America’s Saudi Medical Facilities Can Treat Most Combat Wounds

SAUDI ARABIA — The U.S. military has built a sophisticated network of medical facilities in the Saudi desert, including 15 hospitals that officials say are equipped to treat virtually any type of combat wound.

The hospitals include two medical ships being deployed in the Persian Gulf, along with 13 facilities spread out across the eastern province of the desert kingdom. Hundreds of doctors and nurses, who can perform anything from neurosurgery to heart surgery to orthopedic surgery, have been flown in to care for the estimated 60,000 U.S. troops so far deployed in Operation Desert Shield.

The scope of the medical system clearly shows that officials want to be prepared should war break out.

“Our hospitals are just as capable, if not more capable, of doing anything we do in the states,” Col. Jerome Faust, commander of the 44th Medical Brigade, said Thursday. His brigade runs the Army’s hospitals in Saudi Arabia.