Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
8:11 | At the hospital in Chu Lai, Brezina and his team served people from all over - American soldiers, North Vietnamese, civilians. Amount of patients in the hospital would ebb and flow, leaving them with a lot of down time.
Keywords : concertina wire hospital MASH civilian North Vietnam North Vietnamese Army (NVA) treatment surgery assistance
Growing up in Ohio, Bill Brezina was drafted and got a switch from infantry to be able to work as a unit clerk. After that, he got assigned to Brooks Army Medical Center to work as a patient data coder where he thought he would stay, until he got the call to Vietnam.
Bill Brezina had his first assignment at the MASH hospital in Chu Lai. Dealing with that quantity of casualties is difficult to see and takes time to adjust to.
Bill Brezina remembers the different types of soldiers that you'd come across while in Vietnam. Substance abuse was pretty common there and it soon became a problem.
Working in an Army hospital, things would sometimes be disjointed and would require quick thinking. Brezina and his team made sure that they were prepared for any situation that came their way. After his time in the service, he found it relatively easy to transition back into normal life.
Bill Brezina describes how many of the mistakes America made in Vietnam were the same mistakes made by the French and how war can propel society ahead in areas such as medical treatment. He reflects on his time in the military and the influences that it had on his life. Service can affect you in ways that you don't fully understand until you take time to step back and think about it.
