The aircraft carrier's primary mission is to provide a forward-deployed offense.  It accomplishes this by supporting a composite airwing of some 70-plus multimission-capable aircraft.  

Combat capabilities include surveillance, antisubmarine warfare, antisurface ship warfare, air-to-air combat, strike warfare, and electronic countermeasures warfare.  

Supportive missions, including medical support of the crew members aboard, are facilitated by a self-sufficient carrier hospital, which is a 65-bed, level "2-plus" facility with the following attributes:

• 3 dedicated ICU beds with coinciding equipment

• 1 operating room

• X-ray capability (less ultrasound, CAT scan, and most dye imaging)

• pharmaceutical service

• orthopedic cast room

• physical exam service, including refractions/audio tests

• spectacle fabricating facility

• full-service lab (may have HIV screening);

• preventive medicine support

• dental support, including oral surgery and prosthetics

Carrier manning includes:

• a flight surgeon serving as the senior medical officer

• a general surgeon

• a nurse anesthetist / anesthesiologist

• a general medical officer and usually two flight surgeons attached to the Airwing

• a physician's assistant

• a health care administrator

• a nurse

• 40 to 45 hospital corpsmen (including those assigned to the Wing) with a variety of NECs.

The carrier's medical department also serves as a consultative and primary MEDEVAC facility for the other vessels within the battle group, which could consist of another six ships and some 2,000 crewmembers.

Aircraft carriers have excellent medical resources, including communications, physical facilities, transportation, and medical staff. Their limitations are:

• They are not as well equipped for treating large numbers of casualties as the amphibious assault ships, and

• During combat, the carrier is focused on air operations. Trying to transfer casualties to the carrier at this time may be difficult or impossible.

Approved for public release; Distribution is unlimited.

The listing of any non-Federal product in this CD is not an endorsement of the product itself, but simply an acknowledgement of the source. 

Operational Medicine 2001

Health Care in Military Settings

This web version is provided by The Brookside Associates Medical Education Division.  It contains original contents from the official US Navy NAVMED P-5139, but has been reformatted for web access and includes advertising and links that were not present in the original version. This web version has not been approved by the Department of the Navy or the Department of Defense. The presence of any advertising on these pages does not constitute an endorsement of that product or service by either the US Department of Defense or the Brookside Associates. The Brookside Associates is a private organization, not affiliated with the United States Department of Defense.

Contact Us  ·  ·  Other Brookside Products