Page 2 of booklet.
In commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War, the National Museum of Health and Medicine is showcasing its collections related to the role of American military medicine during the conflict. In support of this mission, COL (Dr.) Norman M. Rich (Ret.), a renowned vascular surgeon, has generously donated an impressive collection of Vietnam War-era medical artifacts, photographs and films to the NMHM.
While serving as the chief of surgery within the 2nd Surgical Hospital (Mobile Army) in An Khe Vietnam, Dr. Norman Rich set up a small medical museum within the hospital. The idea to create the museum occurred to Rich while reading "Wound Ballistics," a review of ballistics and wounding power during World War II and the Korean War, on a ship heading for Vietnam in the fall of 1965. After he finished reading the book, Rich decided he would collect similar information for surgeons treating wounded service members in Vietnam.
After arriving at the hospital in Vietnam, Rich began asking for donations of bullets and other objects retrieved during surgery. When word of the project spread, Rich soon had enough items to begin compiling his medical museum. All branches of the American military services contributed, he said, and each item was saved, identified, and catalogued. Reports were also made with a detailed description of the wound and the origin of the wounding object.
The collection ranges from a display board featuring bullets and fragments from explosive devices once embedded in the limbs of service members, to a Vietnamese pharmaceutical kit. The collection also includes several punji sticks - a type of wooden stake made of sharpened bamboo and primarily used in booby traps.
After completing his tour of duty, Rich arranged for many of the items he collected in Vietnam to be shipped to NMHM, which at that time was called the Armed Forces Medical Museum and was an element of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP) in Washington, D.C., so that the objects could be viewed by the public.
(IMAGE: Major Norman Rich, MC, with a display of punji sticks, Vietnam, 1966. OHA 288.05)
(IMAGE: Dr. Norman M. Rich (center) and Alan Hawk, NMHM Historical Collections Manager, next to some of the Vietnam War-era objects Rich donated to the museum.)