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Operations Desert Shield and Storm:
 
Air Force Medical Plans and Operations
 
by Lieutenant Colonel Bob Ferguson, USAF, BSC 
 
(Lieutenant Colonel Ferguson is the Chief, United States 
Central Command Air Forces Medical Plans Office, located 
at Shaw AFB SC. He was intimately involved with each 
aspect of the theater medical build before and during 
the contingency leading to the Persian Gulf War. Colonel 
Ferguson supervised plans, operations, and logistics 
during all or part of the contingency). 
 
	The Air Force Medical Service can truly be proud of the superb job it did 
during Operations Desert Shield and Storm to support sustained air combat 
operations in response to Iraqi aggression in Southwest Asia (SWA). History will 
document its fine execution of the largest deployment of medical assemblages and 
personnel in Air Force history which provided the CINC with the only deployed 
hospital assets - five for 250 beds - during the critical first 30 days of the 
contingency (At C+045 seven Air Transportable Hospitals (ATHs) were operational 
with 350 beds; C+056, ten with 500 beds). This feat is as much a tribute to the 
Air Force Medical Service's progressive leadership as it is to our emphasis on 
medical readiness training during the 1980's. As well, without public and 
Administration and Congressional support to provide for a well trained and 
equipped deployable Medical Service, we could not have met the task before us. 
	Imagine marshaling and moving ten ATHs and their personnel, including 
patient decontamination capability, some 7000 miles to 
 
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