Remains of Marines, Sailor from 15th MEU transferred to Dover AFB

 

Story by Staff Sgt. Kassie McDol, 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit

MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. – The remains of seven Marines and a Sailor recovered Aug. 7 off the coast of San Clemente Island following a July 30 assault amphibious vehicle mishap were transferred Aug. 12 to Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, from Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, California.

Six pallbearers of Marines and Sailors escorted each casket aboard a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III bound for Dover AFB for final preparation for burial before being released to their families for final arrangements.

Transferred were:

Pfc. Bryan J. Baltierra, 18, of Corona, California

Lance Cpl. Marco A. Barranco, 21, of Montebello, California

Pfc. Evan A. Bath, 19, of Oak Creek, Wisconsin

Navy Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class (Fleet Marine Force) Christopher Gnem, 22, of Stockton, California

Pfc. Jack-Ryan Ostrovsky, 20, of Bend, Oregon

Cpl. Wesley A. Rodd, 22, of Harris, Texas

Lance Cpl. Chase D. Sweetwood, 18, of Portland, Oregon

Cpl. Cesar A. Villanueva, 21, of Riverside, California

The remains of Lance Cpl. Guillermo S. Perez, 19, of New Braunfels, Texas, who also died in the AAV mishap July 30, were transferred to Dover AFB on Aug. 5 from MCAS Miramar.

The ages of the deceased have been updated, as a previous press release listed them incorrectly.

Gnem was posthumously advanced to the rank of petty officer third class and posthumously awarded his enlisted Fleet Marine Force Warfare Specialist qualification, having met the criteria set by the Navy for both before his death.

We ask that the privacy of the families be respected as they make final arrangements for their loved ones.

The cause of the July 30 incident is under investigation.

Imagery of the recovery efforts and transfer of remains will be available at https://www.dvidshub.net/feature/15thmeurecovery.

Media should direct all queries to the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit Communication Strategy and Operations Office at kassie.mcdole@usmc.mil.

Fast Forward

 

Oregon Army National Guardsmen move towards their objective during training at Biak Training Center in Powell Butte, Ore., July 30, 2020.

Fiery Flare

 

Navy Seaman Stephen Otchere-Danso trips the wire for an M49A1 trip flare during training at Camp Grayling, Mich., Aug. 11, 2020.

Misty Maneuver

 

An airman rappels out of an aircraft during training at Lake Theodore Roosevelt in Roosevelt, Ariz., Aug. 5, 2020.

Defender-Europe

 

An Army M1 Abrams tank fires at a target during Defender-Europe at Drawsko Pomorskie Training Area, Poland, August 11, 2020. The exercise was designed to build strategic readiness

National Defense Strategy Key to Force Restructuring

 Aug. 12, 2020 | BY TERRI MOON CRONK , DOD News

As the Defense Department looked at restructuring its forces in Europe, officials had to decide how a restructure would deal with today's threats as defined in the National Defense Strategy, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told the Hudson Institute today.

Air Force Gen. John E. Hyten said the NDS — which focuses on force lethality, increasing partners and allies, and reforming DOD — is a strategy "based on a threat."

When DOD looked at Europe, it had a series of priorities, he said:

• Whatever we do in Europe should improve our deterrent posture. 
• DOD must better engage with its allies across the European continent. 
• DOD needs to improve its partnership with NATO. 
• DOD must make sure its armed forces are ready and it could give more flexible options for deploying the force. 
• DOD must ensure it is true to its commitment to its service members and their families that are deployed in Europe.

"We are moving [some] forces back to the United States so we can improve readiness, and then deploy them back into Europe on a rotational basis and some other places in Europe to allow us to better be postured for the threat," the vice chairman said.
 
"You'll see Poland be a more active partner, you'll see Romania be a more active partner, [and] you'll see the Black Sea area more active because that's where we improve our deterrence versus Russia, which was [Defense Secretary Dr. Mark T. Esper's] No. 1 priority," Hyten said.

