The Red Cross: The First World War

For decades, America has fought in many different wars with the need of health assistance for their soldiers. The American Red Cross is a worldwide organization that helped during the times of war but also provided a path for scientific advancements. Through the American Red Cross and other organizations of this time, they opened up the doors for women to take the chance to advance in the medical field by participating in scientific experiments and being at the aide of wounded soldiers. During this time of scrutiny, the Great War was a hidden opportunity for the encroachment of medical research with the contribution to the expansion of nursing.

Instead, nurses were to assist with the soldiers’ diet and make sure what they ate was carefully regulated. They cared for physical needs like distribution of linen and clothes. They also helped with emotional and spiritual care by comforting them and writing letters to their family for them.

The American Red Cross (ARC) is an organization that was founded in 1881 by Clara Barton and established itself as the most well-known emergency relief organization devoted to the care of war victims, disaster victims, and the suffering worldwide. Unfortunately, the ARC has been plagued with a high executive turnover, slow response to disastrous events, and mismanagement of donation funds. These problems now have the ARC facing another problem, fixing their credibility for the future.

The American Red Cross has been around since 1881 and is now the nation’s leading emergency response organization. At the beginning, the organization only focused on disaster relief and helped benefit the United States Armed forces. In 1940, the blood program was created under the leadership of Dr. Charles Drew.

Each sample was tested before it was shipped. He took every possible measure to avoid poor handling and contamination of blood plasma. He closely monitored the shipments of these life-saving plasmas to treat war casualties. For five months, “Blood for Britain” project ran successfully with approximately 15000 people turning donors and approximately 5,000 vials of blood plasma collected.

During the Civil War, women helped soldiers by rolling bandages and creating care packages, as well as assisting in other small, though vital, tasks. World War I followed this pattern. But never had women’s aid included assisting with tasks traditionally accomplished by men, until World War II. Women had been told all through the Great Depression, “Let the men have the jobs! Stay at home!” and women, for the most part, had listened. Now, suddenly, the men were

As nurses were the only women allowed to directly contribute to the war effort, the women who couldn¡¦t serve sought to boost morale, raise money and provide comfort for soldiers, especially those who were sick or wounded. A particularly popular attempt to assist the soldiers was that through knitting. Some 600,000 socks were knitted for the troops from NSW alone. Women all over the nation knitted socks and various other items to send to the front line, many with personal notes of encouragement attached. Additionally, ¡§comfort boxes¡¨ were compiled containing various items the soldiers might require and were sent to the front line. To best achieve this many groups such as

In the most suitable cases, the soldiers had cabins, which were crude, small, and very unsturdy. In most instances, however, they got tents made out of canvas, which frequently ripped and did not help keep out cold in the dead winter. Because of this, many men got illnesses such as pneumonia, diarrhea, and dysentery. In fact, so many got sick that the hospitals were overflowing, even though each section had a hospital for itself. Some soldiers’ wives agreed to be nurses to help, but there were not enough medical supplies, so many died. Out of 12,000 men, 3,000 died and 2,000 left because they were sick.

Undoubtedly, the American Red Cross has done many wonders over the course of its existence. Whether it is providing relief from disasters, aiding the less fortunate nationally and internationally or saving lives with their blood program, the Red Cross has always been there to help the world become a safer place to live in. Most recently, this organization has had a strong impact in the recovery of “Superstorm” Sandy and Hurricane Isaac, providing food and water, multiple shelters for people that have lost their homes and even counseling during such a devastating time (“Top 20 Accomplishments”).

Clara Barton independently organized relief for the wounded and brought her own supplies to the sidelines(“Clara Barton”). She would always take care of the soldiers. Barton always brought food, bandages, sewing kits, combs, clean shirts, sheets, blankets, soap, and more(“What Would Clara Barton Bring?”). Barton gathered supplies from hospitals and gave them out to soldiers

Out of the nearly 15,000 wounded soldiers, three out of five survived their wounds -- in an attempt to help the wounded men Clara would jot down the names of the soldiers, making sure that she knew where the body was to be sent should he not survive. Clara ended up finding and sending home nearly 2,000 soldiers.

The information sources used in writing this paper includes an interview of the Secretary General of the Red Cross, and it also includes the reference of an article and of different books which also provides the required information for my paper and help in the key findings.

The carnage of world war one was the result of the clash between new technologies, but old strategies. Blitzkrieg warfare would be the first form of modern military tactics for it fully utilizes the technological advancements of that time. The term “Blitzkrieg” was not invented by the Germans, but by an English magazine that described the invasion of Poland (Showalter). While many accredit the invention of Blitzkrieg warfare to Heinz Guderian, Germany's Chief of Mobile Troops during WWII, it was actually invented far before that. In fact, it was developed right after WWI after seeing the devastating effects of trench warfare(Showalter). Ironically, the basis of Blitzkrieg warfare was also laid by German Field Marshall Alfred von Schlieffen of the famous Schlieffen plan of WWI(Showalter). The basic essence of Blitzkrieg warfare was built upon the belief that Germany was always going to be out resourced and out numbered in every war and thus in order to win it, the Germans must strike hard and fast and penetrate deep behind enemy lines(Showalter). Thus, Blitzkrieg warfare was the most effective military tactic of its time because it utilized all of the technology of its time, it not only utilized physical warfare, but also psychological warfare, and because Germany’s opponents were not prepared for this kind of warfare.

The battle field of World War 1 was an experience that no man can describe in words. The heart break, catastrophy, and pain are only a few things that the soldiers will never forget. There are a couple of men that had the opportunity to come face to face with some of the toughest scenes to see, the Stretcher-Bearers. The Stretcher-Bearers were the men that ventured out into the horrible wasteland; to find wounded soldiers and bring back to the field hospital, to try to save their lives.

Throughout history there has been war, war to gain territory, war to gain obedience over one nation to another and war to see who the superior Army is. With every war there is medical staff on standby ready to tend to the wounded and get them back in the fight. Up until the First World War the evacuation of wounded personnel was usually done by horseback or whatever means readily available, and the wounded almost never survived. In my discussion I will show you how evacuations went from obsolete into what we know today. I will provide to you the facts and findings through my research in the evolution of medevac teams and how it has helped shape the roles of war.