Courtesy Photo | Cpl. Thien Nguyen, left, medical supply technician with the 551st Medical Logistics...... read more read more
DULMEN, Germany -- It’s often said that medical logistics is a team sport.
That was never truer than in recent months when members of the U.S. Army Medical Materiel Agency were part of the effort to support both a real-world situation and a large-scale training exercise that happened simultaneously in Europe.
A small team of four from USAMMA stationed at the Army Prepositioned Stock site in Germany, known as APS-2, worked overtime to provide medical materiel readiness in support of the European response mission, stemming from the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, along with the Army’s long-planned Defender-Europe 2022 training exercise.
“Our USAMMA team at APS-2 may be small in size, but they are experts at their craft; both in the management of Class VIII contingency stocks and the release of these stocks to support mission operations,” said Maj. Janessa Moyer, director of USAMMA’s Force Projection Directorate, or FPD.
“Our APS-2 team is exceptional in leading others to integrate into their team and ensure ready equipment and Class VIII materiel is available for the force,” Moyer said. “The team’s ability to coach, teach and mentor logisticians is the foundation of their success in balancing the support to the APS-2 European Response mission and the DEF22 exercise.”
Defender-Europe is an annual large-scale Army-led, multinational, joint exercise designed to build readiness and interoperability between U.S., NATO and partner militaries. This year’s exercise included more than 3,400 U.S. and 5,100 multinational service members from 11 allied and partner nations.
The APS-2 team includes three medical logisticians assigned to FPD, as well as a medical maintainer from USAMMA’s Medical Maintenance Management Directorate, or M3D. They worked closely with Soldiers, civilians and contractors who contributed throughout different phases of the two missions.
Moyer said the personnel from USAMMA, a direct reporting unit to U.S. Army Medical Logistics Command, were able to quickly integrate augmentation teams from AMLC, as well as the U.S. Army Medical Materiel Development Agency and U.S. Army Medical Materiel Center-Europe, into the overall operation, contributing to rapid deployment of assets that led to mission success.
The augmentation force included medical maintenance teams from USAMMA’s Medical Maintenance Operations Divisions in Tobyhanna Army Depot, Pennsylvania, Hill Air Force Base in Utah, and Tracy, California, which completed annual service on medical devices along with rapid fielding operations in support of the two missions.
Overall, USAMMA medical maintainers completed over 2,700 technical inspections, scheduled services and repairs on medical devices, in addition to inventory and receipt of retrograded equipment, according to M3D Director Jorge Magana.
“Despite significant staffing limitations, APS-2 processed over 26,000 materiel receipts and labeled over 300,000 individual line items generating over 800 new Tri-walls of materiel over the last 12 months … supporting multiple operations at remote locations,” said Joseph Robinson, USAMMA’s forward site manager for APS-2.
Along with Robinson, the team of Karl J. Posley, Charles Chris Marshall and Richard Giles helped prepare, ship and field numerous sets of equipment and hundreds of pallets of supplies to support the two simultaneous missions.
Overall, they supported medical capabilities for 17 unit types, including an armored brigade combat team, medical company area support and forward resuscitative surgical detachment.
“The team juggled these complex missions daily,” Robinson said, crediting the team’s military experience for helping them push through in a no-fail mission environment.
Moyer credited the team at APS-2 for their hard work during a difficult situation, noting that they represent “the Class VIII execution arm of the operation, from conducting the daily care of supplies in storage to the packaging and transporting to get capabilities to the right unit at the right time.”
“Having our team in place ensures the highest level of readiness of the equipment and percent of fill rate for the medical materiel in each of the medical equipment sets, kits and outfits,” she said. “Without our team in place, there is risk to readiness, and risk to how quickly we can react once a release is approved and required.”
| Date Taken: | 07.19.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 07.19.2022 09:21 |
| Story ID: | 425272 |
| Location: | DULMEN, DE |
| Web Views: | 90 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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