Zutter was ready to treat sick, wounded in Desert Storm

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By MARK GUNDERMAN
Thursday, February 28, 2008 10:45 AM CST

The Chippewa Herald

Americans were relieved; Tom Zutter probably more than most.

When the United States and 33 coalition nations launched the Operation Desert Storm attack to liberate Kuwait from Iraqi occupation in 1991, there were widespread fears of heavy coalition casualties. It was feared that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein would use chemical or biological weapons, and his conventional forces were strong and entrenched enough to inflict serious casualties on the liberating forces.

Tom Zutter was a nurse with the Army National Guard, in charge of intermediate care wards at an EVAC hospital set up in the desert of Saudi Arabia. He was ready for the casualties. Much to his relief, and the relief of all Americans, they never came.

There were a few, of course, but mostly the 400-bed hospital treated medical conditions unrelated to military service or related to conditions in the desert.

It’s impossible to look at that as anything but good news.

Not all veterans’ stories are tales of heroism, but all are tales of service to the nation. This is the story of a medical services man who served for almost 20 years.

The Zutter family has a long history in the Chippewa Falls area. Tom’s grandfather founded Zutter Elevator, a key business for many years. His father, a WWII veteran, took over the business.

Tom went into active military service in 1975, out of high school.

“I spent four years in active duty with the Navy as a hospital corpsman,” Zutter said. “Basically, I went in for the educational benefits — I wanted to go to college. Plus, I thought it was the right thing to do.“

Through his military career, Zutter would have contact with almost every branch of service. He was stationed for a time at a Marine Corps base in Beauford, South Carolina, since the Navy provides medical services for the Marines.

After discharge, Zutter attended UW-Eau Claire for a couple of semesters, studying nursing. He then transferred to what is today Chippewa Valley Technical College for an LPN program, finishing in late 1981.

“In the fall of 1982 I heard there was actually a National Guard medical unit in the area, the 13th EVAC,” he said.

An EVAC is basically an evacuation hospital. Everyone has heard of the MASH units from television and movie fame. Well, those field hospitals would send their stabilized patients on to an EVAC.

“We’re back in the rear with the gear,” Zutter said, repeating a quip soldiers in the unit used.

The headquarters of the 13th EVAC was in Madison, but one of the detachments was headquartered in Chippewa Falls. Each detachment had about 100 members.

EVAC units have about everything civilian hospitals have, Zutter said, including doctors, nurses, labs, pharmacy, physical therapists and so on.

Zutter found civilian employment as an LPN at the Northern Center. Meanwhile, he enjoyed the weekend trainings every month, learning how to unpack pieces of an EVAC hospital from the huge storage containers and set them up.

Once a year, the unit would have a two-week training, which would sometimes be in various parts of the country, learning medical care procedures.

“I was at the Letterman Army Medical Center in San Francisco the second week of my two-week training when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait,” Zutter said. “I was activated in November of ’’90.“

He wasn’t surprised.

“We were prepared for it, because we had been talking about it. It didn’t come out of the blue,” he said. “It’s part of being in the military; I accepted it.”

Zutter was one of the first 10 activated, assigned to get everything ready when the rest of the unit came.

Ironically, in what another generation in the military might have called a “SNAFU,” the unit found that their packed-up EVAC hospital was gone — shipped away for another unit. They trained and waited for weeks at Fort McCoy until another was sent — from a post in England.

That training included arms fire, and getting into and out of chemical and biological weapons protection suits, and how to fire weapons while restricted in one.

The American military believes in being prepared.

Eventually, the unit shipped out and set up its hospital. In transition, Zutter was housed in the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia, a place that became famous at the time for being the target of many a SCUD missle attack. American Patriot missiles shot down the SCUDS, but that didn’t keep Zutter and the others from having to scramble into and out of the suits at Saddam Hussein’s whims.

“Hurry up and wait” has long been one of the military facts of life, veterans say. It was no different in the Gulf War, as the folks “in the rear with the gear” waited for the attack to begin, and the casualties to come.

Zutter is as relieved as anyone that the carnage never came to American forces.

“We were lucky to have two or three beds used,” he said.

The busiest they got was when 14 Iraqi prisoners were brought in for treatment. Zutter helped treat one with shrapnel in the shoulder.

The EVAC staff got a chance to tour the battlefields later, such as they were. The coalition forces pounded the Iraqi Republican Guard in its desperate attempt to escape, and the damage was strewn along the roads leading from Kuwait.

Zutter will not second-guess the decision not to go on to Bagdhad and overthrow Hussein’s regime then, a topic that was big in the news in those days.

“The mission that was identified was accomplished. The mission was to liberate Kuwait and Kuwait was liberated,” Zutter said.

“We didn’t get to leave until April of ‘91,” Zutter recalls.

There was a parade back in Chippewa Falls for the returning troops. Zutter enjoyed that, but not as much as being reunited with his family.

Zutter had just completed RN training before activation, but not soon enough to go to the war as an RN and an officer.

With the Gulf War experience showing an over-stock on EVAC hospitals, the 13th was disbanded. But Zutter secured a commission as a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army Reserves.

He announced his retirement a month before 9-11. The attacks delayed his ultimate discharge, but Zutter eased fully into a civilian life.

Then LeRoy Jansky called. He got Zutter involved in the VFW, which is in need of new members as the WWII and Vietnam generations slip away. Zutter enjoys his work with the organization.

“The camaraderie has a lot to do with it,” he said.

The same might be said for why he enjoyed his years of service to his country.

each Mark Gunderman at mark.gunderman@lee.net.