After the military is done with the restructure, the largest number of forces will still be in Germany, he said, calling Germany "a critical ally."

The secretary asked DOD to build a new joint warfighting concept and to have the first defined by the end of this year, Hyten said. 

The secretary also said to integrate the Army's focus on multidomain operation, the Air Force's focus on multidomain command and control, and the Navy's focus on fleet operations, the vice chairman said. "As we've looked at each of those, we started to build a joint warfighting concept," he added. 

"But it's really combined in … all the main command and control, because we have to be able to do it with our allies and partners too," he said.

"Because if we figured out how to do it in the United States, … since we do everything as a coalition, when we bring a coalition together, they have to understand how to fit in because we have to draw a line for them."

If DOD and its allies can do all of that together, the general said, it creates a huge advantage for the future joint combined force, and it will create huge challenges for competitors around the world to try to figure out how to deal with it. Hyten said that's the path DOD has been going down for a while, and it's starting to actually mature and come to fruition now. "It's pretty exciting to see," he said.

Allies and partners are probably DOD's biggest advantage in the world today, "and will be as far as I can see in the future," the vice chairman said.

"[We] want to make sure that when our allies come with us — whether they come with us in the air at sea on the land — that they have capabilities to allow them to interoperate with the tactical units they're falling in with."

The command and control relationship is going to be "critically important to build as we go forward," Hyten said.

MWD, handlers receive conflict management training

 

By Dani JohnsonAugust 12, 2020

ANSBACH, Germany (Aug. 11, 2020) – Soldiers and their military working dogs (MWD) received conflict management training Aug. 7 at Oberdachstetten Training Area to reduce the risk of avoidable safety events to the force and enable dog handlers to continue to successfully meet the mission.

Seven teams from Ansbach and three from Grafenwoehr received the daylong training that consisted of socialization exercises and classroom training on working dog psychology, instinctive drives and behavior, communication and canine body language, and canine stress management.

“Since October 2019, we have had a string of bites with the military working dogs with our Soldiers and a majority of them took place during kennel care when they would go into the kennels to clean or feed,” said Duane Stinson, MWD program manager, U.S. Army Europe (USAREUR), Wiesbaden. “Unfortunately at the MWD School at Lackland (Air Force Base, Texas), new dog handlers are not currently taught to read behavior. It might be briefly talked about but they don’t put any time teaching them to read behavior or go into really good communication between dogs and handlers.”

When the dog bite cases were looked at, the common denominator was that they could have been prevented if the Soldiers had been able to read canine behavior and communication signals, and could have seen what was coming and to react better to it, according to Stinson.

“We looked at the problem set. Between Maj. (Desireé) Broach, the veterinary behaviorist, and myself and 31K (military working dog handler) leaders here in Europe got together and developed a course to educate them (handlers),” Stinson said. “We developed the training and are traveling to all seven kennels in Europe to deliver seminars focused on stress management in the kennel environment and with the individual dogs and handlers how to manage their (MWD) stress. They are patrol dogs so they are trained to bite people and that is a very stressful task.

“They aren’t like police dogs that go home (with the police officer) and are part of a family unit,” he said. “Dogs are a social species, they don’t get to interact a lot and in the exercise they do fight with each other. This is the time to work through those issues and relieve the stress and anxiety that comes with the lack of dog-on-dog socialization.”

According to Broach, director and veterinary behaviorist, Veterinary Medical Center Europe, Kaiserslautern, there is lag time with what science says and what we currently practice. There is a knowledge gap to fill and handling practices that need to be updated.

“We trying to correct a problem with new information and are not saying the handlers are wrong,” said Broach. “We are saying that we have more information to make it safer for the handler and better for the dog.

“The original intent was we didn’t want them to socialize together because we wanted them (the MWDs) to be bonded to people,” the major said. “They will bond with people and dogs so it is not a reason to keep them from normal expressions of behavior and we’ve seen the adverse effects from suppressing their normal behaviors.”

