By Maj. John Heil
332nd Medical Brigade Public Affairs
BAGHDAD - After a long year, the 345th Medical Detachment, based out of Ft. Gillem, Ga., is returning from Iraq, sometime in July along with a nomination for the "Excellence in Preventive Medicine Award" for 2007-2008.
"It's because of the hard work and dedication of our Soldiers that the 345th was nominated for this award," said Lt. Col. Robert Batts, 345th MED DET commander, "Each year only two Army units receive this award, one field unit and one garrison unit."
"The 345th Medical Detachment is wrapping up an extremely successful deployment in Iraq," said Batts, "During our time here, we conducted over 2,000 sanitary inspections, collected thousands of mosquitoes and sand fly vectors and oversaw the safe production of over one billion gallons of safe drinking water."
"For a small detachment of 13 soldiers, our effect was felt all over Iraq, said Batts, "This small unit set the preventive medicine standard in Iraq."
"The 345th is receiving this award because we have made significant contributions beyond our primary principal duties while deployed in Iraq," said Batts, "We provided PM support for over 70,000 US and coalition soldiers during the surge."
The 345th also trained many of the Iraqi Army PM soldiers to aide in the standing up of their forces.
The award presented by the U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine is made in recognition of exemplary contributions to the Army mission of providing preventive medicine, public health, and health promotion and wellness leadership and services to identify, assess and counter environmental, occupational, and disease threats to health, fitness, and readiness.
The award encompasses multiple disciplines including health care providers (behavior health, social work, nursing, physicians, veterinarians, dentists, health educators, etc.) and non-health care providers (environmental science, environmental engineering, etc.).
The 345th Medical Detachment is expected to return home in July. Batts expects to receive the "Excellence in Preventive Medicine Award" at the Force Health Protection conference in August.
Soldiers of the 345th Medical Detachment are Lt. Col. Robert Batts, commander; 1st Lt. Erik Foster, executive officer, Staff Sgt. Guy Claudy, detachment sergeant, and preventive medicine personnel, Sgt. 1st Class Humphrey Okele, Staff Sgt. Kim Johnson, Staff Sgt. Reagan Gardley, Staff Sgt. William Helms, Staff Sgt. Arthur White, Staff Sgt. Michael Brunson, Sgt. Dwayne Pernell-Suarez, Sgt. Sean Oliver, Sgt. Laketchia Cerreta, and Spc. Rodney Hernandez.
| Date Taken: |
07.01.2008 |
| Date Posted: |
07.01.2008 21:37 |
| Story ID: |
21082 |
| Location: |
BAGHDAD, IQ |
| Web Views: |
554 |
| Downloads: |
384 |
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