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Show 144th Evac Hospital undergoes intensive test V. ' J ! i h i v A ' . v-- -? 4J, ( $ :- .3:J-' -.Jk 1 i 'r Ji&Y y ' . A MILITARY truck, converted for use as an ambulance, brings in more wounded to the 144th Evac Hospital. The exercises now going on require that the unit do things the same way they would if they were called to active duty. The 144th Evacuation Hospital of the Utah Army National Guard is in the middle of an intense four-day test at the Dutch John Airport. The mobile hospital has been in Dutch John for 10 days, and will be there for another four. It is the first time the hospital has ever been set up to this extent. When completely assembled, the hospital is capable of handling a continuous 400 patients. They are required to be capable of care for 600 patients for a 72 hour period. That takes a lot of tents. Not only do they need tents to house patients in recovery, they need administrative facilities, preparation rooms, operating rooms, facilities for food preparation and eating facilities, plus living quarters for 360 army personnel. They now have about 90 tents assembled assembl-ed at the Dutch John Airport, but they would need about twice that many to facilitate 400 patients. They now have only two inflatable operating rooms set up. In war conditions they would have 20. The purpose of the two-week training train-ing exercise is to give all of the 230 members of the unit a chance to experience ex-perience conditions similar to what might take place if the 144th is ever called to active duty. The purpose of the four-day test is to see how prepared and how well trained the unit really is. The 144th Evacuation Hospital is one of only five such reserve units in the country. It is under the command of Colonel Earl Duke, an obstetrician-gynecologist obstetrician-gynecologist from Logan. On Monday, the commander of all Utah National Guard units, Major-General Major-General John L. Matthews, visited the Dutch John site. He said the reason for this particular exercise is to use the annual two-week summer exercise to the best advantage. He said they don't want to spend two weeks of someone's time unproductively. The army has very explicit and intricate in-tricate war plans should a war ever break out, but those war plans are of no value if reserve units are not ready to go when they are needed. This exercise ex-ercise makes the unit mobilize the same way it would need to if it was called to active duty. The members of the units prepared everything, placed it on trucks, hauled it the 215 miles from Salt Lake City to Dutch John, unloaded the trucks, pitched the tents, and started to care for wounded soldiers. Sounds just like a movie, right? Wrong, it sounds just like a war, and that's the whole point. Major-General Major-General Matthews said the National Guard and the Reserve are playing an ever increasing roll in the defense of the United States. Since the budget is constantly being cut the way to keep up our defense capabilities is through non-active units. At one time non-active military units were second citizens in the armed forces. That is no longer the case. Non-active Non-active units have now become a partner part-ner with the active forces in the defense plans. Major-General Matthews Mat-thews said if there is any significant military involvement, reserve units will be mobilized. But he is not leary of the capabilities of the 144th Evac Unit. He claims they are the best staffed staff-ed and equipped unit in the United States. They are in many respects more capable than active military units. Much of the military has personnel turnover problems, which creates a Continued on page 2 Hospital Continued from page 1 real training problem. Non-active units don't have this problem. Many of the members of the 144th Evac Hospital have been with the unit for vears. some as many as 20 years. The problem non-active units have is recruiting. It is difficult to get quality doctors, like Colonel Duke, to take two weeks out of every summer, plus ongoing training the rest of the year. The two-week exercise is serious business. A 20-member testing team sets up the procedures, and then evaluates the unit on their performance. perfor-mance. This includes protective measures around the hospital, taking prisoners, picking up wounded in ambulances am-bulances and helicopters, bringing the injured back to the hospital, preparing the patients for whatever care they may need, then caring for them, including in-cluding any needed surgery, plus postoperative post-operative care, and all the administrative ad-ministrative procedures that go along with it. Besides this, they must always be ready for enemy attack. Every person is required to carry a gas mask at all times. Gas attacks actually occur during dur-ing the test. Everyone in the unit works revolving 12 hour shifts. The off-duty hours are the people's own. It is important that morale remain re-main high, even during a two-week training session. The members of the unit go fishing, river running, and are treated to nightly movies. Clean clothes are provided by huge washing machines that are part of the unit's equipment, and perhaps most important impor-tant are the showers, real showers, with hot running water. An evacuation hospital is the third stop in an injured soldier's quest for recovery. Aid stations are located on the front lines, and medics attempt to get the injured soldiers back away from the front lines before they die. They do little more than stabilize the patient. From here the injured soldier travels to what was once called MASH (mobile army surgical hospital) units. Here they receive their first real medical attention. Doctors there care for major problems, then evacuate the patient to an evacuation hospital, such as the 144th. An evacuation hospital is the first full medical facility an injured soldier comes in contact with. While the earlier units may be very good, the evacuation hospital is the first unit that is completely equipped with a clinical laboratory, X ray facilities, a pharmacy, dentists, and just about any type of surgery possible. Even though the 1 lllh Evacuation Hospital is made up exclusively of tents, it is not extremely mobile. It takes lots of support to move an evac hospital. Thus, they are usually set back from the front lines Kid to 'Mm kilometers, although they are capable of functioning as close as 40 kilometers. The cost of the two week exercise is $100,00(1. The expenses will be paid by (he federal government |
