NAVAL STATION NORFOLK, Va., June 29, 2006 — Members of Forward Deployable Preventive Medicine Unit East Team 7 recently participated in a two-day course that trained them to look for potential breeding sites for diseases or areas that hold hazardous materials.
"These [Forward Deployable Preventive Medicine Unit] teams have been utilized by joint forces repeatedly because they are versatile, have a small footprint but provide a lot of capabilities that can help field commanders maintain the health and safety of deployed forces."
U.S. Navy Capt. Michael Oraze |
The course, led by Greg Crisp of the Field Analytical Science Division, Navy Environmental Preventive Medicine Unit 2, was the first training session before the team's deployment to Iraq and took place at Naval Station Norfolk. The latest equipment available to the team is a man-portable, gas chromatograph/mass spectrometers called the HAPSITE. The HAPSITE Smart Chemical Identification System is a field unit for detecting volatile organics, said Crisp. In the classroom, Crisp trained team members on advanced techniques of the HAPSITE system and prepared them for a field deployment system that can determine chemical and environmental hazards that can affect U.S. troops. HAPSITE is currently used in Afghanistan. The second HAPSITE system will accompany members of the team when they deploy to Iraq. “They will be using it every day,” said Crisp. The team is scheduled for a second training session in July before deploying to Iraq. The classroom portion of the exercise allows the students to learn the HAPSITE as well as the computer software that analyzes the data provided by the HAPSITE system. The field training exercise lets team members experience a simulated chemical release, during which they will gather environmental samples and determine what course of action to recommend. In addition to the HAPSITE system, team members are trained in expeditionary logistics. “This subject covers procedures of who controls how we get assets and how we get those assets from storage to the operational environment,” said U.S. Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Jorge Tarata, a hospital corpsman. On July 10, the two units will begin a week-long training program. Both units will perform field exercises involving taking samples and getting readouts. “We are not a medical treatment unit,” said U.S. Navy Capt. Michael Oraze. “We can augment the organic medical assets of the deployed units as needed.” Although not involved in medical treatment, the team does analyze human tissue, testing for diseases. They also test insect samples.
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