The Army said Wednesday it has alerted three National Guard and Reserve MASH units to prepare for mobilization and deployment to the Persian Gulf. Also put on alert were two Army Reserve combat support hospitals and one general hospital, plus a variety of medical specialists from Army Hospitals nationwide. The mobilizations are part of a broad Pentagon push to strengthen medical support and supplies in the gulf as the pace of U.S. troop deployments increases. The three Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, or MASH, units put on alert are: the 159th Medical Hospital of the Louisiana National Guard at Jackson Barracks in New Orleans; the 300th Medical Hospital of the Tennessee National Guard at Smyrna; and the 807th Medical Hospital of the Army Reserve at Paducah, Ky. Maj. Hooper Penuel, a spokesman for the Tennessee Guard, said the 300th Medical Hospital reported for active duty Dec. 9 and its 230 members are at Fort Campbell, Ky., awaiting further orders. The Army announcement said the unit had been placed on alert but not yet activated. At least three other MASH units from the Guard and Reserve had been called up earlier in Operation Desert Shield. The units, made famous by the television series ``MASH,'' provide surgical and other emergency treatment of battle casualties at the rear of the combat zone. Also put on alert were Guard and Reserve units in a variety of medical-related specialties, including general medical service, dentistry, preventive medicine, blood distribution, air evacuation and veterinary services. Veterinarians inspect meat used for troops. Last week, the Navy said it was adding two 500-bed combat-zone field hospitals in Saudi Arabia and calling up thousands more reserve medical specialists.
