Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Clinton Wood | U.S. Army Maj. Matthew Krull, assigned to 512th Field Hospital, Rhine Ordnance...... read more read more
FORT MCCOY, Wis. – Key leaders and staff of a U.S. Army field hospital based in Kaiserslautern, Germany, researched where their Soldiers could undergo training on how to set up a field hospital from the ground up. Regional Training Site-Medical here was chosen for the training from Feb. 7-11, 2022. The Soldiers with a variety of Military Occupational Specialties, ranging from doctors to mechanics, learned several of the means of setting up a field hospital in an austere environment.
Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Nealis, hospital wardsman, 512th Field Hospital, Rhine Ordnance Barracks, Kaiserslautern, said his commander’s intent was for her Soldiers to receive organic doctrine training about what it takes to ensure there is power to a hospital, how to use a M1022 Dolly Set mobilizer and how to design the shape and plan of a complex. The Soldiers returned to Germany qualified to train fellow Soldiers on these procedures.
Nealis noted that his Soldiers were not proficient using the M1022 Dolly Set mobilizer. “We wanted to increase our bandwidth in doctrinal instruction and be right in line with what the doctrinal says,” said Nealis, who has been in the Army for 18 years. “I was excited to come and get this first-hand training.”
Maj. Matthew Krull, chief, ancillary support services, went one step further. “Training has been very useful and very beneficial to improve our full hospital capability,” he said. “It has been very impressive to see a lot of things here, not just the staking, the power and the Dollys. The whole operation here.”
A hospital set-up operation starts with staking using 550 cord, a long tape measure, a hammer, nails and tin plates. First, a hospital layout is sketched on paper. This layout includes the measurements for International Standard Organization containers like an operating room or intensive care unit or tents and spaces between all these structures.
A long tape measure was used to validate the distances needed, and the 550 cord, stakes, and plates were used to identify where each structure would be placed. The stakes and 550 cord ensured lines were straight and uniform.
Once the staking was complete, the four-wheel Dolly, which is a diesel-powered hydraulic system, comes into play. An ISO is placed on a Dolly which is then towed to the field hospital location by a Light Medium Tactical Vehicle. The LMTV driver and his or her crew place the ISOs in the exact location using the stakes and plates.
Spc. Ali Camara, a medical logistics specialist, said the training on the Dolly went very well. He pointed out that the repetition and the detail of how the Dolly works made learning easier.
When it came to training on how to provide power to the hospital structures, it was very detailed. Richard Kimpel, RTS-Med training lead/laboratory/power instructor, said he wanted to teach the Soldiers about electricity, how to use power equipment, including generators, the equipment’s capabilities and how to troubleshoot the equipment?
He cited this scenario. What happens if a generator that powers the emergency room goes down? Soldiers must know how to provide power from another generator quickly in order to keep Soldiers alive.
One of these Soldiers who may have to react quickly in this situation is not in the medical field. Instead, Sgt. Fabian Alor, assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, 519th Hospital Center, Kaiserslautern, is a chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear specialist. This is his first hospital center assignment and he was impressed with the generator training for first-time users like himself.
“There are a lot of things that we were taught in the class which is a great asset to the field hospital,” said Alor, who has been in the Army for five years. “There is a lot of plug and play going on with these generators and ensuring we are placing the right generators at the right place for the field hospital set up.”
He noted that his biggest takeaways is learning about cables and how they correspond to each output and each generator and the correct way to set up a field hospital’s power system.
The two units hardly had any time to digest all its knowledge. The Soldiers were tasked with training fellow Soldiers in setting up a 32-bed hospital from start to finish. This will prepare them for Defender Europe at Baumholder Army Base, Germany in April.
Nealis said the units will have 72 hours to reach full mission capability in this large-scale exercise. This pressure is nothing new for this unit, which at one time was the 212th Combat Support Hospital, the most decorated tactical hospital in the active Army. The CSH also was the successor to the Mobile Army Surgical Hospital.
| Date Taken: | 02.10.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 02.24.2022 08:15 |
| Story ID: | 415145 |
| Location: | FORT MCCOY, WISCONSIN, US |
| Web Views: | 276 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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