Prepare for the Worst

Few U.S. doctors have had the chance to study the impact of war upon a civilian population. Boston's Orthopedist Charles H. Bradford, one of the few, went to Britain early in 1940 to help with blitzkrieg casualties. Lately he has plugged hard for an adequate medical defense plan in Massachusetts. Last week, warning the U.S. to prepare for the worst, Dr. Bradford urged an immediate overhaul of the Armed Forces' overlapping medical services.

"In future warfare," wrote Dr. Bradford in the New England Journal of Medicine, "there is likely to be no combat zone of any magnitude except for civilian target areas . . . and the number of casualties may be immense. Thus, the number of doctors needed will be very much greater than ever before, and the waste of doctors, improvidently squandered throughout military and naval establishments, idly waiting for action, will be not only inexcusable but insupportable."

To avoid the disaster of inadequate medical help at the critical time, said Bradford, the U.S. should abolish the separate medical services of the Army, Navy and Air Force, and establish a simple, unified medical command, directly responsible to the Secretary of Defense. Once established, the unified service must then be allowed to operate "without the blundering interference or control of other services, and without the stupid mismanagement of line officers."

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