general hospital in the United States, including a full surgical capability, preventive medicine and medical research units, a blood bank, and an optical shop. When necessary, III MAP could use facilities of the 95th U S. Army Evacuation Hospital at Da Nang.50

While the Naval Support Activity Hospital afford�ed MAF units basic medical care, the 1st and 11th Den�tal Companies provided a broad range of dental services to units of III MAF from 1970-1971. The 1st Company, which numbered 26 Naval officers and 40 enlisted men in March 1970, operated 15 dental fa�cilities for the 1st Marine Division in the Da Nang TAOR, including permanent clinics at the 1st Divi�sion command post at Da Nang, 5th Marines Head�quarters at An Hoa, 7th Marines Headquarters at LZ Baldy, and 3d Battalion, 5th Marines Headquarters at Hill 65, as well as operating mobile surgical vans capable of supporting units along the major roads throughout the TAOR. The 11th Dental Company, slightly smaller than the 1st, serviced the wing, FLC, and III MAF Headquarters until September 1970, when 1st Dental Company redeployed, and then provided support for all Marine units remaining un�til 28 May 1971, when the final detachment of the 11th Company redeployed. Captain Meredith H. Mead, DC, USN, who assumed command of the 1st Dental Company in March 1970, recalled the support which the dental companies provided:

All these clinics had from one or more dentists and den�tal techs depending on the number of personnel to be serv�ed .... All had high speed handpieces powered by a gasoline air compressor. 'This was the latest in field dental equipment. Many of the denial chairs were not field type but were old chairs sent from the States. The 1st Denial Company had a trailer fitted out as a mobile dental office to rotate among those people in more remote locations . .,, [The 11th Dental Company] had a very good modern prosthetic laboratory for fabrication of dentures. It included an automatic casting machine that was used to make partial dentures from [a] chromium cobalt alloy. It was better than many laborato�ries in the States.51

During 1969, III MAF and XXIV Corps had estab�lished a Joint medical regulating center by placing a Navy-Marine regulating section with its Army coun�terpart at the 95th Evacuation Hospital. As helicop�ters picked up casualties throughout I Corps, the pilots would contact the regulating center on a dedicated radio frequency and report the number of patients and the type and severity of the wounds or illness. The regulator then checked a status board showing the fa�cilities, specialists, and space available at each hospital, directed the helicopter to the appropriate destination, and notified the hospital that casualties were on the way. On 10 April 1970, after XXIV Corps became the senior U.S. command in I Corps, the Ma�rines and Navy deactivated their portion of the Joint regulating unit. The U.S. Army 67th Medical Group then took over medical regulation for all of I Corps, including III MAF.52

Admissions to the hospitals serving III MAF reflect�ed the declining level of combat. Of 16, 821 patients treated during 1970, 21 percent were battle casualties. By comparison, in 1969, out of 22, 003 hospital pa�tients, 26 per cent had been wounded in combat; and in 1967, a year of heavy righting, combat wounded had accounted for 39 per cent of 23, 091 admissions.53

During 1970, redeployments and deactivation rapidly reduced III MAF's medical support facilities. The 1st Hospital Company left Vietnam on 27 Febru�ary in Keystone Bluejay, followed on 12 March by Com�pany A, 5th Medical Battalion. On 13 March, the Repose, which had been on duty in Vietnamese waters since February 1966, sailed for the United States and deactivation.54

For Marines, the most dramatic medical support reduction was the closing on 15 May of the NSA Da Nang Hospital. More than any other aspect of the NSA phasedown, this action aroused concern among III MAF commanders that the Marines would be left without adequate facilities, especially if the intensity of combat should increase during the summer. In the face of III MAF requests for postponement of the clos�ing, ComNavForV remained adamant while at the same time assuring the Marines that the Navy in emer�gencies would furnish all necessary support. Through FMFPac, III MAF appealed to CinCPacFIt and CinC-Pac, again to no avail. Ill MAF finally approached ComUSMACV. General Abrams upheld the Navy's decision on the closing date, but, as General Dulacki recalled, "he gave his full and personal assurances that in the event the situation required, the Marines would be provided full medical support even if it meant mov�ing an Army hospital into ICTZ."55

The NSA Hospital closed on schedule, leaving III MAF with the facilities of the 1st Medical Battalion and the USS Sanctuary, backed by the Army 95th Evacuation Hospital. As battlefield action remained limited in scale and intensity, this medical support proved more than adequate. During September, in Keystone Robin Alpha, Company C, 1st Medical Bat-