4410 OPERATIONAL SUPPORT WING (P) CONTINGENCY HISTORICAL

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    work 12-hour shifts. It was a tremendous working
    relationship between the MASF and the medical clearing
    platoon. We shared our resources; we shared our personnel;
    we learned from each other. We really, genuinely, liked
    each other. I think the idea is tremendous.
    
    They would have big loads come in and have to triage all of
    these people. The Americans were fairly easy, but if they
    weren't regulated, they had to be put in one place. If they
    were regulated and stable, they went to echelon above corps
    hospitals here. If they were unregulated and unstable
    critical, they went across the field to the 44th Evac
    Hospital, which is an 18th Airborne Corps bed asset. They
    had a lot to learn over there, and I think they did a
    tremendous job organizing it and meeting the needs of the
    patients.
    
    Their additional duty was to provide for airfield
    emergencies. Up until the time the Army came, our little
    MASF did that, our personnel package being four nurses, 17
    med techs, and three radio operators. There were many
    airfield incidents from broken legs to people falling off of
    airplanes to crashes, just all kinds of stuff out here. We
    soon realized that it was bigger than what we could provide,
    so when the Army came with their physicians-- they had six
    physicians--then we handed that off to them, offering to
    provide paramedics and nurses if they wanted us. One doctor
    came in who took that over. He was a Reservist doctor and
    had his own paramedics, so at that point we didn't have any
    interaction with that action.
    
    The other thing the Army did, in addition, was to provide
    decontamination for any contaminated patients that would
    come into the air head, and they designed that program, too.
    They were busy setting it up. Once it got set up, they had
    
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