Document Page: First | Prev | Next | All | Image | This Release | Search
File: aaacf_128.txtdental care, follow-up on irregular PAP results, adding more sophisticated equipment beyond "austere but adequate," and patient tracking within the aeromedical system, to mention a few. Several of these issues defied solution during Phase II. One, though, took a great deal of work by Colonel Melchiorre. He successfully worked a project to add at least one more dentist and dental chair to each ATH. The equipment and supply part of this issue was more easily solved than the manpower aspects. Suffice it to say, a long term deployment must address peacetime force sustainment issues. Further, our medical personnel faced the tedium and boredom, the waiting for something to happen, concern about family at home, in many instances concern about skills going rusty for lack of a wartime workload, and interest in a rotation policy, many concerns shared by the people they served. The challenges of a long deployment can test the best of leaders. Besides training and readiness, one of the Surgeon's Office's operational goals was to cross level ATHs and move more capability forward. Adjustments were to be made to provide manning for the contingency hospital and move assets or parts of assets further north. These plans were never executed for in the first week of November the President announced plans to prepare for offensive operations when the U.N. gave the Iraqi's a January ultimatum to leave Kuwait. 23
Document Page: First | Prev | Next | All | Image | This Release | Search