MSARNG Soldiers engaged in PHA and SRP

Photo By 2nd Lt. Jarvis Mace | Spc. Gerald T. Denson, a Soldier with the Mississippi Army National Guard, participates in a eye examination during a Periodic Health Assessment October 15, 2017, at Camp Shelby, Mississippi. The PHA is an annual assessment that has to be completed by each Soldier that addresses unresolved health concerns, such as eyesight, and then either creates a treatment plan or treats the issue on the spot to maintain readiness. (Mississippi National Guard photo by Pfc. Jarvis Mace, 102d Public Affairs Detachment)  

HATTIESBURG, MS, UNITED STATES

10.15.2017

Story by Pfc. Jarvis Mace 

102d Public Affairs Detachment

CAMP SHELBY, Mississippi – Mississippi Army National Guard Soldiers train monthly to sustain their specific skills for deployments at any time. To maintain this state of readiness, however, they must also be administratively and medically prepared.

To accomplish this requirement, Soldiers of the MSARNG engaged in a Soldier Readiness Process event and Periodic Health Assessment October 15, 2017, that evaluated their medical, dental, and personnel files to ensure they were up to date.

The SRP is a program that helps prepare Soldiers for potential deployments. Different stations, such as personnel, finance, medical, and legal are setup during the event to help determine if a Soldier is mission-ready.

The PHA is an annual assessment that has to be completed by each Soldier that addresses unresolved health concerns and then either creates a treatment plan or treats the issue on the spot to maintain readiness.

“The significance is what it does is it allows a unit to identify any medical deficiencies in their Soldier,” said Staff Sgt. Jason N. Blakely, a readiness noncommissioned officer of Medical Detachment, MSARNG. “[It also] develops a plan to get them corrected.”

“It gives us an opportunity to be exposed to the Soldier individually, in a group,” said Col. Stephen B. Shoop, the MSARNG state surgeon. “Our ambition is really simple. Our mission is one: to get each and every Soldier medically ready for their deployment.”

These programs involve hundreds of Guardsmen and technicians, all moving through Camp Shelby’s SRP complex. Although the evaluations and examinations may last for hours, it is beneficial for the Soldier as well as the unit to have completed prior to a deployment.

The Soldier can leave the PHA with the confidence they are in good health and the unit is in a stronger state of readiness.

"The more ready they are now before they leave the state of Mississippi, the less pressure for them when they’re at the mobilization station and they can focus on training instead of all these personnel matters,” said Sgt. Ariyel C. Bryant, a financial services technician for the 168th Engineer Brigade. “We’ll have them taken care of before they make it there.”

Soldiers’ fitness, health, and well-being are the utmost important factors to stay ready to deploy and complete missions successfully at any time.

• Date Taken: 10.15.2017
• Date Posted: 10.23.2017 15:50
• Story ID: 251795
• Location: HATTIESBURG, MS, US