Military medical teams train at Nellis mobile hospital

Thursday, Feb. 25, 1999 | 10:50 a.m.

Medical technicians wheeled Air Force Maj. Mark Murdock through the canvas hallways and into a small operating room.

With IV's in his arm and his head secured, Murdock was lifted off the gurney onto an operating table and hooked up to monitors.

Under fluorescent lights, the military personnel maneuvered around the room to begin a simulated operation.

"It's a possible neck fracture," a sergeant said to the doctor as they attempted to stabilize his spine.

Wednesday morning's mock medical procedure was one of many taking place this month at the Nellis Air Force Base training site, Camp Cobra.

The training, which began Feb. 1 and will end March 12, is a joint exercise for Air National Guard, Air Force Reserve and active-duty units.

During the five-week period, 700 military personnel from bases across the nation will participate in the evaluation and assessment of the Air Force's Air Transportable Hospital -- a field hospital similar to the Army's M.A.S.H. unit.

The assessment, known as Form, Fit, Function and Follow-on Assessment, focuses on the capabilities of 27 new medical specialty sets such as modules for dental, mental health and ophthalmology care.

The 50-bed hospital, created from interconnected canvas tents and collapsible operating, CAT scan and X-ray rooms, and others like it are prepositioned wherever the military needs them. It will be expanded to 114 beds before the drill is done.

"All this can be put into an aircraft and hauled anywhere," Sgt. Richard Covington, a Nellis spokesman, said. Two C-5 Galaxy transports, the largest of Air Force cargo planes, are required to carry it all.

Once in place, the hospital can support a 3,000-person base. Similar hospitals are being used in Saudi Arabia and Somalia.

"The entire thing with an experienced team could be fully operational in 30 hours," Capt. Bill Tyra of Langley Air Force Base, Va., said. "That's in ideal conditions with power and water."

Tyra works in the Medical Readiness Division and was the planner for this operation.

Using staff from nearby Mike O'Callaghan Federal Hospital and military personnel from the base acting as patients, the drills will assess medical support on expeditionary missions; humanitarian operations, such as assisting victims of Hurricane Mitch; and a theater war scenario similar to Operation Desert Storm.

Three two-cot operating rooms cover the full spectrum of medical procedures, including trauma, neurosurgery and vascular surgery. The walls of the rooms can collapse into a box one-third its size to be loaded onto a plane.

"We had the exact same setup in Kuwait," said Staff Sgt. Kristy Trausch, an orthopedic technician who participated in Wednesday's exercise.

Trausch was in Kuwait one year ago. "We did 25 surgeries in an iso-shelter," a one-room medical unit, she said. "The sense of urgency and tempo were more real."

It's those real situations that this type of training prepares them for, she said.

Over the next five weeks, the camp will be laid out in six phases. A small clinic was established first. Other units will continue to be added until it is a full 114-bed hospital, covering an area as large as several football fields.

"When it's fully up and running, its capability in the field will far exceed the average base medical facility we have in the Air Force," Col. Gene Raynaud said in a statement.

"When it's fully up and running, its capability in the field will far exceed the average base medical facility we have in the Air Force."Col. Gene Raynaud