The first materials landed were hospital ward furniture and caskets. When the hospital unit arrived at Guantanamo Bay, their sad but enlightening experiences began right at the dock. Guantanamo Bay was chosen as the site of the experiment, with the camp to be located some distance from the center of the Naval Station on a virgin peninsula composed of chaparral and cacti, now known as Mobile Point. Plans were drawn up for a mobile hospital, and to test its practicability it was to be sent along with a large expedition of Marines going to a Caribbean island. Even at that time, it was obvious that modern warfare had put a high premium on mobility and that hospitals were no exception to the rule.
In September 1940, one of the most interesting experiments in Naval medical history occurred at Guantanamo Bay. In 1941 a small dispensary was set up at the Marine Corps site, and in 1942, a 16-bed dispensary was completed on the leeward side of the base at the Naval Air Station. With the possibility of war on the horizon, the dispensary, as it was then designated, became very busy establishing outlying facilities. In September 1939, the Dispensary consisted of six buildings, most of them connected by covered passageways. During the ensuing years additional buildings were erected and the staff increased. When the patient load became too large for one building, tents were set up to provide housing for the patients. The staff was still one medical officer and a couple of corpsmen, but during the winter periods when the Fleet was present, additional medical officers and corpsmen were assigned from the Fleet. All dispensary facilities were located in one building. When the Naval Station relocated from South Toro in 1913, the dispensary was reestablished on "Upper Flats,î located at what is now the base industrial waterfront area. The staff consisted of one medical officer and a few corpsmen. A dispensary was built on North Toro Cay, locally referred to as the "hospital". The cay has since been known as Hospital Cay.ĭuring the Spanish-American War, in 1898, the United States established a Naval Station at North and South Toro Cays (directly behind the current hospital). Harrison, Paymaster, R.N., who died on 1 December 1854, and according to records was buried on the cay's south end. All the victims of the fever recovered except one, E. More than 100 years later, in 1854, a British warship, HBMS Buzzard, utilized Hospital Cay to isolate and treat crew members suffering from yellow fever.
There was a medical presence in Guantanamo Bay more than 100 years before the Spanish American War, when British troops established a hospital on a large island in the bay in October 1741 during a time when the British and Spanish were engaged in one of their frequent wars, growing out of trade conflicts in the new world. Our History The oldest US station on foreign soil
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