Wetherhorn

Mrdevac is a short form for medical evacuation. I learned about it first and by being the subject of one. Here’s how I remember it.

When the Valley Forge was assigned to the Seventh Fleet in the Far East the Captain wanted his best trained people on duty. The CIC (combat Information Center) watch was always controlled by an officer who had attended CIC training school. I was one of them. This also meant that CIC officers were not assigned to stand watch on the bridge. One of the key elements of a junior officers career was to qualify as officer of the deck (OOD) and be able to stand watch on the bridge. Getting a letter of qualification as OOD from the skipper was an important milestone in the career of a naval officer.
When the Valley Forge headed for home the CiC officers finally got a chance to stand watch on the bridge. My name appeared on the daily watch list as junior officer of the deck for the first time. I remember climbing the ladder to the bridge. But the next thing I remember after that is waking up in a bed in sick bay with the ships medical officer looking at me and with a plasma IV stuck in a vein in my hand.
I don’t know what happened in between those events. he doctors were never able to be certain either. Something made me lose consciousness and fall down. My head hit the steel deck. Part of the tests the medical team performed included a spinal tap which showed blood in my spinal column. That symptom could be an indication of a stroke or similar life threatening problem. The treatment would be to keep me stable and get me to hospital with better diagnostic and care facilities as soon as possible. But, of course, we were somewhere in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, miles and miles from anywhere.
I became the cause for a lot of activity. Radio messages flew back and forth. The nearest hospital was in Hawaii. The fastest way to get me there would be by air. The only aircraft on the ship was a helicopter that did not have the endurance to reach Hawaii. The nearest place with a real airfield was Midway Island. The ship altered course and headed for Midway. A large aircraft fitted for transporting injured personnel was alerted and sent to Midway. As soon as the Valley Forge was close enough, I was bundled into a stretcher and loaded into the helicopter. Once we reached Midway there was a team waiting to take the stretcher to the waiting transport plane. I remember being carried between the two aircraft, but not the flight or the move from the plane to the hospital. Due to the nature of my possible injury I was being kept immobile. And I think I still had that IV in the vein of my right hand.
The hospital ran another set of tests that turned out just as inconclusive as the preliminary exams.The Navy department notified my parents, and they took the next available flight to Honolulu. From what they were told I might have been in danger of dying right away. I was stable, so they decided to send me to Great lakes Naval Hospital for further treatment and recovery. I was still not allowed to get out of bed. They put me on a flight to San Francisco. After an overnight stay there I was loaded on a plane that would drop me off in Illinois. En route we also picked up an air force air intercept controller with a broken leg. We spent the remaining flight time comparing notes on our training. His course required 100 completed intercepts, as did mine. The difference was that all his were simulations while in my course simulations didn’t count for qualification. My 100 were all live with real pilots.
At Great Lakes they ran me through an additional test to look for a possible aneurysm. It failed to show anything. Meanwhile, I still wasn’t allowed to get out of bed. After another month they did another aneurysm test that also showed nothing. By now they had decided that the blood found in my spinal column must have come from my striking my head on the steel deck. That still didn’t explain why I collapsed. A month later I was allowed to stand up and walk around. further examination failed to reveal anything that would preclude my return to active duty, so I was released to the officer manpower pool as available for reassignment. Now, over 50 years later, I still have no idea of what caused me to faint.