A question of ethics

So, we came back from a mission of combing the desert for explosives (Spaceball jokes were made) and I was tending to a soldier who succumbed to heat after our return when a few large booms were heard. A guy who was leaving the Joe's barracks had the door slammed back into his face by the wind, shrapnel was heard tinkling on the tin roofs (stupid Tolkien is making me want to type rooves ;-). All in all it was pretty close. So, naturally I leave the fellow who basically needs just to lie down and sip water (we were in his room) and run towards the big puff of white smoke. So, I run by the chow hall (getting directions yelled at as to where to go). Unbeknownst to me at the time, the other medic from my unit (Dicola) is on chow hall guard duty, sees me run by and takes off as well. Long story shortened, no casualties, everything is hunkey dorey.

Afterwards, I go check in on Snuffy, tell him to sleep and head off to chow. There I find the other guard tell me (in a joking fashion) that Dicola abandoned her post to run to the rockets crater. I respond with "This is why medics shouldn't be guards" (Most of you probably see where this is going). Then a Captain intervenes. Anyways, the question is. Which is the right thing to do. Maintain your post, or go render aid to casualties? Legally, the question is clear. Army wide General order number 1 (which applies to all soldiers at all times) is "I will guard everything within the limits of my post, and quit my post only when properly relieved". However, morality and ethics can go beyond the law (cue law neutral chaos thoughts for you D&D players). This is especially exacerbated in the American army, where the small unit leader is given much more flexibility than in many other armies (making us train soldiers to use flexible initiative as opposed to being relatively rigid).

So, what's the medic to do? Bet that someone with a bomb strapped to their chest won't run into the chow hall while they run to save someone's life? Or do they stay at their post, possibly preventing an even greater loss of life (although the chance of that occurring is slim). Or should medics not do guard duty at all and instead talk on the internet and eat cheetos all day (I'm in favor of the last
solution). I'm not sure what I would do. The 'right' thing would be to maintain my post. But there would be a damnable urge to run to possible casualties (all medics feel this, it's part of our species).

Anyway, thoughts on this? Or on similar subjects?

You are a medic. You either stay with someone who needs your assistance (and that boy could pick up a glass of water by himself, right?) or you get where you are needed ASAP.

And tell that guard who made a joke that if he gets blown up he can wait for the medics on guard duty to be properly relieved.

What's the medic/non-medic ratio?

My company has 2 medics for 71 people (ourselves excluded)

And, to clarify, I'm not asking this because I need an answer, I just thought that it would make a good topic.

Ah, but then you have to consider lag time in the implementation of plans of action. And location of the attack. An attack near the infantry barracks wouldn't need medics because they have 6/company that live with them. Wheras in our general area, we're the only medics around.

*edit: typos, bane of llamas everywhere*

Then, pardon my language, your commanders are idiots.

For such this large a company, if you have only two medics, you need to be available 24/7.

So, yes, you should be eating them cheetos. Or, like my former camp's medic, sit around all day watching TV and playing your guitar.

Roman brings up a good point about numbers. Obviously, a company of medics will have medics on guard duty. And the infantry joes have so many that they use them to bust down doors and such.

With the numbers given, medics shouldn't be on guard duty... What if they really had an encounter with the enemy and got blown up, who would take care of the other casualties?

I agree with Roman. There are 71 other people who can do guard duty.

I think that with as small a number of medics as you have, that the medics should not have guard duty, or not to have sole guard duty.

Having medics do guard duty is silly. Verrrrrrrry silly. If you MUST stand guard, you should at least be able to grab whoever's idling next to you (i.e. some poor shmuck having his lunch in the chow hall that you're supposed to protect) and say "Here, now YOU be the guard".

In theory, medics should be put on any duty, down to potato-peeling (in order to keep people from whining about you guys having the easy way out), as long as that duty can be abandoned at a moment's notice, in favor of a medical emergency.

In theory, I'd also equip medics with a walkie-talkie/paging device of some kind - to wear at all times - so that they'd at least know they're needed somewhere specific, as opposed to just running blindly to the place where something went boom. (in case there are already enough medical personnel nearby)

(In theory, we wouldn't need armies, because there should'nt be wars, blah, blah...)

So, what's the worst thing that can happen to you if you tell your higher-ups that medics shouldn't be put on duty?

OK, to take another view on this - if a military base/outpost/whatever has a crew-manned weapon as a vital part of its defence, and only a single crew able to operate it, would any base commander who put that crew on sentry duty with orders not to abandon their post under any circumstances escape court-martial if an attack came? If there are a limited number of vital specialists in any field, they should not be tied to duties that keep them from their specialist fields when they are needed.

I thought it was a morale thing. So the non-medics wouldn't whine, 'How come Brad doesn't have to do guard duty when we do?"which would prevent the unit from working together efficiently.

Which means that the rules are based on the assumption that people are idiots.

edit: deleted some letters accidently

I thought the same thing, Marcia.

Although you gotta admit the Army had picked an odd time to be concerned about the whining in its midst ...

It's not so much about whining as being fair. Medics aren't supposed to be some sacred cow. At the end of the day, they're enlisted soldiers, just like everyone else (excepting the officers of course). And so, when you come up with a duty and fill out a duty roster you throw your medics into the rotation. For example, my platoon (HeadQuarters) does the radio watch, and so the medics are worked into the rotation. Same thing with area cleanup and anything else the HQ platoon is tasked with (including the infrequent chow hall duty). So, when you couple the principle of 'fairness' with the relative feeling of security that you have in the FOB (base) you get medics on guard duty. Now, on area cleanup, people could take off for whatever and not really be missed. On radio watch, you could wake up the commander himself, if you had to, to watch the radio (radio watch people, RTOs, frequently leave the room to write/give messages). Guard duty is different. Since you're in body armor/helmet you can only really be relieved by someone properely equiped. Ideally, you'd be in communications with your 'commander of the relief' and could appraise him of the situation, as you could during chow hall duty. Other times however, maybe not so. The main issue would be the medic fighting down the instinct to respond, you're talking to people who are trained to run and get injured people while being shot at, after all (even though that's against doctrine).

Oh, and Pixel, in your response about the weapon system. Dicola was actually on gate duty, as a medic, and they had her manning a critical crew served weapon. It's a wish to keep everyone busy. I am also wondering of anyone else here shares Mals viewpoint, because I'd like to hear more thoughts from different angles. Heh, I've got chow hall duty tomorrow morning ;-)

*edit: llamabane strikes again