Hospital Ship Psychiatry in a War Zone

The hospital ship Repose has provided combat-supportive medical services for U. S. forces in Viet Nam, receiving casualties evacuated directly from the field medical units as well as patients referred from the major hospitals ashore. Although the psychiatric patient population aboard was similar in many respects to that at any other military hospital, the function of the ship as an intermediate echelon of psychiatric treatment in the war zone helped to maintain a strong back-to-duty orientation, and 50 percent of all psychiatric patients taken aboard were returned to full duty.