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J the MEDICAL SERVICES of the ARAB LEGION by COL 400 Postgrad Med J: first published as 10.1136/pgmj.29.334.400 on 1 August 1953. Downloaded from J THE MEDICAL SERVICES OF THE ARAB LEGION By COL. FARID TALIE' D.M.S. Arab Legion L. Protected by copyright. FIG. I.-Infantry of the Arab Legion march past on Arab Legion Parade Day. http://pmj.bmj.com/ The medical service in the Arab Legion in its hundred patients on our hands. It was rather a present form is a relatively new organization and trying time for the medical staff. We had taken not more than five years old. It was started as over the unpretentious buildings of the hospital such about April I948. Up till that time the that belonged to the disbanded Frontier Force at service had only a few medical officers, who re- Zerka (near Amman). This force was disbanded ferred their cases for hospitalization and special- simultaneously with the withdrawal of the British on September 30, 2021 by guest. ized work to the British Army hospitals in Palestine. forces from Palestine, and it was in its former In addition, we had a small sick bay at Amman and hospital that we began treating our sick and a modest store of medical equipment. This small wounded; but we were short of medical officers, unit was administered by a senior medical officer short of competent nursing staff and very short of who had his office at Arab Legion Headquarters. equipment. The hospital we took over could Towards the middle of May 1948, the British accommodate comfortably no more than 50 Army evacuated Palestine and its hospitals closed patients and consequently adjacent army barracks down and we were left to our own resources under had to be utilized. We had to make the best we very difficult circumstances. The troubles in could of the available equipment. Within two Palestine started straight after the termination of months we were able to squeeze 400 patients into the Mandate and the withdrawal of the British the base hospital and establish a satisfactory field Army from the country, and soon we had several hospital that could take more than 50 casualties. August 1953 TALIJ,: The Medical Services of the Arab 401 filliP" Legion Postgrad Med J: first published as 10.1136/pgmj.29.334.400 on 1 August 1953. Downloaded from Protected by copyright. FIG. 2.-A member of the Police Force recruited from the rural districts. FIG. 3.-A typical Bedouin soldier-a fine and courageous fighter. The medical service in the field had, until tihe beginnings of I948, only a few regimental medical a fair-sized base hospital, field drC3sing stations, officers. The service acted in independent units to a number of field ambulances, a hygiene unit and a regimental level. We did not have field am- well run regimental aid posts and sick bays. http://pmj.bmj.com/ bulances, hygiene sections or laboratories, and as Besides our responsibilities to the army proper, for hospital care we depended on the neighbouring our service has other commitments. The police British Army units as mentioned above. and the Gendarmerie come under the Arab This is a quick review of the beginnings of our Legion. The officers of these units are officers in Arab Legion Medical Service, and it is a great the Legion and the men are Arab Legion soldiers. satisfaction to feel that now it stands well on its Officially they are for medical purposes the re- feet. It may give a clearer concept of our medical sponsibility of the civil medical service, but in on September 30, 2021 by guest. organization to mention that it is organized on the point of fact our service has the bigger share in same lines as the British Army Medical Service. looking after them and after their forts scattered In fact, it is very similar to a medical unit of a throughout the country. This is true also of the British force of the same size as the Arab Legion. Desert Force and its isolated posts. We send In its present form our service is still young, and staff regularly to visit the outlying posts of this though it has made considerable strides it has still force. We look after their sick, replenish their to be perfected. On the other hand, its expansion small stock of drugs and first-aid equipment, com- has been very rapid and it is probably safe to say bat insect vectors of prevailing diseases, spray that within this short period it has become more their quarters with D.D.T., inspect their sanitary than five times its original size. We can boast conditions and, in short, do all we can to help now of a large number of keen and efficient them and their families. medical officers, a trained staff of medical orderlies, It should be stressed, howevcr, that we are still 402 POSTGRADUATE MEDICAL JOURNAL August 1953 Postgrad Med J: first published as 10.1136/pgmj.29.334.400 on 1 August 1953. Downloaded from building up our service and that it will be some- a laboratory, an X-ray department and a special time before we bring it up to the standard of section for tuberculosis. efficiency to which we aspire. To achieve this end The surgical department is under the charge of we are concentrating on high professional training a surgeon of experience, who had a fairly long for doctors and orderlies. There are at present training in England. Besides this we have field four medical officers specializing in different surgical teams who are equipped and trained to do branches of medicine, all of them in the United emergency surgery in the field. One of our Kingdom, and a number of others have already surgeons is now in England; his particular line finished the courses prescribed to them and are will be orthopaedic surgery. now back in the Jordan. The period of training The laboratory at the base hospital is now well varies from six months to three years. More established, it is under the charge of able officers doctors will be sent for study and specialization as and efficient personnel. It supervises smaller soon as we can spare them. laboratories in the field medical units. It includes Training of medical orderlies is largely carried a small transfusion centre which has the potenti- out in the Jordan itself, but a number of tech- ality of forming a blood transfusion bank if nicians and others, such as laboratory assistants, needed. Modern laboratory equipment has been storemen, special treatment orderlies, hygiene in- ordered and is being sent to us from the United spectors, X-ray, dental and electric technicians, Kingdom. are being sent to the proper institutions in the The X-ray department is being equipped with a United Kingdom or to the British Army medical new modern machine besides the machines it establishments for training. already possesses. A mass miniature radiographic Though it is our intention to continue develop- unit is to be added to it during the current year. One ing the scientific side in our service and to try and of our X-ray technicians is now on a course in the attain a high professional standard, the field United Kingdom to get acquainted with the tech-Protected by copyright. medical work takes the forefront of our plans and nique of this work. He will also visit Stockholm consequently is receiving much of our attention at for the same purpose. present. Army doctors must be able to deal with One of our main difficulties has been recruiting the sick and the wounded in the field and to keep the necessary number of doctors. We have no a reasonably high standard of sanitation in static or compulsory national service and hence it has not temporary camps. They must be trained to judge been easy to cope with our responsibilities. The quickly what the urgent treatment is and what they situation is much better now and we have practic- should give to their sick and wounded on the spot, ally all the doctors we want. Doctors often think and they ought to he familiar with the methods of that they will lose touch with the professional side evacuating their casualties with minimum harm to in an army service and are reluctant to enlist. I the men and to the efficiency of the fighting force. may venture to say that our medical service has Besides being good doctors, they ought also to be made a good name for itself, and this, coupled good officers. To this end a few of our doctors with courses for higher training in the United http://pmj.bmj.com/ have had attachments to British Army medical Kingdom and elsewhere, has had a good effect on units for training in field work, and our medical recruitment. To meet the possible difficulty of units in the field are having as much training as is shortage of doctors which might arise in the possible. Some of these units have recently been future, the authorities concerned have considered formed, but the older ones are well up to a reason- it wise to send students to study medicine in the able standard by now. United Kingdom on Arab Legion expense. We The field hygiene section is temporarily com- have now a fair number of these students in the manded by a well-trained non-medical officer. He United Kingdom who, on graduation, will become on September 30, 2021 by guest. and some of his sanitary inspectors have had their regular officers in the Legion. training with the British Army field hygiene units.
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