Military Medical Center

Narration of Nasrullah Fathian

Compiled by: Mahia Hafizi
Translated by: Fazel Shirzad

2024-9-13

Nasrullah Fathian, who was in charge of the Southern Military Medical Center during the Holy Defense period, has given his stories from the time of birth to the command in the book "Military Medical Center". This book is the result of 60 hours of General Ali Asghar Molla's interview with Fathian, which was edited by Abbas Heydari Moghadam Arani in 13 chapters and 26 topic-oriented conversations. In editing the book, the interview questions have been preserved.

In the early months of the war, due to the heavy fire of the enemy and the limitations of the medical centers of the provinces involved in the battle, the reception and treatment of the wounded faced many problems. Due to its new establishment, the IRGC medical unit had not yet found the capacity and ability to provide effective services. On the other hand, for the coordination and organization of medical volunteer groups and rescuers, new structures and organizations were needed in various organizations such as the Ministry of Health, Construction Jihad, Red Crescent, etc. This support unit found its place in operations and became one of the fixed units in every operation.

The first chapter of the book includes the birth of the narrator until the victory of the Islamic Revolution. In this chapter, his family origin and political struggles are discussed. After the victory of the revolution, the narrator and some of his friends formed the Isfahan Shahinshahr army base. After that, he went to Tehran for medical training and in this way, he entered the medical field of the IRGC. How he entered the Revolutionary Guards and his presence in the Kurdistan Front are the things that have been narrated in the second chapter of the book.

In the middle of November 1981, the narrator went to Khuzestan on behalf of the general health of the army in order to strengthen the combat health of the southern fronts, and he was entrusted with the responsibility of the health of operational axes. On the order of Mohsen Rezaei, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, he, together with the medical officer of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, prepared and adjusted the description of duties and instructions for health and treatment, as well as the structure and organization of military medical center. With the development of the structure and organization of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, he was also given the responsibility of the military health affairs of the Karbala camp.

The 4th to 13th dialogues of the book are about the state of combat health and the activities of the narrator in the operations of Fateh al-Mubin, Bait al-Maqdis, Ramadan, Muharram, preliminary Dawn, Dawn 1, Dawn 2, Dawn 4, Khyber, Badr and Dawn 8. With the prolongation and expansion of the war, an organization named "Central Front Relief and Treatment Headquarters" was set up in the rear of the front, which has been discussed in the fourteenth interview. In the subsequent discussions, issues such as the treatment of chemical casualties, education, human resources, how to provide medicine and blood, procurement, communication, advertising, development of health activities, innovations and achievements of combat health were discussed.

Documents, images as well as index are given at the end of the book. At the beginning of the documents section, there is the typed text of the materials related to military health that was recorded in the meeting on 20th of February 2014, an hour before the start of Dawn 8 operation (without images of the documents). During the text of the book, related images including photos of people and operational maps with subtitles are given. The pictures at the end of the book and operational maps are printed in color.

The first edition of the book "Narration of Nasrullah Fathian/ Military Medical Center" in 696 pages and 1000 copies, with a ministerial cut and a price of 215,000 Tomans (Iranian Currency), was published in 2023 by the Holy Defense Records and Research Center.