At the age of 13, Ted Barris asked his father a common question: “Dad what did you do in the war?” This began a fifty-seven-year investigation into his father’s war experiences as a sergeant medic in the US Army during its bloodiest campaign during the liberation of Europe. The book that grew out of this question: Rush To Danger: Medics in the Line of Fire shares stories of combat medics from the American Civil War to more recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. I sat down with Ted to discuss his book and the one burning question that he never had a chance to ask his father: what motivates medics to rush into danger?

Ted Barris is a journalist and award-winning author of 18 books. He lives in Oxbow, Ontario.

Cover image: BRITISH MEDICAL SERVICES IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR (E 13321) Medical Transport: A Royal Army Medical Corps ambulance convoy moving forwards in the Western Desert. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205211137