The training is only offered in USAREUR, according to Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Barry, kennel master, 131st Military Police Detachment (MWD), 18th Military Police Brigade.

“We are trying to teach the handlers the importance of understanding what your dog is thinking and what your dog is doing to help make the right decisions,” said Barry. “You can understand and see the signs of how your dog is thinking and feeling.

“If you can read your dog you can see what is going to happen before it happens, such as you see him getting uncomfortable nervous or scared,” said the kennel master. “You can manipulate that dog to give him confidence and work through it or avoid it all together.”

In the socialization exercise, the handlers and MWDs walked to a flat lot and circled numerous times allowing the dogs to interact. All the dogs had muzzles on to prevent injuries and remained leashed.

To the normal person it will look like the dogs are fighting versus socializing.

“Getting them together in a safe manner is going to force you to watch their behaviors. When you are a bit more tense and vigilant your dog reacts to you,” said Broach. “How they react to other dogs together may surprise you. We want them to be dogs and interact but they may not know what to do because they have never had the opportunity.”

“It definitely opened my eyes,” said Sgt. Ian Long, Ansbach MWD Kennel non-commissioned officer in charge. “The dogs can be very anxious towards one another and we built that into them.”

Long knew his MWD, Kimbo, was anxious around people and dogs, and hopes this training will help socialize him more so they can focus on the mission.

The Ansbach MWD Kennel houses eight handler-dog teams dedicated to helping to safeguard Army installations and activities, to detect bombs and other explosives before they inflict harm and to deploy worldwide to support military and diplomatic missions

USAG Rheinland-Pfalz Military Policeman rescues local national after rollover accident

 

By Keith PannellAugust 12, 2020

KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany – Sgt. 1st Class Chad Bailey won’t call himself a hero. However, his actions may prove otherwise.

The U.S. Army Garrison Rheinland-Pfalz Directorate of Emergency Services Military Police Investigations supervisor was travelling with his family on the L-529, near their amusement park destination Aug. 9 when brake lights in front of him suddenly lit up and traffic came to a sudden and screeching halt. That’s when Bailey saw a car, crunched at both ends and laying on its top on the opposite side of the road.

“I looked at my wife and she said, ‘Go!’ because she knew what I was doing,” Bailey said. “I opened the door and jumped out. I was wearing my bathing suit and one thing I remember is my wallet swinging back and forth really hard in my pocket as I ran forward. I had to reach down and hold it still so I could run.”

The scene Bailey ran up on was worse than he expected.

“The engine was still running, the tires were still spinning and smoke was rising from the engine compartment,” he said. “There were two people in the car, a man who was already out but very shook up and a female. Two other people tried to pull the female out but looked like they were afraid to touch her. She was struggling and very confused.”

After Bailey helped her the rest of the way out of the overturned Mercedes, she sat there in a disoriented state. He said he was trying to communicate to the German woman that she may be in danger, but it appeared his words weren’t getting through to her.

“I gave her about three seconds and told her, ‘We need to move’ and she wasn’t hearing me, so I finally said, ‘Auto go boom!’”

Bailey picked the woman up from behind with his arms under hers and dragged her to a shaded spot away from the wrecked car. Military Combat Lifesaver Course training kicked in and he checked her for injuries, of which he didn’t find anything obvious.

Bailey has been part of the garrison about 11 months as the MP Investigations supervisor. His skill in that job made him a natural for the head of Team Trace, which tracks down the contacts of those who have tested positive for COVID-19.

“Sgt. 1st Class Bailey has already made a name for himself within the garrison as the noncommissioned officer in charge of Team Trace operations,” said Maj. Chase Crabtree, DES director. “He’s a stellar individual and I’m not surprised he ran toward the danger. I’m blessed to have him.”

After monitoring the couple for a few minutes, the Polizei arrived and Bailey said he got back in his car and, when traffic started moving, he and his family went on to enjoy their day. The whole incident took less than 15 minutes, he said.

