Month: May 2022

Source: United States Navy

The pilot program is part of ongoing efforts by NAVCENT leaders to expand care options for service members and their families stationed in Bahrain or throughout the region.

“We are truly trying to help our service members and families conquer their mental health issues,” said Capt. Miguel Cubano, NAVCENT’s force surgeon. “Our goal is to provide the best possible mental health care.”

Under the pilot program, service members and families experiencing acute mental health problems can now receive up to a month of inpatient care, as well as intensive outpatient care, from community-based providers in Bahrain.

Previously, service and family members could receive approximately a week of inpatient mental health care in theater while awaiting return to the United States, and intensive outpatient care was not available.

NAVCENT launched the pilot program after a September review of mental health care options available to service members and families in theater. Leaders identified an opportunity to expand options available to service members and families for treatment in theater.

“As leaders, we want our service members and family members experiencing mental health problems to receive the help they need to excel in their personal lives and professional careers,” Cubano said.

As part of the program, military and community-based mental health providers now meet weekly to discuss patient care. Depending on each patient’s progress and diagnosis, military mental health providers factor in these discussions when making decisions concerning further treatment

U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations encompasses about 2.5 million square miles of water area and includes the Arabian Gulf, Gulf of Oman, Red Sea and parts of the Indian Ocean. The region is comprised of 21 countries and includes three critical choke points at the Strait of Hormuz, the Suez Canal and the Strait of Bab al-Mandeb at the southern tip of Yemen.

Source: United States Navy

In the first week of May, FLC Bahrain personnel coordinated the delivery of 27 pallets of cargo, including 1 high priority repair part, and mail to USNS Charles Drew (T-AKE 10) who then replenished USS Fitzgerald at sea while operating in the U.S Central Command area of responsibility. Fitzgerald subsequently pulled into port 8 May for a voyage repair, where FLC Bahrain personnel provided mission critical support, including 32 pallets of cargo totaling 12,000lbs and 29 high priority repair parts.

LS3 Kayla Aschwanden, a Logistics Support Representative (LSR) at FLC Bahrain noted “The USS Fitzgerald was the first big port visit that I was able to be a part of since joining the NAVSUP FLC Bahrain team. It was amazing to witness all the moving parts come together as the various codes worked to provide the ship everything they needed during their time in Bahrain. I am honored to be a part of a team that continuously shows dedication as we all ensure each task is executed in support of the mission.”

“I am extremely proud of our team’s ability to provide word-class logistics to our warfighters wherever they are” says LCDR Garner, FLC Bahrain Operations Department Head. “We work every day to ensure our customers have what they need to execute their mission.”

NAVSUP FLC Bahrain is one of eight FLCs under Commander, NAVSUP. Headquartered in Mechanicsburg, Penn., and employing a diverse, worldwide workforce of more than 22,500 military and civilian personnel, NAVSUP’s mission is to provide supplies, services, and quality-of-life support to the Navy and joint warfighter.

Learn more at www.navsup.navy.mil, www.facebook.com/navsup and https://twitter.com/navsupsyscom.

Source: United States Navy

The exercise consisted of using landing craft, utility from the San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship USS Portland (LPD 27) to get personnel, along with heavy equipment, fuel, debris removal equipment, and transportation and hospital capabilities onto Cabrillo Beach.

“We’ve been working over the last few months with the city of Los Angeles, L.A. County, the state of California and FEMA to identify what a potential response to a southern California earthquake would look like if the U.S. military was asked to assist,” said Cmdr. Brian Sauerhage, U.S. Third Fleet’s DSCA planner. “This exercise was developed to establish a baseline regarding future joint multi-agency planning, training, and to show the capability to resupply the city of Los Angeles by sea if the highways were blocked by earthquakes or another disaster.”

Among the units that supported the DSCA exercise were the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit command element, 1st Landing Support Battalion, 7th Engineer Support Battalion, 1st Medical Battalion, Amphibious Construction Battalion (ACB) 1, L.A. Port Police, L.A. Fire Department, L.A. Police, and numerous other civilian entities.

“Among its many purposes, we want fleet week not just to be a great place to recruit, to educate, to inspire, but also a place where we get work done creating those relationships between public servants to make sure we’re kept safe in an emergency response together,” said Eric Garcetti, the mayor of Los Angeles. “You can see what this equipment is all about; and the men and women who keep it going. And how, around us, you can see in a major crisis how seamlessly we are integrated at the local and state level with our military counterparts, whether it is heavy trucks used to transport critical supplies, city, fire, and police command centers would be deployed to help coordinate efforts.”

LAFW is an opportunity for the American public to meet their Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard teams and experience America’s sea services. During fleet week, service members participate in various community service events, showcase capabilities and equipment to the community, and enjoy the hospitality of Los Angeles and its surrounding areas.

Source: United States Navy

The Sailors and Marines showed up at 7 a.m. to prepare serving breakfast to hundreds of the unhoused and homeless.

“Myself and a few service members are here today supporting the LA public,” said Command Sergeant Major Oranjel Leavy, senior enlisted leader of 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit.

Marines handed out clothing to hundreds of the unhoused. The clothing included new summer clothes, hats, shoes, and suit pants and dress shirts for job interviews.

“This is a great way to give back to the public, and show the community that the Navy and Marine Corps are here to support them,” Leavy said. “We appreciate the people of LA for their support—for supporting us with what we do when we protect and serve our country and foreign nations.”

Sailors at the event prepared and handed out food to the community and also prepared fresh food boxes for St. Francis’ pantry.

“This is an opportunity for us to show the public what we do behind closed doors,” said Personnel Specialist 1st Class JohnPaul Delossantos, from San Diego.

