Missouri Medics Work Around the Clock and Around the Globe

By: Spc. Rachel Sanzo
42nd Infantry Division




IMAZU MEDICAL CLINIC, JAPAN - Another slow day passes by at the clinic, but this doesn't discourage the nine-man medical team made up of Army National Guard Soldiers with the Missouri Medical Detachment from Jefferson City, Missouri.

"A good day is a day when we don't see anybody come through," said Lt. Col. Kuno Zimmermann, a preventative medicine officer with the detachment and medical officer-in-charge of exercise Orient Shield. "It means that the Soldiers are safe, and that the exercise is running smoothly."

Orient Shield, a bilateral field training exercise sponsored by United State Army Japan, teamed up the New York Army National Guard's 1st Battalion 69th Infantry Regiment with Japan Ground Self-Defense Force in Aibano Training Area, Japan, October 10-17, 2009.

Orient Shield is accomplished through joint-military decision making processes and mutual-operation rehearsals. The exercise is designed to integrate Soldier skills, while working toward a common training goal. The training will enhance staff coordination and promote regimental and battalion level command and staff training opportunities.

The exercise encourages enduring professional mutual engagements, relationships, good will, and understanding in order to improve and sustain bilateral operations and procedures.

The medic team for the exercise works closely with nine other Japanese medics from the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force to provide Level 2 medical services to Soldiers whose ailments demand more than what the medic station at the field can offer.

"From the moment we arrived here in Japan, we weren't made to feel like outsiders looking in," said Master Sgt. Darlene Neely, the medical readiness non-commissioned officer for Orient Shield with the Missouri Medical Detachment. "The Japanese medics were very welcoming and have made us feel at home in their clinic."

The Japanese medics allow the Missouri team full use of their ambulance vehicles, x-ray machines, and blood testing labs. In turn, the US medics provide their stitching expertise and insert IVs for soldiers of any nationality who may need them-and they promise to take off their boots before they enter the clinic.

"We very much respect their culture and are glad to be able to work with them," said Sgt. Brody Eller, a combat medic from Osage Beach, Missouri.

The medics work around the clock to ensure there are staff members present at the clinic at all times. Each US and Japanese medic works a 12 hour shift at the clinic to make sure their equipment and services are ready at a moments' notice.

"At times the communication barrier can be difficult, but at the root of it we are all medics here," said Zimmermann. "The underlying principle is that you have to be ready; we all do what we have to in order to make sure we are."