Army Reserve command kicks off new readiness improvement program

Photo By Staff Sgt. Shawn Morris | Sgt. 1st Class Miranda Toussaint, a finance instructor with the U.S. Army Reserve’s 8th Battalion, 98th Regiment, has her blood pressure checked by Lisa Walls, event oversight administrator with Logistics Health Incorporated, during the 99th Regional Support Command’s Soldier Readiness Improvement Event March 4 at the Frank B. Lotts Center in Richmond, Virginia. This event was the first in the 99th RSC’s new Soldier Readiness Improvement Initiative, which offers unit commanders a one-stop shop for personnel and medical readiness that helps make Soldiers mission capable.  

RICHMOND, VIRGINIA, UNITED STATES

03.04.2017

Story by Staff Sgt. Shawn Morris 

99th Readiness Division

RICHMOND, Va. – The U.S. Army Reserve’s 99th Regional Support Command kicked off its new Soldier Readiness Improvement Initiative with an event March 4 at the Frank B. Lotts Center here.

For Sgt. 1st Class Miranda Toussaint, one of approximately 120 Soldiers in attendance, the event provided an opportunity to increase her medical and administrative readiness during Battle Assembly weekend.

“For our unit, (readiness) is really important because we’re an instructor battalion, so our instructors have to be ‘green’ in all their medical areas - height and weight, Periodic Health Assessment, dental, vision – everything,” explained Toussaint, who serves as a finance instructor with 8th Battalion, 98th Regiment. “If you’re not ‘green’ in any area, you can’t teach, so it’s really important to stay on top of everything.”

As the Army Reserve transitions from a rotational deployment model to an expeditionary deployment model, it will require a force that can rapidly respond to the nation’s mobilization needs. In today’s changing environment, Army Reserve units must remain well-manned, equipped and trained at all times in order to be ready to deploy, enable and fight in days and weeks, not months and years.

To that end, the 99th RSC’s new Soldier Readiness Improvement Events offer unit commanders a one-stop shop for personnel and medical readiness that helps make Soldiers mission capable.

“This is all about Soldier readiness,” said Maj. Kenneth Bria, officer-in-charge of the initiative and chief of medical logistics for the 99th RSC Surgeons Office. “We’re trying to get people ‘green’ across the board, whether it’s medical, personnel, finance, legal – we’re offering all those services.”

Specific services offered at readiness events include doctors who can answer questions regarding MEBs, LODs and profiles; Judge Advocate attorneys who can create wills and powers of attorney, and address deployment-related legal concerns; administrative specialists who can provide personnel- and financial-records reviews; and Periodic Health Assessments, dental and vision screenings, immunizations, EKGs, blood draws and other services provided by Logistics Health Incorporated.

The initiative also provides opportunities for local administrative and medical Soldiers to work side-by-side with the event’s subject-matter experts in order to increase their own job skills and personal readiness.

Upcoming events include April 1-2 on Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey, April 22-23 in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, and soon after at Fort Devens, Massachusetts.

For more information on the Soldier Readiness Improvement Initiative or to attend an upcoming event, contact the 99th RSC Ops Center at [e-mail], [phone] or [phone].

• Date Taken: 03.04.2017
• Date Posted: 03.08.2017 13:29
• Story ID: 226166
• Location: RICHMOND, VIRGINIA, US