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the command medical readiness staff worked to resolve. In early
       January 91, when military conflict appeared imminent, airlift planners
       accelerated movement of contingency hospital personnel to begin on
       12 January 91. At the onset of the air war on 17 Jan 91, 534 medical
       personnel had arrived to expand USAFE's peacetime hospitals and
       establish minimal capabilities at USAFE contingency hospitals.
       Medical deployments continued throughout the air campaign. and 2 weeks
       prior to the ground war USAFE was able to meet the commitment of 3740
       USAF beds . Contingency hospitals, which provided the bulk of the
       beds, required nearly 4,350 CONUS medical personnel to staff them.
      
       Personnel in contingency hospitals and ASFs trained and remained
       on alert. Those working in USAFE's peacetime hospitals and clinics
       were inundated with additional war-related tasks while trying to care
        for the regular full spectrum of beneficiaries. Constant alert and
        overwork produced a stressful environment.
      
       To maximally employ the additional medical expertise brought into
       USAFE and try to level workload, a sharing of deployed personnel with
       peacetime hospitals and clinics was directed. All patients on waiting
       lists for specialty care throughout the command were identified.
       Specialists from the contingency hospitals and ASFs were then matched
       with the requirements. As a result, over 8,000 patient visits were
       provided by deployed medics in a 1-month period. The majority of
       patients needed specialty care and would have otherwise encountered
       long waits or aeromedical evacuation to obtain their appointments.
       Virtually all previous queues for medical care in central Europe and
       the UK were eliminated.
      
       In similar fashion, deployed dental personnel treated staff and
       other patients at 9 USAFE MTFs, for a total of 3,644 visits. This
       helped decrease the backlog of demand for dental care, especially for
       space available family members.
      
       BLOOD
      
       In the early Stages of DS/PF, the USAFE Blood Program Officer was
       tasked to activate and manage the CENTCOM Blood Program while
       modifying the EUCOM Concept of Operations. Within the first two
       months USAFE deployed two Blood Transshipment Centers (BTCs) to
       CENTCOM, thereby enabling the storage of more than 14,000 units of
       blood for casualty treatment.

       USAFE BTCs also served as the transshipment point for blood
       moving from CONUS to CENTCOM. The BTC mission to inspect, re-ice,
       temporarily store, and onward ship blood products ensured that
       uncompromised blood arrived on time to meet CENTCOM requirements.
      
       USAFE's blood donor program collected enough blood to support the
        projected influx of Gulf War patients into EUCOM MTFs.  Six
        prepositioned USAFE Blood Donor Centers (BDCs) were activated to
        increase collections for EUCOM Contingency Hospitals.  The
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