U.S. Army Col. Erin Merryweather, is a nurse practitioner with the 7306th Medical Exercise Support Battalion, an Army Reserve unit based in San Antonio, Texas. Her hometown is Kanab, Utah, and she was with the Utah National Guard until a few years ago when she transitioned to the Army Reserve, working and living in San Antonio now.

“In exercise Justified Accord (JA23), I work as the role one officer in charge for Soldier care here in Kenya,” said Merryweather.

Role one medical care consists of providing first aid, initial lifesaving measures and triage for additional treatment. Role two is the secondary step where medics can manage more advanced injuries, handle trauma patients and provide additional treatment measures, when necessary.

Merryweather traveled from Utah to Isiolo, Kenya, joining nearly 1,000 participants from 20 nations and four continents at U.S. Africa Command’s largest military exercise in East Africa. The exercise enhances regional security, multinational crisis response and interoperability for peacekeeping missions.

“I had been to Africa a couple times before, but it was the northwest part of the continent in Morocco,” shared Merryweather. “So I jumped at the opportunity to visit Kenya. My exercise battalion doesn’t get to do a lot of travel, especially overseas.”

She expressed that training in a multinational environment is an invaluable experience for her unit.

“I do love these opportunities where we’re able to bring in partner nations, work with them, exchange ideas and see how they would normally treat their patients.”

The medical staff has treated several patients, giving them a chance to utilize their skills. All patients have returned to duty with no further complications.

“We are in charge of the real-world basic medical care for all Soldiers at the exercise, we provide some medications and we can treat most types of minor injuries, including heat casualties,” said Merryweather.

She wanted to tell family friends in Texas and Utah “hello” from Africa.

“Overall this is a beautiful country,” said Merryweather. It’s very nice and warm here and has been such a nice break to be here instead of experiencing those subzero temperatures back home.”