General Discussion

..... after the March 27, 1964.

The magnitude 9.2–9.3 megathrust earthquake remains the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in North America.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1964_Alaska_earthquake.


Every summer during the Air National Guard's two-week deployment, we would transport the hospital to a nearby Air National Guard base and ultimately deploy the entire hospital.

As an operating room tech AFSC 90232/90252, we would check it for wear and tear while in storage, repack and sterilize all the surgical packs, check OR meds for out-of-date drugs, and review all surgical instruments for damage or wear.

During these two weeks, we stayed on-site, sleeping and eating on-site, with all meals provided by the MASH mess hall staff. These two weeks were used to train new Air National Guard members to deploy, tear down, and repack the mobile hospital so it was ready for its next deployment.

Sadly, to my knowledge, some "idiot(s)" decided we didn't need these mobile hospitals for national emergencies like Katrina and dismantled them.
Of course, with my history as a teacher, I believe this was part of a move to switch all military medical care from the well-trained Medical Corp to privatized medical care.

This continues to be a sore point for this 77-year-old former medic.