400-Member Medical Unit Activated for Gulf Crisis

About 400 Army reservists who staff a combat support hospital are members of the latest Southern California unit to be activated for duty in the Persian Gulf, the military said.

Physicians, nurses, technicians and other support personnel reported Thursday to their San Diego-based unit, the 129th Evacuation Hospital. Some of them say the call-up split families apart, disrupted civilian careers and will affect some of San Diego’s major medical centers.

The transportable, 400-bed hospital the unit will operate is capable of providing emergency, surgical and medical care to troops deployed in Operation Desert Shield.

The 129th will be two hospitals removed from any battlefield but just a short flight away from any action, the Army said. Procedures from open-heart surgery to dental care can be performed in the unit’s environmentally controlled, inflatable structure.

Tentative plans call for the unit to remain in San Diego until Wednesday, when it will be bused to Ft. Ord in Northern California. The Army isn’t disclosing the deployment schedule, but unit members say they expect to leave for the Middle East by mid-January.

Meanwhile, about 20 members of the 415th Replacement Detachment reported for duty Thursday at the Long Beach Army Reserve Center. They will be transferred to Ft. Benning, Ga., within two weeks to prepare for a scheduled six-month overseas deployment.

Women make up about 55% of the 129th Evacuation Hospital, known as a “Medical Unit Self-Contained Transportable,” or MUST Unit, officials said.

Commanded by Col. Victor H. Lidner, 62, a San Diego surgeon, the unit provides care to injured troops before they are transferred to military medical centers in the United States or elsewhere.

Among the troops in the 129th is Dr. Frank P. Lynch, the only pediatric surgeon at the UC San Diego Medical Center and director of the pediatric trauma center at Children’s Hospital.

“I hoped they would settle this before we go,” said Lynch, 50, who served as a surgeon in Vietnam during 1970 and 1971. “But I am concerned (Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein) is so insulated and isolated that he doesn’t realize the whole world is about to fall down upon him.”

Lynch closed his private office and notified the two hospitals, which are trying to find other surgeons to cover his duties, he said.

Personnel in the 129th include about 30 physicians, 130 nurses and 55 medical technicians. Most of the unit’s members live in San Diego County, according to the Army.

Many of them worried about young children they would be leaving behind as they gathered to report for duty at Adm. Baker Field.

Sgt. Donna R. Olsen, 34, an Imperial Beach real estate agent, is leaving a 2-year-old daughter with her husband, Larry C. Olsen, 33.

“I get a little teary when I talk about it, but I’m ready and excited,” said Olsen, an assistant platoon sergeant and 13-year Army veteran. “I told my husband I need one more big bang in life, then I’ll be ready to settle down.”

Staff Sgt. Tammie L. Lowder, 25, said it was tough leaving her 4-year-old son, Christopher, who will stay with her fiance, Eric D. Kelley, 24, an Army Special Forces reservist who has not been activated yet.

“I told Christopher, ‘Mom is going to be a GI Joe, that I would be gone for a long time, to be good and write me or draw me pictures every day,’ ” said Lowder, a Santee resident who manages the unit’s food services.