Waiting for War - A Nurse's Story. QARANC. By Kay Foster.

 

22 Field Hospital Bahrain Aug -Dec 1990

In August 1990, I was the Company Commander for Recruit Training at the QA Training Centre. From there, I was deployed to the Gulf with the second wave of medical personal, joining 22 Field Hospital in Bahrain. I was heading into, - to quote Saddam Hussain "the Mother of All Wars".

On our arrival in Bahrain, our group was split up, and we were accommodated in 5-star hotels around Manama, the capital of Bahrain. Week by week the British troops arrived, at first it was the Army, then the RAF. The RAF were to play a significant role in Gulf War 1 with the formidable Tornado and Jaguar planes. For security purposes, the top floor of our hotel was ring-fenced for British troops, which in essence became our bar. Alcohol was permissible in hotels for non-Muslims. Life was pretty comfortable for us for the first few months; accommodation was superb, we could venture around Manama, and spent free time exploring the souks and swimming in the hotel pool.

We did have to work however. We were bused down daily to RAF Muharraq situated near Bahrain International Airport, where 22 Field Hospital was established. Our route was never the same, as we were wary of a terrorist attack. Once at the Field Hospital we spent many hours training, having lectures and practising working in our Nuclear, Biological and Chemical (NBC) kit. These suits were lined with charcoal and on top of these we wore gas masks, rubber gloves and rubber boots over our outdoor military boots. The temperatures in Bahrain in August, September could rise as high as 39C. Climbing into NBC suits was unbearable and therefore practise time was restricted to avoid heat exhaustion. How were we going to cope with nursing patients? This added another fear to my knowledge that I was a novice when it came to working in a war zone. Sadden Hussain's reputation as a thug, bully, murderer was well known. How would we survive if he did use his weapons of mass destruction?



In Maharraq we set up our field hospital. Most of the hospital was established from the remnants of kit from the Second World War 51 years earlier! It was hot and dark working in the green canvas tents. White mesh was used to try and screen the tents from the intense Middle East temperatures.

The order was given that we would whitewash the green canvas tents to reduce the temperatures within, which it did by a degree or two. It was arduous work, and the theatre staff had a brain wave. They collected the fire extinguishers, somehow filled them with whitewash and sprayed them on the tents. This act of using their initiative was not rewarded with the order of merit, but punishment for misuse of Her Majesties property!



At first, the move to Bahrain was exciting, a new place to visit, we still had freedom, we could eat out, shop etc., and the Bahrain people made us feel very welcome. We got invited as guests to some of the local Bahrain and expatriate community for meals. However, there was always the threat of terrorist activities. After a while, it did get a bit tedious; we were waiting for over four months before the War started.

In due course, the American Medics joined us at our base. They arrived in style. Their hospital consisted of mobile containers with air conditioners, swivel chairs, pump up and down beds and all mod cons. All in all this made us feel like their poor cousins. However, The Americans had experienced a long protracted war in Vietnam, since the Second World War and their kit was state of the art. They were now well-disciplined, well-trained troops, very different from those iconic photographs of troops smoking pot through their rifle butts during the Vietnam War. 

Royal Navy Medics were stationed on the British Royal Fleet Auxiliary Ship Argus and could be seen not far off the shores of Bahrain. The Argos was used in the Falklands War and then in Gulf War 1 some ten years later. It had a 70-bed capacity and fitted with ITU facilities. 

Over the five months from August 1990 to January 1991 when Gulf War 1 started, massive deployment of military human resources and equipment from the allies was the largest since the Second World War. There was an anticipation of a brutal war from a ruthless man. The allies knew that Saddam Hussain had chemical weapons, he had used it on the Kurds in 1988. He was, therefore, threatened that if he did use chemical weapons on the allied troops, the consequence could mean a nuclear intervention.



I stayed with 22 Field Hospital until just before Christmas 1990, when I joined 33 Field Hospital in Al Jubail Saudi Arabia. Bahrain was the quiet before the storm. War has been described as “ many days of boredom punctuated with moments of terror" I was to meet the terror on the 17th January 1991, when the War started.


Major Kay Foster (Retd) QARANC. 

I joined the QA's in 1977- 1994. My quest was to nurse, travel, have a career with adventures and excitement. Be stretched in my professional life, no two days to be the same - I am not one for routine. Some posting took me outside the hospital, as Inservice Training Officer, Woman's Services Liaison Officer, Expedition Nurse, Company Commander of NCO Recruit Training. I served in London, Hong Kong, Nepal, Germany, Wales, Canada, Aldershot, Peru, Falkland Islands, First Gulf War. My holidays in these global postings took me many other countries to include Communist China, Alaska, USA, Australia, Bruni, Cyprus, Europe, and countries in the communist Eastern Block.