MEDCEUR goes live

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman David Dobrydney
  • MEDCEUR Public Affairs
DANILOVGRAD ARMY BASE, Montenegro --  Months of preparation came to fruition Sept. 15 as approximately 250 servicemembers from ten nations engaged in live exercise scenarios as part of the 2010 Medical Training Exercise in Central and Eastern Europe, MEDCEUR.

MEDCEUR '10 simulates six different mass-casualty situations, including riots and chemical spills, to test emergency response skills addressed in seminars and lectures. The live exercises are designed to improve disaster and crisis response readiness through hands-on experience, and building partnership capacity should the need arise
for a multi-national response to a disaster.

Airman 1st Class Valeria Pacheco, a medical technician from the 48th Medical Surgical Squadron, normally works in the OB-GYN clinic at her home station of RAF Lakenheath, England.

"I've never worked in an ER, so I'm glad to get hands-on experience on situations I'll probably see downrange," said Airman Pacheco.

The Airmen of the 48th Medical Group from RAF Lakenheath, England, were in the thick of exercise activities - treating patients, responding to possible contamination and monitoring the stress levels of fellow Airmen.

Staff Sgt. Kerim Kodal, a radiology technologist from the 48th MSGS said the best part of MEDCUER is being able to "share experience, learn from other nations and combine what we know to make our methods better."

Col. Charles Tedder, command surgeon for the 3rd Air Force and whose staff was tasked with much of the exercise planning, explained that MEDCEUR is particularly beneficial because it gathers multiple nations in one place to build teamwork, specifically peace support operations capacity, with partner nations.

"Medics speak the same language professionally," said Colonel Tedder, "and in general no matter what medics you have, they are accomplishing good."

The exercise planners had to balance the needs of foreign militaries with U.S. forces' needs in order to make sure the classes and field scenarios benefited everyone involved, said 3rd Air Force Medical Readiness Planner Capt. Timothy Schmidt.

Additionally, MEDCEUR provides a platform for U.S. Air Force medics to be certified as EMEDS members, a requirement that must be met every 24 months. If the Airmen didn't receive EMEDS training through MEDCEUR, Colonel Tedder explained, they would have to go to the states thus incurring an additional cost in time and money.

"It's hard to get a medical group commander to send people out twice, once for the training and once for building partnership capacity," he said. "This is an efficient way of addressing both of those requirements."

For the Liberty Wing Airmen, MEDCEUR provides an opportunity to build interoperability with other nations and build up capabilities for the future.

Major Dan Zablotsky, with 3rd Air Force International Health, said it was important that the U.S. and its partner nations were familiar with the same types of equipment and procedures in case they needed to work together facing a future catastrophe.

"It's like building Lego blocks, you put the first Lego and they put the next onto it," he explained, adding that the training could also help the participating nations face a threat on their own without U.S. aid.

Lt. Col. Jeff White, EMEDS commander, discussed the additional benefit of having Airmen train here as a unit instead of being sent piecemeal back to the United States.

In the states, everyone goes in different directions back to their units when the training is over, he said. "When you come here, it builds true camaraderie and teamwork; an operating room doctor and technician can look back and say 'remember what we did in Montenegro? Let's try that here.'"

Live exercises will continue for three more days, followed by a cultural day, analysis of exercise implementation, closing ceremonies and redeployment of exercise participants, support personnel and cargo.

For more information, visit www.usafe.af.mil/medceur.asp and www.odbrana.gov.me.

(Information for this story was provided by U.S. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Jad Sleiman)