Sasaki: No, because the 67th Med Group was so organized they knew how many chest surgeons we had at any one time. They even knew when we were on R&R so as to divert patients elsewhere. Then they would send them to the naval hospital next door or to the hospital ships offshore. It was a very efficient system. However, sometimes we’d get mass casualties. Everybody pitched in then. Doctors and nurses would be everywhere — in the emergency room, stitching up wounds, giving IVs, anything at all.

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Vietnam: What were the most common wounds?

Sasaki: The most common were the orthopedic injuries to the arms and legs. I remember my first mass casualty. We were on red alert, and we had to operate while wearing our helmets and flak jackets. I vividly remember one GI coming in with no arms and legs. He was awake, and I asked him what had happened. He informed me that they sent his unit from the Americal Division into a valley because the South Vietnamese Army (ARVN) refused to go. I didn’t think too much of it at the time. But later on, I heard more and more of the ARVNs refusing to do something and our guys getting wounded as a result of it. That bothered me. I learned slowly what the war was all about.

Vietnam: I hope you saved that soldier.

Sasaki: We never got any feedback as to what happened to our patients. We did our amputations and resuscitations and kept them in the hospital for about five days until they stabilized. From there, they generally went to Japan.

Vietnam: Maybe it’s good in a way that you never got any word on a person’s condition after he left the 95th.

Sasaki: That’s true. On occasion, we traveled to Japan with a patient who was seriously wounded to monitor his condition in flight. We took turns. I did it a couple of times.

Vietnam: Besides the wounded, did you ever treat any illnesses such as malaria or dysentery? Some of these tropical diseases were prevalent in Vietnam.

Sasaki: Since we were a surgical hospital, we rarely saw those types of diseases. And when we did, it was usually the civilian population who had them. One point I’d like to make is the different stages of wounds seen during my tour. When I first got there we had quite a few fragmentation wounds. Then, during the middle part of my tour, it got pretty quiet and we treated more Vietnamese. Toward the end, there were more gunshot wounds. Also, toward the end of my tour in 1970, the fighting got heavier.

Vietnam: Did you ever treat any Viet Cong or NVA soldiers during your tour?

Sasaki: Probably, but we never knew for sure. We suspected some of the injured were VC. The mama-sans who cleaned up our hootches would point and say to us, ‘VC! VC!’ But there was no way of actually knowing.

Vietnam: I co-authored an article in the October 1989 issue of Vietnam magazine about an Army nurse who experienced some disciplinary problems while serving with the 91st Evac Hospital at Tuy Hoa. Did your unit ever have any disciplinary problems?

Sasaki: There was one discipline problem — me! Toward the end of my tour, we were getting more injured Americans. And not just shrapnel and frag wounds, but more gunshot wounds, as I stated earlier. Anyway, we were told to take all the South Vietnamese that came to us. And my objection was, if we take every Vietnamese, we won’t have any beds left for our men. I had a ward that had, maybe, 12 beds on it. I said I would allocate half of it for Vietnamese. My commanding officer told me I couldn’t do that. He had orders to accept only Vietnamese. I asked, ‘What about our guys?’ We got into an argument, and he told me that he would give me an Article 15. I’m not sure if I’m correct about this, but an Article 15 is something that is given prior to a court-martial. One month to go and I’m threatened with court-martial! So, I gave in. That was the only disciplinary problem I can remember.

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