“I did lay in bed Sunday night wondering how that couple was doing,” Bailey said. “I’m glad it doesn’t appear anyone was hurt too badly.”

As for the cause of the accident, Bailey’s investigation training led him to a couple of possibilities, but rather than speculate, he’s leaving that up to the host nation investigators to officially determine.

Brooke Army Medical Center Offers 'Last Line of Defense' Against COVID-19

 Aug. 12, 2020 | BY Elaine Sanchez , Brooke Army Medical Center

Brooke Army Medical Center at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, Texas, is expanding its use of a highly specialized treatment for critically ill COVID-19 patients.

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, or ECMO, is a heart-lung bypass intervention that is proving to be lifesaving for some COVID-19 patients.

"ECMO is often the last line of defense for the most critically ill patients with severe pulmonary disease," said Air Force Col. (Dr.) Patrick Osborn, BAMC's deputy commander for surgical services. "Whether due to COVID-19 or another condition, ECMO provides a life-support option that can potentially save lives when all other options are exhausted."

BAMC, one of the few local facilities that offer the treatment, is providing up to one-third of the ECMO capability for the San Antonio area's most severely ill residents, veterans and military beneficiaries suffering from the virus.

"As much as able, BAMC is easing the burden on local health care resources by admitting civilian ECMO patients," Osborn said.

ECMO Explained

This treatment, which requires a multidisciplinary team of specially trained medical personnel, is used in the intensive care unit when a patient experiences heart or lung failure. The ECMO machine removes blood from central vessels in a patient's body, circulates it through an artificial lung, oxygenates it, and delivers the blood back into the bloodstream. In essence, it replaces the natural functions of the heart and lungs, allowing the treatments to help heal the affected organs.. 

"ECMO is not a treatment for any specific disease," said Air Force Col. (Dr.) Phillip Mason, medical director for BAMC's adult ECMO program. "It works by keeping critically ill patients alive and buying time for us to address their underlying condition. In some cases, we can reduce a patient's chance of dying from 80 to 90 percent down to 30 to 40 percent. While 30 to 40 percent is still high, it represents a significant improvement and translates into many lives saved."

Established in October 2012, BAMC's adult ECMO center is the only one in the Defense Department, and it remains one of the few centers with global air transportable ECMO capability. The multiservice ECMO team has traveled as far as Iraq and Afghanistan to pick up service members in need of the treatment.

While taking care of military beneficiaries is BAMC's primary mission, the organization is able to support civilian ECMO patients through a special Defense Department program. The experience gained ensures the ECMO team sustains the skills required to mobilize worldwide to treat and transport patients back to BAMC, Osborn said.

COVID-19 Care

Due to the highly specialized personnel, training and equipment required to care for ECMO patients, BAMC typically could treat only up to four patients at any given time prior to the outbreak. In recent weeks, the hospital has expanded its capability and is treating up to nine patients at a time, most of whom are battling COVID-19. 

An ECMO team carefully considers the treatment after other lifesaving measures, such as oxygen therapy or a ventilator, have proven ineffective.

"The vast majority of the critical care community believes that ECMO is effective as a rescue therapy for respiratory failure that does not respond to conventional therapies," Mason noted. 

BAMC is also part of a multinational observational trial of ECMO's use for COVID-19. The trial should help to reveal evidence-based proof of the treatment’s effectiveness, but that's further down the line, Mason said. 

"While COVID is a complex disease affecting many organ systems, its primary manifestation is respiratory failure, so there is at least some reason to believe ECMO will be effective," he said, noting the treatment is often used for other viral respiratory illnesses, such as influenza.

We have the highest highs and the lowest lows. But each life saved is incredibly rewarding for us and a testament to the importance of this treatment.''

Air Force Col. (Dr.) Phillip Mason, BAMC Adult ECMO Program

With the program in place for nearly a decade, BAMC's COVID-19 team is accustomed to working closely with local hospitals in the event a patient may be a candidate for ECMO. This collaboration has stepped up in recent months, creating a larger influx of patients. 

