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accomplished as effectively, efficiently and safely as possible.

c. Aeromedical Evacuation Liaison Teams. The first seven AELTs were 
deployed to Dhahran, King Fahd IAP, Jeddah, Jubail, and Riyadh, Saudi 
Arabia; Manama, Bahrain, and Incirlik, Turkey. -As theater medical 
support increased, so did the demand for AELTs from the user 
services. Just prior to the ground war, 22 AELTs were deployed (95% 
ARC assets) in support of Army, Navy, Marine and Air Force medical 
assets. Their mission was to communicate patient movement 
requirements, ensure patients were transported to the airfields in a 
timely manner, and coordinate AE movements with the user medical 
treatment facilities (MTFs).

(a) Positioning of AELTs. The AECC determined early on that the 
standard AELT composition, one Medical Service Corps (MSC) officer 
and two radio operators, was not adequate to sustain an ongoing 
operation. As a result, whenever feasible, deployed AELTs were 
combined and/or augmented to increase the staffing. Frequent 
repositioning of user service medical assets in support of US ground 
forces required AELTs to redeploy and operationally adapt far more 
often than expected. Mobility of the AELTs was severely limited due 
to a shortage of vehicles needed to transport the additional 
personnel and equipment deployed with each package during this 
operation. At the onset of the ground offensive, three AELTs 
supported the Army's XVIII Corps, including two which moved into 
Iraq; three supported the Army's VII Corps, including one which moved 
into Iraq; two collocated with the 803rd Medical Group at King Khalid 
Military City and the NAVCENT/SG in Bahrain; five supported the 1st 
Marine Expeditionary Force (MEF); and one each supported the 173rd 
Medical Group; the 244th Medical Group; and the 202nd Medical Group. 
An AELT was also positioned in Thumrait, Oman, to support an 
alternate AECC, should that requirement have materialized. During 
final phases of the redeployment, AELTs remained at A1 Khobar, Jubail 
and King Khalid Military City to support AE requirements. A summary 
of the AELTs, by location during the ground campaign, is at Table 3.

(b)) Communications Control Elements (CCEs). Due to the inherent 
problems with high frequency (HF) radio communications, combined with 
the large number of radio stations on the AE net, the concept of CCEs 
was developed. Four such elements were employed, each consisting of 
two MSCs and four radio operators. Each CCE was collocated with 
corps-level medical regulating officers (MROs) or senior medical 
planning staff for the XVIII Airborne Corps, 803rd Medical Group, 
NAVCENT and MARCENT. Under the concept, standard AELTs located at the 
second and third echelon medical treatment facilities reported 
patient movement requests to the CCE. The AECEs and MASFs also 
reported, for communications purposes only, through the CCEs in their 
respective geographic areas. The CCEs were responsible for evaluating 
and prioritizing both general and operational message traffic, then 
relaying to the AECC any such traffic that could not be resolved by 
CCE intervention. Through a hub and spoke system, these

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