The Decoy Doughboy

Souvenir Edition -- Printed in Czechoslovakia

May 23, 1945. -- Publishes by and for the men of the 18th Combat Team. -- First Infantry Division, U. S. Army.

Battalion Aid ala Mersky

Running a makeshift first aid station under moonlight and mortars is not 1st Lt. Martin M. Mersky's idea of a setup for the efficient handling of casualties on the front lines. Yet it was in just such a predicament that Lt. Mersky found himself during the rugged woods fighting just east of the Rhine.

Lt. Mersky, 3rd Battalion M.A.C., was called from his forward aid station to handle badly wounded cases in 'I' Company- men who couldn't be moved without treatment from the hands of an expert. Arriving at a shack located in a heavily wooded area, the Lt. found five seriously wounded doggies stretched on the ground, the shack too small to accommodate anybody.

Four of the battalion aid men assisted Lt. Mersky in patching up the wounded men, but incoming artillery and mortar shells were making work difficult. During these barrages, the 18th medical officer and his aid men shielded the five casualties with their bodies to keep off flying shrapnel. Two hours of this, along with additional casualties, made it a nerve-racking ordeal, but, all wounded were sufficienly treated for evacuation.

It wasn't exactly what Johns Hopkins would prescribe, but it saved the lives of five Decoy riflemen.