KODIAK, ALASKA- The Innovative Readiness Training (IRT) exercise ARCTIC CARE 2017 ended on April 7, 2017 on Kodiak Island, Alaska as military members wrapped up medical care for community members and packed up medical equipment for redeployment.
In the end, the ARCTIC CARE 2017 team provided the people of Kodiak with over four thousand medical, dental, and optometry services and over one thousand veterinary services at no cost to patients.
ARCTIC CARE 2017 medical readiness exercise started March 28 with the opening of clinics in Kodiak and other villages throughout the island. Patients began receiving care on March 29 as service members provided citizens on Kodiak Island various patient and veterinary services.
“This is an incredible training experience. We’ve actually merged as a group and worked really well together, playing off of each other's experience and the benefit is to the community here,” said Air Force Reserve Maj. Dena Jones, Officer in Charge of ARCTIC CARE 2017 with the 514th Aerospace Medicine Squadron.
The service members honed their operational skills in a deployed environment while providing critical medical services to the citizens on Kodiak Island.
“Feedback from the residents has been absolutely positive, and they are so glad that we are here. Some of them have told me that they do not have health insurance and to be able to come to Kodiak or any of the other villages and get no cost health care, they are absolutely thrilled about it,” said Jones.
ARCTIC CARE 2017 is part of the IRT program, which is an Office of Secretary of Defense sponsored civil-military collaboration intended to build on mutually beneficial partnerships between U.S. communities and the Department of Defense. ARCTIC CARE 2017 provides training opportunities for U.S. military (Active, Guard, Reserve) and Canadian Health service members to prepare for worldwide deployment while supporting the needs of undeserved communities on Kodiak Island, Alaska.