Hospitalization

Until April 1965, the 8th Field Hospital at NhaTrang with a 100-bed capacity was the only U.S. Army hospital in Vietnam. Housed in fixed semipermanent quarters, the 8th Field was fitted with a combination of field and "stateside" equipment and operated in a manner similar to a station hospital. Attached to it were four medical detachments which provided specialty care but were totally dependent on the hospital for administrative and logistical support.

In October 1961, the Navy opened a dispensary in Saigon which removed that city, as well as III and IV CTZ's to the south, from the hospitalization responsibility of the 8th Field Hospital. It remained responsible only for the large area encompassed by II CTZ.

Because of the limited number of Army hospital beds in Vietnam to support, the buildup of U.S. combat forces in 1965, a variable 15- to 30- day evacuation policy was established by the Surgeon, USMACV. By mid-1966, the number of beds, had increased sufficiently to permit a change to a 30-day policy. Patients who could be treated and returned to duty within 30 days were retained in Vietnam; patients requiring hospitalization for a longer period were evacuated out-of-country as soon as their medical condition permitted.

In the development of the medical troop list, the length of the evacuation policy did not weigh as heavily as the patient treatment capability required in-country. Among the factors which affected the normal book planning of allocations were the lack of data on the number

and types of foreseeable casualties in counterinsurgency operations, the insecure ground lines of communication, and the wide separation of secure base areas. No single factor had as great an influence in determining the number of hospital beds required as the policy approved by USMACV to keep 40 percent of the operational beds available to support unexpected surges in the casualty flow resulting from hostile actions. The occupancy rate exceeded 60 percent on two occasions: during May 1967 when it briefly approached 67 percent, and for a 24-hour period during the Tet Offensive in February 1968, when it again increased to more than 65 percent.

Between April 1965 when the 3d Field Hospital arrived in Saigon and December of that year, two surgical hospitals, two evacuation hospitals, and several numbered field hospital units, which were initially colocated with the 8th Field Hospital in Nha Trang and the 3d Field Hospital in Saigon, were deployed to Vietnam. By the end of 1965, the total number of hospital beds in-country had increased to 1,627.

Throughout 1965, separate clearing companies were at times used interchangeably with hospitals. Augmented by specialty teams, platoons