Missouri Guard members provide medical services in Dominican Republic

By Jennifer Archdekin

Missouri National Guard

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (10/01/11) - Reaching out beyond the U.S. borders, Citizen-Soldiers with the 205th Area Support Medical Company recently completed six rotations serving impoverished areas of the Dominican Republic.

Over the span of five months, 42 Soldiers rotated every two weeks to the city of Mao for overseas training. The unit supported a larger medical operation for the U.S. Southern Command, which is one of nine unified combatant commands in the Department of Defense.

Overall, the humanitarian medical mission provided vaccinations, dental services and veterinarian services for the underdeveloped areas in the vicinity of Mao, while also building two hospitals in the community. Specifically, the Missouri Guard members took care of medical needs of U.S. and Dominican troops and DoD civilians while they served the local citizens.

The medical company is designed to provide assistance when needed, such as evaluating and transporting casualties, as well as stabilizing them for further treatment.

The exercise included both Army and Army Reserve components, as well as National Guard troops from other states.

Throughout the course of the mission there was an average of 250 U.S. troops serving at any given time. This was the first mission of its kind for the medical company to take part in.

While fulfilling their two-week annual training obligation as Guard members do, this operation allowed the Citizen-Soldiers to not only learn, but also reach out and help others one-on-one.

“To be able to truly go out and go somewhere to take care of other people in another country and see the scale of this mission is unbelievable,” said Army Staff Sgt. Dwayne Washington, readiness noncommissioned officer.

Though serving in another country may be rewarding, it also posed additional challenges.

“You practically had to learn a new language in order to treat the Soldiers,” Washington said. “Being in a Third World country where we’re not the dominating factor, we had to go into their culture and learn their culture.”

Seeing the children that were positively affected by the mission meant the world to Washington and the other troops.

“It meant a lot to actually see the little children and provide them water and medical assistance,” said Washington. “You knew they truly never had it before and would be benefit from it.”