CDF health

The Health Branch of the Community Defence Forces of Sober Thought is responsible for the preventive and restorative health services for all troops on the land, at sea and in the air. CDF Civil Guard units provide free or cheap public health and dental services to isolated or poor areas in their respective provinces.

The basic building block or unit of the health branch is the company, and several companies chosen for the appropriate mission are grouped into health battalions. Health battalions are larger and much more officer-heavy than ordinary battalions.

Headquarters companies

The headquarters company of a health battalion consists of 72 all ranks: one Vice Commander, one Chief Lieutenant, one Lieutenant, five Vice Lieutenants, one Chief Warrant Officer, two Warrant Officers, three Vice Warrant Officers and 58 other ranks. The battalion HQ Squad consists twelve troops, namely a Vice Commander, Chief Lieutenant, Chief Warrant Officer, Leading Defender, two Master Defenders and six Defenders.

It is closely allied with the Administration Platoon which houses the clerks of the whole unit, and consists of a Vice Lieutenant, Vice Warrant Officer, three Leads, six Masters and nineteen Defenders. The HQ Company also includes the command elements for five specialties platoons: ambulance (10 all ranks), medical technology (5 including radiologist), pharmacology (5 including pharmacist), supply (5) and transport (5).

Surgical companies

These units are mainly designed to provide trauma care near the front lines where they act as field hospitals. Besides battlefield medicine, they may offer second stage surgical care and non-combattant surgeries such as appendectomies. The command team consists of the commanding officer and chief surgeon (Chief Lieutenant), executive officer and chief nurse (Lieutenant), company sergeant (Warrant Officer), a Lead, a Master and five Defenders.

Casualties are brought from the frontline by the three ambulance platoons whose command team consists of a Vice Lieutenant, Vice Warrant Officer and two Defenders. The thirty-six ambulances are staffed by 9 Leads, 27 Masters and 72 Defenders, each ambulance crew consisting of an NCO as paramedic and two ORs as driver and orderly.

Once the ambulances have successfully evacuated the casualties, the wounded arrive for treatment by surgical teams consisting of a doctor and three nurses (all Vice Lieutenants), and six orderlies (one Lead, one Master and four Defenders). Three surgical teams plus a command team equal one section.

The entire company consists of 275 all ranks. Ancillary services are provided by the pharmaceutical, medical technology, supply and transport teams totalling two Vice Warrant Officers, four Leading Defenders, eight Master Defenders and twenty-six Defenders.

Medical companies

The medical companies are broadly similar to surgical companies, although smaller and devoted to non-invasive means of treatment. The whole company totals only 180 all ranks, and each element except the surgical sections duplicated here.

Each of the three medical sections consist of a three medical teams of one doctor, one nurse, a Leading Defender, a Master Defender and four Defenders. Medical sections are led by a Lieutenant (commanding officer and physician) and Vice Lieutenant (executive officer and nurse), and Vice Warrant Officer, Master and two Defenders.

Public health companies

Public health is the preventive side of medicine, focusing on thwarting communicable diseases before they get a chance to spread. Among the public health tools are inoculations, vaccines, sanitation, personal hygiene and quarantine.

Public health companies are even smaller than medical companies, with only 152 members. The command team consists of one Chief Lieutenant (commanding officer and chief nurse), one Lieutenant (executive officer and chief physician), one Warrant Officer (company sergeant), and seven other ranks.

Each public health team consists of two nurses (Vice Lieutenants) and three medical assistants (Master Defender and two Defenders). Five teams constitute a public health section with a command team of a nurse (Lieutenant), doctor (Vice Lieutenant) and other ranks (one each Lead, Master and Defender).

The ambulance platoon is reduced to a single section of four ambulances staffed by a Vice Warrant Officer, Lead, two Masters and eight Defenders. Otherwise, the support staff is identical to that of the surgical and medical companies.

Dental companies

Dentists and dental hygienists perform both preventive and restorative care to soldiers' teeth and gums, as well as oral surgeries beyond extractions. The entire company consists of 162 all ranks, serving under a command team of a Chief Lieutenant (commanding officer and chief dentist), a Lieutenant (executive officer and chief nurse), a Warrant Officer (company sergeant) and seven other ranks.

Each of the three dental sections consists of one Lieutenant (commanding officer and dentist), four Vice Lieutenants (dentists and nurses), one Vice Warrant Officer (platoon sergeant), three Leading Defenders, eleven Master Defenders and twenty Defenders. Pharmaceutical, medical technology, transportation and supply sections -- each of ten other ranks -- provide ancillary services.