It's a familiar scenario, as told by Hollywood: Crawling out of a foxhole, a World War II combat medic with a red cross on his armband and helmet moves through mud and twisted metal to reach an U.S. Army infantryman who has been wounded by a bullet and is crying out for help.

Dodging enemy fire, the medic gives first aid on the spot by injecting a vial of morphine, cleaning up the wound, sprinkling sulfa powder to stop bleeding and applying an emergency bandage.

Staying low, the medic alternately drags and carries the patient out of harm's way.

Initially derided as "pill pushers" or ridiculed because they were often conscientious objectors, medics serving overseas soon were respected and even loved as the "docs" who could save lives.

Each war since the American Revolution has brought advancements in medical training, treatment and transportation that have improved the chances of survival for U.S. military personnel in the field.

HUEYS SAVE LIVES

On his last ride as a combat medic in a Huey medevac helicopter near the end of the Vietnam War, Bill Guise had to ride on the outside of the helicopter because he was transporting nine wounded men, instead of the usual capacity of six.

"Things were so wild," said Guise, who today is pastor of the First Congregational Church of Flagstaff. "It's a surreal thing for me to think about now, but at the time, you didn't think about that."

The Hueys had been a giant step for emergency medical care during the war, providing transport within 20 minutes to Battalion Aid Stations (BAS), he said.

Helicopters were also used to evacuate the wounded during both tours of duty Meghan Jette served in the Iraq War, her second ending this past March.

"When you call the 9-Line Medevac, you're calling flight support to pick up wounded personnel, and those can be local nationals as well," Jette said. "Things are getting pretty built up in Iraq, and sometimes it was easier and faster to ground evac them when a medical facility was close enough and injuries were stabilized enough."

THEY JOINED YOUNG

Guise and Jette joined the military when they were very young, at 18 and 19, respectively.

Guise, now 55, served as a hospital corpsman from 1972 to 1976, in the subdivision of the Navy that serves the Marine Corps.

Assigned to the Foxtrot Company, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Division, his unit saw action "in country" in the Mekong Delta, Da Nang, Hue, Saigon and "in places with no names in the jungles and mountains."

Jette, now 26 and living in Flagstaff, served as a combat medic with the Army, first for 12 months with the 3rd Infantry Division in and around Baghdad, and then 15 months with the 65th Military Police in Yusafiyah, a village in the so-called "Triangle of Iraq," southwest of Baghdad.

DRAFT VS. VOLUNTEER

The medics joined for different reasons.

The draft was in force when Guise joined.

"I was a person not in favor of the Vietnam War," said Guise, who was raised in Colorado. "I went into the Navy to avoid being drafted into the Army. I wanted to be non-combatant."

Guise said he tried to be a conscientious objector, but was told as a non-churchgoer he needed to be in a faith community in order to have a conscience.

Jette, who graduated from Sinagua High School and is an accomplished equestrian, left Coconino Community College to volunteer for the Army.

"I originally joined the Army to be a veterinary technician," she explained. "They told me there wasn't anything available. They said, 'We have health care specialist.'

"The title sounded all cushy. It turned out to be a combat medic. So, basically, I was working on people instead of animals, but I was happy to help other soldiers."

ALL ABOUT TRAINING

Guise found his medic training cursory.

"Boot camp was condensed, from 16 weeks to five weeks, because they were churning people through so fast," he said. "It was military in extremis; it was an unpopular war that was failing." Jette received 4 1/2 months of training in San Antonio, Texas.

In Iraq, she was put in charge of combat training for other U.S. medics, as well as training more than 300 Iraq police.

"I had to make sure they were ready," she said. "We would practice scenarios, so we would have a good reaction time to it."

For Jette, her military experience was mostly positive, especially during her second tour of duty.

"We lived right in that little town," she remembered. "We built up relationships with the people. They were pretty sad to see us leave. When we were there, they felt safer about opening their shops."

MEDIC PACKS VITAL

Medical supplies were in short supply toward the end of the Vietnam War, Guise said, and primitive by today's standards.

"We barely had butterfly needles, which are used to insert in a vein to start an IV," he said. "What I had was the B-1 unit, a bag thrown over the shoulder. It contained battle dressings, airways, tracheotomy kits and morphine syrettes, and whatever else you could fit in there."

