Citation

Schane WP. Proc. Am. Assoc. Automot. Med. Annu. Conf. 1972; 16: 365-371.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1972, Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Military assistance to safety and traffic, MAST in the government lexicon, is a cooperative effort of the Department of Transportation, Department of Defense, and the Department of Health, Education and Welfare to provide military helicopters and paramedical personnel in selected rural and remote areas to augment civilian emergency medical service capabilities where conventional ground transportation is not readily available.

Three phenomena coalesced in August 1969 which led to the original planning toward MAST: 1) over each of the last few years, the American motorist has consistently succeeded in killing some 55,000 and injuring an additional 2,000,000 of his fellow man in highway traffic accidents; 2) A growing awareness developed that emergency medical services in many areas of the United States and particularly in outlying and rural areas are inadequate; and 3) because of the disengagement of U.S. ground forces in Viet Nam, and their return to the Continental United States, the aeromedical support for these ground units was also returning to United States assignments, where there were insufficient military accidents to keep them busy.

The conclusion was: Use military helicopters and crews to assist civilian agencies to provide much needed, better emergency medical care, and especially in remote areas, where the helicopter can operate most effectively.