Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Neil W. McCabe | Brig. Gen. Alan L. Stolte, the commanding general of the 352nd Civil Affairs Command,...... read more read more
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FORREST CITY, Ark. - The command team of the 352nd Civil Affairs Command, Brig. Gen. Alan L. Stolte and Command Sgt. Maj. Earl G. Rocca, visited the Soldiers of Charlie Company, 431st Civil Affairs Battalion, who were supporting the Arkansas Care Innovative Readiness Training mission in East Arkansas July 25 through Aug. 2, 2014.
Arkansas Care is serving the residents of Newport, Earle, Brinkley, McCrory, Wynne and Forrest City in East Arkansas with military personnel providing a variety of key leader community engagements, and medical, optical and dental services to the residents in the economically-depressed region.
The civil affairs Soldiers received civil-military essential training during the Arkansas Care mission. The CA teams operated a Civil-Military Operations Cell that monitored and tracked the daily economical impact of the free medical services provided to the residents. The Soldiers also ventured out into the communities, where they conducted key leader engagements with mayors, religious figures and leaders of state and local public safety and assistance agencies.
“These civil affairs Soldiers have done a great job getting the word out to the locals and they have brought energy and professionalism to their mission,” said Stolte. “Training opportunities, such as this one, are critical to keep civil affairs skills honed as there are fewer overseas deployments.”
On the walls at each CMO cells, civil affairs Soldiers posted the names and faces of key leaders and important facts about each community in the mission foot print.
A Charlie Company Sergeant 1st Class said he was the noncommissioned officer in charge at the Forrest City free clinic.
“The local leaders want us to be here, and they have been very supportive,” he said.
He met with the Forrest City police chief, E. Page Reynolds, July 28 in his office. At the key leader engagement meeting, he said he reviewed with the chief ways to get the word out about the free services at the clinic and how the police could be helpful.
In their meeting, he asked the chief if the influx of residents from Forrest City and the surrounding areas was disruptive, either to the community or his department.
The chief said to the civil affairs NCO that the opposite was true.
“I know there are crowds, but they are not trouble. If I needed to dedicate an officer on overtime to keep things calm, I would. But, it is not necessary,” he said.
There have been additional patrols in the area of the clinic, and officers were told to stop by the clinic and speak casually with residents taking advantage of the free medical care, he said.
“Having the clinic here is in sync with the police department’s vision—I wish we could call it the ‘Page Reynolds—DOD Collaboration,’” he said.
Each clinic site was staffed primarily by Soldiers of the Army Reserve Medical Command’s 3274th U.S. Army Hospital, Fort Bragg, North Carolina, joined by medical Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps Reserve and active-duty personnel who provided much-needed health care to the underserved residents throughout the East Arkansas Region.
The Arkansas Care IRT provided medical, dental, and optometry mission essential training for the supporting service members. The 3274th USAH was augmented by the 413st CA BN, as well as service members from the Air Force, Marine Corps, and a team from Naval Ophthalmic Support and Training Activity (NOSTRA). The Delta Regional Authority hosted six sites throughout East Arkansas.
The free clinics provided medical, dental and vision screenings and exams to local residents. By the end of the mission, there had been more than 4,000 individual patient interactions with more than 500 teeth pulled and more than 1,200 pairs of free glasses crafted and distributed.
Typical of the local residents, who would come in, was Heather A. Lingle, Fort Smith, Arkansas. Lingle said she was babysitting her sister’s two daughters when one of them took her glasses and broke them.
Lingle said she was glad an employee at the town’s snack food company, Medallion Foods, told her about the two Newport clinics set up at the Community College and High School, both were free and open to the public.
Most glasses were completed in 48 hours at the East Arkansas Community College campus.
At the EACC campus, Stolte was briefed by civil affairs officers about the success of the mission.
The civil affairs Soldiers played an integral part of the Innovative Readiness Training exercise. The IRT exercises are part of a Pentagon program that pairs military reserve units during their extended combat training, with disadvantaged American communities. In this case, the exercise was a partnership between the Army Reserve and the Delta Regional authority’s “Arkansas Care” program.
The authority, tasked by Congress with fostering economic growth in the eight states of the Mississippi River Delta, uses projects such as Arkansas Care to improve the health of the state’s workforce.
Rocca said he liked the quality of the training his civil affairs Soldiers received as a part of the IRT program.
“It is a real-world, real-time and unscripted environment,” he said.
Unlike other training exercises, where there is a set timeline with established outcomes and observers to guide the training, Rocca said at Arkansas Care, his Soldiers were forced to react and think on their feet without the safety net of an observer stopping the scenario and having the Soldiers start again.
It is also a good thing, that at the same time, his Soldiers were keeping their skills sharp, while they were helping fellow Americans in need.
| Date Taken: | 08.08.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 09.05.2014 15:31 |
| Story ID: | 141286 |
| Location: | FORREST CITY, AR, US |
| Hometown: | FORT SMITH, AR, US |
| Hometown: | MILLINGTON, TN, US |
| Web Views: | 398 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Stolte, Rocca tour civil-military training in East Arkansas, by SFC Neil W. McCabe, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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