Soldiers partner for Egyptian hospital closure in Afghanistan

Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Jon Cupp | Fayetteville, N.C., native 1st Lt. Jaime Daniels (right), brigade medical planner, and Corpus Christi, Texas, native Sgt. 1st Class John Allen, a biological medical equipment specialist, both from the 82nd Sustainment Brigade-U.S. Central Command Materiel Recovery Element, account for medical supplies in a 20-foot equivalent container Nov. 15 at Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan. Troops from the 82nd SB-CMRE and Task Force Medical-East sorted and packed the supplies which will be sent to the Bagram Air Field retrosort yards. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Jon Cupp, 82nd SB-CMRE Public Affairs)  

BAGRAM AIR FIELD, AFGHANISTAN

11.18.2013

Story by Sgt. 1st Class Jon Cupp 

82nd Airborne Division Sustainment Brigade

BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan – Soldiers from the 82nd Sustainment Brigade-U.S. Central Command Materiel Recovery Element partnered with troops from Task Force Medical-East to account for, process and sort medical equipment and supplies Nov. 15-18 at the recently closed El Salam Egyptian Field Hospital here.

With the Egyptian army medical personnel having completed their mission Nov. 14, U.S. troops were called in to assist with removing and clearing out equipment and supplies which were provided to the hospital by the U.S. military.

The equipment and supplies, which were transported to the Bagram retrosort yard, will be provided to military units that have an immediate need for them in theater, returned to other locations within the U.S. military system or given to Afghans through the Foreign Excess Personal Property (FEPP) program.

“Since we’re running the Class 8 [medical items] CMRE retrosort mission, the hospital liaison here contacted us to assist them in sorting through their supplies and equipment,” said 1st Lt. Jaime Daniels, 82nd SB-CMRE brigade medical planner, who hails from Fayetteville, N.C. “We’re going to assist them in getting rid of any unserviceable items and redistributing the serviceable items.”

“This has been a wonderful partnership with the CMRE and this really has helped the Egyptian staff to off-ramp and go home safely without having to worry about all the things left behind,” said Hampton, Va., native Capt. Gary Freeman, logistics liaison officer for the Egyptian hospital and chief logistician for TF-Med East. “There are multiple facets that the CMRE team brings to the table to help get it done. Helping the Egyptians with this project means a lot as they have been a great force multiplier, showing a good face for coalition forces by providing healthcare for nearly 1.2 million Afghan locals over a period of nearly 12 years.”

Soldiers working on the project cleared supplies and equipment from more than 10 buildings on the hospital compound to include a radiology clinic, male and female wards, an operating room, a lab, an intensive care unit, pediatric clinic, dental clinic, obstetrics/gynecology clinic and a medical workshop among other structures. Along with this, the troops moved supplies from five, 20-foot equivalent containers.

Troops recovered many items of Class 8 healthcare equipment which can be returned to the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan Ministry of Health through the FEPP program to include patient life sustaining items such as vital sign monitors and intensive care unit beds.

Chicago native, Staff Sgt. Edward Hurtado, a biological medical equipment specialist for 82nd SB-CMRE, said the project is extremely significant in helping to get good medical supplies where they’re needed most.

“This is a great effort because we’ll be able to reutilize a lot of things that we can send back to the U.S. military system, to NATO forces and Afghans rather than having to discard it,” said Hurtado. “At first, there used to be no real process for how to deal with medical supplies, but we noticed that there were a lot of useable items that could be sent back to the U.S. military system.”

“We have things like pharmaceuticals that can sometimes be sent back for credit from the manufacturer which means money going back into the government and that saves taxpayers money in the long run,” concluded Hurtado.

Although all equipment and supplies were cleared from the site by Nov. 18, soldiers of the 82nd SB will continue the mission of redistributing the medical supplies and equipment at the Bagram retrosort yard and attached engineers from the 133rd Engineer Battalion will deconstruct some of the buildings on the hospital compound.

“We’ll begin deconstructing some of the b-huts here while leaving the enduring structures that can be maintained by the Afghans. This one of the keys to this project,” said Carmel, Maine, native Capt. Nic Phillips, plans officer for 133rd Engineer Battalion. “The way you leave a country says as much about how you enter it, and we plan on leaving this site better than it was previously.”

“We’ll send in vertical engineer assets to remove some of the insides to buildings, ensuring that we use the interior wood for other projects so that we’re not wasting government money,” Phillips added. “Our horizontal engineers will then come in and level the areas where the b huts were and take some of the materials to the retrosort yard. Some of the things recovered can be turned over the Afghans, such as some of the interior wood.”

The continuing engineer portion of the project should be completed sometime in December of this year.

• Date Taken: 11.18.2013
• Date Posted: 11.27.2013 03:54
• Story ID: 117445
• Location: BAGRAM AIR FIELD, AF
• Hometown: CARMEL, ME, US
• Hometown: CHICAGO, IL, US
• Hometown: FAYETTEVILLE, NC, US
• Hometown: FORT LIBERTY, NC, US
• Hometown: HAMPTON, VA, US
• Hometown: UNION CITY, CA, US