• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Military Sealift Command hauls hospital home

Military Sealift Command

Release Date: 8/25/2003

While in port in Rota, Spain, Aug. 14-19, USNS 1st Lt. Harry L. Martin loaded almost all of the necessary components to establish and operate a 250-bed military hospital.

USNS Martin is one of Military Sealift Command's Maritime Prepositioning Force (Enhanced) ships, and the equipment belongs to the Navy's Fleet Hospital Eight. The hospital kit was headed back to the United States courtesy of MSC, the premiere ocean transportation provider for the Department of Defense.

The 754-foot Martin is one of sixteen MSC prepositioning ships especially configured to transport supplies for the U.S. Marine Corps. The ships are forward deployed to the western Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. The ships contain nearly everything the Marines need for initial military operations -- from tanks and ammunition to food and water and from fuel to spare parts and engine oil.

Since the outset of Operation Iraqi Freedom and following off-load of her Marine Corps cargo in Kuwait, USNS Martin has been used to transport military cargo from point to point, rather than its traditional role of afloat prepositioning.

Fleet Hospital Eight, comprising medical and support personnel from 20 different commands across the United States, deployed to Rota on Feb. 16 in support of Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom. The hospital is housed within a network of tents and shelters, making it relatively easy to pack into containers and transport via sea or air. The result is a highly mobile medical facility with the ability to deploy almost anywhere in the world.

The facility in Rota was initially set up as a 116-bed expeditionary medical facility. Once fully established, the hospital became the first 250-bed fleet hospital deployed since the Gulf War in 1991.

During its six-month deployment, from February until July, Fleet Hospital Eight cared for nearly 1,400 patients and performed more than 250 surgeries inside its tent city of medical facilities.

"Those American heroes," said Capt. Pat Kelly, MC, USN, Commander, Fleet Hospital Eight, referring to U.S. military personnel involved in OEF and OIF, "deserved and got world-class healthcare from a highly motivated team of professionals assigned to FH-8."

Fleet hospital personnel began packing up the facility in mid-July and, by the time Martin arrived in Rota on Aug. 14, some 500 full cargo containers and rows of parked vehicles were all that remained where the highly advanced hospital had once stood.

USNS Martin will deliver the cargo to the East Coast of the United States in early September, where the cargo will be reconstituted and prepared for the next time Fleet Hospital Eight deploys.

The Navy's Military Sealift Command normally operates 120 civilian-crewed, noncombatant ships for a variety of missions around the world. That number expanded to more than 210 in March as additional ships were activated from reduced operating status or chartered for the command's support of U.S. forces in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

From January to April 2003, MSC ships delivered more than 21 million square feet of combat equipment and other cargo-the equivalent of more than 300 football fields-to the U.S. Central Command area of operations. The command's fleet support ships also pumped more than 117 million gallons of fuel to U.S. Navy and coalition warships in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

MSC ship missions include underway replenishment of U.S. Navy ships at sea, prepositioning and transport of defense cargo and at-sea data collection for the U.S. military and other U.S. government agencies.