U.S. Army Converts Last Mobile Army Surgical Hospital
16 October 2006
Legendary combat medical unit renamed, modernized
Washington – The Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) was famous on the front lines of war long before a movie and the television series M*A*S*H made it a household word in the United States and, after satellite television, around the world.
But the real MASH is no more. The 212th MASH, the last of its kind, was converted into the 212th Combat Support Hospital (CSH) October 16 with a ceremony to mark its recasting into a modernized unit. In its new incarnation, the 212th will be an upgraded medical field hospital more responsive to current military needs. The event was held at the Miesau Army Depot in Germany, where the 212th MASH has been based since 2000.
A mobile medical unit in combat zones, a MASH was the facility nearest to the battleground that offered life-saving surgery and other emergency medical care. Units operated as close as three kilometers from the front lines, with casualties flown in by helicopter. The immediacy of the care significantly reduced death rates among injured soldiers. Mobile units saved lives during two World Wars, the Korean War and Vietnam. A novel by a former Army surgeon who staffed a MASH in Korea inspired the fictional screen versions. During the past decade, MASH units have been decommissioned one by one, converted into facilities that better meet the changing demands of combat.
The most decorated tactical hospital in the active U.S. Army, the 212th MASH traces its history back to 1917. It came into being as World War I Evacuation Hospital No. 12 in France, where it received its first campaign streamer, a ribbon that denotes exemplary service. It was reconstituted in 1936 as the 12th Evacuation Hospital, on duty in Europe during World War II. In 1966 the unit was deployed to Vietnam, where it saw 11 campaigns over four years and received a number of honors.
The unit was in Saudi Arabia during the first Gulf War in 1990, and in 1992 the 12th Evacuation Hospital was designated the 212th MASH. It was sent to the former Yugoslavia later in 1992 to support the United Nations Protection Forces. It was again in the region as the only U.S. combat hospital in Bosnia, where it supported Task Force Eagle in 1995. The 212th served in Albania, Macedonia and Kosovo.
The unit was the first army hospital to be deployed in Iraq in 2003.
Most recently the 212th MASH was active in humanitarian missions. In Angola, its medical staff gave mass casualty response training to the Angolan military, provided civilian health care and distributed $200,000 of humanitarian assistance in the form of medical equipment.
Weeks after the Angola operation, the 212th went to Pakistan to render emergency medical assistance to victims of the earthquake that struck the Kashmir region on October 8, 2005. The earthquake killed nearly 80,000 people and left 3.5 million homeless. The doctors of the 212th MASH treated more than 20,000 casualties and performed 425 surgeries. The field hospital hosted more than 500 patients over a four-month period of service.
Many of these were children. Major Neil Vining, an orthopedic surgeon who served in Pakistan, recalled, “The way we were set up, I took care of kids who were injured. They had nowhere to go so they stayed in the hospital for weeks.”
One young boy, Faizon, had major reconstructive surgery for his crushed arm. Vining did the surgery. He told the Washington File, “I got to know the family well. We exchanged letters.” The father wrote that his son is doing well, adding that if the boy is lazy about attending school, he is told that he’d better go or Major Vining will be mad at him.
Major Jamie Mancuso, on the public health detail during the Pakistan operation, told the Washington File, “We went for the most part every day and interacted with the Kashmiri locals. Pakistani doctors worked with MASH quite frequently.” Besides emergency care, the U.S. medical staff immunized people against communicable diseases, which ranged from measles and mumps to polio, tetanus and bacterial meningitis. According to the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, the team provided about 20,000 vaccinations to more than 8,000 people.
Culturally sensitive, the 212th included Urdu-speaking personnel and a woman doctor to examine female patients in conservative Kashmir.
When the 200 men and women of the 212th MASH concluded their final assignment, the Muzaffarabad field hospital was given to Pakistan. In the hands of the Pakistani Army doctors, it will continue to care for people in the region until permanent hospitals can be rebuilt.
The 84-bed facility with primary healthcare and emergency treatment sections, a surgical suite with two operating tables, equipment for sterilizing medical implements, two intensive care units, an intermediate care ward, a minimal care ward, pharmacy, lab, radiology, maintenance unit and a power-generation unit, including expendable medical supplies, is worth $4.6 million.
“We are committed to providing the best healthcare and support to the people of Pakistan,” Army Major Soo Lee Davis said when the unit departed in February. “The MASH will live on in Pakistan as their medical providers continue to deliver a high level of care in Muzaffarabad.”
For more information on U.S. humanitarian assistance, see Humanitarian Assistance and Refugees.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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