By the 1970s, drug abuse rates among American service people in Southeast Asia had soared, and Agostinelli found he and his colleagues treated drug-and-alcohol related illnesses as often as they treated battle wounds or malaria. Rather than do nothing, he and several other doctors set up an impromptu rehab clinic, where troops could safely detox and rehabilitate from addiction under medical supervision. This no doubt prevented relapses and overdoses, and saved numerous American lives. Here, Agostinelli discusses his time as a medical doctor in Vietnam, the ways that medical and surgical advances in Vietnam prevented uncountable deaths among the wounded, and how they advanced medicine in the United States as well. Of his fellow doctors and nurses, he recalled, “Everybody was pretty supportive of everybody else. When someone needed help they would say something, or sometimes not even say anything, but people would just show up.”

Keywords: Berry Plan, drugs, drug use, drug rehabilitation.