One unfortunate effect of sending Australian wounded through the American system was that relatives in Australia might not be notified for weeks. In the first few months of the war before the Australian casualty evacuation system was established, Australian casualties were delivered to an American Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH). Evacuation might have to be done under enemy fire - at Kapyong the Australian RAP was fired on by infiltrating Chinese troops while the wounded were being moved to the rear. The alternative, carrying a wounded man on a stretcher over mountains for long distances was so tiring it sometimes required eight bearers. In the Korean winter the roads were blocked with snow, and mountain tracks, even in good weather, could be impassible for an ambulance. This was the ideal procedure, but in war the weather, the terrain and the enemy conspire against the ideal. The field ambulance vehicles transported wounded to a Casualty Clearing Station (CCS) ten kilometers behind the front. Up the road from the rear came the jeeps of a Field Ambulance. The RAP was close behind the front line and preferably on a road. The RAP held the Regimental Medical Officer, a sergeant, an orderly and four more stretcher bearers. Their task was to provide first aid, then carry the wounded man to the Regimental Aid Post (RAP). They operated from a casualty collecting point near the company headquarters. A Royal Australian Army Medical Corps corporal and four stretcher bearers were with each Australian infantry company in Korea.
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