Navy and Marine Medical Personnel Conduct Exchange with Vietnamese People’s Navy

PACOM Headlines

By Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Jessica Bidwell

7th Fleet

DA NANG, Vietnam - Sailors and Marines assigned to III Marine Expeditionary Force (III MEF), Okinawa, Japan participated in a three-day medical subject matter expert exchange (SMEE) with the Vietnamese People’s Navy, part of Naval Exchange Activity Vietnam, April 23-26.

“The SMEE engagement not only shows III MEF’s commitment to support U.S. Pacific Command’s mission of theater security cooperation but also builds partner nation capabilities,” said Lt. Cmdr. Trey Hollis, assigned to III MEF and the team lead for the exchange.

The mission of the SMEE interaction was to not only build on the participants’ current knowledge of emergency medicine and how both nations approach it, but also inform their Vietnamese Navy peers of new techniques and procedures used by Navy and Marine medics.

“The host nation has the concepts down, however we are able to take the knowledge gained from our recent experiences and share [that],” stated Hospital Corpsman Master Chief Georges Taino, Office of Health Affairs Attache, U.S. Embassy (Hanoi).

Over the three-day training period III MEF trainers covered several training topics to include: U.S. Marine Corps health service capabilities, operational preventive medicine and basic life saving techniques.

Tran Xuan Vinh, Captain for Surgery, Vietnamese People’s Navy Zone 3, said, “We have all learned a lot from this seminar and will use this knowledge both in preventing problems and to save peoples lives.”

Marine Capt. Steven Bair, Foreign Area Officer with III MEF, is fluent in Vietnamese and was able to connect with the Vietnamese officers.

“The Vietnamese are taking a lot away from this training, not just in terms of the medical training, but the U.S. is actually sprouting a relationship here, these individuals are looking to the future and are ready to form a lasting bond with the U.S.,” stated Bair

This article was originally published at: http://www.c7f.navy.mil/news/2012/04-april/042.htm