The medic went into battle carrying no weapon at all, and that was the point. Under the Geneva Convention he was a non-combatant — forbidden to fight, and in return meant to be spared from fire — and he advertised it, wearing red-cross armbands and a white disc with a red cross on his helmet so both sides could see what he was. In the war against Germany the convention was broadly honored, and the markings genuinely offered some protection. In the Pacific it was another story: Japanese troops often targeted medics deliberately, so American aidmen there frequently ditched their crosses and picked up a carbine. In the hedgerows of Normandy, though, the unarmed man with the red cross was exactly what he appeared to be — the one everyone hoped to see.

The aidman walks forward with his medical bag in hand, the red cross bold on his helmet and a brassard on his arm, the 2nd Division patch beneath it — no rifle, no pistol, nothing but the tools to save lives. He follows the squad into the fight to reach its wounded: post him behind the Advancing Rifleman and near the assault of Hitting the Beach, where the cry of "Medic!" rang loudest. He shares his calling with the Ardennes Standing Medic across the store. In a diorama the medic is the moral center — the figure whose presence says what the fighting costs.

Model: DD405 / King & Country / 1/30 (60mm) scale / matte finish / 1 piece set