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File: 110196_aacbg_06.txt
TYPE OF MEDICAL FACILITY # HOSPITAL BEDS
Contingency Hospitals:
870th USAF CH, RAF Little Rissington UK 1500
310th USAF CH, RAF Nocton Hall UK 750
317th USAF CH. RAF Bicester UK 500
609th USAF CH. Zweibrucken GE 500
Total 3,250
Peacetime Hospital Expansion:
7100 CSW Medical Center, Wiesbaden GE 286
401 TFW Hospital, Torrejon AB SP 124
48 TFW Hospital, RAF Lakenheath UK 155
20 TFW Hospital, RAF Upper Heyford UK 97
Total 662*
GRAND TOTAL 3,912*
* 172 beds were available for peacetime patient care
STAFFING & PEACETIME MISSION
With arrival of CONUS staffing, contingency hospitals had
hundreds of doctors, nurses, dentists, biomedical science specialists,
and administrators There were medical technicians in every specialty
from direct patient care to lab, pharmacy, x-ray, medical records,
food service and logistics. Even with abundant staffing, however, the
dependent-care mission initially suffered due to heavy base level
taskings and the divergent locations of patients and contingency
hospital staffs.
Unlike a European war scenario, dependents were present during
DS/PF. To complicate matters, Army facilities which expanded to care
for Gulf casualties terminated routine dependent care. The USAFE goal
was to maintain peacetime health care levels while serving more Army
dependents. Had the war started before AF contingency hospital staffs
arrived from CONUS, USAFE's peacetime medical facilities would have
ceased dependent care and expanded to their maximum bed capability.
Regarding the movement of CONUS medical forces to Europe, the
Command Surgeon's guidance was to flow contingency hospital staffs
not a day too early, and not a day too late. Complicating this
guidance was the uncertainty of timing for the D-Day execution order
and inadequate transportation priorities for moving over 6,000 medical
personnel to USAFE.
Medical movement priority would have initially delayed full
staffing of USAFE contingency hospitals until 21 days into the war.
The ground war was projected to fill USAFE's peacetime medical
facilities in a matter of days. This was a serious disconnect which
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