New Horizons medical team supports exercise personnel and Hondurans

by Capt. David J. Murphy
1st Combat Camera Squadron

8/3/2015 - TRUJILLO, Honduras  -- New Horizons Honduras 2015 training exercise medical personnel have provided medical support to exercise personnel and Hondurans since June 2015 and will continue to do so until early August.

The 15-person medical team is made up of a general surgeon, anesthesiologist, operating room nurse, emergency medicine provider, biomedical equipment technician and 10 emergency medical technicians. The team's primary mission is to support all exercise personnel with point-of-injury immediate care before transfer to a main mobile forward surgical team.

"If someone gets injured here on the construction or well site we can provide immediate treatment to include self-aid buddy care, and IVs and intubation," said U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Brian Milner, 341st Medical Operations Squadron, 341st Medical Group, out of Malmstrom Air Force Base, Mo., "and once we stabilize the patient, we can transport them, via ambulance, to the hospital where they will receive follow-on care."

While the medical team supported all New Horizons personnel, their main mission was to provide support to the U.S. Air Force Airmen from the 823rd RED HORSE Squadron from Hurlburt Field, Fla., and U.S. Marines from the 271st Marine Wing Support Squadron from Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, N.C., during the construction of the new two-classroom schoolhouse in Ocotes Alto and the wells in both Honduras Aguan and Brisas del Mar.

The team's secondary mission is humanitarian in nature and has involved medical support to the Hondurans in the Dr. Salvador Paredes Hospital in downtown Trujillo in both the operating and emergency rooms.

"To date we've probably had about 100 surgical cases and consults and in the emergency room we've probably seen about 600 patients," said U.S. Air Force Maj. Norman Zellers, 60th Medical Operations Squadron, 60th Medical Group medical physician assistant, from Travis Air Force Base, Calif., "by the time we leave here we should have seen about 800 patients total."

Zellers is in charge of the emergency room but the team's surgeon, anesthesiologist and operating room nurse support operating room activities.

"We've done a pretty wide breadth of surgeries at this point," said U.S. Air Force Maj. Ryan Jones, 56th Medical Operations Squadron general surgeon from Luke Air Force Base, Ariz., "anywhere from amputation to hernia repair to gall bladder surgery. I find the Honduran people very grateful for this service that we're providing, it's irreplaceable."

New Horizons medical and hospital personnel are working side by side during medical activities with their Honduran counterparts not only to assist one another but also to exchange information.

"I've learned a lot just being here," said U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Valarie Tomme, Air Force Academy medical technician out of Colorado Springs, Colo., "they do things very differently here than they do in the states...and I think it's been a great learning experience. The nurses have been able to help me a lot and teach me different ways of doing things."

Besides medical care, the team has also been able to support the hospital in other ways by lending them the support of their biomedical equipment technician, U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Mark Lopez, 375th Medical Support Squadron out of Scott Air Force Base, Ill.

"These hospitals don't have a biomedical equipment technician, they don't really have a facilities maintenance of management office," said Lopez, "what they have is electrician and maintenance men and air conditioning technicians to fill in the roles to take care of the equipment...they do what they can. I'm more familiar with the more complicated systems...I can take care of anything from a simple blood pressure machine to an MRI unit and everything in between."

Lopez's primary mission involves supporting the operating room doctors when any of their equipment malfunctions.

"As they perform surgeries I need to be immediately next to them...in the surgery, helping out or on standby whenever the equipment experiences a failure...because they have moments when they have a patient on the table to make decisions to close them up or keep going and I'm right there as a contingency plan mostly," added Lopez.

The hospital will also receive any leftover supplies that were delivered to support the medical personnel during the exercise.

"I'm very grateful for the New Horizons exercise," said Dr. Salvador Paredes Hospital Director Melissa Bonegas, "I'm very glad that you have a surgeon and doctors that were able to see patients and help them out. I'm also very pleased with the communications people who were able to help out with electricity and were able to fix the internet. I'm also very grateful that we were able to donate some paint which will help better maintain the hospital."

Communication Airmen from the 35th Combat Communications Squadron were able to repair the hospital's ailing network, bring internet connectivity to nine offices that hadn't service in more than three years, and improving connectivity in existing offices.


Despite their being more than 100 people involved in the New Horizons exercise, and it centering primarily around construction, the number of reported medical cases has been 140, and none of those cases has been severe enough in nature to require serious medical attention from the MFST team.

"Overall this has been a pretty calm to moderate deployment with regard to medical issues," said U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Keiyata Styerjames, 633rd Aeromedical Squadron independent duty medical technician out of Langley Air Force Base, Va., "I'd attribute the small number of medical issues primarily to the fact that service members are using proper protective equipment and they are pretty cautious."

