KODIAK, Ala.—U.S. service members from across the uniformed services, arrived at Kodiak Island off the southern coast of mainland Alaska early this month to support the multi-service Innovative Readiness Training event Arctic Care 2024.
More than 300 service members from the Air National Guard, Army National Guard, Air Force Active Duty, Air Force Reserve, Army Reserve, Marine Corps Reserve, Navy Reserve, U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Public Health Service, in collaboration with the Kodiak Area Native Association began providing high-quality, no-cost medical, dental, optometry, and veterinary services to the community members of the City of Kodiak, May 9.
“Our primary mission is to get training for our service members in austere environments with limited resources to sharpen their skills,” said Capt. David Falcon, Arctic Care 2024 IRT mission officer in charge, and medical readiness officer with the New York Air National Guard 109th Airlift Wing.
Kodiak Island includes a variety of geographically remote villages that make the island an optimal setting to train and refine service members’ skills.
“Kodiak is an island that is geographically isolated from not only mainland Alaska, but the [continental United States]. Getting material and health care resources here is challenging,” said 1st Lt. Ryan Fortune, flight nurse with the New York Air National Guard 139th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron. “Through the IRT we are able to bring a lot of those resources and deliver direct care to the people of this area.”
In addition to the City of Kodiak, members from the mission will also forward deploy to six of those villages: Akhiok, Karluk, Larson Bay, Old Harbor, Port Lions, and Ouzinkie.
Service members will be working alongside sister services consulting with real patients, as they would in a deployed environment. This collaborative environment enhances joint force readiness and increases unit deployment readiness for those that are participating.
The United States Department of Defense IRT program in partnership with KANA will host Arctic Care May 9 through 21.
| Date Taken: | 05.11.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 05.12.2024 22:19 |
| Story ID: | 471094 |
| Location: | KODIAK, AK, US |
| Web Views: | 119 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Arctic Care 2024 kicks off on Kodiak Island, by SrA Guadalupe Beltran, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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