[1 of 9]

Happy Friday! Today is Day 9 of our series of daily stories of Soldier ingenuity throughout Army history.

Every day until Dragon's Lair, Episode 3 (Monday, Feb 22), we're highlighting another Soldier innovation from our past.
[2 of 9]

During the Vietnam War medical care evolved rapidly out of necessity. Industrious medics and docs in the field rapidly developed news methods of keeping Soldiers alive for longer.

One such doc: Captain Norman Rich with the 2nd Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH).
[3 of 9]

The 2nd MASH stabilized wounded patients before transporting them to a General Hospital in Japan.

Norman's primary responsibility in many cases was to preserve a limb that had been shot.
[4 of 9]

Norman worked on hundreds of arms/legs during his time with the 2nd MASH in 1965. He did what he could to keep a limb functioning.

He realized that there was no formal documentation of injuries to limbs in theater that could carry over to a civilian hospital in the US
[5 of 9]

As a result, in 1966, while working at Walter Reed Medical Center, Norman developed the Vietnam Vascular Registry (VVR).
[6 of 9]

The registry documented & analyzed blood vessel injuries in Vietnam, resulting in documentation of 10k+ injuries from about 7,500 American casualties.

Each patient entered into the registry was assigned a number and given a registry card stating the registry's purpose
[7 of 9]

The Army has maintained Norman's registry for more than 50 years.

In 2016, the registry was digitized, making it much easier to search and find records from vascular patients injured in the Vietnam War.
[8 of 9]

Norman Rich is now a revered figure in the medical community.

He's recognized not only for sparing hundreds of Vietnam veterans from limb amputation, but with bringing vascular injury management into a new age through his registry.
[END]

The next great innovation resides somewhere within our formation.

Somewhere, a Soldier has an idea that will revolutionize some aspect of life in the Army.

Let's bring those ideas to light with Dragon's Lair, Episode 3 on Monday, February 22nd.

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More from @18airbornecorps

13 Feb
[1 of 7]

Here's an interesting footnote to this morning's #TDIDCH about the reactivation of the 10th Mountain Division 36 years ago today [at least WE think it's interesting]

[]

The Division was set to reactivate on Fort Drum as the 10th Division. Image
[2 of 7]

No Mountain Tab for you!

According to Secretary of Army John Marsh, adding in the "Mountain" made no sense. After all, the 10th Division would be a standard division without any special capability.

Well, this infuriated10th Mountain Division veterans from WWII. Image
[3 of 7]

Their argument made sense: This reactivated division in northern NY was going to carry the lineage of the WWII 10th Mountain Division. Therefore, it needed the WWII Mountain tab.

The Army's response was simple, direct, to-the-point: No Image
Read 7 tweets
11 Feb
[1 of 7]

Not sure we've mentioned this, but on Monday, February 22nd, we'll premiere Dragon's Lair, Episode 3.

This will be the biggest, wildest, most innovative Dragon's Lair to date.
[2 of 7]

As usual, Soldier Innovators [this time six] will present their ideas to our panel of experts.

What's different this time: in addition to these six innovations, we will add a command-driven focus specific to the plague of sexual assault and sexual harassment.
[3 of 7]

We're looking for Soldiers to submit their ideas to improve or refashion the Army's SHARP program, to resolve the scourge of sexual assault and sexual harassment across the force. We've built a microsite for those submissions.

innovatedefense.net/xviii-airborne…
Read 7 tweets
11 Feb
[1 of 6]

Happy Thursday! Today is Day 8 of our series of stories of Soldier ingenuity throughout Army history.

Every day until Dragon's Lair, Episode 3 (Monday, Feb 22), we're highlighting another Soldier innovation from our past.
[2 of 6]

March, 1969: Vietnam War.

Two infantrymen, Private 1st Class Eric Hueller and Specialist Jeffery Hale, developed an expedient method to provide visual communication between helicopter pilots in the air and infantrymen on the ground in darkness.
[3 of 6]

Communication between air and ground was a real problem in Vietnam. Helicopter crews often operated on different radio frequencies than ground troops.

So, Private 1st Class Hueller and Specialist Hale came up with a solution.
Read 6 tweets
10 Feb
1 of 22:

Every day until Dragon's Lair, Episode 3 on Monday, February 22nd, we're telling another story about Soldier-driven innovations that have had a strategic impact on our Army.

This is our 7th story in that series.

These stories reveal why Dragon's Lair is so important.
2 of 22:

Dragon's Lair looks across all formations and all installations for new ideas, new processes, new concepts developed by our Soldiers.
3 of 22:

Some of the best ideas are trapped inside formations. In some cases, these ideas are buried under layers of bureaucracy and process. In others, Soldiers are just waiting for someone to ask them what they have to offer.
Read 22 tweets
10 Feb
Any terrain....
Any weather...
Any time...
Read 4 tweets
9 Feb
[1 of 10]

Today, Tues, Feb 9th, is Day 6 of our series of stories on Soldier innovations that have had a strategic impact on the Army.

Today we're going back to the Vietnam War.

We often think of the Vietnam War as an infantry fight supported by naval strikes & aerial bombing.
[2 of 10]

That's partly true but artillery was critical to the way the Americans fought in Vietnam, particularly from 1965 to 1970.
[3 of 10]

Because of the large areas that required protection and the enemy's surprise tactics of ambush, raid, and attack by fire, artillery units were required to respond almost instantly to calls for defensive fire.

Without rapid arty in defense, units were at grave risk.
Read 10 tweets

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