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File: 123096_sep96_decls2_0025.txt
Subject: MEDICAL OPERATIONS DURING OPERATION DESERT STORM 9 NOV 91
Unit: VAR. BUMED
Parent Organization: BUMED
Box ID: BX303801
Folder Title: VARIOUS BUMED DOCUMENTS FOLDER 6
Document Number: 2
Folder Seq #: 10
Although personnel augmentation occurred as required, not all personnel
deployed with adequate training. Some lacked currency in general medical and
follow-on training. Others had received no platform-specific operational training.
Generally, active-duty medical personnel had received no prior training for handling
mass combat casualties, particularly in an environ3nent requiring chemical, biologi-
cal, and radiation (CBR) deconterninqtion. Some individuals had received opera-
tional @ng in fleet hospital assembly and in firefighting, damage control, and
other ship evolutions; many had not. The combat-mualty-care course provides
advanced trauma life-support training and personal exposure to a field setting, but
the mass casualty exercise does not realistically simulate the stress of handling
mass combat casualties. Moreover, some trained personnel remained at CONUS
MTFs to meet GME requirements and were replaced by personnel without g,
and some went to platforms for which they had not received g. Other exam-
ples of training deficiencies appear in the discussion of individual platforms.
The deployment of SELRES to medical pla tforms in theater revealed problems
with matching reserve resources to requirements for medical personnel. No single
comprehensive database provided a complete catalogue of information necessary to
identify individuals for recall. The recall process suffered from inaccurate or
missing information relating to specialty, eligibility, billet, and credentials.
Desert Shield dearly demonstrated the Navy's dependence on medical reservists to
crisis. This suggests that the Navy
requires ready access to accurate information about its medical reserve forces.
FLEET HOSPITAL DEPLO
The Navy deployed three 500-bed combat-zone fleet hospitals in support of
Desert Shield/Storm. Fleet hospitals are medical facilities designed for rapid
deployment and field assembly. A fleet hospital requires both medical and noilmedi-
cal personnel to ran the medical facility and provide base support. The medical
facility provides echelon M resuscitative care and is capable of providing de@tive
care. Base support facilities organic to the fleet hospital provide berthing,
food service, laundry and personal services, maintenance, and utilities. The fleet
hospital does require support from the theater commander to maintain supplies of
petroleum, lubricants, and potable water, for disposal of waste water and trash; and
for security. Members of CBUs operate fleet hospital public works.
The staff assembles the fleet hospital over a ten-day period under the direction
of the CBUS. The air detachment of 36 people is reponsible for laying out the site
and @tiating @on with external support activities. Four days later, an advance
-16-
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Document 57 f:/Week-37/BX303801/VARIOUS BUMED DOCUMENTS FOLDER 6/medical operations during operation desert storm:1217961126393
Control Fields 17
File Room = sep96_declassified
File Cabinet = Week-37
Box ID = BX303801
Unit = VAR. BUMED
Parent Organization = BUMED
Folder Title = VARIOUS BUMED DOCUMENTS FOLDER 6
Folder Seq # = 10
Subject = MEDICAL OPERATIONS DURING OPERATION DESERT STORM
Document Seq # = 2
Document Date =
Scan Date =
Queued for Declassification = 01-JAN-1980
Short Term Referral = 01-JAN-1980
Long Term Referral = 01-JAN-1980
Permanent Referral = 01-JAN-1980
Non-Health Related Document = 01-JAN-1980
Declassified = 17-DEC-1996