Photo By Senior Airman Alexis Pentzer | From left, U.S. Air Force Capt. Alexandre Rogan, the officer in charge of the Health...... read more read more
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Tegucigalpa, Honduras - While the Health Engagements Assistance Response Team 2022 is focused on providing medical support to Honduras and Guatemala, the medical teams did not get to this mission on their own. There were a lot of people behind the scenes to pull this operation together, and there is a support team assigned to HEART 22 to help them along the way.
In recent months and through the duration of the operation, the members primarily responsible for making HEART 22 a reality are Dr. Ricardo Aviles, a medical local national officer with Joint Task Force-Bravo, and the two medical planners in charge, U.S. Air Force Capt. Alexandre Rogan and Staff Sgt. Bris Lott, both assigned to JTF-B at Soto Cano Air Base, Honduras.
Aviles has been the main coordinator between the service members and hospitals, and according to Rogan, HEART 22 is largely a result of Aviles’s vision. Rogan and Lott have been responsible for everything from arranging lodging and transportation for the 50 service members participating throughout the eight weeks of HEART 22, to the coordination of supply delivery and daily accountability of all personnel on the mission.
“HEART has been in the works for over two years; to bring it to the execution phase, a few critical things happened,” said Rogan. “U.S. Southern Command granted Joint Task Force-Bravo tactical control of all of the deployed members which the JTF-B commander was then able to delegate to me which was pivotal in operating in an agile way and bringing the mission to fruition. Then two vital members joined the effort; Tech. Sgt. Shannon Swinford and Senior Airman Adrian Burrus, medical logisticians from Wilford Hall who volunteered to be our augmented theater lead agents for medical materiel, executed $1.6 million in medical supplies and equipment. Without these two, there would not be Class VIII here.”
Along with Aviles, Rogan and Lott, there are a variety of support functions accompanying HEART 22: contracting, religious affairs, public affairs, translators and medical local national officers.
“It was important to us to have our medical teams properly supported during this two-month long operation,” said Lott. “There is a lot that takes place day-to-day during an operation that the support members help accomplish. We are very grateful to have everyone as a part of the team.”
Contracting procures needed supplies and equipment required to execute the mission. Public affairs documents the mission and shares information with the public. Religious affairs provides religious services to the deployed members and offers support at the hospitals. Each of these teams consists of at least one officer and one enlisted member deployed specifically for HEART 22.
The volunteer translators and JTF-B medical LNOs are Honduran nationals who are providing their assistance and expertise to ensure the collaboration between the service members and Honduran medical teams goes smoothly.
Of course, none of this would be possible without the coordination of the U.S. Embassies in Honduras and Guatemala, and the willingness of the countries and hospitals to host the team. All of this is an example of the overarching goals of HEART 22 to increase collaboration, enhance interoperability and strengthen partnerships.
| Date Taken: | 08.08.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 08.08.2022 18:35 |
| Story ID: | 426824 |
| Location: | TEGUCIGALPA, HN |
| Web Views: | 292 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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