Guise still has his B-1 pack, which a commanding officer gave him as a parting gift.

Jette, who was the only medic in her outlying platoon, relied on help from other medics stationed nearby when she ran low on medical supplies.

"We kept in good contact with each other," she said. "I wanted to be as prepared as I could for my guys."

In the field, she carried a medic pack, weapons, and wore protective gear, weighing about 77 pounds.

"I carried morphine at all times," she said. "I had Ace bandages, a lot of gauze, tourniquets, cravats, splints, IV fluids and different sizes of needles."

AID TO CIVILIANS

Jette was also prepared for last-case scenarios for trauma.

"When someone was on the way out, we'll put an IV line directly into their sternum," she said.

When additional life-saving measures were needed, Jette stabilized and evacuated the injured to troop medical clinics with surgical facilities.

Another important duty was dispensing free medical aid to civilians, such as giving antibiotics to an Iraqi boy during his recovery from a roadside bomb.

She also started the Daughters of Iraqi Program, which trained local women to search other women for terrorist devices.

MEDICS IN DANGER

Both medics were also trained in the use of firearms. Guise chose not to arm himself.

"I was willing to give my life, but I wasn't going to take a life," he explained. "It was a philosophical position. I was always able to do my job effectively. I think I gained their respect."

According to the Geneva Convention, knowingly firing at a medic wearing clear insignia is a war crime, but Guise said that made no difference in Vietnam, where he said there was a $750 bounty to any Viet Cong who killed a medic.

"If you can take out the radio operator, commanding officer and medic, you disable the squad considerably," he said. "A lot of medics would try to dress like Marines, with no red cross on their helmet and their flak jackets full of bandages."

Guise said that six of 10 Medal of Honor awards in the Vietnam War went to medics, with 80 percent of those given posthumously.

A WEAPONS EXPERT

Jette was fully armed, with a 9-millimeter and M4 carbine rifle, and was expert-qualified on both weapons.

She never wore any red crosses or insignia that marked her as a medic. Over time, people in the village got to know Jette and her platoon and started recognizing her because of her aid bag.

"We were searching houses over there," she said. "I was with my guys on foot, to help them if they got hurt. We were all thoroughly trained in our soldier tasks."

Jette said she didn't like it when medics were put on guard duty or perimeter watches.

"It's against the Geneva Conventions, and I thought there were more important jobs for them to do," she said.

LIFE AFTER WAR

When he returned from war, Guise got a job as a paramedic and drove an ambulance for many years, but that work only enhanced his war memories.

It wasn't until 2004 that he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

"They called it combat fatigue during the war," he said. "My struggle was with the mental images that I still carry with me. I had hoped to leave that all behind once I did my duty. That's the whole thing about warfare; you don't leave it behind."

Guise also has very bad knees from his medic days, and has needed surgery.

On the bright side, he has been married to his wife Julie for 27 years and the couple has two sons, Liam, 12, and Zachary, 9.

In 1996 he finished his seminary degree and served as pastor in Prescott before moving to Flagstaff two years ago.

NO MORE TRAUMA

Technically still on active duty, Jette returned in March from her second tour in Iraq.

Since September, she has lived with her parents, Wanda and Bob Noffz, at their ranch in Flagstaff, where she can keep her horse Noble and three Great Danes.

Jette now has back problems, partially related to the heavy equipment she had to carry as a medic.

In December 2006, she married David Jette, a fellow medic who also served twice in Iraq. While her husband is in North Carolina still in the Army, she is ready to get their life started here in Flagstaff.

Jette is looking for a job with a flexible schedule, because she has just registered at CCC to get an associate's degree in nursing, to be followed by a degree in biomedical science from NAU.

"The Army was kind of a building block; it was never a career," Jette said. "I'll be staying in the medical field, but I'm trying to stay away from trauma."

Betsey Bruner can be reached at bbruner@azdailysun.com or 556-2255.

IF YOU GO…

WHAT: Veterans Day Ceremony, followed by a luncheon.

WHEN: Veterans Day, Wednesday, Nov. 11, at 11 a.m.

WHERE: American Legion Post 3, 204 W. Birch Ave.

INFO: For more information, call the post at 774-7682