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The US Army has an excellent record of disease prevention, field sanitation and disease control. However, since the United States belongs to several multinational alliances, the Army will support allies whose disease prevention record is not as good. The recent Soviet experience in Afghanistan is an example of a modern force which was seriously hampered by disease and poor field sanitation, further stressing the commander's role in protecting the force.
RECENT US ARMY DEPLOYMENTS have been relatively disease free, thanks to Army medical professionals' efforts, a solid inoculation program, high standards of field sanitation and small-unit leadership.l As the Army prepares for future deployments in conjunction with allies or UN forces, US Army medical professionals could find themselves providing medical support to the other nations' forces whose experience in field sanitation and disease prevention differs from ours. In this situation, our medical team needs to prepare to fight epidemics rather than isolated cases.2
Throughout history, armies and disease have been constant companions. Death from disease often exceeded battlefield deaths. Typhus, plague, cholera, typhoid and dysentery have decided more campaigns than the great generals of history. In the Crimean War (1853 to 1856), the English and French combined forces against Russia. The French deployed 309,000 men into the theater: of these, some 200,000 were hospitalized-50,000 for wounds and 150,000 from disease.3 English and Russian experience was similar.
Modern medicine and inoculations have significantly decreased wartime deaths due to disease, but disease continues to sap the strength of modem armies. Some armies do a better job of practicing preventative medicine than others. As the Soviet army learned in Afghanistan, strong preventive medicine and field sanitation programs are essential for maintaining forces in foreign climates.4
For the first six years of the war, the Soviet press barely mentioned the war. When they did, it was in terms of happy Soviet soldiers building hospitals and orphanages. The Soviet combat role was not mentioned, nor was the fact that the Soviets filled more hospitals and orphanages then they constructed. When General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev's glasnost policy was implemented in the Soviet Union, the true casualty picture slowly began to emerge. Of the 620,000 Soviets who served in Afghanistan, 14,453 were killed or died from wounds, accidents or disease-a modest...