Building Trust: Okinawa sailors, Marines provide medical treatment to thousands of Cambodians

Photo By Cpl. Corey Blodgett | Seaman Michael R. Thompson, a hospital corpsman with 3rd Medical Battalion, takes the pulse of a Cambodian baby April 26 in Thmar Pouk, Cambodia, during the Cambodia Interoperability Program 2008.  

05.09.2008

Story by Lance Cpl. Corey Blodgett 

III Marine Expeditionary Force   

By Corey Blodgett
III Marine Expeditionary Force Public Affairs

THMR POUK, CAMBODIA — The team worked with two civilian doctors, a Cambodian eye surgeon and a U.S. Public Health Service dentist. RCAF doctors also worked alongside the Americans while RCAF medical assistants helped with patient flow.

The team concluded its operation May 5 after treating 8,348 patients. The team provided medical care to 6,479, dental care to 844 and optometry services to 924 Cambodians. The eye surgeon also performed 101 surgeries.

Cambodians suffered terribly in the 1970s under the communist rule of the Khmer Rouge government, which seized power in 1975 with the promise of helping the people. The party instead devastated the cultural, economic and social life of the country by relocating mass populations to rural labor camps and performing mass executions of ethnic minorities and educated citizens not loyal to the ruling party.

The regime was removed from power in 1979, but not before it left an estimated 1.5 million people dead.

The Khmer Rouge's devastating impact still reverberates in the country today, according to Navy Lt. Robert Goad, officer in charge of the Cambodia Interoperability Program 2008, a U.S.-led humanitarian assistance effort that seeks to build upon the U.S. military's relationship with the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces and reach out to the Cambodian people.

"A lot of the doctors, educators and professional classes were tortured and killed off, so the country was very much stunted," Goad said. "They're still rebuilding, but they don't have that older generation of professional class that would have developed good doctors and the like."

U.S. forces have led several humanitarian efforts in Cambodia in recent years to build upon the relationship between the two countries.

Goad said working closely with the Cambodians gave the Americans a unique chance to learn from each other.

"The RCAF were very easy to work with and very receptive," he said. "We had our two Navy doctors partnered up with them and the two (civilian doctors), so there was an opportunity to share knowledge and discuss different patient care options."

Capt. Charles Craft, a dental officer with the U.S. Public Health Service who has lived and worked in Cambodia for the last eight years, said that the heavy flow of people coming in for medical treatment is a good sign.

"The high number of patients shows they're happy with the services we've provided," he said. "This was a very successful mission with very high numbers and great engagement with the locals."

• Date Taken: 05.09.2008
• Date Posted: 05.11.2008 19:49
• Story ID: 19314