US Army field veterinarian officer discusses K9 tactical combat casualty care at Justified Accord

NAIROBI, KENYA

02.16.2025

Audio by Sgt. 1st Class Solomon Navarro 

U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa

U.S. Army Capt. Ariel Avraham, a veterinarian with the 64th Medical Detachment Veterinary Service Support, 421st Medical Battalion, 30th Medical Brigade, discusses the K9 tactical combat casualty care (K9 TCCC) training provided to Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) during exercise Justified Accord 2025 (JA25) at the Humanitarian Peace Support School (HPSS) in Nairobi, Kenya, Feb. 16, 2025. Avraham highlights the skill and adaptability of KDF personnel, their structured approach and the importance of knowledge-sharing in strengthening multinational veterinary partnerships.

Justified Accord 2025 (JA25) is the premier U.S. Africa Command (USAFRICOM) exercise in East Africa, designed to enhance multinational combat readiness, strengthen crisis response capabilities and empower allies and partners in the region. Led by U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa (SETAF-AF) and hosted by Kenya, Djibouti and Tanzania, JA25 integrates high-intensity training scenarios that sharpen warfighting skills, increase operational reach and enhance the ability to execute complex joint and multinational operations. The exercise runs from Feb. 10–21, 2025. (U.S. Army recording by Sgt. 1st Class Solomon Navarro)

Audio of Interview of U.S. Army Capt. Arielle Avraham, a veterinarian with the 64th Medical Detachment Veterinary Service Support, discusses training Kenyan Defence Forces (KDF) on K9 Tactical Combat Casualty Care (K9 TCCC) during Exercise Justified Accord 2025 (JA25). Capt. Avraham explains the systematic approach to life-saving measures using the MARCH and PAWS methodologies and highlights the professionalism of KDF personnel throughout the training.

TRANSCRIPT:

I am Capt. Arielle Avraham, and I am with the 64th Medical Detachment Veterinary service support, located in Baumholder, Germany.

As part of Justified Accord 2025, the veterinarians from the 64th Medical Detachment were teaching the Kenyan Defense Force K9 Tactical Combat Casualty Care.

The Kenya Defense Force is so sharp, so with it, and they have so much knowledge already.
Justified Accord 2025 is all about strengthening partnerships and sharing our knowledge for what we are subject matter experts in.

And so we did the K9 Tactical Combat Casualty Care so that we can provide our knowledge to the Kenyan defense Force and our Eastern African allies.

The 64th Medical Detachment, veterinary Service Support, or MD, is located in bondholder Germany. Our two main missions are the food mission and the animal mission.

And so for the food mission, we offer food water risk assessment to UK and AFRICOM and anywhere that our DoD military is located and performing missions. Our animal mission consists, we largely are the subject matter experts on canine tactical combat casualty care. So, in addition to providing coverage down at clinics located in Germany, for our fellow veterinarians, we will go and train our international allies and do group training with them.

This experience was absolutely incredible. I couldn't have asked for a better week. The Kenyan defense force was absolutely on it. They were sharp. They retain that information, and we threw a lot at them this week. They performed under pressure and they were fantastic.

I think the highlight of the training this week was watching how we started on Monday by doing the didactic portion to today, where we had the service members go through lanes individually, and how we were watching them think through every single step that we had taught them through the week.

And they were successful.

K9 TCC’'s (K9 Tactical Combat Casualty Care), which consists of two main portions. So your first portion is March. That's our acronym that we use. “MARCH” is “muzzle, massive hemorrhage, airway respiratory circulation, head trauma and hypothermia.” So you start at “muzzle and mass of hemorrhage,” and you work your way through the acronym.

And it is a systematic approach to ensure that there is nothing left uncovered. And it goes in order of importance: what is going to hurt your dog the fastest and is going to be the life-limiting factor? After you finish “MARCH,” you go into “PAWS,” which is “pain, antibiotic wounds and splints.” So once you've completed the life-saving measures, you can go into the measures of more of just comfort and ensuring that they are squared away before they get to a vet tech and veterinarian.

• Date Taken: 02.16.2025
• Date Posted: 03.18.2025 03:51
• Category: Recording
• Audio ID: 84879
• Filename: 2502/DOD_110821609.mp3
• Length: 00:02:58
• Location: NAIROBI, KE