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Fleet Hospital 3 Changes Navy Medicine

Navy NewStand

Story Number: NNS030408-10
Release Date: 4/9/2003 2:50:00 AM

By Chief Journalist Al Bloom, Naval Hospital Pensacola Public Affairs

SOUTHERN IRAQ (NNS) -- The responsibility of providing casualty care during Operation Iraqi Freedom has taken on a new look. While care is still delivered in the traditional manner by battlefield corpsmen and field surgery units, the men and women of Fleet Hospital (FH) 3 recently added to the lifesaving capabilities of Navy Medicine by constructing the Navy's first Expeditionary Medical Facility (EMF) in a war zone.

"I am truly impressed with the way the Fleet Hospital has come together here," said Commanding General, First Force Service Support Group (1st FSSG) Brig. Gen. E.G. Usher shortly after FH-3 started seeing patients. "The teamwork displayed to get this great facility up and running and operationally capable, while almost simultaneously starting to see patients, has been amazing."

"The result is a significant increase in our ability to save lives," said Capt. Peter F. O'Connor, Fleet Hospital 3 commanding officer. "The sooner our forces receive the robust care available here at a Fleet Hospital, the better their chances."

FH-3 is a 9-acre, 116-bed facility, which is manned by more than 300 medical service support and construction battalion personnel from around the nation. The Pensacola, Fla.-based command is an Echelon Three facility.

"Echelon One is the treatment provided in the field by our physicians and corpsmen who travel and risk their lives on the front lines," explained Command Master Chief, Hospital Corpsman Master Chief (FMF/SW) Don L. Nelson. "Without their efforts, our work would be all but impossible."

Even after receiving treatment from a field corpsman, a service member can receive care from an Echelon Two facility known as a Force Service Support Group Surgical Company, but these companies, while mobile and capable of providing vital surgical capabilities, are not nearly as robust as a fleet hospital.

"When we arrived here in Camp Viper, the folks attached to Charlie Surgical Company, (Force Service Support Group, First Marine Expeditionary Force) were busy receiving patients," said Fleet Hospital 3 Executive Officer, Capt. John S. Gibson, who lead the advance party move from Camp Luzon, Kuwait, to Southern Iraq to start construction before the main body arrived two days later. "We all knew they were also getting ready to move forward to keep pace with our forces."

FH-3 went to Iraq with 166 trucking containers filled with more than $12 million in medical equipment and supplies. Ensuring the availability of that equipment at the end of the supply chain was vital.

Marrying equipment and personnel was not the final phase of fleet hospital construction preparation. Even though fleet hospitals are comprised of people with years of training, FH-3 personnel received specialized training months prior to deployment...in construction.

"Our folks went through more than a week of hands-on training at FHOTC (Fleet Hospital Operations and Training Center) in Camp Pendleton, (Calif.)," said Nelson. "Then we successfully completed a three-day Operational Readiness Exercise (ORE). We had to be sure we were capable of putting the hospital together once we arrived in country. We are our own construction work force."

After years of planning, training and pre-positioning, there was still one more integral roll to be played to ensure the successful build of FH-3.

"The construction of any fleet hospital would be impossible without construction battalions," said O'Connor. "From the preparation of our initial camp in Kuwait and their driving our equipment through a blinding sand storm in the advance party, to the non-stop, 24-hour days they put in once we arrived in Iraq, our Seabees from CBU (Construction Battalion Unit) 412 and 402 have done a magnificent job."

"Bottom line, this has been a shining example of the definition of teamwork," added O'Connor. "I've said it before to our families, this is the best fleet hospital in the Navy, and I'm proud to be a part of it."