The program director of St. Francis Center, Ismael Neri, was present, handing out food and clothing alongside civilian volunteers and service men and women.

“The Sailors and the Marines here are helping to feed our unhoused guests, helping to provide them clothing, and creating food boxes for our pantry, ” Neri said.

The St. Francis Center also provides a mailing service, mobile showers, and a food pantry to those in need.

Fleet Week is an annual, multi-day celebration of our nation’s Sea Services held on the LA Waterfront at the Port of Los Angeles over the Memorial Day Weekend. Free to the public, the event features public ship tours, military displays and equipment demonstrations, live entertainment, aircraft flyovers, and a Galley Wars culinary cook-off competition between Navy, Army, Marine and Coastguard teams. The event is May 24-30.

LAFW is an opportunity for the American public to meet their Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard teams and experience America’s sea services. During fleet week, service members participate in various community service events, showcase capabilities and equipment to the community, and enjoy the hospitality of Los Angeles and its surrounding areas.

Source: United States Navy

Capt. Trent Friedel, Hospital Corpsman 1^st Class Ferd Slocum, and Hospital Corpsman 2^nd Class Caleb Espinoza received Navy Commendation Medals for direct lifesaving actions. Electrician’s Mate 1^st Class Patrick Martin and Master-at-Arms 2^nd Class Dustin Ikels received Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals for other support.
 
Each of them stood front-and-center in their Navy service uniform before more than 150 staff members and Reserve Sailors in the NRC Shreveport drill hall. Capt. Hofmann gave high praise for their rapid-response and successful resuscitation of a distressed shipmate, who experienced cardiac arrest shortly after performing the Navy physical readiness test (PRT).
 
“The Shreveport emergency reminds us why we need to always be ready,” said Hofmann. “When crisis hits you, it’s going to be sudden and unexpected. It’s going to demand that you turn your training into action without delay. Our Sailors were trained and ready to help their shipmate in the same way they are trained and ready to mobilize and fight.”
 
As the members involved explained, it was seemingly just another ordinary drill weekend for NRC Shreveport. That Saturday morning, staff had facilitated PRTs for the Reserve Sailors.
 
“We had wrapped up about an hour or so earlier and most had taken off to shower and get lunch,” said Martin, who was with the Sailor when the incident occurred. “I was sitting in the first class mess having a conversation with him. He stated he wasn’t feeling very well and came over to sit down on the couch next to me. Then, mid-sentence as he was talking, he leaned back and said he was having trouble breathing.”
 
Martin stood up and asked the Sailor if he was ok. The Sailor was unresponsive.
 
“It looked like he was having a seizure,” said Martin. “I immediately ran over to Medical to get help.”
 
In the Medical office, Martin notified Friedel, NRC Shreveport’s senior medical officer.
 
“I went over to the next room and witnessed the Sailor having what looked like seizure activity,” said Friedel. “At that point, he was breathing on his own. I supported his head and asked Petty Officer Martin to go downstairs to tell my guys I needed assistance. As soon as he left the room, the Sailor basically stopped breathing.”
 
Friedel explained he then pulled the Sailor onto the ground and opened his airway.
 
“I felt for a pulse, no pulse. I immediately started chest compressions,” said Friedel.
 
Martin had alerted Slocum and Espinoza to the emergency. They responded quickly to the scene with medical gear.
 
“We applied the AED (automated external defibrillator),” said Friedel. “It advised a shock. We delivered the shock and went through the procedures as we’re trained to do.”
 
Martin called for emergency medical services (EMS), notified the command’s front office leadership, and directed Sailors to assist as needed.
 
Ikels cleared space for the medical team by moving tables and chairs out of the way.
 
“On the third shock, we got a pulse back,” said Friedel. “We hooked up a pneumatic CPR device and I supported his breathing with a manual resuscitator.”
 
EMS arrived on scene and began transport.
 
Each of the Sailors shared thoughts about their actions at the time of the emergency.
 
“I’ll quote the ‘Five Ps’ here,” said Friedel. “Proper planning prevents poor performance. Everybody here has the training to do the job the way we did, and I truly believe anybody else in this facility would have responded in the same way.”
 
“The importance of training and routine equipment maintenance cannot be overstated,” said Slocum, NRC Shreveport’s lead medical representative. “We’re constantly conducting hands-on medical training so that in the instance of an actual emergency, that training becomes instinct.”
 
Espinoza spoke about his lessons learned.
 
“I’ve made it a point to re-emphasize to my junior HMs the fact that when we do corpsman coverage for PRTs or any other kind of event, it’s not just a check-in-the-box, holding a medical bag and an AED,” said Espinoza. “It’s the real thing.”
 
Ikels shared his thoughts on having been involved in saving the life of a shipmate.
 
“It’s surreal,” said Ikels. “You watch movies and see things like this and think, ‘that’s never going to happen to me.’ But, then it does happen, and people are thanking you, telling you about how you just saved someone’s life, and your response is, ‘I just did what I was supposed to do.’”
 
NRC Shreveport Commanding Officer Lt. Cmdr. Jhon Alcide spoke about how proud he was of his Sailors’ display of courage and competence.
 
“Their actions that day were directly in line with the Navy’s core attributes of initiative, integrity, accountability and toughness,” said Alcide. “They assisted without hesitance. They took control of the situation, performed well under pressure and remained committed to saving their shipmate’s life.”
 
Hofmann concluded the awards ceremony echoing Chief of Navy Reserve Vice Adm. John Mustin’s call to action for the Reserve Force, to continually build on its warfighting readiness capabilities with a sense of urgency because we never know when we’ll need to use them.