Initial 67th Combat Support Hospital (CSH) Optometry Services in Taszar, Hungary, on Operation Joint Endeavor

摘要

Existing U.S. Army personnel and equipment authorization documents do not currently recognize the need for optometry services at deployed Combat Support Hospitals (CSHs). The specific hospital tasked with the mission of supporting Operation Joint Endeavor (OJE) from a support base in Taszar, Hungary, also did not have any documentation authorizing the assignment of ophthalmology assets. Current Army doctrine stipulates the presence of an Area Support Medical Battalion (ASMB), with assigned optometry assets, to deploy and operate near a CSH. However, in the winter of 1995, when OJE began, there were no ASMBs staffed in Europe, and none deployed to the Taszar support base. Therefore, the 67th CSH's mission of providing comprehensive in- and outpatient care on a contingency basis to all personnel in the area of operations did not have a doctrinal means of supporting an eyecare requirement. In order to meet this eyecare shortfall between doctrinal policy and actual operational needs or requirements, the optometry staff of the 67th CSH scavenged two optometry field sets from old Desert Storm war-stock, and deployed with the main body of hospital personnel to Taszar, Hungary, on December 18th, 1995.