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Wendy McDermott’s Appendix

The unique appendix shaped repeating pattern on the US Army’s modern OCP camouflage has an interesting history that most soldiers have never heard.

In the early months of America’s involvement in WWI, young Army nurse, 2LT Wendy McDermott, found herself stationed near the front lines in brutal living conditions. Supply shortages were the standard. Most situations required unusual tactics and out of the box thinking. She provided creative critical care for hundreds of American soldiers before she found herself in a predicament she could have never prepared for.

Early March 14,1918, Wendy’s make shift care facility came under indirect fire and was ordered to break camp and relocate to a safer location. The barrage of artillery was overwhelming. She relentlessly continued to care for the soldiers covering their bodies with hers with every whistle of an incoming round. The last shell struck only inches from Wendy, throwing shrapnel through her abdomen and tearing off her right index finger.

Her atypical creative critical care experience immediately took over as she began to feel faint from the loss of blood spraying from her severed finger. Like only a true hero, Wendy reaches into her open abdominal wound, pulled her appendix out, cut it off and used it as a tourniquet to stop her bleeding. She was able to continue treating the soldiers under her care and saved many lives.

Her creative thinking and selfless service is forever memorialized as the repeating pattern known as “Wendy’s Appendix.” Her photo and story can be found at the AMEDD Museum in Fort Sam Houston, TX.