While justifiably renowned for their real-world impact, the MASH units are best known in popular culture for providing the backdrop to the book, film, and (most famously) TV show M*A*S*H. Coupled with the advent of medical evacuation helicopters, the MASH units revolutionised modern battlefield medicine, and formed the basis of the vast majority of more modern western field hospitals – indeed, the US Army only deactivated its last MASH unit in 2006!
The Mobile Army Surgical Hospitals (or MASH, if you prefer!) were a concerted effort to rationalise and improve the treatment available to wounded soldiers coming off the front lines, and especially to decrease the length of time a wounded soldier would have to wait to receive surgery – one of the most crucial factors in determining the likelihood of survival. The Korean War saw numerous technological and logistical developments fielded for the first time, and the field of battlefield medicine was no exception.
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