MEDCEUR builds partnership with food, music

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Nadine Barclay
  • MEDCEUR 11 Public Affairs
CAMP PEPELISHTE, Macedonia --  Leadership from the U.S. and Macedonia cooked and served local cuisine to show their appreciation to the participants of the 2011 Medical Training Exercise in Central and Eastern Europe.

"It was important for the Top 3 and leadership to bring a favorite American tradition to MEDCEUR 11," said Chief Master Sgt. Joshua Mills, 3rd Air Force Surgeon General's Office chief, U.S. Air Forces in Europe medical logistics functional manager and MEDCEUR's senior enlisted advisor. "We wanted to show our partner nations the way Americans celebrate with friends."

More than 700 pieces of meat were grilled for the participants to include chicken, hamburger, Macedonian sausage, kabobs and hot dogs.

"The food is awesome, it's nice to have a traditional home cooked meal after a week of hard work and (Meal, Ready-To-Eat)," said U.S. Marine Sgt. Sergio Rosas, 4th Marine Logistics Group, Personnel Retrieval and Processind Company mortuary affairs specialist.

An annual Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff-sponsored regional and multilateral exercise, MEDCEUR is designed to provide medical training and operational experience in a deployed environment for U.S. and partner nations. The countries participating in this year's MEDCEUR are Macedonia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Slovenia and Norway.

"By doing something like this we hoped to show another side of the American people to the nations here and give our Airmen, Soldiers and Marines at little taste of home."