Mix-Up Sends Military Doctors to Front Lines

WITH U.S. FORCES, Saudi Arabia —  A group of noncombatant military doctors spent the first week of the war as the most forward U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia because of an apparent mix-up in orders, members of the group said.

“We were in the neutral zone about 20 miles from the Iraqi lines,” said Maj. Bill Buchanan of the 701st Main Supply Battalion of the 1st Infantry Division.

“We were told later we were the most forward unit in the entire . . . theater,” he said. “Doctors were digging foxholes; we were manning fighting positions.”

The doctors still aren’t sure how they ended up as the forward force in a combat infantry division, far ahead of the fighting soldiers.

Capt. Eric Tunell, 36, a doctor from Redlands, Calif., said his understanding was that the day the war started, the medical supply battalions got orders to move to a spot about 90 miles north of where the division was then located.

Apparently, the orders were changed, but by then, the doctors and their support vehicles had begun a 26-hour trek north, the doctors said.

Several of the doctors said they spent about a week in the position without escort before elements of a division cavalry squadron arrived. Even then, most of the doctors remained on the front line.

“The feeling was, we were so small the Iraqis would probably ignore us,” said Capt. Kevin Wall, a 31-year-old Army doctor from Minneapolis.

“I think it’s a fairly good symbol of where doctors fit in the whole Army scheme of things,” he added with a smile.

One doctor, speaking anonymously, speculated on what would have happened if the Iraqis had pushed south.

“We would have been a speed bump,” he said.

This article is based on a Pentagon combat pool report reviewed by military censors.