RAWALPINDI, Pakistan – The U.S. military is shutting down its last MASH unit, the mobile hospital made famous by the long-running TV show about martini-sipping, wisecracking Army doctors during the Korean War.
This month, the Army will donate the last Mobile Army Surgical Hospital to Pakistan, where it has been caring for survivors of last year’s massive earthquake, Rear Adm. Michael LeFever said Saturday at an air base outside the capital of Islamabad.
“This is the last MASH unit in the United States Army,” said LeFever. “We are excited that this MASH will live on in Pakistan.”
The 84-bed, $4.5 million MASH unit includes a surgical suite with two operating tables, two intensive care units, a pharmacy, laboratory, radiology units and a power generator, the military said.
The Army is replacing MASH units with smaller casualty surgical hospitals closer to battlegrounds and the wounded, said LeFever, commander of the military’s Disaster Assistance Center in Pakistan. Doctors in the new units will be able to make quick decisions in the field and stabilize patients before flying them to hospitals, he added.
“The MASH is a large facility, and it’s usually set up in the rear,” he said. “We’re finding that in order to save lives, we have to be close to the front lines.”
The “MASH” TV series aired from 1972-83 and starred Alan Alda as Dr. Hawkeye Pierce, who frequently criticized the conflict.
After Feb. 16, the last MASH unit’s personnel will return to Germany for training before they are sent to Afghanistan. The military plans to wrap up its relief mission in Pakistan by March 31, LeFever said.
“This has been by far the longest relief operation the U.S. military has been involved in,” he said.
The Oct. 8 quake struck parts of Pakistani and Indian Kashmir and Pakistan’s northwest, killing about an estimated 87,000 people and leaving millions homeless.
LeFever said U.S. aircraft have flown more than 4,000 sorties, delivering more than 20 million pounds of aid. Medical units have treated 30,000 patients.
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