"As the quick transportation of wounded from the front to the nearest hospital is so great a factor in saving their lives, the American Ambulance Field Service was organized soon after the beginning of the war, and during the subsequent two years its achievement has fully demonstrated the value of its purpose. It has now in the field more than 300 motor ambulances. These are driven by young American volunteers, most of whom are graduates of American universities. To them has been successfully entrusted the vitally important matter of bringing the wounded in the shortest possible time from the trenches to places where the first surgical help can be given. Upon this first surgical help largely depends, naturally, the chance of the wounded surviving long enough to reach the base hospitals. These ambulances are grouped in sections of twenty to thirty cars, and attached to the French Armies. They carry wounded between the front and the Army Hospitals within the Army Zone.The French Army has cited these Sections more than twenty times for distinguished services; has conferred the Croix de Guerre, for bravery, on sixty-six members of the Service, and upon two, the MeĢdaille Militaire, the highest honor for military valor in France."--From the American Ambulance Service Leaflet included in the book. |