Medical, communication technicians bridge information gap

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Denise Johnson
  • Medical Training Exercise in Central and Eastern Europe Public Affairs
TROGIR, Croatia --  Exercise planners and technicians took steps to combine elements of two multi-national exercises for the first time in more than a decade of separate efforts during back-to-back conferences in Trogir, Croatia, Nov. 5 through 16.

Combined Endeavor 2008, a communications exercise comprising more than 1,000 multi-national participants and encompassing sites in two different nations, will provide communications support for the 2008 Medical Training Exercise in Central and Eastern Europe. CE 08 is a U.S. European Command-sponsored exercise and, like MEDCEUR, is held "in the spirit of" Partnership for Peace.

MEDCEUR, a Joint Chiefs of Staff-sponsored regional/multilateral exercise, brings more than 10 nations together in a joint training and validation medical exercise aimed at the interoperability of multi-national disaster response, humanitarian and peacekeeping missions. The exercises will be held May 1 through 14, with the CE 08 main site in Baumholder, Germany. The CE 08 Forward Operating Site will be about 15 miles away (25 kilometers) from the MEDCEUR site in Croatia.

The exercises have two distinct and diverse identities: CE focuses on the interoperability of communications equipment and systems, while MEDCEUR's mission is to gain interoperability between medical techniques and information. The underlying theme, however, remains a constant: interoperability and sharing information between nations to allow more effective joint responses to humanitarian, peacekeeping and disaster-relief operations.

"The exercises already share the common ideology of a collaborative effort to synchronize capabilities that span borders," said Jack Nelson, a USEUCOM senior analyst from Patch Barracks in Stuttgart, Germany. Nelson is a defense contractor supporting the USEUCOM Joint Training Readiness Exercise Division. "It was merely a difference in capabilities that divided the two."

That difference is exactly what brought the two efforts together during this year's planning.

"The idea to launch MEDCEUR's communications requirements from the world's premier communications exercise was not a far reach," said Mike Czapiewski, a U.S. Air Forces in Europe joint exercise planner based at Ramstein Air Base, Germany. "It was a matter of smart operations, considering we had two exercises within close proximity of one another ... one had a requirement and the other could provide it."

Combined Endeavor technicians will provide administrative networking (e-mail and intranet); command and control personal computer support; and internet. The Croatian CE delegation at the FOS will provide a Line of Sight microwave system to extend communications from the CE FOS at Lora Naval Base in Split, to Divulje Training Base, the MEDCEUR exercise site, in Trogir.

"We will continue to improve our interoperability at the CE FOS, regardless of the location; but since this is the first time we are providing this support for another exercise it adds another opportunity to learn," said Regional Group FOS Operational Systems Control Chair Croatian Staff Sgt. Jurica Miksic.

As a Croatian representative in his home country, Miksic's mission at the forward site will parlay into an additional opportunity to improve human interoperability.

"We are a great team here in our CE family, no matter where we are," he said. "I am happy to be able to show my home country to the friends I have made." Miksic has been a CE participant for eight years; this is the first time he will be participating from home. 

His experience at the Combined Endeavor exercises and his knowledge of the local area both seem to be providing advantages.

"Most of our technical planning team is new to CE. If it hadn't been for the help of veterans like Sergeant Miksic, we would not have been as successful at this conference," said Tim Weber, U.S. Air Force communications planner for both CE and MEDCEUR. Weber is an Air Force Engineering and Technical Services communications systems integrator with the 1st Combat Communications Squadron at Ramstein Air Base, Germany.

Each of the conferences reaped rewards as planners attained objectives and identified plans for the way ahead. CE attendees adapted a new word into their technical jargon as schematics and diagrams depicting satellite links and network support identified a new entity, MEDCEUR.

"Combining resources allows both CE and MEDCEUR to define a synergized effort with one aim: improving the effectiveness of our response in the event of a real-world contingency," said U.S. Army Lt. Col. James Pugh, Combined Endeavor exercise director. "In order for medical teams to respond to a crisis, they must have effective communication. At the end of the day, that equates to one thing: saving more lives."

More than 300 people from about 40 nations and two multi-national organizations were represented between the combined conferences.