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These men and women of the 148th Fighter Wing Medical Group, joined members of the 133rd Airlift Wing Medical Group and other members of the Air Force Reserve from around the nation to assist with this mission.
These members set-up make shift medical and dental services at Cass Lake Middle and High School. Any community member that needed health services were welcomed at no cost to them.
The team of approximately 80 United States Air Force Guard and Reservists worked together to make this community clinic a success. This group treated nearly 800 patients during the duration of the stand-up clinic. Medical performed 165 well-child checks and optometry saw more than 480 patients. The dental group saw 548 patients and performed 182 extractions and 399 fillings, providing more than $260 thousand dollars dental services. The group in total completed almost 8,000 hours of training, signed off 404 Readiness Skills Training tasks, and 8,101 Skill-Level upgrade training tasks.
For most members of this group, it was their first time participating in an IRT providing basic health care services in this capacity. For 148th Medical Group Public Health Officer, Capt. Erin Petro, the experience was an annual training she won’t forget.
“Being a guardsman, part of our mission is serving our state, you really get to see the impact it has with something like this,” said Petro, a full-time veterinarian at Harmony and Cresto Veterinarian Clinic in Harmony, Minnesota.
Petro’s role during the Air Force’s time at Walking Shield was to educate the local populous on things relevant to them. This included sexually transmitted diseases, diabetes maintenance, and prevention, self-care, among many other basic preventative measures.
All the troops were available from 9-6pm, including weekends during their time at Cass Lake. When the clinic wasn’t open, the group used the time to train with hands-on the job training. In conjunction with local emergency medical services, the troops were able to participate in real life training scenarios in partnership with civilian medical personnel.
“This was a great way to get training for our troops and get them checked off on things to be a ready and deployable asset,” said 2nd Lt. Joshua Kolkind, 148th Medical Group Admin Officer.
The group saw patients from as young as two weeks to elders in the community. Overall the mission was viewed as a success for everyone involved.
| Date Taken: | 07.25.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 08.07.2017 16:11 |
| Story ID: | 244094 |
| Location: | CASS LAKE, MINNESOTA, US |
| Web Views: | 92 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, 148th Medical Group joined other Air Guardsmen and Air Reservist for ‘Walking Shield’, by MSgt Lynette Hoke, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
