February 8, 2017 –
In recent guidance to the field, Lt. Gen. Charles Luckey, Commanding General of U.S. Army Reserve Command, told Soldiers that he needed them to prepare for an unpredictable future.
“I want you to be ready to do whatever the American people and America’s Army is going to need us to do as we move into the future,” said Luckey.
An unpredictable future is exactly what Soldiers with Army Reserve Medical Command train for when they prepare to mobilize in support of global missions.
Army Reserve Soldiers assigned to the 7227th Medical Support Unit out of Columbia, Missouri, have been working alongside observer coach/trainers with 4th Battalion (Medical), 393rd Infantry Regiment in North Fort Hood for three weeks in preparation for their upcoming mission in support of Landstuhl Regional Medical Center’s Deployed Warrior Medical Management Center, or DWMMC, in Landstuhl, Germany.
Lt. Col. Aaron Neal, the 7227th MSU Commander, explained that the complexity of the mission and the unique skillsets needed meant a creative training process leading up to validation by the 4-393rd, a First Army Division West asset, tasked with building and testing the readiness capabilities for mobilizing Army Reserve and National Guard medical personnel.
”We’ve done a great deal of tasks here at Fort Hood over the last three weeks. We’ve focused on warrior leader tasks, medical tasks, individual and collective training tasks, but mostly we’ve been focusing on tasks that lead us to our MRX, the culminating event, which is when we track patients in and out of theater,” said Neal.
Neal and his team have been preparing for their mission since they received notification of the mobilization in July of 2016.
“There are four missions that we will be supporting at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center. The first is command, which is a small portion of this mission. The second is hospital ministry. We’re taking a Chaplain and one of his roles is to assist the unit with religious support, but additionally he will support the wounded warriors as well as the other patients in the hospital who may need Chaplain support. Our third mission is to provide hospital support which is what our surgical team, our pharmacy team and some of the specialty skillsets will provide at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, and our fourth – our primary mission - is patient administration,” said Neal.
Landstuhl Regional Medical Center serves as a regional point of health care for military personnel serving abroad in different theaters throughout Europe and the Middle East. Patients needing more comprehensive care than can be provided by Forward Surgical Teams and Combat Support Hospitals are evacuated to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center to receive necessary treatment that allows them to return to duty or stabilizes them so that they can be transported back to the United States.
The 7227th MSU’s patient administration team assigned to DWMMC will coordinate patient data prior to the patient’s arrival in Germany to ensure each patient’s needs are understood and that efficiencies are in place to receive the patient, and place them with liaisons to get the care needed as quickly as possible.
Patient administration is not the only mission the 7227th MSU has been preparing for.
“We’re bringing some very specific augmented capabilities requested by Landstuhl Regional Medical Center… Right now, two of my operating room techs are in the operating room for a hip surgery and a knee surgery. Our pharmacist and two pharmacy techs are currently filling prescriptions at the hospital in South Fort Hood. This work mirrors their jobs when we get to Germany and is the best way to prepare them,” said Neal.
Getting his Soldiers ready for the mission went beyond the months of planning, executing Soldier tasks and developing military occupational specialties, according to the 7227th MSU Commander.
“All of the Soldiers who are here today wouldn’t have gotten to this point without a lot of support from others. From our home station in Columbia, Missouri, to our battalion in Topeka, Kansas... We also couldn’t do what we do without the support of our Families and employers. It really does take a village to ensure we are able to do what we do,” Neal said.