Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Armando Vasquez | From left to right, Sgt. Nathaniel Barrett, Pfcs. Teddy Martinez and Christian Las...... read more read more
Vieques is a small island covering about 52 square miles of territory that is eight miles east of the main island of Puerto Rico. The population in the island is approximately 9,000 residents spread across several small barrios. Isabel Segunda, Florida and Esperenza are the most populated municipalities.
A lone hospital provides medical services for the population: Centro de Salud Familiar Susana Centeno, located in Isabel Segunda.
Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico in late September. Vieques was as devastated as the main island and lost electrical power and communication. Many of the regular functions of a hospital were disrupted or ceased completely.
When five Soldiers from the 63rd Expeditionary Signal Battalion, Fort Stewart, Georgia, arrived at Vieques in early October, the hospital was in bad shape.
“Before we got here, they didn’t have any power, any means of communications,” said 1st Lt. Travis Salley, the unit’s platoon leader.
The hospital’s water pumps are electric, so they didn't have running water as well, said Salley. Furthermore, because of lack of electricity, the hospital had no means to keep its vital instruments and refrigerators working.
“When the power was down, we used the generator for our communication equipment to provide power for their medicine fridge,” said Salley. “So they were able to at least have life-saving medication for their patients.”
The Soldiers provided 24-hours communication for the hospital, allowing the staff to have telephone communication and Internet. This allowed the hospital to provide some services to the local population and to communicate with other hospitals in the main island to transfer patients there, if more emergency services were required.
“The services we provided has allowed the hospital to order humanitarian supplies, food, helped transferred patients to bigger hospitals,” said Salley.
In addition to helping the hospital, the Soldiers provided communication assistance to other federal agencies that were at the island providing relief efforts and services. The Federal Emergency Management Agency was provided with Internet services so they could process disaster relief applications and the local Veterans Affairs clinic was able to get online with their own routers and switches.
Because of its austere environment, the hospital is scheduled to close and will move its operations to climate controlled tents set up around the hospital. But for the period of time these Soldiers were at the hospital, they worked diligently to ensure the communication system was functioning at the hospital, and their efforts literarily saved lives.
“The conditions here were real bad when we got here, and we worked 24-hour shifts to ensure continued operations” said Pfc. Teddy Martinez. “And now I understand why our sergeant major always encouraged us to keep up with our training and our equipment.”
“We are grateful for the excellent training we received from the 63rd,” said Salley. “Triple checking our equipment and ensuring we knew what to do helped us a lot here.”
“Since we have been here, the hospital informed me they were able to treat over 750 patients,” said Salley.
Treatment of patients that would not have been possible without the efforts of these Soldiers: Salley, Sgt. Nathaniel Barrett, Spc. Carlos Gonzalez and Pfcs. Christian Las Dulce and Teddy Martinez.
| Date Taken: | 11.06.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 11.06.2017 15:27 |
| Story ID: | 254300 |
| Location: | VIEQUES, PR |
| Web Views: | 552 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, Fort Stewart Signal Soldiers Help to Bring Some Normalcy to a Chaotic Situation, by SFC Armando Vasquez, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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