Photo By Senior Airman Matthew Domingos | A Veteran speaks with U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Cassandra Milligan, 934th Aeromedical...... read more read more
From April 28 to May 7, 75 reserve, guard, and active-duty Airmen carried out Operation Healthy Delta Innovative Readiness Training (IRT) in Sikeston, Missouri.
The Delta Area Economic Opportunity Corporation (DAEOC), a private, not-for-profit community action agency serving counties in Southeast Missouri, acted as the community partner for the mission, a collaboration that has been ongoing since 2013. DAEOC administers programs aimed at combating poverty and providing economic opportunities.
“We're one of 19 organizations in the state of Missouri and about 1,000 across the United States,” said Joel Evans, DAEOC president and CEO. “We're all tasked with combating poverty. The mission of DAEOC and IRT go together very closely, hand-in-hand.”
The mission provided services such as dental care, optometry, wellness checks, and medical at no cost to attendees. The clinic recorded a total of 2,464 patient visits, which included 347 dental visits, 230 medical evaluations, 1,021 wellness center interactions, and 866 optometry screenings, culminating in 9,808 procedures.
The estimated fair market value of the care provided was approximately $594,634. Additionally, Remote Area Medical, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing free, quality healthcare to underserved and uninsured individuals across worldwide, distributed a total of 934 glasses to the community.
“Nine people set up the entire site,” said Capt. Shannon Tribley, 434th Aerospace Medicine Squadron, Grissom ARB, and Operation Healthy Delta IRT director of operations. “In just a day and a half, we began offering patient care, which is unprecedented.”
Participants came from 35 units across 20 states and included personnel from various fields such as medical, logistics, finance, administration, public affairs, contracting, and force support.
“I'll tell you, from my heart, I'm really touched and couldn't be happier that we're serving the population that are underserved,” said Evans. “Many people ask, ‘what do you have to be? What are the requirements to be there?’ We tell them there are no income guidelines, no insurance guidelines, no residency guidelines; all you have to be is a human.”
Service members also received over 3,000 hours of training.
“Part of our training, of course, is to allow our techs to see a whole breadth of knowledge and experiences,” Tribley said. “We've had a couple of unique experiences here where we had a member going through a routine eye exam, and because we have some extremely helpful diagnostic equipment here, our optometrist diagnosed a potential brain tumor. This is a condition that would have potentially blinded, if not, killed the member, had we not caught it.”
The training included the 40-hour Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC) and Medic-X courses, ride-alongs with the South Scott County Ambulance district, and shifts in the emergency room of the Missouri Delta Medical Center.
“This is my seventh IRT,” Tribley said. “I think that you do one IRT and it gets in your blood. The team is so amazing here--everybody has come together and made it happen.”
| Date Taken: | 05.07.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 06.02.2025 09:09 |
| Story ID: | 499389 |
| Location: | SIKESTON, MISSOURI, US |
| Web Views: | 55 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, IRT provides critical healthcare services, training in Missouri, by MSgt Rachelle Morris, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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