Photo By Angela Wallace | Lt. Col. Kevin Snyder, chief of ambulatory care, assigned to Blanchfield Army...... read more read more
Subscribe
“Whether the mission is opening ports, setting the theater, constituting and operating mobilization-support platforms for the Total Force, or supporting maneuver forces in contact with the enemy … we will have the mobility, survivability, connectivity and lethality needed to win on the battlefield,” said Lt. Gen. Charles Luckey, chief of Army Reserve and commanding general, U.S. Army Reserve Command.
As America’s Army Reserve prepares its earliest deploying units to meet compressed timelines, Mobilization Force Generation Installations play a critical role in ensuring that a significant portion of the force is able to move fast which in some cases is days or weeks.
Army Reserve Medical Command is at the forefront of this process, fully responsible for providing the medical professionals needed for Soldier Readiness Processing and Troop Medical Clinic operations at Mobilization Force Generation Installations located throughout the United States.
This is not new business for ARMEDCOM which currently supports enduring MFGI missions at Fort Bliss and Fort Hood, Texas.
“Soldier Readiness Processing operations are what our Medical Support Units and Troop Medical Clinics are constructed to support as their mobilization or go-to-war mission,” said Maj. Gen. Mary Link, ARMEDCOM commanding general.
Functionally aligned to U.S. Army Medical Command, ARMEDCOM is a force multiplier, uniquely capable of simultaneously providing military hospital and clinic expansion, augmentation, blood donor services, dental and veterinary services while remaining postured to provide assistance to civil authorities during an emergency or disaster. When activated, medical SRP sites are capable of processing hundreds of Soldiers per day to ensure they are quickly ready for their follow-on mission.
“I’ve been able to see these units firsthand during their annual training at Fort Knox, Kentucky, and they’re excited about what they’re doing, refining their processes and they’re getting things done,” Link said.
MFGI’s are critical to projecting power, supporting pre and post mobilization training, and preparing units to meet Combatant Commander requirements.
It requires a strong network of capabilities and resources to be successful in getting thousands of Soldiers through the readiness process and on to where they are needed on a weekly basis. Installation and mobilization activities are reinforced with a Regional Support Group and attached support and sustainment forces mobilized at each MFGI, known as the Mobilization Support Force. Army medical activities, a mission led by MEDCOM, receive augmentation from ARMEDCOM’s mobilized Medical Support Units and Troop Medical Clinics.
Col. Jeffrey Pugh, the 649th Regional Support Group commander, shares his team’s experiences conducting their go-to-war mission at the inactive MFGI location.
“While we are training here at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, we’re building up to a proof-of-concept where we are going to run a Soldier Readiness Processing site,” Pugh said. “We’ve timed our annual training for this mission at Fort McCoy so that we can leverage a huge group of Soldiers participating in the Bridge Combat Support Training Exercise to run through an actual SRP process. If Fort McCoy were activated as a MFGI location, we will have worked through the steps Soldiers must take to complete that process.”
As for the medical portion of the MFGI mission, Pugh commended Army Medical Command and Blanchfield Army Community Hospital for the significant amount of work done in such a short period of time. If MFGI sites are activated, MEDCOM facilities like BACH provide oversight and support to the medical personnel assigned to the medical SRP and TMC missions.
“We were very concerned about the timeline and if we would be able to accomplish everything in time to conduct this training, and Fort Campbell’s medical team said ‘We’ll have this done’,” said Pugh.
“Walking around and talking to the Soldiers, seeing their energy levels and the positive energy they are exuding on a regular basis motivates me. There’s no doubt in my mind that if called upon to support a future MFGI mission, we could make it happen right now.”
Capt. Gilberto Rodriguez, an operations officer with the BACH medical team at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, echoed Pugh’s sentiments.
“We began our work to support this training mission in December of 2017. The first thing we saw when we arrived at Fort McCoy was potential,” Rodriguez said. “We received the mission to establish a medical Soldier Readiness Processing site with Role 1 TMC capabilities at Fort McCoy and a few months later, it was complete. There is a lot that went into it, but the important thing is that we are ready to support Soldiers through the medical process at Fort McCoy, if needed.”
While advanced preparation plays a significant role, ARMEDCOM is among the more than 600 Ready Force X units dedicating focused time to training missions in order to be ready to deploy on short notice in support of contingency operations. For these Soldiers, this means a careful balance to maintain needed readiness levels while Soldiers continue to maintain their lives with their Families and Employers out of uniform.
“There is a tension between what we need to accomplish as a force, and the balancing act our Soldiers are conducting every day,” said Lt. Gen. Charles Luckey. “We’re trying to alleviate that tension between being ready enough to be relevant, but not so ready that our Soldiers can’t maintain healthy family relationships, keep good civilian jobs, and pursue their education goals.”
As the Army Reserve continues to work towards building capable, combat ready Soldiers and units, ARMEDCOM remains committed to medically keeping service members in the fight.
“You see ARMEDCOM patches everywhere doing all kinds of important things in support of the U.S. Army Reserve and the U.S. Army. This is an exciting time to be a part of America’s Army Reserve, and if the call comes, ARMEDCOM Soldiers will be ready,” affirmed Link.
| Date Taken: | 03.29.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 03.29.2018 17:18 |
| Story ID: | 271166 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 279 |
| Downloads: | 3 |
This work, ARMEDCOM medical professionals vital to preparing the battle-ready Soldier, by Angela Wallace, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
LEAVE A COMMENT