Sgt. Maj. Vincent Bond, chief medical non-commissioned officer, Joint Task Force-Haiti and XVIII Airborne Corps, Fort Bragg, N.C., speaks with (left to right) Pfc. Amy Triton, Spc. Victor Trelles, and Sgt. Christopher Johnson, all medics with the Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division at Forward Operating Base Green Falcon Feb. 10. The Green Falcon medics have been working with local communities by setting up clinics, providing support to local hospitals, and easing logistical challenges. Photo by Spc. A.M. LaVey

For the Fort Bragg, N.C.-based enlisted medical personnel assigned to the Joint Task Force –Haiti, Operation Unified Response has been a tremendous learning experience and training opportunity.

“Our medics have been working with nongovernmental organizations, seeing 100 – 300 patients per day,” said Command Sgt. Maj. James Westover, senior enlisted adviser, 1st Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division.

When the squadron first arrived, they assisted with the disaster relief, but “the injuries that we are seeing now are not earthquake related injuries but normal routine care,” said Westover.

“Our medics have been performing amazingly, they are getting the training and experience with the NGO doctors – the experience and the lessons that they are learning, you could not pay for back in the States,” said Westover. “It has been amazing; it would take years for someone to learn all that they have learned here in this small amount of time.”

“They work hard, running day and night. It is a busy operation, but they are sticking through it. They feel a great level of accomplishment because they are down here helping people,” he said.

“Our medical knowledge has grown tremendously especially in the field of pharmacology,” said Pfc. Cameron Turk, a medic also with the 1/73rd “We are seeing the benefits of our work and seeing how it is helping those patients who return to us.”

“When we see that which we are doing is really helping people, it makes us feel better about that job that we do and we are seeing our training has been thorough,” said Turk. “When we get to Iraq we know that we’ll do a great job.”

The humanitarian mission here is a change-of-pace from the battlefields of Iraq or Afghanistan.

“In Iraq or Afghanistan you have improvised explosive device blasts, gunshots, and trauma, but here it is different,” said Sgt. Maj. Vincent Bond, chief medical noncommissioned officer, JTF-H. “The types of injuries our medics are treating here are different from those on the battlefield.”

“Our medical department personnel are getting a lot of hands-on training with other types of traumatic injuries and even obstetrical issues,” said Bond.

“These are experiences that our medics would probably never have been able to see in any other environment,” said Bond. “They are seeing amputations, secondary infections, and the training value that they are getting out of this will help them tremendously.”

The education that medical personnel receive at the U.S. Army Medical Center and School, Fort Sam Houston, Texas, provides the building blocks of medical knowledge, upon which unit level and on-the-job training builds upon. Humanitarian and disaster relief deployments however, provide much-needed, hands-on training that usually cannot be acquired in the garrison environment.

“Our medics have been training and training in garrison,” said 1st Lt. Kelly Collins, executive officer, Company C, 407th Brigade Support Battalion, 2nd BCT, 82nd Airborne Division. “We have a lot of new medics without combat experience, and this is a really good training. They will be able to pass this knowledge on to the newer medics who come after them.”

Spc. Joshua Graff, a healthcare specialist with the 1st Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, supports a 14-year old boy while the boy's injuries are being cleaned and redressed by Spc. Aaron Kamiaz, a healthcare specialist also with the 1/73. Photo by Spc. A.M. LaVey

“Any opportunity we have to use our hands or watch someone work is an opportunity to learn,” said Sgt. Christopher Johnson, a senior medic with the Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 2nd BCT, 82nd Airborne Division. “This is really nice for our medics to get hands-on experience before they get deployed, he said. “This is a good opportunity for my younger medics to see more clinical time, to see more diseases, infections and being able to treat those.”

Medical personnel have also been out working with local communities setting up clinics, providing support to hospitals and easing logistical challenges.

“We are providing our type of world-class healthcare to the local community here,” said Johnson.

“This is a really great experience for us, after being deployed to Iraq it is really wonderful to get out and interact with the people and help them as much as we can, without all the healthcare being trauma related,” said Johnson.

“Most of the work that we are doing here, with the local community, is not related to the earthquake,” said Johnson. “We are treating people who haven’t had the opportunity to have any type of healthcare.”

“We are letting them know that the Americans are here to support them, however long they may need us,” he said.

In this joint environment, with the different uniformed forces working together with civilian agencies – both foreign and domestic, has provided a valuable lesson in cooperation.

“It is a tragedy what happened here, but it is amazing how, not only the USA responded but the other nations as well,” said Bond. “There are many different people helping out, with the main goal to be humanitarian assistance and medical care to the earthquake victims here in Haiti.”

“Anytime you have different military resources in one small area and you have to work together, it can be very challenging, but it is going very well here,” said Bond.

“I have learned a lot, working with the different services,” said Sgt. Rudy Nunez, a medic also assigned to Co. C, 407th BSB, “especially dealing with patient transfers and the different kinds of aircraft configurations.”

From the most seasoned senior medical NCO to the newest 68-series Soldier, the U.S. Army Medical Corps has more than 180 reasons to be proud of the work that is being done here.

“The Army runs in a chaotic environment, and Army medical personnel thrive and make sense of that chaos,” said Bond.

“If anything good is coming out of this, it is that our service members are getting the opportunity to train and see what happens in natural disasters so that in the future, when we have to respond, we will have trained personnel who will be able to understand what needs to be done,” said Bond.

The devastation caused by the earthquake “is one of those things that you hope will never happen again – but tragedy will eventually strike and when it does, we are now more skillfully trained to assist in these situations,” said Bond.

“Everyone is doing a phenomenal job,” said Bond. “They are not only supporting the people of Haiti, but they are also supporting each other – and that is the key here.”

DVIDS
Story by Spc. A.M. LaVey

Spc Joshua Graff assists Haitian boy

82nd Airborne medics in Haiti

Tags: 82nd airborne division, disaster relief in haiti, disaster update, earthquake in haiti, Haiti, Haiti quake, Haiti update, Haitian relief efforts, military aid to Haiti, relief operations in Haiti, U.S. military aid to Haiti

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This entry was posted on Sunday, February 14th, 2010 at 4:53 pm and is filed under Disasters, Military. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.