MEDEX
The goals of MEDEX 2000 were to set up the hospital, validate timeline requirements and identify short-falls in the equipment. Sagami General Depot, 10 miles northwest of Camp Zama, is a forward staging point for prepositioned stocks, including field and general hospitals used in deployments. Although these stocks are regularly inventoried and inspected, setting up the massive tents that make up the hospitals is generally not included in the process.
Thus the reason for MEDEX 2000, an annual exercise to test the prepositioned equipment while honing the professional skills of active-duty and Army Reserve medical units from the continental United States, Hawaii and Japan, plus medical and airlift units of the Air Force and Navy.
The U.S. Army, Japan, commander thought it would be a good idea to pull an entire field hospital out of storage and set it up to ensure it was a functioning system. Instead of just going through the motions of putting up this interlocked series of tents, soldiers created a field-training scenario, bring in a medical brigade for command and control, add medical logistics and air-ambulance units, and make this a realistic, operating field hospital.
Phase I of the 2000 exercise was conducted by the Army Reserve's Hawaii-based 411th Engineer Battalion, which cleared a six-acre area to accommodate a hospital. In addition, a long-closed hospital at the depot was converted into barracks to house the soldiers needed to act as casualties and medical staff.
Phase II continued the facility preparation, and by the time soldiers rolled onto the exercise site for the start of Phase III, 42 tents and eight International Standards Organization shelters were up and waiting. The hospital facility, complete with X-ray equipment, operating rooms, laboratory and pharmacy, was fully operational.
Next, the 332nd Medical Brigade arrived from Nashville, Tenn., to establish the headquarters. Chief among its responsibilities was ensuring the smooth operation of all aspects of transportation, supply and personnel support.
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