Photo By Sgt. Craig Anderson | Tetlin, a remote village in the Tok region of southeast Alaska is one of the 12...... read more read more
FAIRBANKS, Alaska – Operation Arctic Care is a two week innovative training mission providing much needed medical, dental, optometric, and veterinary care to the inhabitants of remote central Alaska. The 807th MDSC is running this yearly mission that includes over 300 medical providers from the Army Reserve, Army National Guard, Navy Reserve, Air Force Reserve, and Department of Public Health.
The optometry team from the Naval Ophthalmic Support & Training Activity of Yorktown, Va., has been invited to support Arctic Care 2011 again, by providing natives of central Alaska much-needed eyewear, who would otherwise go without.
“We are actually giving vision to some of these individuals who have not been able to see since childhood,” said HM2 Aaron Swan from NOSTRA, “And now they can put a pair of glasses on and see the world how it should be seen.”
Swan is one of three optometry technicians supporting Arctic Care by fabricating glasses in their makeshift lab in the maintenance bay of an Army Reserve motor pool. His team is comprised of two sailors and one soldier. Their mission is to fill eyeglass prescriptions sent from optometry teams visiting twelve of the remote villages in northern Alaska.
“We have been averaging 80-100 pairs of glasses per day,” Swan said. “Last year they averaged completed about 1,000 pair of eyeglasses. This year we are expecting a little more patient influx, so we are looking at providing for 1300 – 1500 patients.”
The in-the-field opticians are able to provide full spectrum of eye care to the native Alaskans. This means that the need for the fabrication team’s support increases daily and is limited to the population of each village.
“It is less of a quality of life issue and more of a necessity of life issue,” said Navy Cmdr. Fred Kelley, Navy Optometrist assigned to Tetlin, a village in the Tok region in southeast Alaska.
“When you can’t see, your world diminishes into the small area that is clear to you,” said Kelley. “Up here, everything is so spread out; you can’t hunt, you can’t fish, you can’t do your schoolwork, you can’t really drive a car if your vision is not there.”
The patients are appreciative of the eyewear; however, the optometrist teams can appreciate the fabricator’s work because they understand the difficulty in creating accurate prescriptions in a field environment
“It is tough to bring all that technology in the field with the same accuracy as a lab,” Kelley said. “But the prescriptions we are receiving from the fabrication team are 100% accurate.”
“Our challenge in a field environment is the equipment.” Swan said. "They are used to a lab environment with equipment that is more advanced.”
“Though it is smaller and more basic, the field equipment can still produce the volume we need – we have to adjust to their differences. We are still able to fabricate twenty glasses in less than an hour,” Swan said.
The fabrication team receives the prescriptions from the villages daily by fax. It is a same day turn around and they are able send eyeglasses back out the same day. The Alaskan National Guard transports the eyewear and other supplies to the villages on Army aircraft.
Along with making prescription eyewear Sgt. Adam Blanton said they brought a 1,500 pairs of pre-made readers. They divided them up between the optometry teams so they can hand out that day to patients. Blanton said they also brought sunglasses to hand out to help prevent snow-blindness.
NOSTRA is a joint command combining the expertise of Army and Navy professionals. Blanton is stationed at Fort Eustis, Va., but is attached to NOSTRA. Together they work to achieve NOSTRA’s mission to support readiness of the Armed Forces by providing timely fabrication and worldwide delivery of quality eyewear.
“I think helping the native Alaskans it is a really good thing to do. It allows them to get familiar with the military,” Blanton said. “And we are giving back to people who are less fortunate than ourselves.”
“I enjoy doing my job in the field as apposed to doing the job in a lab, which can get very repetitive,” Blanton said. “It makes you feel like you’re helping more.”
Working in a lab the fabrication team rarely gets to see the benefit of their work, Swan said. Working in the field provides them the feedback that makes their work valuable, Swan said.
“We have had a couple of incidents where we had some children who have not had a pair of glasses their whole life,” Swan said. “We made them some eyewear and they are able to see their parents for the first time. That is a very touching and emotional kind of feeling.”
“It is a really good feeling knowing that now the child can see their family and are able to go to school and see the chalkboard or read a book for the first time in their life,” Swan said.
“This is my second Arctic Care mission and I would do it again – every year they invite me,” Swan said. “At NOSTRA we make glasses and send them off to a patient somewhere in the world. Here, we sometimes get to interact with the patient and having them say, “Thank you for the glasses.” is very rewarding.”
This is the second year the NOSTRA team has been invited back to Arctic Care and each member looks forward to next year’s mission. Their professionalism and dedication to the accuracy of the prescriptions lend to the success of this joint operation. Beyond the mission is the gratitude of the seemingly small population in rural Alaska that is the true reward for these soldiers and sailors.
| Date Taken: | 04.22.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 04.26.2011 21:08 |
| Story ID: | 69400 |
| Location: | FAIRBANKS, AK, US |
| Web Views: | 151 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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