🤗

[originalromanticsir]

Having all of it is the Soulmate.

[nurse-pirate]

Absolutely true!

[thoughtsfromtheoutpost]

August is hot. Not "bring a water bottle" hot. More like "the sun has a personal issue with you" hot 😭

[bourbonandbikes]

[thoughtsfromtheoutpost]

I keep thinking about this because some days my brain is incredibly good at spotting every inconvenience within a five mile radius, but somehow misses the fact that I had a good conversation, ate something I enjoyed, or got to watch the sky do something interesting.

Makes me wonder how many good things happen quietly in the background while we're busy paying attention to everything else.

[thoughtsfromtheoutpost]

Mood swings are funny until you're the one experiencing them.

One minute you're convinced life is pretty okay. The next minute you're staring at the ceiling wondering why a slightly awkward conversation from three years ago suddenly deserves a full replay.

Then an hour later you're laughing at a video of a raccoon stealing cat food like none of that happened. It's strange how our brains can make everything feel incredibly important and completely insignificant within the same afternoon.

I think that's why I've stopped trusting every emotion to be a permanent truth. Sometimes it's not a life crisis. Sometimes it's low sleep, too much caffeine, not enough food, or just being a person trying to exist on a random day.

Still, I wonder how many of us quietly spend our days riding emotional roller coasters while acting perfectly normal in public. Humans are weird. Kind of exhausting sometimes. But weird.