Meaning of the term "Sanitary Train."

I was somewhat vague in understanding exactly what a Sanitary Train was until I was contacted by Jerry Goodson who also served with an Ambulance Train unit (although more modern) in 1959 and 1960. I asked him to explain the purpose of the train. This was his reply:

"The ambulance train was used...to move injured soldiers from field hospitals to rear areas for transport back to the states and from seaports stateside to move injured from ships to general hospitals. They were fully equipped and could handle surgery as well as care for the critically wounded. The last Ambulance Train that I know of was on a siding at Fort Houstis, Virginia. I never served on one but was trained as a medic and assigned to a unit that had that designation."

For an interesting, first-hand account of what happened on a medical train in World War One, read My Mother's War, a tribute to World War One Army Nurse Helen Burrey.

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