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medical operations in preparation for the offensive. 
	Three more ASFs and one BTC were stood up. The contingency 
hospital became operational. (See the descriptions of Theater 
Aeromedical Evacuation, Theater ASF Build - Phases I, II, III, 
Theater Medical Logistics, Contingency Hospital Build, and Blood 
Transshipment Centers for more details). 
Theater ASF Build - Phases I - III
 
For simplicity I will describe the theater tactical ASF 
build during Phases I, II, and III. Anticipating the possibility 
of an Iraqi attack and needing to establish strategic aeromedical 
staging for large numbers of stabilized casualties, Major Bob 
Ditch, the USSOUTHAF planner, was tasked to develop a progressive 
ASF build for Dhahran and the rest of the theater. He and a team 
of seventeen ATH personnel from the 4th, 56th, and 363rd TAC 
Hospitals broke out prepositioned equipment and supplies, and in 
phases stood up our first soft-sided tactical ASF in Dhahran. 
They assumed strategic staging from the MASF there the early part 
of October. This task was complicated by an untested TA, limited 
real estate, BOS difficulties, and the number of personnel. 
 
	Through a great deal of determination the Ditch team established 
SWA's first ASF, the 1st TAC ASF, and after being joined by a 
Patient Retrieval Team (PRT), were relieved-in-place by a 100-bed 
ASF personnel package from Roslyn NY. Under the able leadership of 
Lieutenant Colonel Lynn Chapman, Commander, First Lieutenant Dave 
Werner, and Chief Master Sergeant Jim Burns, this ARC unit "hit the 
25 

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