C000452

Round shaped, bronze colored coin, 1-9/16 inches in diameter.

SIDE 1 -

SIDE 2

The 51st Contingency Hospital was a major player in the Reception, Staging, Onward Movement and Integration exercises. The contingency hospital, located at Kimhae near Pusan, South Korea, was at the heart of a flight route that would take patients throughout and out of Korea during wartime emergencies. The only thing that distinguished a contingency hospital from the original MASH units was the fact that it was located in a permanent structure that provided better conditions for surgery. The 51st Contingency Hospital was the only such military hospital located in theater. A sixth of a mile long, the hospital took up more room than 3 football fields combined. It was divided into a 250-bed aeromedical staging facility where patients would stay overnight until they could be moved, a 100-bed intensive care unit and a 400-bed medical/surgical unit where patients could be held on a more permanent basis.