> Kenneth Barns wrote:
>
>> For role-playing purposes, Paramedicine makes much more sense as a career
>> than Medicine itself. I can see ambulance officers, nurses, army medics,
>> etc, getting into typical PC mischief. Properly qualified medical
>> professionals? Not so much.

Considering further, I also recall reading that CheGuevara was an MD.

I also recall an episode of the old 'Mission Impossible' TV series (original) which was set in Latin America & did have an MD as a guerilla leader.

Also, anyone remember, the old 'Combat!' TV series?

Sgt Saunders squad always had 'Doc' (the medic) along to tend to wounds.

The TV series 'Platoon' also had a medic & he fit the 'pacifist' stereotype Ken mentioned.

My dad was a long-service member of the USAF &, back in those days, military families went to the hospital on base.

I can recall several times getting stitched up by what appeared to be a teenager who was an enlisted man ('airman' in the USAF)!

Eventually I noticed the strange situation where enlisted were performing functions that nurses (RN's), who were commissioned officers, were not allowed to do.

I asked my mother (RN, exUS Army) about that & she explained to me about the military functions fulfilled by 'corpsmen' (medics).

She also mentioned that if he had been stitching me up 'off-base', he could've been charged with the crime of 'practicing medicine w/o a license' of which there was an old episode of the current TV series 'NCIS' devoted to.