UNITED STATES NAVY IN DESERT SHIELD/DESERT STORM

About three-fourths of DESERT facilities where manpower was cut to the bone
SHIELD/STORM deliveries were made by to support DESERTSHIELD. Other reservists
ships resulting from the $7 billion investment served on the hospital ships and fleet hospitals
in strategic sealift programs during the last ten in theater.
years. Without these programs, there would
have been no afloat prepositioning ships, no In addition to personnel of the Navy
fast sealift, and no RRF. The APS/MPS ships medical corps, medical service corps, and nurse
prepositioned in Diego Garcia delivered ord- corps, more than 5,800 Navy hospital corps-
nance and supplies two or three weeks sooner men served with Marines during DESERT
than sealift from the U.S. could have delivered SHIELD/STORM. Eleven corpsmen were at-
it. Fast sealift ships delivered cargo at roughly tached to each company of Marines. Corps-
twice the speed of most commercial shipping. men are assigned to a specific Marine unit for
The RRF provided militarily useful vessels - the length of their Fleet Marine Force tour of
roll-on/roll-off ships, breakbulk cargo ships, duty.
LASH and SEABEE barge carriers - that are
no longer readily available in sufficient num- After being treated by corpsman in the
bers from the activeUS. flag fleet. The deploy- field, sick and injured personnel could be
ment in DESERT SHIELD/STORM was im- quickly moved up the medical treatment lad-
pressive and sealift performed dose to its real- der as required. Battalion aid stations provide
istic potential in its first real test. More to the patients with a physician's skills and clinical
point, this experience has provided a sound judgement in a safer environment with suffi-
basis for judging the nation's strategic lift re- cient time to accomplish a more complete ex-
quirements for the future. amination. The next step up the ladder was a
medical battalion surgical support company
NAVY MEDICAL BUILDUP AND FOL- or a casualty receiving and treatment ship
LOW-THROUGH. Shortly after Iraqi troops where patients were treated by teams of phy-
rolled into Kuwait, Navy medical personnel sicians and nurses supported by a staff of
deployed to Saudi Arabia. From the corpsmen medical technicians with more complete medi-
accompanying the Marines in the field to the cal facilities including a basic laboratory, hold-
hospitals stateside, Navy medicine proved it- ing wards, a pharmacy and greater surgical
self ready. For example, three days after forces capacity. Casualties requiring more extensive
were committed to DESERT SHIELD, deploy- treatment were transported to either a combat
ment orders went out to the hospital ships zone fleet hospital or a hospital ship. The
COMFORT and MERCY. Both ships were scope of treatment available at these facilities
activated, manned, and supplied from a stand- mirrored fully-staffed hospitals in the United
ing start. They were on station and ready in States.
the Persian Gulf by 23 September.
Fleet Hospital (FH) 5 was the first such
More than 6,100 active-duty Navy men facility deployed to Saudi Arabia. Built in just
and women were deployed to provide medi- 16 days, with the help of Navy Construction
cal care to coalition forces in DESERT SHIELD/ Battalion Units 411 and 415, FH5 saw its first
STORM. Additionally, 10,452 naval medical patient five days after construction began. The
reservists were recalled to active duty. Many entire facility had arrived in Saudi Arabia in
filled large staffing gaps at military medical more than 400 containers aboard the afloat

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