To expand capacity to meet the growing community need, BAMC called on its ECMO team to train additional nurses and technicians on the equipment, while also leaning on personnel from the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research Burn Center, which is housed in the hospital, to assist. 

"With the support of the ISR we have been able to expand our ECMO capacity significantly," said Army Maj. (Dr.) Michal Sobieszczyk, staff physician, interventional pulmonology and critical care medicine. "The BAMC and ISR bedside nurses have been instrumental in making the ECMO mission a success."

Lifesaving Treatment

ECMO may be a last resort for COVID-19 patients, but one that has proved lifesaving for many. Sobieszczyk recalled one recent patient in his late 20s who was placed on ECMO twice — once for COVID-19 pneumonia, from which he recovered, and the second time for a bacterial pneumonia and sepsis.  

"He required a high level of support and came close to dying several times," Sobieszczyk said. "Fortunately, he was able to be weaned off ECMO and his [breathing tubes were removed] earlier this week." 

As a last-resort measure, ECMO is a high-stakes endeavor, Mason noted.

"We have the highest highs and the lowest lows," Mason said. "But each life saved is incredibly rewarding for us and a testament to the importance of this treatment."

ECMO is just one line of defense against COVID-19, but one that BAMC is proud to offer to its beneficiaries and the community, Sobieszczyk said. 

"The ECMO team is honored to support the community during this pandemic," he said. "Not only are we able to help the civilian population, but at the same time use this as an opportunity to enhance our mission readiness. It gives everyone a sense of purpose and mission, something we all strive for in the military."

(Elaine Sanchez is assigned to Brooke Army Medical Center.)

Medics Train at Ramstein for COVID-19 Response

Aug. 12, 2020 | BY AIR FORCE STAFF SGT. KIRBY TURBAK , 86th Airlift Wing

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, people have adapted to and overcome an array of unanticipated situations. Medics within the Kaiserslautern Military Community in Germany have done, and continue to do, just that. On July 14, members of the Air Mobility Command arrived at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, to teach local medical instructors how to respond to a number of situations that could happen with a negatively pressured conex, a device used to safely transport passengers and medical personnel in the midst of a viral outbreak.

"We have a large group of individuals coming together from the 86th Medical Group and the 86th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron to form a COVID-19 team," Air Force Capt. JD Pilger, 86th AES interim training flight commander, said. The training equips the Europe-based trainers to implement the U.S. Air Forces in Europe for movement of patients for U.S. European Command and U.S. Africa Command, he added. 

While there hasn't been a large demand for NPC teams within Europe, military medics know it's best to be prepared.

"There's not a huge demand within Eucom currently, but we're training, getting ready so if there is a demand, we're ready to go," Pilger said. "There's not going to be any delay, we'll be able to start moving patients Day One."

Building up and preparing these teams is important. COVID-19 may not be the only global pandemic they are called on to combat.

"Going forward, we can use these units for potential outbreaks like Ebola and Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome, which have a higher mortality rate," Pilger said. "It's important to maintain our NPC protocols for anything else in the future."

The AMC instructors ran the medics through the gamut of real-life scenarios.

"We covered around 15 different scenarios today," Pilger said. "Anywhere from a patient emergency, where they have a cardiac arrest and we're having to perform lifesaving maneuvers to bring them back, [to] a personal protective equipment breach and we have to decontaminate ourselves so we don't get infected."

Fighting COVID-19 is an all-hands-on-deck fight, and it's important for medics from different units to be able to work as a single team, Pilger noted.

"We had a great job with everyone coming together," Pilger said. "We've come together communicating and coordinating. We'll be ready to start taking live patients if the demand is there."

Warbird Carrier

 

The USS Essex transports vintage military aircraft into Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, Aug. 10, 2020. The aircraft will take part in events commemorating the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II.