Photo By Lt. Col. Warren Neary | Active, Guard and Reserve service members along with Warren County Emergency Services...... read more read more
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By Lt. Col. Warren Neary
WAYNESBORO, GA – Military members wrapped up the East Central Georgia Innovative Readiness Training event here June 23. The 12-day event provided service members with valuable training while providing local residents with more than $1.3 million in free medical services.
“Working with the members of the community has been awesome,” said Air Force Reserve Lt. Col. Aly Eisenhardt, the officer in charge of ECG IRT 2019. “It’s been successful for us and we received the training we needed.
“If I was to measure success on the mission it would be through patient care, readiness and training. Additional measures include community engagement and the cost savings for community residents with no-cost patient care.”
From June 15 to 22, military members provided medical services at no cost to community residents on a first-come, first-served basis. Many residents arrived in the early hours of the day to receive medical care. Dental services filled up quickly each day and remained in high demand throughout the week.
“In one word it has been ‘wonderful,’” Hancock County Board of Commissioners Chairman Sistie Hudson said about the medical services provided. “We don’t have a full-time doctor in Hancock County. So you can imagine how appreciative our residents have been to have these good folks here. It’s a true blessing in the community that they were able to be with us.”
Service members with the ECG IRT provided 8,360 medical, 1,637 nutrition, 3,685 optometry and 5,703 dental procedures in five clinics located in Burke, Glascock, Hancock, Louisville and Warren Counties.
“It was a great experience helping the community and seeing how appreciative they were,” said Airman First Class Laura Gonsalves, an aerospace medical technician with the 143rd Airlift Wing, Rhode Island Air National Guard. “I didn’t think it was going to affect me so much. It reinforced the reason I joined the Air Force and why I chose the Guard and to be a medic.”
The event concluded with a supplemental large-scale emergency response exercise with more than 150 participants from the Air Force Reserve, Air National Guard, the active-duty Air Force and Navy Reserve as well as members from Warren County Emergency Services and community volunteers.
“This was a good opportunity to continue to promote civilian and military relationships,” said Capt. Keith McIntosh, the incident commander from Warren County Emergency Services. “We need to be prepared. It’s good to get out of our comfort zone with the opportunity for a large-scale exercise. Hopefully it will never happen. We prepare for the worst and hope for the best.”
During the exercise, military and civilian emergency response members practiced a wide variety of skills, including leadership, triage, litter carry and patient care in a dynamic and fluid environment. The number of exercise victims grew from 30 to 93 as the event unfolded.
In the two-week period prior to the exercise, military members received instructions in preparation for the emergency response event along with hands-on training in providing medical, dental and optometry services to the Georgia residents.
The various geographic locations of the clinics across the five counties with two separate bed-down locations presented some logistical challenges that required creative planning and adjustments during the IRT.
“In a short amount of time we became a cohesive group from the different branches and different parts of the country,” said Navy Reserve Cmdr. Ritesh Radadia, IRT dental director and senior dental executive for the Bethesda Expeditionary Medical Facility. “Even though we had difficulties with supplies and equipment we were able to overcome and give out great dental treatment to the community. It was great training for our unit personnel to adapt in less than ideal circumstances.”
The ECG IRT received community support from local health departments, five county commissions, Burke Medical Center, Jefferson County Hospital, Burke County Sheriff’s Department, local church organizations and individual community members.
The Department of Defense sponsored the ECG IRT in partnership with the Central Savannah River Area Regional Commission. Readiness training events facilitate opportunities for joint-service training that increase deployment readiness for military members while providing key services including health care, construction, transportation and cybersecurity that positively impacts American communities.
For more information on the IRT program, visit IRT.Defense.gov.
(Neary is assigned to the Air Force Reserve Command Office of History and Heritage at Robins Air Force Base, Georgia)
| Date Taken: | 06.26.2019 |
| Date Posted: | 06.26.2019 13:05 |
| Story ID: | 329215 |
| Location: | WAYNESBORO, GEORGIA, US |
| Web Views: | 364 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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