AAR COMMENTS ODS AND DS 14TH PREVENTION MEDICINE UNIT 9 APR 91

File: 980404_sep96_sagwi1_0004.txt
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Subject = AAR COMMENTS ODS AND DS 14TH PREVENTION MEDICINE UNIT 9 APR 91

Box ID = BX000284

Folder Title = AAR COMMENTS OPERATION DESERT SHIELD STORM 14TH PREVENTIVE MEDICINE UNIT 9 APR 91

Unit = VII CORPS

Parent Org = ARCENT

Issue The current 11-man (I OFF, 10 ENL) LB Team structure is
ii.-,propriate for the team's missions.
(2) Discussion - LB Teams are designed to be highly mobile, capable of
providing PM support by spreading the teams personnel over large areas such as
the rear AO of a maneuver division. The team is required to be capable o@
performing its support in a wide variety of specialty areas, ranging from
field sanitation to water supply to waste disposal to entomology to radiation
protection. Personnel trained in these areas are hard to find, yet that is
the 5kill required of PM technicians (91S). Since an LB Team is also required
to operate independently from higher headquarters, the teams personnel are
also responsible for administrative, maintenance, logistics and other areas.
These duties are difficult for a small team to perform and the effectiveness
of performing the mission is often reduced as a consequence. The additions of
a clerk/supply technician and a maintenance/small vehicle mechanic would
.greatly enhance the team's mission capability. Even if two of the teams 91S
members are replaced by these two new individuals, the team would be able to
perform better.
(3) Recommendation: Add, either as new personnel or as replacements for
two enlisted 91S team members, a clerk/supply technician and a
maintenance/small vehicle mechanic to the LB Teams.

C. Field Sanitation Teams are Ineffective.

(1) Issue - Field Sanitation Teams (FSTS) are inadequately trained and
e--lipped; they are ineffective as the first-line PM support for units.
(2) Discussion - Each company-size and larger unit is supposed to
ap int,and see to the training and adequate supply of, an FST. It was found
third since FST membership is an additional duty assignment within a unit, many
units didn't get their FST members trained in field sanitation measures. This
was especially true of medical units, who were often the worst when it comes
to human and kitchen waste disposal, solid Waste disposal, and water supply to
unit members. This observation is also consistent with the observation that
most RC medical units were unable to rapidly and efficiently set up their
hospitals in the field environment because they rarely practiced these
procedures in CONUS on FTXS. Many medical professionals didn't even know (nor
were willing to learn) how to pitch a GP medium tent.
(3) Recommendation - FST training should occur in RC units as a regular
part of the training schedule and should especially occur at the mobilization
site along with NBC training, weapons familiarization and other common skills
training.

d. Re-equip LB Teams

(1) Issue - LB Teams need communication and land navigation aids for
combat operations.
(2) Discussion - LB Teams do not have organic commo or state-of-the-art
land navigation devices. In SWA, especially in vast reaches of desert without
access to telephones of other units or even the means to navigate using
landmarks, considerable time was lost and so were some of the teams during
deployment. Radio (AM or FM) communication nets were available if the LB
Teams would have had a means to gain access. Despite extensive desert land
r @-lation training in SWA, it was easy to get lost in a vast, flat desert
v,-. jut a navigation aid. it was also difficult, even with a map and knowing
a unit's latitude/longiiude coordinates, to find units when you didn't know
where You were. As a result, the LB Teams were exposed to significant danger$
during navigation in the combat zone.