Emergency Medical Services (EMS) have taken great strides toward the development of city and statewide programs. However, once a person embarks on a plane or on a ship for any extended period of time, the EMS are at times meager and at other times not coordinated well with ground EMS. The American Heart Association has developed a protocol for basic and advanced cardiac life support to exist in all major air terminals, and especially within aircraft of all types. Particularly important are those aircrafts carrying large numbers of people for extended periods of time.

On June 2, 1862, William A. Hammond, Surgeon General of the United States Army, announced the intention of his office to collect material for the publication of a “Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion (1861–1865)” (1), usually called the Civil War of the United States of America, or the War Between the Union (the North; the Federal Government) and the Confederacy of the Southern States. Forms for the monthly “Returns of Sick and Wounded” were reviewed, corrected and useful data compiled from these “Returns” and from statistics of the offices of the Adjutant General (payroll) and Quartermaster General (burial of decreased soldiers).