Medical team members will begin to redeploy in early August following the exercise's official end.

New Horizons was launched in the 1980s and is an annual joint humanitarian assistance exercise that U.S. Southern Command conducts with a partner nation in Central America, South America or the Caribbean. The exercise improves joint training readiness of U.S. and partner nation civil engineers, medical professionals and support personnel through humanitarian assistance activities.

Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony Marks Completion of Major New Horizons Project

by By Capt. David J. Murphy
1st Combat Camera Squadron

7/30/2015 - OCOTES ALTO -- New Horizons Honduras 2015 training exercise personnel, Honduran government officials, Honduran military members and U.S. Embassy representatives, in addition to the Gabriela Mistral students and their parents, attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new two-classroom schoolhouse at the Gabriela Mistral school July 28, 2015, in Ocotes Alto, Honduras.

The new 1,680-square-foot, two-classroom schoolhouse, which includes two bathrooms with running water, will be used by high school students starting Wednesday. The schoolhouse was constructed by U.S. Airmen from the 823rd Expeditionary RED HORSE Squadron, out of Hurlburt Field, Fla., and U.S. Marines from the 271st Marine Wing Support Squadron, out of Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, N.C.

"To the men and women of the New Horizons Honduras 2015 training exercise, I want to offer my congratulations on a job well done," said U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Ryan Elliott, New Horizons Honduras commander and 823rd RED HORSE Squadron deputy commander. "It has been my honor to watch Airman and Marines joining together to form an unstoppable team. To see engineers of all specialties working together, teaching each other and overcoming every challenge to complete such a first-rate facility has been one of the highlights of my career."

Construction on the building began June 1, 2015, and was completed in mid-July, nearly a month and a half ahead of schedule.

"The breakneck speed and precise efficiency with which you completed this building goes miles in demonstrating your job skills and teamwork," added Elliot.

Representing the Honduran government was Colón Department Governor Ghisell Padilla, Trujillo Mayor José Antonio Lainez, Colón Department of Education District Director Doris Maradiaga, Honduran Army Col. Rafael Deras, 15th Battalion Commander, and Abraham Ruiz, Gabriela Mistral principal.

"For us as a government and representatives of the president, it's an honor to be here at this ribbon-cutting ceremony for this schoolhouse at Gabriela Mistral," Padilla said. "I also want to thank the teachers as they make it possible for our children to have the bread of knowledge and are also here in this institution of Gabriela Mistral."

The new schoolhouse, which will support 60 students a day and act as a last stop for students at the school, originated from a meeting between the governor and other Trujillo officials eight months ago when they were planning the New Horizons exercise.

"We were discussing which school we should pick, who would benefit from this project New Horizons, and which school was in the most need. That's how we chose Gabriela Mistral," added Padilla.

The original plan Ruiz had for the school included installing a new roof on an existing building.

"I remember it exactly almost a year ago when we called the principal of this school and asked what the school needed and he said we have a building, but we need a roof for that building," said Maradiaga "so the person who went to inspect the building said ... why don't we just build a new structure."

The school project is one part of the larger New Horizons exercise. Other parts include the drilling of two wells, one in Honduras Aguan and another in Brisas del Mar, medical support in both the operating room and emergency room at the Dr. Salvador Paredes Hospital in Trujillo, and a vector-borne surveillance program in Tocoa.

Twenty-four hour security at the both the school site and the well sites was a joint effort between 15th Battalion Soldiers from the Honduran Army and U.S. Air Force security forces.

"It was a great cooperation, how everything was set up, how we did security with the U.S., and everything went very smoothly," said Deras.

Gifts were also presented by Ruiz to all the service members who had a hand in the schoolhouse construction.

"The faculty and I were trying to think of a good idea for the military members to have something to remember the work they put into this building," said Ruiz, "so we came up with the idea of making gifts. So we had people painting, cutting, drawing and I hope these gifts will help the military members remember this experience."

A dedication plaque was presented following the ribbon-cutting ceremony and denotes the who, what, where, when and why of the exercise. The plaque reads:

"This building stands as a testament to the strong and enduring partnership between Honduras and the U.S. It was constructed by U.S. Air Force Airmen and U.S. Marine Corps Marines with security from the Honduran Army. This project provided valuable training for all involved and strengthened the partnership between our nations."

"I want to reiterate how grateful we are to the Government of Honduras for inviting us here to conduct this training exercise," Elliott said, "I am confident that we will return home having strengthened relations between our nations."

The event, much like the groundbreaking ceremony, also included both traditional and modern dances by Gabriela Mistral students.