The Elbert County tribune., 1917-06-08
HOSPITAL UNITS ARE ADVANCE GUARD
OF OFEXPEDITIONARY FORCE TO FRANCE
Two Have Already Gone Europe and More Are to FoowFo
Two Years Preparations Have Been Going Forward in
Hospitals All Over the Country Under the Dr.
rection of the Red Cross.
BY MARY oEwHURsT.
On the New York Tribune0

New York.-LoEg before the fighting
men of the United States reach the
battlefields of Europe. the letters U. S.
NJ. r. c. will be known to wounded
soldiers In many little town in
France. In base hospitals, close he
hind the armies. will be found doc
tors, nurses and orderlies fresh from
America, advance guards of the first
expeditlonary forces which this coun-
try ever sent abroad.
Already two base hospital units are
on the other side, five others are to
follow within few weeks, and all
through the summer, along with muni-
tions and food. ships from America
will carry men ard women of the Unit
ed States Medical Reserve corps.
Twenty-Six Units Organized.
During the last two years the army
has foreseen the present emergency
and prepared for 1t. Under the direc-
tion of Col. Jefferson X. Kean. medical
director of the American Red Cross,
26 base hospital units have been or
ganized in connection with medical
centers all over the country. Begin
ming with the Massachusetts General
hospital on the Eastern seaboard, and
extending to San Francisco on the
Western, different hospitals have vol
unteered staff and equipment for war
service. Colone, Kean co-ordnated
each hospitals doctors, nurses, instru-
ments and physical properties into
units, registered them under the Red
Cross and arranged for their immedi-
ate transfer into the Medical Reserve
corps at the outbreak of war. This
transfer has taken place, and each
unit has been notified to hold itself in
readiness for foreign duty, to replace
British organizations in France, which
will move on to other positions. They
are Americas response to the situation
created by the torpedolng of hospital
ships. Henceforth hospitals must be
taken to the wounded, since sick and
helpless men are no longer exempt
from frightfulness.
Besides 20 nurses and 25 doctors,
each unit includes an administrative
personnel of about $50 civilians. A
base hospitals equipment provides for
500 beds. which allows about three
nurses and doctor TO each 20
wounded. These physicians and nurses
are only the first-aid givers, the ex-
perts, who. with their patients, must
be fed, laundered transported, in
dexed and amused, and 1t taxes all of
the $50 willing workers to see to 1t.
First to Mobilize.
With every unit goes quartermas-
ter from the regular army, in com
mand of the administrative forces. All
civilians are enlisted under him as
prlvates, at S15 month. and later APP
pointed to special duties according to
whether they are cooks or laboratory
experts. At the outset the college man
with a string of letters after his name
goes in on a par with the husky Irish
man who can drive mule, and of the
two the Irlshman gets the warmer
welcome.
The first unit from New York to get
its mobilization orders was the one
organized by the Presbyterian hospital.
1t has been in existence over Il year
and prides itself on its equipment,
bought and slowed away against just
such a call. Last year orders came for
practice mobilization in Philadelphia,
but the hospital trustees demurred at
giving its doctors and nurses leave of
absence, so the equipment was sent
without them. II took IS freight cars
to carry 1t. Out in Cleveland directors