A History of Medical Kits during the World Wars

Student: Hank Butehorn (COL’24)

The project is a recreation of US military medic kits. It shows the evolution of the United States’s military medical kits, focusing on the World Wars period. The main material of the project was a model of the M2 Jungle Med kit, which was issued to every soldier in the later years of WWII. Every item in this med kit was recreated by hand and assigned a description, as each item represented a need the armed forces needed in a previous conflict. For instance, insect repellent was added after the Mexican American war and athlete’s foot cream was added after WWI. This was due to the death and discomfort from malaria and trench foot respectively. A mix of (then) cutting edge technology and medical equipment that had been in use since the Civil War all made it into the small and unassuming M2 pouch.